Selling Your House during the Holidays?

Got a question from a homeowner asking "Is it a good idea to sell my house during the holidays?"
I believe it is a great idea to sell your home during the holidays season and here is why

• People who are looking at houses during this period are more serious buyers.
• Most home sellers take their homes off the market thinking that people are spending their money elsewhere which means there is less competition for the sellers and fewer homes for the buyer to choose from. In turn, higher chances to get a good offer on your house.
• After the holidays, many home sellers will put their houses back on the market and the inventory of homes will increase which means buyers will have more homes to choose from and most probably you might get less money for your house because you might need to drop the price to compete with the other houses in the market.
• People take lots of days off during the holidays and serious home buyers have more time to look at houses.
• Houses always feel more warm and show good with the Christmas decorations.
• Many people have their lease over by the end of the year and would like to move and spend the Christmas in their new home.

These are just some of the reasons I believe it is a good idea to sell your house during the holidays.
For more information, contact Jimmy
Jimmy Farag, REALTOR
Realm Real Estate Professionals
Phone: (832) 303-5000
Cell: (832) 744-7424
Fax: (281) 598-5402
Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX
www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com
www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com
www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

Americans Get More Confident About Home Buying

Americans Get More Confident About Home Buying

Want to make an offer, How low can I offer?

Everybody wants to get a good deal which is normal and understandable. BUT there is a difference between making an offer and insulting the seller.
The market in Houston is different than the rest of the country and it is way better than the national averages that they talk about on the news. We don’t have the 30-40 cents on the dollar type of deals. Let me rephrase that, we have them but very very very few and most probably will be in horrible condition to sell for that amount and will not even qualify for finance. AND the market is improving. So it will be harder and harder to negotiate.
So what is a reasonable offer?
You will have to check the average price in the neighborhood to see if the house is overpriced, within range or already below the average. If it is:
· Overpriced: I would say don’t bother to make an offer, it is either a seller who loves his house too much or not motivated. Either way, don’t bother, 99% of the time, it doesn’t sell
· Within range: The average negotiation in Houston is 3-5% and can be a little higher if the house is not in a good condition.
· Below average: Usually foreclosures and short sales, if it is already in a good condition, I would recommend offering the full price. It is already a good deal so making low offer might not be the smartest move because most probably you will not get it.
In the Houston market, if you are looking to offer 20-30% less than the asking price under the impression that the sellers or banks are desperate and should be happy to get an offer. Sorry to tell you that you are so wrong and you will be very frustrated getting rejected on each offer after the other.
Houses that are priced right or below the average are getting multiple offers in their first week on the market. Last week, a client wanted to see a house on its 2^nd day on the market and turned out that they already had 3 offers …….3 offers in 2 days and many of these houses sell for higher than the asking price.
I have tons of examples but will share them later. I am writing this for all the buyers who started looking for houses to know what to expect so they wouldn’t be frustrated and in some situation, people gave up because it didn’t the way they were expecting.
Jimmy Farag, REALTOR
Realm Real Estate Professionals
Phone: (832) 303-5000
Cell: (832) 744-7424
Fax: (281) 598-54
Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX
www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com
www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com
www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

Why My House Didn’t Sell??

With the uncertainty in today's economy, home sellers are wondering if the houses are selling in the Houston area. 

I would like to tell you that the Houston Market is strong and not like the east and west coasts. Home prices might have dropped in some areas because of foreclosures and short sales but we are talking about 10-15% of the whole real estate market in Houston.

Here are the homes sold sorted by price range in the Houston Area in 2011 compared to the home sales in 2010

