Spring Real Estate Market To Bounce Back?

Many people always look forward to the coming of spring when flowers are in full bloom, the weather is more favorable and the Super Bowl is taking place. Spring is also the busiest time for the residential real estate market as it marks the start of the home selling season. Many homes are on the market, more buyers – notably families -- are looking for new homes, there’s stiff competition and prices normally go up.

Real estate experts would likewise tell you that spring is one of the best times to sell your house. Most homeowners who failed to sell their homes earlier would normally relist their properties during spring time. Just be sure that you don’t wait very long to put your house on the market for sale.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that homes on the market during the winter are selling. Buyers are taking advantage of the low mortgage interest rates, declining prices and the huge volume of inventories in the market. NAR’s chief economist David Lereah has expressed optimism that current home sales will continue to go up this year and even until 2008. This trend will remain despite a slowdown in the sale of new homes and a weaker home sales compared to the record set in 2005. Lereah added that mortgage interest rates continue to be favorable and an expected rise this year would give potential buyers some time to weigh purchase decisions.

The National Association of Home Builders expects home sales in spring to stabilize this 2007 after experiencing declines in 2006 in 28 states especially in former housing boom areas such as Arizona, Florida, Virginia, Nevada and California. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors’ survey of housing conditions across the U.S. last year showed that 20 states recorded home sales increase during spring notably in Alaska, Arkansas, Texas, North Carolina and Vermont.

Other realty groups are positive over the recovery of the housing market this spring although no new records are seen to be established. One indicator they consider is the pending sales for January 2007. Pending sales refer to signed purchase agreements that have not been closed yet. Also, buyers who backed out of the market late last year are expected to return to the market this spring. Sellers, for their part, are seen to have more motivation than in previous months.

A Boston mortgage company shares this optimism as it sees a bright housing market this spring. With reduced home prices, low interest rates by historical standards and a rise in consumer demand, the Summit Mortgage LLC’s chief executive sees a more affordable and solid housing market this 2007 than in previous years. Interest rates are expected to remain between 6.3 and 6.5 percent throughout the year, according to Freddie Mac officials. An article in the Chicago Tribune also revealed that volume of re-listings and home sales in Chicago went up in January. Real estate experts there believe these are signs that home sellers may be returning to the market.

It’s not very clear when the existing-home market will improve but hopes are high that people – new buyers and sellers -- will go back to the marketplace this spring. Economists and realtors alike are keeping this positive outlook despite a confirmation that the 2006 real estate market experienced its biggest yearly sales decline in nearly two decades, based on the final tally of the National Association of Realtors.

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Staging your Home, The Basics

It’s already a given: staging open house events is one of the most important activities you, as a home seller, will have to undertake. You can’t forego an open house because, how else will the buyers find out if the house really is as good as it appeared on the printed advertisements and, possibly even, word of mouth? Having an open home is the only way you can get buyers to realize that the house is good on the inside as it is on the outside.

The key to a successful open house event is proper staging. When you stage your house, you try to depersonalize the property and arrange the furniture and accessories in such a way that these would bring out the best in each room. When you stage, you want to highlight the assets, and downplay the “defects”.

What would you do then if, after you’ve cleaned the exterior and interior structure of your house, you realize that your furniture pieces are mucked up? It does happen – especially if your house once sheltered three rambunctious boys who grew up, got married and had three equally rambunctious (yet adorable) boys, EACH – so don’t beat yourself up because of that.

If you badly need to host an open home event and your furniture pieces simply cannot do then hire the services of professional stagers. Professional stagers are firms which specialize in prepping up interiors specifically for open home events.

When you hire the services of Professional stagers, the first step would be for an in-house designer or decorator to visit your house to see what exactly your house needs (and what kind of furniture pieces it can accommodate). They will discuss the options with you and once you’ve settled everything (yes, including the price), a big van carrying all the items you need for your open home (from bulky furniture pieces such as three-piece sofas and dining sets; to small, seemingly insignificant accessories such as flower vases and wall hangings) will arrive. The stagers will remove your furniture and replace these with the newer pieces. They will set everything up and your reinvented interiors will be ready to receive visitors when the open weekend arrives.

