Archive for Short Sale Tips
Can I short sell my home with a tenant?
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I get asked this question by many clients, particularly from those who live out of state. The simple answer is yes, banks will accept a short sale with a tenant in place paying the owner rent. The key here is what hardship does the owner have with receiving rent. For example, is there a negative cash flow once you calculate the entire costs such as taxes, insurance, maintenance and repairs, sewer, vacancy factor, etc. Or is there an over-riding reason to sell the home.
Usually the biggest obstacle is availability to show the home with the tenant. Ideally there should be a lockbox so that agents can show the home after making an appointment, I have found that not having a lockbox will seriously curtail the marketability of the home. Most agents will call the “day of” or the night before, and if the home is not available, then they will just move on to the next home. There are several incentives that you might offer the tenant to allow for this. A reduction in rent or a set amount taken off the rent for each showing provides an incentive for showing.
In fact in some cases having a tenant in place will be attractive to a potential investors as long as the rental amount pencils out for them. The lease will continue with the home, even though ownership has changed hands, so if you have a long term lease with a below market rent, that will also minimize the marketability. A lease will also prevent a lot of buyers who intend to occupy the property from looking at the home as their loan will be for owner occupant only.
Pricing the home to over come these challenges will be important in getting your home sold. Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
How a Floor Plan Might Affect Las Vegas Short Sales
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Having trouble short selling your Las Vegas home? It might be your couch. Yep. It looks like something from grandma’s. Really though, in this fiercely competitive market with more homes on the market than buyers, you may already know that things like getting rid of the clutter and having professional photographs taken may help your home sell. But there may be something else you can do, too.
In a recent article in the New York Times, Diane Cardwell claims that providing a floor plan might be an equally important component when putting your home on the market. Because we all don’t have the same taste in furniture and color palettes, a floor plan can provide a more neutral backdrop for the buyer to access. By looking at a floor plan potential buyers can better see each room in relation to another as well as imagine their own furnishings inside.
Some sellers are even hiring floor plan artists to create aesthetically better versions of the floor plans of their homes. Jettisoning blurred or incomplete lines and illegible hand writing, a floor plan artist takes measurements of your home but also has the skills of a graphic designer, making sure the floor plan translates into a clear picture on the web. A buyer may want to know things like exactly where the plumbing is in a home so they could add an extra bathroom. By adding fixtures like toilets, sinks, and bathtubs to the floor plan, a buyer could do just that. A floor plan artist can also estimate the thickness of the walls on the floor plan by making some lines thicker and others thinner. Windows, columns, or anything else that cuts into the space of the home can also be marked on the floor plan.
Looking for more creative angles to short sale your home? Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
How to Avoid Pitfalls When Buying a Las Vegas Home
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It’s a great time time to buy a home, but there’s a catch—only for those who buy smart. Tara-Nicholle Nelson, a broker in San Francisco, gives some tips that are relevant to the Las Vegas short sales market.
- First, stay on track by getting the order right: Know what you want before looking rather than looking to find what you want. By having a concrete vision of your home–including your price range, your vision of the home itself, and your vision of the location–you’ll avoid homes that are a bad fit. An agent’s job is partly to translate your sometime abstract vision into a concrete dwelling, but the more you work to focus your vision, the happier you’ll be in the end. Towards this end, write down what you want before consulting an agent.
- Second, know what you want, but also know when to settle. To find the best deal, you need to strike a hard bargin but also be realistic about what kind of home you’re going to get for the money you’re willing to put up. If you’ve been searching for months on end and no home has met your complete wish list, then it might be time to compromise. A real-life home that meets most of your needs is better than a dream house that remains merely a dream.
- Third, caste a wide net, but then focus on one good fish. That is, in the beginning, look widely around to find a broker you trust, but once you find your broker and your strategy, focus like a laser beam. Housing markets vary from city to city and from neighborhood to neighborhood within a city. Having someone–a broker–with intimate knowledge of the local market can make a world of difference. The focusing aspect of this strategy is necessary to avoid wild goose chases and to succeed in the sometimes tiring process of finding a home.