If you are asking this question that means that your house was either listed with a realtor or listed as For Sale By Owner (FSBO) didn’t sell. Getting phone calls from realtors the day the listing of your house expired telling you “we know why your house didn’t sell”? Others calling telling you “A house like this can be sold for $20,000 more”? OR Your asking price is way too high?
Honestly, I can’t tell you why your house didn’t sell without seeing it. There are many conditions that can be the reason for not selling. It can be the location, the condition of the house, the age, the upgrades, the floor plan, size of the yard, even a pole in the backyard can affect the price.
Location: Most of the buyers prefer houses that are in a cul-de-sac or a quiet neighborhood that is safe for the kids. If you are on a busy street or a busy street passing behind your house, that a negative point that has to be considered in the price.
Condition: When we are talking about condition, we are talking about the outside and the inside. Most homeowners maintain the inside and forget about the outside. The outside appearance is the first impression about the house. Many buyers drive around to see the area and how it looks from the outside before calling their agent for showing. Do you do regular treatment for termites and insects? Do you check the condition of the roof and foundation?
Upgrades: There is a difference between upgrades and maintenance. If your water heater is old and you change it, that a maintenance and is not a reason for a higher house price. Let’s think about it the other way, if you don’t replace the water heater, you will have to drop the price or give the buyer credit for it, but if you replace it, that will keep your house at the market price. Upgrade is changing the carpet with hardwood floors or laminate countertops with granite.
Foreclosures: Is there any foreclosed homes for sale or sold in the last 6 months in your neighborhood? Sold foreclosures can affect the market value of your house even if your house is in a better condition. Current foreclosures are your competitors in the market because banks price them to sell fast and noticed that many of them now drop their price every month, it can be an aggressive drop, $10,000 for couple of month and then starting dropping it by $5000.
These are just some reasons, it can be different from one house to another. So before you ask yourself why your house didn’t sell, check the competition, the condition, the location and if the price is matching accordingly. The price has to be the market price not just the price you want to get.
< you. for AHAs some has and you opener eye an is blog this that hope>

 

Would you like to know if houses are selling in your area, please feel free too contact me 

See All Homes for Sale in the Houston Area

Thanks,
Jimmy Farag, REALTOR
Realm Real Estate Professionals
Phone: (832) 303-5000
Cell: (832) 744-7424
Fax: (281) 598-5402
Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX
www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com
www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com
www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

I Want to Sell My House, How do I Start?

I will not talk about curb appeal, paint, staging, etc..because that is given that you have to keep your house in tip-top shape to sell, there is a very important critical point that hold your house from selling.

DO NOT OVERPRICE YOUR HOUSE!!
DO NOT OVERPRICE YOUR HOUSE!!
DO NOT OVERPRICE  YOUR HOUSE!!

You can paint the whole house with beautiful neutral color, upgrade the kitchen's counter tops, cabinets, new carpet or hardwood floors and spend a lot of money, BUT if the price is too high, it will not sell. Would you pay $40,000 for a car that is selling everywhere for $25,000?

I will share with you just one example from real life, not just bunch of yada yada :)

A seller had his house in a great shape, regular maintenance, has upgrades which is perfect and was listed for $205,000. Similar homes in the same subdivision were listed in the 180s. Can you look at it from the buyer's point of view just by looking at the houses info on the MLS. Oh! both are 3 bedrooms 2 baths, hmmm same square footage and all of them been more than 5 months on the market. Buyers will pass on your house and will not see it. That is reason ONE not to overprice.

Reason TWO, still about the same house in the example above, the last house sold in the neighborhood for the same size was appraised for $172,000 (No wonder all of them been on the market for more than 5 months). Do you know what does that mean that it's been appraised for that amount??

Let's look at the buyer' side again and his mortgage:

Assuming the buyer will pay 10% down payment.
The Bank will lend him 90% of the lesser of the appraised price or the contract price: which means in this case that the bank will lend the buyer 90% of the $172,000 not the $205,000 because the bank said that is the real value of the house. Do you think the buyer will pay an extra $30,000?

After they had their house listed for 7 months with very few showings and no offers, they listed the house with me, we got offers in less than 2 months and it was sold in 70 days!! Yay :) 

We can't blame the market being bad or that there are no buyers in this economy or the realtor didn't market the house right. There was more than 53000 single family homes (not including townhomes & condos) sold in the Houston Area in 2011 and around 46000 sold in the first 9 months of 2012. These are big strong numbers!!

Feel free to contact me any time for your home market analysis or any other questions you have

Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX and Missouri City Homes for sale in Katy TX See All Foreclosure Homes

What is the home buying process? Where do we start?

That’s always the question I hear on the first conversation with my clients, specially first time home buyers.

Step 1: To make sure that you can qualify for a loan which is the mortgage.

