Should You Pay the Closing Costs as a Seller?

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Is it good for the seller to pay the buyer's closing costs? A lot of sellers say they absolutely will not do so, and my question for them is, why not? 

As a seller, the most important thing you want to think about is what you want to net. It's not about how much money you get, it's about how much money you keep.

Here's a very common scenario. Let's say you had a house to sell and you want to net $100,000. Let's say a buyer wants to buy your house, and they have good credit, a good job, and they can get a mortgage, but they don't have a lot of cash for the closing. Would you let them buy your house for $106,000, and then give them $6,000 for their closing costs? You would still net the $100,000!

At the end of the day, it's absolutely fine to pay a buyer's closing costs as long as you hit your net number. If you can hit your net number, then I say pay the closing costs. If not, it's back to the negotiating table.

Just remember that it's all about your net number. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

When Is the Best Time to Sell Your Rochester Home?

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Is selling your home at the end of the year a good idea? This is a question that many people are asking, thinking that summer is traditionally the best time to sell.

The first thing to take into account is the fact that homes prices are driven by supply and demand. At this time of year, the supply of homes typically begins to dwindle. This means that if you decide to sell, you will have far fewer competitors than you would if you sold in April.

While it's true that there will be fewer buyers at the end of the year, the buyers that are out there are a whole lot more motivated. Anyone who will walk through a foot of snow on a Tuesday afternoon will likely need to find a great home as soon as possible.

The numbers say it all: last October, we closed seven houses and sold three additional properties. In November of last year, we closed three houses and sold three additional houses; and in December of last year, we closed five and sold five additional homes. I give you these numbers to let you know that people in Rochester buy all year long! 

If you're ready to sell, there's simply no reason to wait. If you would like to talk about the specifics of the selling process, give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to hear from you!

How Our Market Snapshot Tool Can Help You

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Today, I'd like to introduce you to our Market Snapshot. I want you to be able to track the market in your neighborhood. You can see every sale, every property listed, and everything on the market that failed to sell.

One section you should pay attention to is the interactive map. You can sort properties by recently sold, new listings, for sale, pending, and expired. If you look at recently sold homes, you can see what the homes sold for and how long the properties sat on the market. This way, you know what you can expect from your own property. 

If a home in your neighborhood has a sold sign in the yard but does not show up under the recently sold homes, it might be pending. If you select pending homes on the interactive map, you can see the list price of these properties.

If you look at homes currently for sale, you can also see what properties are listed for and you can look at the details to see which home is closest to your property. Again, this helps you know what to expect from your own home sale. 

Finally, if you're thinking about selling, keep in mind that not all properties sell. If you click on expired listings, you can see all the homes that failed to sell. Again, this will give you an idea of what things went up for and what they failed to sell at, only this time, you can learn from their mistakes.

If you're interested, you will get this free report biweekly. If you would like a more detailed and specific market evaluation of your property, give me a call and I can give you a more accurate home value for free.

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you!

One Easy Way to Get Rochester Real Estate Information for Free

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For everyone that subscribes to my video blog, I want to offer you a chance to get highly accurate real estate information for your particular area. What I mean by this is that you will receive a free market snapshot from us. All we need is your current home address and we can send you interactive maps that track everything that was recently listed, sold, under contract, or homes that failed to sell.

These are all critical metrics that Realtors use to sell homes and give homes accurate listing prices. This is an extremely valuable tool if you're wanting to sell your home. It will give you a competitive advantage in this market that most other homeowners don't have.

Keep in mind that this is a free service that we want you to utilize for your own advantage. We want you to have the best possible experience when you enter our local real estate market, and being armed with these facts will help immensely.

If you're interested in receiving it, the report will come out about once per month and if you have any questions about it, please don't hesitate to contact me.

How Can You Make a Great First Impression on Rochester Home Buyers?

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Are you planning on selling anytime soon? If so, stick around to learn this overlooked secret to making your home stand out to buyers. So, what one thing can you do to make your home stand out above all the other houses you're competing against? 

It's important to remember that most buyers don't just see one house in a day - they'll see as many as 10 homes in a single tour. This makes it crucial that you do what it takes to make your home make a lasting impression on the mind of a potential buyer. What exactly should you do to make this happen?

It sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how many buyers don't do it. The most important thing you can do to make your home stand out is clean your house! We're not talking about wiping down the counters and picking up a few things. Rather, we're talking about a DEEP clean, where you either get your knees dirty and put in a whole lot of work or hire a professional cleaning company.

 

There is nothing more inviting to potential buyers than an impeccably clean home. You would be shocked by the number of homes I visit that are not only not clean, but downright dirty. If you want to really make your home stand out from the crowd, you need to take your cleaning above and beyond. To do this, you need to eliminate pet odors, cigarette smoke, and ethnic cooking smells that may hit the buyer's senses in the wrong way. This may sound crazy, but it's true: Smells keep homes from selling!

Want more advice on what you can do to give yourself a competitive advantage when selling? Give us a call or shoot us an email with ANY of your real estate needs. We're always here to help!

 

What’s the Right Way to Price a Home?

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Today we’re going to talk a little about home pricing, which is probably one of the most hotly debated topics in real estate. A lot of times, people see home pricing as trying to find the perfect figure to sell your home at. Really, the people who are successful in real estate don’t think of pricing as a number, but as a strategy. 

The first pricing strategy is pricing high to low. This means starting out at a high price, so you can come down to your ideal price with price reductions. Is this a bad strategy? It depends. The best way we have found to use this strategy is to pick a final number you have in mind, but make sure you have a predetermined schedule of price reductions to get you there. 
  
If people see the price falling, they won’t think there is something wrong with the house, trust us. People will actually keep track of properties that are dropping in value, and the more reductions you make, the higher the urgency grows for them. The minute the house moves where the buyer sees value, the market gets very excited and people are going to come in hard and quick to make an offer. 

