Found 73 blog entries tagged as selling your home.

Should you be marketing to first-time home buyers in order to sell your Santa Cruz real estate? The 2011 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers has a wealth of information on first-time home buyers and will help you figure out if you should market to this large and important group of buyers.

Here are the stats (courtesy of AgBeat.com) you need to know about first-time home buyers before selling your Santa Cruz real estate:

• Long-term survey averages show that 4 out of 10 buyers are typically first-time buyers. This segment is critical to a housing recovery because they help existing home owners sell and make a trade.

• The median age of first-time buyers was 31 and the median income was $62,400, up from $59,900 in…

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Should you try to sell your home on your own as a Santa Cruz home for sale by owner (FSBO)? The 2011 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers has new information about FSBOs that can help you decide if you should try to sell your home without the help of a real estate professional.

Here are the top 4 facts you need to know if you’re considering selling your Santa Cruz home for sale by owner:

1. It’s harder to sell your Santa Cruz home for sale by owner in today’s market. FSBO transactions accounted for 10 percent of sales. That’s slightly above the record low of 9 percent in the 2010 study, but well below the record high of 20 percent set in 1987. The share of homes sold without professional representation has trended…

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A cozy fire, the smell of pine trees and a plate of warm cookies might be all it takes for buyers to envision themselves celebrating many holidays in your Santa Cruz home. So take the time this season to channel Mrs. Claus and cheerfully enhance your house for the holidays with these festive tips:

• Deck the Halls – While you want to remind some buyers of their yearly traditions, you don’t want to offend others. If you usually go overboard with decorations, tone it down a little this year and go for a winter nature theme — think pinecones, snowflakes and the smell of cinnamon.

• Spruce Up the Winter Curb Appeal – In the dead of winter, yards can look barren and bleak. Don’t add to the seasonal depression. Be sure you shovel snow, rake fallen leaves…

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The data from the 2011 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers is now available. Here are the significant changes you need to know that will help you market your Santa Cruz real estate and get it sold:

1. Most buyers are married: 64 percent of all buyers are married couples (up five percent from 2010), 18 percent are single women, 10 percent single men and 7 percent unmarried couples.

2. Your property is competing against 12 other homes: Buyers searched a median of 12 weeks and visited 12 homes, both unchanged from 2010.

3. Multiple bedrooms and bathrooms are preferred: The typical home had 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

4. Most buyers want single-family homes: 77 percent of respondents purchased a detached…

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With Daylight Saving Time turning back the clock this month, sellers having trouble going the for-sale-by-owner route should take a hint from Father Time: Set aside the time to “fall back” on helpful connections and get your Santa Cruz real estate sold.

Your for-sale-by-owner home is probably clear of clutter and staged to perfection, so why aren’t buyers lining up to take a peek? If it’s not the price, then it probably means you need to take a look at your marketing. The tips below will guide you on how to take some time to fall back on local connections and reach out to more people.

• Connect through all your communities. Networking online through real estate sites and social media platforms are a good place to start, but don’t stop there. Use all…

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Sellers are quick to blame their real estate agents if their Santa Cruz homes are slow to sell, but that can be an unfair assumption.  Here are four reasons for a slow sale that have nothing to do with your real estate agent:

Reason #1:  Your neighborhood has seen better days. 
There are many signs that a neighborhood is in decline. Examine yours to determine if this could be one of the reasons why your home isn’t selling. Here are a few signs to look out for: local businesses going out of business, schools deteriorating, major traffic jams or a multitude of foreclosures or short sales. What can you do to get your home sold if your neighborhood is in decline? Work with your real estate agent to set the price of your home based on the neighborhood’s…

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Whether you’re looking to buy or sell Santa Cruz real estate, you’re going to need help from a certified professional. So which do you choose — a REALTOR®, real estate agent or broker? Most people don’t even know there’s a difference between the three and use the titles interchangeably.

While these three titles are similar, they are not identical. Depending on your knowledge of the real estate industry and the complexity of your transaction, you’ll want a professional with complementary education, expertise and experience. Below are title descriptions to help you get your terms straight and pick the right professional when it comes to buying or selling Santa Cruz real estate.

Real Estate Agent
A real estate agent is someone who is licensed to sell…

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Flyers, open houses and stagnant real estate websites don’t cut it anymore. Property buyers and sellers are more technologically savvy than they’ve ever been, and they rely on social media’s instant communication forums for information, advice, suggestions and reviews to guide their decision-making processes.

Real estate agents’ roles within the industry have evolved — they’re no longer just gatekeepers.  Now, they need to be interpreters between their clients and the constant stream of social media information.

To determine if a Santa Cruz real estate agent is socially savvy online, ask the following questions:

 Strategy – Before signing a listing agreement with an agent, find out what marketing strategies he or she usually implements. Is he or…

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When a buyer makes a short sale offer on your Santa Cruz home, it’s impossible to know for sure if the offer will be accepted by the lender.  Even when you’ve negotiated the offer with the buyer and come to an agreement that meets both of your needs, there’s still no guarantee that the lender will say yes to the short sale.

Here are three tips to help get short sale offers on your Santa Cruz home accepted by the lender:

1. Convince the lender that you have a legitimate hardship. Submit a hardship letter, pay stubs, bank statements, monthly budget and profit and loss statement to demonstrate that you cannot make your monthly payments and have no disposable income. Here are examples of hardships to mention in your letter:

a. lost your job
b. reduced…

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More than likely, you’ve cooked dinners, you’ve played games and you’ve made thousands of memories within the personally decorated walls of your home — and now you think you’re ready to move on. No matter the reason for selling your Santa Cruz real estate, getting emotional is normal. However, you need to keep those emotions in check, because they could be detrimental to closing the deal.

Emotional calls constantly get sellers in troubling situations that make them regret their split decisions. A snide remark, too-low offer or fixer-up request from the buyer can push your buttons, but you need to set your feelings aside in order to do what’s best for your financial future. Below are emotional mistakes that can stop negotiations and put you in housing…

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