To earn top dollar and sell your home more quickly, you need to make it stand out from the competition. And one of the best ways to do that is through staging.
4 Reasons to stage 1. Your home will shine online. Buyers first found 92% of the homes they visited on the internet. Good staging can make your home stand out before buyers even visit. 2. It shows off the potential. 77% of agents say staging makes it easier for buyers to visualize a property as their future home. 3. It spurs walk-throughs. Clients are more willing to walk through a home that has been staged, according to 40% of agents. 4. Your home will sell faster. Nearly two-thirds of agents say staging decreases the amount of time a home spends on the market.
6 most important rooms to stage 1. Living Room 2. Master bedroom 3. Kitchen 4. Outdoor space 5. Dining room 6. Bathroom
“Staging is preparing a home for sale so the buyer can mentally move in.” Barb Schwarz, California Realtor and chairwoman of the International Association of Home Staging Professionals.
Simple fixes agents recommend Declutter – 93% (“Clutter eats equity.” says Barb Schwarz.) Full home cleaning – 89% Carpet cleaning – 81% Remove pets before showings – 80% Make minor repairs – 75% Depersonalize the home – 72% Paint walls – 68%
Cost of professional staging Most stagers charge $300 to $600 for an initial consultation, then $500 to $600 per room per month.
Sources: NAR 2017 Profile of Home Staging, Househunt.com, realtor.com, Barb Schwarz
I hope this information keeps you informed and I thank Florida Realtors for allowing us to share this.
Have a Great Day!
As always, for all your Real Estate needs in the Sarasota Area Call or Text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
by Peter Crowley, President of RE/MAX Alliance Group
Peter Crowley, Broker/Owner RE/MAX Alliance Group
Last week Zillow sent a shock wave through the real estate industry when it announced that it was exiting the home-flipping market and terminating its Zillow Offers program. Just a few weeks earlier, Zillow claimed it was merely pausing its purchasing efforts in order to catch up with the backlog of properties it currently held in its pipeline. Ultimately, Zillow’s CEO, Richard Barton, realized the decision was more permanent when he stated, “We’ve determined the unpredictability in forecasting home prices far exceeds what we anticipated, and continuing to scale Zillow Offers would result in too much earnings and balance-sheet volatility.”
This had many real estate professionals claiming a win over the 1,000-pound gorilla that is Zillow. For years, the Zillow Zestimate has been the bane of the real estate agent’s existence as an often wildly inaccurate estimate of a home’s value. Zillow claimed to have refined its home-valuation algorithms to the point where it could accurately predict what price to buy and then subsequently flip the house at a profit. In reality, however, closer analysis of Zillow’s property portfolio demonstrated that it was overpaying for properties (a win for some sellers) but eventually listing and selling those properties at a loss. This may not seem like a big deal for a company the size of Zillow, but those losses will likely total in excess of $500 million when all of the write-offs are accounted for as the program winds down. Even with a balance sheet as large as Zillow’s, this is a big financial hit, and investors have taken note with a beating to the stock price in recent weeks.
I have been reluctant to high-five my fellow real estate agents over this news. First, as a result of terminating its Zillow Offers program, they announced a reduction of 25% of their workforce – that is more than 1,000 individuals who will be out of work and should not be overlooked. Second, and maybe less obvious, is that Zillow is still the behemoth that it was before this setback. It is still a company that relies heavily on the paid advertising platform that was the foundation of the company’s success. Who pays for that advertising? Many of the same real estate agents who were pounding their chests when Zillow swung and missed on the Zillow Offers program.
Rest assured, I am not a cheerleader for Zillow. Ever since the company stood on stage several years ago and insisted that it was only a marketing company and would never enter the real estate business, only to turn around and do exactly that a few years later, let’s just say I have a healthy dose of skepticism about the company’s intentions. But as long as Zillow maintains its grasp on the real estate consumer, it will continue to pivot toward profitability and growth – eventually.
What this setback does demonstrate, however, is that real estate is in fact very local. A real estate professional does more than place a sign in the yard. The local expertise of a real estate professional lends itself to better pricing decisions, a cadre of local connections to vendors integral to the home-buying and selling process and an overall understanding of the intangible nuances of the local real estate market. Algorithms and a seemingly endless supply of cash can fix some things, but some things are better left to the local experts.
Peter Crowley is the president of Re/Max Alliance Group.
