Jonesboro Real Estate Video Blog with Eric Burch Eric Burch

Here’s a great example of why you should buy a home sooner than later. Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation Does it make sense to buy in today’s market? I’ve been hearing this question a lot lately, and I wanted to offer insight into why my answer is a resounding, “Yes!” I recently saw a colleague of mine post about a house they sold in 2012 for $360,000; it’s a gorgeous home. The exact same house, with just a few updates, just sold for $692,000. That’s $330,000 worth of appreciation in just about 10 years.  Now, the home didn’t increase in value by $30,000 every year. In the last few years, home prices have grown exponentially. Most of that value came within the last 12 to 18 months. The house might have gone from $450,000 to $692,000 during that time.  I didn’t see this coming, and I don’t think anyone in their right mind would have thought the real estate market would be rebounding like this amidst a global pandemic. "In the last few years, home prices have grown exponentially."  So does it make sense to buy in this market? Absolutely; real estate is a fantastic long-term investment. I guarantee that $692,000 home is going to sell for over a million dollars one day. The question is, do you want to be involved in a great investment like that? If you have any real estate-related questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Here’s why Zillow shuttered their home-buying program at the end of 2021 Something happened at the end of 2021 that you might not have heard about. Many people visit one platform when they look for available properties. The name of that platform is Zillow, and for the last few years, they have been not only marketing homes but also buying them. Zillow would make an offer on a property without seeing it, close that transaction, and send someone out to renovate it. They were buying and rehabbing houses all over the country, but at the end of 2021, they shut down that program. At the end of the day, nothing can replace a seasoned agent. It’s funny because clients used to bring up Zillow’s estimate at listing appointments. To me, those numbers felt like they were as much as 25% over or 35% below the actual price. It was interesting when Zillow announced that they would start buying properties based on these estimates. After a couple of years of trying this, it turns out Zillow was losing money on almost every house they bought. They obviously hadn’t gone the right way with their algorithm. At the end of the day, nothing can replace a seasoned agent who knows the market, lives in the area, and works in it every day. On top of that, every market is different, and every market changes. It can depend on what’s in the newspaper that day or what announcements were recently made. There are just too many pieces for an algorithm to put it all together. It was interesting to see if Zillow could succeed, but they couldn’t, and that’s why you still need to depend on your local experts. If you have any questions, or if you truly want to know what your home is worth, please call or email me. I’d be happy to do a home valuation for you. Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation

My experiences with appraisals not meeting the contract price. Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation When you sell your house and the appraisal does not meet the contract price, what do you do? This has happened to me two or three times in the last month, despite only happening to me five other times in the last 16 years. For it to happen three times in the last month is a big deal. The great news was that I still closed all three transactions. One of the properties sold for around $195,000, although the appraisal came in at $185,000. The seller actually purchased that home from us two years before the close date for $150,000, so they made quite a bit of money. When the appraisal came in $10,000 under, we went back, renegotiated the contract, and ended up only moving about $5,000 total. I had another deal that came in $40,000 under the appraised value. I called the buyer and asked them how they would like to handle it. They said, “We love the house and we want it. We really don't care what the appraisal says. We have the funds to pay the difference.” So we went to closing with an appraisal lower than the contract price and the buyer was still thrilled with the transaction. "These are the kind of sticky situations that you run into when selling your house." Those were two great situations for the buyer and the seller. Everybody was happy, but what happens if the appraisal comes in under contract price and the buyer doesn't want to move forward? You have a couple of other options. In today's market, I'd be fine with that happening if it was my property. I would put it right back on the market and probably sell it for a little bit more depending on what was going on in your area. These are the kind of sticky situations that you can run into when selling your house. I've seen more people out there sell their house as a FSBO listing during these times because they think it’s going to be incredibly easy in a seller’s market. It's one thing to sell a house, but it's another thing entirely to close the house. When it comes to buying and selling homes, our team's here for you. We’ve closed over 3,000 transactions in the last 16 years, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make sure you're taken care of. If you’re looking to buy or sell a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We'll be happy to help you.