- Fourth, the small print matters, especially for the Las Vegas short sales market. Contracts for short sales vary widely and the facts about the condition of the home become especially relevant. Make sure to read inspection reports for short sales.
- Fifth, beat your own bad psychological habits by doing your accounting on paper and in the cool hour. By this I mean that making financial decisions and calculations on the fly and in your head can sometimes break your bank. We humans tend to weigh the price tag more heavily than extra fees and costs, even though money is money. We also tend to let our desires get in the way when we’re in the process of actual buying. To avoid this, write up your all of the costs on paper or on a spreadsheet and make your decisions when you’re at your most realistic.
Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
Considering a Las Vegas Home purchase? Search all Las Vegas Homes for Sale using our free, interactive map-based search.
Tips to Sell Faster in the Las Vegas Short Sale Market
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Want to know a few tips for a quicker Las Vegas short sale? Keep reading for a few tips on what buyers are looking for to help get you a better and faster deal on your home.
1. Stand out from the neighbors. Aesthetics are important. This means landscaping and upgrades that appeal to most people; i.e. make sure the grass is green instead of brown, and note that not everyone’s favirote color is electric purple, so any add-ons should be in neutral colors.
2. Up the ante. For example, offer to pay some or all of the closing costs to get more attention from buyers looking at similar homes. In a tough market, any incentive that can make buyers feel like they are getting a good deal is a good idea.
3. Make a good first impression. The first thing a potential buyer sees is the outside of the house. This includes the paint, the lawn, and the curb, so make sure these things look nice by putting a new coat of paint on the house and making sure the landscape is well manicured.
4. Make sure the house is move-in-ready. Make sure appliances, electrical, and plumbing are in working order. This way potential buyers can imagine themselves moving in right away instead of having to deal with a list of things to care of.
5. Have a realtor price the home. You don’t want to deter buyers by pricing your home way out of the market, but you also don’t want to short change yourself. Get a professional for this. It will end up speeding up the selling process.
Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
Considering a Las Vegas Home purchase? Search all Las Vegas Homes for Sale using our free, interactive map-based search.
How to Make The Most on a Las Vegas Short Sale
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When it comes to selling your home, the little things count too, and they can count big, especially if you are considering a short sale in Las Vegas. A new article by Christine Haughney in The New York Times gives some pretty unbelievable examples of small changes that home owners made to increase the value of their home. Here are a few of them:
1. If your home is cluttered, subtract 5% to 15% off the asking price. Homes that are cleared out of too many books, toys, etc. generally sell faster and for up to 15% more.
2. Buy a closet full of expensive shoes. No, seriously. They will end up paying for themselves and more. Potential buyers often unknowingly want to live the life they envision a new home will provide. And if the seller is able to maintain a lifestyle that includes a closet full of expensive shoes, the buyer will want a piece of that life.
3. Get rid of any old, dirty, or worn rugs. No potential buyer wants to move into a home that they envision is dirty. Replacing a prominent, old rug with a new $400 rug can up the asking price by up to $5000.
4. Get professional lighting advice. It may cost somewhere between $100 and $200 but the pay off on a $900,000 home is an additional $32,500 on the original asking price.
5. Buy new, fresh towels and pillows. After spending $700 on both, one home’s original asking price went from $450,000 to being sold for $475,000. That’s an increase of $25,000!
Some of these ideas might sound like flukes that the home owners just happened to be lucky to benefit from. But when it comes to selling your home in Las Vegas or considering a Las Vegas short sale, it’s good to have an agent that will think outside the box to get you the best value for your home. Kathryn Bovard is experienced with the often lengthy and sometimes stressful Las Vegas short sale process. If you are contemplating a Las Vegas short sale, she can assist and navigate you through the entire process. Call Kathryn direct at 702-348-7191 to schedule a short sale consultation today.
