Why Are Home Warranties Important for Buyers?

What are home warranties? How important are they to home buyers, really?

Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   

Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation

What are home warranties? Are they really important for buyers? 

A home warranty is essentially an insurance policy that protects your home from problems with electrical wiring, plumbing, appliances, etc. Even if no issues are spotted during your initial home inspection, complications can arise unexpectedly, and they often do. In fact, it always seems like something goes wrong right after a buyer closes escrow. The home warranty can help you with that. 

Generally speaking, home warranties last for one year. The cost of the home warranty really depends on the type and size of the property, but typically range from $350 to $700. Adding extra features, such as a pool, spa, roof, or refrigerator, can increase the cost of the home warranty as well. Prices may vary depending on what you want to be covered. 

Home warranties also provide peace of mind for homeowners. Typically, we ask the seller to pay for the home warranty as part of our offer. That is negotiable, but when you buy a home, the seller usually pays for the one-year home warranty. 

A home warranty will give you peace of mind.

It is important to keep in mind that home warranties are not catch-all insurance policies. They do not cover everything, and there is a service fee attached to each claim. So, every time you call someone from the home warranty company to come out, they do charge you a $65 to $90 fee each time their contractor has to inspect your property. 

Still, home warranties do offer peace of mind to new homeowners, even if they are not a perfect solution to every problem you may encounter. You do need to read the fine print. That said, home warranties have replaced many water heaters over the years, so it is important to get one when you buy a home. 

If you have any other questions about home warranties or about the real estate market in general, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Why the Winter Is an Ideal Time to Sell Your Home

Sellers want to know if they should sell their home now or wait until spring. I’m here to let you know why listing now is a much better option. 

Looking to buy a home? Get a Full Home Search   

Looking to sell your home?  Free Home Price Evaluation

One of the most popular questions we get this time of year is whether sellers should wait until spring to sell or sell their home now. It is actually much better to list your home now than during the spring season, and here are the reasons why. 

There will be way more competition in the spring. It’s true that more houses sell during the spring, but that statistic won’t always work in your favor. For example, we had a client earlier this year wait to sell during the spring and six houses with the same floor plan popped up on the market. This decreased competition for their home drastically. 

The numbers really do indicate that it is better to sell during the wintertime. Over the course of the last three years in the San Fernando Valley, during the winter, there are about 2,400 to 2,700 total homes on the market. Compare that to 3,500 to 3,700 homes on the market during the summer months. That’s a huge difference in the amount of inventory and in turn, a huge difference in competition. 

It’s better to list your home now than during the spring.

Interest rates might also be higher in spring, which means fewer people will be able to afford your home. If the Fed raises interest rates, it is likely that trend will continue well into 2017. 

You will also get more serious buyers in the wintertime. Listing your home in the colder weather means avoiding the “open house crowd,” which consists of people strolling in to eat the free cookies and probably haven’t even gone through the pre-approval process yet. 

Finally, there are lots of job transfers happening at the very end and very beginning of the year. These people need to get into a home fast, and catering to that demographic is a smart move for the seller. 

If you have any further questions about selling your home this holiday season, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. Happy holidays!