Found 51 blog entries tagged as joyce peterson realtor.

Open Door is a house flipping company that buys homes at a low price and then re-sells the homes at a higher price. I think it’s great that consumers have more choices today when it comes to selling their homes.

It’s great as long as consumers are informed and not being misled about the real estate market and the true expected sales price of your home. What I’ve found when testing an offer for my own properties is the offers were very low. Because I’m working in the real estate business I know their offers are low. My fear is Open Door is preying on people who are less financially savvy and the people who can afford to lose money the least.

Because I previously requested an offer, yesterday I received this email from Open Door saying the Austin…

1578 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

 

Because we hold so many open houses, we see the same potential buyers over and over. They often tell me their struggles and frustrations about their home buying process.

Many of these struggles and frustrations are self-inflicted due to how they choose their Realtor. Buyers often think all Realtors are the same. As a result, when buying a home they will work with their friend (everyone has a friend in real estate) or hire an agent based on which agent gives you the largest rebate.

Especially in a low inventory real estate market like ours this is a huge mistake because you are not getting the most important things you need from a Realtor which are perspective and advice.

The average Realtor only sells about 1-2 homes per year. As a…

805 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Are you planning to sell a home with a solar system in the Austin area? Follow these tips to maximize the sales price for your home.

  1. Put Together A Package Of Information About Your Solar System

Think back to when you purchased your solar system. What information was important to you? Chances are the buyer of your home will want to know the same things.

When we are selling a home with a solar system we will put together a package of information including…

  • Original cost of the system
  • Age of the system
  • KW size and number of panels
  • Warranty
  • Current utility bills compared to before solar system
  • Is the system owned or leased

It is important to have this information in the document section of the MLS as…

1665 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

This is a popular question whenever we do our home selling seminars. The short answer is no.

When estimated a sales price for your home we want to compare your home to other similar homes that have sold recently. From there we want to make adjustments for specific features and benefits about your home and add in market knowledge from our side and where we expect the market is going.

The reason a tax value may not be accurate is the value of your home is established early in the year based on sales largely from the previous year. As I am writing this message some of those comparable sales are close to 2 years old and since we are in an appreciating market they may not accurately reflect what is happening in the current market.

If you…

828 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

If you are like me whenever you are buying a product or service you want to know what guarantees you will receive and how you can cancel the agreement. For some reason when people are selling their home they don’t think about getting a guarantee. Perhaps it is because some people think the real estate market is so good that every home will sell quickly.

In reality, about once a week we receive a call from a person trying to sell their home. Their agent isn’t performing and the seller isn’t happy. Their home isn’t selling and it seems like promises were made by their agent and not kept.

The seller wants to hire us to sell their home but unfortunately in most cases the seller has signed an agreement with the agent that doesn’t allow for the…

887 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

If you can’t decide between selling your home now or waiting until next year let me give you a 3rd option…what’s called a delayed entry pocket listing.

We are contacted almost every day by buyers and other Realtors asking us what homes we have coming on the market soon. Often a buyer will see one of our homes that isn’t a good fit and ask us what we will be selling that would better work for their family. A pocket listing allows us to keep your home in mind in case someone contacts us that would be a good fit for your home.

What if we had a cash buyer for your home or someone with a flexible move in date? Would you be willing to sell now if they paid the price you want for your home?

A delayed entry pocket listing means we have an agreement…

696 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

If you can’t decide between selling your home now or waiting until next year let me give you a 3rd option…what’s called a delayed entry pocket listing.

We are contacted almost every day by buyers and other Realtors asking us what homes we have coming on the market soon. Often a buyer will see one of our homes that isn’t a good fit and ask us what we will be selling that would better work for their family. A pocket listing allows us to keep your home in mind in case someone contacts us that would be a good fit for your home.

What if we had a cash buyer for your home or someone with a flexible move in date? Would you be willing to sell now if they paid the price you want for your home?

A delayed entry pocket listing means we have an agreement…

974 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Can You Sell Your Home In The Fall? You Can This Year!

Every year I keep track of trends and make notes to avoid making the same mistakes again. Last year I made a note that sellers needed to have their homes priced to sell by the end of July. Even though our market isn’t as seasonal as you might expect we can’t blame buyers for wanting to take a break and get out for a last summer vacation when it’s 105 degrees.

This year has been different. We have never seen the amount of traffic at our listings, the number of buyers visiting open houses and the offers from motivated buyers in Augusts as we did this year. Perhaps it’s simply supply and demand or buyers are motivated by the drop in interest rates this year. Whatever the reason, based on the…

991 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Almost every time someone invites me to their home to talk about putting it on the market, they say they have a “friend in real estate” they are considering hiring as their listing agent. It’s not surprising; with 13,160 members of the Austin Board of Realtors everyone knows several Realtors. In fact, if you don’t have any friends in real estate, I’d be worried you didn’t have any friends.

As one of my friends says it’s called Show Business not Show Friends for a reason. Here are a few ways hiring your friend to sell your largest financial asset can cost you big money.

Understanding The Contract

Would you believe the average real estate agent may only sell 2-3 homes per year? This is why before you hire any agent you should ask how many homes…

988 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post

Every year I keep track of trends and make notes to avoid making the same mistakes again. Last year I made a note that sellers needed to have their homes priced to sell by the end of July. Even though our market isn’t as seasonal as you might expect we can’t blame buyers for wanting to take a break and get out for a last summer vacation when it’s 105 degrees.

This year has been different. We have never seen the amount of traffic at our listings, the number of buyers visiting open houses and the offers from motivated buyers in Augusts as we did this year. Perhaps it’s simply supply and demand or buyers are motivated by the drop in interest rates this year. Whatever the reason, based on the number of buyers and agents calling us to ask about coming soon…

756 Views, 0 Comments

Read Full Post