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Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Selling Your Home

Some common mistakes homeowners make when selling their home and how to avoid them. 

(Image Courtesy of upscaleelkgroveliving.com)
(Image Courtesy of upscaleelkgroveliving.com)

Buying a home is one of the biggest investments we make in life. So, naturally, when it comes time to sell your home it can be a stressful venture, to say the least. However, just because it isn’t easy, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do your best to minimize surprises, maximize your profits, and successfully make a return on your investment. 

The housing market in Orlando and the Central Florida area as a whole is low in inventory at the moment, which is driving home prices up throughout our area. This doesn’t guarantee a profit from the sale of your home, but if it does increase your opportunity. Here are some common things to avoid in hopes of selling your home quickly and getting a good price. 

1. Not Pricing Your Home Appropriately 

What your home is worth compared to what it’s worth to you are sometimes two very different numbers. Under and over-pricing are two of the biggest mistakes homeowners make when time comes to sell their properties. Not being realistic about your home’s value can be very costly and drag out the entire selling process. It is vital that you familiarize yourself with the current market and do your research on comparable homes in the area. Armed with these numbers and the value your house has been appraised for can help you set a realistic figure. Has your home been on the market for longer than 30 days with no offers? It might be priced too high. 

2. For Sale By Owner

fsboSelling your home on your own could save you money up front, but it will likely cost you in the long run. We’ve talked before about the importance of hiring a professional, but it’s so important that it’s worth mentioning again. Not taking advantage of a professional’s knowledge and expertise – chances are your home will take much longer to sell and for much less than you hoped to get. 

3. Bad Presentation 

Potential home buyers want to be able to see a house and be able to envision their lives there. If your house is untidy and clutter or empty and unlived in, buyers will often leave with a bad taste in their mouth. Another all too common problem is having poor pictures of your home posted on the web. Chances are buyers will see bad photos of your home and quickly move on to the next one. There’s even evidence that professionally  b staged homes sell up to seven times faster than their non-staged counterparts. Just don’t overestimate the allure of a freshly painted, well-lit interior. It could make all the difference. 

4. Refusing To Negotiate

Depending on your location and the market, offers on your home may be few and far between. This goes back to properly pricing your property. Be realistic, but leave room for negotiating. Chances are, you will get some low offers, but don’t underestimate how much buyers are willing to increase on their bids. Consider every offer and make smart counter offers. This is also a great time to take advantage of your realtor’s expertise. Most buyers will feel like they are getting a deal if they end up paying just a little below asking price. 

5. Not Having a Plan B

Crossing out Plan A and writing Plan B on a blackboard.

Selling a home and buying a new one can be tricky business, especially when it comes to timing. A lot of factors must fall into place before the right deal is made and there is no guarantee when your home will sell or when you’ll close on your new home. In the event that your home sells before you’ve purchased a new one, make sure you have plans on where to live in the meantime and where to store your belongings. Having to make last minute arrangements can be more stressful and costly. Also, be prepared for the event that a deal falls through – these things happen. Preparation is key. 

These mistakes are common but can be costly for home sellers. Hiring a skilled realtor can help you avoid falling into any of these categories. Your home is a large investment and it should be treated as such. It pays to spend the time and money to make sure you’re setting your home-sale up for success. Contact one of the expert realtors at the Core Group today to discuss a plan for selling your home. We have years of experience buying and selling properties. We are locals – familiar with the real estate market in and around Orlando/Central Florida, from Oviedo to Winter Springs, Clermont to  Windermere – we are here for you.

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Posted in: FSBO, Homeowner, Realtor, Sellers, The Market, Things To Do, Tips Tagged: Agent, Buyers, homeowners, Housing Market, negotiating, Orlando Real Estate, real estate tips, realtor, The Core Group, tips

Why It Saves To Use A Realtor

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Click on the Image Above To Visit Us On Facebook

MYTH: Selling or buying a home without a realtor can save you money. 

FACT: Realtors are trained professionals with a great deal of tools and knowledge to buy/sell your home AND save you money or maximize your profit. 

