Every year, the start of January brings around a lot of change. Often people want to get healthier, save money, pay off debt, travel more and some people are even ready for a change of scenery. This time of year we get an influx of inquiries about buying or selling a home in the coming months. But more often than not the clients who come to us in January are not ready to move at this exact time. Sometimes they want to wait until the school year is over or for warmer weather. But even if you are not ready to move this instant, it is always smart to plan! You can never be too prepared when it comes to buying or selling a home.
For seller’s, there are so many items you can do to get your house ready for market. It is our recommendation that before you get to the month, you want to list your home, take a long hard look at the condition of your home. Ask yourself, what repairs have I meant to make or what improvements could I make to easily improve my properties vales? You can also declutter and start packing away items you won’t need in the coming months. This will make your life so much easier because a little work over several months will be less stressful than cramming all of these tasks into the month before your home goes on the market. You will feel confident with how your home looks instead of being blindsided by the time and costs of repairs a realtor is going to suggest when they want to list your home. Don’t find yourself being a day late and a dollar short.
For our prospective buyer clients, we recommend you get your affairs inline before you start pounding the pavement in hopes to find your dream home. The most significant area a buyer can improve is their finances. A mortgage is a massive investment. Make sure you have educated yourself on how the qualification process works, the amount you can be approved for, ways to improve your credit if that is a concern, and ways to save money for your down payment. We can also refer you to a preferred lender that will help get your finances into shape! Future buyers can even start searching for what they are looking for in a home online. Having realistic expectations of what you want and what you can afford are very important. We suggest that you make a list of your dream home features. Then, decide what you can and can’t live without. If your preliminary search doesn’t get you everything you want, knowing what you can live without or what you can add on later is a great way to start understanding what is truly important in your home search. It will save you heartache later when you are out looking at homes for the first time, and you realize the “absolutely perfect home” might not be out there. But we will work as hard as possible to get you everything you are looking for with a price you can manage.
For more ideas of what you can do to get prepared to buy or sell a home in 2018 check out this articles below.
https://www.redfin.com/blog/2018/01/new-year-new-house-heres-how-to-prepare-for-the-2018-market.html