Are you looking for an Orlando home in a neighborhood where there’s little or no inventory? And if you do find one that meets your criteria are you ready to be faced with a bidding war? That’s typically what happens in a seller’s market, especially in the most sought-after neighborhoods in Orlando.
Here are a few tips that will help you to maximize your chances of finding yours and getting it under contract.
Make your search a top priority. If you really want it, you have to go for it. Have your Orlando Realtor set up email alerts for you. This way every time a home that meets your criteria hits the market, you’ll be one of the first to know. You should be ready to go see it immediately, don’t wait for the weekend to come around because it will probably be under contract by then. Also, be ready to make a quick decision, not doing so could cost you.
Get pre-approved by a lender and bring your pre-approval letter with you whenever you go see a house. A seller will take you more seriously if you show them that you mean business and you’re not there to waste their time. This will give you a huge advantage over a buyer who hasn’t taken this step yet.
Consider waiving the contingencies. The typical home buyer will put contingencies in the contract in order make sure they don’t lose their deposit as well as making sure their financing gets approved. For example, if the home doesn’t pass inspections, they can back out. Waiving the contingencies is always attractive to buyers but it’s not recommended for every buyer. Consult with your Orlando Realtor before considering this as an option.
In a seller’s market, sellers have the advantage. Don’t send in a low ball offer on a home that you know is worth the asking price, because you’ll likely end up losing it to buyer willing to pay full asking price. Figure out how much you’re willing to go up to within your budget and bid aggressively.
Tweak your criteria when searching. Consider going further outside your search area and look at homes that may need some remodeling or updating. By doing this you’ll not only have more options, but you could even end up getting a better deal, especially if the home needs some repairs.
If you’re looking for a house to call home in Orlando, FL, or even an investment property, call or text us at 407-902-7750 for a free consultation. In the meantime feel free to use our Orlando Home Search Tool.
In this post, we address the most common questions among consumers about short sales and how they differ from traditional sales. In the hot seat, today will be our very own Orlando short sale expert Jenny Zamora. She’s been successfully doing short sales since 2004 way before most people even knew what a short sale was.
Question: What’s the difference between a short sale and a traditional sale in a real estate transaction?
Jenny Zamora: In a short sale scenario, the home is sold for less than what’s owed on the mortgage. Short sales usually take much longer to complete because they need to be approved by the lender/mortgage holder. Sometimes there is more than one mortgage on the home which can sometimes complicate things if both lenders don’t agree.
Once the lender [s] have agreed to the short sale amount then it becomes a normal transaction with a contract signed by both the seller and buyer.
Question: How is a foreclosure different from a short sale?
Jenny Zamora: A foreclosure is when the lender files a lawsuit against the homeowner because they’ve failed to make several mortgage payments and haven’t pursued any other options such as a short sale, loan modification, or paying off the loan. As a result, the property is either sold at a public auction or taken back by the bank if the reserve hasn’t been met.
With a short sale, the homeowner is usually between 60 to 180 days behind on their mortgage payments because of some kind of personal or financial hardship. The property also must be worth less than what’s owed on the note for the short sale to be approved. Although a seller can’t profit from a short sale, many lenders often provide the sellers with relocation costs [usually around $3000] so they have money to help them move into another home.
A short sale however isn’t nearly as bad nor does it stay on your credit report as long as a foreclosure will.
Question: How long does it take to complete a short sale in today’s market?
Jenny Zamora: Short sales used to take 3 to 4 months and even longer to complete even if you followed up with the banks several times per week. As a result, many buyers were getting frustrated and walking away. This happened mostly because lenders just weren’t equipped to handle that many short sales at once and they had no systems in place to help streamline the process. These days, lenders have systems in place and more staff to help move the short sale processing along much faster resulting in much faster responses, typically within 2 to 3 weeks.
Question: Do you have any advice for someone wanting to purchase a short sale?
