At Home with Team Gabriel

Black Friday is behind us and holiday gifts are flying off the shelves in stores and online. Unlike last year, however, there’s another type of buyer that is very active this winter – the homebuyer.

Each month, ShowingTime releases their Showing Index, which tracks the average number of appointments received on active U.S. house listings. The latest index revealed:

“Traffic was more active once again compared to 2018, as the nation saw its
 third straight month of higher year-over-year showing activity…The 5.5%
   increase in showings nationwide was the largest jump in activity during the 
now three-month streak of year-over-year increases vs. 2018.”

The same report indicates showings increased in every region of the country:

• The South increased by 10.8%
• The West increased by 8.6%
• The Northeast increased by 3.8%
• The Midwest increased by 1.5%

Why is the traffic more active?

One of the main reasons buyer traffic has increased year-over-year is that mortgage rates have fallen dramatically. According to Freddie Mac, the average mortgage rate last December was 4.64%. Today, the rate is almost a full percentage point lower!

Bottom Line

There are first-time, move-up, and move-down buyers actively looking for the home of their dreams this winter. If you’re thinking of selling your house in 2020, you don’t need to wait until the spring to do it. Your potential buyer may be searching for a home in your neighborhood right now.

If you’re looking for an agent to help you buy or sell a home, always ask these three questions before you hire them.

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What does it take to find the right Realtor? Well, first of all, don’t make your choice by defaulting to the first agent you talk to. Instead, you should always interview a few different Realtors to find out who will be the best fit for your buying or selling goals. This interview should always include the following three questions:

1. “How long have you been in the business?” The more experience a Realtor has, the more effective of an advocate they’ll be. 

2. “How many homes do you sell each year?” Even if an agent has been in the industry for decades, this won’t matter if they only sell a few properties each year. True experience is about more than just the amount of time someone has spent in a position. It’s also about how many transactions they’ve worked on during that time. 

You should always interview a few different Realtors to find out who will be the best fit for your buying or selling goals.

3. “What is your average list-to-sales price ratio?” If you’re planning to sell, you should be sure that the agent you choose to help you has a track record of helping sellers secure a sales price that meets or exceeds the list price. 

These three questions are a great starting point, but there are several others you should ask when interviewing an agent. If you’d like to know what they are, or if you have any other questions about real estate in general, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Should you buy a resale home or a new construction home? Here’s some advice.

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If you’re buying a home, the most important question you need to answer is whether you’re going to buy a brand-new home or a resale home.

If you choose the new construction route, you’ll be able to get what you want. If you’re very particular about your tastes, new construction is the way to go. Everything is brand new, so you don’t really have to worry about mechanical replacements or repairs for years. It’s fun to pick out and customize everything in your home, and you’ll typically have a lot more choices with a new construction home.

New construction gives you more choices.

Sometimes making all those choices can seem daunting. With a resale home, your house will be move-in ready and you don’t have to worry about picking out every single item. You get to pick your location as well, and older homes typically have more character and charm, and are usually in established neighborhoods. Resale homes are much easier to negotiate price on.

Whether you’re thinking about buying a new home or a resale home, we can help. If you’re unsure about which one is right for you, we’d be happy to sit down with you and get to the bottom of it.

If you have any other questions for me in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

If you want your listing to succeed in today’s market, avoid these three common mistakes.

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There are a lot of ways to succeed when selling a house, but, unfortunately, there are just as many ways to fail. Here are three mistakes, in particular, to avoid when the time comes for you to list:

1. Asking too much. Everyone wants to earn top dollar for their home, but setting your sticker price too high can cause your property to sit stagnant on the market. At this point, even lowering your price will only help so much. Always talk to a real estate agent about the best pricing strategy for your home before you put it up for sale.

Homes should be properly cleaned, decluttered, and possibly even staged, in order to give buyers the best possible first impression.

2. Advertising too little. Along with having the right price, homes must also have the right level of exposure. Even if your home looks great and is fairly priced, it won’t sell if no one knows about it. This is why our team has a top-notch marketing plan that utilizes print and digital advertising—so we can make sure that all potential buyers are aware of your listing. 

3. Not making your house presentable. As you can imagine, even the best-priced and best-marketed homes won’t do well with buyers if they aren’t in good shape. Homes should be properly cleaned, decluttered, and possibly even staged in order to give buyers the best possible first impression. Our team will be happy to walk through your home before we list it to help you identify what should be done to make it market-ready.

If you have any other questions or would like more information about these mistakes, or about how we can serve your real estate goals, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Many people wonder whether Zillow’s Zestimate feature can be trusted, so today I’d like to get to the bottom of this common question.

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We hear it all the time: “Can Zillow accurately determine my home’s value?” 

Actually, no. In our estimation, Zillow’s Zestimates tend to be between 5% to 15% off. In more extreme cases, it can even be between 25% to 35% off from the home’s real appraised value. 

The reason for this disparity is Zillow’s flawed algorithm, which is supposed to use comparable local properties to calculate a home’s value. Unfortunately, the scope of homes Zillow uses during this calculation simply isn’t wide enough. Zillow doesn’t take key factors, like upgrades and location, into account during its evaluation. What’s more, it can’t “see” the inside of your home like an agent or an appraiser can.

When it comes to finding a property’s value as you prepare to buy or sell, you need to rely on the expert advice of a real professional.

This is why it’s important to have a professional evaluate your home instead. Zillow’s Zestimate may be a decent tool for getting a very rough starting point, but you should always take the results of its calculation with a grain of salt. 

The CEO of Zillow himself received a Zestimate on his home that was 40% higher than what his property actually sold for. The bottom line is that when it comes to finding a property’s value as you prepare to buy or sell, you need to rely on the expert advice of a real professional. 

If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Coming-soon homes have their place in our market, but does it make sense to make an offer on one? Stay tuned to find out.

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I frequently hear from homebuyers who are curious about coming-soon listings, so I decided to give my perspective.

A coming-soon home may or may not be listed on the MLS. Either way, it’s not available for viewing in person. It might be because the home isn’t ready yet or the owners are in the process of moving out. These homes won’t have open houses either. A legitimate coming-soon listing is off-limits to you and all other buyers.

What if you spot a dream home that’s a coming-soon listing? Here’s a three-step process I recommend:

1. Be aware of your excitement. We tend to want something more just because it’s off-limits. Keep this in mind as you look at coming-soon homes and separate what you think about the home from the alluring fact that it’s unavailable.

If an offer makes sense, I encourage you to make it.

2. Do your research. Even if a home is unavailable for viewing, you can still gather a lot of information about it. This includes the sales history, old pictures of the home, and the date when it will become active on the market so you can take a look for yourself.

3. Make an offer. If it makes sense, I encourage you to make an offer. Just because a home isn’t available for viewing doesn't mean it’s not available for receiving offers. Your offer should be carefully crafted with deadlines and contingencies to minimize your risk of making an offer sight unseen.

If you decide to submit an early offer, don’t be surprised if it’s not accepted right away. The sellers will likely want to see the interest that their home will get when it’s fully listed.

If you want to take a look at some of the homes that are available right now, visit our website. If you have any other questions for me about real estate in the meantime, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.