We recently covered some helpful resources for home buyers and sellers on the blog (see that post HERE). While it is important for clients to be informed on all the in’s and out’s of real estate, it’s also worth pointing out all of the great benefits you get to enjoy when you use a Realtor to buy or sell your home. Working with a professionally-trained agent can save you time, money and hassle throughout the process. So, while it is possible to buy or sell a home on your own, make sure to take full stock of the wonderful advantages of using a licensed professional.

Some people are under the impression that they can save money by buying or selling a home themselves. Foregoing the services of a realtor may seem like a surefire way to save money, but chances are it will cost you in the long run. Realtors are trained and licensed, meaning they are the experts in their field. They are armed with all the tools and knowledge needed to successfully buy and sell properties. Their expertise is often what saves homeowners time and money.

Having gone through the necessary training and education and received the required licensure, these professionals are the best equipped to negotiate deals, properly complete documentations, market your home, and take the guesswork out of buying and selling property. A good Realtor is knowledgable and savvy, excited to educate clients while making sure they find something that reasonably meets their needs, getting the best deal possible and all in the shortest amount of time possible. In fact, you could say that part of their job is to save the client time and money.

Buying and selling homes is a complicated process that involves a lot of technical and legal knowledge. This can make it difficult for individuals to successfully sell their homes on their own without running into major roadblocks. In fact, some buyers expect the price of a ‘sale-by-owner’ home to be adjusted and lowered accordingly. An agent has access to valuable resources and industry knowledge that can play an integral part in the home buying process.

A recent closing with great repeat customers!
A recent closing with great repeat customers!

Some of the reasons it saves to use a Realtor:

  1. Realtors are licensed professionals, trained to deal with the process of selling/buying homes.
  2. Realtors have access to valuable resources that can move properties quicker, saving you time.
  3. Realtors are familiar with the legal aspects of property acquisition, working on your behalf to save you from the hassle.
  4. A good Realtor is a good negotiator, which can save you a lot of money in a deal.
  5. A good Realtor will keep in informed throughout the process, educate you on different topics, and work as your representative in the arena of real estate.

Licensed Realtors can be an invaluable tool throughout the home buying process. Do yourself a favor, and find a Realtor that you can trust with the task of finding your next home or selling your property. It could save you a great deal of time and money after all is said and done. If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in the Central Florida area—from Oviedo to Longwood to Lake Mary—contact us today to talk to one of our agents: 407-930-4855 or [email protected]

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Posted in: Buyers, Realtor, Sellers, Tips Tagged: Core Group real estate, Orlando Real Estate, Orlando realtor, Oviedo Realtor, The Core Group, why to use a Realtor

Orlando Area Realtor: Client Testimonial

Posted in: Buyers, Realtor Tagged: client testimonial

In Defense of Home Ownership

It’s hard to read the headlines and not conclude that becoming a homeowner is a terrible idea.

Last week, the National Association of Realtors announced that existing-home sales in July had fallen an astounding 25.5 percent from the previous year. Sure, there was a federal tax credit in place last summer. But with single-family home sales at their lowest level since 1995 and unemployment still stubbornly high, home prices may fall further.

In the meantime, millions of homeowners are still far underwater, and government programs to help them have fallen well short of their goals. More foreclosures are coming, casting a deeper shadow over home prices. So it’s hardly surprising that the conventional wisdom says that home values will never again rise faster than inflation.
But as with stocks and the weather, it is dangerous to assume any certainty in the housing market. And by wallowing too much in the misery of others, people looking for a new place to live run the risk of thinking every home purchase will end in regret, at least financially.

Many still could, if they buy in hard-hit areas where prices could fall further. But a mortgage is still a form of long-term forced savings, after all. This is more important than ever, since fewer people have access to generous pensions than they did during the last big housing slump. A 401(k) or similar plan is no bargain, either, with its erratic returns and employer matches that come and go as the economic winds shift. Social Security is also likely to be less generous, and Medicare will probably cost more.
Besides, owning a home isn’t just about what shows up on a net worth statement — something that bears repeating after all the “investing” that people thought they were doing when buying homes over the last 10 or 15 years. Many of these more qualitative factors, from living free of a landlord’s whim to having access to a good school district or retirement community, haven’t changed and probably never will.

