When Should I Start Looking for a Home?

Looking for a home can be one of the most exciting things you do; it signifies that you’re completely independent and ready to handle the responsibilities of homeownership. Whether you’ve decided to take the plunge at 30 or 60, buying your first home is always an overwhelming but exciting experience. Unfortunately, some buyers can start looking for homes far before they’re ready to buy, getting themselves too excited and let down, while others start to look too late, which can either interfere with wedding plans, babies on the way, or moving for a job. So when is the “right” time to look for a home?

Employment – If you’re moving to a new city for a great new job, you may want to hold off on your house hunt. For first time buyers, it’s hard enough to buy in your own city, dealing with real estate professionals you may know or at least have good references for. Moving to a new city can be overwhelming enough on its own; the last thing you need to add to your plate is a house hunt with a complete stranger. If you’re looking for a home in your own city, however, we recommend that you’ve been working for your current employer for at least six months and that you have your payment history ready for your lender. If you’re a newer employee, banks will want to see that you’ve made money in this industry, and may require that you have proof of past paystubs and records.

Time to Qualify – Qualifying as a new home buyer can be difficult, and you’ll want to get started as soon as you’re looking at homes. Unfortunately banks have tightened up lately, and you’re not going to be as likely to find “easy” financing, so you’ll want to make sure you’re at least pre-qualified for a house, or else you’re wasting your time and your agent’s time.

Time to Close – Plenty of people like to time their Cherry Creek homes for sale purchase just right; whether it be at the end of their apartment’s lease period, after a new addition to the family, or to have their dream home ready to move into on their way back from their honeymoon. If your heart is set on having a specific closing date, we suggest you start a month or more earlier. You can always ask if you can tack on extra time for closing, but if you cut it too short, a lender’s two week delay, the city requiring permits, or even an extended inspection period can throw off your whole timeline.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part II: Why Hire a Cherry Creek Real Estate Agent?

Making offers with an agent can help put your mind at ease, since agents know the correct forms, the right legal verbiage and they will make sure your contingencies are included to help preserve your deposit in the event that the deal falls through. If you plan on doing this on your own without any real estate or law experience, you could be seriously endangering yourself and your interest in the property.

Negotiating – Once you make your offer, you’re likely to get one of three responses; an acceptance, a counter-offer or a “no” (which usually comes in the form of complete silence). Unless you plan on offering full price or something very attractive for the seller, you’ll usually wind up with a counter-offer. This is where a real estate agent really knows how to shine, since they understand not only market values of properties, but how much wiggle room there is in negotiations, and how to make your offer the “best” without necessarily making it the “highest.” Negotiating directly with the seller or the listing agent can put you at an extreme disadvantage for quite a few reasons; you have no one to bounce ideas off of. It’s you and you alone making these offers, you may have your spouse or advice from your family, but even if your valuation is fair, you don’t have a professional to back you up. Secondly, if you’re dealing with the listing agent directly, you may find yourself being pressured, pushed and convinced in a different direction. Real estate agents are master salespeople, and if you don’t have one on your side then you need to be able to push back. Lastly, real estate agents can help add a buffer to the negotiations. A lot of times negotiations can get a bit intense and even emotional. Agents understand how to minimize issues and to keep disagreements from becoming personal.

Protecting your Interests – Unless you plan on making offers on FSBO properties only, you will be dealing with the listing agent, who has been hired by, and is being paid by the homeowner. If you walk into the deal without an agent of your own, the listing agent then becomes the transaction broker or a dual agent, which is supposed to transfer their responsibility to both the seller and buyer. The thing about that is the seller is paying the commission for the agents either way, so you’re actually not saving yourself any money by eliminating your representation.Making offers with an agent can help put your mind at ease, since agents know the correct forms, the right legal verbiage and they will make sure your contingencies are included to help preserve your deposit in the event that the deal falls through. If you plan on doing this on your own without any real estate or law experience, you could be seriously endangering yourself and your interest in the property.

