From
the moment you drive up the street, you will be taken by the stately presence
of our newest listing in Oaks, PA. The home is a picturesque New England styled
home with hard wood floors, 9-foot high ceilings, large and spacious rooms plus
a huge 2-story entryway that frames a gorgeous turned staircase leading to home’s
second level.
Featuring
such exquisite details such as crown molding, trey ceilings, millwork and
elegant architectural details, the house is studded with gorgeous accents and
finishes throughout. The huge kitchen with a stunning backsplash, large center
island framed with modern yet simple pendant lights has just the right balance
of ambient lighting with function and design in mind as well. The shiny
hardwood floors travel through to the eating area overlooking a gorgeous deck
through pristine French doors. This home is the idea space for entertaining and
living. The expansive living room on the home’s main level has a gas fireplace
and an open wide space for your formal furnishings.
Once
you enter the master suite, you will feel instantly transported to a luxury
retreat, complete with the gorgeous master bathroom featuring a soaking tub,
stall shower and separate room for the toilet. The home’s remaining four
bedrooms are also conveniently located on the upper level along with another
full bath that is shared by two of the additional rooms.
This
home is ideally located in the Ravenwood Community within the Spring-Ford
School District. Call us to schedule your own personal tour through this dream
home today!
Many buyers in the marketplace can’t find the home of their dreams because there’s simply not enough inventory to choose from. It’s certainly a sellers’ market. Sellers have the upper hand, especially if the home is in good condition, located in a great neighborhood and priced just right. If you’re at all on the fence about selling, now is the time because sellers are getting top dollar for their homes and they are selling faster than they could have imagined.
Since there are fewer homes on the market, there’s more competition for available homes. Low inventory often translates into multiple bids for homes in good condition, high list-to-sale price ratios and being able to negotiate better terms. It’s an ideal time for sellers.
So when selling your home, if you want to get top dollar for your property, take advantage of the low inventory. Here’s the thing: supply and demand affect what you’ll get for your home. When everyone who has been thinking about selling their home puts their home on the market is not the time to dive in—if you want to get the most out of your home. At the end of the day, you have a better chance at success if you decide to sell now, instead of waiting until all the Joneses get into the market.
To help you position yourself for success, please call us at (818) 953-5300.
For
the longest time buyers have been able to enjoy a strong buyers market,
particularly after the housing industry crashed in 2007 causing prices to
plummet and too many homes on the market. But today it’s a completely different
story and sellers are the ones enjoying the benefits with fewer homes than ever
before for sale.
Buyers Competing
Against Each Other
Buyers
are pulling out all the stops when it comes to getting the home of their
liking. In some areas, we are seeing so much competition that sellers are
selling their home at or above their asking price. So much competition can only
mean good things for sellers and now is the time to seize the opportunity!
Multiple Offers and
Bidding Wars Are Back
One
result of all the competition faced by buyers these days is multiple offers on
one single property. In fact, some sellers are seeing more than two offers on
their home. The advantage of course it they can demand more money and another
advantage of this market for sellers is that their home will likely sell
quickly.
Sellers Can Be
Choosy Again
Nicely
done homes that are in great locations and are priced right are getting a lot
of attention. With all that attention and multiple offers comes the opportunity
for sellers to be picky. When a cash offer with no seller concessions requested
is compared to an FHA or RD loan that might take a lot of extra time to process
– the options are comforting for sellers.
~
If
you have been on the fence about selling your home – trust me, now is the time
to think again! Not only will you likely sell it faster but also for more money
and without much hassle. Contact us today and we’ll get right to work helping
you sell your home with success!
Spring
is here and a buying frenzy is happening – so where are you in the process? If
you’re like most buyers these days, chances are you have spent or are spending
lots of time online “scoping the market out” before venturing out to the
professionals.
There’s
a lot to be said about being prepared as you embark on this very important
journey. Buying a home is the largest purchase of a lifetime for most people
and you need to be as prepared as possible and armed with the solid backing of
a great team of professionals. As a Realtor® that’s dedicated to ensuring the
best experience for my clients, here are four tips that will help you to get
your home in this absolutely CRAZY buying market these days.
Do a Financial
Assessment
Before
even looking at homes you ought to know what you can afford. Many people go to
a lender and are told they can afford XYZ amount. Never mind that they may have
other financial obligations or goals and never mind that what they may be able
to afford on paper may not be ideal for their financial situation. By assessing
your financial outlook you will be sure you know exactly what you can afford.
