Best Real Estate Articles

11/29/2016

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Best Real Estate Posts, EVER!!!

Posted by Joe Samson on Wednesday, June 22nd, 2016 at 8:54am.

The internet is full of real estate experts and wannabes who are constantly trying to offer advise and tips to their readers.

Unfortunately most of the time nobody is interested anymore of reading another article of the “Top 10 Tips…” or “How to paint your dog house”.

Seriously, the internet has more information than we need or could ever have the time to read. We only have a limited amount of time to sort through the pile of rubbish that’s coming at us every day. And in order to find the diamonds that is worth spending the time paying attention to we only have split seconds to make a decision weather we the article is worth while to read.

I have taken a stab at helping you to narrow it down of you a bit and only include the best and most distinct real estate bloggers that I was able to cross paths with today. It is a privilege for me to know these guys as many of them have been great mentors and inspiration to me.

The real estate experts mentioned on this page are pioneers of putting online technology and marketing to use for the benefit of their clients, and because of their constant strive to figure things out, they have become proven leaders of their local markets.

I truly think that the resources referenced on this page are invaluable for anyone who is looking for authentic advise about real estate. Consider this round-up of articles to be the cream of the pie with some extra icing on it with the cherry sitting in the middle.

Enjoy all the real estate article and resources mentioned on this page. If you like what you have read please share with others or leave a comment below.

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The Ups and Downs of Delaying Showings Bill Gassett is a legend when it comes to blogging about real estate. I seriously can’t think of any blog topic that Bill hasn’t covered yet. Bill talks about the pros and cons of deferred showings when a new listing goes on the market.

Some of the greatest benefits of not letting buyers to see the listing for a few days once it goes on the market allows some excitement to be built up around the listing and perhaps it could create a bidding war situation if offers are presented at the same time. These strategy could work well in a hot real estate market.

Some of the cons of deferred showings could be that not many buyers may appreciate it that they are being played and they may all together turn away from being interested in the property. The answer weather you should defer showings greatly depends on the current market conditions and most importantly it should be discussed with the owner in great detail and they are the ones who need to make the call on this.

Best real estate posts, EVER! https://t.co/umdG5lCm5q #realestate #bestrealtor #blogging pic.twitter.com/IZLyAWI1AL — Joe Samson (@JoeSamson) June 22, 2016

Must Knows When Building a Home Aman Singh is a real estate agent in Metuchen, NU who has been putting his experience to use while creating awesome blog posts for his readers. Aman points out that while there are some huge benefits to buying a new construction home like: being able to customize the layout, not having to do any work yourself, being able to include some of the newest technology in home system controls, and most importantly no need to worry about home repairs as the new home warranty is still in place for years to come.

Owning a used home could come with some surprises such as maintenance issues that may not have been discovered during the home inspection phase or rooms sized not being the ideal size. But some of the most appreciated rewards of owning a resale home is finding them in mature ares with tree lined streets and having to worry about the disruption of nearby construction still going on. If you’re looking for a new home, be careful and take your time to figure out what’s best for you. And most importantly ask your real estate agent to help you to answer your questions.

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Mortgage Programs for First Time Buyers Tony Mariotti is a top Mortgage Broker located in Portland, OR. Tony identifies 5 different mortgage programs for first time home buyers that virtually everyone buyer should be able to fit into one of those options. It isn’t very often that home buyers are ablate receive such a clear, detailed explanation about the different type of options that they have. When it comes to deciding what mortgage products you are going to be signing off on, you should have an absolute clear understanding of your options. Some of the programs that are available may seem to be attractive at first, but if it’s too good to believe it may just be. Read on to find out some of the mortgage traps that you need to watch out for.

Best Way to Sell a House Fast Lynn Pineda never stops to amaze her readers and because of her fantastic blogging skills she is well recognized. It is equally important for a seller and a real estate agents to be able to sell a home fast. One might think that we just need to post a quick ad on the internet and then the house is going to sell itself. The reality is that real estate agents do a ton of work to complete a sale and to sell it quickly. Lynn explains that choosing the right listing price is the most important element of selling a house. You can either help yourself by pricing it correctly, or if you end up overpricing your home, then most likely you are going to be helping your neighbour to sell their home ahead yours.

Selecting the right REALTOR® is essential as it’s going to be the the glue holding everything together for you.

Choosing the right real estate agent should be basked on their skills and past achievements. You definitely need to work with someone who knows how to do marketing in the 21st century. Most buyers are looking at homes http://www.joesamson.com/blog/best-real-estate-round-up-posts/print.html

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online and if your home is not showing up in the top results then it means that the chances of selling is much lower than if you were to hire a marketing pro to create maximum exposure for your listing.

