New Homes Sales Rise 6.4% in The Cliffs For April

2014 is starting to turn out to be the home of steady increases. In 2013 we saw a steadfast trend that made the The Cliffs real estate market bounce back immensely from the fall of 2008. The increase in prices rose approximately 13% during 2013 and 2014 has been a slowly but surely steady increase as well. Just announced today, new home sales have risen 6.4% for the month of April showing no signs of stopping the market as the summer months start to heat up.

Nationally, 407,000 new homes sold was the set pace for March, and April took that to the next level with 433,000. Originally, the Wall Street Journal economist even stated that April would only be seeing approximately 420,000 new homes sold. A modest 13,000 over the prediction is not a bad way to ease in to the upcoming hot summer months.

New single family houses are currently on the rise as the trends tend to show that most of the home buying and selling seasons increase dramatically in May, June, July, August and September. An increase in April is the perfect first act to our real estate play that is about to unfold.

Over the past few months, The Cliffs home prices have remained high while mortgage rates have priced many individuals looking to move or purchase their first property out of the market. With the recent fall of the mortgage rate to an astounding 4.14%, buyers are starting to come to the market with purchasing their new home in sight as affordability is becoming a mainstay of this current rate.

“The more reliable building permits data suggest that demand for new single-family homes bottomed out in the first quarter after a rate-related pullback in late 2013, and has resumed mild growth,” economists at Wrightson ICAP stated. Sales of previously owned homes has risen nationally as well up 1.3% this previous month to approximately 4.65 annually. As of right now, existing home sales takes a majority of the The Cliffs real estate market with an astounding 90% of all of transactions in the United States.

What is nice to notice though is that although the drastic increase that we saw last year helped to pick up the real estate market out of our current slump, the steady and every so slightly subtly increase month after month is a nice indication that the market is here to stay.

Can Small Home Fixes Increase My Greenville Property Value?

If you recall, a few weeks back we finished our series on the Top 10 weekend fixes to increase your Greenville property value. Our topic this week picks up on those articles and dives even deeper in to the question of do little fixes boost home sales? Hiring out a local handyman can be the answer to all of your troubles on your property, but prioritizing these repairs can be the hard part. Based on this recent survey though, we can see just what major repairs will allow for the highest return on investment on your Greenville home.

What is a little surprising from these statistics are just how much of a return on your investment you truly can get just from little minor changes. These stats are derived from 675,000 projects that were sent in to porch from property owners, builders, realtors, architects and others as well. “Just doing these minor things will help your house sell quicker and typically for more money,” says Brad Carlson of the Woodlands, Texas.

One of Mr. Carlson’s listings actually sat on the market for over two whole months with out as much as an offer to show for the property. Through the suggestion of changing out the sellers old outdated furniture for a new appeal, the home closed very close to it’s actual listing price just two days later. Statistics do show that sellers spend close to $4,000 while buyers spend upwards of $20,000. Just a few minor tweaks to the home though can make a world of a difference in any property. When looking to list your Greenville Real Estate, these changes could mean the difference in an offer above or below listing price.

Who Is Purchasing Greenville Luxury Homes?

Luxury real estate is always on the top of every buyers list when they have the sufficient amount of income to own that dream home they have always pictured owning. Every young adult dreams of one day owning the American Dream and having that large Greenville home to have their family and friends over for the weekend, show off to all of their neighbors and friends and live the life of luxury. From these recent surveys, we now have a little bit better of an understanding as to who is looking to purchase this property after all.

The biggest statistics that stands out to us is that 13% of those surveyed stated that they were actively looking. To get a sample size in which 15-20% of those surveyed say they are actively looking for a home is hard enough, but in this case 13% stated that they were in fact searching for a Luxury Greenville home. What’s even more impressive is that over 1/4th of the surveyed participants went on to say that they might purchase a luxury home. Now obviously a luxury home is just an adjective to describe a very highly priced property that is listed well over the average property value of the normal home in the United States. When we think of Luxury properties, we tend to think of the $500,000+ range. Now when you think of that number and look at the statistics, these percentages become even more eye opening.

The pie chart does state that resale value is quite important and we can agree that 63% of those surveyed had this correct. The last thing that you want in your life is a highly priced Greenville Luxury Home that you will not be able to get your return on. After 2008 occurred, it is quite obvious that resale value should always be in the back of every purchase you make. These homes are meant to be enjoyed but mainly to produce equity. They are investments and every homeowner wants to get at least what they put in the property back in their bank account when they look to resale it, if not even more.

Purchasing a Greenville luxury property is a big step though. The alarming part in this data is that the highest percentage number of those that are starting to search for properties are due to recent career success. We always state that you should always be cautious with any purchase, especially if it is from a whim. The more you work for the property the better it will be, but the last thing you want after purchasing a home like this is a short sale or foreclosure. Make sure that you can afford the mortgage payments and plan for these high increases.

Overall though, the Greenville Real Estate Market is getting hotter, which only means that the luxury market is rising as well. Based off of these statistics we can easily notice that home owners are looking to upgrade their current properties as the prices continue to rise. Increase your home equity is  smart move on every home owners part, and with a Luxury Home that can help increase your net worth that much more.

