Unexpected Costs Could Leave You Reeling

Don’t go into a transaction unprepared. There is a difference between closing costs and the total cost to close, and it could be thousands of dollars.

Want to Sell Your Home? Get the Value of Your Central or Southwest Virginia Home

Looking to Buy a Home? Search All Homes on the MLS

Today we’re going to discuss some of the unexpected costs you may run into when purchasing a home, specifically regarding closing costs.

Closing costs are different from the cost to close. A lot of people think closing costs are everything they’ll need to close on a home. 

The difference between specific closing costs and the total cost to close could be thousands of dollars.

In our area, however, closing costs are strictly defined in the contract, so the difference between specific closing costs and the total cost to close could be thousands of dollars. 

Your annual homeowners insurance is not a closing cost—it is a cost to close, as are property taxes. Things like that can run up your cost to close very quickly, so when you’re getting a quote for closing costs, make sure it’s not just for closing costs, but how much money you will actually need in total to be able to close on the home.


If you need any information about this or other topics, please feel free to contact us.

How Can You Get More Buyers for Your Home?

Buying a Central or Southwest Virginia Area home?  Perform a full home search

Selling your Central or Southwest Virginia Area home?   Get a free Home Price Evaluation

When it comes to pricing homes in real estate, it’s more of an art form than a science. Today we are going to answer a question we’ve been getting quite a bit from our clients, “What do I do when my house isn’t seeing any activity?”

In our market, it’s not too hard to tell whether we have the right price for your home. Unless you are in an odd area or have an odd, unique house, if you aren’t getting any people looking at the house, we know the market is rejecting the price. At this point, we will have to do a price adjustment so people will start to take a look at the home.

However, if you are getting decent traffic in the home, but no offers, the market is telling us that although the home is priced right, there is something about the home (whether it be its condition, appearance, or flow of the house) that the market doesn’t like. My job is to identify this, try to correct it, and make a pricing adjustment if I can’t. 

If you have a home on the market that is in good shape and in a good area that’s not getting a lot of traffic, it may be time for you to give us a call so we can help you adjust the price for the market so you can start to see some offers.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email.

What’s the Best Way to Narrow Down Your Home Search?

Buying a Central or Southwest Virginia Area home? 
Perform a full home search

Selling your Central or Southwest Virginia Area home? 
 Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Today we are here to talk about how you can keep track of all the different homes you will be seeing when it comes time to buy. We get asked all the time how we recommend buyers go about this, and we wanted to share our simple system with you today.

In real estate, we aren’t legally allowed to tell you which neighborhoods, streets, and areas are better than others. What we will do, however, is send you all the homes that match your criteria, and you can check them out for yourself and see the kinds of areas they are in. This is a really easy way to get a feel for a neighborhood, one that has available properties that match your search criteria. 

After you take a look for yourself, we will take you to visit any and all of the houses that you want to pursue. We will give you an MLS sheet for every listing, and when you like one, you can keep it and take notes on it. If you don’t like the home, just fold it in half and put it on the clipboard we will provide you.

Our average client looks at 7-10 homes and they are all homes that match their criteria and that they want to see. It’s a really good, simple way to ensure you won’t waste your time looking at homes you don’t want to see, and it will be a good use of your time.

If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

Potential Problems to Look Out for During Your Home Search

Buying a Central or Southwest Virginia Area home? 
Perform a full home search

Selling your Central or Southwest Virginia Area home? 
 Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Today, we're going to talk about what you should look for when you're looking at a home. First of all, you don't ever want to have to convince yourself to buy a home. When you walk into the right home, you're going to know it.

That said, you do want to pay attention to anything that would cause you not to buy the house. Every house will probably have settlement cracks, but settlement cracks that are larger on one end than the other are actually spreading. Split bricks could also be an indication of a foundation problem.

You always want to look at chimneys for water issues. Also pay attention to skylights and windows.

The yard should slope away from the house; otherwise, water will be moving towards your home.

We always suggest you get a home inspection by a good home inspector. We recommend Blue Ridge home inspection. We also suggest getting a home warranty. This is like a service plan on the house. You do pay a deductible, but if the HVAC or water heater goes out, then you're covered. We recommend checking out Home Warranty of America.

If you have any questions about this or any other real estate topic, please don't hesitate to contact us. I would love to hear from you!