As the new year approaches, most of you are probably making your resolutions. That’s great, but your home should have some resolutions as well. For example, try to shrink your bills in 2019. This could be as simple of a process as making sure you always turn off lights before you leave the house. We’ve got two more home resolutions to share with you for 2019.

I’ve received a number of calls from people looking at homes they’ve found on Realtor.com or Zillow who just aren’t having great luck with their searches. These people are striking out because there are multiple problems with trying to search for homes on your own. Today I want to address this topic and provide some insight on how you can have a successful home search and, eventually, a successful home purchase. One of the biggest benefits of hiring a licensed, professional real estate agent (like myself) is that we can assist you with this process from beginning to end, starting by filtering out false listings on those popular sites.

It’s not often that you can get something for nothing, but if you’re a homebuyer and you work with the TAYLORed Realty Team, you can get a buyer’s agent and have the seller pay the entire commission for that agent. We’re experts on the Twin Cities market, and we have many resources at our disposal to help you in your home search. We’d love to talk to you about finding your dream home.

Most homebuyers that I speak with tell me that they’re going to wait until next spring to start the home buying process. However, this common way of thinking leaves an opportunity in the current market for savvy buyers. This time of year, the market is less competitive, and there are still plenty of motivated sellers out there looking to make a deal. There are plenty of reasons to consider buying right now.

Have you been thinking of buying or selling a home, but feel as if the window of opportunity has closed for the year? If this is the case, I’ve got some news for you: Buying or selling real estate in the fall and winter months can actually be a fantastic idea. You don’t have to wait until spring to earn a great deal. In fact, there are three main reasons why making your move now could be your best option.

Selling a home is a complicated process. With so many moving parts, it’s easy to make a mistake. However, some mistakes will hurt you worse than others. For example, choosing the wrong agent will set you up for failure from the get-go. Your agent needs to be honest with you about your home and its value, and they shouldn’t just agree with you for the sake of making you happy.

Many people are under the impression that inspections and appraisals are the same thing. In reality, they are two different things that serve two completely different purposes. Inspections are done by homebuyers themselves prior to finalizing a contract and focus on identifying healthy and safety issues. Appraisals, on the other hand, are ordered by the buyer’s mortgage lender to ensure that what the buyer is offering to buy the home for is a fair price.

Many of you have probably been to Zillow and used their “Zestimate” feature to get an instant home value of your property or a property that you want to buy. While Zestimates might be a good starting point for home value, they should certainly not be trusted for accuracy. In fact, Zillow essentially states that on their own website. From our experience, a Zestimate can be anywhere from 5% to 20% off a home’s true value.

It’s time for another quick market update! As it turns out, there is good news for both buyers and sellers. We’re still in a seller’s market, and buyers looking for a home in the fall will find that they have less competition. To hear my full market update, watch my latest video. https://www.tayloredrealtyteam.co/blog/2018/9/your-twin-cities-real-estate-market-update