Negotiating – Once you make your offer, you’re likely to get one of three responses; an acceptance, a counter-offer or a “no” (which usually comes in the form of complete silence). Unless you plan on offering full price or something very attractive for the seller, you’ll usually wind up with a counter-offer. This is where a real estate agent really knows how to shine, since they understand not only market values of properties, but how much wiggle room there is in negotiations, and how to make your offer the “best” without necessarily making it the “highest.” Negotiating directly with the seller or the listing agent can put you at an extreme disadvantage for quite a few reasons; you have no one to bounce ideas off of. It’s you and you alone making these offers, you may have your spouse or advice from your family, but even if your valuation is fair, you don’t have a professional to back you up. Secondly, if you’re dealing with the listing agent directly, you may find yourself being pressured, pushed and convinced in a different direction. Real estate agents are master salespeople, and if you don’t have one on your side then you need to be able to push back. Lastly, real estate agents can help add a buffer to the negotiations. A lot of times negotiations can get a bit intense and even emotional. Agents understand how to minimize issues and to keep disagreements from becoming personal.

Protecting your Interests – Unless you plan on making offers on FSBO Cherry Creek homes for sale only, you will be dealing with the listing agent, who has been hired by, and is being paid by the homeowner. If you walk into the deal without an agent of your own, the listing agent then becomes the transaction broker or a dual agent, which is supposed to transfer their responsibility to both the seller and buyer. The thing about that is the seller is paying the commission for the agents either way, so you’re actually not saving yourself any money by eliminating your representation.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Should I Hire a Property Management Company?

So you’ve acquired an investment property; possibly through an inheritance, possibly through a home you just can’t sell, or maybe you’ve bought the home for a nice source of income. For whatever reason you have a new second home, you’re new to the income property world and you’re looking at your options. You may think you can handle showing your property, qualifying a great tenant, collecting late or missed rent payments and handling your tenants’ every question and concern, or you may realize you’ve gotten yourself in too deep. One of your best options for handling your rental property is to hire a property manager. Here are just a few ways a property management company can ease your rental woes:

Showing your place and qualifying your tenants – This is one of the best ways a property management company can help you, is by showing your apartment and qualifying your tenants for you. If you have a job that doesn’t allow for flexibility, showing your place can get to be difficult and even downright frustrating. Not only can a property management company send out licensed and qualified real estate agents to show your Cherry Creek homes for sale, but they can make sure your tenant is qualified to rent your place. Property management companies put candidates through a rigorous pre-qualifying process, which includes a criminal history check, a credit check, rental history as well as income verification. This helps protects your interest, since you can feel more confident that you’ll be paid on-time each month.

Collecting rent and handling maintenance requests – Collecting rent once a month doesn’t sound too difficult, until your tenants are unable to pay. Many landlords really end up liking their tenants and feel very sympathetic if they’re unable to pay their rent on-time. This skews the landlord-tenant relationship, and can put the financial pressure on you. A property management company has leases and processes in place to ensure that you’re either getting your rent on-time, or else the tenant will need to face an eviction. There are less hurt feelings, since the expectations are clearly outlined in the lease, before they’re even handed the keys. Collecting rent can be a pain, but if you have a needy tenant who calls every time a lightbulb goes out, you will find that the management of the property is just as much of a pain. Some tenants are quite agreeable, but you still may be making house calls once or twice a month with your valuable time, when you could leave all of those issues to a property management company.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part I: When Should I Sell my Home?

Selling your home can be a stressful and emotional experience, and it’s different for everyone. Some people finally decide to leave their home in search for more space, a new career, to downsize, to upgrade; there are a thousand reasons why someone might want to move. Deciding whether it’s right for you or not, however, is a very personal choice. If you’re considering making the big move, here are just a few factors to consider first:

Short Sale – If you’re moving because your home is no longer worth what you paid for it and you can no longer stand paying on it, you may want to rethink your decision. The Short Sale Forgiveness Act officially ran out December 31st of 2012. While there have been talks of extending the Act for upside down homeowners, nothing has been decided. This Act was protecting homeowners from being fully responsible for the debt they owed the bank. The banks only way to recoup any monies owed to them was to consider the loss as a “loss of income” with the homeowners taking responsibility for the “gained” income. If your sole intent of moving is to rid yourself of your overpriced housing baggage, you may want to wait and see where this Act will go in the next few months.

