The cleanup effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey is ongoing here in Katy, Texas, where I’ve joined Keller Williams’ relief initiative with many others to lending a helping hand to those in need.

As you can see in the video above, it’s a nightmare of a mess. Many folks are unloading everything from inside their houses onto wheelbarrows and dumping the clutter onto the street. The house we’re cleaning out now had a water line that reached four feet up the wall.

The whole experience has brought a couple of points to my mind that I want to share with you.

“

Donations are still very much needed for the folks down here in Texas.

”

First, if you live in an area in Middletown that’s had its flood lines remapped, you should seriously consider getting flood insurance. There are definitely some areas that have been remapped, and not all mortgage companies know about it.

Second, remember that any donations are still very much needed for the folks down here in Texas. Whether that’s food, supplies, or money, every little bit helps.

If you have any questions about how to donate or how to obtain flood insurance, don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I’d love to help you.

Today we’re going to talk all about the summer market: what happened, what it means for you, and what you can expect as we transition into fall.

There are five long-term indicators that show how our market is doing, along with one short-term indicator. The long-term indicators include:

Inventory is down from last year.

The rate at which inventory is accumulating is down.

The number of closed transactions is up.

The median price point is up.

The list-to-sale price ratio is up.

All long-term indicators point to a strong seller’s market.

All these long-term indicators point to us being in a strong seller’s market, but the short-term indicator is different. Over the last seven days, we’ve started to see the number of new listings outpace the number of pending transactions. We’ll keep an eye on this trend to see if it continues. You should keep an eye on it as well.

If you have any questions for us about the market or anything else about real estate, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

What effect does low inventory and high demand have on pricing in our market? The short answer is it allows you to get a higher sale price for your house than you would’ve been able to last year.

There’s something I want to caution you about, though. Every single time I sit down with a homeowner and ask how much they want to pad the price of their house to leave room for negotiation, I get the same answer—10%. In this market, the reality is that you only need to pad the price by a little less than 3%. 

If you overshoot your home’s market value by 10% and your margin of error is 3%, that means you’re 7% over the mark. 3% goes into 7% a little more than two times, meaning you’re more than twice your allowable margin of error. If you remember your grade school math when it comes to calculating percentages, you’ll know that twice of what you need translates to 200%.

In other words, you’re more than 200% in excess of your margin of error, or what I call “the negotiation gap.”

“

If you price your home over the negotiation gap, you’ll likely lose money on its sale.

”

When you come in with numbers this high, it drives your home’s time on the market way up because you have to keep reducing the price until it’s back within that 3% margin. On top of that, buyers will assume there’s something wrong with your house because it’s been on the market for so long, so you’re bound to get less money for it than if you priced it within the 3% margin to begin with.

If you’re thinking of putting your home on the market, you won’t be able to draw the competition for your house you need to get a good price if you’re 200% over the margin of error. Even if your house looks like a million bucks, it’ll be too far outside of what buyers expect in terms of price.

You can save yourself this trouble by working with an agent who can figure out the numbers and help you step into the market intelligently. If you’d like to know the math on your home, don’t hesitate to give me a call. I’d be happy to help you.

Statistics show that your front door is actually one of the few places in your home where you can spend money on an update and get a positive return on your cash when you sell. Why is this?

Most homeowners don't even use their front door, preferring the garage door or a side door that's closest to where you park. It's there for show, but it actually gets less attention thanks to how little most homeowners use them. Bugs get into the lamps by your entryway and the glass gets dirty from fingerprints.

When you sell your house though, the agent will usually bring buyers through the front door. Why? Most homes being shown have an electronic lock box on their front door so that these buyers can enter the home in the most picturesque way. They come in the front door that might open to a foyer with the light flowing in and a view to the kitchen.

It's just the best way to enter a home.

“

While the agent opens the lock box, buyers have plenty of time to take in every detail of your entryway.

”

Keep in mind that that lock box takes a moment to access. That means the buyer will just be standing there waiting for the Realtor to open the lock box, giving them plenty of time to look at the whole entryway. They'll see all the dead bugs piled up in your lights, the cobwebs around the door, and the dog's nose prints on the glass next to the door. 

