Sell your For Sale By Owner (FSBO) home fast, and save $1000's in Broker Commissions

Sell your For Sale By Owner (FSBO) home fast, and save $1000's in Broker Commissions
It's simple. When a seller chooses to selling a home without a real estate agent, they significantly benefit from the elimination of the seller's agent commission. Because you're not paying the traditional high cost of a selling commission, you can now afford to price your home more aggressively. The lower the price, the more likely it will sell fast. You will still walk away with thousands in savings, but you'll just be doing it faster.
The required steps to selling your property or home without an expensive real estate broker is much easier than most people think. Nevertheless, it will require some modest work on the part of the seller. You'll be doing a lot of things that a real estate agent might normally do, but you'll later discover the work to be conveniently minimal.
Your home's presentation is everything when you desire for a fast and easy selling process. Home buyers are attracted to clean, spacious and attractive homes. Your goal is to impress each and every one of the prospective buyers. You should perform some basic maintenance to ensure your home is in ideal selling condition. Some of the more important areas to check when selling your home include:
Flooring
Plumbing fixtures
Lighting fixtures Heating and ventilation systems
Doors and windows
Interior paint
Exterior paint
Outdoor drainage systems
Driveway and walkway (for cracks)
Outdoor watering systems
Roof
Home Improvements
Make reasonable cosmetic improvements to better increase your ability to sell the home.
Make the entryway to your home as inviting as possible.
Consider even planting flowers in the front yard for a memorable appearance.
Remove any items that might potentially take away a room's natural appearance.
Touch up both the kitchen and bathrooms to help increase the home's value.
Make sure the home's interior and exterior paint is in good condition.
Make sure your address numbers are clearly legible to prospective buyers driving by. Repair if needed.
Check the working condition of all electrical features such as your home's doorbell, lights, and garage door.
Price your home effectively
It's imperative to set a realistic selling price. If you want your home to sell in a fast fashion, carefully set the price fairly and you'll most likely sell faster than anticipated.
Get an appraisal of your home.
Compare and evaluate home sales prices of comparable homes in your area.
Know precisely when it's a buyer's or a seller's market.
Settle on a appropriate selling price.
Advertise/Market Your Home
Obtain the necessary purchase contract forms, and if possible have an attorney professionally review all documents.
Be willing to provide an "Open House" for prospective home buyers.
Try to pre-qualify all prospective buyers.
Carefully negotiate with all serious buyers and avoid getting emotional with offers you consider low.
Consider listing in the Real Estate Agent's multiple listing service also known as the "MLS". Get a real estate lawyer
In most areas, title companies will handle all aspects of the transaction and have in-house legal departments that can assist you with legal issues that may arise. To locate a title company check your yellow pages, or call a realtor in your area.
If you are totally inexperienced at selling real estate, having a real estate lawyer at your side provides peace-of-mind. You know you've got someone looking out for your interests, not just the buyers.
Closing
When you happily reach the point of closing all that's left with is finishing a small amount of paperwork.
Sign your escrow instructions.
Carefully choose an escrow company or lawyer to help administer the closing.
Deliver the legally required disclosure documents to the buyer.
Pass required inspections.
Receive loan commitment letter from buyer.
Obtain title report through the Escrow Company or closing real estate agent.
Make arrangements to pay off the existing mortgage(s).
Pay the closing fees.
Review tax implications.
Celebrate your home purchase!
About the Author:
JC Ferguson is licensed Real Estate Broker, and regularly contributes to bloggs. More information on For Sale By Owner real estate sales can be found at http://www.denvercoloradorealestate.us

MORTGAGE RATES INCH UP

Following four consecutive weekly declines, Freddie Mac reports a jump in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate to 5.68 percent during the week ended Jan. 31 from 5.48 percent the prior week. The 15-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 5.17 percent from 4.95 percent over the same time span.Meanwhile, the five-year adjustable mortgage rate edged up to 5.32 percent from 5.13 percent; and the one-year ARM climbed to 5.05 percent from 4.99 percent. Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft attributes the recent gains to an uptick in 10-year Treasury bonds. Source: San Jose Mercury News (Calif.), Martin Crutsinger (02/01/08)