This step is very important for couple of reasons;
First, you will know if you can get a loan (pre-qualify or pre-approval) and for how much and if not qualified, at least you will know what you need to work on to be qualified in a few months.
The second reason, that most of home sellers including banks for foreclosure properties, requires that the buyer sends the pre-approval letter with the offer, otherwise, they are not going to consider the offer.
Third reason, that you can have some expectations on how much downpayment you will need to pay and closing costs, so you can plan accordingly.

I can’t tell you how many times people went out for months looking for a house and then they found out that they are not qualified when they wanted to submit an offer; also can’t tell you how many times people lost a great deal because their offer was not considered without the pre-approval letter and other buyers got the house.

You can contact mortgage lender for pre-approval or contact me for a list of lenders in the Houston Area. I don’t recommend at all working with any of the big banks for many reasons.

Step 2: At this point, we can start looking for houses. I will set up a page based on what you are looking for as of how many bedrooms, bathrooms, price range, location, size, school district, etc and will email you all the houses that meet your searching criteria and then we can go view the houses you like of the list.

I will not talk in details here about the remaining steps as I will be working with you and guiding you through the whole process step by step

Step 3: Making an offer
Step 4: Have inspection
Step 5: Remove contingencies, if any
Step 6: The loan process
Step 7: Closing & Key for your new house

 

Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX Homes for sale in Katy TX See All Foreclosure Homes

Home Market Analysis for Missouri City & Brightwater neighborhood

MISSOURI CITY MARKET ANALYSIS
This is the market activity in Brightwater Subdivision and Missouri City TX in 2012 as of 10/8/2012
There are six subdivisions in Brightwater, built in the 90s, with an average of 3800 square ft and average price range around $280,000.
	Brightwater	Missouri City TX
Homes for Sale	5	456
List Price	$245,000 - 350,000	$20,000 - 1,480,000
Foreclosures or Short Sales	2	66
% of Foreclosure of Homes for Sale	40%	14%
Houses SOLD Year to date	23	946
Sale Price	$198,000 - $415,000	$21,000 - $1,250,000
Average Days on Market	83 days	86 days
Average Price per Sq. Ft.	$86.34	$68.67
This information is about the Homes in Brightwater and Missouri City TX, the analysis can vary from one neighborhood to another. For more information about the market analysis in your neighborhood, please feel free to contact me any time for FREE consultation.
For more information, contact Jimmy   Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

Homes Buyers & Sellers in the Houston Market

Buyers

Market Analysis of Vicksburg in Missouri city

MISSOURI CITY MARKET ANALYSIS
This is the market activity in Vicksburg Subdivision and Missouri City TX in 2012 as of 7/9/2012
There are two subdivisions in Missouri City, Vicksburg Village of Cumberland and Vicksburg Village of Shiloh. They have a total of 510 homes combined. The median year built is 1990
	Vicksburg	Missouri City TX
Homes for Sale	14	490
List Price	$98,500 - 217,500	$30,000 - 1,799,999
Foreclosures or Short Sales	2	68
% of Foreclosure of Homes for Sale	14%	13.87%
Houses SOLD	11	608
Sale Price	$100,000 - $185,000	$21,000 - $855,000
Average Days on Market	50 days	86 days
Average Price per Sq. Ft.	$46.63	$68.67
This information is about the Homes in Vicksburg and Missouri City TX, the analysis can vary from one neighborhood to another. For more information about the market analysis in your neighborhood, please feel free to contact me any time for FREE consultation.
For more information, contact Jimmy   Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

Homes for sale in Rosharon - Savannah

Homes for sale in Rosharon - Savannah

Are Houses Selling in Houston?

Are Houses Selling in Houston?

With the uncertainty in today's economy, home sellers are wondering if the houses are selling in the Houston area. 

I would like to tell you that the Houston Market is strong and not like the east and west coasts. Home prices might have dropped in some areas because of foreclosures and short sales but we are talking about 10-15% of the whole real estate market in Houston.

Here are the homes sold sorted by price range in the Houston Area in 2011 compared to the home sales in 2010

Price Range	2010	2011
Up to $100,000	12,073	13,462	12%
$100k to $200k	21,333	20,774	-3%
$200k to $300k	8,920	9,300	4%
$300k to $400k	4,015	4,415	10%
$400k to $500k	2,070	2,185	6%
$500k to $600k	1,024	1,099	7%
$600k to $700k	674	705	5%
$700k to $800k	377	433	15%
$800k to $900k	274	321	17%
$900 to $1M	199	224	13%
$1M to 1.5M	437	463	6%
$1.5M to 2M	161	154	-4%
$2M +	127	143	13%
Total Homes Sold	51,684	53,678	4%

Currently, the market has a shortage supply which are the houses for sale and good houses can be sold in 10 days.

