Focus Professionals, Inc Real Estate Blog

A brief article in the NY Times (Not An Ad, an article) that included a beach bungalow we had listed sold for cash within 24 hours of the article being published. Second homes are still selling like hot cakes in RI and Southeastern MA, and we are poised to assist even the most discriminating buyer. The market remains sluggish for sellers, but the buyers are now starting to become active.

If you are home buyer, what should you be looking for in a buyers agent?

First and foremost is an understanding of the needs of buyers, including financing, neighborhoods, regional market conditions, and someone who is willing to go the extra mile to ensure that you get proper representation. Since all Realtors have access to the Multiple Listing Service, this is not to be considered a selling point, it is just a resource they all have. Better than this, is an awareness of sellers who may not have their properties listed in the MLS, such as properties that are for sale by the owner.

Additionally, you want someone who is willing to work with you, at your pace, and who is available to you when you need them to be.

Focus Real Estate Group, Inc. caters to buyers, and runs several resources for For Sale By Owner home owners, which translates to you as our being in possession of knowledge of the market that most real estate agents will not have.

Visit our several websites, to see what we mean:

Home Sales RI
Homes In MA
For Sale By Owner - RI
Waterfront Finance
The Focus Real Estate Group, Inc.
Personal Mortgage Brokers
We Buy New England Real Estate

A national Private Mortgage Insurance company has ranked major metropolitan areas as to whether the statistics indicate that the prices of houses in these markets will rise or fall in the next two years. Boston is listed as one of the most likely to fall in price, on average, in the next two years.

What does this mean for you?

When the prices of houses fall in the major metropolitan areas, the prices in the adjacent areas also tend to decline, since people often live outside the metropolitan area due to housing costs, which drives the house prices down in the environs when they fall in the cities. This can mean that prices in the suburban areas and minor cities will also fall, due to competition from the urban housing markets, making the market a weak market for appreciation. This in turn makes these markets even more oriented in favor of buyers.

So, should you buy now? Perhaps… it would require Merlin’s crystal ball to determine when in fact the prices are lowest, and thus when the best time to buy is, but the market is oriented in favor of buyers now, and will likely remain so for the next 18 to 24 months.

If you are planning to flip the property, better wait… if you can hold and rent the property, go ahead and buy… if you are going to live in it, it is still a good time to buy, since interest rates are still near all time lows, and prices are good.

What do you think? Give us a call…

What is a pre-approval, what is a pre-qualification, and what is a loan commitment letter? Why would one be better than the others?

For answers to these questions, we went to ask our two senior loan officers, Charles Demty and Mandie Sullivan, who are also our two leading buyers agents. We also asked all of our listing agents the same questions.

Pre-qualification is what you get when you ask a loan officer to give you a letter that says they believe you will qualify for a loan at $X amount. But here is the issue: the loan officer bases the pre-qualification only on what you say your credit score is, and what you say your income is… there is no verification done.

Preapproval is what you would get from that same loan officer AFTER giving them your back pay stubs, bank info, and letting them run a credit score. But there is no loan in place, and the loan officer has not actually placed you in a loan program and has not gained approval from the lender based on the hard evidence.

A commitment letter is what you get when you have been committed to a loan program and the loan has been approved. This is of course the strongest of the three. The loan is in place and your lender has committed to lending you the money.

Why do you care?

When you place an offer on a house, the seller and the listing agent may have other offers also on the table. Your offer, if accompanied by a commitment letter, will be a guaranty that you can actually purchase the house in question. This makes your offer strong, since you already have the loan in place. If you have a pre-approval, your offer is stronger than those with only a pre-qualification, but not as strong as one with a loan commitment letter. The thing is, your offer may be slightly lower than the others, but there is little or no risk of you not being able to gain financing for the purchase. If the seller is wise, this will weigh heavily in their decision, since taking the house off the market for offers that are not sure to be funded is a risk for the seller, and the seller’s agent.

Get a loan commitment letter before you place the offer on the table. Your odds of getting a better deal are greater.

Also, in these days of slow markets, many sellers don’t even want to show the house if the buyer does not already have at least a preapproval. Better, get a commitment letter now, and save yourself the trouble of shopping for houses you can not buy.

For more information, see our web site sections on making an offer, mortgage financing, and buyer financial considerations.

Selling your home involves more than listing it a price appropriate for the property and market, and more than getting a Realtor to list it on MLS… Part of a good real estate agent’s magic is setting the stage for the sale… not surprisingly, this is called “staging” although in some cases it involves “curb appeal” as well.

If a homeowner thinks buyer prospects aren’t turned off by their maroon flocked wallpaper, boldly painted rooms, the pool table in the living room, heavily furnished rooms, stuffed to the brim closets, and the like, he is out of touch with reality.  Those things should be changed before the house is put on the market. 

Here’s the reality of good staging vs. “as-is.”  One study showed us that well-staged homes sell in an average of 42 days.  Those that aren’t take more than 3 times as long.  And staged homes seem to also bring from 6 to 22 percent more in the selling price.

So let’s look at some of the most obvious areas that should be addressed when a home is being staged for the market.

The Drive Up Appeal

Be sure the lawn is alive, well, plus always looks as if it were just cut.  Keep the flower beds weeded and covered with fresh mulch; the hedges and trees trimmed; attractive potted plants by the entrance.  Freshen up the paint or stain on the front door, or replace it with a fancier one.  If the door hardware looks worn, replace it.  Make sure the street gutters are clean and without weeds growing in them.  Keep children’s toys, bicycles, trash cans and the like out of the yard.

What Is Seen the Minute the Front Door Is Opened

First the foyer.  Make certain it doesn’t have a coat tree full of coats, a table with keys and cards and today’s mail on it.  If there’s room, have fresh flowers, live plants there to welcome and impress your visitors.

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