Time to Sell Your Home?

Placing your home for sale is one of the most important times of your life. While the excitement sometimes causes nervousness and even a sleepless night or two, it doesn’t have to. The key is to look at this event in its simplest form, the goal. The goal of selling your home is to make the most money possible. Let’s take a look at the 5 most important steps that need to be taken in order to achieve your goal:

1. Chose a Listing Price
   The correct business plan takes a great deal of research and time to produce. Keeping in mind the ultimate goal is to make as much money as possible, you want to be cautions of agents who make the mistake of listing your home too high ("Here's what I can get for you if you list with me!"). In order to make that ideal amount, you not only have to sell your home for as much as possible, but you need to do it while keeping cost to a minimum and having settlement in the shortest possible timeframe. When a home is listed too high, it sits on the market, advertising costs increase, and your mortgage payments continue to come due. If the property is listed accurately, more traffic will visit your home, the offers will come sooner, negotiations will be quick, and you reach the ultimate goal, you make the optimum profit.
2. Check Your Mortgage Payoff
   The mortgage payoff is the exact dollar figure you currently need to satisfy the amount you owe. You can’t develop an achievable goal without first knowing what you still owe to the bank.
3. Estimate Your Costs to Sell
   The second thing you must do is identify the additional costs that you are going to incur through the process of selling your home. These costs include, attorney fees, prorated costs for your share of annual expenses (such as property taxes, home owner association fees), surveys, inspections, and real estate commission if you choose to use an agent.
4. Make Necessary Repairs
   Inevitably there are those few tiny areas that you have been meaning to fix, but you just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Well, in order to reach the profit you are hoping to gain, it’s time to get out your tool box. Taking a weekend and sealing that tiny leak under the sink or putting a fresh coat of paint in the baby’s room can make all the difference.
5. Stage Your House to Show
   There is no doubt an inner peace comes over you when you pull into your driveway at the end of a long day. The trick is to produce this feeling for the prospective buyers. Freshening up the yard, organizing the closets and cabinets, and washing the windows will all help set the tone for visits from buyers.

Once you have carefully made all of the necessary arrangements surrounding these 5 steps, you are ready to sell your home and reach that ultimate goal of making money. The best advice I can give is to remain calm, make your decisions wisely, and trust in your agent’s expertise. While I don’t know what information you receive will from others, I can assure you the SaraSoldItAgain Team will provide only the most accurate of information and work diligently until your home is sold and your goals are reached.

Hot Raleigh days

With not much change in the headlines from last week, I thought I would change things up a bit. This week I want to take a moment and look at all the wonderful outdoor activities offered to those who live in our Raleigh/Durham area. Morning, afternoon or night, we have more options at our fingertips than we could possibly hope to enjoy.

While I admit those summer days can get a little on the hot side, that doesn’t mean you can’t stay cool and still enjoy the outdoors. Raleigh/Durham could not be placed in a better geographic area. The beach is 2 hours to our east and the mountains just 2 hours to our west. You’ll be hard pressed to find something more refreshing that a dip in the Atlantic Ocean or sliding into a natural mountain spring. If this still sounds a little far from home, walk to your neighborhood pool and spend the afternoon with those who live around you. We sometimes take for granted that almost every one of our neighborhoods has its own pool creating a wonderful place to meet, make, and enjoy friends.

If you don’t quite have the time for a weekend trip, stay a little closer and enjoy Jordan Lake or maybe the day out on the golf course. You would be hard pressed to not find a refreshing activity around a 14,000 acre lake. You heard me right, 14,000 acres of boating, fishing, hiking, camping, swimming, back packing, picnicking, nature watching…sorry, I am a little excited! If this is not quite your speed, spend a couple hours of one of our signature golf courses with three of your closest rivals. With over 50 local courses designed by professions such as Donald Ross, Jack Nicklaus, and Davis Love III, I promise you will be more than challenged no matter what your skill level.

No doubt by nightfall you are looking for something considerably less active and more relaxing to bring a wonderful day to a close. Why not take a blanket, a bottle of wine, and some hor’dourves out to Koka Booth Amphitheatre at Regency in Cary and listen to the relaxing music from the North Carolina Symphony? While the adults enjoy some good conversation and light music, the children can run throughout the hillside and use that last bit of energy they have for the day.

While I’d admit I am a bit of an outdoor enthusiast, there truly is something in our area for everyone. Even during the hottest of days, there are plenty of ways for you and your family to stay cool and away from the heat. If some of my favorites do not peak your fancy, feel free to drop me a line and I am sure together we will find something to fit your lifestyle.

Ohhhh, what a week we’ve had! I feel like everywhere we turned we hear how bad our economy is. The market is crashing, investors aren’t spending money, and the housing market is moving in reverse…what are we to do? This is being broadcast to us from every media outlet and sending panic through nation. Three particular pieces caught my eye this week and sum up this fear I am talking about…

• On Friday the European Central Bank (ECB) pumped extra cash into the system for a second day in a row, as a means of calming nervous traders. The ECB added $83 billion in liquidity Friday.
  The Federal Reserve followed suit, adding $19 billion in temporary reserves. The move was the biggest single temporary open market operation in four years, the New York Federal Reserve said, according to Reuters.
  
• Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com, had been loath to call it a "credit crunch." Instead, he called it a "liquidity squeeze," that had spread to corporate bond and other financial markets.

1. Standard and Poor's chief economist, David Wyss, and Moody's Economy.com's chief economist, Mark Zandi, have forecast 8 percent price drops in the housing market, peak to trough.
   

I often get jealous while times like these are upon us and hear a story of a place in the country that is the exception to the news. You know, that one place defying the odds and managing to actually expand their wealth?

Well, cheer up Raleigh, because we are that place right now! Ours homes are appreciating and businesses are thriving. Here’s what they are saying about us…

• “This scenario is also playing out in Raleigh, N.C., the No. 1 city on our list. Moderate growth and disciplined building over the last five years prevented the market from developing a significant glut. Additionally, a strong local economy has helped contribute to the city's healthy 1.6% vacancy rate.
  What's more, the rate of home sales against home inventory was healthy in Raleigh; in this category, it ranked fifth best of big cities, according to Moody's metrics. Even though the market has low vacancy to begin with and displayed strong construction restraint during the housing boom, Raleigh still has the eighth best rate of tightening.” (Forbes Magazine, July 2007)

Take a moment at pat yourself on the back Raleigh, because they are saying we did it right! We planned well, built well, and executed well. We managed to stay the course and create a place everyone wants to live and do business. Be proud when you hear we are of one of the most envied places to live in the United States and thankful of those around you for helping it to happen.

Raleigh #1 Home Selling Market

Raleigh was named the #1 Home Selling market in the nation by Forbes Magazine. That’s good news and bad news for us. The good news is our homes are selling! We are in a very fortunate position in relation to most any other part of the country right now. Check out the Forbes.com article below...

http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/21/home-market-seller-forbeslife-cx_mw_0622realestate_print.html/

No. 1: Raleigh, N.C.
The only housing bubble in Raleigh is the one that separates it from slumping markets nationwide. A robust local economy continues to yield high job creation figures and migratory outsiders. It ranks fifth best in sales rate to inventory and eighth best in year-over-year tightening, despite its low vacancy rate of 1.6%. Sellers don't have to look too far to find an interested buyer.