Keep More Money by a REALTOR

®

Jeff Knox is at the top of his game every time when working for his clients and also when it comes to online marketing. When you’re planning selling your home, it’s not recommended to do it yourself, just like you wouldn’t want to cut your own hair for the best results.

Successfully selling a home will largely depend on the amount of interest that you are able to drum up. Knowing how to generate hundreds of leads of active buyers will exponentially increase your chances of selling. Owning a website is one thing, but being able to successfully market your home to thousands takes skills and knowledge of online marketing that will sell your home faster. Whatever you do, make sure you are working with someone who knows how to do online marketing that works.

It is statistically proven that when a home is sold with a REALTOR®, on average the homeowner had received more money than someone who tried to sell on their own. Real estate agents have a network of thousands of people that they can connect with to find the right buyer.

Figuring out how to complete the paperwork properly is the most important part once you had found a buyer.

Signing off on things that you may not had intended to agree will lead to major financial consequences unless you have someone trained to watch over your shoulders and to explain all the legal jargon that you need to know.

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Best Way to Finance an Investment Property Paul Sian located in Cincinnati, OH is a top real estate agent in the area and there is no one who can even catch his shadows when it comes to dominating online marketing.

If you are looking at investing in income producing properties you need to be aware of the differences of financing an investment property versus an owner occupied home.

Banks make the assumption that if the real estate isn’t occupied by its owner, then it isn’t going to be looked after as carefully and perhaps the chances of the owner walking away from it is greater if financial problems of the owner would become an issue.

To offset these increased “risks”, the banks will normally require the investor to come up wit a minimum of 20%-25% as a downpayment. There are several different ways to put down less money for a downpayment, however usually mortgage insurance is going to be required or a premium on the offered interest rate may be needed to be paid to the lender.

The source of down payment will need to be verified and they must have been deposited in your account for at least 60 days prior to closing. This is a very important step to keep in mind as the banks don’t want you to borrow the money as it would impact your debt-to-loan ration if they were to find out.

The bottom line is to be aware that different lending rules apply to financing an investment property and most importantly you’ll need to be accurate about figuring out that you have enough cash available to complete the sale.

The Benefits of Using a REALTOR ? ®

Ryan Fitzerald based in Raleigh, NC is one of the toughest online marketing gurus in the real estate business that I have aver came across. Ryan had simply obliviated his competition by rolling up his sleeves and not settling for anything less than being the best REALTOR® online and offline as well.

If you still have doubts that selling a home with a real estate agent will cost you money in the overall scheme of things, then you better read Ryan’s blog post as he will set this straight and you’ll only wish that he could become your real estate agent (unless you are in Calgary of course).

There is an 89% chance that a seller will end up listing with a REALTOR® once they have exhausted doing it on their own. Once homeowners realize how much work it actually takes to sell a house they will also appreciate http://www.joesamson.com/blog/best-real-estate-round-up-posts/print.html

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getting more money for their listing because an average listing sold by a REALTOR® typically nets more than $46,000 when compared to a FSBO. Ask yourself - if you could get that much more for your home, would yo still try to sell it on your own?

A deal isn’t done until the seller has the money in his back pocket. It has had happened many times before when something unexpected had shown up at the closing table and all of the sudden the entire deal became jeopardized. Nobody likes last minute surprises as it usually results with extraordinary consequences that neither the buyer nor the seller can afford. Let’s not take any chances and find yourself a knowledgeable REALTOR® who can guarantee the that the paperwork is always completed to your advantage.

Busting Myths About Buying a Home Karen Holt Highland is a long time pro out of Frederick, MD whose experience in real estate is hard to match by anyone.

There are many facts surrounding a home buying that simply aren’t true. It’s a bit of an oxymoron thinking that a fact cannot be true. But Karen shares 15 facts that she managed to disprove and she explains why you shouldn’t be believing everything, even if you can see it.

One of the biggest disbeliefs that people have when buying a home is that interest rates are going to fall and they are just going to wait with buying real estate until it actually happens. Well, most likely it isn’t going to happen as the economy is showing signs of great recovered and the Feds have already started to increase rates earlier in the year. Anyone sitting on the sidelines will quickly realize that while they were waiting to save a few pennies, they have passed on the opportunity to earn some dollars as real estate prices have been already going up again.

