A Few Reasons to Consider Selling Your Home This Winter

The winter might be a better time to sell your home than you think. Here are a few reasons why.

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Winter may be the best time to put your home on the market. If you were waiting until spring, you may not have to. On my recent appearance on “Your Carolina with Jack & Megan,” I discussed why the winter is a fantastic opportunity for homeowners to get their properties on the market.

One of the biggest misconceptions in real estate is that the winter is a bad time to sell. However, lower inventory means less competition. If you wait until June or July, you’ll be competing against many other homebuyers. The more supply that’s out there, the more home prices get compressed.

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If you wait until June or July to list, your competition will increase exponentially.

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Secondly, this is the time of year where many companies are helping their employees out by giving them bonuses and year-end payouts. They are starting to collect those right now and will have a little bit of extra money in their pocket.

Finally, did you know that January is the No. 1 month for corporate relocations? With that being so, there will be a lot of people coming into the area, looking to pick a house quickly by January. You'll want to be on the market now to take advantage of those buyers.

Thanks again to Jack and Megan for having me. If you have any questions about why winter is a great time to sell or about real estate in general, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

The Keys to Getting Your Home Sold During the Back-to-School Season

If you’re trying to sell your home during the back-to-school season, here are a few tips that will help you.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

Looking to sell your Greenville home? Click here to use our home evaluation tool.

On my latest appearance on “Your Carolina With Jack & Megan,” I talked about the keys to getting your home sold right now during the back-to-school season. 

A lot of sellers with school-age children tend to rush to get their homes sold so they can move into their kids’ school district before the school session starts. Is it hard to sell your home right now, though? 

It’s not hard, but it is a different season. The summer market was our peak-selling season, and now things have slowed down a bit, so you have to make your home stand out. Here are a few tips to do that. 

First, make sure your home’s priced correctly. The market will tell you what your home should be priced at, so it’s important to be realistic in this regard. If you’re determined to sell your home for a certain amount because of how much time and money you put into it, you might be setting yourself up to fail. The market doesn’t care about what you put into your home. Buyers are out there looking, so you have to be competitive. 

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Make your home show-ready by decluttering and depersonalizing it.

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Next, you need to make your home show-ready, which means decluttering and depersonalizing it. Remove any personal items and make the interior as wide-open as possible. Buyers want to be able to visualize themselves living in your home when they walk through it. Think of it as merchandising your home. On our team, we have a professional stager work with our sellers to do this. 

Lastly, remember that buyers tend to make a snap decision when walking through your entryway. As soon as they walk through your front door, they’ve either eliminated your house from consideration or decided they’re interested in it. Since you only have a few seconds to make a great first impression, fix up your entryway.

As always, if you have any other questions about our market or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you. 

3 Reasons Your South Carolina Home Hasn’t Sold Yet

If your home hasn’t sold yet, it could be because of one of these three reasons: price, condition, or marketing.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

Looking to sell your Greenville home? Click here to use our home evaluation tool.

Are you trying to sell your home, but you’re just not having any luck?

At this time of year, if your home has been on the market for a while and it isn’t selling, it’s probably one of three reasons why.

The first is price. You can’t change your neighborhood or your location, but you can change your price. We all have a feeling of what our home might be worth, but we test the price to make sure that we’re in the market and not just on the market.

When determining the asking price for you home, you have to consider what other homes around you have sold for. People have emotional attachments to their home. You may think, “Well, my kids grew up here, and we replaced the roof for $5,000.” Other buyers won’t care about that.

Instead, you need to look at the last six months of comparable sales in your area. In this market, you really have to look at the homes you are competing against and what other buyers are looking at in this market.

If your home isn’t selling, another thing you’ll want to look at is the condition of your home. Your home needs to be in the best condition possible for your price point. Buyers will come in, look at different things that need to be done to the home, and start discounting $5,000 here and $5,000 there from their asking price. Before you know it, they are making a lowball offer.

