What is Real Estate Commission?

Real estate agents are the lovely ladies and gentlemen that list and show prospective buyers around houses, apartments and condos that are for sale. This puts them in the “sales” category of real estate firms, meaning the more they sell, the more money they can potentially make. Thanks to commissions (a percentage of the houses they sell, they earn), real estate agents get additional incentive to close more deals.

What Percentage of Commission Do Agents Get?

The actual percentages themselves can vary by the real estate firm and the individual agents that represent them. However, it typically ranges from around 5-6% – with those of the high-end and luxury variety closing in on double figures.

Which Parties Do The Commission-Generated Funds Come From?

More times than not, the seller ends up paying all of the commission at the close of sale. This is typically included in the “closing costs” that come up during that final meeting when you finally get the keys to your new home! Though typically, the fees don’t go right from seller to real estate agent. In most cases, it goes to the real estate broker – the one that funds your mortgage, as they often work directly with real estate agents. Sellers can easily calculate the asking price and factor in the commission rate to know what to offer up when the time comes. However, depending on the specific agreement, some of these terms can vary a bit.

Are These Rules Universal?

Many of these practices are considered the norm and are therefore generally accepted as default. However, there are no legal mandates that make this imperative, so in the event of unlikely circumstances, some adjustments can be made to the contract prior to signing. Your best bet is to work with an established real estate agent that will consider your needs first.

Are The Commissions Worth It?

99 times out of 100, absolutely and without a doubt the commission fees are worth working with a real estate agent. First off, your real estate agent most likely knows (and can recommend) other key figures involved with the process (the broker, a real estate attorney, home inspector, a handyman, etc.) The peace of mind knowing you have a network of trusted professionals will save you some hours of sleep. Plus, and this is vital – your real estate agent knows the housing market a lot more than you do and I don’t care how much you researched it. Because your real estate agent makes a commission on the sale, you’ll get top dollar for your house, which should more than cover the commission fees. Remember – you’re on the same side!

The post How Real Estate Commissions Work appeared first on Newton Search.

Scope Out the Competition

Start your home selling process with a personal marketing plan. Arm yourself with information about the current home buying climate in your vicinity. Scan the realty websites for your area daily. Who is your competition? For starters, every other home with the same square footage, number of bedrooms, bathroom, garage stalls, and acreage. Is your basement/attic finished? What is the top price for a home with similar features near you? Be sure not to allow a realtor to top that when listing your residence, or you’ll be the last to be seen by prospects and therefore the last to be sold.

Condition Counts

Then there is the matter of condition. How old is your home? Your neighborhood? Traditionally, older, more established neighborhoods will have mature landscaping, more varied architectural styles (i.e. not cookie cutter), and, most important, lower taxes. Next, focus on your home: how old is the roof? What kind of plumbing materials were used- copper, lead, or PVC? Is your foundation poured concrete/rebar or cinder block, which one? Any sign of foundation cracks? Evidence of https://www.servicemasterrestore.com/residential/water-damage inside or outside your home? Insect infestation either active or historic?

Location, Always Location

It’s also important to be realistic about where your home is situated. Buyers dream of being near the water, having a https://www.playcrystalsprings.com/ close by, being within walking distance to shopping, dining, and their children’s elementary schools. Next to a commercial area, directly across from a school, bordering a cemetery, in an airport flightpath, within hearing distance of a railroad, near a high-crime area are not as desirable as locations that offer more peace and quiet as well as safety and privacy. No upmarket kitchen or finished basement can overcome being situated in a less than optimal neighborhood. Such homes must be priced accordingly, marketing must be vigorous, and owners can expect a longer listing to closing time.

Market Conditions

Is it a buyers or a sellers market? If the former, expect to be inspected and any price point challenged in order to make the sale. Even if it is a sellers market, it is important not to over improve your residence, you’ll probably have to ante up to buy in wherever you are going so save money on the selling end. When marketing your home, if you invest too much improving it thinking you’ll sell at a higher price, buyers will simply look -and buy- elsewhere.