Jenny Zamora: 1st and foremost to make sure they’re dealing with a short sale specialist. If the agent isn’t familiar with short sales and how they work you could end up being disappointed and not getting your offer approved. Even though I’ve been doing short sales in Orlando since 2004, I’m constantly keeping up to date on the latest information when it comes to short sales, bank procedures, and guidelines.
An experienced short-sale Realtor knows how important it is to stay up to date. Just like there are specialists in the medical field, the same holds in Orlando real estate. We specialize in foreclosure prevention and short sales which is why our company is so proactive in staying educated and informed.
Question: What are the things that can most likely go wrong with a short sale transaction?
Jenny Zamora: Some things can happen with a short sale that is sometimes beyond our control. The most important thing to realize is that it’s ultimately up to the lender to approve or deny a short sale offer. This is another reason to work with a short sales specialist. If the bank comes back with a value that’s way too high, we have to do everything we can to dispute their valuation. Sometimes that means providing contractor’s estimates for repairs as well as a CMA on the home.
A traditional listing agent may not even be aware that you can dispute the bank’s valuation of a property and just let the deal fall apart.
Do you need a Realtor to short sale?
Question: Do you need a Realtor to short sell a home or buy a short sale?
Jenny Zamora: Yes and Yes… and I can’t stress enough to hire a Realtor with a lot of experience in short sales. On the seller’s side, the home needs to be listed by an agent as a requirement by the lender. You also want a strong negotiator in your corner.
As a buyer, it isn’t required to hire your own buyer’s agent. However, if you don’t then you’ll end up using the listing agent as your agent… I strongly recommend you hire your agent that way you have someone looking out solely for your best interests, especially when it comes to negotiating.
Make Sure Your Orlando Listing Agent Is Doing All They Can to Spread the Word
If you’re selling a home in Orlando, the single most important factor other than pricing it right is a marketing strategy. Is your listing agent doing all they can do to market your home properly?
A common complaint from home sellers is they believe their real estate agent isn’t doing a good job of marketing their home. Top Orlando realtors use real estate marketing techniques that are very effective in addition to listing it on the MLS.
As one of the top realtors in Orlando FL, I feel it’s very important that my sellers know upfront before the listing agreement is signed what my marketing strategy will be and why to get their home sold for top dollar.
If you or someone you know are thinking about selling a home and you’re wondering what marketing strategies the best agents in Orlando are using to get the highest dollar amount for their listings, then continue reading below.
Following are some of the most effective and creative real estate marketing strategies that we use to provide our sellers with a successful home sale experience.
Online Exposure
Were you aware that 93% of Orlando home buyers start their search online? If that statistic didn’t surprise you, it should! That’s why it’s crucial when selling a home that it’s all over and everywhere on the internet. You’ll find that the best listing agents in Orlando have a very strong online presence.
These marketing strategies I’m about to get into are some of the most effective and important real estate marketing strategies which should be used to get the maximum online exposure when selling a house in Orlando.
A Website
I don’t do business with any company or agent that doesn’t have a website, real estate-related or not. In this day and age, any service provider that doesn’t have their website hasn’t been keeping up with their competition which is also a sign that they don’t care about being the best in their field or industry.
This is especially true in real estate. I’ve never worked with another agent that doesn’t have a website or at least a page of their own on their broker’s website so imagine that just about all real estate agents do unless they’re just starting.
It’s extremely important to a successful home sale that your agent has their website, so your home receives maximum online exposure. Not only do they need to have their website, but it needs to be high quality, high ranking, and user friendly.
A few ways to find out if their website meets these criteria is to make sure they have a “featured listings” section so that your home is highlighted on their homepage. It should also have an interactive and easy-to-use home search feature, community pages, and one of the most important components is that it should be mobile responsive, so users can easily navigate it using their smartphone.
A good website should be a one-stop-shop experience for all your real estate needs. Having an interactive home search tool as well as a property valuation tool among other bells and whistles is usually a good indicator of a quality real estate agent’s website.