It is possible, as a homeowner, to make very little money but still buy plenty of happiness. So before you swear off real estate, reconsider a few of the basics.

Worst Cases

Some buyers may rue the day in 2010 they bought their homes. They may end up like those who bought in 2006 and have lost their jobs. Now those people face the difficulty of moving to pursue employment elsewhere because they owe much more than their homes are worth.

Marke Hallowell and Allison Firmat, who are getting married next month, are well aware of the history. Yet they plan to put 5 percent or less down, using a fixed-rate mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration, once they find a condominium in southern Orange County, Calif. (They’ve already been outbid a few times.)

Ms. Firmat is not working, and Mr. Hallowell is a Web developer. Does he worry about mobility problems or making the payments in the event of a job loss, given that he’s the sole breadwinner? “We’re getting such a good deal on interest rates that we could rent our place out,” he said.

Mr. Hallowell and Ms. Firmat say they believe their approach is conservative, at least compared to what they might have done five years ago.

“Nothing is going to change the rate we will have,” Mr. Hallowell said. “Condos like the ones we’re looking at now were unobtainable in the past, unless we went into something with a total balloon payment. There were times I was tempted, but never seriously.”

Indeed, many people who are buying at the moment are locking in mortgage rates of about 4.5 percent. A year ago, they might have paid 5.25 percent on a $300,000 loan for a monthly payment of about $1,657. Today, you could lock in a lower monthly payment of around $1,520 on a mortgage that size, or you might not need to borrow that much, given that prices have fallen in many areas.

Forced Savings

You may make nothing at all beyond inflation over time on a home, but the part of your mortgage payment that goes toward principal is a form of forced savings. Sure, you might do better by renting and investing the difference between the rent and the total costs of ownership. But at least three things need to go right. First, you need to actually save the money. Americans have trouble with that sort of plan. Then, you need an after-tax return that’s better than whatever a home would deliver. That’s a task that might not have gone so well over the last 10 or 12 years, and it involves its own future risk, given how little safer investments are returning now. Finally, you must not raid the savings along the way.

Difficult Landlords


A bank can kick you out only if you don’t pay your mortgage. But landlords can drive you away in any number of ways.
Laura Mapp and her husband, Carl Berg, rented from a relative, but it didn’t go particularly well. They found another landlord they liked, but came back from a holiday trip one year to a note saying he wanted to move in himself. They had a month to scram.

In yet another rental, they let their landlord know they were looking to buy and inquired about a month-to-month lease. No problem, their landlord said, as long as they used his boyfriend as their real estate agent.
Earlier this year, the couple gave up on landlords and bought a house in the Highland Park neighborhood in Seattle.

The Nice Part of Town

No matter how pretty the neighborhood, prices may still fall further in places like greater Detroit, Cleveland and Las Vegas; outlying areas of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix; and much of Florida. But if you want to live in the Fox Hill Farm development in Glen Mills, Pa., you’ll have to buy because renters are not allowed, said Bob Kuhn, who lives there. The same may be true of other communities for older people. And there may not be many family-size rentals — or at least any financial edge to be gained by renting — in suburbs or urban neighborhoods with excellent public schools.

After many years of building their down-payment fund and a couple of years of watching the listings in the Eagle Rock and Mount Washington areas of Los Angeles, Garret and Alison Williams realized that prices simply were not falling much there.
By the time they were ready to pounce this year, they had a big enough down payment and interest rates had fallen so far that renting didn’t make much financial sense, even if they could have found a rental big enough for them and their two small children.

“Had we rented, we would be paying more than we’re paying for a mortgage,” said Ms. Williams, who had lived in the same two-bedroom rental for 12 years before she and her family moved into their new house in Eagle Rock earlier this month. “I don’t see how we could really regret having made the move when it’s so much better for us on so many levels.”

by Ron Lieber
Thursday, September 2, 2010

Posted in: Buyers, Home, Realtor Tagged: home, ownership, savings


Core Group Real Estate, LLC.
95 E. Mitchell Hammock Rd. Ste 102
Oviedo, FL 32765
407-930-4855