How to Sell Your House FAST (5 Easy Steps)
February 2nd, 2010 categories: Castlegate, Community Events, Home Improvement & Design, Miramont, Pebble Creek, Real Estate News, Real Estate True Tales, Selling Real Estate, Woodcreek
How do I sell my House FAST? This is a question that, as Realtors, echoes in our ears on a daily basis. Believe me when I say that you are not alone in your desire to get out of the old house and into your new dream home in a hurry! Everyone wants to get their house sold quickly, but there is always one tiny reservation. . . “BUT I don’t want to come down in price.” This is inevitably followed by a plea for help. Is there anything that can be done?
If you find yourself currently in this situation, you are in luck. Now is a great time to get your house on the market for eager buyers to see! The Bryan/College Station market has not seen the massive deflation that many areas across the nation have. Compared to the rest of the country, in fact, we are relatively unscathed. In addition, there has been an extension and expansion of the federal housing incentive that allows both first time home buyers AND many current home owners to take advantage of up to $8,000 of refundable tax credit. Keep in mind this incentive ends April 30th. This means that buyers wanting to take advantage of the incentive are looking for homes RIGHT NOW! Finally, Interest rates are at an all time low. I recently had a client locked in at a rate of 4.5% for 30 years. What more can you ask for?! With all of these positives, buyers are out in force. With this in mind, what is going to make them choose your house over the competition? The first step is getting potential buyers into your house. This is key. Your house can be absolutely stunning and priced well, but if nobody sees it, it will sit stagnantly on the market. There are a few key steps you can take to ensure your house is seen by as many potential buyers as possible.
Today, we will cover Step 1. Contact a Realtor. The common response to this is something like, “I don’t want to pay somebody else to do what I can do for myself.” This is true. You can absolutely sell your house yourself, but if you want to do it in a reasonable time frame (Therefore saving money on mortgage payments), a Realtor is a must! Look at it like this. You will probably sell a house, at most, once every 3 to 5 years. Your Realtor may sell 50 houses a year! How does this benefit you? Most Realtors have worked hard to build a network that allows them to contact potential buyers both directly and indirectly. Simply put, they can advertise in ways that would be ineffective for you. For instance, all Realtors share a network of listings on a service called MLS. This is only accessible to licensed Realtors and provides all the Realtors in the area with a description of your house. If they have a client looking for a house like yours, they can see the house at the click of a button.
In addition to MLS, most Realtors use several websites to promote your listing. For the average individual, this would be time consuming and EXPENSIVE. Realtors offer countless other advertising methods on an individual basis. These range from signs and flyers to individual web pages and beyond. Along with advertising expenses, Realtors are paid to help you with the extensive paper work involved in selling a house. Realtors help you ensure that all necessary documents are filled out and filed appropriately. Omitting even one of the numerous forms needed to sell a house can lead to serious problems that could result in loss of money, or even the loss of your property.
This leads to the final point: All Realtors are not created equal! It is a common misconception that one Realtor is as good as the next. This is simply not true. Shop around and find the Realtor that is right for you. Here at Century 21, outstanding performance is demanded. In addition to the rigorous training each agent must complete, the company not only suggests, but requires that all listings are promoted through several websites, an internet lead generator, and a 24 hour phone service that allows potential buyers to find out information on your property at their convenience. This ensures that your property is extremely visible to potential buyers. By finding an outstanding Realtor, you can skip many of the steps that follow and be well on your way to a FAST and EASY home selling experience.
For more information on how to sell your house FAST for a great price, call me any time at (979) 777-2371
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2010 Holiday Calendar February
February 2nd, 2010 categories: Community Events
How many 2010 holidays can there really be? Have you ever wanted to take a day off and didn’t know what to use as an excuse? NOW YOU KNOW!!! Each month on the first of the month I’ll post the “Holidays/Excuses” for the month. So.. Happy _________ Day!
February
Feb 1- Spunky Old Broads Day
Feb 2- Groundhog day
Feb 3- National Girls & Women in Sports Day
Feb 4- Liberace Day
Feb 5- Wear Red Day
Feb 6- Dump Your Significant Jerk Day
Feb 7- Ballet Day Read the rest of this entry »
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2010 Holiday Calendar January
February 2nd, 2010 categories: Community Events
How many 2010 holidays can there really be? Have you ever wanted to take a day off and didn’t know what to use as an excuse? NOW YOU KNOW!!! Each month on the first of the month I’ll post the “Holidays/Excuses” for the month. So.. Happy _________ Day!