A word of caution though - don’t get too attached to the nice furniture pieces. These are only there for the duration of the open house and are on loan. After the open house, the stagers will haul everything away again.

Although professional stagers can help spruce up your interiors, no one has made an in depth study as to how successful they are in jacking up prices of homes, or how they aid in securing a sale. Their services are something you have the option to consider. If you have extra money you can allocate for them then by all means, get them to help you out. But if you’re on a very tight budget forego the stagers. Just make do with what you have or borrow from friends and relatives. Hope that, just like love, your buyers would see beyond the outdated furniture and see the true value of your property.

Visit LegalHomeForms.com for more home selling tips.

How to Advertise your Home (Newspaper Ads)

Advertising in your local paper can be pretty expensive. When advertising your home, your best bet, it to keep your ad short, but effective. Your main objective by advertising your home should be to give the basic facts, and to get prospective buyers to call you and ask for more information.

The basics your ad should contain:
*The price of your home.

*The area your home is located. You don't have to give out the address. You can specify what area, school district, etc.

*Number of bedrooms and baths.

*Your homes "IT" factor. Maybe your home is recently remodeled, priced below appraisal, etc.

*Add for sale by owner, or FSBO to your ad

*Your phone number and web address if any

A sample short and effective ad might be:

FSBO, $219,900, 4BD, 2.5 BA in Cleveland school district. Excellent schools, completely remodeled, and price to sell. Call 123-456-7890, or visit www.xxx.com/123

Tips for Creating Newspaper Ads

Real Estate Forms, An Added Clause for Your Protection

Nowadays, more and more people are opting to conduct real estate transactions without the aid of real estate professionals. With so much information and resources available on the internet, a lot of people are now realizing that real estate transactions are not that difficult and gladly take on this challenge.

Generally, all the forms needed to facilitate and legalize real estate sales and purchases can be purchased and downloaded from the internet. Standard forms covering lead-disclosure, offers to purchase, counter-offers, and even purchase agreements are easily available to all users. Owners selling their homes by themselves need only to plug in their credit card details and these general forms will be in their hands.

With reference to the contracts (offer to purchase, counter offer and purchase agreement), the format and contents are fairly standard. However, since the documents can be viewed and opened using any word processing program, you can modify the contents to suit your requirements.

When you are preparing the Purchase Agreement, make sure that you read everything carefully and look for a clause which will protect you in case the buyer changes his mind about buying your property midway through the entire process. Normally, this clause can be found almost at the end of the entire document and acceptable events and circumstances are written down. If you want to add or remove certain events, and maybe include a time frame (i.e. 2 weeks after the contracts have been signed), you can most definitely do so. Just make sure that your conditions are valid by consulting a real estate lawyer.

This protection clause, apart from indicating the acceptable reasons for the buyer to renege on your agreement, should also include a penalty. The penalty, usually in monetary form, is what the buyer is obliged to pay you (the seller) in case he does back out for reasons outside of the ones that have been agreed upon. This amount is different from the down payment he has given which may or may not be returned in case the deal does not push through.

Why is this clause important? Why, simply because it protects you. All contracts should have this clause so that the buyer would take the entire real-estate transaction seriously. It would make the buyer think twice before abandoning the project and in case he does need to back out of the deal, you would be (somewhat) compensated for the time and effort you have put into the failed transaction.

If the real estate contract you have does not include this clause, go to your real estate lawyer and have him prepare this for you. Ask if the additional conditions you have thought of can be included and if some of the reasons already stated can be removed. Talk to your lawyer about the other acceptable reasons for pulling out of the deal and what the standard penalty rates are. The rates may be a flat rate (according to your own estimation), based on prevailing real estate standards / practices and may even be a small percentage of the total cost of the property being sold.

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