A Current & Informative Blog
Orlando realtors with a strong online presence will more than likely have an updated blog integrated into their website. It’s also a great way for your agent to tell the world about your amazing home in detail. Providing a potential buyer with a detailed blog post about your home can be a killer strategy to sell your home and one which I use on all my listings.
A real estate blog can and should be used for providing valuable content to benefit buyers and sellers alike.
Professional Photographs
It never ceases to amaze me how many listings I see on the MLS with crappy photos! Because the internet is where most home buyers begin their search, your real estate agent must be using top-quality photographs to showcase your home.
Some real estate agents will hire a photographer to take pictures of their listings if they don’t own a professional camera. While this can get expensive, it makes a huge difference, especially with higher-end luxury real estate. Poor imagery can easily be the deciding factor whether your home sells or not because based on what a buyer sees online, they might not want to proceed to the next step which is going to see the home in person.
Video marketing
We create a unique, high-quality video for every one of our listings. It’s a strategy that has served us well in drawing tons of attention to a home that’s for sale because let’s face it… everybody loves to watch a good video. Using high-quality photography, informative text, and putting some catchy music in the background provides a potential buyer with a great and entertaining way to view the highlights of a home.
You should make sure that your agent is incorporating at least some type of video marketing as part of their home selling strategy. Check out one of our videos here…
Social Media
These days social media and real estate marketing go together like bread and butter. As a home seller, you should expect and demand that your agent shares your home listing to all the major social media sites as part of their marketing strategy. This is an absolute must for your home to get the maximum amount of exposure necessary to fetch the highest price.
Another one of our homes in Orlando was sold for a record breaking price!
This particular home is located at 5524 New Cambridge Rd in the community of Lockhart in the 32810 zip code. It was in pretty bad shape when we bought it back in January of 2018 in need of some serious upgrading. We came up with a modern color scheme that would highlight the home’s best features like the abundance of natural lighting provided by the numerous windows throughout the home. We then chose the chestnut color wood flooring that we felt brought the colors together. The solid wood white cabinetry throughout the home along with black granite countertops topped everything off making it irresistible to potential buyers to see it for the first time.
Once Orlando Realtors became aware of the home, they scrambled to get their clients to submit an offer before it was gone. By the end of the first week, there was a bidding war happening before our eyes with each buyer trying to outbid the other. After the dust settled, a happy young family of three ended up winning the bidding war. The result was that we were able to sell the home at a record price compared to other homes in the Lockhart area.
Not all homes in Orlando get marketed the same way
You might be asking yourself how we got that type of result when all homes in Orlando are sold through the MLS. You’ll probably be even more surprised to find out that our buyer didn’t find the home through the MLS or Zillow!
We found out years ago that if you want to be a top realtor in Orlando, you can’t rely solely on the MLS to sell your homes for you. Although this particular home was sold through a Youtube video which we blasted out via social media, there is a multitude of things that need to happen to properly market a home to get the best price.
Our 33 step marketing strategy has worked time and time again to provide our listing clients with maximum exposure putting their home in front of the right people to get top dollar.
Orlando Realtor Jenny Zamora does it again this time in the much sought-after neighborhood of Hunter’s Creek… “Since I’ve been a resident of Hunter’s Creek since 2005, I’m very familiar with home values in the area. It’s extremely important to price a home correctly from the start to avoid extra time on the market and having to drop the listing price to attract buyers.”
Beautifully designed, This particular home was a 2 story single-family home that sold for the full asking price of 25ok.
Fenced in, on a cul-de-sac and it is The Biggest Lot in Settlers Landing! The location of this home is just perfect! Spacious, downstairs master bedroom with Private Access to a screened-in porch. Big open layout and lots of Living Space. The home was recently painted, re-piped, and updated AC.
When you have Move-In Ready home like this in such a great neighborhood, it doesn’t last very long on the market.
We’re currently working with various homeowners in this same area wanting to sell their homes for top dollar. So if you or someone you know is wanting to buy or sell a home in Hunter’s Creek area give us a call at 407-902-7750.
