Current and future homeowners usually are not involved with real estate on a daily bases. At the most, many of these homeowners are involved with selling and/or buying a house once every decade. Even with low exposure to real estate, many people think they understand how it works, based on their past experience and talking to family and friends. Some of things they believe to be true are false which may hinder their chances of buying and/or selling at the right time and price. If it has been a long time since a person has done a real estate transaction, they may find things have change, especially with the internet. There is greater information available, but they may find it is not always accurate. As a home buyer or seller, following are a few things you may want to consider when entering the real estate market:
- Do not believe everything you read or hear, especially on the internet. Many times this can cost you time and money.
- Listing your home at a higher price than you expect to receive. If the home is listed too high, it reduces the likelihood of potential buyers touring or giving serious consideration for your property. When a home sets on the market for a long period, buyers become suspicious that there is something wrong with the property.
- Buyer can buy a home cheaper if he does not use a real estate agent. Normally this is false; listing price has already built-in the agent’s commission. If the buyer’s agent does not get the commission, the listing agent may receive the commission. Also a buyer not be represented by a real estate lawyer or agent may be exposing himself too dangerous legal problems.
- Selling your own home has both legal and expense issues for the seller. Legal issues may include using the proper procedures and legal paper which may not be readily available. In addition, the seller may encounter difficulty in marketing the property, and will likely get a buyer who expects to purchase the house at a lower price.
- House prices will have periods where the prices are inflating and deflating in value. The period of deflating is known as a correction period. Over long period of time the housing market will inflate.
- May not be a good idea to do a major renovation of kitchen and bathroom. Likely, the buyer may not share your taste, and would not want to redo it since has been recently remodeled. In addition, most likely the seller will not get back 100% of his investment. In this situation, it may be better to adjust your listing price.
- Homeowners many times do not understand investment impact of upgrades concerning value to their home. Usually the seller does not receive back his full investment especially on major upgrades. Finally, there are some updates that must be done in order to sell the house, such as, roof replacement, etc.
- As seller, verify that you home is showing up both on the MLS and online internet sites.
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