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Tips for Selling Your Residential Listings Even in December

Do your New Year’s resolutions include moving but you’re afraid holidays and cold weather will keep buyers away? Don’t be discouraged by conventional wisdom about selling your home in December. Beat the winter freeze with these helpful winter real estate selling tips.

Keep Decorating Neutral and Tasteful

Not everyone celebrates the holidays in the same way. What seems bright and festive to you may feel tacky and overdone to others. Don’t run the risk of offending potential buyers. Stick to a general winter season decorating theme that lets buyers picture themselves building holiday memories in your home.

Don’t Forget Curb Appeal

The weather outside is frightful, but don’t use it as an excuse to slack off on exterior maintenance. In addition to being unsightly, snow- and ice-covered stairs and sidewalks are a safety hazard. Make sure all walkways are clear, touch up paint as needed and clean the gutters. With shorter days limiting the amount of natural light, consider adding exterior lighting.

Leverage Online Marketing

During winter months, buyers spend less time exploring neighborhoods in person and more time taking online tours. High-quality photos and videos highlight the best features of your home and inspire viewers to take the time for a visit. It’s well worth the investment to hire a professional photographer.

Target Motivated Buyers

Summer weather may be more conducive to the process of moving, but there are a number of financial reasons why people look for homes in the winter. New jobs often start at the first of the year, or people receive year-end bonuses that they put toward buying a new home.

Our real estate selling tools help you grow your business any time of the year. Contact Properties Online to learn how our web-based software helps build traffic and capture leads.

Fall 2019 May Be a Better Time for Listings and Sale Than the Projections for 2020

2019 is not expected to continue the trend of high-flying home prices and rapid sales. Despite this, real estate selling experts indicate that 2019 is the best time to list a home. What gives? The remaining months are predicted to be a better market than 2020-21. For those on the fence weighing the option to sell, it could be unwise to play the waiting game.

Why is 2019 Expected to Be Better for Real Estate Selling?

• New buyers are still venturing into the market.

The affordability factor has weighed down the market. There will be no flood of buyers this year – more like a steady trickle. This will slow home price increases and extend listing times. Although housing inventory remains low, particularly in the starter-home market, high-traffic shopping will continue.

The largest segment of buyers is expected to be Millennials. In a recent Trulia poll, one-fifth of Millennials anticipate purchasing a home in 2019.

• Interest Rates Remain Low

2019 has not seen the multiple rate hikes anticipated. More recently, lowered interest rates have brought the 30-year fixed rate down to around 3.58%. Even if a raise were to occur, rates will probably remain near their historical lows. With no sudden leaps anticipated, now is a great time for buyers to lock-in low rates.

• Equity Cash-In

For sellers holding a home they purchased during or shortly after the recession, there’s a lot of equity at stake. The more equity in the home, the higher the net from the sale that can be used toward a down payment on another house. The greater the down payment, the lower the interest rate, reducing monthly payments and the need for PMI.

Don’t miss out on prime sales opportunities. Ensure maximum return-on-investment with real estate selling tips and tools from Properties Online today.

What to Know About the Luxury Real Estate Market in These Uncertain Times

At the beginning of the year, all eyes were on the housing market as it began to show signs of slowing. With a sharp rise in inventory and multiple interest rate hikes on the horizon, the future of real estate sales was uncertain. Instead, interest rates have lowered and the market appears to have entered a transitional period, where affordability challenges have pulled back price growth, particularly in the luxury real estate market.

What’s Driving Changes in the Luxury Real Estate Selling Market?

1. Market Correction
Nationally, the market is shifting in favor of buyers. Transactions over $10-million are finally on the rise. Homes unrealistically overpriced over the past 2-years have come down, particularly in regions that experienced double-digit price growth. This has created an intersection where the seller and buyer can compromise on price, boosting the buyer’s market morale.

