As a perspective New Port Richey real estate buyer I am sure you have a lot of questions about the home buying process and more importantly you are highly skeptical of not only real estate agents but the entire industry as a whole, I get that.
So let me assure you right off the bat as a Tampa real estate professional, I am not here to sell you a house. I am here to assist in helping find you the best home to suit the needs of you and your family both now and in the future.
New Port Richey real estate home buyers today, thanks to the Internet, should feel empowered
There are plenty of tools and advice out there in the cyber world to assist you in finding your next New Port Richey real estate home. For first time home buyers there is a plethora of information out there that at times may seem overwhelming Continue reading
Pricing New Port Richey real estate for sale is not an exact science, however it does pay to do your homework to ensure your selling price will allow you to be competative in a hot real estate maket. Below are some tips provided via House Logic that will assist New Port Richey real estate sellers in coming up with a good price to sell their home.
How to Use Comparable Sales to Price Your Home
By: Carl Vogel
Published: August 5, 2010
Before you put your home up for sale, use the right comparable sales to find the perfect price.
Knowing how much homes similar to yours, called comparable sales (or in real estate lingo, comps), sold for gives you the best idea of the current estimated value of your home. The trick is finding sales that closely match yours.
What makes a good comparable sale?
Your best comparable sale is the same model as your house in the same subdivision—and it closed escrow last week. If you can’t find that, here are other factors that count:
Location: The closer to your house the better, but don’t just use any comparable sale within a mile radius. A good comparable sale is a house in your neighborhood, your subdivision, on the same type of street as your house, and in your school district.
Home type: Try to find comparable sales that are like your home in style, construction material, square footage, number of bedrooms and baths, basement (having one and whether it’s finished), finishes, and yard size.
Amenities and upgrades: Is the kitchen new? Does the comparable sale house have full A/C? Is there crown molding, a deck, or a pool? Does your community have the same amenities (pool, workout room, walking trails, etc.) and homeowners association fees?
Date of sale: You may want to use a comparable sale from two years ago when the market was high, but that won’t fly. Most buyers use government-guaranteed mortgages, and those lending programs say comparable sales can be no older than 90 days.
Sales sweeteners: Did the comparable-sale sellers give the buyers downpayment assistance, closing costs, or a free television? You have to reduce the value of any comparable sale to account for any deal sweeteners.
Agents can help adjust price based on insider insights
Even if you live in a subdivision, your home will always be different from your neighbors’. Evaluating those differences—like the fact that your home has one more bedroom than the comparables or a basement office—is one of the ways real estate agents add value.
An active agent has been inside a lot of homes in your neighborhood and knows all sorts of details about comparable sales. She has read the comments the selling agent put into the MLS, seen the ugly wallpaper, and heard what other REALTORS®, lenders, closing agents, and appraisers said about the comparable sale.
More ways to pick a home listing price
If you’re still having trouble picking out a listing price for your home, look at the current competition. Ask your real estate agent to be honest about your home and the other homes on the market (and then listen to her without taking the criticism personally).
Next, put your comparable sales into two piles: more expensive and less expensive. What makes your home more valuable than the cheaper comparable sales and less valuable than the pricier comparable sales?
Are foreclosures and short sales comparables?
If one or more of your comparable sales was a foreclosed home or a short sale (a home that sold for less money than the owners owed on the mortgage), ask your real estate agent how to treat those comps.
A foreclosed home is usually in poor condition because owners who can’t pay their mortgage can’t afford to pay for upkeep. Your home is in great shape, so the foreclosure should be priced lower than your home.
Short sales are typically in good condition, although they are still distressed sales. The owners usually have to sell because they’re divorcing, or their employer is moving them to Kansas.
How much short sales are discounted from their market value varies among local markets. The average short-sale home in Omaha in recent years was discounted by 8.5%, according to a University of Nebraska at Omaha study. In suburban Washington, D.C., sellers typically discount short-sale homes by 3% to 5% to get them quickly sold, real estate agents report. In other markets, sellers price short sales the same as other homes in the neighborhood.
So you have to rely on your REALTOR’s® knowledge of the local market to use a short sale as a comparable sale.
