Flathead Valley Real Estate Podcast with Brett Kelly Brett Kelly

Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic time to put your home on the market. Here’s how to find the best time to list your specific home.  Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation Picking the best time to sell your home can be difficult. There isn’t a magic time frame to list your home, and here’s why. The right time to sell your home depends on your price range. We determine those times using a market trend report, which you can see in the above video. On the far left side of the report are the price ranges of homes in the area. We then have active listings for sale in the valley, new listings that came on that month, homes sold that month in each price range, the average sold-to-list price, the average sales price, the sales price/listing price ratio, the average days on the market, and months of inventory. The best time to sell your home depends on your price range. The months of inventory on the far right is a very important number. Six months or less of inventory is considered a seller’s market, whereas six months or more is considered a buyer’s market. We have used this report for the last several years, so it gives a really good indication of the best times to sell your home.  So, depending on your price range, the winter may be the best time to sell your home or the summer may be the best, but it really depends. Many people take their homes off the market in the winter thinking there won’t be as many people actively looking. Although that may be true, inventory can come down in the winter, giving the buyers that are looking a lot fewer homes to choose from.  If you are thinking about selling and would like to know more about the market trends report and when the best time to sell your home is, please reach out to me with a phone call or an email. I’m more than happy to help!

Getting multiple offers on your home is a great thing, but deciding which one is best for you involves examining a few key aspects of each offer. Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation If you’re selling your home in a great market, you’re in the right price range, and you get multiple counteroffers, what does that mean to you? Number one, that’s awesome. Anytime you have competing buyers for your property, it puts you in the driver’s seat in terms of getting your house sold. It allows you to get a much better offer and determine some of the contingencies. But what should you specifically look out for to determine the best of these offers? The first thing you want to look at is the contingencies. How far out are their home inspection contingencies? I would say that 90% of the properties bought in the Flathead Valley have a home inspection contingency. If a buyer schedules their inspection contingency for, say, five weeks instead of 10 days, which is more normal, then they may have cold feet. You want to schedule that home inspection contingency as soon as possible. Give them adequate time to inspect the home, but don’t give them forever. You don’t want to keep your home off the market any longer than you need to. Don’t keep your home off the market any longer than you need to. The next thing to look at is loan pre-approvals. Obviously, cash buyers are the premium. If you have one, that takes the lender and the appraiser out of the equation and makes the deal a lot easier. If you don’t have a cash buyer, however, make sure your buyer is pre-approved. There are different levels of pre-approval, so make sure you read any and all pre-approval letters to verify that they’ve been through underwriting. You also want to be mindful of appraisal requirements. Appraisals are a big deal, and oftentimes in hot markets, appraisers can have a tough time finding comparables when values go up. Look at the appraisal contingencies with your agent and really dig into them.   Lastly, you want to pay attention to closing time. How a buyer handles closing time is a good indication of how willing they actually are to close on your property. If you have a buyer that’s out for a long period of time, say two or three months, that might indicate hesitation on their part or a lack of commitment. If this is the case, talk to your agent and find out why the buyer is extending this time period. Be sure to line the closing time up with what works for you. If you have any questions about buying or selling, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

