Whether you’ve done it a dozen times or this is your first, buying a home can be a stressful time in one’s life. Knowing what to look for when purchasing a home can save you thousands of dollars, making tips on buying a home extremely useful and cost effective.

Realtors
Some of the best tips on buying a home are related to finding and properly utilizing a realtor. In many cases, the best way to find a good realtor is through word of mouth. Friends and family can often recommend reliable and trustworthy realtors. Remember though, realtors are trying to make money, and the more you pay for a home, the larger their commission. While realtors are bound by moral, legal, and ethical obligations, it is your job to make sure they are doing what’s best for you. Listen to their advice and their tips on buying a home, but listen to yourself as well. (more…)

One of the best ways for a real estate agent to get started making money is by teaming up with another agent. The secret is to find the right mix of personality and professionalism that will complement each partner’s skills. To help convince you that working as a team could be right for you; this article will discuss three of the best reasons for doing so.

One of the most persuasive arguments for teaming up with another agent is because of your combined ability to attract and service many more clients than you could individually. This will also give you the capability to service more than one client at the same time. If you have a closing at the same time as a pre-approved client wants to look at a house they found on the internet, you will not have to disappoint either.

A second reason for working as a team concerns your target market. Many agents have found success by concentrating their efforts on a particular geographic area and when you team up with another agent you can increase the size of the area you cover by more than either of you could on your own. (more…)

Expired Listing Leads, and a Few Marketing Ideas

My friends over at the RedX Expired Listing Lead Service have been doing a great job in some recent marketing endeavors, and I think I can leverage their activities to share some quick recommendations on how to better attract survival listings in this challenging market. Some of the ideas will translate to direct marketing, but a few may not. However, I thought I would list them out.

1) Discounted service (in this case 30%) in exchange for a larger commitment.
More and more we hear clients asking for a discounted commission in exchange for your dedication and hard work. If you are negotiating a discount in commission, get a bigger commitment for up-front expenses. If the client is taking your money on the back end, let them pay up-front for some of the marketing expenses. (more…)

The domestic and mid end condominium project are the popular pick in the second quarter of the year. However for investment private property project, it is taking longer to sell. The increased sentiment in the new private domestic projects had attracted many sellers in the sub-sale arena.

Sub sale are referring to the sale of uncompleted project by the buyers had increase 3 fold to around 1,200 units in second quarter of the year. The popular project are the mid tier as compare to the high end projects.

The popular sub sale project are Casa Merah, Centris and One Amber. In second quarter alone, Casa Merah held a record of 54 sub sales transaction with an average price of $660 psf, which further increase to about $750psf in July and August. The most popular sub sale project are Rivergate. The average price for this project increased from $1200psf to $1400psf in average. (more…)

Drive-by appraisals are useful to individuals who are interested in properties at various locations.  People try to eliminate homes that will be out of their price range or otherwise undesirable.  There are several ways to find out about a house before you ever set foot in it.

• Take photos of the house you want to appraise.  Get a front view, and try to get several side or back views as well.
• Look at several houses on the street to find the ones that probably have the same layout.  Usually when the homes on a street were constructed, they were put up by builders who utilized only two or three floor-plan variations.  You can tell this by looking for architectural similarities-gables, picture windows, or other physical characteristics that are common to some but not all houses.  Take photos of the houses that seem to be alike.  Make notes about the houses that are similar-what are the similarities, and what are the differences?
• Visit the county auditor’s website for each home’s location.  Many counties allow you to enter a property’s address so that you can learn how it’s being taxed, the number and sizes of rooms, the last time it was sold, and the amount it sold for.  All of this is considered to be public information.  Do keep in mind that the tax appraisal is not the same as a real estate appraisal-the tax appraisal will be much lower. (more…)