Replacing the ignitor on a gas furnace is easy, but finding the new part may not be. The solution I found was www.TheIgnitorStore.com

 

What does “weak real estate market” mean? Of the 52 three-fam houses sold in Bridgeport, CT since 9/1/10, 48 were REO or foreclosure sales!!

 

Sell Own House – Prepare YOURSELF For a Fast Sale!

As we have already discussed, the first secret to selling your home fast is to recognize that selling a home fast is NOT the same as a traditional home sale.  A fast home sale requires that you do things differently from a ‘standard’ home seller.

The need to do things differently are even greater when you sell own house.  Fortunately, it is often much easier to deviate from the ‘standard’ home selling practices when you sell your house on your own because you aren’t constrained by the traditional practices and beliefs of a typical real estate agent. 

So, what must you do differently when you want to sell your own house and sell it fast?

Step #1: Prepare YOURSELF – both inside and out – to effectively market and proactively sell your house.  This means:

·         Disconnecting yourself from any emotions or hesitations you may have about selling the house. 

Since you are, in effect, your own real estate agent, you must view the sale of this property strictly as a business transaction.  You are only looking for a financially qualified buyer.  The size of their family, their hobbies or habits, their personal hygiene, and their personality – attractive or not – are completely unimportant.  Remember, the first best buyer who you can reach a satisfactory agreement with is exactly who you are looking for!

·         Putting yourself in the role of an ‘always available’ salesperson.

You will achieve the best results when you make yourself available to potential buyers at all times.  This means you have to be easily reachable by phone, fax, or e-mail.  You must also make yourself available in person as often as possible.  Since you are the primary sales person for your home, you must also be ultra responsive to any messages you receive by phone, fax, or e-mail.  Especially in today’s very competitive buyer’s market, if you don’t respond quickly, politely, and accurately to any and all potential buyers, those buyers will lose interest very quickly and move on to a different property.

·         Present yourself professionally

Again, as the primary representative for your property, you should always check (a) your state of mind, and (b) the mirror before meeting with a potential buyer.  Like it or not, people are making judgments about us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  If your house makes a great impression, but you do not, it can dramatically affect the way a buyer deals with you throughout the course of the negotiation, inspection, and closing phases of the sale.  Take a few minutes to put yourself in a positive and encouraging frame of mind before meeting with a buyer.  Take an additional few minutes to check your clothing and appearance as well.  People do business with people, so you want to present yourself cleanly and professionally whenever you interact with potential buyers.

·         Assemble your team

If you want the sale of your home to go smoothly from start to finish, you must line up a few key players ahead of time.  At a bare minimum you need to be ready with a well qualified real estate attorney.  Now the fact is you may not need anyone other than your own attorney on your team to complete the transaction, but to effectively market your property and provide the best answers to potential buyers, it is best to have a home inspector, an appraiser, and a good mortgage broker available to you as well.  Why you ask?  Well, independent buyers coming in from out of town may not know anyone in the area and they may ask you for recommendations.  To sell your own house fast you must have these resources available quickly in the event you need them.  The seller who has the names and numbers of well qualified professionals readily available is the seller who will sell their house fast and close their transaction quickly!

In our next article, we’ll talk about Step #2:  Prepare YOUR PROPERTY!

For more information, tools, and resources to sell own house and sell home fast, please visit us at http://www.SellHomeFastInfo.com.

 

Survey shows spike in 1st-time homebuyers

When you sell your own house, be sure you do everything you can to find ways to appeal to 1st time home buyers!

They are the most active buying group in real estate these days, and with the extension of the $8,000 federal tax credit for 1st time home buyers, they will remain among the best buyers to target for at least the next 6 months!

To your success!

————————————————

Posted via web from Sell Home Fast Info’s posterous

 

updated 1:13 p.m. ET Nov. 15, 2009

SAN DIEGO – The U.S. housing market welcomed a bigger share of first-time buyers and single women this past year, while a majority of sellers resorted to dialing down prices to get their homes sold, a new homebuyer survey shows.

First-time buyers accounted for a record 47 percent of U.S. home sales between July 2008 and June this year, up from 41 percent in the prior-year period, according to the survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors.

The annual survey gleans details on everything from how buyers came up with down payments to how long it took sellers to unload their homes. The latest results were derived from more than 9,000 responses, the trade association said.

Home sales and prices have shown some signs of stabilizing this year, and the survey results affirm the market continued to favor buyers, particularly first-timers.

“Tax incentives, record high affordability conditions and a pent-up demand brought a record share of first-time home buyers into the market,” said Paul Bishop, the trade association’s vice president of research.

First-time homebuyers this year have been able to take advantage of a tax credit of up to $8,000 meant to entice new homebuyers to enter the market.

Congress extended the tax incentive through next June, as long as the buyer signs a binding contract by the end of April. The program also was expanded to include a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who buy a new place after living in their current residence for at least five years.

