Greater Kansas City Real Estate Podcast with Jana and Jason DeLong

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Today we want to go over a few common questions about the appraisal process.

1. How much does the appraisal typically cost? Usually the appraisal fee is paid by the buyer directly to the lender. The fee does depend on which loan program you use but usually runs from $400 to $600. If you are short on time and need a rush appraisal, there may be an additional $100 charge.

2. How is the appraiser selected? Again, this depends on the loan program that you use. If you are using a rehab loan or direct bank loan, the bank may reach out to the appraiser directly.

If you have a conventional, VA, or FHA loan, the lender usually reaches out to an appraisal management company, which then selects the appraiser. That way, there is no direct contact between the lender and the appraiser so the lender cannot influence the appraisal.

3. Will the appraiser let you know if the home will not hit value? Sometimes they will and sometimes they won’t. The appraiser is not immune to the fact that the buyer and seller depend on the house to hit value so that the contract can go to close. They know that and they want to help the situation as much as possible.

The appraiser understands that you want the home to hit value.

It can help for your listing agent to meet the appraiser at the house and make a personal connection. I try to reach out to appraisers so that if any issues arise, hopefully they’ll reach out to me before going to the lender. The appraiser can also ask your listing agent for additional comps, features, or upgrades that they might have missed.

4. Why did the appraisal come in right at contract price? Most loans use bracketed appraisals. That means if the contract price is $200,000, they’ll look at comps from $170,000 to $230,000. They leave out lower and higher amounts so that there are fewer comps to look through and by doing that, they are trying to hit that value.

If the home doesn’t hit the contract price, it’ll come in low. If it’s higher than the contract price, they often leave it at contract price because the lender needs the appraisal to conform to the loan. If it’s too much higher, they may kick it out and say that it doesn’t conform to the loan.

Hopefully, you now have a clearer idea of what to expect from the appraisal process. If you have any other questions about appraisals or would like to learn more about our current market, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

 Want to sell your Kansas City Home? Get a free home value report

What exactly has to be in a disclosure when selling your home?

Sellers are legally obligated to disclose any material defects in the home to potential buyers. How far does that obligation go?

On the one hand, sellers may want to minimize the number of defects they have to disclose. On the other hand, buyers want to know exactly what they are getting into so they can estimate potential repair costs and negotiate for those in the purchase price.

Whether you are buying or selling a home, it’s a good idea to understand disclosures in real estate.

Disclosures vary from state to state, county to county, and even city to city. However, the general rule is that sellers are only required to disclose the defects they have prior personal knowledge of.

In other words, you do not have to go out and hire an inspector to point out issues that you didn’t know about prior to putting your home on the market.

You only need to disclose issues that you already know about.

Some typical disclosure items include:

Sellers should also alert buyers to any environmental issues such as earthquake fault lines, flood zones, or frequent wildfires.

Finally, make sure to pay attention to the lead-based paint disclosure. If your house was built before 1978, you have to let the buyer know that there could be lead-based paint in the house. The buyer then has the right to get that assessed by a professional or waive the assessment.

When in doubt, disclose, disclose, disclose. If you are questioning whether or not to disclose something, definitely write it in. You will alleviate future legal claims and make buyers feel more confident about writing an offer on your home, which could get you a better value.

If you have any other questions about disclosures or about selling your home, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

 Want to sell your Kansas City Home? Get a free home value report

What can you do if you want to sell your home but don’t want to go through all the hassle of listing it on the market, preparing it, and going through the stressful inspection and appraisal processes? We have a solution for you.

There are a number of reasons why this option could be attractive to you. Maybe you don’t want all the foot traffic coming through your home that buyers bring. Maybe you don’t want to spend the time decluttering, cleaning, and making repairs that you would need to in order to sell quickly as a resale home. Maybe you just don’t want to have to deal with inspections and appraisals.

Whatever the reason, we can help.

