Reasons Why Selling Your Home This Season Is Actually A Smart Move

Winter is generally not the most popular time of year to sell a house. With fewer buyers looking to move, people would rather spend the holiday season enjoying their time in their own homes. But if you decide to sell your home during the winter, experts say you could reap a reward in cold, hard cash.   Fewer Buyers + Low Inventory = Less Competition for Sellers Since spring is the most popular home-selling season, most sellers still think they need to sell in the spring, but that means there is more competition for buyers’ attention. During those times, the housing market is ultra crowded and competition is at an all-time high, meaning, buyers have more options to choose from. You have to make your home stand out. During the winter, however, there are fewer homes for sale. That competition over low inventory can make winter an ideal time to sell your home.   Winter Brings Out Serious Buyers Not everyone looking at houses intends to make a purchase. Looky-loos, however, tend to be scarce in the winter months. Winter home buyers are often, if not always, serious about making a purchase. Especially if the house is great, they don't want to wait until spring and lose a chance.   You Get To Show How Winter-Ready Your Home Is Winter also allows you to show how your home is winter-ready. You can showcase to buyers how your home can handle the harsh weather conditions during winter, giving them a guarantee that the home they wish to buy is actually worth it. Features such as the fireplace, hot tubs, and showers were appealing and are certain plus points.   More People Have Money To Spend Year-end bonuses and payouts could mean opportunities for buyers to upgrade their homes or, for first-time home buyers, to be able to afford their first home. Perhaps, one of the most practical and rewarding ways to spend your holiday bonus is to put it into an investment like purchasing a home that has little to no risk and has a high return potential.   Parents May Be Looking to Upgrade According to the data from the Center for Health Statistics and the Social Security Administration, mid-August to mid-September were the months most babies are born. If you're thinking about how this connects to selling your home, you should've realized by now that these could mean opportunity or need for most parents to upgrade their living situation. This baby boom phenomenon can actually lead to more buyers later in the year.   We're always here to help!No matter what the season may be, Halsted Hometeam is always at your back to give you professional real estate advice and help you make an informed decision on either buying or selling a home. If you want to know more about the benefits of selling your home this winter, we'll be glad to help. Reach out to us!

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Home Improvements that Have the Largest and Smallest Impact On Your Home’s Value

If you decide to sell your home, you probably want to get the best possible price. You'll hear or read lots of advice on preparing the house for a quick, profitable sale, from staging to making necessary repairs. However, you might also consider the potential benefits of other improvements designed to increase a home's beauty, utility, and overall appeal. Since some improvements impact home value more than others, let's examine some of the most and least valuable enhancements.     A Useful Home Office COVID-19 encouraged many employers to let their employees work from home, while countless entrepreneurs have always maintained home offices. Research indicates that creating a dedicated home office space can boost your home's resale value by at least $10,000. However, resist the urge to convert your garage into that home office. Buyers expect a home to include a usable garage, even if they don't end up parking their cars inside it. For this reason, garage conversions hurt resale value instead of helping it. Modify your attic or basement instead.     Eye-Catching Paint and Lighting Painting your home's interiors offers a simple way to boost its resale value by over $2,000 while also making the rooms and hallways look more inviting to buyers. Clever home staging techniques invariably include painting a home in strategically neutral colors such as white, ivory, beige, and gray. These neutral colors, combined with a sparse arrangement of equally neutral furniture, help home shoppers imagine their own families and belongings occupying the home. New or modified lighting fixtures can make your freshly-painted interiors look even more cheerful. Moderately-priced lighting fixtures can look just as appealing as the high-end options, allowing you to increase your ROI. Many buyers love homes with features such as recessed lighting, automated timers, and dimmer switches. LED lights offer the additional appeal of long life and tremendous energy efficiency. Installation of these lights can boost your resale value by up to 3%.     Fabulous Flooring New flooring can breathe new life into your home's interior. It can also yield a solid return on your remodeling investment, but only if you select the right flooring material. Clay tile can provide a higher ROI than porcelain tile, for example, because the latter always requires professional installation. Wood flooring commands the highest ROI and can add 2.5 percent to your home's total value. Think twice before selecting the most luxurious marble tile with the notion that it will command a higher asking price. Many buyers prefer harder-wearing materials that require less care and offer easier replacement or repairs. As for carpeting, it may disappoint buyers who expect to see solid flooring in the house's entryway or other public living areas, so you'll probably achieve a low ROI on this choice.     A Long-Lasting New Roof As you may know from previous experience, a roof replacement represents a serious investment. However, it can also pay big dividends if you want to sell your home. Although a new roof may only yield an ROI of 60 to 68 percent, it can still boost home sellers' asking prices by an average of $12,000. The appeal of a new roof that shouldn't need replacing for decades can also help you sell your home more quickly to a more enthusiastic pool of buyers, allowing you to start the bidding at a higher price point.     Exterior Enhancements That attractive new roof offers only one way of increasing your home's curb appeal and resale value. Almost anything you do to improve the exterior's beauty will yield dramatic results. For instance, consider the national average value added by installing new siding and windows. New fiber-cement siding can increase your home's value by $13,618, but even vinyl siding can raise its value by $11,315. A fresh set of vinyl-frame windows can add $13,297 in value, while wood-framed windows can increase resale value by an eye-popping $15,644.     Lovely Landscaping Curb appeal requires more than just fresh-looking exteriors and a beautiful roof. It also includes the visual impact of your lawn and garden on prospective buyers. A beautifully-landscaped property communicates that the owner has tended the home with loving care, implying a durable, good-looking property inside and out. Depending on the baseline value of your property and the specific modifications you make, an investment in professional landscaping could boost your home value by as much as 12.7%. To gain even more significant benefits from your landscaping efforts, equip your exterior walkway, porch, and driveway with exterior lighting. Buyers will like the safety and security that this lighting promises. They may also enjoy the idea of showing off their luxurious lawn, garden, and other exterior features at any time of day or night. Of course, that gorgeous lawn will stay gorgeous only if you take proper care of it throughout the home selling process. Try to mow the lawn and trim the hedges regularly (or schedule regular visits from a professional landscaping team) to preserve your property's good looks. Keep the front and back lawns free of toys, trash, and other items that might undercut your efforts.     Skip It: Swimming Pool Installation If you always thought installing a large, luxurious, sparkling swimming pool increases a home's desirability, think again. Specifically, ponder the extra expense and trouble your buyers must endure to maintain and operate that pool. Many buyers would prefer a pool-free home, so don't waste money on this project to increase your property's value.     Skip It: Limiting Your Living Space Taking a bedroom and converting it into a closet or home gym may seem like a great idea now, but, in the end, these projects are usually not worth it when it comes to resale because they're removing the home's livable space. What happens if a potential buyer doesn't need the extra closet space but could really use another bedroom?     Skip It: Wall-to-Wall Carpet Wall-to-wall carpeting is expensive and hard to maintain or clean, so it might not be a wise investment. Instead, people are using rugs to create that warmth without the commitment to full carpeting. That allows future homeowners to make their own decisions on flooring instead of needing to take up the carpeting.  If you're going to add carpet, we'd recommend sticking to your bedrooms but not expanding it to your living or great rooms.   Brilliant Move: Consult Your Trusted Real Estate Professional Hopefully, these home improvement options give you a clearer idea of how to boost your asking price. Consider taking the most intelligent step to ensure you get top dollar for your home. Contact us to discuss these home improvement tips and other ideas for increasing your home's value. Let's Talk