Get a Preapproval
From Your Lender
In
today’s highly competitive marketplace, it is critical that you come to the
table with a preapproval letter from a good lender. At a time when sellers are
getting multiple offers on one property, sometimes the only thing between you
and having your offer accepted is a preapproval letter from a reputable lender.
It also helps us get you a great deal on your home.
Use Professional
Resources
It’s
easy to rely on the Internet for information and to an extent it’s a great
resource. But once things start getting serious, it’s important to align
yourself with a strong professional that knows what they are doing. Professionals
in the industry are very familiar with housing values, market trends, buyer and
seller activity – and more. Using this knowledge we help our clients obtain the
best deals and ensure the smoothest transactions while covering all the bases
in the process.
Set Realistic
Expectations
As
you get further into the home buying process it’s easy to let your expectations
get the better of you. This is particularly true for first-time homebuyers that
may not realize the extent of their budget and what they will find in that
budget. Study the market to see what is available in the price range you are
considering. Another way to do it is to find homes that have everything you
want and evaluate how much those homes are selling for. The same thing holds true
for expectations of time when building a new home.
~
If
you’re in the market to buy a new home contact us today. We’ll gladly provide
you with the professional advice you need, the guidance that will help you get
the best deal and someone that is on your side, acting in your best interest
and working for YOU.
Three Very Costly Mistakes That Sellers Make When Choosing a Listing Agent
We’ve
all heard the expression “time is money” right? So why, then, is time
not something that most sellers think about when hiring an agent to list
their property? Just imagine, hiring the wrong agent can end up in
months of frustration with lack of communication, lack of preparedness
and worse, a lackluster attitude toward what is probably the most
important financial transaction of your life.
To
help make sure you don’t make the same mistakes that countless other
sellers have made, here are three important things to consider before
you sign the dotted line of a listing agreement.
Shop Carefully and Consider Your Options
All
too often we see that most sellers will hire the first agent they meet
and speak with about their home. That is not a problem except that many
agents will unscrupulously have you sign a 6-month or worse yet,
12-month exclusive right to sell
agreement with them. What does that mean? It means that regardless of
who ends up selling your property (yes, even if you found your own
buyer) they would benefit from the sale. But it goes beyond just the
commission. If after a few negative experiences with this person you
wanted to get out of the contract – you simply couldn’t.
To
sign an agreement with a broker that lasts a year or even six months is
a huge mistake. These sellers end up unhappy with their agents – stuck
because despite being told verbally that they would be able to get out
of that contract within 30-days, they couldn’t. The reason for this is
that it was more than likely not in writing – effectively trapping these
people into staying with that broker despite what their wishes may be.
At Carbutti & Co. Realtors, our goal is not to trap clients into being forced to deal with us. We want you to recognize our strengths and want
to work with us. Our 90-day listing agreement policy reflects that and
corroborates the confidence we have in our team to deliver results that
work to serve your best interests. We feel that 90 days provides a good
benchmark of time to help determine whether the home is priced right,
advise has been appropriately administered and whether the property has
received ample exposure in the market.
Choose an Agent or Broker That is Current
What
do we mean by “current”? It’s simple. Just like technology continues to
evolve in all other areas of life, we have to assume that the person
representing them is also current with technology. A very surprising
large number of agents neglect to realize the importance of delivering
on real-time needs of buyers using up-to-date tools. Rather than make
the mistake of hiring an agent that is relying strictly on Open Houses
(studies show less than 2% of sales are generating from Open Houses),
contact someone that is using relevant technology.
Video
is the single most innovative and also underutilized technology in real
estate. Your agent should be using video tours as a matter of routine
and unless they do so, you are working with a broker that has not yet
kept up with the times. Buyers are out there using their smartphones to
do home searches, utilizing their GPS systems to search neighborhood
properties and expecting real time responses to information requests.
That’s why it is critical to know that unless your broker is up to speed
in today’s technology, they can’t keep up with the needs of today’s
buyers. As a test, look up any agent in Google.
Do they pop up as the first or second item on the search results page?
If not, they are not positioned to be at the forefront of today’s
technologically advanced real estate industry.
Look for Recognition Among Community and Peers
There
is something to be said about agents and brokers that are revered not
only by members of the community but also by their peers. In the many
dealings that are necessary for a smooth transaction, it is critical
that agents on both sides of the transaction are able to communicate
effectively. When you have an agent that is difficult to get along with,
does not mesh well within the community or their colleagues, you stand
to face risks that directly impact the sale of your property.
Hire
a broker with a name that is respected in the marketplace by both
consumers and other real estate agents. When interviewing your
prospective agents, be sure to ask about their dealings with others in
the industry. At Carbutti & Co. Realtors, we enjoy strong
relationships with the real estate community and others. Among other
factors, this helps us to successfully achieve the goals of our clients.