We would like to thank our guest author Peter Crowley Larry and Ann Brzostek
As always, for all your Real Estate needs in the Sarasota Area Call or Text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
by Peter Crowley, President of RE/MAX Alliance Group
Peter Crowley, President RE/MAX Alliance Group
As a co-owner of a local title company, we are often asked, “Why do I need title insurance?” Depending on your circumstance, the answer may vary. As with most forms of insurance policies, no one is typically thrilled to pay for something that you hope that you never have to use. Unlike your homeowner’s insurance or car insurance, however, title insurance is a one time charge that will provide protection for as long as you own your home.
If you are financing your home, your lender will require a lender’s title policy to insure that their security interest in your property (the mortgage) is in superior position to anyone else that may claim an interest in your property. The amount of the coverage for the lender’s policy is the amount of the outstanding mortgage principal. When purchasing a home with a mortgage, because you are already paying for a lender’s title policy, the additional cost for an owner’s title policy is only slightly more and it just makes sense to include the owner’s policy – so that you are covered. The lender’s policy alone does not give you as the owner any coverage.
Prior to closing on the sale and financing of your home, the company conducting the closing will search the public records to discover any liens (public or private), encumbrances (outstanding mortgages or restrictive covenants from a condo or homeowners association) or easements (utility or other agreements to use your property). If there are any issues they may create a cloud on title, which typically must be resolved prior to closing.
Since our local market has a large amount of cash closings, we are often asked, “If I am not getting a mortgage, then why do I need to pay for title insurance?” In this case, an owner’s title policy will protect the owner for similar undiscovered liens or encumbrances that may impact the owner’s ability to use their property as they intended. The amount of coverage for an owner’s title policy is typically the purchase price of the home. In some cases, such as a fraudulent transfer, the owner’s title policy would protect them from the economic loss of not being able to occupy the property. Without an owner’s title policy, your only recourse in the event that a title defect is discovered would be to sue the seller/grantor based upon the warranty deed that you were provided at the time of your purchase/closing. However, if that seller/grantor is deceased, or cannot be located, or does not have the assets to compensate you for any loss you may have suffered, you would be left without a remedy (unless you have title insurance).
We would like to thank our guest author Peter Crowley Larry and Ann Brzostek
As always, for all your Real Estate needs in the Sarasota Area Call or Text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
At RE MAX we know the market. Welcome to July’s Real Estate Market update.
Let’s take a look at residential real estate activity in your area during the month of June.
The number of active listings was down 72 % from one year earlier and down 13% from the previous month.
This smaller inventory means that buyers who waited to buy may have had a smaller selection to choose from.
As you can see the median listing price for the month was just under $540,000 .
Compared to last year the average number of days units spent on the market before being sold was down 76%.
This lower number of days may signal a positive trend in the local inventory turnover rate.
The median sale price was just over $400,000.
The number of units sold increased 39% year over year and increased 9% month over month.
These figures may indicate that buyers have been taking advantage of opportunities in this market.
Thanks for watching. I hope you found this video helpful as you gather more information to make smart informed real estate decisions if you’d like more information or assistance please Call or Text me @ 941-993-3125
Larry Brzostek Broker/Associate Information courtesy of RE/MAX Alliance Group – Sarasota, FL
by Peter Crowley, President of RE/MAX Alliance Group
Peter Crowley, Broker/Owner RE/MAX Alliance Group
It has been well documented that the costs for supplies for new construction have risen steadily since the pandemic – a simple function of supply and demand impacting the cost of steel, concrete, and most importantly, lumber. These escalating costs have forced several builders to stop or significantly reduce the number of homes that they are producing for fear of absorbing those increases and eroding their profit margins.
The reason for this imbalance in supply and demand, particularly with lumber, is a congruence of factors. Many lumber mills were forced to shut down their factories at the onset of the pandemic. Furthermore, as mills began to open, the industry underestimated the intense demand stemming from both the home improvement projects spurred on by being “locked” inside for months, as well as resurging demand in new homes for people looking to relocate or upgrade in the post-pandemic economy. This imbalance of supply and demand has led lumber prices to reach a peak of over $1600 per thousand board feet in early May (as a point of reference, the price was less than $400 per thousand board feet a year ago). As lumber suppliers woke up to the increased demand, they have been slow to respond with an increase in production due to the far-reaching labor shortages brought about by the pandemic.
