Realty Speaking! Staging to Sell!

When you know someone is coming by to tour your home, turn on all the indoor and outdoor lights- even during the day. At night, a lit house gives a "homey" impression when viewed from the street. During the daytime, turning on the lights prevents harsh shadows from sunlight and it brightens up any dim areas. Your house looks more homey and cheerful with the lights on.
Do not use scented sprays to prepare for visitors. It is too obvious and many people find the smells of those sprays offensive, not to mention that some may be allergic. If you want to have a pleasant aroma in your house, have a potpourri pot or something natural.
If you have pets, make sure your listing agent puts a notice with your lisitng in the multiple listing service. If you know someone is coming, it would be best to try to take the pets with you while the homebuyers tour your home. If you cannot do that, it is best to keep dogs in a penned area in the back yard. Try to keep indoor cats in a specific room when you expect visitors, and put a sign on the door. Most of the time, an indoor cat will hide when buyers come to view your property.
Especially if your kitchen trash does not have a lid, make sure you empty it every time someone comes to look at your home- even if your trash can is kept under the kitchen sink. Remember that you want to send a positive image about every apsect of your home. Kitchen trash does not send a positive message. You may go through more plastic bags than usual, but it will be worth it.

Realty Speaking! Writing the Offer!

Once you find the home you want to buy, the next step is to write an offer-which is not as easy as it sounds, Your offer is the first step toward negotiating a sales contract with the seller. Since this is just the beginning of negotiations, you should put yourself in the seller's shoes and imagine his or her reaction to everything you include. Your goal is to get what you want and imagining the seller's reactions will help you attain that goal.
The offer is much more complicated than simply coming up with a price and saying, "This is what I'll pay." Because of the large dollar amounts involved, both you and the seller want to build in protections and contingencies to protect your investment and limit your risk.
In an offer to purchase real estate, you include not only the price you are willing to pay, but other details of the purchase as well.This includes how you intend to finance the home, down payment, who pays what closing costs, inspections, timetables, whether personal property is included, terms of cancellation, any repairs you want performed, which professional services will be used, when you get physical possession of the property, and how to settle disputes should they occur.
Buying a home is a major event for both the buyer and seller. It will affect your finances more than any other previous purchase or investment. However, it is more important than just money. In the half hour it takes to write an offer you are making decisions that affect how you live for the next several years, if not the rest of your life.

Realty Speaking! Don't Buy a Car!

When an individuals income starts growing and they manage to set aside some savings, they commonly experience what may be considered an innate instinct of modern civilized mankind.

The desire to spend money.

Since Americans have a special love affair with the automobile, this becomes a high priority item on the shopping list. Later, other things will be added and one of those will probably be a house.

However, by the time home ownership has become more than a distant and hopeful dream, you may have already bought the car.

It happens all the time, sometimes just before you contact a lender to get pre-qualified for a mortgage.

As part of the interview, you may tell the loan officer your price target. He will ask about your income, your savings and your debts, then give you his opinion. "If only you didn't have this car payment," he might begin, "you would certainly qualify for a home loan to buy that house."

When determining your ability to qualify for a mortgage, a lender looks at what is called your "debt-to-income" ratio. A debt-to-income ratio is the percentage of your gross monthly income (before taxes) that you spend on debt. This will include your monthly housing costs, including principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and homeowners association fees if any. It will also include your monthly consumer debt, including credit cards, student loans, installment debt, and ....

car payments.