9 Documents That Help You Reap Real Estate Tax Breaks
Technically speaking, April 15th is tax day. But for Americans who expect a refund – including many homeowners who want to cash in on real estate-related tax perks – filing sooner holds the promise of getting that check in hand, stat.
If you count yourself in that number, here’s a handy guide for 9 pieces of paper you should be sure to round up as you prepare to file, in order to reap every penny of the tax rewards you’ve earned by virtue of owning a home.
- Mortgage Interest Statement – IRS Form 1098. The meatiest real estate tax deduction on the books is the one that allows you to deduct 100 percent of the mortgage interest you paid in a year – including prepaid interest or points you might have paid at close of escrow, if you bought a home last year. By now, you should have received in the mail a Form 1098 from your mortgage lender that reports how much that interest totaled up to in 2011. If you itemize your taxes and claim a mortgage interest deduction, you must include this form with your tax form when you file.
(If you haven’t received yours yet, most lenders that have online account management services also post the form digitally in your secure account on the web. Just login like you would to make your monthly payment, and look for a notice that says you can now download your 2011 Form 1098.)
- Property Tax Statements. In addition to deducting your mortgage interest, if you own a home you are eligible to deduct the property taxes you pay to your local city, county and/or state. You are not allowed to deduct some of the other miscellaneous expenses that some localities bundle up with the taxes they collect, like waste management and local assessments for things like street lighting, libraries and sidewalk construction. To get this deduction right, the best practice is to have your property tax statements at hand and make sure you’re only deducting what’s allowed.
If you bought your home this year, it’s highly possible that you might not even have received a property tax statement yet – if that’s the case, look to #3, below.
- Uniform Settlement Statement (HUD-1). If you bought or sold a home last year, right after closing you should have received a form called the HUD-1 Settlement Statement (hint: it’s usually on legal-sized paper and contains an accounting of credits and debits for you and your home’s buyer or seller). That form documents a number of line items which might help you out at tax time, including prepaid interest, the prorated property taxes you paid at closing, and closing costs like original fees and discount points. Some states offer tax credits for buying a foreclosure; check with your tax pro to find out if any such credits apply to you. If so, this statement might be your ticket to lower taxes.
And here’s another handy hint – if you can’t find your copy, you might have gotten it on a disk – and you can always email your real estate or escrow agent for a copy, as well.
- Moving Expense Receipts. Moving expenses are tax deductible, if your move is closely related, both in time and in place, to the start of work at a new or changed job location and you meet the IRS’ time and distance tests. Long story short, your new home must be at least 50 miles farther from your new workplace than your old home was from your prior place of work, and you must work essentially full-time. So, if you bought or sold a home and moved in 2011, you’ll need to include receipts from expenses you incurred making the move (meals not included) in your tax prep paperwork.
- Cancellation of Debt Statement – IRS Form 1099. Homeowners who lost a home to foreclosure, or divested of one by negotiating a short sale or deed in lieu of foreclosure with their lender might receive some version of Form 1099 from their lenders, charging them with income in the amount of the mortgage debt that has been cancelled. You see, if you borrow money from someone, then they cancel the debt, that money you originally borrowed becomes income in the eyes of the IRS – and income is, as you know, taxable.
- Utility statements for home office. For the average everyday homeowner who works at their employer’s place of business, utilities are not deductible (sorry!). But if there is a part of your home that is “regularly and exclusively” used for business, you might be able to claim that portion of your home as a home office, and deduct some portion of your home utilities and costs of painting and repairs, as a result.Talk with your tax provider about what expenses are allowable to be claimed under your home office deduction, and whether or not you should take it.
- Income and Expense statements from rental properties. Some of you have elevated the art of home ownership to a business! If you are a landlord, your tax situation is more complicated than that of the average bear; you’ll need to have complete income and expense statements when you put your tax returns together. It might actually behoove you to consult with a tax professional to make sure you are appropriately depreciating the property over time and not taking deductions that will expose you to the risk of audits, as well as to begin cultivating a long-term tax strategy for your real estate portfolio.