You want buyers to come in through the front of the house and form a great first impression, and the best way to do that is by making the entryway look brand new.

If you have any other questions about preparing your home for the market, don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I'd be glad to help.

A lot of people have been asking lately how they can buy and sell a home at the same time. How can you get those two transactions to hook together?

Inventory is low right now, so there isn’t much to choose from on the market. This is good news for sellers, but they are still hesitant to put their homes on the market because they aren't sure what they will do when their home sells more quickly than they can buy. There are a few different ways you can manage it.

The first option is buying a home with no contingency. This involves either paying for two mortgages at once, paying cash for your new home, or taking out a home equity line of credit to buy. If you make an offer that isn’t contingent on the sale of your home, those are the offers that sellers will take most seriously.

If that option isn’t feasible for you, the second best option is to have your home already under contract by the time you make an offer. This way, the seller knows that you are a serious buyer, and you already have a buyer for your home. Then you need to develop a plan B.

It could be finding a flexible seller who will allow you to take your time selling your own home. It could also be finding a flexible buyer who will wait for you to make a purchase or let you out of the sale if you can’t. Either way, you should have a temporarily living plan in place as well. Whether it’s living with a family member or in a furnished apartment, it’s good to have a backup situation for every possible scenario.

“

You always need a plan B.

”

Another option is to assume you will use temporary living and go into it right away as soon as your house is sold. This will let you buy on your own time and you’ll also be able to buy without that pesky home sale contingency. You can shop at your leisure and there aren't as many logistical concerns.

As a last ditch effort, you could attempt to find a seller who is willing to work with you and be patient. There aren’t many of those in this market, however, because most buyers aren’t asking sellers to do this.

If you don’t fit into any of these scenarios, it will be tough for you to balance things. At the very least, you should get your home on the market before you start looking at homes to buy so you can show sellers that you are serious. Remember, you can always say no to a deal that doesn’t work for you, but you can’t always get a seller to work with you if you don’t have a definite timeline to sell your home.

If you have any questions for us or want us to help you work through the logistics of buying and selling a home, give us a call or send us an email and we would be glad to help. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

When exactly does the spring/summer market start? When is the best time to enter the spring/summer market?

Houses sell all year long, but what happens in the spring and summer is a large influx of buyers come from a specific demographic: folks who have school-age children. This subsection of buyers produces two rushes of market activity. 

The first rush starts about 45 days before school is out for the summer. Why 45 days? It takes the average buyer about 45 days to get through the underwriting cycle because that’s how long banks usually take to approve a loan. Buyers who want to get their kids settled in at the start of summer will start their home search around mid-April or early May.

“

The second rush happens 45 days before the first day of school.

”

The second rush starts about 45 days before school gets back in session. This rush comes from folks who want to spend one last summer in their current home and settle into a new home by the time their kids get back in school.

The spring rush started a couple weeks ago, so we’re still in it right now, and it should climb all the way into July. Other categories of buyers will be here all year long, though, so don’t make the assumption that houses only sell during spring and summer.

If you have any questions about timing the market or are looking to buy or sell a home, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help.

What is a pocket listing?

Basically, a pocket listing is when you have an agent who tries to sell a home before it hits the market. The agent tries to market that property to their internal list of buyers so they can get both halves of the commission. If you’re a seller, there are both pros and cons to this type of listing.

On the pro side, it’s a much quieter sale. You can avoid having a lot of showings or walkthroughs and your agent can sell the property directly to one of the few buyers who come to your house.

On the con side, not exposing the listing to the public market means not generating any competition. Less competition means the buyer who’s bidding on your house has no incentive to get aggressive on their offer price. Therefore, you won’t have the best chance to get a great price on your house.

“

Pocket listings don’t always allow you to get the best possible price for your home.

”

We’re seeing record-low inventory in our market right now, so there is fierce competition and multiple bids happening for many listed homes that end up selling over their asking price. Before you let an agent sell your home as a pocket listing, stop and consider what your aim is. The buyer doesn’t have to compete against other buyers and the agent gets both sides of the commission without the extra work, but what about you?

