Special Tips for First-Time Homebuyers

If you’re looking at buying a home for the first time, there are some important things you should do and a few things you should avoid.

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If you are buying a home in today’s market, it’s a tough time. We’ve got some special tips for you today, which will be especially good for first-time homebuyers.

First, just know up front that you’re going to have to compete for that home, and your offer may get rejected. Don’t think that just because you’ve made an offer, you’re going to get that house. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of competition—many houses we’ve seen have had 10 to 20 offers on them.

Don’t think that just because you’ve made an offer you’re going to get that house.

Second, you need to be sure that you have your finances in order. Don’t make an offer on a home without being pre-approved, not pre-qualified. Have your pre-approval letter in hand.

A lot of buyers will go to open houses to look at the properties and make a common mistake. They get really excited and tell everyone they know about how much they love the house. My advice is to play it cool; don’t let people know that you’re thinking of making an offer, because, sure as the world, if you want it, someone else does too. Be calm and low-key during an open house, and don’t let everyone know what you’re thinking.

Once you get your offer accepted, lay low during that process. Don’t make any major purchases, quit your job, or do anything that could affect your qualification. We’ve seen many deals fall apart because someone could not qualify.

So if you’re a buyer in today’s market, you need a buyer’s specialist working for you, looking out for you, and taking care of you.

I’m so proud of the buyer’s specialists on the Charlotte Mabry Team. These folks help their clients get the offer in place, get the best offer they can, and win out. We know a lot of great tricks that can help your offer be the offer that is accepted.

If you want that information or have any other questions,  you can call our team or send me an email. Have a great day!

How to Sell Your Home—Agent Secrets Revealed

Real estate agents use industry secrets to sell homes, but I want to share those secrets with you today!

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search
Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

There are some secret tricks of the trade that most real estate agents don’t want you to know about. However, I think you should have this important information.

First of all, staging is incredibly important. Staging also changes from season to season. The stagers that we use for our clients know how to position items and use furniture as it applies to the season. For example, in the summer, stagers recommend smaller pieces of furniture to make the home seem more open, light, and cool.

Another secret home selling tool is fresh cut grass. Believe it or not, you should cut your grass every time your house has a showing. Studies have shown that fresh cut grass it a subtle way to help sell your home. Buyers enjoy the look and smell of a freshly mowed yard.

Your pricing strategy is incredibly important as well. If you want to put your home out there at just above or below a price range break, it’s important to consider which option is best. For example, if your home is worth $300,000, you may want to price it at $305,000 or $299,999. Both of those numbers will work completely differently in the market. You need to work with an agent who understands that and can guide you to the right pricing strategy.

There can actually be a bad time to put your home on the market.

There can actually be a bad time to put your house on the market. The week that school lets out or the week school starts back up both tend to be very slow, which is understandable. After all, people are worried about getting kids in and out of school. If you list your home during one of those weeks, you’ll lose some momentum, as there won’t be many people looking at your home when it first comes on the market.

Not everyone knows about that little trick, so we make sure to watch out for that when working with our clients.

If there is a bad time to put your house on the market, is there a perfect month to list your home? Although anytime is a great time to put your home on the market, June is technically the best month to list your home.

Hopefully, these home selling secrets will help you succeed no matter when you decide to list your home.

If you have any other questions about putting your home on the market, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!