In the present market, pricing low to high is just as valid a strategy. If you believe your home’s market value is in the 150’s, it’s a valid strategy to price it just a tick below, in the high 140’s. When people sense a deal in real estate, they show up in big numbers. If you have a smart agent, he will schedule showings at the same time. This leads to multiple offer situations, which are always very exciting. 

You don’t want to be wrong about your market value. The best place to get an accurate valuation is from a highly experienced, competent agent. If you have any questions for us, or would like to know your true market value, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Are You Selling Your Rochester Home for the Right Reasons?

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What's the secret weapon to getting your home sold fast and for top dollar? In today's video, we answer this question!

The first and most important aspect of selling is knowing why you want to sell in the first place. The people who have the most compelling reason to sell are the most competitive. I'm not talking about people who are in a desperate situation and who essentially need to give the home away. 

People who get the most from their home sale have a compelling reason to move and a time period they need to move within. These people approach the moving process in a very different way than those who don't have a compelling reason to move. For example, if the value of your home was $200,000 and you got a job transfer and have to move quickly. Once you get a qualified offer for, say, $197,000, you're probably going to take it. In my experience, giving up a small sum on the sale price isn't going to kill you. 

People who don't have a good motivation to sell often don't have as much luck. Say you aren't in a hurry to sell your $200,000 home - you're just listing it to see if you can get it sold for more than $205,000 or so. When an offer comes in at $197,000, you probably won't accept it because you're simply looking to get more than your home might be worth on the given market. What often happens is these sellers don't have as much luck selling because they are competing with people who are willing to accept lower offers.

Our advice? If you don't have a compelling reason to sell in today's market, we advise you to wait. We are experts at advising sellers in any situation, and if you're not willing to price your home competitively, you may not accomplish your selling goals in the current Rochester market. If you would like a full market analysis, or if you need real estate assistance of any kind, give us a call or shoot us an email. We'll do all we can to put you in a winning position.

What's the Secret to a Smooth Buying Process in Rochester?

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What is a buyer specialist and why are they super important in today's market? If you plan on selling soon, but don't know the answer to those questions, it's in your best interest to stick around.

It's currently a seller's market here in Rochester, which puts a lot of pressure on home buyers. There simply isn't a lot of inventory to choose from. If you want to have success in such a competitive market, you need to select the right agent. It's important to note that agents break down into several categories - for example, some agents specialize in buying homes, and some specialize in selling homes. 

Agents who specialize in helping people find and purchase homes are called home buyer specialists. When looking for a new home in a seller's market, working with a home buyer specialist is crucial for a number of reasons. 

• They don't list properties, so they don't have to waste time marketing listings or working on closings. This gives them more free time to dedicate to you and your situation. 
• They are more responsive. Their one job is to work with buyers to help them find homes! In a seller's market, this is crucially important, as there isn't much inventory out there and you will likely need help finding the right property. 
• Homes are going fast. There is no time to wait because the best homes are flying off the market. Most of the property that is being sold by motivated sellers is listed by real estate agents. In order to see those homes, in most cases, you need to be working with an agent.
• They will position you to win. Your buyer specialist will put you in a position to win multiple offer situations. These agents know how to negotiate and craft an offer that will appeal to the buyer and stand out from other offers! 

 

Here at the James Gray Team, we have multiple buyer specialists who are waiting to help you! Give us a call or shoot us an email if you have any questions, or if you would like to meet with one of our buyer experts today! We would love to help you succeed in the Rochester area.

Is Buying in a Seller's Market Worth It?

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You may not be aware of this, but we are in a seller's market right now in Rochester. This means there are more buyers out there looking for homes than there are homes, so we wanted to give you some tips today if you are thinking of buying in this market. It can be easy to buy in a seller's market when you follow these five tips:

1. You have to be prepared
The main aspect of being prepared is making sure you are pre-qualified. You should speak to a mortgage lender, have them run your credit and debt, and they will issue you a pre-qualification letter saying you are approved to spend a particular amount on a home. This is huge because if you don't have it, you will slow down the process and miss out on the home.

2. Be very clear on your criteria
You need to know exactly what you're looking for because homes priced well and in good condition are selling almost as soon as they appear. You need to be able to recognize a good home when you see it, and act fast. 

3. Be open to broadening your criteria
You've got to be open to looking outside your ideal price, geographical area, and even square footage to make sure you're working with the largest pool of potential homes possible.

4. Be responsive
Since we are in a seller's market, the sellers are dictating the terms. When a home goes on the market for sale and you don't act quickly, it will go away. Waiting a few days, or even a few hours, can sometimes prove disastrous. Just this last weekend, I sold two homes on their first day on the market. 

5. Work with a real estate agent
If you're working without an agent, it makes it impossible to move fast enough. If you are working with a professional, you are with somebody who is responsive and can reach you to find homes that enter the market. 

If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to speaking soon!

What's the Secret to Getting Top Dollar for Your Rochester Home?

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Today, I want to share a quick Rochester market update with you so you can make informed decisions in our marketplace.

Right now, we have a pretty favorable seller's market. There are fewer homes for sale than there were last year at this time and there are more buyers out there than there are homes for sale! If you're a buyer, you have probably experienced a lot of competition in certain areas and certain price ranges. 

Right now, our market is very strong, but you have to remember that all the normal market rules apply. If you're selling, your home must be in great condition and priced appropriately in order to achieve your goals. You also need a coherent and aggressive marketing plan if you want to get top dollar for your home and sell quickly!

It is a great market to be selling! However, you need to know what you're doing when you bring your home to the market. If you would like selling assistance, or if you have real estate questions of any kind, give me a call or shoot me an email. I'm always available to help!