On our team, even if we have a buyer that’s perfect for one of our seller’s properties, we still suggest to that seller that it might be a good idea to expose that property to the public market before allowing the buyer to make an offer on it. By widening the number of potential buyers, you increase your odds of getting the best possible price for your home.

If you have any questions about this topic or have a topic in mind you’d like to see me discuss in a future video, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you.

Today I am broadcasting from 3,000 feet over Middletown to show you footage of the 301 bypass project.

This project has been in the works for such a long time that many of us here in Middletown (including myself) doubted that it would ever make it from the drawing board to the groundbreaking ceremony. However, construction is underway. Believe it or not, there are actually plans to start placing concrete this summer! Click here to read the Delaware Business Times article

Now that I have seen the 301 bypass from the ground and the air, I want to tip my hat to the men and women responsible for planning it. They have done an admirable job of tucking this massive project away in copses of trees and farmland.

Of course, some people will have to adjust to additional traffic noise and may see their home values impacted while people get used to the change. The city planners did plan ahead, as most areas close to the bypass are already close to fairly heavy traffic. 

“

Flying over it, I just thought, ‘Wow!’

”

My hope is that the uptick in volume will be offset by the easing of traffic build-up in key areas. I also hope that people who purchased property close to the project knew about the bypass and negotiated prices accordingly. Although creating this bypass is a perfectly logical move, something like this springing up behind your home can be quite a surprise. A good Realtor can help you do some additional due diligence if you are planning on buying or selling in this area.

Flying over this project, though, I was mostly impressed by the progress that has been made. To get a complete bird’s-eye view, check out the video.

In the meantime, if you have any real estate questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

We're going informal again today as we're shooting from another remodel job to talk about making your own ceiling.

The ceiling you see in the video above needed a facelift really badly—it was what I call a cake frosting ceiling. It also had a couple big ceiling fans that just weren't very flattering. The whole ceiling needed to come down, so most of the work was just demo work to rip down the old drywall.

“

This job was done by a homeowner, not a contractor.

”

From there, we had a choice of going with drywall again for the ceiling or to do something that really grabbed the imagination. We ended up choosing a cedar ceiling for this house. It's just tongue and groove cedar strips that you can find at Home Depot or Lowes along with some pre-finished white trim. The white beams you see are actually just white two-by-fours that are bracketed to the ceiling and boxed in with more pre-finished trim.

Of course, this was detailed work that took a lot of effort working overhead with a nail gun and other tools. However, this was done by a homeowner, not a contractor. If you're thinking about doing some work in your house and you have just a little bit of skill, there's no limit to what you can do. Since this ceiling was a homeowner job, the cedar, the trim, and the beams were only about a $1,400 DIY job.

If you have any questions about these kinds of projects to lift the value of a home, don't hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I'd love to hear from you!

Today we’re discussing how to get rid of creaky stairs. I’m on the job so I can walk you through this process.

Creaky steps have been a plague on this particular house for years and years. In fact, if someone goes up and down these stairs, you can hear it throughout the entire home.

We’re using a retread kit to fix this issue. The original stairs were stripped, in this case stripped of carpeting, so we could work with the bare treads. In the video above, you can see where the riser went up to on the original tread, but the creaking was coming from an old pressboard tread. So, the wood needed to be secured down to prevent squeaking. It also needed to be screwed in from the back and secured with a heavy liquid nail glue both under the face and on the back of the tread.

“

This isn't an expensive repair.

”

That process really tightened things up. As you can see in the video, I’m going up and down the stairs and it’s nice and quiet. After things are screwed, glued, and made very tight, all that’s left is putting on the top piece and the face piece.

The tread and riser kits are really pretty cool, and I have been able to find them online for as low as $39, but the total cost will depend on how much tightening work you have to do, how high-end you want your finishes to be, and how many stairs you have.

If you have any other questions about getting rid of creaky stairs or any other real estate-related questions, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.