The Eagle's View

I think the home improvement shows and fix-and-flip shows on TV are leading people to make some poor choices sometimes. What I'm talking about are sellers that have a home in a good neighborhood, with a good location, and in decent condition that decide before they sell to update the home in order to make more money from the sale of their home.

Here's the problem: On TV a real estate agent and contractor work to find a home that with just a few inexpensive cosmetic changes add huge value to the home, which translates into profits! What you don't see is that the agent handles the entire transaction and that eliminates commissions and the contractor gets wholesale prices on materials and does the labor for free. Of course there will be a profit in that!!!

This makes people belive that their home, which could sell for $300,000 (for example) as is, with $20,000 invested in remodeling the kitchen will make the home sell for $350,000. Well guess what?! According to the 2005 Cost vs. Value report by the National Association of Realtors, almost every update you can do recoups less than 100% of the money you put into it!

I work with a ton of "Gen X'ers" and I'll tell you what the Gen X buyer looks for in Colorado from my perspective. A home in good condition, in a great neighborhood with a good location...that they can update the way they want to do it.

I wish the empty-nesters out there would just leave their homes alone and sell them for the correct price instead of trying to get more money by updating the home with what they think it should have.

I'd rather pay $300,000 for a home that I could then afford to update how I want it then pay $350,000 and be stuck with updates I don't like.

Just my two cents, but I know for a fact that I'm not alone in this thinking.

A home is successfully sold when the right combination of three factors are met. Those three factors are Location, Condition, and Price.

There isn’t much you can do about the location other than put a positive marketing spin on it. Condition can be improved in big and small ways, but you need to have the time and/or resources to do so. That leaves price as the single most important factor in selling a home because it’s the one factor you have the most control over.

Before listing your home for sale, I will complete a detailed competitive market analysis that compares your property to similar recently sold and currently listed properties. This ensures that the asking price we determine for your home is competitive and justifiable.

The result is more showings, a quicker sale and a sales price near, at or above your asking price.

Contact me when you are ready to sell your home and I’ll further explain how this pricing strategy is the best way to get your home sold in the shortest amount of time and for the most money. And if you know of someone else looking to buy or sell a home, please pass my name on to them so that I may have the opportunity to earn their business.

You want to buy a new home but you have a home to sell first. How do you go about making the transition? Here are some ways, you may have to decide for yourself which is the best method:

1) Get a contracted offer on your home before you begin looking for the next home. This is what a lot of people do, but you don't get a good feel for the market this way. The advantages are that you won't find a home that you love only to be unable to buy it because your home isn't sold yet. The biggest disadvantage is you will probably have a short amount of time to find that next home and could feel stressed or rushed to do so.

2) Begin looking shortly before or while your home is on the market. At least this way you'll get a good idea of what you want in your next house and maybe even find a home that'll still be on the market when you're ready to move.

3) Sell your home first, move into temporary housing, then search for the next home. If you don't mind moving twice this is a fairly good option. Perhaps you can rent a home or apartment month-to-month or even live with a friend or relative. This strategy tends to remove some of the emotion that can come into the picture when you you sell your home and thus leads to better financial-based decisions.

4) Get a bridge loan. Buy the next home using a bridge loan before your current home is sold. It's costly to do this. A bridge loan has fees and higher interest rates than many people like to pay.

5) Use a HELOC on the current home to purchase the next home. If you are financially stable, have plenty of equity in your home, and good credit scores, this could be an option. You'll have to be able to get mortgage approved to carry two mortgages at the same time, plus the HELOC debt. It's not for everyone and the biggest risk is having to make 2 mortgage payments at the same time, one of the old home and one on the new home. But if you can swing it, you may be able to have your new mortgage payment 60-90 days out from when you contract the purchase and that'll give you time to sell your current home. You may be able to get a better price on the new home too because using this strategy means you won't need to make an offer contingent on the sale of your current home.

There are other ways to make the transition, these are just some ideas. Most people try to sell their current home and close on the new home at the same time so they can use proceeds from the sale to purchase the new home, and make just one move. But this doesn't work for everyone. Contact me if you would like to discuss your options.

After "how much will my home sell for," the next question seller's usually ask is, "how much are my closing costs going to be?"

Well that depends on several factors, like how much your home is going to sell for, how much you owe on any current mortgages, your homeowners association, your property taxes, and even the time of year that you are going to close.

The good news though is I've created a simple calculator that will estimate your closing costs for you!

Just go to http://www.mikesclients.com/directclosingcalc.shtml and you can use the closing costs calculator for free.

You will not find a better tool anywhere on the Internet. It is specific to Colorado but fairly accurate nationwide.

Just another benefit of becoming one of Mike's Clients.