Whatever the reason, we can help. Us or one of our investors can come in and make a cash offer on your home. Keep in mind that just like a used car being traded into a dealership, it won’t be a top-dollar offer. However, you’ll save a good amount of time and money in the process. You might even be able to stay in the house for a few extra months, giving you time to find your new home and eliminating the stress there too. We’ll offer you a fair price for your home, and it will be all in cash.

If this is a situation that you or someone you know might be interested in, we’d love to sit down and talk with you. If you have any other questions in the meantime, give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you.

 Want to sell your Kansas City Home? Get a free home value report

You’re officially invited to our Easter Extravaganza—or should we say, “Eggstravaganza!”

Don’t risk those long lines at the mall and the scary Easter bunnies that creep out the kids when you can join our guaranteed friendly Easter Bunny.

We’ll also provide lunch and an Easter egg hunt for the kids. No matter if they’re two months old, two years old, or 20 years old, it’ll be a good time for the whole family.

Don’t risk long lines at the mall and scary Easter bunnies!

The event will be at the Tiffany Greens Community Center at 10401 N. St. Clair Ave. on Saturday, April 8th from noon to 2 p.m.

You can RSVP here.

We hope to see you there and we hope you have a hoppy weekend!

 Want to sell your Kansas City Home? Get a free home value report

As professional real estate agents, we're constantly asked by people what their neighbor's home sold for. These people want to know this because they're curious about home values in their neighborhood.

So how can you find out what your neighbor's house down the street sold for? The best option is whatmyneighborsoldfor.com, which will tell you what comparable homes within a half-mile have sold for recently. You can also request a valuation for your house.

This site will update you on all recent sales in your neighborhood.

You can also get the neighborhood pulse update there, which is a monthly update on the activity that's going on in your neighborhood.

If you want to keeps tabs on what's going on in your neighborhood, it's a great tool.

If you have any other questions about buying or selling a home in the Kansas City area, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be more than happy to help!

 Want to sell your Kansas City Home? Get a free home value report

Interest rates are on the rise in Kansas City. What does that mean for your home’s value and how might it affect your future home purchase?

The entity that sets these rates is known as the Federal Reserve. They meet four times a year, and rates are always a topic of discussion. In 2016, they raised rates in two out of their four meetings. It’s predicted that in 2017, they will raise rates in three out of the four meetings.

Let’s say that during the course of the year, rates go up from 4.5% to 5.5%. Logically, that’s still an incredibly low rate and it is, historically speaking. However, just a 1% increase in interest rates can have a huge impact on a homebuyer or seller.

If you are selling your home and rates go up 1%, that will lower all buyers’ purchasing power by 10% and will lessen the pool of buyers that are looking at your home, dramatically in some cases.

Once rates go up, buying power goes down.

If you’re looking to buy a home and you are qualified for a $300,000 home at a 4.5% rate, you would only be able to afford a $270,000 home with the 1% increase in rates.

If you are looking to buy or sell in Kansas City, now may be the time to take advantage of the market conditions. This will help you get the most possible eyes on your property.  Once rates go up, your buying power will go down and so will the buying power of the buyers who would be looking at your home right now. If you’re buying, locking in a rate now before they go up is a smart move. This is simply a great market to be active in right now.

If you have any questions for us or are thinking about buying or selling a home, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to help you take advantage of these rates before their impending rise. We hope to hear from you soon!

 Want to sell your Kansas City Home? Get a FREE home value report

When getting a home inspection done, what aspects of the home can you expect it to cover?

Many people think home inspections only cover the basics, but that’s not true. A home inspection is actually a very thorough process that is designed to provide a report card for your home.

The home inspector is going to find everything he or she can during the two- or three-hour time frame allotted for the inspection. They might not find everything, but they will look through all your systems, including your HVAC, electrical systems, plumbing system, plumbing fixtures, and appliances.

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Home inspections cover far more than the basics.