If you have to sell your home during what you consider to be an adverse time, consider any advantages you’ll have such as not getting your asking price when selling, will likely mean paying less when you buy in your new city or town. There is usually a silver lining to these transactions, so look for it and seek ways to benefit from any hiccups in the selling/buying process. Our best advice: Become and stay optimistic and be realistic.

We cannot overstate this point: when upgrading for a sale, don’t overdo it. Here are the leading reasons home buyers cite when rejecting a property, so be sure to think twice before making your residence too good to be sold!

Kitchen Remodel

Today’s buyers may want turnkey but they also want kitchens and bathrooms their way. Those high-end cherry cabinets you installed will not resonate with buyers who are sold on having a clean white contemporary look. Ditto for that name appliance package you bought at the big box store when your neighborhood and buyers’ budget dictates commercial appliances and nothing less. The caveats to this statement are if your kitchen is over 15 years old- then prospects will question if the rest of your home has been well-maintained. Also, if your competitors have renovated their kitchens, you must as well. Or, depending on the market, consider deducting the cost of a kitchen reno from your asking price or offering a modest stipend at closing towards a kitchen remodel.

Unfinished Renovations

It only makes the residence look as if an unskilled DIYer incapable of finishing anything started and then lost interest. Presenting a cohesive home is not only appealing, it also inspires buyer confidence. For example, installing granite in a kitchen with outmoded appliances and cabinets will only point out how worn everything else looks and signal a need for a gut job instead of a more cost-effective renovation. Taste is very personal so making upgrades based on your taste might also deter buyers from pulling the trigger since they are considering having to rip out your upgrades to ‘have it their way’. Buyers see it as paying for your mistakes.

Replacing a Bedroom

Before you remodel your mid Century modern or split ranch by converting a small bedroom into a walk-in closet, think again. You’ll need that bedroom to garner the most money from prospects. Instead, your brochure that details the home’s features can state, “4-bedrooms, 3-baths, ideal for in-law suite, home office, and/or walk-in closet conversion.” Let the new folks tailor their new home to meet their needs. Don’t anticipate what those needs might be and lose important living space in the meantime.

Conversions

While we are on the subject, think twice before converting your basement into a private suite, adding a bathroom, or home theatre. Most buyers will not want them. Some folks just want storage, and a clean place to do the laundry. Instead, keep it simple. Paint the floors and walls using products just for this purpose, cap the steel posts with inexpensive poly columns, and present a clean canvas for new owners to make their mark. It is especially important not to imply that the space can be used for living quarters as most jurisdiction now require an outside entrance and egress windows along with an approved variance and permit.

Swimming Pools

Once an upgrade that cinched the deal, now swimming pools are viewed by many as a liability. Either the location is not ideal, or the thought of increased taxes, the cost of insurance and maintenance, and its size, shape, and/or construction are red flags to many buyers. If you have one, just make sure you have your costs to maintain, and the name of your https://www.endlesspools.com/ maintenance person available. Do not put in a pool to increase your chances of a higher home sale. Unless you live in the Southwest, California, or Florida, today’s cost-conscious home buyers are not interested in this upgrade anymore.

We hope you find this information helpful. Just remember there are many updates that can and will speed the selling process. Most of these will not break the bank. To begin with, a home that has been well-maintained will not require a significant cash outlay to become market-ready, just some decluttering, polish and staging. Be sure to follow these pointers before you contact a realtor to ensure an optimal listing price. After all, your home represents a large financial commitment. It is important, especially if moving to a more expensive region, to pull every possible dollar out of your investment. Best of luck!

The post Selling Your Home? Top 5 Upgrades to Avoid and Why appeared first on Newton Search.

KEYLESS ENTRY: The concept is simple- enter a (usually) 4-digit code and voila, no need for keys. The convenience of keyless entry includes your morning run when keys would pose a nuisance, visitors, contractors, delivery personnel, or tenants who can have a code of their own which can be wiped upon their departure. For those who live alone losing your keys and not having entry to your home is one less thing to worry about.