I love this one - “if Zillow says that my home is worth this much, than they must be right because they said I can sell it for more than the price you told me”. It is a proven fact that online estimates can be off by as much as 10% in a typical market. A local real estate agent is always going to be more accurate by putting together a professional CMA (comparative market analysis). Be sure to check out the other facts that have been busted by Karen.

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How Many Days Does it Take to Sell a Home?

Kyle Hiscock is another marketing legend. His clients are lucky to have him on their side when it comes to selling a home as he is the best I’d ever come across in Rochester, NY. Heck, if I were living in his town and wanted to sell, I would probably ask him to market my home because he is definitely hard to keep up with when it comes to marketing a home online.

We have been asked many times - “How long is it going to take to sell my home?”. Well, the quick answer is: it depends… Certain factors like the current market conditions are going to have a significant impact on the time it takes to find the right buyer. Every market has three types of market conditions. It could either be a seller’s market, buyer’s market or when everything is just normal is called a balanced market.

Pricing your home accurately is going to have the largest impact on the length that your home is going to be listed for on the market. If you choose to ignore the pricing advise of your REALTOR®, then you might as well anchor down and be prepared to be showing your home for a very long time.

Working with a real estate agent who knows his game and has a listing strategy in place is going to be a crucial element in your selling process. Hiring the wrong person for the job will make or break your plans of selling or it may take much longer for you to get someone on the hook if you just leave everything up to a chance to work out.

The Truth Behind a Mortgage Approval Luke Skar is a true master at online marketing within the mortgage industry. Luke’s been involved with mortgages since 2001 and now he is not only exceptional while helping his clients, but he also thrives when it comes to SEO knowledge. http://www.joesamson.com/blog/best-real-estate-round-up-posts/print.html

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comes to SEO knowledge.

Many home buyers are unaware of that while they think that they already have a mortgage secured, more often than they should, they fall on their faces when they find out that they cannot qualify for the mortgage. After spending a bunch of time with their REALTOR® and finally locating “the” perfect home, they are disappointed to learn that they cannot buy that house. Unfortunately the reasons is because they only had a pre-qualification done at the bank.

Pre-qualifications only take a few minutes to complete. Quite often they can be done either over the telephone or by a quick online questionnaire without the request of any supportive documents. In essence, this is nothing more than a conversation between the lender without any commitment coming from the bank.

A mortgage pre-approval shows that the bank had done all their due diligence on you and that you have provided them with all the necessary documents to prove your worthiness of receiving a mortgage. At this point, all you should need to have left to do is to go out there and find that perfect home for your family.

The lesson is that when you are at the beginning of your home search, you can get an approximate idea of how much you are able to qualify for. This information should get you in the ball park, but by all means, it is not a guarantee that you can start planning a home search on. Therefore, without providing the necessary documents to the lender, there is no point to look at any houses and waste anybody’s time. All though it may sound very tempting to do, but if you respect your own time and other people’s time, like the real estate agent and the home owner. Let’s save them the disappointment and get pre-approved before you seriously start looking at any homes.

How to Sell a Home With Tenants Xavier De Buck is based out of Blackheath, Gauteng. His work ethics and skills in real estate had reached far beyond his continent from South Africa to all the way to the U.S & Canada.

Many landlords are asking whether they should be listing a house for sale while a tenant lives there or they should wait for them to move out first? While it sounds tempting to hang on to that extra cashflow while the tenant resides on the premisses, but having a tenant around for showings could have its own challenges which could deeply impact the final sale price and it could cost much more in the long run than what the owner could gain through the few months of extra rental income.

Fortunately there are several ways to make things to go seamless if the landlord wants to hang on to the extra income while putting the house up for sale.

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Obviously the tenant is fully entitled to live there until the lease expires. But at the same time the landlord is also entitled to bring potential buyers through the property. Things could get really interesting if the tenant just doesn’t give a “hoot” about how the property looks. But by helping the tenant out to keep things tidy like paying for a weekly cleaning service or landscaper could go a long way and the tenant will appreciate it as well. Usually it’s the appearance of the home that is the biggest concern, so if you have that part covered, then it’s just a matter of treating the tenant like you would want to be treated if you were in his shoes.

Make sure to provide sufficient noticed to the tenant. Different jurisdictions have different rules about this, but a good rule of thump is to give them at least 24 hours of notice to keep the relationship on the positive side.

Another scenario that could unfold is when the tenant gets all grumpy and fells like they are going to do anything just to delay the time when they have to end up moving. If this is the case you may be able to offer the tenant a bit of an incentive. Many landlords that I had met offered free pizza to them once a week or even a free month’s rent if they kept their end of the bargain up.