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It’s important to note that not everything found in the inspection is going to be covered by the contract, but it will give you a good list to work with. Just like when buying a used car, when buying a used home, you’ll want to have that inspection so you know exactly what you’re getting into.

If you need an inspection, we have a list of a couple great inspectors that we work with. Also, if you are thinking about buying or selling a home or have any other questions, feel free to give us a call or shoot us an email. We’re always happy to help.

  

We know this is a busy time of year, so we just wanted to take a quick minute to say happy holidays and wish you a fantastic New Year.

We also wanted to say thank you for all of the amazing business you trusted our team with this year and for all the great referrals you sent in our direction.

Take this time to spend with friends and family and enjoy the new year. We hope you have an amazing holiday season and a great 2017.

Can video really help sell your home?

This is a question we get asked all the time. The answer? Absolutely. Keep in mind, however, that there’s a time and a place for different types of video. In showcasing homes with video, there are usually two different options.

The first is a standard video. This can be a simple walkthrough of the home showing each room’s spatial relationship to the other and the overall flow of the interior. Sometimes pictures just can’t translate this kind of physical space.

The second option is a drone video. This type of video is gaining popularity as more people are starting to buy drones for themselves. In real estate, these can come in handy, especially if you have an acreage property. That way, you can do a quick flyover and save people the extra work of walking the whole property or using their car to augment its physical scope. You can also use a drone to fly through the inside to give the viewers a bird’s eye tour of the interior.

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Video adds overall interest to your listing.

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In any case, there are three advantages to using video to help sell your home:

1. Your video will most likely get uploaded to YouTube. As you may know, Google owns YouTube. This will help improve your video’s SEO rankings and make your listing climb higher in the Google search ratings.

2. Video adds overall interest to your listing. When buyers look at a listing and see a video attached to its description, 90% of the time they will click on that video and inspect the listing for longer than they normally would.

3. It will get more people to schedule a showing for your home. This is because they’ve already gotten a sense of how the property is mapped out and they know they won’t be wasting their time by visiting it.

We’re so confident in video’s appeal that we do a video walkthrough on every single home we list.

If you have any questions on today’s topic or you’re thinking about buying or selling in today’s market, please feel free to give us a call or shoot us an email. We look forward to talking to you!

Have you heard about our Certified Pre-Owned Program? Today I’d like to break this program down for you and explain how it helps sellers add value to their homes before listing them.

The Certified Pre-Owned Program can help sellers add up to 18% more value to their homes than the traditional methods of selling. If you’re familiar with the certified pre-owned program in the used car industry, this program is a very similar concept and works just as well with real estate. As an example, let’s take a look at how this program works in the automotive industry:

Let’s say that Car A is $42,000 but is certified pre-owned and comes with a full detailed inspection, a one-year warranty, and some other type of incentive like free oil changes. Car B is a used $40,000 car that is not certified pre-owned, and you’d have to purchase as-is with not much other knowledge of its history. Because you’re taking a gamble with Car B, you’d probably be more willing to spend the extra $2,000 on Car A because it comes with a guarantee.

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Certified pre-owned homes may be worth up to 18% more than others.

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The same principle applies to real estate. If Home A is $298,000, comes with a three-year warranty, a 500-point inspection, has been appraised already, and has passed a pest inspection, would a buyer take a chance on Home B if they have no other information on it, even if it’s $13,000 less than Home A? A home that is certified pre-owned gives buyers more confidence, meaning that they are more likely to pay more for it.

Another thing that I like about our Certified Pre-Owned Program is that when we do the inspection on a home, we have complete control of how to address any problems. We see the results of the inspection prior to listing the home on the market, which gives us time to fix any potential hang-ups uncovered in the inspection before buyers make offers. This ensures a seamless transaction and accounts for far fewer deals falling through once a home gets under contract.

If you have any other questions about our Certified Pre-Owned Program or about buying or selling homes in Kansas City, give us a call or send us an email. We’d be happy to point you in the right direction!