SMART HOME SECURITY: We will not mention brand names but there are a wealth of options for every size home and budget. No one should be without a home security system, if only for the 15% (sometimes higher) rebate on our annual home insurance policy. In addition to cameras that can be monitored remotely by the homeowner or by a subscription service, full-featured home security systems offer the option to control thermostats and lighting on every floor to lower energy costs. Some even warn against fire, carbon monoxide, leaks, and potential flood hazards. As previously stated, while most can be controlled remotely, some offer voice control as well.

SMART VACUUMS AND MORE: We have all seen the disc-shaped vacuums that sense boundaries and challenges to clean an entire floor on a single charge, then return to their home base. All one needs to do is empty them. While this is just grand, there are limitations including steps and thick rugs. Still, for interim tidying between deep cleanings, many homeowners swear by them.

Following this concept, weekend warriors who detest pushing the lawnmower will rejoice at the cordless robotic mowers that take on hills and tree roots with ease. Several major brands now offer models so while today these paragons are ideal for small lawns only, within a few years, there is the potential to swap one green (your yard), with another (the golf course). BTW: Robotics are also available to clean pools and control your sprinklers more effectively than ever before. And you’re welcome!

PERSONAL ASSISTANTS: The residential, voice-activated, AI-driven personal assistant is like having another family member. One that actually performs the chores you task it with! Beyond providing information, orchestrating online ‘visits’, and complying with home security systems, these devices now work in tandem with specialized light bulbs, wall switches, televisions, and even draperies and window coverings to make our lives more convenient. If one had to select one Smart Home upgrade for convenience and another for safety, the Voice-Activated Personal Assistant and the Smart Home Security System would be top of the list.

Give a Pass to These Smart Home Innovations

SMART MIRROR/BODY SCANNER: Unless one works in an industry where appearance is everything, the smart mirror/body scanner delves too far into the realm of pseudo-science and extreme vanity. The facial version informs users of facial blemishes, etc. (And their eyes don’t?) Additionally, it can be used to note changes in skin tone over time so one can determine if that expensive anti-wrinkle cream is worth the expense. The body version will let you know if your workouts have been effective or not based on your changing contours. (Your newly baggy clothes will not?)

METABOLISM STIMULATORS: This falls under the ‘now we have heard everything’ category. The unit is a headset that “allows” wearers to eat whatever they want and still lose weight. The machine is said to stimulate the brain so that it metabolizes faster leading to quick weight loss regardless of what the wearer has ingested. Uh, if that is the case, I’ll have the Lobster Thermador, heavy on the butter and cream, please! Dream on!

SMART MATTRESS: This is a sleep aid that does more than just support the spine- or does it? It monitors one’s resting heart rate, notes the bedroom temperature and noise rate, offers LED light therapy, and allegedly stops snoring. Sounds like an amusement park for insomniacs and any MD can tell you that adjusting one’s sleeping position will not realign one’s septum, the usual cause of nocturnal wood sawing, anyway.

WIFI-ENABLED APPLIANCES: We are not talking about coffee makers that know when you rise and have a piping hot pot of fresh java waiting. No! These innovations range from ‘cookie pods’ and an appliance whose sole purpose is to bake four cookies at a time and signal when it is finished (in my house our noses do the signaling for us), a fork that vibrates to let users know that they are eating too fast, an automatic dental flosser that sees one approach the sink and immediately dispenses floss (what if you only want to wash your hands?), and a pet food dispenser that ejects doggie treats by remote control from your mobile device. The good news is that they don’t work when your WiFi is down. Yes, that is the only good news.

As with most new technology, those who welcome it will take to new ways of doing daily tasks with ease. Those who are not, such as this author who has reservations about having a new ride with keyless entry and ignition, the best advice is to read the instructions and have a back-up plan- such as an entry system with keyless or keyed entry options. Sooner than later these innovations will become commonplace and ‘can’t live withouts’. If getting in on the ground floor of new technology is too much, just opt for one feature at a time, such as a personal assistant which is scalable and will allow even the most skittish to add on as needed. The “Brave New World” that Huxley wrote about is happening now, but that is not just cause to break the bank in the name of home improvement. After all, innovation and technology are meant to improve the quality of our lives, if only we’ll allow it!

