Top Low-Cost Improvements For Selling Your Orlando Home

Top Improvements For Selling Your Orlando Home

These days there’s more competition for home sellers than ever. To stay ahead of the competition sellers would be wise to utilize the most cost-effective ways to improve their homes making them more attractive to potential buyers.

Typically, there are 2 categories that home improvements fall into. There is the kind of improvements that you do because it’s something personal to you that doesn’t necessarily increase your home’s value, and there are the improvements that you do with the sole purpose of increasing your return on investment.

There are other factors that affect property value that you can’t control like the state of the current housing market in relation to the timing of your sale. Following are some suggestions that will be helpful to you when getting your Orlando home ready for sale.

Clean and De-Clutter

As an Orlando Listing Agent, it’s routine for me to ask my sellers to clean, de-clutter, and organize their homes prior to putting them on the market. This is also the absolute best home improvement you can do for the highest return on your investment. It doesn’t cost much to get some cleaning supplies and get to work.

Move any pieces of furniture that can make the room feel smaller and get rid of as many personal items as possible. Potential buyers want to picture what it will feel like when they live in the home so show them a clutter-free and clean space and let their imagination do the rest.

 Fresh Paint

Coming in at number 2 on my list is new paint. This is hands down the most cost-effective way that a homeowner can make the biggest impact on the appearance of their home without breaking the bank. I advise all listing my clients to fill in any cracks or dents on the walls as well as any minor drywall repairs that need attention before hitting the walls and ceiling with a fresh coat or two of paint.

It’s also a good idea to stick with neutral colors whenever possible. Just because you like super bright and flashy colors, it doesn’t mean the rest of us to do. By using wites and off whites, you can’t go wrong with any buyer. These colors are not offensive and can easily be painted over without too much work.

Landscaping

The first thing a potential home buyer sees when driving up to your house is the landscaping. I’ve had times when I go to show clients a house and when we pulled up to the property, they decide they don’t want to go in just based on what they see outside.

Most of the time, all it takes is a bit of trimming, mowing, and weed pulling to give the home a landscaping facelift. Trim the bushes below window height, prune overgrown trees and shrubs, plant a few annuals for color, and mulch in the beds. You’ll be surprised at what a huge difference this can have on your home’s curb appeal.

We can easily continue on with other home improvements like kitchen and bathroom remodels, new flooring, etc. However, these improvements can be very costly and this article is about “low-cost” improvements so I will end it here.

For more tips on how to get your home ready for the Orlando real estate market, feel free to visit our site at https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/ or contact us at 407-902-7750.

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How Much Mortgage Can You Afford?

Know-How Much Of A Mortgage You Can Afford

Are you unsure about how much mortgage you can afford to pay on a home? If so, then you’re not ready to take the next step until you figure out a few things.

By being sure about how much of a payment you can handle without struggling, you can be confident about going to the next step… Finding a home that meets your budget.

Owning a home should make you feel secure and safe not stressed and worried. You should calculate what you can realistically afford and safely fit into your budget.

Buying a home is usually a very emotional decision and that emotion can sometimes get you into trouble. There’s nothing worse than buying a home because you fell in love with it and then realizing that you really can’t afford it and end up falling behind on payments. This will take years off your life and can easily be avoided by knowing what your budget is.

 Think Ahead.

Lenders and mortgage brokers don’t know and don’t really care about future plans that you may have for your personal life. Only you know what’s coming down the road.

Are you planning to have more children, kids are expensive!

Do you have a teenager that will be heading off to college soon?

Are you thinking about returning back to school yourself?

How secure is the job that you currently have?

All of these things and a million more can have a drastic effect on your income which is why you need to look out a bit further on the horizon when considering homeownership. In addition to factoring in your lifestyle and what you want to accomplish, here are some guidelines that will help you to determine a budget you can afford.

 1- Figure Out Your Budget- Write down every monthly expense that you have on a piece of paper and be sure to not leave anything out no matter how insignificant you might think it is. Make sure to also include future trips and vacations that you plan on taking that year.

See how much is left over to pay the costs associated with owning a home like a mortgage, insurance, property taxes, utilities, homeowners association dues, yard maintenance, pool maintenance, etc.

Just by doing this exercise alone, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what your budget for owning a home will be. Most people are usually very surprised to see how much they spend in a month and not in a good way. The number is always much higher than people expect it to be.

 2- What’s Your Down payment? The more you put down on a house, the lower your monthly payment will be. However, the lower your down payment is the bigger your loan amount will be and your monthly payment will also be higher.

Another thing to consider is that loans that require less than a 20% down payment will usually require that you pay private mortgage insurance or “PMI”. This insurance protects the lender against default and can easily add on another 2 or 3 hundred dollars to your payment.

3- Use A Mortgage Broker. Getting a loan without using a mortgage broker is like buying or selling a house without hiring a realtor. And just like when you’re looking for a good realtor, you should research the mortgage broker to see what his track record is and see if they have any online reviews, etc.