When you are preparing for a home appraisal, there are five things you can do to make sure your property looks its best. Tune in to learn more. Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation One way to determine home value is to get an appraisal from a third-party appraiser. Whether you are selling your home or refinancing, there are five things you can do to prepare for the appraisal: 1. Clean up your yard to increase the curb appeal. The first thing the appraiser will see is your yard, so make sure it looks great. Trim the lawn, prune bushes and shrubs, and pick up toys or extra lawn chairs. Your yard should not look cluttered. 2. Make the appraiser’s visit a pleasant one. Make sure your home is set at a comfortable temperature. Turn on the air during the summer or make sure the home is nice and cozy in the fall. You should also declutter the home and get pets out of the way for the appraiser. 3. Keep the $500 rule in mind. Appraisers often measure home value in $500 increments, so take care of any minor repairs in your home. A broken mirror in the bathroom or torn carpeting could make a big difference in the appraised value of your home. Make the appraiser’s visit a comfortable one. 4. Double check the basics. Make sure the lights are on and that everything is in working order. If elements in the home are in disrepair, your home will seem older than other comparable properties on the market. If anything in your home looks outdated, take a look and consider making a change. 5. Keep a list of repairs and upgrades. The appraiser doesn’t necessarily know what you have done to repair the home. If you have added a new porch, hot tub, or outdoor barbecue, make a list and keep the receipts. If you are present during the home appraisal, you can share that list with the appraiser; otherwise, leave the list and receipts on a counter or table for the appraiser to read. Ultimately, it’s important to make the home as nice as possible so that the appraiser has a pleasant visit. If you have any other questions about home appraisals or about real estate in general, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation Why homes don’t sell is a popular topic with us. We hear about it a lot and can tell you that only 57% of homes listed for sale actually end up selling. The ones that don’t usually fail for the same set of reasons. Today we want to list them so you don’t end up making the same mistakes. The home is in poor condition. Check out your competition. If the majority of the homes on the market are not selling, then your home needs to outshine the top 10%. Look at how many are listed in your price range versus how many sell. If that’s a low number, then you better be the best one out there because there aren’t many buyers to choose from. Not using professional photography. Buyers love photos. Oftentimes their quality determines whether a buyer wants to make the effort to walk through your house or not. Take the perspective of the buyer and make sure yours convey the proper layout of the home in an artful manner. Have you paid for extensive marketing & advertising? In our business, there isn’t one thing we do that sells a home; there are several things. If you’re trying to sell it on your own and wondering why it hasn’t sold, it’s probably because your avenues for marketing are very low. When you hire an agent, find out how much money they’re spending, and where that money is going. You want as many buyers looking at your property as possible. “ The number one reason homes don’t get sold is that people didn't research their price. ” Have you hired the wrong listing agent? Before you hire an agent, review their business history. Look at things like how many homes they sell a year, and what they spend on marketing. Checking their track record is the best method of judging their ability to sell your home. Not pricing the home to sell. Probably the number one reason homes don’t get sold is that people didn’t do their research on price. If you’re more than 3% above the market, the chances of you getting an offer are pretty slim. Many people prefer to start their price high and, if need be, lower it until they get an offer. I can honestly tell you that this strategy is a trainwreck. You’re much better off pricing the home right where it needs to be to begin with. Remember these things when trying to get your home sold. If you’d like us to come and take a look at the home and offer our advice, we’d be happy to help. Otherwise, if you have any other questions don’t hesitate to give us a call or send an email. We’ll see you next time.

Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation How do you know when you’re ready to start thinking about selling your home? Today I’ll be discussing six of the surefire signs that it’s time to list your house on the market. 1. You’re feeling cramped. If you find that every time you turn a corner you are running into a family member or stepping around objects, it may be time to look for a more spacious living area. 2. You have too much space. If it feels like you’ve got too much house and that you’re paying too much for space you’re not using, you might want to take a look at selling, especially in today’s market. 3. You’re over the neighborhood. You can’t change your neighborhood and you certainly can’t pick your neighbors. If you feel like you’re having issues with the area that you live in, or that the home values of the neighborhood are declining, give us a call.  “ If you want to remodel, there’s a chance that you won’t get a return on that investment. ” 4. Remodeling won’t return on investment. I see people do this a lot, so look out for it. If your home is in the top half of your neighborhood’s home values, that means that the bottom half is bringing your property values down. This also means that if you want to remodel or renovate, there’s a chance that you won’t get a return on that investment if you’re the nicest house on the block. In this case, a dollar in doesn’t necessarily equal a dollar out since your home value might not be in the same place when you decide to move. 5. You can afford to sell. If you would like to take the equity out of your home and use that money to invest in something else, it may be time to consider cashing in. 6. You’re ready to compete. It’s a seller’s market right now across the country, especially in certain price ranges. People are competing for your home. If you were thinking of selling a few years ago but the values weren’t there, take a second look now because the market has definitely changed. There is a lot of demand, and rates have gone down once again—now is a great time to look into selling. If you’ve got any questions about selling or whether it may be time for you to sell your home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any of my team members. We’d love to answer any questions you may have!

Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search  Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation Summer is upon us and things are moving along nicely. A lot of people have been putting their homes on the market, so we figured it was a good time to talk about how to price your home accurately and find the true value of your home. The number one thing we look at when it comes to pricing is comparables. What have other homes in the Flathead Valley like yours sold for? We are looking for homes with a similar lot size, square footage, age, and with similar updates. The other most important thing to look at is what you’re competing against. You want to get into the mind of a buyer and see things from their perspective. Stepping back and asking yourself how your home fits in with the other homes already for sale is a great exercise. Another thing to consider is contingencies. There are special needs you will have that will show up in the form of contingencies. If you’re not as flexible in your offer or won’t budge on certain contingencies, that will affect the sale price. “ You want to get into the mind of a buyer. ” If you’re still concerned about value, realize that if you price a home more than 3% above its market value, it can sit on the market and the only way to get an offer will be to reduce the price. After you’ve went through comparables and you’re still concerned with price, have an appraisal done. They will be able to give you a fair, unbiased market value. They can really take a look at your home from a neutral standpoint. The most important thing is to know where you want to be. Know what you need to sell the home for and what you want in your pocket at the end of the day. Make sure the numbers work out. If you have any questions for us or want more information, give us a call or send us an email anytime. We look forward to hearing from you!