Is The Cliffs Real Estate The Best Long Term Investment?

Should You For Sale By Owner In The Cliffs?

 

A FSBO or For Sale By Owner are properties that are on the market that are being sold by the current occupant. The main goal behind trying to sell your property yourself is to save the dreaded 3% commission that will be given to the listing agent on the The Cliffs home. If you are a FSBO, then you are already allowing the other 3% to be paid to the buying agent that will be bringing in the buyer and negotiating with you over the price and the contract.

What many people do not understand is that there is much more to selling a home than just putting a for sale sign in the yard and getting a buyer. You have to market the property, advertise it online, negotiate with the buyers, write up the transactions and contracts, work through the closing, transfer over the title through a title company, potential change your mortgage and many other items to say the least.

What you get for  The Cliffs listing agent is someone to take care of all of this for you. The contract portion of the closing is worth the 3% by itself, but advertising online, promoting your home, doing an open house is all a standard part of the real estate process that many home owners tend to overlook when they decide to FSBO.

From that infographic above, did you notice that 92% of buyers search online now to find a The Cliffs home? At Keller Williams, we have an item called the ListHub that allows us to send out our listings to over 800+ websites including Realtor.com, KW.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com and even more. Could you imagine having to add your own listing over to these websites one at a time? The amount of time alone to advertise your The Cliffs Real Estate would take weeks to say the least when you account for your other job that you work all day long.

43% even stated that they find the home that they buy from looking online which is a large jump from where it was just a few years back, let alone at the turn of the millenium. The biggest number to look at though is that on average a FSBO netted $184,000 whereas a home sold by an agent netted $225,000. Even after the 6% is taken out, you would still be looking at $211,500 for your The Cliffs home in comparison to $178,480 you would get from selling on your own (3% was taken out for the buying agent).

After looking at these numbers, it is easy to see that an agent is the smart way to go. Regardless of saving you time and effort when marketing your home, selling it, hosting an open house and doing all of the contracts, the amount you could save is quite drastic. The bottom line is that using a The Cliffs real estate expert is a no brainer from these statistics.

The market giant Freddie Mac stated in a recent blog post that the “housing is stronger today than at any point since the Great Recession began and hit bottom in 2009.” Of course, what is a quote with out proven statistics to back it up?

• The Cliffs Home sales are up a whopping 13% since their 2009 low point
• New Home Construction is up 50% since they hit rock bottom
• Housing prices nation wide have risen a cumulative 16%

FreddieMac did then go on to state that they believe 2014 will improve, not as much as we saw in 2013, but it will improve dramatically.

• The Cliffs Home sales should improve by 3%
• 20% increase in new home construction, helping out tighter inventory
• The Cliffs Home values will improve as well

From the vice president and chief economist of FreddieMac, Frank Nothaft, went on to specify “Tight inventory may pose a significant challenge for home buyers in many markets across the country, which may result in higher home prices and sales being lower than expected. This is good news for those markets that have room to run on the house price appreciation front, but it’s also going to increase the affordability pinch in many markets, especially along the country’s east and west coasts. Two indicators that are supporting local housing activity are rising consumer confidence and declining unemployment rates.” When looking at all of the statistics and seeing what the chief economist are saying, this looks like the perfect storm for the housing market to continue on upward. The Cliffs Real Estate is getting hotter as the summer starts to heat up and now is the time to look to list or find that dream home you have had your eye on.

Weekend Tips To Increase Your Travelers Rest Home Value

Are you looking to increase your personal Travelers Rest real estate wealth and home value before you sell? Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at ways to do just that by showing you helpful tips that will take your real estate to the next level before it hits the market. It may be a sellers market out there right now, but as the summer months heat up, so will the amount of sellers looking to move. Statistically, May, June, July, August and September see the hottest times for sellers to place their property out on the market and if you are looking at taking advantage of this fast paced Travelers Rest real estate market, then this tip may be just for you.

Tackle The Small Issues At Once

One of the biggest issues with preparing the home for listing is taking care of the minor items. Instead of spreading out the issues over a long period of time, tackling them all at once will allow you to fix everything for the next showing. Even minor items like a leaking faucet or a cabinet that sticks while opening and closing can be an issue for the next home owner. Like all of our other tips, we want to make sure this is as new as possible. In the long and short run, we want the buyers to see the potential in our Travelers Rest Real Estate and not the problems that plague the home. Much like our tip from the last week, we want the buyers to envision themselves enjoying all that your home has to offer and fixing the smaller items will help immensely.

Replacing cracked tiles, dusting those hard to reach areas, changing out the burnt bulbs can all add to the home buying process. Make a “Not-So-Fun” list that will take approximately 48 hours and get to fixing all off the broken drawers, moldy caulking and cracked tiles. Presentation is key and as the market heats up during the summer months, competition will become more fierce. The better our home looks inside and out, the more likely we will be receiving multiple offers on the property. The end goal is always to get our Travelers Rest home sold, but the extra cherry on top is to get it sold relatively quickly and for over the asking price. This tip will help you get a leg up on the competition as your property comes on to the market.