Your home needs to be in great condition. Take care of repairs and make upgrades so your home doesn’t feel like it’s stuck in 1988.

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Your home needs to be in the best condition possible for your price point.

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You also need to market your home properly. Just like a builder puts their best foot forward with model homes, you need to put your best foot forward with your home. Declutter, depersonalize, and take top-notch listing photos. Staging your home will help buyers envision what the property will look like once they are living there.

So, if your home has been on the market for a while, take a look at your price, the condition of your home, and your marketing. What can be improved to help your home sell?

In today’s market, buyers need to be prepared to make an offer at that first showing, especially in certain price points where the market is more competitive. Some buyers do like to come back and bring some other friends or family members to look at the home before making a decision, but again, the market is a little too competitive for that.

Inventory is even lower than it was at this point last year. There are very few homes available on the market. We have buyers who are ready and willing to purchase a property. In fact, some of them are living in temporary housing, so they are ready to move into a home right now.

We need more homes to come on the market, because demand is higher than supply right now.

That said, today’s buyers are very educated, which is why you need to make sure that your property is properly prepared for the market.

If you have any other questions about selling a home in today’s market, just give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Dishing Out Some Trivia on “Your Carolina”

Think you know your trivia better than Jack and Megan?
Today is the day to test out your skills.

Looking to buy a Greenville home? Click here to search all local homes on the MLS.

Looking to sell your Greenville home? Click here to use our home evaluation tool.

Today I’m excited to be able to show you my latest appearance on “Your Carolina With Jack and Megan.” This time, I brought along a few trivia questions for the hosts. Do you think you know your trivia better than they do? Read on to test your knowledge.

My first question was “How much did billionaire Warren Buffett pay for the home he currently lives in?” Jack guessed $14 million. Megan guessed $175,000. Can you guess who was closer?

It was Megan. The answer is $31,500. Warren Buffett has lived in the same home in Omaha, Nebraska since 1958.

My second question was “In Scotland, it is traditional for homeowners to paint their door red when?” The answer? When they pay off their mortgage.

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The best month and week to sell a
home is the first week in May.

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My third question was attributing which famous person said this quote: “Real estate is the best investment in the world because it is the only thing they are not making anymore!” Jack and Megan both guessed President Trump, but it was actually Will Rogers.

My fourth question was a true or false question: “In New York it is a legal requirement for a home seller to disclose if they believe their home is haunted.” They both guessed true...and they were right. In South Carolina, however, this law doesn’t apply.

My fifth and final question is a little more relevant if you’re an active buyer or seller: “Statistically, what month and week is the optimal time to sell a home?”

Jack guessed the weekend of April 3rd, and Megan guessed Easter weekend. They were both close, but the answer is actually the first week of May. According to Zillow, homes listed in the first week of May sold on average 18 days faster and for 1% more money. May has come and gone, but the market is still on fire and if you haven't listed your home yet, you should.

If you have any questions about the buying or selling process, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. I’d be happy to help you.

Should You Sell Your Home During an Election Year?

Recently, one of our email subscribers, Mike, sent in a question: “Is it hard to sell a home in an election year? Another agent warned me about trying to sell one of my homes right now.” That is a great question and it’s very timely, considering that we are less than 45 days out from electing a new President here in the United States. However, there isn’t one broad answer for this question. I recommend looking at the data to see what’s happening not only in the U.S., but also right here in Greenville. You should really pay attention to what’s happening in your specific neighborhood. I don’t think anyone can say, “Well, it’s an election year — that means it’s a bad time to sell.”

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Good real estate decisions are based on evidence, not emotions.

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You have to look at the data. Inventory is still low and there are plenty of buyers out there looking for a home. If you are thinking about selling your home, you have to consider your price point, what’s happening in your neighborhood, and what kind of buyer demand there is in the area. If you are selling a home for under $200,000 in Greenville, you would be selling in a very strong market. Even as we enter the fall season, now is still a good time to put your home on the market. Again, that is a great question that cannot be answered in broad terms. You have to look at specific data. In order to make good real estate decisions, you need to answer questions based on evidence, not emotion. If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would be more than happy to help you!