- Contractor receipts from energy efficient home improvements. Under the Nonbusiness Energy Tax Credit, homeowners who have made improvements to their homes that fall within a list of energy efficient upgrades might be eligible to claim tax credits. If, during 2011, you installed energy efficient improvements such as insulation, new dual-paned windows and furnaces, you might be eligible for a tax credit of 10 percent of the cost of these upgrades, up to $500 – only $200 of which may be used to offset the cost of windows.
- Mortgage Credit Certificate (MCC). If you own a home you bought in the last few years using a Mortgage Credit Certificate issued by a local housing authority, that Certificate may entitle you to a pretty hefty tax credit, based on a percentage of the mortgage interest you paid – on top of your mortgage interest deduction. MCCs apply as long as you live in the home and have a mortgage on it, but they only apply to defray taxes you actually owe – you can’t use them to get a refund. In any event, your mortgage credit certificate, if you have one, is a must-have document as you start putting your tax prep plan in play.
No matter what your tax situation is, if you own a home, it absolutely cannot hurt to get some professional help and advice to make sure you maximize your deductions, while minimizing your exposure to audit. And you should always consult with a tax attorney or certified public accountant regarding your tax liabilities and implications when you buy, sell, short sell or lose a home to foreclosure.
7 Uber-Helpful Mobile Apps for House Hunters
So, I’ve done some homework for you! Here’s a short list of mobile apps I think you’ll find super useful for saving time, making smart decisions and keeping you organized while you’re hunting for your next home.
1. Genius Scan
What it does: Puts a document scanner in your pocket. Enables you to use your phone’s camera to take a picture of a document, then email it to anyone in PDF or JPEG format.
Why it’s useful: Many real estate agents now use digital document signature software which allow you to sign with a click and, more importantly, without faxing documents back and forth. But some don’t – and some mortgage lenders will simply not accept anything but a copy or scan of your ‘wet ink’ signature.
Throughout your transaction, you might find yourself needing to scan and email your contract documents with your original signature, a copy of your deposit check, new payroll check stubs as you receive them, your driver’s license, a gift letter from your Auntie Grace or any of a number of other documents you’ll need to get to your agent or mortgage pro across town – or across the country. Having the ability to scan documents and checks and email them right from your phone can save you a lot of time and hassle – not to mention gas and cash.
Works with: iOS
Price: Free
Android Alternative: Document Scanner (Free 7-day trial/$3.98 for full version.)
2. Dictionary of Real Estate Terms
What it does: Translates the vast universe of real estate jargon and acronyms into plain English, putting a decoder at your fingertips for easy reference any time you need it during your house hunt or transaction. The Dictionary includes over 3,000 real estate terms, charts and graphs. You can save your searches and email terms to others. Your phone does not have to be connected to the Internet to use the Dictionary, which can be useful if you need to look up a term on an inspection or appraisal report while you’re in a home or office where you don’t have a great connection.
Why it’s useful: I can guarantee few things in life, but one thing I do feel comfortable assuring you is that home buying will expose you to terms you have never heard before. You need to know what the terms used in your inspection, disclosure, contract and loan documents mean, and sometimes looking them up is the best way to do that.
Works with: iOS and Android
Price: $1.99 (iOS) and 99 cents (Android)
3. House Hunter
What it does: Helps you organize your house-hunting notes and priorities so you can more easily remember and compare the homes you’ve seen. The app also helps you evaluate the homes you’ve seen by providing a scorecard that weighs features against what you’ve identified as requirements and priorities. It includes a mortgage calculator, photo storage, and a feature that allows you to share your notes with your agent, among other bells and whistles.
Why it’s useful: After you see about five houses, they can all blend together. This app helps you keep it all straight, while also keeping you mindful of what your original priorities were and how the homes you see measure up against them.
