We Caravan For You !

Every Tuesday Dwayne and I join our fellow Keller Williams agents and go "on caravan" to tour the newest Keller Williams listings. Why does that matter to you? It matters because it means that we are previewing the best listings just as they are coming on the market. It matters because it means that we are up to date on the current pricing for homes in this market. It matters because it exposes us to the widest spectrum of properties and hones our ability to critically evaluate a property in terms of the current market for our buyers and sellers. We caravan for you every Tuesday! And if you list with us, our fellow Keller Williams agents will be getting a look at your property just as it comes on the market. And one of our agents may already have your buyer!

We're working to expand our business, and we need your help! Please give The NO BULL Team a call and let us help with all your real estate needs!

Marianne and Dwayne Smith
The NO BULL Team
Keller Williams Realty, Hendersonville, TN
615-509-2428
615-517-6560
615-822-8585
email: nobullteam@kw.com
http://www.therealestatecowgirl.com/
http://www.nobullteam.com/

Making Your Home More Appealing to Buyers

Check out this great slideshow on how to make your home more appealing to buyers:

http://tinyurl.com/yjdr5dm

It has some easy and inexpensive ideas that will add more money to your pockets when your house is sold!

Source: Realtor.org, "Ten Affordable Home Redos" by Barbara Ballinger, November, 2009

If you would like for us to walk through your home and make staging and presentation suggestions, please give us a call or shoot us an email. We're here to help with all your real estate decisions!

Marianne and Dwayne Smith
The NO BULL Team
Keller Williams Realty, Hendersonville, TN
615-509-2428
615-517-6560
615-822-8585
email: nobullteam@kw.com
www.therealestatecowgirl.com
www.nobullteam.com

Home Staging Begins With Closets

Advertisers spend a lot of time, effort and money to make their products appealing to buyers. Every image, color and font is specifically chosen to be attractive to buyers and to make the product stand out from the competition. It really is no different when selling your house. If you want buyers to choose your home over the others on the market, you need to make sure it is more appealing and more memorable.

One seldom used strategy for appealing to buyers is to impress them with extremely organized cabinets and closets.

That's right! Having clean, organized cabinets and closets sends a message to buyers. The message is that a very organized, meticulous person lives here. The entire house is then perceived, in the mind of the buyer, as having been very well maintained.

It really isn't that much extra work. Consider it a head start on your packing to move. Take one room or closet at a time. Remove all off-season clothing. Pull out everything you don't need or use on a daily basis and divide into three piles...
1. Trash 2. Donate 3. Pre-pack.

All remaining items should be arranged neatly, putting like items together and storing small items in matching storage containers. Having labels facing out will create an even greater sense of order.

Make sure closet floors are free of clutter, swept, and clean.

Make sure cabinet shelves are clean and either painted or covered with shelf liner.

Wipe all drawers in kitchen and bathrooms with a damp cloth. Don't forget to clean out medicine cabinets.

If your competition is not making this extra effort, you will definitely have the advantage. If you just can't bring yourself to get into this whole process, consider hiring a professional to do the job.

Marianne Smith

The Real Estate Cowgirl and The NO BULL Team

Keller Williams Realty, Hendersonville, TN

cowgirl@kw.com

615-517-6560

615-822-8585

Information Re-blogged from Sharon Tara Transformations (Home Stager in New Hampshire).

Concerned About Selling Before You Find Another Home?

Many buyers have justifiable concerns about timing when they are both buying and selling a home. But if you find yourself not wanting to move twice, ask us about contractual language to give you a negotiable close date, or to opt out of the selling process entirely if the timing is just completely wrong.


A contractual clause like this can allow you to go ahead and sell your current home with a much greater comfort level. And then you have also eliminated having to buy contingent to selling your current home.

In our current Buyer's Market, contingencies are not being readily accepted. Even if they are accepted, they frequently don't result in a closed sale. Another buyer who is "ready and able" can pull the carpet right out from under you! Most sellers who accept contingencies employ a "48 hour clause" that gives them the right to move on within 48 hours of notifying you that they have a buyer without the home selling contingency (even though you are under contract).

So if you are nervous about the timing of selling your current home, be sure and consult with The NO BULL Team. We can help keep those jitters at bay and get you through the process and into your next home!


Marianne and Dwayne Smith
The NO BULL Team
nobullteam@kw.com
615-517-6560
615-509-2428

The Seven DONT"S of Mortgage Funding

Wish I had been aware of this information the first time I attempted to buy a home:

The Seven DONT'S of Mortgage Funding

1. Don't change your employment status.

2. Don't make any major purchases (cars, furniture, home theater, vacations, etc.).

3. Don't increase your credit card debt or miss any payments.

4. Don't change bank accounts or make undisclosed large deposits.

5. Don't apply for a credit card, co-sign a loan or make a credit inquiry.

6. Don't spend money you have set aside for closing--not any, not ever.

7. Don't delay in providing all paperwork asked for by the mortgage company.

If you follow this advice, you can secure the loan and close on your home! Many don't realize that there is a final credit check before the loan is funded...

Source: Gary Keller, Shift, 2009

7 Tips for First Time Home Buyers

A year after the financial collapse of 2008, the housing market is very different than it was before the foreclosure crisis. Here are seven bits of wisdom from economists and financial planners for anyone contemplating a home purchase today:

• 
  Old-fashioned basics are more important than ever. The safest way to purchase a home is to put down 20 percent on a fixed-rate, 30-year (or less) mortgage.



• 
  Don’t become overconfident about income growth. Even though buyers in their 20s and 30s will likely see their incomes grow more quickly than previous generations, it is important to act sensibly when borrowing.