There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel, however. As more workers return to the mills and the mills begin to operate at full capacity, the production of lumber is gradually picking up pace. Furthermore, some of the demand from stimulus driven remodeling projects has dampened, thus bringing the supply and demand curve closer to some semblance of normal. The previously mentioned pause by many home builders is also loosening up the demand for lumber. The result is a dramatic drop in the lumber futures market, which has tumbled more than 45% (closing just below 900 on June 18). While lumber is the most dramatic example of this increase in supply, most of the other materials and components of new construction are following a similar trend.
Does this mean new home prices are going to come crashing down and buyers should wait? Not so fast. What it hopefully means is that builders will be able to resume a more “normal” pace of construction to start to fill the huge gap of new home units needed to keep up with the current level of demand – by some estimations the nation is lacking more than 3 million homes to satisfy demand. The additional supply of new homes is necessary to supplement the anemic existing home inventory to merely keep up with the existing level of demand.
What is significant about the rapid decline in the lumber futures market is the possibility that the inflation pressures that we have experienced recently (the Consumer Price Index rose by 5% – the fastest pace in 13 years) are only temporary because of these wild fluctuations in materials costs brought on by the pandemic. This seems to be the basis of the Federal Reserve’s stance to keep interest rates low – citing these as temporary inflationary pressures rather than permanent.
The coming months will be telling to determine if these fluctuations in prices were indeed driven by supply challenges brought on by the pandemic. If so, we should expect to see a stabilization in the cost of new construction and renewed confidence by the building industry to resume a normal level of housing construction. A more modest inflationary environment should also lead to a more sustained economic recovery, which is welcome news as we approach our new normal.
We would like to thank our guest author Peter Crowley Larry and Ann Brzostek
As always, for all your Real Estate needs in the Sarasota Area Call or Text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
Memorial Day to Labor Day is peak moving season with more than 65% of relocations happening during the summer months. Take the stress out of your move with these tips from the Professional Movers Association of Florida.
7 Tips for a Smooth Move
Plan your move in advance so you have time to evaluate your options, and make a decision based on overall value (quality low stress move, insurance/valuation to protect your move).
Confirm that each mover considered carries commercial general liability insurance, automobile liability, cargo liability and workers’ compensation. This can be verified by a certificate of insurance.
Check if the moving company is licensed by Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services by visiting floridaconsumerhelp.com.
Get a written estimate from several movers and compare them. The estimate should be based on an actual in-person or virtual inspection of your household goods. Estimates and Contract for Services must include: – Name, telephone number, physical address and state registration number of the mover. – Date the contract or estimate was prepared and proposed date of the actual move. – Appropriate pickup and delivery address, name and telephone numbers of the shipper. – Name, telephone number and physical address where the goods will be held, if necessary. – Itemized breakdown, description and total of all costs and services provided. – Acceptable forms of payment available.
Determine if the company is a moving broker or moving company. A broker arranges for the transport of your household goods for a fee and sells your move to a moving company – which significantly reduces a consumer’s available funds for the actual cost of the relocation services. Often, the consumer is not aware their move is being sold to another company.
Check your homeowners or rental insurance policies for moving coverage.
Accidents happen, even with the best movers. Discuss valuation with your mover; know the difference between released value at 60 cents per pound and full value protection.
Source: Florida Realtor magazine
Have a Great Day! Larry and Ann
As always, for all your Real Estate needs, call or text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
As always, for all your Real Estate needs, call or text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
Do you prefer charcoal, gas, wood, or pellet grill? What’s your favorite thing to grill? Are you a hot dogs and burgers type or prefer kabobs and grilled fruit?
If you’re stuck on what exactly to put on the coals, check out these recipes:
As always, for all your Real Estate needs, call or text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
by Peter Crowley, President of RE/MAX Alliance Group
Peter Crowley, President RE/MAX Alliance Group
As a real estate broker, I am bombarded with offers from different real estate vendors promising to create more leads, close more sales, generate more listings and a host of other “game changing” offerings. Every so often, one of these companies addresses an important need for our current real estate market that requires a closer look.
It should come as no surprise that our local residential real estate market is moving at a healthy pace with a surge in demand that is outstripping the available supply of homes for sale. One factor that is holding back more home sellers from listing their home is the concern about finding their replacement home. In the competitive buying market that we are experiencing, with often multiple offers on an available listing, it is more important than ever to present an attractive offer free of contingencies (particularly the need to sell your existing home first).
One company has identified an opportunity to solve this problem through a combination of funding and technology. Knock is a lending company that combines conventional financing along with a form of a bridge loan to help potential sellers identify and purchase their replacement home before listing their home on the market.