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6 Things Sellers Need to Know Today that Weren't True Last Year

The housing market has been a seller's market throughout the pandemic, but is this still the case? The current trends are pointing towards an end to the real estate market conditions that created a bonanza for sellers. Many issues created a high-pressure market environment severely skewed in favor of sellers. From sky-high home prices, intense competition between buyers, and tactical play from sellers waiting for the right moment to put their homes for sale.  It's worth saying outright: things are changing, and there are things home sellers need to be aware of today that weren't true last year. Here's what they are:     1. Home prices growth is returning to pre-pandemic levels This is not the same as saying home prices are declining; they're not. Prices are still growing and won't begin falling in the foreseeable future. It's the rate at which they're increasing that's changing. All the signs point to a return to pre-pandemic levels of growth. So, instead of the unprecedented near-20% year increases, we're now seeing the more modest 7-8% year-over-year growth, according to the Zillow Home Value Forecast. The number of home sales expected to go through in 2022 is 5.46 million,10.8 percent down from 2021.  This means that the waiting game is over for sellers in practice. You might have been thinking about selling your home but were waiting for home prices to reach their peak to maximize their returns on the sale. But the peak has already passed. It is doubtful that we'll see any more of the skyrocketing levels of home price increases any time soon. So, if you're unsure whether you should be putting your home up for sale right now, the answer is yes.     2. Popular relocation hotspots have the highest home prices The way local home prices behave is always different from national averages. An area that's extremely popular with homebuyers will have different housing market conditions from one that homebuyers are keen to leave. In many cases of post-pandemic migration patterns, these local conditions have a marked effect on home values. If you are in a popular neighborhood, you are in luck. You can command a higher home price even if the overall trend is for slower growth. Redfin calls these "migration hotspots" and reports that they have the highest inflation rates.  If you're not in one of those areas, you can still sell at a reasonable price if you know who your potential buyers are. An excellent real estate agent with local knowledge of your area can help find these buyers.     3. More affordable areas are in demand The overall trend among homebuyers right now is downsizing and saving on housing as much as possible. Moving patterns indicate a strong preference for more affordable areas. People are moving from the biggest and most expensive cities to smaller urban and suburban areas. These smaller communities offer good amenities and schooling but don't cost as much as the traditional vast metropolitan areas. Home sellers need to be aware of this. This doesn't mean you won't be able to sell if you are a home seller living in a metropolitan area. There is always movement both ways, and a general pattern away from a city doesn't equal an exodus. You need to market your home to the right buyer.     4. Homebuyer competition is still incredibly high As a home seller, you will see headlines like "homebuyer competition drops to the lowest levels in two years" and think you'll struggle to sell. This is not the case. Homebuyer competition pre-pandemic was already very high, with record numbers of millennial homebuyers entering the housing market in search of their first home. This is a generational trend, and it won't go away any time soon. Indeed, you may not sell your home within days of it going on the market, as was so often the case during the pandemic. But you will still sell within weeks in many places.     5. You may not get your first buyer One of the most prominent features of the pandemic-era housing market conditions was that many homebuyers were willing to waive contingencies to secure a home. There is evidence that this is no longer the case. As Redfin deputy chief economist Taylor Marr says: "buyers are increasingly keeping rather than waiving inspection and appraisal contingencies. That gives them the flexibility to call the deal off if issues arise during the home buying process". Some buyers may call off a deal after finding a cheaper home. Others may be forced to backtrack after a mortgage application falls through. While inconvenient, this is a common occurrence and something you must prepare for by giving yourself more time to sell this year than last year.     6. An experienced real estate agent is more important than ever Housing market conditions are a little trickier for home sellers this year than last year. It is even more critical this year than last year to get a real estate agent with solid experience and expertise in selling your type of home in your area. This will maximize your return on the sale and minimize the potential for delays and a deal falling through.   We'll Help You Navigate a Shifting Market Selling your home can be stressful, especially as there are shifts happening in the market around us. Through experience, we're prepared to help you navigate and succeed in this market. Let's Talk

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