Buy Before You Sell

In today’s competitive real estate market, you may be worried about listing your home. You may be thinking; if it sells quickly, you won’t have enough time to find and buy the next home that’s right for you.
At Howard Hanna, we strive to make the home buying and selling process simple for you. Our one-stop shopping is convenient for everyone, including sellers who are also looking to buy.

Buy Before You Sell

When you list a home with Howard Hanna, one of our exclusive one-stop shopping programs available is “Buy Before You Sell,” which lets you take the equity in your current home and apply it towards the down payment of a new home. It’s among our most popular programs because enrollment can be renewed if needed and initially includes deferred interest payments. By using the “Buy Before You Sell” program, you can use the value of your current home to invest in your preferred home!

Advantages of our Buy Before You Sell program:

1. You can purchase a home without having to wait until your present property is sold.
2. You can take advantage of today’s low mortgage interest rates and potentially get better terms for the home you are buying.
3. You can move without worrying about the logistical issues of moving out of one property and into the new one on the same day.
4. Once you’ve found your new home, the home you are selling can be staged without having to overly disrupt your life.
5. We can also more easily show potential buyers your home, allowing more buyers to see your home than if you were still living in it.
6. Our program produces more buyers who can buy your home by removing the sales contingency.

Buy with confidence.

It’s important to be able to buy with confidence, even before a current home is sold. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking to upgrade, right-size, switch school districts, or just enjoy a change of scenery, our “Buy Before You Sell” program covers it all!

• Our program provides down payment funds for your next home purchase
• Our program eliminates home sale contingency
• Payments can be deferred for qualified buyers

We’ve been taking the hassle out of the home buying and selling process for decades, and our mortgage professionals are here to help explain our loan programs. We make home ownership accessible and affordable, allowing you to take advantage of today’s low interest rates.
Don’t wait to act on the home you want, buy before you sell!

***Contact me in order to speak to a Howard Hanna Mortgage loan officer!

Source: Howard Hanna Blog

Don’t Count on a Price Drop to Reignite a Listing

Home buyers who want to test the market by listing their home for a higher price may want to rethink that strategy. Homes get 3.4 times more online views the day they are listed than they do the day the seller drops the price, a new analysis from the real estate brokerage Redfin finds.

“It’s critical to price your home to sell from the start,” says Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist. “Fair or not, buyers judge a home by how many days it has been on the market. A home that has been on the market for more than a few weeks has a scarlet letter on it, and buyers will wonder why no one else wanted to buy it. Dropping the price can help get your home onto the radar of some buyers who are searching for homes priced just below the original price, but you likely won’t be able to regain the appeal of a newly listed home.”

Researchers found that a typical home for sale that is viewed by 100 buyers online on its first day receives a fraction of that after 30 days on the market, averaging only 17 views per day at that point. When the seller drops the price, that will lift the views only slightly to 29—and that increase will last only for a single day, researchers find. Then the home’s views fall back to an average of 18 per day.

Online views of homes for sale drop off significantly after the first day. Home sellers receive half as many visits on day two and then just a quarter as many after a week listed on the market, the analysis found.

Source: Redfin (May 24, 2019)

Water Back Up

Recent high amounts of rain fall – What is Water Back Up Coverage - Water back up and sump pump failure coverage is an endorsement to the homeowner insurance policy that provides coverage to property damaged by water that backs up into the home through pipes, drains, sewer, water-service, sump pump and any other type of fluid transfer system from the house. Find out why you need water back up coverage!

https://www.grangeinsurance.com/tips/4-reasons-to-add-water-backup-coverage

Source: Martin Lark Insurance Newsletter 5/22/2019

How to Make Low Ceilings Appear to be Higher

It can be difficult to lend the illusion of more space to a home with low ceilings. A recent article at Houzz from columnist Becky Harris explains how you can make low ceilings appear higher.

© Lourdes Gabriela Interiors 

Use High-Gloss Paint to Your Advantage

Painting the ceiling a glossy white will allow the room to reflect more light, making it appear more spacious that it really is. Interior designer Lourdes Gabriela used glossy white ceilings in a Florida condo that, she said, was suffering from “oppressively low” ceilings. The short height of the ceilings was exacerbated by low-hanging track lights and short louvered doors. After giving the ceiling a glossy paint finish, Gabriela also used a flush-mount chandelier over the dining table to help lift the perception of the ceiling.

© MainStreet Design Build 

Emphasize Long Horizontal Planes

Using horizontal design elements can actually lift the vertical parts of a room. It also distracts the eye from looking up. Designers with MainStreet Design Build used long horizontal display shelves on the walls in the kitchen to “draw the eye to the long horizontal planes and the objects on them,” Harris notes. The shelves command attention and lead people to notice the expanse of the wall instead of the challenges of a short ceiling. “The generous amount of white space between the top shelf and the ceiling makes the ceiling seem higher,” Harris writes.

© Carl Mattison 

Add Some Millwork

Floor-to-ceiling millwork not only gives a space an eye-catching design element but also can be used to lift the ceiling, too. Designer Carl Mattison added wall paneling to the open-concept dining space in an Atlanta cottage. “Seeing so many stacked squares lends the illusion of height,” Harris writes. “Painting the millwork and adjacent kitchen cabinets the same color keeps the room from feeling chopped up.”

Height isn’t the only reason to consider design elements that can showcase the ceiling in a different light. There are plenty of stylish ways to showcase the ceiling as a means of adding more depth to a room or more pizzazz to a home that may be lacking eye-catching qualities.

Source: Realtor®Magazine: 

“7 Ways to Make Low Ceilings Seem Higher,” Houzz (May 2, 2019)