Works with: iOS
Price: $3.99
4. SpringPad
What it does: Helps you keep track of any and every thing you want to remember in a digital notebook you can access from anywhere, on any device. You can:
- scan barcodes of home furnishings, appliances and other items you want to buy after you move;
- save ideas, property addresses, online clippings from design and news sites, photos from decor mags and to do lists from your mortgage broker;
- categorize all these things – and more – by house hunt, mortgage and escrow, moving, and decorating; and
- set reminders, share your notes with your agent or even get an email alert when the duvet you want goes on sale.
All without a single scrap of paper!
Why it’s useful: Empowers you to organize the hundreds of elements of your home buying adventure into a single spot and access it wherever you are – without carrying a bulky, messy binder or folder around.
Works with: iOS and Android
Price: Free
5. ColorSnap
What it does: Allows you to take a picture with your phone’s camera from anything in the world that inspires you, then discover the corresponding Sherwin-Williams paint color.
Why it’s useful: If you see a wall color you love in a home you, well, don’t like too much otherwise, you can capture the color and replicate that once you do find your dream home. Same goes for if you come across any other item in a color you love and would like to incorporate into your design scheme.
Works with: iOS and Android
Price: Free
6. Karl’s Mortgage Calculator
What it does: Calculates mortgage payments using the principal loan amount, interest and term (and can solve for any of these if you input the other three variables). This app also gives you a more precise idea of what your total monthly expenses will be on a given home by factoring in line items other calculators leave out, like mortgage insurance, homeowners association dues, property taxes and homeowners’ insurance. You can also see what kind of savings you might be able to achieve – and how early you can pay your mortgage off – by running scenarios that add in extra loan payments.
Why it’s useful: Having this mortgage calculator handy during your house-hunting adventures will enable you to quickly calculate how a given increase in your offer price will change your monthly payment.
Works with: Android
Price: Free
iOS alternative: Mortgage Calculator Pro (99 cents)
7. Trulia Real Estate App
What it does: SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT. Seriously, no mobile app list for home buyers would be complete without the Trulia app. It uses your phone’s GPS function to serve you up nearby listings and their details if you happen to find yourself in a neighborhood you love, or in front of a home with a for sale sign – but no flyers! The Trulia app also finds the banks, restaurants and gas stations near any given listing, and can even create instant heat maps showing neighborhood differences in prices.
Why it’s useful: You may find that you like a particular neighborhood, but not the individual home you came to see. Or you might visit a friend and fall in love with their street, but have no idea what homes in the area go for. Having an easy-to-use mobile app that helps you discover more nearby homes for sale, wherever you are, is actually quite indispensable. It eliminates the need to scrawl down numbers on scraps of paper or squint to see the faded numbers on the curb then wait until you’re in front of the computer to try to match an online listing to a real-world house.
Tax Advantages of Homeownership
Although tax considerations probably aren’t the motivating force behind most home purchases, the tax advantages associated with homeownership are significant enough that they may factor into the decision process. Here’s a quick review of federal tax benefits available.
The mortgage interest deduction
If you itemize deductions on Schedule A of Form 1040, you’re generally able to deduct the interest you pay on debt resulting from a loan used to buy, build, or improve your principal residence, provided that the loan is secured by your home (the ability to deduct mortgage interest also generally applies to second homes, though special rules apply if you rent the home out for part of the year). Interest you pay on up to $1 million in mortgage debt ($500,000 if you’re married and file a separate federal income tax return) can qualify for the deduction (different rules may apply if you incurred the debt prior to October 14, 1987).
Interest on qualifying home equity debt (basically, debt on a loan secured by equity in your main or second home that is not used to buy, build, or improve your home) of up to $100,000 ($50,000 for married individuals filing separately) is generally deductible regardless of how the loan proceeds are used. Note, however, that if you’re subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT), the AMT calculation doesn’t allow a deduction for interest on debt that’s not used to buy, build, or improve your home.
