Infinity Real Estate Podcast with Steven Hall Steven Hall

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Value Report People in Seattle ask me all the time, “How much has to be done to my house before I put it on the market?" This freaks people out sometimes. Homeowners have lived in their homes for five to 20 years and they know every single thing wrong with the house, and some that they haven’t paid attention to. It can prevent some sellers from listing. What I recommend is letting me come over and take a look at what your property is worth compared to other houses around it. Then, we can determine which repairs make sense to do, if any. In this hot market, people are pounding down my door for fixers. Your house might not be a fixer, but it may need a roof or furnace or some landscaping, and you really don’t want to do it. It’s not going to affect us putting it on the market, but it is going to affect the price. “ Which repairs will get you the best return on investment? ” It might be worth it to accept $5,000 less for your house and let somebody else deal with the problems. On the other hand, some people don’t like to sell their home if it’s not in good shape. There are a couple of options there, starting with a pre-inspection, so we know what we’re dealing with. This can also help you get more money and sell quicker. We can also get an appraisal, because sometimes a house is worth more than comparable homes because of quality or features. We recently had a home listed at higher than $600,000 around other homes that were worth $450,000. Why? The homeowner was a builder for 25 years, so the home was stunning. It had crown molding throughout, the best carpet and top-of-the-line appliances, and we ended up getting $660,000 for the house within 30 days. The appraisal was a big part of that. The best thing to do is simply pick up the phone and call me. I can tell you what is and isn’t necessary to get your home sold. Now is a great time to be a seller!

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Value Report “What do you think a seller will accept for a fair price?” I get asked this all the time. In our current market, that is a particularly interesting question.  If the home has been listed for a while, 5% below asking price is acceptable. You won’t ruffle any feathers. I’ve done investment real estate for a long time, and if a property has been on the market for more than a month or two, most of the sellers are happy to receive any offer on their home at that point. Even if it’s a lowball offer, they’ll counter. You don’t lose anything with a lower offer. However, if a home has only been on the market a couple days, that’s where things get challenging. Multiple offers are common, and I recently lost a home for one of my clients. This was a beautiful property in a top school district. We were up against 13 offers over asking price, and we lost to a buyer who offered all cash and waived the inspections. There’s not much you can do in that case. Ultimately, it depends on what you’re going for. If a home has been on the market for a while, usually there’s a reason for that. If we’re smart about it, we can find out what that reason is. Maybe the seller doesn’t want to repaint the house. If that's not a deal killer for you, we can most likely negotiate something with the seller. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Value Report Today I’m here with Stephen Bay of Eco Consulting. Eco Consulting is an energy assessment company, and Stephen ensures that homes are energy efficient and educates people on ways to make their homes energy efficient. They don’t sell any products, and there is zero cost for using their services. All of their revenue comes out of the utility companies. Stephen is here to help you save money on your utility bill! Eco Consulting has been popular because they can come into your home and install free light bulbs because they use utility rebates to cover the cost. In fact, they have installed more than 90,000 LED bulbs for free! Their goal is to make residential energy use go down in Seattle. They do not sell any products, although there are a variety of companies that do sell products. However, Eco Consulting should not try to sell you anything, and they have won awards for their services in the Seattle area. When Stephen comes into your home he will perform a visual inspection and let you know what you qualify for when it comes to utility rebates. You can get up to $1,200 for a new heating system, depending on the type of unit you have. If utility companies can reduce usage, they no longer need to build more infrastructure to provide power to people. In the long run, this will save the utility companies a lot of money. An energy audit will usually take anywhere from 45 minutes to a few hours. It depends on the size of the home, and it also depends on whether or not the customer has questions or concerns. Part of Stephen’s goal is to educate his customers about how to become more energy efficient. There are a lot of different things that you can do yourself if you’d like to improve the overall efficiency of your home. Stephen finds a lot of good tips here. We also encourage you to reach out to Stephen if you have questions. Please spread the word about this service, because Eco Consulting doesn’t spend any money on marketing or advertising. They are also looking for Energy Ambassadors to help spread the word. If you educate ten people and they sign up for their free services, you can get a free lantern from LuminAID, and you will be also be entered to win eco-friendly upgrades for your home. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home searchSelling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Value Report Today I have Joe Tafoya with me, and he's going to be speaking about a fantastic grant program that's available. Essentially, you can get $20,800 for free. You don't ever need to pay it back! A lot of people don't believe that this is real, but it is. It's available through an FHA loan. Now is a wonderful time to buy a home because of low interest rates, and if you combine that with this grant program, it's a phenomenal time to buy a home. This grant program will cover a percentage of your down payment up to $20,800. This is a wonderful opportunity, especially if you're a first-time buyer. If you plan on living in a home and then using it as an investment property a few years down the road, this is a great way to buy it. Joe recently helped a client receive $15,000 for a down payment, and they also got their money back for the appraisal, the inspection, and they even received a free home warranty. That's a pretty good deal! Before we end, I'd like to say that right now is a good time to sell as well. Buyer demand is good right now because of these low interest rates, and when I mention this grant program to buyers they're usually convinced that they should buy a home while their buying power is high. This means that if you choose to sell now, we can probably find you a buyer that's willing to pay a good price for your home. There is no catch here! Please don't hesitate to contact me about this opportunity. I look forward to speaking with you.

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; height: auto; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Value Report Today we are talking about a  grant program called the National Housing Fund. It’s a nonprofit run program for home buyers, and it offers them grants to use towards purchasing a house. Since this is a “grant” by definition, you don’t have to pay a cent of it back. But what’s the catch? We’ll explain everything for you today. This grant program is designed to give you up to $20,800 towards buying a home with no stipulations attached to it. The National Housing Fund is a nonprofit, set up by the US bank in 2006. They have funded over 20,000 of these loans so far. The way I look at it is as an incentive for you to use their loan programs. Why would you use this loan program over another? Well, it’s free money! The interest rate for this loan is relatively low as well, with a 4.5% 30-year fixed rate. If you don’t have the money for a down payment of closing costs, you can use this program to get into a house with $0 down. If you do have money in your pocket, keep it there and let the grant program pay for some of your principal. To qualify for this grant, you do need to meet a few requirements. The first is that you make less than $103,000 as an individual. You will also need 3 years of verifiable income, and a credit score of 640 or above. To qualify, all you have to do is give us a quick call or email and we can get you in touch with a lender who will let you know if you qualify, 99% of the time, people do. If you want to learn more about this program, check out this website. You can also give us a call or shoot us an email with any questions! We look forward to hearing from you soon!