Pricing Your Home to Sell

 

Pricing your home is one of the most important items when choosing to sell your home and doing this wrong can be a costly mistake. You have to consider more than just the price to do this properly. The condition of your home, average market time for your area, availability for showings and the competing homes can all play a big role in choosing the proper price.

 

To accurately determine the right price for your home you need to find current prices for comparable homes in your area, as well as find recent comparable sales in your area, and know the demand for housing in your area.

 

Here are some helpful steps to help you select the appropriate price when selling your home:

Step #1: Measure Your Home

Measure your home against similar homes in your area that have recently been sold or currently are for sale.

 

Step#2: Compare Features

Find what features either make your home stand out against the comparable homes or maybe appear not as attractive. Items such as square footage, number of bedrooms, number of garage spaces and lot size can make a big difference. Buyers will be comparing your home to these others, so it's a good idea to do so yourself.

 

Step#3: Cosmetic Fix-Up's

Determine what cosmetic fix-ups you can complete to make your home more appealing than the competition but without spending too much. You don't want to invest money you will not recoup when you sell your home. This will highly increase the marketability of your home.

 

When Pricing Remember:

The right price is usually within 5% of the market value. If you select a price that is too high the home will have little interest and few showings. If the price is too low there will be many buyers and you will miss out on potential profit.

 

 

 

Credit Score: Do Something Before It's Too Late

 

Making sure you have a good credit score is more important today than ever before.  Not only is it crucial to helping you get the best interest rates possible when applying for any type of loan, it could mean the difference as to whether you can even find a job, if you're looking for one.

 

More and more, employers are now pulling your credit report to determine your risk. Typically people with good credit are not going to steal; they seem to have their life in order, etc. 

 

So if you have had some bumps and bruises on your credit report, now is the time to get a recent copy of your free credit report and start working on your credit.  Here are some areas you need to focus on to increase your FICO score.

 

If you have credit cards, make sure they are current.  Late or past due credit is a killer on your credit score.  And focus on trying to get your available credit limit versus your balances under 60%.  If you have a bunch of credit cards and they are all maxed out, your credit score will be low.

 

If you have any collections on your credit, you must get them paid off.  Until you do, your credit score will suffer significantly.  Collections will stay on your credit report for 7 years and will not just go away.  The quickest way to get your credit score up is by paying off collections.

 

The banking industry will never be same again because of the amount of mortgage foreclosures.  The lending industry is tightening so much currently that families with good credit could have problems getting loans. So make sure it's not too late, if you are getting ready to make a big purchase like a new home, make sure your credit is in line with today's times.

 

Borrowing money is only going to get tougher. So instead of being told NO when you apply, learn how to get a YES by getting your FICO score as high as you possibly can.

 

 

 

Cooling Bills: Cutting Costs This Summer

 

Air conditioning is an expensive way to stay cool, but there are ways to chill your house without burning up your bank account. Money editor Stacy Johnson takes a look at a few ways in this short video (runs 1:41).

 

 

Reverse Mortgages: Older Homeowners Cautioned

 

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority urged homeowners over the age of 60 to carefully weigh their options before tapping into their home equity through reverse mortgages to obtain additional income for their retirement years.

 

The group, formed by a merger of the NASD and some regulatory functions of New York Stock Exchange parent NYSE Group Inc., warned that a reverse mortgage — an interest-bearing loan secured by the equity in a home — can jeopardize their financial futures.

 

With a reverse mortgage, a bank makes payments to a homeowner instead of the homeowner making payments to a bank. The loan is repaid, with interest, when the borrower sells the house, moves out or dies. Reverse mortgages have high fees — typically about 7% of the home's value — and they make it difficult for homeowners to leave the property to their heirs.

 

The warning notes that, in some cases, those who sell the mortgages may profit from the their sale, giving them twice the incentive to talk someone into a loan they may not need.

 

Reverse mortgages were originally designed as a tool for aging, low-income homeowners to keep their homes, but they have been used more often by retiring Americans as a way to finance a more-extravagant retirement lifestyle than they could otherwise afford.

 

Still, as foreclosure rates continue to rise amid the subprime-mortgage crisis, some homeowners who have built up equity in their home may consider reverse mortgages their best option against losing it.

 

We don't advocate anyone taking out a reverse mortgage… but welcome your thoughts and opinions on it.  Just use the comment link below to tell us what you think about Reverse Mortgages.  Your email address, although required in order to post, will never be published on this site.

 

 

 

Housing Market Woes: Is Washington Doing Enough?

 

With the news continuing to be bleak (at best) around the housing market, the question is, are interest rate cuts and tax rebates enough, or should Washington be doing more to actively intervene in the struggling housing market?

 

The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee recently approved a sweeping bill to enable the government to finance $300 billion in distressed mortgages with the aim of helping two million homeowners.

 

The latest interest rate cut by the Fed took the cost of borrowing to 2.0 percent, its lowest since December 2004.

 

Meanwhile President Bush has signed into law a $150 billion economic stimulus package designed to spur the ailing economy by giving tax rebates to millions of Americans.

 

But is all this enough?  Should (or could) Washington be doing more to help?  We'd love to hear your opinion.  Click the comment link below and give us your feedback.  Your email address (although required to post a comment) will never be published here, so go ahead, sound off.  We know you want to.