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How To Deal With Offers When Selling Your Home

how to deal with offers when selling your home

How To Deal With Offers When Selling Your Home

When selling a home the ultimate goal is to get an offer from a buyer that meets all the requirements of the homeowner.  Depending on the market type, whether a seller’s market or a buyer’s market, the offers may not be at the asking price.  Homeowners have a number of options for dealing with offers when they come in and this article explores in depth what homeowners can do when they do receive one or more offers on their home for sale.

How Will Offers Be Presented?

In order to be legal and enforceable in court all offers for real estate must be presented in writing.  Most states consider electronic versions of the forms to be considered “in writing” and even the digital signatures that go along with the electronic forms are acceptable.  The buyer can present verbal offers to the seller and the seller can even accept a verbal offer verbally, but until written down the offer and acceptance is not valid.  A court of law would not find an enforceable contract where there is only verbal offer and acceptance.  So the best bet is to make sure there is a written contract that covers the terms of a verbal offer. 

Sometimes buyers just want to test out the waters and see if the sellers would be willing to accept an amount offered verbally.  They may send an email or have their agent send an email or make a phone call to see if the seller would take a certain amount to sell their house.  Even if the seller states yes they would, until the offer is reduced to writing with signatures on the offer documents it will not be valid as noted above.  Email, text messages,...

Tips For Dealing With Problem Tenants

tips for dealing with problem tenants

Tips For Dealing With Problem Tenants

So you decided to rent out your home or purchased a residential multi-family building with the goal of earning some extra income from real estate but somehow ended up with tenants who are either not clean, always late on their rent or something else.  What are some of the more effective ways to deal with the problem tenants so that they don’t leave your rental house or rental unit in a total disaster?  This article explores how to best deal with problem tenants and protect your investment.

Spot Problem Tenants From The Start

One of the easiest ways to deal with problem tenants is not rent to them from the start.  Property owners who are managing properties on their own should be thoroughly screening tenants based on the rental applications they submit to you.  Full credit checks should be done, criminal history background checks, and even checking out the potential tenant’s current living situation.  Is the potential tenant living in a clean apartment or does it look like a tornado went through their home?  Trash in the wrong places, dirty clothing, not cleaning up after pets who made messes indoors all can attract pests that can lower the value of your investment and make it more costly to fix once the problem tenant leaves.  If a tenant is not living cleanly in their current home chances are they will not be any cleaner up just because they move into your rental.

Credit checks can be important since it shows a tenants ability to handle money.  If a tenant has a low score due to too many credit...

Should I Stage My Luxury Home When Selling?

should I stage my luxury home when selling?

Should I Stage My Luxury Home When Putting It Up For Sale?

Luxury homeowners may wonder if it makes sense to stage their luxury home when putting it up for sale.  For homes in need of it, staging of a home can boost buyer interest and can result in a better or faster offer on a home than one that is not staged.  The primary benefit from staging comes from the fact that the product being sold (a luxury home in this case) has its presentation elevated in order to make it more appealing to luxury homebuyers.  Just as with anything to be sold and that requires great marketing, a better looking home will sell easier than the same home if it were not staged.  To determine whether staging is right for your luxury home it helps to start with exploring what home staging actually is.

What Is Home Staging?

Home staging covers a variety of aspects of a home.  It can address paint colors, furniture choice as well as placement, décor pieces, wall art and more.  The goal behind home staging is to make the home more appealing to home buyers.  While most of the furniture and staging items used during the process of selling a home will not stay with the home the idea is to give homebuyers a better idea of the potential of the home and make it look more appealing at the same time.  Home staging calls for neutral colors so that buyers are less distracted by colors that don’t meet their expectations and instead lets them envision the home as they...

Pros and Cons Of Different Types Of Investment Real Estate

pros and cons of different types of investment real estate

Pros and Cons Of Different Types Of Investment Real Estate

When it comes to investment real estate there are a number of different options to choose from.  Real estate investors can buy single family homes, multi-family homes, and residential properties classified as commercial in order to build an income stream to meet their investment goals.  Each type of real estate investment has associated with it different positives and negatives and this article will explore those in detail.

Single Family Residential Home

One of the most common building types available and usually the easiest to purchase is the single family home.  A majority of the residential properties on the market today are single family homes.  With a single family home an investor is getting a property where generally one family will live and pay rent for.  Some larger single family homes can be converted into multi-family homes in order to increase the amount of renters in the property but for this to happen the investor will need to comply with local zoning and building codes.  Some areas may only allow single family residences and would refuse to authorize any segmenting of the home in order to add rental units.

The biggest advantage of buying a single family home is the fact that if an investor decides they no longer want to be in the residential investment business they can easily sell a single family home to another investor or to another buyer who is looking to live in the home themselves.  Provided there are no tenants in the home, a single family home can appeal...

Guide To The Home Inspection Process

guide to the home inspection process

Guide To The Home Inspection Process When Buying A Home

An important part of buying any home is the home inspection process.  During the home inspection home buyers get an in depth look at the home and the condition of various parts of the home.  Homebuyers will learn if certain aspects of the home are in need of repair and which parts of the home are working fine.  Through the home inspection process homebuyers ultimately learn if the purchase they are about to make is a sound purchase or one that should be reconsidered.  This article explores the home inspection and how it can impact the purchase of a home.

How To Choose A Home Inspector?

Just as important as the home inspection is, it is also important to pick a qualified home inspection professional.  In many states home inspectors are required to be licensed and in order to get licensed have to at least pass a test if not also have met some educational requirement and/or home inspection training requirement.  Working with a licensed home inspector is a great way to make sure an inspector has met some minimum requirements. 

In the situation where a state currently has no licensing requirements to be a home inspector (Ohio for example currently does not require licensing for home inspectors) then it is best to look at the training the home inspector has received and for any certifications they may also have.   The International Association Of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI for short) represents one of the largest home inspection certification organizations in the United States.  InterNACHI is a voluntary organization that trains and certifies home...

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