First-time buyers had a median age of 30 and reported a median income of $61,600, the survey shows. The typical first-time buyer paid $156,000 for their home, about $9,000 less than in the Realtors’ 2008 survey.

Repeat buyers were typically a few years older, 48, and earned a bit more than first-timers: $88,100. They also said they planned to stay in the home for 12 years.

Sellers had to go the extra mile to sell their homes, with 52 percent offering incentives like paying for closing costs. They also lowered prices.

The typical home sold for 95 percent of the original listing price, the survey shows.

Still, many sellers came out ahead. The median amount over the price sellers originally paid for their home was $36,000.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

Home Staging – One of the Top 5 Recommendations To Home Sellers !

Wow!  Is it any wonder we talk so much about preparing (by cleaning, de-cluttering, and staging) before trying to sell your own home?

HomeGain recently conducted a new survey of top 12 low cost, do-it-yourself (DIY) home improvements for people getting their home ready to sell.  Nearly 1,000 REALTORS® responded to the survey.

The top five nationwide home improvements that Realtors recommend to home sellers, based on average cost and return on investment (ROI) to sellers, are:

1. Cleaning and de-cluttering ($200 cost / $1,700 price increase / 872% ROI / 98% recommended)
2. Home staging ($300 cost / $1,780 price increase / 586% ROI / 82% recommended)
3. Lightening and brightening ($230 cost / $1,300 price increase / 572% ROI / 95% recommended)
4. Landscaping ($320 cost / $1,500 price increase / 473% ROI / 94% recommended)
5. Repair Plumbing ($385 cost / $1,250 price increase / 327% ROI / 88% recommended)

Source: http://blog.homegain.com/home-improvement/

 

Sell Home Fast – Offer Special Buyer Incentives

Creating success with a Sell Home Fast strategy is all about attracting as many potential buyers as possible in a short period of time.  The question, of course, what can you do to build some real ‘buzz’ around your house and get potential buyers excited about at least seeing your house.

Well, take a moment to ask yourself what professional marketers do to attract buyers.  What do retailers do to get YOUR attention every day?  Certainly they advertise heavily, but I really want to draw your attention to the content of their advertising.

Look carefully at what they say in their ads.  When they advertise, they offer up as many reasons as they can to get you to go into their stores.  They hold all kinds of holiday sales (ie. Mother’s Day, 4^th of July Sales Events, Halloween Madness Sales, etc.), they setup “free giveaway” days, they offer “Buy One, Get One Free” deals, and many, many more.

Now, obviously holding a “Buy One, Get One Free” sale when we are talking about selling your own home is a bit of a stretch, but I’m sure you get the idea.  The bottom line here is that when you need to sell home fast and attract lots of buyers quickly, you can really help yourself by giving potential buyers some concrete incentives to take immediate action.

So, what kinds of incentives can you come up with?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Offer A Home Warranty – This can also help you overcome potential buyer objections about older appliances or systems (like electrical and plumbing) that may be in your home
• Offer 1 Year of Housecleaning Services – Remember, this is your incentive offer, so you can define the limitations of what you offer.  Determine a reasonable price for the service based on the size of your house (ie. $80 for a full house cleaning), and then decide the frequency and duration of the Services you would be willing to pay for (ie. 1 year of housekeeping services every 2 weeks at $80 per cleaning would be 52 weeks / 2 x $80 = $2,080).  When offering something like this, my preference is to deliver the incentive to the successful buyer as a credit on the HUD / Settlement Statement at the time of the closing.
• Offer 1 Year of Lawn Maintenance Services – Again, this is your offer, so you decide what terms you can offer.  You could, for example, offer to pay only for lawn cutting services, or for fertilization services, or you could include both.  Either way, as with the Housecleaning Services idea above, be clear up front what the financial limitations of the offer are.
• Include a New TV or Appliance or Video Game System (Wii,PS3, Xbox, etc) with the Home – To make this even more effective, you could actually purchase the new TV or appliance and have it in place as a ‘demo’ during your open house.
• Offer to Pay The Buyer’s Closing Costs – This typically includes all or a portion of their legal and closing fees.  Since these fees are often out-of-pocket expenses for a buyer, paying for them can sometimes make a big difference in closing a deal.
• Offer Some Seller Financing – Not everyone is in the financial position to be able to offer owner financing, but it may work for you if you have a significant amount of equity in your property and if you don’t need all of it right away.  This typically involves “taking back” a percentage of the sale price (ie. 10% or 20%) in the form of a 2^nd mortgage note.  In the note, the seller and the buyer agree to a set of mortgage terms (ie. a 5 year note with a 8% interest rate), and the buyer would pay the seller of the home according to those terms following the purchase of the home.  Before considering such an arrangement, be sure to consult your real estate attorney and your accountant about how to structure such an offer.

As you can probably see, the variety of incentives you can create to compliment your Sell Home Fast strategy is virtually limitless.  Feel free to use some of these, or let your creative juices flow and come up with some of your own that might work better for your situation!

To your success!

L.J.