2. Tax Law Changes

Tax law changes are hurting luxury homes at the top-end of the market. Mortgage interest and property taxes are no longer fully deductible, increasing the burden on homeowners. The luxury market has understandably taken the biggest hit, with homes priced at $2-million or more witnessing a sales slump for the first time in nearly 3 years, falling 1.6%.

3. Disappearing Foreign Funds

Markets such as NYC, once dominated by foreign money, are no longer seeing the competition of international buyers. As politics and the trade war have intensified, buyers are now more typically American. Russian buyers have disappeared, and the days of predominantly Chinese buyers are over.

4. Higher Construction Costs

The inflated prices of land, building materials, labor, and burdensome permitting regulations are pushing builders to the luxury end, softening the market.

Weather these changes with flair. Stay on top of the latest market trends with the help of these and other real estate selling tips from Properties Online today.

3 Tips to Get Sellers to Pay the Buyer’s Closing Costs

Every real estate agent knows that the more you can do to sweeten a deal, the better chance you have of selling a home. Plus, it shows just how willing you are to go above and beyond for the client.

One of these ways is get the seller to cover the closing costs for the buyer. It’s not always easy to do, but it is possible. In fact the latest real estate trends are showing that more buyers are looking for deals that include this distinction. But the question is, how do you get the seller to agree?

Buyers Pay the Home’s Asking Price

This has been seen more often lately in the latest real estate trends. The buyer will make an offer with the homes asking price contingent on the seller covering the closing costs. This allows people to purchase a home with no money out of pocket, whatsoever. Your clients will love that.

Plan on a Quick Closing

With some financial institutions, it can take as long as two months to close on a house; sometimes even longer. You may have a better chance of getting the seller to pay the closing costs if you commit to a very quick close on the property. This works best with motivated sellers who have already purchased a home elsewhere.

Make no Demands

It’s possible that the house might need a coat of paint, or a few minor repairs. But if you want the seller to pay the closing costs, it’s best not to bring them up. The buyers should plan on making these changes themselves.

If you’re a real estate agent, you need all the help you can get to be successful. The tools we offer can help propel you to the next level in your career. Contact us today!

Technology Disrupters Coming to Real Estate in 2019

Tariffs. Government shutdowns. Stock market shenanigans. 2019 marks a period of uncertainty, with a variety of disruptors affecting not only real estate trends, but national and global affairs. However, the greatest disruptor is predicted to be Technology!

What Technology will Impact the Real Estate World in 2019?

Despite the overall economic slowdown expected, these emerging trends in tech could provide new opportunity for a market in flux:

New Platforms for Home Sales

iBuying, offering purchase of homes sight unseen based on a proprietary valuation model, is among the real estate trends luring sellers (and buyers) to off-the-beaten-path venues. Digitally-driven platforms such as Open Listings, Door, Rex, and Opendoor are luring buyers and sellers alike with flat-rate commissions, sight-unseen cash offers, and a more digital listing/shopping experience.

Continual Rise of AI

We’re not talking robots giving home tours. We’re talking artificial intelligence that can perform sophisticated data analysis capable of predicting market trends. The latest AI-powered platforms can aggregate once isolated data, constantly updating to arm agents and consumers with with all the information they need. This can help buyers/sellers negotiate the best deal and agents to immediately jump on sales leads.

Virtual Reality

As property videos increase in popularity, VR will soon be on the horizon.

Blockchain

Redefining real estate transactions, blockchain technology is facilitating major transactions (like real estate) without intermediaries (banks, credit card companies). With ‘tokenization,’ blockchain is opening the door to new opportunities for sellers, granting multiple investors the ability to buy just a portion of a property (and resell it).

Smart contracts via Propy and other services are allowing for purchasing transactions with no human interaction, which streamlines the process. In the future, it is hoped to pave the way for a smoother road, reducing fees, closing times, property title issues, and fraud.

What real estate trends are shaking up your world? Safeguard sales with the help of Properties Online today.

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