Here are some tips and strategies to help you make offers in this market. Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation Today I’m talking about how buyers in this market can navigate multiple-offer situations.  So you're a buyer looking for a home, and maybe you work Monday through Friday, 8 p.m. to 5 p.m., and your agent texts you at 10 p.m. saying the perfect house just hit the market. If you've been a buyer for a little while in this market, you've probably gotten to that house at 6 a.m. only to find that it's already sold. We’re seeing buyers getting burned out from things like this. How do you handle that? I always want to inspect a house before putting an offer on it. Any Arkansas real estate association contract is going to have an inspection period. If a good house hits the market at 10 a.m. but you can't get there until 5:30 p.m., go ahead and write the offer at whatever price you're comfortable with. It may get rejected or thrown out, but at least you're on the hunt. "We’re seeing buyers getting burned out from things like this." Write the offer contingent upon your inspection. Having an inspection doesn't mean you have to find something majorly wrong with the house to walk away from that contract. Your inspection can be you walking in and saying that the bedroom's too small, the layout doesn't work, or the kitchen's just not exactly what you wanted. The inspection contingency is a strategy that we have used in the past, and it works out very well, especially in a hot market like today. Another trick we have is when you write an offer, be flexible on the closing date. If you can tell a seller that once we close you’ll give them X more days to move out, that won’t cost you any money, and it will make your offer look so much better. If you have kids, write a letter to the seller about how you can see your kids playing in the backyard and all those memories being made. A heartfelt letter will go a long way with an offer as well. If you have any real estate questions, reach out to me and let me know; my cell phone number is (870) 919-4968. If you're thinking about buying or selling, I’m here to help. Have a blessed day, and we'll talk soon.

How do you prepare your home for sale in today’s market? Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation Homes have been selling with multiple offers, many of them getting well over their asking prices. Truth be told, I don’t know how long these market conditions will last, but I don’t see them slowing down anytime soon.  That said, it’s still a good idea to get your home ready for the market. Buyers may be hungry for properties, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll make offers on homes they deem in poor condition. Walk around your home and look for any cosmetic issues that need to be addressed. Cosmetic issues could include paint, floors, countertops, and so on. Be sure to touch up any scratches or scuffs. "It may take some time for subcontractors to get around to the small jobs." You should know, however, that subcontractors in our area are very busy, so if you don’t have any major renovation plans, it may take some time for them to get around to the small jobs. I also can’t tell you exactly how much you’ll be able to recoup in this market, but you’ll probably be able to price your home at a number you’re comfortable with and still leave enough money on the table for your buyer to go in and make the changes they want. If you’re in the market to sell a home or have questions about specific ways to prepare your home for the market, please reach out to us. We’re here to help.

Here’s my advice on how to handle multiple offers in this market. Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home SearchSelling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation Whether you’re listing your home in Northeast Arkansas or anywhere else in the U.S., there’s one trend I keep seeing over and over: If the home is clean, neat, and ready to sell, most of the time it’ll get multiple offers. What’s the best way to handle multiple offers, though? For starters, hopefully your listing agent lets other agents know that there are multiple offers on the table. Sometimes this scares other buyers off because they don’t want to get into a bidding war. However, we’ve found that after these same buyers have lost out on a house or two (or three), they’re willing to step up to the plate because they understand they’ll have to engage in a bidding war if they want a house in this market.  "When you have multiple offers, why not play them against each other?" That said, my team and I use the ‘highest and best’ method when handling multiple offers. Let’s say one of our sellers gets three offers for their home: one for $10,000 over asking price, one for $11,000 over asking price, and one for $12,000 over asking price. Let’s also imagine that one of these offers is an excellent offer—an offer the seller might even be willing to accept. When you have multiple offers, though, why not play those offers against each other? In this case, we’d contact each agent, tell them we have multiple offers on the table, and give them notice that we’ll go over all the offers at, say, 5 p.m. If they want to leave their offers as they are, that’s fine, but now they know there are multiple offers on the table, and there’s a good chance the seller won’t counter any of them. They’ll probably just accept one of them because they’re all at or above list price. Now their client has the opportunity to put their best foot forward.  Three to six months ago, if a buyer would’ve written an offer for a property, they probably would’ve gotten a counteroffer detailing which terms the seller would accept. Nowadays, the seller doesn’t have to do that. You can basically say that you have other offers and need the highest and best brought to you by a certain time. At that point, you can go over the offers and pick whichever one suits your needs.  If you’d like to know more about juggling multiple offers, know what your home is worth in this market, or are thinking of buying a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.