The post Best Smart Upgrades for New Homeowners appeared first on Newton Search.

Directing our thoughts and interests to our own lives, is a relatively new trend. However, a couple generations back we had to depend on our neighbors for assistance. Neighbors and neighborhoods were built by folks from a similar background, immigrants who banded together to come to the New World and pursue the American Dream. Our children played together, grew up together, sometimes married each other, and families congregated together, if not in the same building, then often on the same street. In short, everyone knew everyone else and many were actually related to everyone else!

Time and circumstances have changed. One hundred years ago folks pretty much lived their entire lives in one place. Today the average person lives at five different addresses in their lifetime, and for many of us, leaving home after high school or college is a rite of passage. Air travel and employment can take the adventurous to foreign locales. Even for those of us who live in the same house for decades, we cannot name more than four or five families on our block, if that. With this new paradigm of seclusion and privacy comes the jarring possibility that we do not know our neighbors. This can prove detrimental, as you’ll soon see.

See Something? What to Do Before You Say Something

How many of us have turned on the news and seen stories about criminal activities in a residential neighborhood? Usually these broadcasts include interviews with neighbors who profess to have no knowledge of the sinister activities going on virtually under their noses. In fact, most declare that the neighbors in question kept to themselves, or were very polite, or betrayed none of what anyone would expect someone capable of a capital offense to resemble. Still others observed and wondered about the goings on next door, but were afraid to come forward and contact the authorities because they feared reprisal. If you are remotely curious about your neighbors, or want to know if there is something they might be hiding, first try Googling their name. If nothing of interest comes up, dig deeper. Visit kiwisearches.com. This site provides more in-depth information about an individual including previous addresses, family members, their phone number, possible criminal history, information about their finances, the properties they own, and more.

On a more minor note, keeping to one’s self or being the different family in an established neighborhood also draws its share of unwanted, and unwarranted interest. On my block, our neighbor Skip provides landscaping and snowplowing services with his son-in-law, Daniel, who, you guessed it, lives directly across the street from him. Skip lives in the house he grew up in and knows just about everyone in town- it is that kind of place. It is Skip who acts as the neighborhood goodwill ambassador sharing information about neighbors at one address with those at another, sometimes with surprising results. More than once I’ve responded to a knock at my door and found neighbors looking to hire an attorney, which I am not. Or found a young couple inspecting my front steps and asking if I would consider selling my house. Another time a family came and serenaded me from outside because Skip said I’d been in the hospital and could use some good cheer.
How to Build Goodwill in Your Neighborhood

He doesn’t always get his facts straight, but keeping everyone’s welfare and wellbeing in mind, well, that’s Skip and that’s what a good neighbor does. If you do not know your neighbors and do not have the good fortune to have a local Skip, try to get to know them. Bring over a potluck …leave a generic gift on their porch. Buy Girl Scout Cookies or gift wrap from their children, even if you’ve already bought yours at the office. Once you know a few families on your block, consider throwing a block party, or a neighborhood swap meet, or even a multi-address yard sale. Go caroling together- don’t laugh, we do! Make a big display at Halloween and give out quality candy/candy alternatives. Don’t forget the Winter holidays! A few dollars worth of lights and a little ingenuity, yours can be the showplace of the neighborhood!

So if you live on a street where you do not know your neighbors there are several options. 1) Do nothing and enjoy life as it is. 2) Snoop a little and look them up on Kiwisearch.com. Then, if all seems well, get to know at least the people whose property flanks yours (I found my plumber that way!). Even if it doesn’t go past the introduction stage, you’ll know you did the right thing, and, who knows, maybe you’ll make a new ally!

The post Won’t You Be My Neighbor? What do you really know about the people next door? appeared first on Newton Search.

