Now that buyers are being asked to sign buyer agency agreements before seeing any properties, it’s more important than ever that you understand the services your agent will be providing and that you connect with an agent who will truly represent you and meet your needs.
2025 is here and with the new year comes the inevitable resolutions. How about making a house related goal (or two)?
You are selling your home and the movers have packed and taken away your belongings. You’re done now right? Not quite.
One of the things that home owners are often told, when preparing to sell their home is that they have to make it aesthetically pleasing to potential buyers. They are told to paint the walls neutral colors and to remove personal photos and mementos. While we are proponents of decluttering (see last month’s blog post), we don’t think that homes need to have a particular aesthetic in order to be desirable.
When talking to home owners about selling, many of them voice a concern that actually has nothing to do with the home selling process - what do they do with all their belongings? Whether they are downsizing or decluttering to stage their home for sale, most people complain they have more stuff than they need.
Last month we talked about how the recent changes in how we practice real estate affect buyers. Now let’s dig into what’s different for sellers.
As part of a recent class action lawsuit settlement, the National Association of Realtors is implementing changes to practice standards, including requiring multiple listing service (MLS) participants to have a written agreement with buyers they are representing. This agreement must be in place prior to touring any property.
Downsizing is hard. It’s hard to leave a home where you may have raised your family. It’s hard to cull through all your stuff. It’s hard to think about the reasons why your current home no longer suits your life.
So you found a house you love! Now it’s time to make an offer. Here’s where the rubber meets the road.
Usually when you sell a house you are headed to a new one so there’s a part of the process that is exciting but there’s no excitement when you are selling a home because your loved one has gone to assisted living or has died. In these situations, there are often multiple people involved in the process and one or more might not even live locally. Perhaps you lived in the house many years ago when you were a kid or perhaps you have never resided there. Either way, it’s less likely that you have intimate knowledge of the house like you have with your own home.