Category: Orlando Realtors

So you’re ready to sell and you started interviewing Orlando real estate agents.  An experienced listing agent will show up to the interview with a document known as a CMA or [comparative market analysis] to show you that they’ve already started working for you. The CMA will show you in black and white what competition you’re up against. The CMA is priceless in helping you and your agent come up with the highest possible listing price for your property by showing you what other homes sold recently in your area. Potential buyers, however, will use a CMA to justify ways to reduce their offer.

The CMA is designed to provide an overview of information like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, features like a pool or fireplace, property taxes, etc. The CMA will also include information on how to contact your Orlando listing agent. A CMA will also include information about active listings in the area as well as homes that have sold as long as a week, a month and even a year ago. I personally don’t like going back more than a few months  as the Orlando real estate market is constantly changing looks. The CMA report may include homes on just a few streets around your home or can be as wide as an entire neighborhood. Sometimes an agent will have to cast a bit wider of a net when there haven’t been enough [or any] recent sales in a particular neighborhood.

As useful as CMa’s are in determining a price for your home, there are some factors that come down to the perception of a potential home buyer. Buying a home is an emotional decision and the way that certain details and features impact buyers will help determine how much they’re willing to pay for a house. Things like curb appeal, layout, natural lighting and views are things that can make or break a deal for a buyer trying to picture him or herself living there for the next decade.

A CMA report will also include a statement provided the listing agent that gives an overview of fact and opinion about the property designed to highlight the property’s best features as well as cover any selling restrictions on the home. You could see something like “roof recently replaced” or “a must-see, this property won’t last long!”

At the end of the day, the CMA is just a selling tool and without a skilled Orlando realtor that knows how to use it, it won’t be very effective on its own.

Get Your Free CMA from An Top-Rated Orlando Realtor

If you’re interested in seeing how your Orlando home stacks up against other homes in your neighborhood, be sure to visit us at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/ for your free comparative market analysis prepared by one of our top listing agents.

It’s important that you’re prepared for what comes next after you list your house for sale. Homeowners sell their homes for different reasons and each situation comes with a different set of emotions. Knowing what to expect will help ease you into house selling mode and make the emotional part of it easier to get through. Let’s face it, no one enjoys having strangers walk through their home and judging the way that it looks and feels to them but unfortunately if people don’t see your house, you’ll never get it sold.

If your house is in Orlando, be sure to hire an experienced Orlando realtor that has sold homes in your neighborhood. After you sign the listing agreement, your realtor will then hopefully hire a photographer to take some photos that will showcase your property in the best light possible.

These are some things to expect once you list your property

Listing it on the MLS and other websites

The next step is to alert every other agent out there by listing it on the local MLS [Multiple Listing Service]. In addition to listing it on the MLS, there are numerous other websites like realtor.com, Trulia, etc. that your property should be listed on for maximum exposure. The listing agent will then put a lockbox on the door and a for-sale sign in the yard. The lockbox allows other agents to access your home when no one is home.

Keep it tidy

It can be a pain keeping your home in showing condition especially when you have children and pets. However, I can’t stress to you enough how important it is to keep your house looking its best. For most people, the perception is the reality and it’s hard for them to pretend that the floor isn’t covered with toys and clutter or that the sink is filled with dirty dishes.

Showings

Some homeowners insist on being home when their property is being shown. I highly recommend that you don’t do this because the harder you make it to see your house, the less exposure it will get and the longer it will take to sell. Also, potential buyers may feel uncomfortable with the homeowner hovering over them during the showing. Remember that your home is competing with other homes in the area, so the easier you make it to see, the better chance you’ll have at getting an offer, especially in a slower market.

Open houses

Your Orlando listing agent will probably want to do a couple of open houses in the first week of it being listed. That’s why it’s so important to make sure the home looks its best before you even get it listed. The first open house will probably be a broker’s open house during the week where local agents can swing by and see the property and hopefully have a client that the house would be perfect for. The second open house will likely be held on a Saturday or Sunday and will be open to the public. For this open house, your listing agent will put out some signs and balloons around your neighborhood pointing everyone to your house. It’s best that homeowners aren’t present during the open house so that potential buyers can move through the house freely opening closets, etc. It’s best to put away or hide any valuables and medication just in case.

Traffic

Hopefully, the open house helped you to get an offer or two on the table but if not, don’t worry. If your listing agent priced the home correctly you’ll continue to get a good amount of traffic for the next two to three weeks of it being on the market. In a normal cycle, the average DOM aka [days on market] can be between 60 to 90 days to get the property under contract. In a slower market, it can take even longer than that. If you have a buyer that has been back to your house more than once, this is a good sign that they’re about to put in an offer on your home. Even if the offer is lower than you expected, it’s a starting point to begin negotiating and could potentially lead to a sale.