And finally if push comes to shove, then sometimes the landlords just needs to bite the bullet and wait for the tenant to pack up and leave. This way the property can be presented in a neutral way without the side effects of a bad tenant that would drag down the value of your home.

Tips for Buying a Luxury Home Debbie Drummond sits at the top when it comes to selling real estate in Las Vegas.

With over 10 years in real estate, she has successfully carved herself a niche into the luxury home market of her area.

The way people are used to buying a luxury homes in 2016 is way different than what it used to be just a few years ago. Flying drones are dominating the skies over many new listings as real estate agents have taken note of the importance of showing the real estate that is for sale. In today’s competitive housing market it is essential to present the home in the best possible way to potential clients.

Property tours of homes are also very popular. Even though they have been around for a while, new technology allows buyers to walk though the house as if they were viewing it in person. 3D property tours are interactive and lets the user to take a walk through entire home.

Not every view is created equal. It’s important to pay attention to what the view could become years down the road. Many areas undergo major redevelopments and proper due diligence of the surrounding area is imperative for everyone before investing into a luxury home

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Many financing options are available to multi-million dollar properties as well. Even though a good proportion of home buyers are paying cash for their luxury homes, in some cases sellers are requesting proof of funds of financing to be in place before allowing anyone to come through their door for a visit.

Be sure to have the best professionals on your side, especially a local real estate agent who specializes in luxury homes for sale.

Are Home Warranties Worth the Money?

David O’Doherty in Clayton, NC does a fantastic job with his online marketing to keep buyers and sellers informed on his real estate blog. In his latest posts he explains what a 90 day home warranty covers and helps to decides if it’s worth considering.

Most home warranties come with certain limitations. For example, if the buyer were to discover problems with the HVAC system, they would only covers the costs of repairs for up to $1,500 regardless if a totally new replacement system would run you in excess of $4,000 - $5000.

Buying a home warranty could cost about $500 on average. So depending on the level of risk that you would be willing to take, it might be a great thing to consider for the sake of having a piece of mind in place. When one puts it in perspective of the total purchase price, it’s actually a really small portion of the overall cost of the real estate.

Be sure not to mistaken a used home warranty with a builder’s warranty. New home warranties typically are good for 10 years and they only cover major structural issues if it were to be discovered. In this case the builder would be on the hook to remedy the problem and the cost of enabling the owner with benefits of the program should be bared by the developer.

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Preventing Scratches on Floors Debbie Gartner is also known as The Flooring Girl who provides unbelievable tips and tricks of everything that you need to know about the floors in your house.

One of the biggest issues when selling a used home are damaged floors. If the carpets are several years old with kids and pets around, there is a really good chance that the buyer will want to make some changes to it or would expect it to be in new condition since they will be paying top dollar for their investments.

Many style of homes come with hardwood floors in them and regardless of how careful you are with taking good care of it, it is going to get scratched if you don’t pay special attention to looking after it. The good news is that preventing the floor from getting scratched is the best thing that you can do. Debbie goes on to explain that avoiding wearing certain types of footwear, wearing socks all the time and using the proper cleaning solutions are the best weapon of choice. There are some other types of additives and special coats of solvents that can be applied, but by all means it should be decided by a professionals which products to use and how to apply.

Why Buyers Need to be Represented?

Anita Clark is not only a top notch real estate expert out of Warner Robins, GA, but she is the queen of equipping home buyers and sellers with invaluable information.

Buyers tend to think that they are okay to just wonder out and buy a home though an open house without their own real estate agent. The misconception behind this train of thought is that they are expecting to save the REALTOR®’S fee, but what other important considerations are they not paying attention to that’s potentially costing them tens of thousands of dollars?

Anita explains that are at least 10 hazards of representing yourself against a seller. One of the most common pitfalls of dealign directly with the seller’s real estate agent is that they already have a contractual obligation to get the best possible deal for the seller and now they are venturing onto a territory where conflict of interest is guaranteed to become an issue.

The only way to avoid a dual agency situation is to have your own buyer’s agent (just as 87% of all buyers do) to make sure that someone is advocating on your own behalf. One of the best examples of paying for a mistake is when the buyer thinks that they got so much off of the asking price, but little they may know of how overpriced http://www.joesamson.com/blog/best-real-estate-round-up-posts/print.html

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the property was to begin with, and at the end they may still end of paying more than they should have despite the perceived discount of the purchase price.

