Strategies to maximize your sales price and market trends
An article in Wednesday’s Miami Herald stated that Miami-Dade County Public School District students outperform their national peers on their National Assessment in Education Progress (NAEP) exams.
The quality of our public schools and the educational options we provide parents, increase Miami’s ability to attract and maintain businesses by providing an educated workforce. Increased businesses = increased # employees = increase in home sales.
Christie’s New York will be opening their Rockefeller Center gallery to the public from December 3-12 to exhibit the Elizabeth Taylor Collection prior to the auction, which will take place on 13-16.
Well disappointingly, but not suprisingly, the Congressional “Super Committee” failed to come up with a plan to reduce the Federal deficit.
The fact that the deficit needs to be reduced and there were no new proposals on the table of how to go about doing so, got me to thinking about some of the original recommendations from the Simpson-Bowles plan. One of their recommendations was to eliminate certain mortgage interest rate deductions, namely on second homes, equity lines of credit, and mortgages over $500,000.
Costco addressed the phasing out the mortgage interest deduction completely in their November edition of The Costco Connection.
If it were phased out completely would that change your plans to buy? Would it speed up your plans to sell? What if only the Simpson-Bowles recommendation were implemented? Would that change your plans to buy or sell?
EWM’s Coral Gables office had our office meeting a couple of hours ago. Last week our office alone had over $9,000,000 in sales.
We had 13 residential sales and 9 new residential listings. Out of the 13 sales, 4 went over the asking price and 2 sold at list price, and two sold within $4,000 of list price. The market is still moving and if your property is priced right it will sell fairly quickly and close to asking.
If you are a buyer, learn the market where you are purchasing and get information on relevant sales in the neighborhood where you want to purchase. That way you can make an informed offer when you find the property you want. Unless a property is overpriced for the area, chances are you will not get the property if you low ball your offer.
An article in today’s Miami Herald discusses the importance of first impressions when you are selling your home.
According to the article, you have 8 seconds to make a first impression, whether good or bad. Three quick and relatively inexpensive fixes for the front of your house include:
1. Mulch existing landscaping
2. Put colorful potted plants on front porch
3. Place attractive porch furniture on the porch
Over the last several months I have written about different signs, see blog links below, that the real estate market is changing. Today’s Miami Herald article, Rents rise as overseas buyers invest, talks about some of the reasons why.
I had a buyer call me today wanting to buy a 2 bedroom 2 bath in Kings Creek for under $90,000. I told her there weren’t any on the market in that price range at the moment. She responded, “What happened to all of the inventory”? I explained that investors were snapping up the lower priced units, usually foreclosures and short sales, and turning around an renting them.
At every single one of EWM’s weekly office meetings over the last several months, we have been selling and renting more than we have been listing. Inventory has been decreasing steadily and the pickings right now for buyers are slim. That may turn around if the back log of foreclosures come on the market, but the banks are also getting smarter and are finally starting to agree to short sales. If you are a buyer, you might want to get off the fence. If you are an owner with equity, you may want to consider selling. There are buyers out there without a lot to choose from.
An inspection buyers had done on a house the other day reminded me of how important inspections are, no matter how great the house looks. Many homes that have been updated have improvements and upgrades done by licensed roofers, plumbers, electricians, etc. Permits have been pulled, work has been inspected and the permits have been closed. However, there are also many properties that have had work done by handymen, miscellaneous relatives, or Tim Allenesque do-it-yourselfers. It is in the latter instance where a home inspection really pays off. As a buyer, you want to make sure you are paying for real upgrades and improvements, not what in Spanish we call “pura pinta”, which basically translates into just the paint. If your are a buyer, ALWAYS, get an inspection. As a homeowner, make sure you have the work done properly. What turns out cheap today, may come back to bite you when you decide to sell.
Okay, I have already posted that it is twice the size of Key West, but maybe that is still hard to put into perspective. So, I will compare it in size to other famous islands. Using AskNumbers.com conversion table, I came up with the following:
Cayman Brac: 14 square miles =8,960 acres
Little Cayman: 10 square miles = 6,400 acres
St. Barts: 10 square miles = 6,400 acres
Virgin Gorda: 8 square miles = 5,120 acres
Basically, 11,000 acres is big enough for you to build your own town, or two!
Congress should hurry up and enact the pending Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements. Columbia and Panama are two of South Florida’s largest trade partners. The Obama Administration estimates that the FTA with Colombia alone will increase U.S. exports by $1 billion and that the one with South Korea will add 70,000 jobs.
South Florida will benefit from this increase in trade. Increased trade equals increase in employment equals a more stable real estate market.