Qualified mortgage insurance premium payments made prior to 2012 can be deducted in the same manner as qualified mortgage interest, provided the mortgage insurance contract is issued after 2006. The deduction is, however, phased out for those with adjusted gross incomes exceeding $100,000 ($50,000 for married couples filing separate federal income tax returns).
Deduction for real estate property taxes
If you itemize deductions, you can also generally deduct the real estate taxes that you pay on your property in the year that you pay them to the taxing authority. If you pay your real estate taxes through an escrow account, you can only deduct the real estate taxes actually paid by your lender from the escrow account during the year. For purposes of calculating the AMT, however, no deduction for state and local taxes, including any real estate tax, is allowed.
Mortgage interest deduction threatened?
Recent discussions relating to reducing the budget deficit have cast a spotlight on itemized deductions, including the mortgage interest deduction. Could the mortgage interest deduction ultimately be eliminated? That seems unlikely, but elimination or reduction of the deduction has remained part of the ongoing debate, and was included among the recommendations contained in the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform’s December 2010 report.
Energy tax credit
Though not as generous as it has been the last two years, a credit is available to individuals who make energy-efficient improvements to their homes. You may be entitled to a 10% credit for the purchase of qualified energy-efficient improvements, including a roof, windows, skylights, exterior doors, and insulation materials. Specific credit amounts may also be available for the purchase of specified energy-efficient property: $50 for an advanced main air circulating fan; $150 for a qualified furnace or hot water boiler; and $300 for other items, including qualified electric heat pump water heaters and central air conditioning units.
There’s a lifetime credit cap of $500 ($200 for windows), however. So, if you’ve claimed the credit in the past–in one or more tax years after 2005–you’re only entitled to the difference between the current cap and the total amount that you’ve claimed in the past. That includes any credit that you claimed in 2009 and 2010, when the aggregate limit on the credit was $1,500.
Capital gain exclusion
If you sell your principal residence at a gain, you may be able to exclude some or all of the gain from federal income tax. Generally speaking, capital gain (or loss) on the sale of your principal residence equals the sale price of the home less your adjusted basis in the property. Your adjusted basis is the cost of the property (i.e., what you paid for it), plus amounts paid for capital improvements, less any depreciation and casualty losses claimed for tax purposes.
If you meet all requirements, you can exclude from federal income tax up to $250,000 ($500,000 if you’re married and file a joint federal income tax return) of any capital gain that results from the sale of your principal residence. In general, this exclusion can be used only once every two years. To qualify for the exclusion, you must have owned and used the home as your principal residence for a total of two out of the five years before the sale. If you fail the two-out-of-five-year test, you might still be able to exclude part of your gain if your home sale is due to a change in place of employment, health reasons, or certain other unforeseen circumstances.
It’s important to note that special rules apply in a number of circumstances, including situations in which you maintained a home office for tax purposes or otherwise used your home for business purposes. Special rules may also apply if you are a member of the uniformed services.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the estimated homeownership rate in the United States at the end of 2010 was 66.5% (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division).
Pickwick Landing State Park & Hardin County Chamber of Commerce present the 7th Annual Christmas in the Park and Holiday Mart
Fri. & Sat., Dec. 9 & 10, 2011
Tour of lights, buggy rides, train rides for the kids and visit with Santa Fri. & Sat 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. Elves reading Bedtime Stories by the fireplace – Fri. & Sat. 8 p.m. – 9 p.m. On Saturday, come and have breakfast with Santa in our private dining room – 7 a.m. – 10 a.m. Plus wrap up your Holiday Shopping at our 7th Annual Holiday Mart with gift items from our local retailers & crafters (conference center) Fri., Noon – 9 p.m., Sat., 10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Admission is FREE, but donations are welcome!