Existing Home Sales to Hold Steady in Early 2008

Over the next few months, existing-home sales are expected to hold fairly steady as indicated by pending sales activity, and then rise later in the year and continue to improve in 2009, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of REALTORS®.Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, says there is a pull and tug exerting itself on the market. “On the one hand, we have a pent-up demand from the four million jobs added to our economy over the past two years of sales decline,” he says. “On the other, consumers continue to wait for additional signs of market stabilization. There are more people with financial capacity now than in 2005, but many are trying to market-time their purchase. As a result, the exact timing and the strength of a home sales recovery is a bit uncertain. A meaningful recovery in existing-home sales could occur as early as this spring, or it may be further delayed toward late 2008.”The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in November, fell 2.6 percent to a reading of 87.6 from a strong upward revision of 89.9 in October, but remains above the August and September readings and indicates a broad stabilization. The index was 19.2 percent below the November 2006 level of 108.4. “Although there could be some minor slippage in the first quarter, existing-home sales should hold in a narrow range before trending up,” Yun says.Across the RegionRegionally, the PHSI showed the following:
South: rose 2.3 percent in November to 100.7 but is 19.8 percent below a year ago.
West: slipped 2.1 percent to 86.6 but is 18.5 percent lower than November 2006.
Midwest: fell 4.1 percent in November to 82.1 and is 18.6 percent below a year ago.
Northeast: dropped 13 percent in November to 70.1 from a spike in October, and is 19.1 percent below November 2006.Existing-Home Sales ForecastExisting-home sales for 2007 will probably total 5.66 million, the fifth highest on record, then edge up to 5.7 million this year and 5.91 million in 2009, compared with 6.48 million in 2006. Existing-home prices for 2007 are likely to be down 1.9 percent to a median of $217,600, hold even this year and then rise 3.1 percent in 2009 to $224,400.“Rising home prices in the affordable midsection of the country are likely to offset declines in some of the previously hot markets,” Yun says.There are wide variations in housing market conditions around the country, with nearly two-thirds of the metropolitan areas showing price gains. Healthy increases in metro prices are occurring in places such as Pittsburgh; Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas; San Jose, Calif.; and Bismarck, N.D.“Our consumer survey shows buyers today are in it for the long-haul, planning to stay in their home for a median of 10 years,” Yun says. “This is a wise approach to housing because the data shows the longer you own, the better your investment.”New-home sales are projected at 773,000 for 2007, and declining to 669,000 this year before rising to 730,000 in 2009. However, that is well below the 1.05 million 2006. With an appropriate slowdown in production, housing starts — including multifamily units — are forecast at 1.36 million for 2007 and 1.09 million this year before edging up to 1.1 million in 2009. Starts totaled 1.8 million in 2006. The median new-home price should drop 2.1 percent to $241,400 for 2007, and then rise 0.4 percent to $242,200 this year and gain another 5.9 percent in 2009.Call for Legislative Action“Some policy changes, such as raising the loan limit on conventional mortgages, would provide a significant boost to home sales, increase liquidity, strengthen home prices and lessen foreclosures, but it is unclear as to if and when the measure will be implemented,” Yun says. NAR strongly supports raising the Government-Sponsored Enterprise loan limit to at least $625,000 from the current $417,000 so that more consumers will have access to lower interest rates on safe conforming mortgages. “NAR estimates that raising the GSE loan limit will result in interest rates savings for an additional 330,000 home owners,” Yun adds.NAR also encourages the Fed to make a single lump-sum cut in the Fed funds rate to 3.5 percent at the January Federal Open Market Committee meeting, rather than a series of modest cuts throughout the year. “Consumers are also looking to market-time interest rates, and the expectations of further rate cuts are pushing some home buyers to delay,” Yun says. “Monetary policy will be much more effective with a one-time large cut, rather than a series of small cuts.” The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is expected to rise slowly to the 6.3 percent range by the end of this year, but an additional cut in the Fed funds rate would lower short-term interest rates.Meanwhile, growth in the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is seen at 2.1 percent in 2007, below the 2.9 percent growth rate in 2006; GDP growth will probably be 2 percent this year.After averaging 4.6 percent for both 2006 and 2007, the unemployment rate is estimated to rise to 5.3 percent in the second half of 2008. Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, is projected at 2.9 percent for 2007 and 3.1 percent this year; it was 3.2 percent in 2006. Inflation-adjusted disposable personal income is forecast to grow 3.1 percent for 2007, the same as in 2006, and then grow 1.6 percent this year.— REALTOR® Magazine Online

10 Most Expensive Cities for Renters

It’s good news for landlords that mortgage applications fell to their lowest level in a year last month because people have to live somewhere and if they can’t or won’t buy, they’ll have to rent.Here are the nation’s 10-most-expensive cities for renters and the average rents. The data is provided by Marcus & Millichap.
New York, N.Y.: $2,922
San Francisco: $1,904
Boston: $1,658
San Jose, Calif.: $1,612
Los Angeles: $1,452
San Diego: $1,304
Washington, D.C.: $1,302
Miami: $1,080
Philadelphia: $1,014
Chicago: $1,010

LESSONS FOR BOOMERS FROM TODAY'S RETIREES

https://www.oppenheimerfunds.com/digitalAssets/2064ce9cd6c1c010VgnVCM100000e82311ac____-0.pdf by OppenheimerFunds

WHAT IS YOUR FINANCIAL CONDITION POLL

Take my financial condition poll -- http://htmlgear.tripod.com/poll/control.poll?u=jfergie01&i=1&a=render

The Rule of Unintended Consequences

The Rule of Unintended Consequences...the natural result of
medaling in the free markets? As I start this, the White House
plan to freeze rates on some subprime mtgs for up to 5yrs will
be announced in about 30min. There will also be hearings today
on providing a litigation safeharbor for servicers that modify
loan terms. The implications are mind boggling...but we won't
know the real impact for a while. This a.m. mtg delinquencies
rose to a 20-yr high (and we haven't even gotten to the wave of
'08 mtg resets yet). WSJ story points out that auto loan
delinquencies are spiking higher too. The ripple effect
continues to expand. Meanwhile the BOE cut their benchmark rate,
joining Canada. The ECB chose to maintain a hawkish stance. USTs
are under some pressure, 10s - 3/16@ 3.98%Init Claims -15k/338k
Ronald New
Vice President
Stifel Nicolaus