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.
On March 15th, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed to change how business is conducted as part of the settlement reached following the Sitzer- Burnett verdict last fall. NAR and several large national brokerages were found guilty of conspiring to keep real estate commissions artificially high. While the proposed settlement needs to be accepted by the judge, there is already anticipation of how this will change the real estate industry.
Should you hire a Realtor to help sell your home? What do they do to earn their commission? These are legitimate questions that any good real estate professional should be able to answer. Let’s dig into the services we offer at each step of the home selling process.
Last month, we discussed real estate commissions and how they are structured. So what are you getting for your money? Let’s look at it from the buyer’s perspective.
While it’s currently common practice for the listing broker to offer a cooperating broker fee which covers our services, there could be times when that is not offered and where you would pay for our services. We discuss this scenario with buyers at our initial meeting and strategize a plan that works for their situation.
First off, every real estate transaction is unique and when you work with McSharry and Associates you get our combined 39 years of experience working exclusively on your behalf, helping you navigate the process from start to finish. We work full time to find your next home, offering advice, judgement and counsel tailored to your stated goals.
Real estate commissions were in the news recently due to a court ruling that resulted in a $1.8 billion verdict in favor of home sellers who accused the National Association of Realtors and two national brokerages, Homeservices of America and Keller Williams Realty, of conspiring to keep commissions artificially high. This ruling has naturally sparked a lot of conversation about commission structure and we thought it timely to bring the topic up as well.
There are three important contingencies baked into the contract that all Capital Region real estate professionals use and it’s important for both buyers and sellers to fully understand them.
What’s the difference between assessed value, appraised value, comparative market analysis and automated valuation models?
What is your home worth? That depends on who is valuing it and for what purpose. Although people sometimes use these different valuation terms interchangeably, they all serve different functions and it’s important to understand what they each mean.
The final walk through is an important part of the home buying process. It typically occurs the evening before or the morning of the closing and it's the buyers' chance to ensure the house they are about to purchase is as expected. It's possible they haven't been in the home for several weeks, likely not since the home inspection, and the house might have been furnished and lived in when they were last there. Most of the time, walk throughs are uneventful and the house is in good shape. Sometimes that's not the case. If issues arise, the buyers can request that the owners fix the issue or request a credit to fix it themselves. On the rare occasion, issues flagged at the final walk through will cause delays with the closing. We always accompany our buyer clients at the final walk through and provide them the checklist below so they know what to look for.