Kopa Real Estate Blog - joyce peterson realtor

Should You Buy Or Sell In Today's Market?

 
Should you buy or sell a home in today's market? Realtors sometimes have a bad habit of always saying it's a great time to buy or sell. The truth is it depends on your particular situation, the house you are buying or selling, the sub-market of the house and the buyer profile for the house.

As always if you have a question call/text Eric at 512-791-7473  or email eric@koparealestate.com.

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What To Do If You Can’t Make Your Mortgage Payment Due To Coronavirus

 
Many homeowners will be facing a financial burden due to Coronavirus and if it is affecting your ability to pay your mortgage you may have more options than you think. As of the writing of this message there has not been any uniform relief among all lenders. There are several proposals but none have been agreed to. Information is coming out quickly and things are changing every day. 

#1 Things You Should Do

The most important thing you should do is not bury your head in the sand, don’t run and hide and don’t ignore calls and letters from your mortgage company.

Do You Need To Be Behind On Payments?

Even if you haven’t missed a mortgage payment yet the best thing you can do is pick up the phone or go online to your mortgage…

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Why Home Staging Is Even More Important In Today’s Market

In Williamson County, real estate is still an essential business and many sellers have chosen to continue showing their homes. As you might expect we have seen the number of in person showings dramatically decrease over the past few weeks.

My expectation is once the shelter in place ordinance has been lifted, we will see showings increase but likely not to the same level as pre-Coronavirus. The reason I say that is I expect buyers will be choosier about taking a perceived risk to enter your home. Previously our goal for our listings was to make it into the top 5 homes a buyer would want to visit. Going forward I anticipate buyers will reduce the number of homes they visit in person from 5 to 3. What that means for you if you are selling a home is…

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5 Things To Think About Before Renting Your Home

When it’s time to move you might think about renting your home. Because we sell so many homes that were turned into rental properties, we’ve gathered insight into some of the things homeowners don’t think about before converting an owner occupied home into a rental property. Here are 5 things you should think when deciding between renting or selling your home.

Do You Want To Be A Landlord

I’m always willing to help anyone look at the rent vs sell figures so you can make the best decision for yourself. But before we get that far I will ask you if you really want to be a landlord and if you didn’t own the home would you buy it as an investment property.

I will also ask if you like working with people? What will you do when the rent is…

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How To Buy A Home At The Top Of The Market?

 
It’s a tough market for buyers. Many feel they are buying at the top of the market and that makes them feel nervous.

Of course, people have been telling me it’s the top of the market for 5 years and so far that’s been a losing bet. However, we know real estate moves in cycles and at some point there will be a downturn in the market. Here are a few tips to help protect you from a downturn when it inevitably happens.

Avoid Homes Missing Important Features

Something that makes real estate challenging is comparing homes that aren’t exactly the same. Many buyers get so focused on the size of the home and $/SF they don’t remember you live in the floor plan and not the size of the home.

Yesterday I met clients at a very nice home. From a…

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Should I Use A Realtor If I'm Buying New Construction?

I’m often asked, “Should I use a Realtor if I’m buying new construction from a builder”.  The answer is only if you want a solid home built that will great for resale value when it comes time for you to sell. Here are just a few of the reasons why you should have a Realtor help you when buying or building a new home.

Representation – The salesperson represents the builder and their interests, not yours. In most cases the builder’s salesperson does not hold a real estate license. That means they aren’t held to the same standards of treating consumers fairly you might expect. A Realtor will represent you and look out for your best interest.

You May Not Get What You Think You Are Getting – When you walk into a model home it’s easy to fall in…

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What You Need To Know About Property Tax Protesting Companies In 2020

It’s only January and we are already seeing hand-wringing in our neighborhood about property taxes and the companies that will protest on your behalf. Protesting your property taxes in Williamson and Travis Counties will be even more challenging this year.

Just a reminder, if you engaged one of the tax protesting companies last year you probably signed a form giving them authorization to protest for you every year. That means if your plans are to protest on your own this year or you plan to hire a different company you will want to cancel the service with the company you previously hired. Otherwise they will protest on your behalf and you will get billed if they are successful.

Something new this year is at least one of the protesting…

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Economic Update Information I Enjoyed

I’ve attended a couple interesting economic updates in the last few weeks and I wanted to share a few of the interesting and perhaps unexpected slides.

Can you believe the average household income for 20% of the people in our area is now almost $250,000, and that is from 2017? Many people talk about the rush of Californians to our area and how that is causing home prices to go up. This demonstrates it’s not just the number of people but also that many of those transplants have higher incomes than residents who have been living here for years.

Where we have seen this impact real estate is prices are being pushed up as our real estate is still affordable for someone earning this type of income.  In addition, more buyers are skipping the…

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Home Values Are Tricky At The Beginning Of The Year

Home values are tricky at this time of the year. 2020 is going to be challenging to both buyers and sellers with a low number of homes for sale and prices going up. If you are planning to buy or sell a home in particular at this time of year you deserve to have an expert Broker helping you and here’s why.

If you are selling a home, you’re at risk of pricing your home too low. Particularly if you sell your home off market. Although our market is not as seasonal as you might expect for certain floor plans that may not sell very often there may be much more demand than supply that has built up a backlog of buyers over the winter. It is important to work with a Broker that won’t just price your home based on what sold almost a year ago. You…

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‘Tis The Season For For Real Estate Market Predictions

As we begin 2020 we want to thank everyone for your business and your referrals in 2019. We hope 2019 was a great year for you and wish you a happy and prosperous 2020!

Be Careful Listening To Predictions And Interpreting Data

This is the time of the year when everyone wants to make predictions about the real estate market and the economy. Do you remember this time last year? Everyone was predicting the Federal Reserve would increase interest rates 3 times and a recession was almost guaranteed to happen. Both of those predictions couldn’t have been any more wrong!

We will also see more end of the year statistics and projections for next year. Inside this issue we talk about one particular company using statistics to influence your behavior. In…

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