Use Existing Equity to Buy a New Home

In my last video, I asked you all to submit your questions about real estate to me, and I’ve gotten a lot of terrific responses.

Today I’d like to answer a question from Amanda in Greenville, who asks, “What is the best way for someone that owns a house to buy a new home if they want to use their existing home’s equity as the down payment (as opposed to cash)?” In other words, how do you avoid living on the street while your new house sells? Is there a way to find your dream home and then sell your existing home?

In answer to your question, the first thing we need to determine is how much equity you have in your home, and secondly we need to determine your risk tolerance—are you willing to be in the position of owning two homes if need be?

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A short-term rental may be a worthwhile solution in the meantime.

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The first way to tackle this would be to first go down to your local bank and take out a home equity line of credit, which is used very much like a checking account. Remember, though, you are borrowing so you’ll have to pay interest on this line of credit. Then, use that credit line as a down payment on your next home, put your existing home on the market, and use that timeframe to market your home and move into your new one.

In this market, depending on the price point, there’s a good chance that you will sell your existing home quickly. We’re in a low-inventory market, so if you’ve found that dream home, you’ll want to make a non-contingent offer and use that home equity to put a down payment on it. Just be sure that you qualify for both the existing loan and the loan for the new home.

In order to ensure that this goes smoothly, you’ll want to bring in a great mortgage person to help you through the process.

The other, less risky way to approach this situation is to get your home on the market, sell it, get it under contract, and then begin looking for your new dream home. Again, in the environment we’re in now, it’s possible that you may not find that perfect home in this short time frame, so you may want to have a backup plan to rent a home for a while until you find the one you’d like to buy. Moving twice may not be the most fun thing to do, but a short-term rental may be a worthwhile solution to keep you from jumping the gun on a home purchase.

Thanks for this great question, Amanda! For participating in this process, we’ll be sending you a $25 gift card. In the meantime, if you have any other questions related to the buying and selling process, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help you.

What 3 Traits Do Successful People Share?

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For those of you like myself that are fans of the ABC show "Shark Tank," you are going to love today's topic. I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with Kevin O'Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful. He gave a talk to some Realtors like myself and talked about the three common traits he found among people who were successful on the show. I would like to share those with you today because they have an interesting connection to real estate. Here are the 3 traits of Shark Tank successes:

1. They are able to articulate the value of their proposition in 90 seconds or less. 
2. They were able to convince others and investors that they were the right team to carry out the plan.
3. They know their numbers backwards and forwards, and also have a tight grasp on their business model.

These 3 keys have an interesting correlation to real estate. When you are thinking about putting your home on the market, it's a good idea for you to interview a few different Realtors. You want them to be able to state their value proposition right away and you want to know their numbers. We tell you all the answers to these questions up front, and we think that is what separates us as the best. We can actually show you, with physical proof, how we can sell your home faster and for more money. 

If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Introducing: My Greenville Home App Keeps Homeowners Informed and Connected

Looking to buy or sell a home in Greenville, South Carolina? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
We at Hamilton & Co. are always working to offer the most cutting-edge technology to make the real estate experience as smooth and stress-free as possible. Today, we're proud to introduce our latest innovation: the My Greenville Home app!

When you open the app, you'll see a home page with the our contact information and an option to refer us with just one click. You will find an option to get updates, which we highly recommend. Simply put in your ZIP code and we'll keep you updated on what's going on in the real estate market in your area. 
In addition to having access to updated and accurate market information in the palm of your hand, you'll have access to Dan's List of vendors we've handpicked for you! 
These are people and businesses who we've personally worked with and trust to take great care of our clients and friends. Whether you've just bought a new home or have been living in your current home for years, this list will help you get a hold of any vendor you might need - from maintenance services to attorneys. The best part is these vendors have been screened and are now available at the push of a button!
If you want your business included on Dan's List, don't hesitate to give us call or shoot us an email. We would love to have a talk with you. 
The app is currently available in the iTunes store and will soon be available for Android as well. What are you waiting for? Check out this great app and let us know what you think!