By 2008, however, the honeymoon was over. Hit with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of 1929, first stocks and similar investments, then home values were the last bastion to fall. From 2004 until 2010 across the country, home values averaged a 30% drop. While the U.S. economy has demonstrated steady upward progress since late 2009, we are only now (if one believes the politicians) on the cusp of reestablishing the same economic vitality as before the fall a decade ago. A lot of ink has been spilled with countless journalists raising fear among potential homeowners as to the volatility of the housing market. For anyone who has studied economics, they should have seen it (the ‘recession’) coming.

Economics 101: What You Need to Know About Supply and Demand

Most of the theory behind the U.S. economy and its policies stem from a British financier, Maynard Keynes. Simply put, nations are supply-focused and when demand for a commodity, such as housing, is high, inflation must be introduced to drop prices to more acceptable levels. Now that is a very diluted version of his macroeconomic theory. To extend it a bit, know that everything, even downturns, runs in cycles, and that cycles impact some areas, regions, even nations, with differing intensity and duration. Why this happens will not be explained here. In short, the current economic downturn was forecast decades ago by a Brit you’ve probably never heard of, and everyone from top executives at Fortune 100 enterprises and elected leaders, follow the economic trends as laid out by Keynes over 80 years ago. Also, that the solution for home buyers, while simple in theory, may be hard to accept: Save as much as one can for a down payment, keep one’s credit rating as high as possible, and know when it is time to apply for a mortgage, and to call a realtor to ‘get in the game’.

How to know when it is time? Well, the cycle we just mentioned represents the business or trade cycle. It is viewed as the up and down movement of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The cycle represents the time that an economic boom peaks and the inevitable contraction both run their course and the economy levels off. What happens next? In other words, what goes up must come down. The boom/contract cycle starts over again, just from a different position that it had held before. It is not a simple matter of waiting until the boom collapses because along with it, other factors, such as employment, may be impacted as well.

Let’s now compare taking the plunge and buying a home with the game many played as a kid, double-Dutch jump rope. Remember standing by the sidelines and gauging when was the optimal time to jump in yet avoid becoming tangled in the ropes’ revolving cycle? (Brought new meaning to the term, ‘knowing the ropes’.) You might we wondering, well, if the economy is on the rise again, is it time? Simple rule of thumb: If your debt load is small or non-existent, if you have saved at least 10% of your home’s estimated cost, if you have been gainfully employed for at least the last two years (preferably at the same firm), if you are fiscally responsible, then is it highly likely that you can enter the marketplace and experience all the joys and challenges of home ownership.
What If You Bought a Home Between 2004 and 2010?

This theory also works for those who have purchased and maintained homes since 2004. Residential home prices across the nation are expected to appreciate by almost 7% this year. Despite this increase, many will find that their premises may not be worth quite what they initially paid for them, but understand that realistically, they have not thrown money away on rent. Know when to cash out by understanding what you need monetarily to maintain the next facet of your life and that your current home will only partially finance that new lifestyle. There are many housing options to consider as well: condos, new-builds, older homes, and townhomes are but a few choices.

Where to buy? What to buy? When to buy? How much home can I really afford? These are some of the questions to ask as well as a great way to establish relationships with a mortgage banker and a realtor. These professionals will have your back and guide you toward home ownership. For example, if you are a DIYer, a fixer-upper in a well-established neighborhood will make your money go farthest. That’s because you are building equity into a home by upgrading it, and older homes will likely have lower property taxes as well. Housing starts are another great option as the current demand for construction supplies and lumber is soaring. New housing communities and condo development often have ‘sweetheart deals’ and offer substantial discounts to buyers not willing to wait until the entire building project is complete. Putting up with the noise and inconvenience by day for a couple years may be worth it to spend less when buying your forever home.

The most important caveat for those who have calculated what they need to buy a home, is to also know what it will cost to maintain and to live there day-to-day. There are many formulas online to help you with your personal finances, so do the math, know your numbers, and get out there and buy your piece of the American Dream.

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