The Knock Home Swap program checks several important boxes in our competitive real estate market. When a seller works with a Knock-certified real estate agent, they are first pre-approved through Knock for the purchase of their identified replacement home. Now, the potential seller can submit an attractive offer on their replacement home and have better footing with other cash offers that may exist on the replacement home. If the offer is accepted, the seller moves into the replacement home and then has up to 6 months to sell their original home. By leveraging the equity in the original home (Knock typically requires 30% equity), Knock can offer up to 6 months interest free mortgage coverage on the original home plus up to $25,000 to make necessary repairs on the existing home. Now, a seller who was originally reluctant to list their home for fear of not finding a suitable replacement home, can now accomplish both goals and provide much needed listing inventory to the market.
Of course none of this is free, but the 1.25% convenience fee, similar to an origination fee on conventional mortgages, is typically factored into the new mortgage. Knock recently entered the Tampa Bay market (extending down to Englewood) so it will be interesting to see if there is a demand for this type of lending product. I have no stake in Knock, but I do applaud this company for identifying a real need in the residential real estate market and then developing a solution that results in a positive outcome for all involved.
We would like to thank our guest author Peter Crowley Larry and Ann Brzostek
Larry is Certified in the Knock Program
As always, for all your Real Estate needs in the Sarasota Area Call or Text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
by Peter Crowley, President of RE/MAX Alliance Group
Peter Crowley, Broker/Owner RE/MAX Alliance Group
It is time to address the elephant in the room – are we in the midst of a housing bubble? Given the curveballs that we have been dealt in the past twelve months, I am squarely out of the prediction business. Who would have thought that after a global pandemic that led to a national shutdown of our economy and an ensuing economic recession that the housing market would react so favorably?
While home prices have climbed at an accelerated pace over the recent months, this is driven almost entirely by the economic principle of supply and demand. Simply stated, we do not have a sufficient supply of homes to satisfy the current housing demand. Therefore, the competition for the available homes in the market is driving prices higher.
We all live with the stark reminder of the Great Recession of 2008, and the devastating impact it had throughout our economy, but most significantly on the housing market. It is important to understand some distinct differences between what fueled the housing crash then and the current state of our housing market.
First and foremost, the demand for housing in our current market is fueled by a large amount of cash buyers (close to 50% in our local market). Furthermore, those remaining buyers that do finance their homes are subject to significant vetting for credit worthiness and ability to repay their loans. Contrast that to the environment leading up to the 2008 crash where demand was artificially inflated by lenders offering 100% financing with little to no verification of a borrower’s qualification and ability to repay those loans.
Another significant difference is the amount of equity that homeowners have today versus 2008. While it is true that many homeowners have re-financed their homes in the past few years to take advantage of historically low interest rates, most are motivated to lower their monthly mortgage payments rather than tapping into the equity in their home. In the years leading up to 2008, because of the easy ability to tap into cash-out refinancing, homeowners were treating their homes as ATM machines and sometimes borrowing more than their home was worth. While we may see an increase in mortgage delinquencies when the foreclosure moratorium lifts, the increased equity will make it more likely that homeowners will try to sell their home rather than allowing a foreclosure to occur.
Finally, the dynamics in the new construction market are vastly different than 2008. Prior to the crash, builders, both large and small, were highly leveraged and building on speculation that the demand would catch up to their growing inventory of homes. Today, however, the builders that survived that tumultuous time learned valuable lessons and are less leveraged and resistant to building large amounts of inventory beyond what their current demand requires. In fact, most builders would acknowledge that, due to labor and supply constraints, they cannot keep up with the demand for new construction brought about by the limited supply of resale homes.
It is common knowledge that the real estate market (like all economic markets) is cyclical and subject to slow downs and corrections. Prior to the crash of 2008, our housing market was not immune to those fluctuations in the market, but they always seemed to be less severe when compared to the national housing market. The scars from the Great Recession have left many fearing that we are at or near another precipice. While I mentioned at the beginning, I am out of the prediction business, I do know that the foundation of our local housing market is fundamentally different (for the better) than what led to the drastic reduction in prices during the crash.
We would like to thank our guest author Peter Crowley Larry and Ann Brzostek
As always, for all your Real Estate needs in the Sarasota Area, call or text Larry @ 941-993-3125 or Go to Larry’s RE/MAX Site and search all you like LarrySellsSarasota.com
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
