Buying a home is always an anxiety-ridden process, and that goes triple for first-time buyers. Be wary of falling into a few common traps:     Mistake No. 1: Not understanding down payment options Do you really need to put 20% down? Not necessarily; there are low- and no-down-payment loans that will let you get your foot in the homeownership door a lot sooner.   Mistake No. 2: Not getting preapproved It pays to figure out what you can actually afford — and that means getting preapproved for a home loan. (Prequalification isn’t enough.)   Mistake No. 3: Not finding a qualifi ..read more

Buying your first home is a huge part of the American Dream — and is also a daunting, potentially overwhelming process. Here’s how to get started and what to expect along the way.     What do you want to buy? 1. Consider the type of property Condo? Apartment? Single-family home? New construction? Prefabricated? The list goes on. 2. Know where you want to go Research the parts of town where you might be buying: talk to friends, join social media groups, etc.   3. Try to predict the neighborhood’s future Dig into future development plans so you know whether this area will remain a ..read more

If you’ve never owned a home before, cleaning it from top to bottom for the first time can feel like a daunting task. Here’s a guide to deep-cleaning your house.   Declutter Before you start cleaning, get rid of as many items as you can — then you’ll have less to do! If you haven’t touched it or worn it in the past year, ask yourself: Do you really need it? Start at the top Gravity can be your friend — or your enemy. Start cleaning at the top of each room and work your way down so that you aren’t knocking dust and debris onto your freshly cleaned floors. Let there be light When ..read more

Home renovations are more popular than ever before, but this isn’t a journey for the faint of heart. To streamline the process and set yourself up for success, avoid these mistakes:   1. Forgetting about permits Head to the permitting department at your city or county office and ask them what you’ll need.   2. Setting an unrealistic timeline Your timeline needs to reflect realistic estimates that you’re hearing from contractors, and a little bit of wiggle room.   3. Creating an unrealistic budget Like your timeline, your budget needs a little bit of room to stretch.   4. Bu ..read more

Buyers in cash-offer-heavy areas, take heart. There are ways to compete with those all-cash folks and come out ahead — with the keys to the home of your dreams.   1. Make sure you’re preapproved A pre-qualification to buy a house is just not enough when an all-cash offer could be on the table.   2. Consider pre-underwriting There’s another possible way to show sellers that you are eminently qualified to buy their home: Get a loan review from an underwriter.   3. Offer more than asking price All-cash buyers don’t always offer the full asking price for a home. You can make your ow ..read more

Selling your house can be an intensely emotional experience in any market, but it’s particularly nerve-wracking when it seems like other homes are going under contract in a matter of days while your listing lingers. Usually it’s the listing price, but there are a ton of other things that could keep your house on the market.   1. You have too much stuff Clutter is going to draw buyers’ eyes away from the space of the room and their ability to fill it with their stuff, distracting them when you want them to be fully focused on their dream of homeownership.   2. It’s not in great condi ..read more

There are a lot of acronyms in real estate — and they don’t always make sense to people outside of the industry. If you’ve heard of a BPO but you aren’t sure what it is or why you might need one, we’re here to help explain it to you: It stands for “broker price opinion,” and it’s one way of valuing a property without ordering a full appraisal.   (What’s an appraisal? It’s when a qualified, licensed appraiser examines a house and offers an official opinion on how much that home is worth on the current market. Appraisals are required for most home sales so the mortgage lender has confirmati ..read more

When a seller gets ready to list a house on the market, chances are they’ve got dollar signs dancing in their heads, and that might be a problem for an honest real estate agent who doesn’t want to inflate a home’s value just to get a listing. It’s a well-known tactic for agents to float huge sums by sellers in a listing presentation in the hopes of getting their business, with the hopes of talking sellers into a price reduction later so that the home actually does sell. As a real estate agent hoping to capture seller business, how do you nail the pricing dilemma? Here’s how you should think ab ..read more

If you’ve seen the Tom Hanks classic movie, “The Money Pit,” you know that while it’s funny happening to someone else, when your fixer-upper home becomes a money pit, it’s more like a horror movie. If you’re looking for a new property and considering an underpriced fixer-upper, you could end up with a nightmare full of endless home repairs. Here are some ways to make sure your home-buying reality doesn’t become the stuff of movies and cost you more money than you bargained for.    Start With A Solid Foundation One of the most important components of a home, it should stand on a so ..read more

There’s a reason why people love looking at photos of homes for sale — it’s rare that we get to see a place look it’s very best, and scrolling through gorgeous room after room helps serious buyers see themselves settling down in those very rooms. But as any seller (or photographer) can attest, getting a home ready for it’s close-up (also known as “staging”) is not easy and is definitely not always fun. It involves a ton of cleaning, some furniture removal (or placement), a plethora of attention to detail, and usually a lot of light. This is why professional stagers charge hundreds (sometime ..read more