Greenville Market Snapshot

Looking to buy or sell a home in Greenville, South Carolina? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
Today we came across an article on CNN Money about interest rates that we thought you might be interested in. Interest rates have managed to stayed stable and even drop in some cases. 
As we enter late summer, now is the time to begin preparing your home for sale. Fall is historically one of the best times to sell your home. We have seen home sellers have great success during this time, and the market is currently saturated with buyers.
So, if you've been thinking about selling your home but were unsure of the right time, there is no better opportunity than now. If you have any questions or are interested in buying or selling your Greenville home, don't hesitate to give me a call. We would love to hear from you.

Working With Our Preferred Vendors Guarantees a Smoother Real Estate Transaction

Looking to buy or sell a home in Greenville, South Carolina? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.
Meet Our Preferred Vendors for Greenville and Upstate South Carolina 

We wanted to take a moment to introduce you to our recommended vendors and specialists. On average, it can take up to 60 different specialists to close a home sale transaction (agents, brokers, appraisers, contractors, landscapers, etc). 

We've simplified this process for you by offering a direct referral to professionals in the different industries we work with. For example, if you need a mortgage, we can refer you to lenders that we know personally and have given great service to our clients in the past. 

We have a list of vendors we feel comfortable recommending to you based on our experience. However, if you're looking for a vendor in an industry you don't see on the list, just ask and we can be sure to find the appropriate professional for you.

You can take a look at our preferred vendor list here. 

As always, if you're looking to buy or sell a home in Greenville or Upstate South Carolina, don't hesitate to contact us via phone or email. We'd love to help!

Are You Getting the Most Accurate and Updated Information From Zillow and Trulia?

Looking to buy or sell a home in Greenville, South Carolina? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.   Should You Trust Zillow and Trulia?

A lot of my real estate clients in Greenville use online real estate websites like Zillow and Trulia, and while these websites are great places to begin your home search, they are not the answer.

As you will see, they are often wildly inaccurate with home values, and their listings are not updated very often. These websites do not have access to the multiple listing service, so they use algorithms that can be as close as 10% and off by as much as 50%.

We often find that a client wants to view a home that they found on Zillow, and unfortunately, we have to tell them that it is no longer available for purchase.

If you really want to know what your property is worth, the best thing that you can do is to get an appraisal. As agents we can give you a close estimate, but you should really refer to a professional appraiser.

Also, if you want an updated list of homes, please be sure to talk to your local real estate agent. They have access to the MLS and can give you accurate and updated information on which properties are available for purchase.

There is nothing wrong with using Zillow or Trulia, but you should not rely on those websites for accurate information. It's a good starting point, but if you're serious about buying in Greenville or Upstate South Carolina, then come and talk to us.
 
You can contact us via phone or email and we would be more than happy to help you find your dream home.

Your First Home Offer Is Usually Your Best

Looking to buy or sell a home in Greenville, South Carolina? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (864) 527-7685 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.   Your First Offer Is Usually Your Best

When you sell your Greenville home with our team of professionals, we want to make sure that when your home hits the market it will make a big splash. We want buyers to be so impressed with your property that they compete with each other and drive up your sale price. Our goal is to market your home to as many buyers as possible.

Occasionally we will get a buyer who receives an offer within the first few days of their home being listed. They come to us and ask whether they should wait for another one or take the one that has been given to them. 

I cannot guarantee this, but it is very likely that your first offer will be your best offer. It's very important that you consider this offer and not wait for more to come in. I have story after story I could tell you about former clients that regretted not taking that first offer.

All of our front end tactics are aimed to get you an offer quickly, so please take it seriously because it could be the best one that you receive. Our team will work to negotiate the best deal possible for you.

As always, if you need any help buying or selling real estate in Greenville or Upstate South Carolina, feel free to contact us and we would be very glad to help you.