Expect a Hot Seller's Market in San Fernando Valley for Spring 2014

There are many great San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (818) 993-1300 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Is Now a Good Time to Buy?
Spring has come to us in Porter Ranch, and with that comes a flurry of real estate activity. If you're considering getting involved in real estate this year, then you need to know what's going on in our market. Let me fill you in briefly on what you can expect.

1. Rising Interest Rates: Interest has risen steadily over the past year and lenders do not foresee any lower interest rates in the future. Because of this, now is your best bet to buy a home affordably. With interest as low as it is right now, you could save yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a 30 year loan.
2. Inventory is still very low: Even with double the amount of inventory we had last year, we are still experiencing a tremendously low amount of inventory right now. In the San Fernando Valley you need about 7,000 homes on the market to neutralize the advantage between buyers and sellers. Currently, we have around 2,700 to 3,000 homes available as we enter the spring season. 
• This means that if your home is priced right, it will likely sell right away and will probably receive multiple offers. So, if you're looking to get top dollar on your home, now would absolutely be the time to do so.
  
3. There is a land shortage: In all the areas outside of Los Angeles county, there is not much room to build new housing. We're seeing people coming from the edges of Los Angeles back into the San Fernando Valley. As a result, you have an increased buyer pool as well as increased buyer activity. This will probably only get worse as time goes on, because there is just not enough space in Los Angeles anymore.
   

So, now is actually a great time to sell and a great time to buy. Sellers will sell their homes quickly and for top dollar, and buyers can take advantage of low interest rates while they're still around.

Please contact me with any comments or questions and I would be glad to help you out in any way possible. You can contact me at (818) 720-9922 or email me at Scott@ScottWorks4u.com

Spring Marketing Tips for Sellers

There are many great San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (818) 993-1300 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Spring Marketing Tips for Sellers

After speaking about accurate home pricing and market competition, I would like to talk today about what sellers can do to market their homes. I have just a few tips here for you, but if you'd like to know more, please contact me directly.

Marketing Your Home

1. Professional Photos: If you're hiring a professional realtor, you might as well get a professional photographer. This is just one more way to make your home stand out from all the others. Too often I see listings with very poor quality photographs up, and this will instantly turn buyers away. Let people see your property, not a fuzzy image that causes suspicion.


2. Strong Online Presence: A whopping 94% of buyers find their home on the internet. Your realtor should have your home on hundreds of different websites to market it to as many different potential buyers as possible.


3. De-Clutter: To market your property, it should be clean and clutter free. Buyers want to see a nice, open floor plan and you have to do your best to give them this. Take down family photos and refrigerator magnets, and anything else that obscures the true dimensions of your home. Don't forget the exterior of your home, either, because that is what will initially attract buyers to your property. Some simple landscaping can go a long way. In general, make sure your home is clean, open, and neutral (meaning your personality shouldn't show).

Thanks again for watching. I hope this information has been helpful to you. If you want any other ideas on how to improve the value of your home or how to get it ready for a spring sale, be sure to contact me. Consider me your #1 resource for real estate.

Making an Offer: Are You a Contingent or Non-Contingent Buyer?

There are many great San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (818) 993-1300 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Making an Offer: Are You a Contingent or Non-Contingent Buyer?

Today I wanted to speak with you about the ways to go about and things to avoid when making an offer on another home before your house has sold. I am starting to see the question come up a lot of a variety of different reasons. For people who are selling their home and are looking to either downsize or move up, it can be very difficult to write an offer for home when theirs has yet to sell unless they are truly non-contingent. If you have to sell a home, put yourself in the shoes of the seller who’s trying the sell their home; if that seller has more than one offer and they don’t have a contingency, which one would you choose?

That being said, there are ways to go about doing this but it really requires placing your home on the market. There contingencies that can be in place so that you’re protected and don’t end up on the streets if you can’t find a home. In the event that you couldn’t find a home in 60-90 days, you would have the ability to back out at no cost to you. Once your house has sold and the buyer has completed the physical inspection and appraisal of your home, you have just completed two of the biggest hurdles sellers face when selling their home.

Finally, now that we’re in a market that has seen 35-40% gains since the beginning of 2012, you’ve seen a lot of buyers that have been “priced out.” As a result, the buyers who are out purchasing homes for whatever reasons have contingencies in place. This means you’re not alone! It is becoming commonplace to see people who are selling homes have contingencies that need to be listed in order to purchase a property. This could cause potential problems for you! However once your home hits the market, you will find the buyer pool.

If you have any real estate questions, we are here to answer them! Give us a call at (818) 720-9922. Thanks and have a great day!

Knowing Your Competition: How to Set Realistic Expectations When Selling Your Home

There are many great San Fernando Valley area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (818) 993-1300 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Last time we spoke about the importance of pricing your home accurately and one of the steps in doing that, which will be today’s subject, is making sure you the competition that you’re facing. Obviously you will be able to see the comparable homes that have recently sold in your neighborhood in our pre-listing package, but it’s also super important that you know your competition while you’re on the market.

I encourage sellers to go and check out their competition; not only is it important to know your neighbor’s price tag, but also being aware of updates to the kitchen or exterior of the home could be useful knowledge in the sale of your home. If their home has brand new cabinets and granite counter-tops and your home has 25 year old cabinets, you may want to consider upgrading your kitchen or pricing your home accordingly.

Sellers are often advised to view the home through the buyer’s eyes, not their own. There is no better opportunity to do this than going to other houses and critically identifying its drawbacks and assets in comparison to your home. Analyzing the square footage and condition will allow you to accurately price your home. Also, if your roof needs to be replaced or your lawn could use flowers to liven it up, this all adds curb appeal to your home.

Seeing comparable properties allows you to be more realistic as seller about pricing your home. It is critical to understand as a seller that it’s the market that sets the price for a home, not the agent and not the client! If your home is overpriced, it will make the other homes look more attractive causing them to sell faster than yours.

As for deciding what needs to be done to spruce up your house before listing as opposed to major renovations, improvements to bathrooms and kitchens tend to add the most value to your home. Other improvements may help sell your home, but not add any additional value.

If you have any real estate needs don’t hesitate to call us at (818) 720-9922. We are here 24/7 for you!

Thanks and have a great day.