The Importance of a Pre-List Inspection

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

I stress the importance of a pre-listing inspection because of the ability to eliminate so many issues ahead of time. Once your home goes pending and a buyer orders their own home inspection, it’s kind of like rolling the dice. You’re basically sitting and waiting to find out all the issues with your house.

A pre-list inspection is kind of like cheating; they’re going to give you a report that shows all the issues with your home before it goes on the market.

“

A pre-list inspection is kind of like cheating.

”

Say you’ve got leaky pipes under the sink or a roofing issue that’s easy to take care of. All of those issues will come up with a pre-listing inspection. If you roll the dice and wait for your house to go pending, the buyer will see everything that comes up. 

Many buyers will read an inspection and blow it out of proportion. For example, a buyer might see a dirty filter in a 15-year-old furnace and say you’ve been neglectful. They might say the furnace is near the end of its life and insist you replace it. Instead of spending $15 on a new filter, they might now be asking you to spend thousands on a new furnace or even a whole new system.

That’s just one of many examples that can be addressed before a house even goes on the market and buyers never see it. It can alleviate so many problems and save you a dramatic amount of money.

Thanks for joining me today, I hope you found the tips helpful. If you have any questions feel free to email or call me!

Does Zillow Give Accurate Home Values?

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

Should you trust the Zestimate you get from Zillow in order to help you price your home? It depends. Let us explain.

Zillow uses a computer-generated algorithm, called a Zestimate, to help homeowners come up with a value for their home. This algorithm uses data from recent local home sales, as well as your square footage and location. The problem is, it can’t compute some of the most important things that come into play when pricing your home.

Zillow’s algorithm can not compute whether your landscaping is new, you have a refurbished back patio, an in-ground pool, or anything else that adds value and makes your home unique. There are so many things that increase your home’s value on the market that Zillow doesn’t even consider.

“

Zillow’s algorithm isn’t strong enough to give you an accurate value.

”

At the same time, a Zestimate can’t determine any negative aspects of your home that take away from its value. If you have an unkempt yard, live across from a junkyard, or have an outdated roof, that will take away from your home’s market value.

More often than not, Zestimates are too high or too low. Very rarely are they accurate. I do think it’s a good place to get a starting point and give you an idea of what your home is worth. However, once you get that value, it’s time to hire a professional agent to help you determine what price you should actually list the home at. If you have any questions or need any help pricing your home, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. We would love to hear from you.

Avoid This Home Seller Mistake in Lane County

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

My biggest pet peeve is when homeowners renovate their home and they don't really know what they're doing. They don't know which renovations or repairs will get them the most bang for their buck. It's so important to consult your mortgage broker before making changes. Here's why.

Don't exchange a dollar for a dollar. Don't invest $500 into your home to earn only $500 back! There are key items that convince buyers to make an offer or spend more on a property.

These changes can be extremely pricey, such as a new roof, kitchen or bathroom. As expensive as these repairs are, they don't receive much money back. To receive the most out of an investment, paint or replace the carpet. It helps the home look fresh and clean.

I cannot encourage you enough to have a consultation done before you start pouring money into your house. A consultation can save you time, energy, and money in the long run.

If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

The Importance of Home Inspections

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

Today, I'd like to talk about the importance of home inspections. Home inspections can be mutually beneficial to both buyers and sellers.

From the seller's standpoint, a pre-listing inspection can be very valuable. That way, you know about the issues with the property and you can get a lot of them taken care of up front. A buyer might misinterpret some minor issues as major issues, and having that pre-listing inspection can save you a lot of money.

From a buyer's standpoint, buying a home is one of the biggest investments you will make in your life. Having an inspection done will let you know what issues you might run into, and you can have the seller make some of those repairs. If you want to make the repairs yourself, the home inspection can help you create a maintenance plan.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

What Are the Best Ways to Prepare Your Home for Sale?

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

Today we are going to talk about how to get your home ready for sale in Oregon. The old cliche, “You never get a second chance at a first impression” is very true when it comes to selling your home. In the first 1-2 weeks your home is on the market, that’s when you’re going to get the most activity.  

During this timeframe, you want to make sure you get your house in tip-top shape. Don’t put things off until later, that rarely works out. When people show up, they want the home to be move-in ready, so that’s what you’ve got to give them. They want to have their socks knocked off.

 

Now let’s talk about some specific ways to get your home ready. Your first step should be making sure your landscaping is pristine, to increase your curb appeal. When buyers first pull up to the home, they are going to look at the yard right away. Impressing them outside is your first step.

However, you want that feeling to continue as they walk through your house. When they do come through the door, you want to have the entire place deep cleaned and decluttered, with family pictures put away and little knick knacks and other decorations in storage. Buyers are looking for that turnkey home, and properly preparing yours ensures it will stand out. This is how to get multiple offers and offers over asking price.

If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Don't Ignore the Selling Power an Open House Brings

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

For many, many years I didn't really believe in open houses as a selling tool. I primarily believed that they were simply for agents to recruit potential buyers. The likelihood of someone coming in and deciding to buy a home during an open house is not super high.

However, there are some factors that can make an open house worthwhile. If your home is in a desirable and high-traffic location, I think an open house can work very well.

I recently did an open house on a property that had 20 showings but received no offers. When I conducted an open house I got 3-5 people to come through, but 2 of those people absolutely loved the home and we got multiple offers and were able to sell the home above list price.

Given the right circumstances, open houses can help. If you live far away from town or are in a place that's not convenient, I would suggest going another route. People like the convenience that comes from an open house which is why it works in high-traffic areas.