Changing strategy

It’s about six weeks in and hopefully by now your house has a contract on it and the title company is processing the paperwork for the closing. However, if this hasn’t happened yet you may want to talk to your listing agent about switching gears. The Orlando real estate market is always changing and it’s important that you consider your asking price and possibly look at any low-cost improvements that could enhance the home. The other option of course is to lower your price and just leave the home the way it is.
In a nutshell, selling a home comes down to a three-step process. Getting the home ready for buyers to see it, showing it to potential buyers, and finally responding to offers. If you hire an experienced Orlando realtor to assist you in the sale, you can avoid a lot of stress and sleepless nights by knowing that you’re in good hands.

Why isn’t my Orlando home selling? I would say that 90% of the time the answer to this question would be that the price is too high. If your home is taking much longer to sell than the average home in the area, it means that potential buyers don’t agree with the valuation that you’ve priced your home at. The fact that your home is the nicest one in the neighborhood doesn’t mean that you can name your own price when it’s time to sell. Just like any other material object that you buy or sell, your home’s value is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

Pricing a home correctly is more difficult than you might think. Large corporations have research teams that specialize in pricing so that when a product hits the market it’s priced just right. When you sell your Orlando home, it’s no different.

Selling a home will probably be one of the most important decisions in your life so it’s worth taking the time to educate yourself about what’s happening in the Orlando real estate market. By hiring a top Orlando realtor to help you come up with the price, you’ll have a much better chance of arriving at the magic number.

However, if you choose to come up with the price without doing your homework, you could be heading for disaster…ICE BURG! Equally dangerous is to hire an agent that just agrees with everything you say so that they can get the listing. They’re not doing you any favors by listing your property too high, actually, they’re hurting you. Remember, if you’re house doesn’t sell, it’s you that suffer the consequences and no one else.

Selling your Orlando home? Be sure to avoid these common mistakes made by sellers when setting the price.

Pricing your home based on how much you need. The amount of money that you “need” shouldn’t play a role in pricing your home. Buyers don’t care how much you need to make on the sale of your property, nor should they. Using this strategy to come up with the listing price will surely fail.

Leave your ego out of it! Since the guy down the street sold his house for $250,000 last year, you can easily get $275,000 because you believe that your house is better. Who cares that the local market dropped 6% since the last home sold in your neighborhood. Working as an Orlando real estate agent that specializes in listing properties, I can tell you that 90% of the time sellers believe that their home is the nicest house in the neighborhood, even when it’s not.  Over the years I’ve become an expert at talking homeowners off that ledge. I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to setting a price; If the homeowner doesn’t agree with the price that I recommend then I don’t accept the listing.

Don’t be greedy! If you know that your home is worth $200,000, don’t insist on listing it for $220,000 because you think someone will just fall in love with your house and has to have it regardless of what the price is…That’s just not going to happen. Sometimes homeowners adopt a “we can always lower the price if we need to” attitude which almost always ends up backfiring on them. Homes that are listed too high and then gradually lowered stay on the market much longer than they should and that will make some buyers believe that there may be something wrong with the home and scare them away.

The best way to arrive at the right listing price is to get a Comparative Market Analysis known as a CMA. The Orlando real estate agent that you hire should be happy to provide you with one before you even sign the listing contract. Comparative market analysis gives you a complete breakdown of home sales in the area for homes that are similar to yours in size, condition, and features. It will include data on homes that have sold recently as well as homes that are currently active for sale. Your Orlando listing agent should be up-to-date on the ever-changing real estate market to be sure that the home is priced just right.

It’s also important to make sure everything is functional and looks as good as possible in your home. This will avoid potential buyers wanting unreasonable discounts on items that you can fix yourself before listing the property. Although there’s not much you can do to change things like a funky layout or being next door to a train station, you should do all you can to make your home as appealing as possible to potential buyers.  Your Orlando real estate agent should factor in the positives as well as the negatives when coming up with the price for your home.

So this is what you’ve been waiting for, your Orlando real estate agent calls to tell you that she has an offer on your property. First, you get excited and your heart starts racing from the adrenaline racing through your body, then you get that sinking feeling thinking it may be a lowball offer. It’s kind of like a roller coaster ride where you don’t know what will come next.

At this point, it’s important to look at the whole offer in detail and not just the price. Things like contingencies, seller concessions, and real property will all come into play. Even if you get your full asking price these items can cause you to net much less than you were expecting. Your Orlando real estate agent will break down the offer for you but it’s always a good idea to have a basic understanding of the contract beforehand.

Here’s an analysis of your basic real estate sales contract

The Purchase Price- This is the price of the home and what most people get excited about but, don’t get too excited until you see what the buyer is asking for as part of their offer.

The Earnest Money Deposit- An amount of money given as a deposit to show that the buyer is serious about buying the property. Buyers will sometimes put down a larger deposit to show the seller that they mean business and are fully committed to buying the property. This deposit is usually held by the title company in an escrow account. This deposit will usually end up going towards the buyer’s down payment.
If for some reason the deal falls apart for reasons outlined in the contract, the buyer will then get their deposit refunded. On rare occasions, the buyer may want to back out of the contract after the inspection period has passed. If this happens, the seller can make a claim to keep the earnest money deposit.