• 
  Anyone contemplating adding children to the family should calculate whether they could live on one income because having both halves of a couple work may turn out to be impractical.



• 
  Include a maintenance budget. Even new homes need upkeep and repairs.



• 
  Buyers who can't afford their dream home now should opt for a starter home where they can save money each month for what they really want.



• 
  Consider a property that can be expanded and improved down the road when money is available.



• 
  No two buyers are the same, but they should all feel confident with the loan they enter into, no matter the size of the mortgage.Source: The New York Times, Ron Lieber (09/12/2009)

A New Concept: The Thirty Minute Open House

My broker introduced me to a brilliant marketing idea recently: the thirty minute open house!

Holding an open house for only thirty minutes instead of the usual two hour window accomplishes three critical things:

1. You have immediately created an urgency for buyers to see the home. They may rearrange their route to be sure they make it to yours.



2. The shortened time span means that more potential buyers will be in the home at the same time. Perception then becomes that this is a "hot" property.



3. Buyers who are looking at the home are more likely to be targeted buyers (not looky-loos).

So if you see me out hosting a thirty minute open house, it's not that I have a train to catch! But I do have a BUYER to catch!

Marianne Smith
The Real Estate Cowgirl and The NO BULL Team
http://www.therealestatecowgirl.com/
615-517-6560
Keller Williams Realty, Hendersonville, TN
Each office independently owned and operated

Financing Hobby Farms/Ranches In the Current Market

Had an amazingly informative conversation yesterday with Jeff Stine of Platinum Financial Funding regarding how current market changes are affecting ranch/hobby farm financing here in Tennessee. Here are some tips that might be helpful if you are considering financing a hobby farm or ranch:

• If you stay at 10 acres or less with a home, you have several financing options, including FHA. If you go over 10 acres, your options diminish quickly. Important note: FHA is not currently fond of modular homes or trailers on acreage and will not finance them. Your primary option for more than 10 acres with home, or modular homes or trailers, or land by itself is BANK financing.

• Community Banks are your best bet for financing most farm/ranch properties over 10 acres. The four Jeff recommended most highly are: American Security Bank and Trust, Sumner Bank and Trust (at Indian Lake), First State Bank, and Wilson Bank and Trust. Bank financing usually requires 20 to 25% down.

• If you find the ideal equestrian property with barn/arena, consider the possibility of setting it up as a business loan.

• If you find land that you’d like to build on, then you could consider a staggered construction loan.

• If you find a property that is a major fixer-upper, you need a bank loan and NOT a traditional mortgage. Once the property meets inspection criteria, then you could always refi and move into a mortgage.
  

Most of all, don't get discouraged. If you partner with THE REAL ESTATE COWGIRL, there IS usually a solution! Knowing what the current financial climate is is half the battle.

FIVE POSITIVE MONTHS

Pending home sales are up for the fifth consecutive month, the first time in six years for such a streak, according to the National Association of Realtors®. The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in June, rose 3.6 percent to 94.6 from an upwardly revised reading of 91.3 in May, and is 6.7 percent above June 2008 when it was 88.7. The last time there were five consecutive monthly gains was in July 2003. Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a combination of positive market factors is fueling the gains. “Historically low mortgage interest rates, affordable home prices and large selection are encouraging buyers who’ve been on the sidelines. Activity has been consistently much stronger for lower priced homes,” he said. “Because it may take as long as two months to close on a home after signing a contract, first-time buyers must act fairly soon to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit because they must close on the sale by November 30.”

Source: National Association of Realtors Newsletter, August 14, 2009

Tips for Getting a Good Appraisal

Appraisals can be tricky these days. Here’s some advice from Maureen Sweeney, a Chicago-area owner of an appraisal firm, on getting an accurate and fair appraisal:


Both the real estate practitioner and the owner should be present for the appraisal and follow the appraiser around. Make sure he doesn’t miss anything important.

Ask questions to determine if the appraiser has identified the correct neighborhood boundaries and if she’s comparing the home to similar properties.

Bring a copy of a recent tax bill and a survey of the property, and give them to the appraiser.

Provide a list of improvements to the home.

Your real estate professional should offer their opinion about what makes this property worth more than other properties in the area.

Source: Chicago Tribune, Mary Umberger (08/02/2009)

6 Reasons Houses Don't Sell

• Why do some houses sell and others don’t? There’s no ultimate answer to this question, but Tribune Media Services columnist Ilyce Glink has a theory. Here are her six top reasons properties linger on the market:
  

Lousy pictures on the Web.
Priced too high for the neighborhood.
Blah interior; ho-hum landscaping.
Little online marketing and hard-to-find MLS listings.
Low commissions. Practitioners make sure their customers see properties that offer a payoff.
Miserable maintenance, including ceiling stains, leaky faucets, and ancient furnaces.
Source: Tribune Media Services, Ilyce Glink (8/2/2009)

Have some of these problems currently? Don't despair. Let me look at your home and make suggestions for getting your home show-ready. Sprucing up and staging your home really does work! The Real Estate Cowgirl can show you how to bling out your home. Blinging sells!

Welcome to The NO BULL Blog on Real Estate

Venturing out into the land of blogging! Hope to provide you with lots of stuff you can use to make good real estate decisions. We'll follow market conditions so that you'll know when it's wise to leap, or wiser to hold what you've got! Happy to answer any real estate questions you may have, as well. If I don't know the answer, I'll find out. If there's a real estate topic that you'd like to see more about, please let me know. The REAL ESTATE COWGIRL is here to serve, and that's NO BULL!