Maryland Real Estate Podcast with Kathi Kershaw Kathi Kershaw

As a buyer, how can you be sure you are protected? That is where the concept of buyer’s agency comes in. Buying a D.C. Metro home? Get a full home search  Selling your D.C. Metro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation I often hear buyers who are beginning the home search process express frustration about having to fill out forms just to look at a home. Many wonder why this is even needed. The reason this is necessary, though, is because it’s the law. We are required by law to inform you of any buyers’ agencies and have you sign the related disclosures. This disclosure is not a formal agreement. It is simply a way for us to let you know how we’re operating. In years past, at a time when I had just bought my first three houses, there was only such a thing as a seller’s agency. Whether you were to work with an agent for three days or three months trying to find the right home, that agent would always only be working in the seller’s best interest. Asking questions like what you should offer would only result in answers like, “The seller wants full price.” In short, there was no use in trying to coerce the agent into putting your wants or needs first. There was very little help for buyers in general. In fact, it was often not until the point where you got your keys to the house that you could be sure everything had gone right with the deal. We can guarantee you the best terms by negotiating on your behalf. The concept of buyer’s agency came about in California in 1990. Since then, I have worked only for buyers and their best interests. Buyer’s agents are beneficial in a number of ways. They can perform a market analysis, help you make a good offer, and will negotiate with your best interest in mind. While buyer’s agents can’t guarantee the best price 100% of the time, we can always guarantee to get you the best terms for you by negotiating on your behalf. So how do you pick an agent? First of all, you need to get along with them. On top of that, you should ask how many homes they’ve sold. Even agents with the same number of years of experience could have a vastly different rate of success. Having an agent who has sold a large volume of homes, who knows how to handle contracts and paperwork, and who knows what they’re doing is critical. If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

There are two new opportunities in our market for practicing attorneys. I’ve put together a special team, and there is a great loan program available for attorneys right now. Buying a D.C. Metro home? Get a full home search  Selling your D.C. Metro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation As you may know, I used to work for local attorneys as a paralegal. In fact, I worked as a paralegal for 21 years, so all of you attorneys out there have a special spot in my heart. Attorneys are always there when we need them the most, so we have put together a special team for you. We have a group of real estate agents, loan officers, settlement attorneys, insurance agents, home stagers, and a designer all for your benefit. You can learn more about this special team here. To sweeten the pot, there is a new loan program available for current, active attorneys. The only requirement is that you passed the bar.   The only requirement for the loan is that you’ve passed the bar exam. This program has no down payment, escrows, or PMI, allows gift payments, and gives you the chance to buy a single-family home, condo, or townhome—whatever you want! This is really a very sweet opportunity, especially if you are in a bit of a cash flow crunch. For example, maybe you want to spend your money on a bigger office. This loan program allows you to do that and get into the home of your dreams. If you have any questions about this loan program or are interested in buying a home, just give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!

Buying an investment property to use as a short-term Airbnb rental is a new idea many people are exploring right now. Buying a D.C. Metro home? Get a full home search  Selling your D.C. Metro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation There's a new concept out there in the world of real estate where people buy real estate as an investment by using it as an Airbnb rental. Airbnb essentially provides a home away from home you can rent when you travel or go on vacation. My brother-in-law had a townhouse in Annapolis that he turned into an Airbnb, not knowing if it would work out. He hired a company to take care of the rental logistics and things like cleaning the house and sending him a check at the end of the month, and it worked out great. He's making enough money to cover all his expenses from the mortgages to the insurance and even the management fee. It's a great way to have someone else pay off your mortgage. If you're thinking about buying an investment property—especially to turn it into an Airbnb—there are some key points you should consider. First, you have to consider the location and the zoning, and whether you're even allowed to use it for short-term rentals. That will probably rule out most homeowners associations and condos, which tend to have strict rules on what you can do with a property. However, there are plenty of places in the D.C. area that don't have an HOA that would work perfectly for Airbnb. There definitely needs to be a management company in place to take care of everything; you don't want to get a call in the middle of the night saying the heat isn't working or that the sink is leaking. The management company will take care of all of that. Are short-term rentals even allowed where you're looking to buy? The third big thing to consider is your exit strategy. If the investment doesn't work out, what will you do? You want to make sure the property is in an area with good resale values in case you need to sell. You might also want the property to be in an area where it could be rented long-term for enough money to cover your monthly costs. If you have any questions about using Airbnb as an investment, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help you out!