The Mortgage contingency- This will usually be the first contingency you’ll see. This is where the buyer states what their offer is based on them getting approved for a mortgage. This is very common however there are some things you should be made aware of. Make sure there is a realistic time limit in the contract. If not, the buyer can take much longer than normal trying to shop for the terms that they’ll never get anyway thus wasting your time.

Seller Concessions- Seller concessions can range from the seller paying for the buyer’s closing costs to agreeing to pay for a new AC unit. In a hot market, buyers aren’t likely to get any concessions. However, in a cooling market, buyers are likely to ask for more concessions because they will probably get most of what they’re asking for.

Inspections- This is where the buyer specifies that their offer is contingent on the home inspection report that the buyer pays for. This contingency can also include pest damages, septic tanks, well issues, etc.

Personal Property-This is where the buyer can ask for some or even all of your personal property like furniture, appliances, your firstborn, etc. The best way to distinguish between what’s personal property and what’s real property is that everything that is physically attached to the home is real property and automatically considered part of the transaction and will belong to the new buyer.

Everything that isn’t attached like furniture, appliances, and yes…your firstborn child would be considered personal property. So be careful of what you’re giving away!

Appraisal- This is the most common contingency in a real estate transaction. This is in place to make sure that the house is worth what the listing price is. In some cases, the appraisal will come in less than the purchase price and the lender won’t approve the loan amount.

At this point, the buyer can either ask the seller to adjust the price or, if the seller doesn’t budge and want it bad enough, they can come out of pocket to pay the difference. That usually doesn’t happen though.

Buyer Needs To Sell Their Home First- As a real estate agent in Orlando, I always advise my listing clients against this one. It states that the buyer’s offer is contingent on them selling their home first. If you do want to accept a contingency like this one, make sure there is a time limit, if not, a buyer can end up tying your property up for months.

In this case, I like to recommend what’s known as a 72 hr clause aka “kick-out clause” and here’s how it works. This clause allows the seller to continue to market their property and if another offer is received, the buyer then has 72 hrs to complete the transaction or the deal is canceled.

With everything mentioned above, it’s easy to see why the purchase price is not a very good indicator of how much the seller walks away with at the end of the transaction.

If you’re thinking of selling your home in Orlando, Be sure to contact www.OrlandoRealtyConsultants.com and speak to one of our experienced Orlando realtors today!

Statistically speaking, over forty percent of pre-owned homes on the Orlando Real Estate market today have had at least one serious issue or defect at one time or another.

With the exception of brand new homes, just about any home you walk through will need some kind of repair no matter how minor it may be, you can always find something that needs attention. These kinds of minor repairs and maintenance upkeep are completely normal and should be expected.

However, when buying a home, especially one that you’re planning to live in, you want to make absolutely sure that you’re aware of any major problems that exist and what it will take to fix them.

From our experience in buying and selling thousands of Orlando Homes over the years, here’s a list of the most serious home defects to watch out for.

1-Central AC- Sometimes a Central AC unit could be working fine, yet on its way out very shortly. It’s important to have the home inspector pay close attention to all the components of the system, especially if the unit is over 5 years old. A new central AC can cost you between 4 and 6 thousand dollars depending on the size of the unit.

2-Environmental Hazards- Older homes should be inspected for asbestos, lead paint, radon, and water system contamination.

3-Hidden Roof Damage- Although the roof may not be leaking, it needs to be thoroughly inspected both on the exterior as well as from inside the attic. Roofs are only expected to last around fifteen years so find try to find out how old the roof is on the home.

4-Insect infestation- check especially for termite and carpenter ant damage. Find out if the home is already being serviced for pests.

5-Outdated Electrical- Rewiring a home’s electrical system can be very expensive. It is very common for older homes to have these issues.

6-Plumbing- Like the electrical system, upgrading the plumbing system in a house can cost you big bucks.

It’s important that you know what you’re getting into because anything can be fixed but at what cost?  You could easily rip through a thirty thousand dollar budget in no time at all fixing some of the things mentioned above.

That’s why it’s extremely important that the Orlando Realtor that is representing you makes sure that the contract gives you ample time to complete your home inspections. If there is an issue, you’ll easily be able to back out of the contract and get your deposit refunded.

Use The Repairs To Negotiate The Price.

If the home inspection reveals that there are indeed some major issues, then you can use this to negotiate the price. That is if you’re still interested in proceeding with the sale. If so, the best thing to do at this point is to get estimates on the repairs. You can then use these estimates to negotiate the sales price.

A home inspection costs around $250 to $400 and is well worth every penny. The Orlando real estate agent that you hired should be able to recommend one to you.

Make sure to be present when the inspection occurs so that you can ask questions about the different systems in the home. It’s also a good idea to ask the inspector what to expect down the road and how to maintain certain items that you are unsure of.