5 Things to Do Now to Get Your Home Sold in 2012
your resolution list for next year, there’s plenty of prep work you can do to set yourself up for home selling success.
Here are 5 things you can and should start working on without further ado, if you want to get your home sold – smoothly and for top dollar – in 2012.
1. Put your intentions in writing. The first step to any real estate transaction – actually, to anything important in life! – is to get clear on your goals. Unexpected challenges and situations might very well come up in the course of selling your home, so having a clear idea of your ultimate goals at the outset is a must to help you make the right decisions along the way and to remind you when you might need to course correct.
When you’re setting your objective and writing it down, it’s critical to be specific and holistic, drilling down to the details of what result it is you want your home sale to achieve in your life.
Also, establish where your priorities lie: with speed or with dollars? For example, your goal might be to sell your house as quickly as possible so you can relocate your family by spring. Or, your goal may be to sell your house at the best possible price no matter how long it takes.
Getting as clear as possible from the very beginning on your priorities and ultimate life objectives for the sale will allow you to communicate these crucial things clearly to your agent, and will power your decisions on issues like:
- which home improvement projects, if any, to complete before you sell;
- whether to accept a particular offer; and
- how aggressively to negotiate counter-offers, and on which points to push back against a buyer’s offer.
2. Study the local market. The most successful home sales are the listings that are priced right from day one. Ask any agent: even in the toughest markets, there are listing that sell quickly, mostly because the one-two punch of the property and its price look to buyers like a very strong value.
In order to position yourself and your property at the point of pricing nirvana, you’ll need to do some leg work. stat. You don’t need to pick an exact price this moment, unless you’re planning to list your home super soon, but you can get started on what I like to think of as the ‘thinking seller’s’ three-pronged approach to pricing now, by:
- visiting open houses,
- studying nearby listings, and
- talking with local agents.
Before the year is up, try to visit a handful of open houses in your neighborhood. This will help you get a sense of the types of homes that are on the market, what condition they’re in, and how they are priced. Keep in mind that no home is going to be exactly like yours, but if it’s similar in size, location and features, then buyers that see that property will probably be the same buyers that come to see yours – and they will be comparing list prices.
Another great prep tool in gearing up to sell your home in 2012 is to study similar homes for sale on Trulia! Pay particular attention to what features they have, how they are described and priced, any incentives the sellers are offering (e.g., closing cost credits, etc.) and how long they’ve been on the market. (Hint: you might not want to price your home right in line with one that’s been on the market over a year. Obviously, that home is overpriced, and that is NOT a result you want to replicate!)
Finally, one of the most efficient and nuanced ways to get to know your local market is to begin speaking with agents who sell homes in your area. Get a few referrals, call them up and tour them through your home. Then, ask these pros for their opinion on what you should list your home for, what recent sales they think are the most comparable (and why), and how long they would expect your sale to take given their experience and current conditions.
You can use these same home tours to get a head start on selecting your listing agent by asking the agents you interview to give you a preview of what they would recommend in the way of preparing your home, timing your listing and marketing your house to achieve the objectives you set in Step 1.
3. Gather your paperwork. In planning for your sale next year, you can get a great head start by pulling together the necessary paperwork now. Keep in mind that the specific requirements vary by state, so this is not an exhaustive list. In general, you’ll need to have these ready:
- Disclosure documents: This includes any documentation of anything that might impact a buyer’s decision about your home, whether it be inspection reports, repair receipts or estimates for repairs you haven’t actually had done yet. Your local real estate pro will help determine what exactly is needed here.
- Compliance certificates: In some cities, the local government will require certain conditions be met before a property is transferred to another owner. Examples of these requirements include sewer line condition guidelines, and energy conservation ordinances that require low-flow toilets and shower heads to be installed. Again, your real estate agent and your city’s website can help you figure out which, if any, of these types of ordinances might apply to your home.
- Mortgage statements: Before the property’s title can transfer to another owner, the escrow or title company will need your mortgage statements to order payoff demands from any mortgage holder who has to get paid before that can happen.