 

Would you like to know if houses are selling in your area, please feel free to contact me 

See All Homes for Sale in the Houston Area

Luxury Homes for Sale in the Houston Area and the Surroundings

Luxury Homes for Sale in the Houston Area and the Surroundings

What are the benefits of owner financing to buyers and sellers?

Buyers With the economic conditions in the last couple of years in the country, many people went through some hard times and resulted in loss of credit points. In the same time, banks have been adding more and more requirements and restrictions regarding credit score. People still want to live in a house but don't want to rent and don't have the credit to qualify for a mortgage. So here comes the owner financing as an option. Owner financing or seller financing is a process by which the seller offers to be your mortgage provider. Here are some of the benefits to buyers who are interested in owner financing homes in the Houston area. Qualification The buyer may have poor credit due to any reason like job loss for a while that made the buyer default on bills, student loans, bankruptcy, divorce, transferred to a new job after a period of unemployment or self-employed who is not reporting the income and cannot meet mortgage requirements. Seller's requirements are less restricted than regular lenders. Improving Your Credit With the assistance of some escrow agencies, they can report to credit bureaus that the buyer is making payment on the current owner financing loan which should help the buyer improve the credit score in a reasonable period of time. Loan Costs An additional benefit for the owner financing transaction, the buyer doesn't have to pay all the fees charged by lenders to get a loan. Terms Owner financing terms vary from one house to the other as each house is individually owned and each owner might have different requirements. In general, most of sellers require at least 10% down payment, interest rate can be 7-9% and a balloon payment in 3-5 years. Balloon means that the buyer will need to refinance with regular mortgage in 3-5 years. Closing Going through a mortgage company, it can easily take 40 days to close on a house. With owner financing, the whole process can be done in a week. Sellers For Home sellers, they are also been affected by the restrictions imposed by lenders and waiting for 2-3 weeks hoping that the underwriter will approve the loan but unfortunately when the loan process goes south, the seller has to restart the whole process again with a new buyer. That being said, so sellers have to consider some creative ways like owner financing to sell their house. Price With owner financing, the seller is offering a lot easier qualifications than a lender which gives the seller the privilege of asking for the full market price for the house. Downpayment Seller may ask for a downpayment that covers the broker fees, the closing costs, and some extra cash in hand. Also, with the use of the escrow agency company, they can service the loan for the seller with some small fees (usually charged to the buyer) they will collect the monthly installment from the buyer and pay the original mortgage of the seller which provides peace of mind for both the buyer and seller. Closing As discussed under the buyers section, closing can be done in a matter of one week. See Owner Financing homes for sale in Houston, Sugarland, Missouri City, Spring, Katy, Pearland and surrounding areas

For more information, contact Jimmy Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com

Market Analysis for Coles Crossing neighborhood in cypress, tx

 

CYPRESS MARKET ANALYSIS
This is the market activity in Coles Crossing Subdivision and Cypress TX in 2012 as of 6/13/2012
	Coles Crossing	Cypress, TX
Homes for Sale	38	1003
List Price	$169,900 - $440,000	$54,900 - 1,437,000
Foreclosures or Short Sales	7	90
% of Foreclosure of Homes for Sale	18%	8.97%
Houses SOLD	46	243
Sale Price	$152,000 - $875,000	$39,000 - $870,000
Average Days on Market	53 days	59 days
Average Price per Sq. Ft.	$85.56	$54..67
This information is about the Homes in Coles Crossing and Cypress TX, the analysis can vary from one neighborhood to another. For more information about the market analysis in your neighborhood, please feel free to contact me any time for FREE consultation.
For more information, contact Jimmy   Jimmy Farag, REALTOR Realm Real Estate Professionals Phone: (832) 303-5000 Cell: (832) 744-7424 Fax: (281) 598-5402 Homes for Sale in Sugarland TX www.SellMyHouseJimmy.com www.HoustonHomesforSale-Here.com www.HoustonForeclosureHomesFree.com