~
These
are just a few of the things you can do to make sure you are in good
hands when it comes to selling your home. But beyond that, it’s
important to be able to look your agent in the eye and feel that you are
valued – cherished and most of all heard.
To give us an opportunity to listen to your needs, please contact us
today. We look forward to the chance to share with you why we are the
right brokerage to hire for your real estate needs!
We
know we’ve been talking about the benefits of having a real estate TEAM on your
side but we wanted to share yet another reason. With spring break here for many
of us, a lot of our team members are out enjoying a nice vacation. But that
does not have to mean your listing or transaction has to go on vacation too. In
fact, one benefit of having a team supporting your real estate transactions is
that no matter what, the work keeps on going.
Showings
don’t have to be put off until someone is in earshot of their phone and
valuable showing feedback doesn’t have to be missed because your agent is
nowhere near a computer to email you. Sure cell phones are a great tool but
what if your agent decides to turn their phone off or worse, what if there is
no cell reception?
To
answer this and many more concerns that clients have during the spring, summer,
holidays or other times of year when people take time off – we have our amazing
team that keeps things keeping on.
And.... We Have
Another Winner!
Speaking
of teamwork, one of the things our team often receives is some amazing reviews,
testimonials and accolades. And to thank our clients that take the time to do
that for us, we hold our quarterly drawing every few months to give away a nice,
new Kindle Fire®. All you have to do is click >> XXXXXXXXX
to put in your testimonial. And if you’re willing to do a video testimonial,
we’d love that too!
Today’s
winner is XXXXX XXXXXX.
Congratulations!!
You
can be a winner too. Send in your testimonial today.
And
remember, listen in on our weekly radio show on AM830 KHVH on Saturdays from
11am till noon.
Want to break your heart and your bank account at the same time? Then buy a new home based on the fact that you've fallen in love with it! Needless to say, you should never do this! In some cases, when you fall in love with the "pretty face" of a house, you fail to look underneath and find problems like bad wiring, leaky roofs, bad foundations, etc. This is an extremely expensive way to buy a home! A funny and sad example of this is shown in the 1986 film, The Money Pit, starring Tom Hanks and Shelley Long. They make the mistake of falling in love with a home and think they're getting a $1,000,000 property for only $200,000. Once they get into the home, they find out it'll cost a million to repair it! It's got wood rot, a bad roof, bad plumbing, bad electricity, even bad raccoons! Well, that's Hollywood exaggeration, of course. After all, The Money Pit was a comedy. But, when things like that happen to you, it's no joke. Repairs can cost you a lot of money and heartache, not to mention dangerously rising blood pressure! So, again, never ever fall in love with a house at first sight! Easier said than done, you say? How do you avoid this tendency? Below, I offer some solutions to the problem! Solutions 1: Get Cold Hard Facts about the Home! When I talk about "cold, hard facts," I'm talking about getting the house evaluated by a certified home inspector. It's well worth the money to have this job done because the inspector will cast the objective eye you lack on the property.He or she will evaluate every aspect of a house - roof, plumbing, wiring, foundation, etc.
And then, that inspector will provide you with a written report that may range anywhere from 20 to 50 pages. It will give you a point-by-point summary of what needs to be corrected. The cost of a home inspection varies with the region of the country. Nationally, they range from $200 to $400.But, for the investment of, say, $200, you prevent yourself from losing thousands of dollars in repairs in two ways.One, you can simply walk away from the deal. Or, two, you can require that seller fix all items before you sign a contract! Bonus: Often, you can ask that the seller pay for the home inspection! Solution 2: Cool Off and Take Your Time! Infatuation with a home is fun and exciting, and you can have the overwhelming temptation to buy an attractive home practically "on the spot." My advice - walk away and come back several hours later, especially after you've viewed other properties! By then, it's likely you'll have a more objective eye. Solution 3: Keep It Simple! By this I mean that you should stick within your price range. You want the best hom e at the best price within your means! So, if you see an outwardly gorgeous home at, say, $10,000 above your price limit, say,"I love you, but you're way too pricey for me!"and walk away from the temptation! Solution 4: Rely on Your Realtor! At heart, I and other professional realtors like me, want you to have a home that meets your needs in the best way possible. That means preventing you from buying a home that's in substandard shape and/or beyond your means. To be perfectly blunt about it, I rely on great word of mouth from satisfied customers to make the most of my real estate career. So, you have my promise that I'll do my absolute best to get you into the house of your affordable dreams! Need that objective eye to help you make a smart home-buying decision? Contact us today.
