Treasure Coast
Real Estate News & Market Trends

Here are a few tips to help you accurately price your home in this market.

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How can we really determine the value of your home when the market is rising so fast? Today we’ll share three tips to help you come up with the most accurate assessment of your property’s value:

1. Talk to an experienced real estate agent. Your agent should be familiar not only with what has recently sold in your area, but also with what the current inventory is and how many buyers are looking for homes in the neighborhood.

2. Look at the data in your area. Looking back at the sales data over several months will help you spot trends in the market, like how quickly home prices are appreciating. That, in turn, will help you come up with an accurate price for your home.

3. Look at where the market is headed. Keep an eye on what interest rates and the economy at large are doing, both locally and nationally. This is important because if you overprice your home according to the market, you could lose out big time if something causes price increases to slow down or pushes buyers out of the market.

If you’re thinking about selling your home on the Treasure Coast or you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us by phone or email. We’d love to help you.

Buyers’ opportunities and affordability may be declining, so don’t wait.

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Buyers, your window of opportunity and affordability may be closing. Last week, interest rates increased past 4%, meaning you have less borrowing power for a new mortgage. Home prices are also expected to continue climbing. Even if prices only jump up 3% to 5% this year, it’ll cost you significantly more to buy a home. 

If you’re serious about buying a house, here are the two things you should do:

1. Contact your lender. Get pre-approved, or if you were already pre-qualified or pre-approved in the last 30 to 60 days, get it updated with current rates. You can’t lock in a rate on a house until you’re under contract, and the time between getting pre-approved and going under contract on a house could be three to six weeks. If interest rates rise during that time, it can cost you thousands of dollars on your purchase.

2. Contact a real estate agent. Start aggressively looking for homes with your agent so that the rates stay current and prices don’t skyrocket before you find the right one.

Armed with a pre-approval and a great agent, you’re certain to find the house of your dreams. If you have any real estate questions or a topic you’d like me to cover in a future blog, just send me an email or leave a comment. I’d be glad to help you.

These are my best tips for handling multiple-offer situations as a seller.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search
Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

If you’re selling your home in this market, you’re likely to receive multiple offers from interested buyers. Here are some of my top tips for handling them:

1. Review each offer in detail with your agent. Have them explain both the price and terms.

2. Make sure the buyer has a pre-approval or proof-of-funds letter. 

3. Contact the buyer’s lender. Double-check that they ran your credit and verified your finances.

4. Rank the offers. Rank them based on their price and terms, and separate any cash offers. Cash offers should take priority in this market. Let’s face it, cash is king, and cash offers typically have few to no contingencies. A financed offer could take 30 to 45 days just to close.

Negotiating a purchase agreement is a delicate process. You need an experienced real estate professional in your corner who can guide you through the process to have success. 

If you have any real estate-related questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Here are three mistakes that today’s home sellers should not be making.

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation

Most home sellers understand that they’re in a seller’s market right now. However, this can lead to false confidence and costly mistakes. Here are three mistakes that I see sellers making in this market that you need to avoid at all costs:

1. Not knowing how to market their property. Homeowners not understanding how to present offers and market their properties can be a huge problem, especially when cash offers are involved. If a seller doesn't fully understand the delicacy of negotiating finances and cash offers, it could end up costing them all of the offers.

2. Not getting their home show-ready. When I work with home sellers, I like to get their homes sales-cleaned and have their lawns prepped for showings. This is different from your typical cleaning. A sales cleaning is a deep clean and declutter that gets your home in tip-top shape. I highly recommend putting fresh mulch in and getting rid of dead plants to dramatically increase your curb appeal.

3. Hiring an inexperienced agent. New agents simply don’t have the necessary skills to get you the best deal in this market. This could be a very costly mistake of tens of thousands of dollars. If you're selling your property and want top dollar, you should really hire a person with a lot of experience in marketing and listing homes in your area.

If you have any questions for me about selling your home, other mistakes to avoid, or anything else related to real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Here’s why you shouldn’t simply transfer your house to your kids.

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I work with a lot of retirees, and one of the questions that I often get is: “Should I transfer my home to my kids’ names?”

The short answer is probably not. Let's say you purchased a property for $300,000, and it appreciates to $500,000. If you put the house in your kids’ names, they then become responsible for the taxes on the $200,000 of profit. Instead, the best thing you can do is put the house in a living trust, so when you pass away, they will inherit the property with no probate. They will also receive a step-up in cost basis, which allows them to receive the property tax-free.

If you have any questions about the Treasure Coast real estate market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you.