JANUARY
Jan 1- Hewlett Packard Founded
Jan 2- 55-mph Speed Limit Day
Jan 3- Drinking Straw Day
Jan 4- Trivia Day
Jan 5- National Bird Day
Jan 6- Samuel Morse Demonstrated the Telegraph (1838)
Jan 7- I’m Not Going to Take It Anymore Day
Jan 8- Learn to Ski Day Read the rest of this entry »
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Asbestos in College Station Homes?
February 2nd, 2010 categories: Buying Real Estate
At the request fo Jesse Herman, Awareness Coordinator at the Mesothelioma Cancer Center, I’m posting this blog about asbestos and potential GREEN ways to insulate your home.
“As you may know, homes built before 1980 likely have asbestos insulation in them. When homeowners remodel, they may expose themselves to asbestos, which could lead to a fatal cancer known as mesothelioma. There are many environmentally sustainable, healthy and GREEN ways to insulate your home and this is among the topics we like to discuss.” Jesse Herman
Below is a link to a pdf giving you lots of tips and ideas on how to make your Bryan College Station home a little more healthy. CLICK BELOW!
College Station Healthy Home Tips Regarding Asbestos Awareness from the Mesothelioma Cancer Center
Susan Hilton
CENTURY 21 Beal, Inc.
979-764-2100
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New Lakeridge Townhomes in College Station, TX Expected to Follow The Success of Builders Predecessors
February 1st, 2010 categories: Community Events
Lakeridge Town Homes will mark the 3rd Development from Starfish Development Group here in College Station. The first two, Waterwood Townhomes (2003-2007) and River Oaks (2007-2009), have proven to be well received by both parents/investors and residents alike given their continued demand as premier college living along with the success on the cash flow and property appreciation side of things. Waterwood was 170 units, River Oaks was 97 units and Lakeridge will total 210 units.
Out of the current 267 units, from Waterwood and River Oaks townhomes, Starfish Development has only been able to retain 12, which have consistently leased out annually. Since their inception into the real estate market here in College Station, Starfish Development properties have seen an average price appreciation increase of just over 5%
ONLY 41 units will be available for move-in come August of 2010. So we are encouraging all potential buyers to strongly consider making a decision in the near future. We have already had much interest in Lakeridge and expect it to only increase. For investor clients, this property bodes well on the cash flow side, and if a move is made in the near future, I do not see an issue with leasing out that specific unit. As I alluded to above, there has been much interest expressed in Lakeridge up to this point.
The units at Lakeridge Townhomes will be 2, 3, and 4 BDRM units with large floor plans, own private bath, and your own spacious walk-in closet. I imagine that investors would express a particular interest in the 4 BDRM layouts. From an investor’s perspective, the 4 BDRM, frankly, cash flows better and is a more logical investment on paper.
Currently, there are early bird specials to the first 20 buyers. This includes a free 46″ LCD flat screen TV along with a free washer/dryer to the first ten buyers. Also, we have implemented a price incentive for pre-construction sales. The result of this is an $8000 sales price discount.
Please send me an email at sama@century21bcs.com or give me a call at 979-314-1399 to learn more or to take a tour of a model unit. Once again, much interest has been expressed in this development and time is of the essence.
I also have floor-plans and a price sheet available by request, Thank you.
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Five Bryan, TX Schools Recognized by NCEA as High Performing Schools!
January 26th, 2010 categories: Community Events
Five Bryan schools have been recognized for achievement by the National Center for Educational Achievement through the Just for the Kids campaign.
Bryan High School, Bowen Elementary, Sam Houston Elementary, Johnson Elementary and Mitchell Elementary have been named “Higher Performing Schools” based on achievement in 2009.
NCEA uses two measures in the analysis for this recognition: growth and college and career readiness (CCR). Schools recognized for growth achieved better improvement rates for their students compared with other schools with similar demographics.
Schools recognized for CCR are the top five percent of schools in the state, based on the percentage of students scoring at or above NCEA’s College and Career Readiness Targets.
For more information, visit: http://www.just4kids.org/en/Texas/school_data/school_search.cfm or the Bryan ISD
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