The key to selling your home this spring isn’t location—it’s price. Let me explain what I mean. Buying a D.C. Metro home? Get a full home search  Selling your D.C. Metro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation The spring market is here, and it’s the best time of year to sell your home. Winter is over, the flowers and trees are in bloom, and lots of houses are on the market. Buyers are primed to buy, and they’re out in droves. If you’re a seller, what’s the most important consideration in getting the best return on your investment? Some might say location, location, location, but that isn’t true. Of course location plays a predominant role in determining the market value of your home, but it’s price—price, price, price—that determines how much your home will sell for and how much you will ultimately net. We’ve helped buyers and sellers buy and sell over 700 homes. Our experience has been that sellers invariably want to price their home high in the hope that it will sell at a higher price, thereby putting more money in their pocket. In many cases, homeowners feel the home is worth more than it is for a variety of reasons. In reality, it’s the buyer who determines the value of your home. Your home is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it. A house is a commodity, and its value fluctuates based on the dynamics of the market. Buyers know value, and in today’s market with today’s technology, they have access to all the information they need to determine the market value of homes. They have access to tax records, home sale comparable statistics, crime statistics, school performance statistics, and a host of other data. The vast majority also work with real estate agents who advise them on the state of the current market. It’s the buyer who determines the value of your home. Most importantly, buyers have eyes. They’ve been in every home that meets their criteria, and they compare your home to every other home they see. If your home is overpriced compared to other homes on the market, they will know immediately. The key to getting the most money out of your home sale is to price it competitively from the start. The quicker a home sells, the more money the seller nets. The longer it stays on the market, the less money a seller nets. The first question a buyer invariably asks a listing agent is, “How long has the house been on the market?” This is because they intuitively know the longer the house has been on the market, the less worth it has. If you want to make more money on the sale of your home, bite the bullet and price it competitively. You can’t change the current market value of your home, so act accordingly. If you have any questions about selling your home in the spring market, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you.

I’m back with Patricia Ebrahimi from Show Smart Staging for part two of “The Benefits of Home Staging.” Buying a D.C. Metro home? Get a full home search  Selling your D.C. Metro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation Welcome back for part two of our staging series. Today, Patricia Ebrahimi from Show Smart Staging and I will go over the final things you need to know about staging your home for sale. When your home is staged it sells faster and you don’t incur any extra costs from having it on the market longer. For example, some of Patricia’s clients had their unstaged home on the market for six months, which means they were still paying for lawn care, insurance, and the mortgage. On average, staging costs about 1% of the list price if the home is vacant. Occupied staging is different in that Patricia has to see the home and see what she needs to bring in and how much of the owner’s things are usable for staging. There are many variables that go into occupied staging, so it does require an initial consultation. Vacant key room staging is the process of giving every room in the home a use and highlighting the usefulness of already established rooms like the master suite or the kitchen. The goal is to get fabulous and enticing online photos. The goal is to get fabulous and enticing online photos. The return on investment for staging is incredible. The cost of having to keep your home on the market longer or having to reduce the price is far more than the cost of staging. In fact, staging is going to get you a better return than painting, floor stripping, or any other typical upgrades. More than anything else, you want to make the home look attractive, and staging will certainly do that. The actual process of staging a home usually takes an afternoon. From the time Patricia sees a home until the time she is ready to begin staging, it usually takes about 72 hours. In today’s market, staging is the thing to do to get your home market ready. If you have any questions for Patricia, you can give her a call at (757-619-9789). As always, if you are looking to buy or sell a home, or if you have any other real estate questions, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

Just how important is staging your home when it comes time to sell? I'm joined by professional stager Patricia Ebrahimi from Show Smart Staging to help me explain. Buying a D.C. Metro home? Get a full home search  Selling your D.C. Metro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation I'm happy to be joined today by Patricia Ebrahimi with Show Smart Staging for the first of a two-part series about home staging. So why would a Realtor hire a stager? As Patricia says, Realtors simply get better and faster sales when they stage their listings because it creates wonderful photos that bring traffic to a home. The benefit is the same for homeowners; hiring a stager will help their home sell fast for top dollar. We all like that! The first step in staging your home is getting a ‘divorce,’ Patricia jokes. When you sell your house, you turn it into a product for sale. Since people get so emotionally connected to their home, you need to divorce yourself from the house and turn the emotion around so that the buyer becomes emotionally connected and finds the house irresistible. Buyers want what they see on HGTV and in furniture stores because we're a display-oriented society. Over 90% of buyers look at homes online first to choose which homes they want to see in person, and the homes they want to see are always the ones with great photographs that are merchandised. Contrary to what you may have heard, staging is not just another term for interior design. In fact, it's the total opposite, Patricia says. Patricia—a certified interior designer—says being an interior designer means helping someone understand what they like and helping them get it. Staging, on the other hand, aims to neutralize the house to the extent of appealing to the widest array of potential buyers whether you as a homeowner like it or not. This goes back to what Patricia said about divorcing your home. When you get ready to sell, it's not your house anymore, so you have to back off and let it show in a way that buyers want to see. Staging makes your home irresistible to buyers. By and large, home sellers pay for staging because they're the ones seeing about 94% of the proceeds of the home sale. There are exceptions, Patricia says, but most of the time, the seller pays. The good part that many people don't realize is that staging is a tax deduction as a selling expense. If a Realtor pays for the staging, it becomes a marketing expense, not a tax write-off. Stay tuned for the second portion of our series on home staging. If you have any questions about staging your home or you're thinking about selling your house in the D.C. area, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help you!