If you have any questions or concerns about this issue, or if you'd like to learn more about Lane County real estate, please don't hesitate to contact me!

Lane County Borrowing Tips

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

Is there a difference between having no credit and having bad credit? Many people are unaware, but there is a significant difference between the two.

When you have bad credit, it's likely because you stopped making mortgage, credit card, or car payments at some point. When you haven't made a payment, you begin to get derogatories (30 days late, 60 days late, 90 days late, etc.). You also may have had a bankruptcy in the past, which will negatively affect your credit.

If you have failed to make payments, or if your credit is just bad, it will take some time to improve your score. The longer you get away from your last negative derogatory, the better your credit will become. In other words, if you start making payments regularly, you can get your credit back on track.

If you have no credit, it means you need to apply for some and start making payments on time. This is a better situation than having bad credit because you can earn good credit much faster than you can recuperate it!

If you have any questions about this topic, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!

Why Should You Take Zillow's Values with a Grain of Salt?

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report

Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

How does Zillow affect buyers and sellers in the Lane County area? Today, we'll explain that while Zillow is a useful tool, you need to be careful about trusting everything you find there.

Often, I meet with sellers who tell me how much their home is worth according to Zillow and buyers who question the price of homes I show them because of what Zillow told them. What many people don't realize is that there are a lot of things Zillow can't do. It uses a database-structured algorithm to come up with home prices, so there are a lot of things it cannot take into consideration.

Zillow has no way of taking into account a home's curb appeal. They have no way of separating a dream yard from a dumpy one. A home with a pristine yard and one with grass ten feet tall, given the same statistics, will be valued the same on Zillow. In some aspects Zillow can be pretty accurate, but it's best to take all the information you get there with a grain of salt. More often than not, Zillow's values are either low or high.

If you have questions about the best way to find the most accurate and up to date real estate information, don't hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. I would love to assist you in any way possible!

The Benefits of a Pre-List Inspection

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report
Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

Today, I want to explain what a pre-list inspection is and whether you should get one before you put your home on the market!

A pre-list inspection is a full home inspection that is done before the home is put on the market. The inspector will go through the whole home and disclose any issues that are found. This gives the seller the ability to fix all the problems with the home before any potential buyers even see it. Instead of having an interested buyer discover a bunch of potential deal-breakers, a pre-list inspection will allow you to present the house at its fullest potential!

I'm a huge proponent of pre-list inspections! Nipping any problems in the bud is the best way to ensure a smooth and successful sale. A pre-list inspection will save you a lot of time, money, and headaches when listing your home!

If you have any questions about this process, please give me a call or shoot me an email. I'm always here to answer your questions and assist you in all things real estate!

The Perks of Professional Photography

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report
Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

In a crowded market, you need to take advantage of all the marketing strategies you can if you want to have a successful home sale. Today, we discuss the importance of professional photography when trying to get top dollar for your home!

Having high-quality photographs of your home is incredibly important. Statistically, 9 out of every 10 buyers begin their home search online. Often, by the time the buyer physically walks into a house, all they are doing is confirming the research they did about the house online. In other words, many buyers have already made up their mind based solely on information found online, and photographs play a crucial role in the decision-making process!

If you have questions about what we do to get homes sold for top dollar, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!

The Best Time to Put Your Home on the Market

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report
Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

A lot of people believe that the springtime is the best time to put your home on the market. I would tend to disagree with this notion, because I believe anytime is a good time to sell your home.

Because of this, the importance of pricing your home properly cannot be understated. Timing is not as important compared to pricing, because whenever you price your home properly, you have a good chance to sell it for top dollar.

It's true that we sell a lot of homes in the spring and summer, but we also sell a lot of homes in late fall and early winter. There is always something happening in the real estate market. However, the only time when the market is truly slow is from Thanksgiving up until New Years. The holiday season is definitely not a time to list your home, but it would be a good time to prepare it for sale.

If you have any real estate needs, please don't hesitate to give me a call. I hope this information has been helpful!

What's the Secret to Getting Your Lane County Home Sold?

Selling your Lane County Home? Get a free home value report
Buying a Lane County Home? Search all homes for sale

Have you thought about selling your home, but simply aren't ready to undertake the sometimes stressful process of getting it ready for the market? Today, we want to give you a few simple tips that can help you get your home ready without all the hassle.

When you go to an agent to help sell your home, they are going to give you a laundry list of things they are going to do to help you sell your house. They're going to tell you about their wonderful marketing plan and the other things they can do to get you top dollar for your home. In reality, most agents are the same. We here at Turning Point Realty Group have a fantastic 89-point marketing plan, a professional photographer, and other great tricks to get your home maximum exposure.

While the marketing plans that agents bring to the table are nice, and often effective, we want to let you in on a secret: Pricing your home right is the most important thing you can do when selling. If you fail to price your home correctly, it doesn't matter how good the marketing is. Unfortunately, many sellers are proud of their home and want to ask too much for it. This little bit of additional value that homeowners think is in their home often comes back to hurt them in the end.

Buyers are very price sensitive. If your home is not priced right, it will sit on the market, and the longer your home sits on the market, the more overexposed it's going to be. What do I mean by that? Well, when your house is overexposed, buyers start wondering if there is a defect because it has been on the market for so long. When buyers become aware of how long your home has been on the market, they will often submit lowball offers, thinking that you're desperate to get it sold.

As you can see, you can make the selling process a whole lot easier by pricing your home correctly from the get-go. We are experts at doing just that, so give us a call or shoot us an email if you want to get the most out of your home sale. We would love to help!