Be Careful with a Reverse Mortgage Reverse mortgages have been around for a long time and it’s just a matter of time before a home owner with a reverse mortgage registered decides to list. Selling a home with a reversed mortgage is very similar to one with a regular mortgage on it. However there are some important details that Bill points out in his article that every listing agent should pay attention to. In some cases a home with a reverse mortgage could become a short sale which could make closing a bit difficult if the seller doesn’t have any cash to bring to the table. In this case be sure to complete a thorough due diligence while preparing the property to be listed and avoid problems down the road. An experienced agent is what you need to have to deal with special types of mortgages.

How to Choose the Best REALTOR

®

Angela Duong in Tremonton, UT surely does a great job with helping her clients as she always goes above and beyond to do a great job for them. She provides over the top advice of all things about real estate and she has taken a special liking to make sure that when someone hires a REALTOR®, they know how to do a thorough job at it.

There are countless ways to “skin a cat” but there are only a few very important questions that a real estate agent interview shouldn’t go without. Hiring a local agent is one of the top priorities http://www.joesamson.com/blog/best-real-estate-round-up-posts/print.html

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to consider when trusting someone with your largest investment. A local expert is going to be able to provide you with great insights of the community and future developments that may be impacting your decision making process.

Having a good reputation is probably needless to say that is important to remember. In the past it was very easy for someone to fall off the radar and to have a clean slate eery time they messed up something. With today’s technology, a quick Google search will most likely prevail every complaint and wrong doing of the individual.

Be sure to take an extra few minutes and research some reviews of the local REALTOR®.

One of the telling signs that you are dealing with the wrong person if his online presence is non-existent.

Research prevailed that over 90 percent of home buyers begin their search online. If the person that you choose to enable to find your dream home does not make the effort to have their own website then it’s probably another sign that you may be dealing with a “dinosaur”.

Standing out from the crowd shows a level of commitment and getting to know the agent though his website before is a real useful way to get a grip on what it would be like working with this guy.

A REALTOR® being flexible with his schedule is always important. Most buyers have time to view properties on the weekend or after work. Communicating with you in a timely matter will help to avoid frustrations and having your questions answered quickly shows the level of professionalism and care.

How to Face Home Buying Fears Dustin Brohm located in Salt Lake City, UT is one of most passionate person about real estate whom I’d met before. His clients are happy to have him on his side as he brings a high level of knowledge and work ethic to his game that is difficult to match.

It’s not uncommon for home buyers to be concerned about making one of their lives biggest decisions. Buying a home comes with many responsibilities and while it’s very easy to sign a purchase agreement it could have life impacting effects of a poorly made decision.

There are probably dozens of questions going through a buyer’s mind while shopping for a new home. Some of them have to do with weather the property is going to cause them a lot headaches if many things turn out to be wrong with it. We’d all seen those TV shows where it took the buyer tens of thousands of dollars to fix a poorly constructed home. This a valid concern for any home buyer and it should be addressed head on at the first opportunity. There are other questions that Dustin point out and provides answers of how to deal with them in his article about “Home Buying Fears and How to Face Them”.

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Final Thoughts Real estate is constantly being changed by great people who put their heart and soul into finding ways to make things better. Becoming good at something takes a lot of time and effort for everyone to elevate their game to the level where they can be recognized as professionals and leaders.

Understanding online marketing and testing the limits of technology plays a huge part of the success that creates these great contents. These articles above have sweat and maybe even tears in them.

Thank you to all my friends who have written these fantastic articles.

The posts mentioned here are only the tip of the iceberg. If you are looking for more quality blogs and posts, be sure to visit their websites and follow them on social media. The wisdom and understanding that you will gain from them is by far going to outweigh anything that you have seen before!

Comments Gary Waters wrote: While all of these are credible real estate writers I believe you do a disservice to consumers by leaving out this one caveat. "While these are considered some of the best, you should consider finding a LOCAL real estate expert as well for specific market guidance." Not all of the others are wannabees but rather are local experts.

Like me...a Florida real estate expert.

Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2016 at 2:36pm.

Joe Samson wrote: Great comment Gary! I totally agree with you that local experience is essential and I believe that individually these guys above do a great job within their own geographical area. By the comment "wannabes", I was more http://www.joesamson.com/blog/best-real-estate-round-up-posts/print.html

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referring to people who produce thin content without any real substance. It's easy to write about stuff, but doing proper research to support the information that they are talking about usually takes more effort than just to throw opinions around.

Posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2016 at 3:27pm.

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