Once you find a good mortgage broker, he or she can be instrumental in getting you a mortgage that meets your needs. They should also be able to help you to figure out your monthly budget in addition to helping you navigate through the mortgage shopping process.

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Orlando Realtor- Seller Series part 2

Hiring The Right Orlando Realtor 

Selling a home can be a daunting task to take on yourself. There are many moving parts involved in selling a property  like marketing, showings, open houses, contract negotiations, and complicated paperwork to fill out. You can make things a lot easier on yourself be hiring an experienced listing agent.

A top listing agent will have a foolproof and proven formula for marketing properties to the right people. This formula ensures that their client’s home fetches the highest possible in the least amount of time.

An experienced realtor should be equipped to handle any type of real estate transaction no matter what price, condition or situation. Realtors at our brokerage for instance, each have an area of expertise consisting of listing specialists, buyer agents, short sale specialists, marketing experts and transaction coordinators. Each one is an expert in their niche.

After a CMA [comparable market analysis] is completed on the property to determine an accurate listing price, the listing specialist will meet with the homeowner to discuss any issues that need to be addressed prior to showing the property such as minor repairs, landscaping, light staging, etc in order to improve curb appeal as well as make the inside look the best that it can.

The property should then be advertised in many different ways including the MLS, through the agent’s blog or website, a video showcasing the property, open houses, direct mail as well as through local publications.

Negotiating the price should be handled by the listing specialist to make sure that the homeowner gets the best price possible for their home that the market will allow. The homeowner will be informed of everything that happens every step of the way. The listing specialist’s job is to represent their client through the whole process of selling their home to ensure that the seller has the most pleasurable experience possible.

Are you thinking of selling your Orlando Home? Contact Jenny Zamora Listing Specialist and Broker for the ORC team to set up a free consultation.

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Home-Price Recovery in Metro-Orlando Inconsistent

Orlando Home Owners Could Make The Best Of The Situation

Residential real-estate property prices rose by an average of 20 percent, in the Orlando metropolitan area, from February 2013 to May 2014, says a new Orlando real-estate industry report. The report, which compared the sales of the same Central Florida residential properties over time, found price gains to be rather inconsistent over different communities. In Orlando for example, recovery has been insignificant.

Realtors in Orlando note that home prices in Orlando remain far below (approximately $100,000) the peak value. A common observation was that neighborhoods where property prices reduced the most, after the crisis of 2007, were the neighborhoods where the recovery was the highest.

Newer communities around Orlando bounce back the most

Interested in finding out the neighborhoods of Central Florida where residential real-estate property prices have recovered the most? You’ll have to look, not at Orlando but at the neighborhoods located at the periphery of the city.

Reports reveal that communities of Lake County and south Osceola County, witnessed price gains of at least 30 percent, in the period extending February 2013 to May 2014. Top Orlando realtors note that the said neighborhoods could register maximum recovery because they were hit the hardest during the housing crisis.

The Orlando short sales experts have another factor to add to the list of reasons for the inconsistent recovery – the impact of foreclosures. Newly developing communities in the Orlando metropolitan area were hit the hardest by foreclosures, primarily because owners of the homes that were constructed just before 2007, when the real-estate market crashed, possessed minimal to zero equity on their homes.

Such owners formed the lot of lenders going through short sales or through foreclosures. The rate of homes in these foreclosure-affected areas of Metro Orlando and Central Florida dropped the most. The recovery so has been more dramatic in areas that were hit hard by such foreclosures.

Impact On Buyers And Sellers

Real estate agents in Orlando note that the inconsistency in prices has made buying inconvenient and confusing for many buyers. Sellers, on the other hand, can use the confusion of the out-of-Orlando buyers to their own advantage.

When searching for a home in Orlando, prospective buyers are often coming across properties that are priced according to the sales in high-recovery neighborhoods and not the slower-rebounding communities nearby. Assessing the fair market value has become more difficult and prospective buyers are turning to the top realtors in Orlando for help.

For people hoping to sell/lease their properties, this may be a good time. When dealing with buyers from out of town, they can use inconsistency and confusion to price properties according to their own choice.

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Orlando Short Sale Closed After A Year


 

Orlando Short Sale Testimonial 407-902-7750 Video https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/

 

This is the story of Shary Babinski who needed to get a short sale done on her Orlando home. After a year of battling with her lenders, Jenny Zamora RE Broker not only managed to get the short sale completed but she also got Mrs. Babinski $3,000.00 in relocation costs.  In addition, the Babinski’s ave no deficiency judgments or promissory notes against them.

If you or someone you know needs help with a short sale on your Orlando home then give us a call at 407-902-7750 or visit us at  https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com/short-sales/.   One of our sort sale specialists will sit down with you and figure out a plan that works best for you.

 

 

Orlando short sale expert

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