- Financials: If you’re planning on a short sale, you’ll have a lot more paperwork to gather in your process, including paycheck stubs, bank and investment account statements, and two years’ W-2 forms or tax returns – the bank will review these to determine whether they will authorize you to sell the home for less than what you owe.
4. Prep your listing plan and timeline. After you’ve done all your pricing homework and have chosen a listing agent, you can create a plan and timeline for how all the moving pieces will come together – including who is responsible for getting which tasks done. At minimum, your plan should specify:
- prep work you’ll be doing to your property before it’s listed for sale – including decluttering, staging and any repairs or cosmetic power-tweaks you plan to make;
- if you’re planning a short sale, a timeline for submitting an application to your lender for approval (this might be before or after the property is listed – consult with your lender and your agent on the matter)
- planned list price (based on current local market conditions – this could change if you don’t plan to list your home for several months);
- the target date on which your home will be listed for sale in the local MLS; and
- how showing arrangements will work so that local agents can get prospective buyers into your house to see the place, and what.
Agents: What other elements do you encourage sellers to include in their listing plans?
5. Get a head start on your ‘home’work. How much prep work your home needs really depends on its current condition. A good starting point for many sellers is to order an inspection. Most buyers will get their own inspection before closing a deal, but getting ahead of them with your own will help you avoid any unwanted surprises later on in the transaction. An inspection will give you a reality check on your home’s condition, enabling you to decide upfront whether it’s worth it to fix something now or simply reduce the price in consideration thereof.
Your holiday vacation from work is a great time to:
(a) obtain any advance inspections your real estate agent recommends,
(b) have any reasonable repairs completed,
(c) pre-pack and declutter your place, and
(d) prettify your home’s curb appeal – painting the shutters and sprucing the landscaping goes a long way toward attracting buyers.
Kudos, in advance, for taking the time now to prepare for your home sale in 2012! Selling in today’s market is no easy task, and doing the heavy lifting now – before your home goes on the market and, hopefully, while you’re on vacation! – will help tremendously in making things go as smoothly, and profitably, as possible.
Top 10 Recipes for Fudge
Try one of our favorite recipes for fudge, including top-rated fudge recipes for peanut fudge, marshmallow fudge and nut fudge.
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5 Overpricing Cures That Can Get Your Home Sold
d high number of deals fall through. On top of that, they face the age-old conundrum of having two seemingly conflicting aims: they want to get their homes sold, fast, but also want – and need – to squeeze every single possible dollar out of it. While it’s tempting to price your place on the high side and ‘test the market’ or ‘negotiate down,’ overpricing your home can actually deter buyers, cause your home to lag on the market and eventually even expose you to the risk of being perceived as desperate and receiving lowball offers.
Here are 5 ‘cures’ to the temptation to overprice your home, all of which can help you max out the chance that your home will sell.
1. Check the Comps! “Comps” is real estate lingo for comparable sales – the nearby, similar homes that have recently sold. You might think that your taste level, aesthetic style and home maintenance practices are vastly superior to those of your neighbors – and you might be right. But this will be the single largest purchase your home’s eventual buyer will ever make, and trust me – they will be doing the research. The small contingent of urgent and qualified buyers who are active on today’s market do not want to overpay for a home, and most will view your home as overpriced and not worth the hassle (or the haggle) if it is out of whack with the recent sales prices of similar homes.
Similarly, appraisers will use these numbers when figuring out your home’s value. Even if you do get an offer at a higher-than-justified price, if the buyer’s appraiser finds that your home is overvalued compared to other nearby recent sales, it can cause major delays in your buyer’s mortgage process – or derail it altogether.
Work with your agent to find and evaluate the recent sales in the area, and to ensure that your home’s list price makes sense vis-a-vis the comps.