More from HouseLogic
What You Must Know About Home Appraisals
6 Reasons to Reduce Your Home Price
Other web resources
What’s the Value of a View? Research from Texas Christian University
Carl Vogel, a freelance writer and former editor of The Neighborhood Works magazine, lives in a home in Chicago that is not typical of those nearby, so he appreciates a savvy comp.
The tips offered in the article by House Logic will provide New Port Richey Real Estate Sellers Valuable Information in Pricing Their Home for Sale.
Surf on Over to RE Agent Tech Forum, The Internet’s One Stop Real Estate Agent Resource
I have found in my real estate agent career that I am constantly all over the Internet searching various different sites looking for information, tools and learning opportunities to make my real estate business better.
I often thought how nice it would be to have a one stop place I could go that would help me quickly find what I was looking for, a central resource. I never did find that Utopian web site, so I decided to create one, hence RE Agent Tech Forum was born. The premise for the forum is that we as agents can offer greater insights into our business and assist each other way better then outside vendors who have never walked a mile in a Realotr’s (r) shoes before.
A forum platform at times can be better then blog posts for the ease of use and qucik responses. And yes, Google indexes forums as well so you will get that SEO juice too.
Why can’t an agent in Dallas, Texas share his or her experiences with an agent in Tampa, Florida and visc versa? In my opinion we seem to allow real estate business entities to keep us segregaged from one another so as to make a profit. Pitch after pitch is made laying claims that these real estate vendors are the only people that agents can learn from or get insights from. I for one do not believe that.
So we have a golden opportunity to establish something that is uniquely ours. There are no registration fees or monthly dues to be a member. I really only have one golden rule for the forum, try to give more then you take. With that ideal, I think we can build a valuable and extrensive resource for all real estate agents across the country and even possibly the globe.
Overall this forum is about leanring opportunities and helping one another to ultimately allow us as a whole to become stronger. Please bear in mind that this is an entirely new site, it is just getting started. But I believe that it has great potential. The forum link is at the top of the site third from the left, it says FORUM. Check it out and let me know what you think as I am always receptive to constructive criticism. Thank you.
New Port Richey’s economy may get a boost from new real estate development.
The Suncoast News recently held a business summit to discuss the New Port Richey Economy as well as Pasco County’s. The results of the summit as reported by Carl Orth, Suncoast News assistant editor were highly encouraging. The meeting mostly focused on New Port Richey real estate, both commercial and residential. The recent sale of the Starkey ranch for close to 54 million dollars was cited as a prime example of the growth potential for the areas around State Road 54 also known as the 54 corridor.
Wheelock Street Capital, a private equity firm, has plans in place to begin development near SR 54 and Gunn Highway. This development will consist of 5000 plus new homes for sale in New Port Richey. There will also be space for offices, retail stores and medical facilitities as well. Light industrial will be allocated 300,000 square feet and 220 hotel rooms will be available too.
The New Port Richey Economy is Growing Thanks to the Possibilities of the 54 Corridor
There is a shortage of build-able lots west of the Suncoast Parkway as even during the difficult times New Port Richey real estate experienced, builders were buying up these lots thus shrinking the supplies. Raymond James Financial and T Rowe Price have both committed to expanding to the New Port Richey area. Raymond James is looking to extradite themselves from the flood plains of Old Tampa Bay in Pinellas county and T Rowe Price needs to expand their infrastructure to meet the growth demands the company is experiencing.
What this means for the New Port Richey economy is the potential for a nice influx of construction and building jobs to begin with followed by permanent jobs offered by the two investment giants and the supporting retail establishments. To know the true impact on New Port Richey housing prices we will have to wait and see. A lot of it will depend initially on where the housing market is at the time construction breaks ground. If we are in the same situation then that we are in now, which is a shortage of houses available, then prices for existing homes could actually come down in areas surrounding the new homes due to the additional inventory that is all of a sudden available.
However, the New Port Richey rental market might be a good possibility for investors with the potential for jobs to come to the area and with lending standards still being tight there may be opportunities to buy homes now to use as rentals.