2. Get inside the minds of the local home buyers. The vast majority of buyers – over 90 percent – start their house huntinhg online. And what most of them do is type in a price range, a range of bedrooms and bathrooms and a geographic area, then spend dozens of obsessive hours perusing hundreds of listings.
Given the flooded market and buyers’ busy lives, many will screen your home off their interest list in a New York minute if it seems overpriced from its online listing. If that one-inch picture and the number of beds, baths and square feet either (a) doesn’t make it into their search results because the price is so much higher than what most local buyers want to spend on a home with those criteria, or (b) seems underwhelming, for the price, compared to the other online listings of similar homes, prospective buyers will never even make it into your home, and all your stunning staging and crave-able curb appeal will never have the opportunity to work their magic.
Local agents have an inside track on what local buyers care about and what they will and will not spend. Talk to your agent about it, but don’t forget to actually listen to and consider what your agent has to say! If you don’t trust what an agent is telling you about where you should list your home, talk to several agents – if the consensus is a recommended list price range lower than what you had in mind, that’s a sign you should reconsider.
Also, search for similar homes to yours on Trulia, to see how it would stack up against similar listings online at the price range you have in mind. That’s where local prospective buyers will see it (and screen it in or out) first.
3. Visit competing Open Houses. Buyers do not shop for homes in a vacuum. They’re out there looking at dozens of homes – or more – to make sure they’re (a) getting the best deal possible, and (b) not missing ‘the one.’ So, while viewing a thumbnail image of your competition and seeing the list prices of other homes online is informative, it is even more useful to walk through the actual properties with which your home is competing, in living color.
Before you put your home on the market, take a few hours and visit nearby Open Houses. This exercise is the most vivid way to get a reality check about what you’re up against and what your home’s strengths and weaknesses are compared with the other homes buyers will see, which will go a long way in getting you to the right asking price. Even if you are unpleasantly surprised at how nice the neighboring homes are at low prices, taking this information in before you list your home is much less painful than waiting months for the market to give you this education (in the form of no or uber-low offers).
4. Get an inspection – in advance. Home buyers have long used the home inspection as a negotiating tool to get the seller to come down on the sale price mid-stream. Get ahead of the game by getting your own inspection(s) – talk with your agent about which ones are appropriate – and getting the skinny on your home’s condition before you list it. Keep in mind that you will likely need to provide any written professional inspections you obtain before listing your home to the buyer under your state’s real estate disclosure laws.
You might be able to repair some things at relatively low cost and include the recent improvements in your marketing. Alternatively, you can set and negotiate pricing based on any condition issues or needed repairs you want to pass down to the buyer. This empowers you to get to a final price that aligns with market conditions and the condition of your home without taking massive mid-escrow hits on pricing. It also empowers you to offer a discount for needed fixes up front, when the price break has the most power to help attract bargain-seeking buyers.
5. When in doubt, go low. An overpriced home, in most cases, will cause a lot more problems in your real estate journey than an underpriced one. Think about it: an overpriced home just sits on the market with little or no buyer interest until the seller cuts the price. And many interested buyers just sit, waiting for that price cut, seeing it as a cue to make an even lower offer.
Now, consider the opposite end of the pricing spectrum: you start with a lower price than you want, but one that is supported by the comps in your market – or even goes a tad bit lower than recent homes have sold for. Lots of buyers are attracted to your house, in part because it looks like a great value for the price. You end up with multiple offers, which gives you the upper hand in negotiating a higher price.
The moral: if you aren’t sure about what price to place on your home, go a little bit lower than the recent comps sold for. Insiders know from experience that you’ll sell your home faster this way – and at a better price than if you overprice it out of the gate.
These steps can help you get out of your own way, get a bird’s eye view on the market and see your home as buyers will see it. And that’s a reality check that can make the difference between selling your home and not.
Click the link below to check out Targets 2 day sale.
http://www.target.com/np/Target-black-friday-2011/-/N-5q0f2