Closing Costs – How long have you lived at your current home? If your answer is less than a few years, you might want to pull out your calculator and make sure moving is worth it. If your motivation for moving is monetary, you might want to consider how much closing costs on the current Cherry Creek homes for sale and your new purchase will be costing you. Often times closing costs can amount to about 10% of the home’s value; which a buyer may or may not ask for assistance on. It’s important for you to run your numbers and see if your few years of home living have been worth the move; or if your gained equity will be lost on the selling. As the real estate market has leveled off, homeowners have not seen the steady appreciation in value, making the closing cost factor an even bigger factor in their decision to sell or not.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Cherry Creek Real Estate Agents

Cherry Creek Real Estate Agents are ready to help get you into (or out of) a home! Denver real estate is starting to pick up, so if you’ve been patiently waiting on the sideline for the right time to buy or sell, you may want to start looking for an agent.

Cherry Creek Statistics – Cherry Creek is one of the most prestigious areas in the Denver, Colorado area. The median list price for homes in this area is almost $700,000, with median sales prices falling in the $530,000 price range. There are currently 143 listings for sale in the Cherry Creek area and over a third are currently under contract. While the projection for Cherry Creek is a five month absorption rate for the current inventory of homes, we’re expecting to see a spike of activity once the holidays pass.

Denver Market Trends – Home prices are finally starting to rise! This is incredibly exciting not just for sellers, but buyers as well. Why buyers? Wouldn’t buyers always want rock bottom prices? Well, that’s where it gets complicated because how can you tell you’ve gotten the lowest price possible if you’re buying on the decline? Now that prices are turning around, we’re sure buyers would happily pay a few extra thousand over the course of thirty years rather than buy with the suspicion that their home will be losing value each day after purchasing. So how much are prices increasing? Just a steady 3-5% as of now, and the inventory on homes are decreasing at a rate of 6%.

Why Hire an Agent? – Hiring an agent for your Cherry Creek homes for sale needs is incredibly important, because they not only can help you negotiate an amazing deal, but they can quickly get you from the contract to the closing with less hold ups, issues and fall-throughs. Having a real estate agent on your side is a great buffer to help you qualify potential buyers, or if you’re hiring a buyer’s agent, they can qualify your properties. Buyer’s Agents help evaluate the fair market value on properties and can reason with sellers and sellers agents to try to get you the best deal possible.

What to Look for in an Agent – Cherry Creek Agents can offer you the peace of mind in buying or selling your property. If you’re looking for a qualified agent, ask about their experience, a list of references and possibly set up an interview at their broker’s office.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Why Sell your Home as a FSBO?

Buying and selling real estate without a professional, licensed real estate agent can be incredibly tricky and often times, can land you in a mess. If you have plenty of knowledge of real estate, marketing and legal matters, however, you may be able to sell “For Sale by Owner” and save yourself a six percent commission.

You understand the real estate market – Knowing the real estate market is crucial if you plan on selling your home on your own. Pricing your own home is one of the most difficult things in real estate, since often times home owners think their home is special or extraordinary. Another way to price your property wrong is to look at listing prices, instead of SOLD prices. Your next door neighbor with a very similar may have listed their home for $250,000, but after six months of zero showings and offers, their real estate agent may have suggested to list at a more reasonable fair market value of $220,000, which landed them an offer just weeks later. If you only knew the $250,000, you may assume they were able to get their full asking price for their home and list yours accordingly. Basically, the way real estate agents say it is that “anyone can list their home for any amount, however, a correctly priced piece of property will sell within one to two months, and an overpriced home will not.”

You know marketing very well – One of the biggest things homeowners don’t understand about real estate is marketing. Your agent is an expert in networking, marketing and advertising, and they know exactly how to get your home the exposure it needs. If you think you can and will take the initiative to get your Cherry Creek homes for sale up on the online listing sites and in newspapers, you have a start on what your listing agent would be doing. Real estate agents not only have access to the MLS, but they also have so many connections in the real estate industry that often times they already know of two or three potential buyers before even listing your property.

You understand the legalities involved – If you plan on selling without a real estate agent, it’s imperative that you have an experienced attorney or title company help walk you through the contracts. If you are short selling your property, you will need a short sale specialist to work with your mortgage company, and it would completely behoove you to hire an agent, since you’re selling for a loss already.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.

Part I: What is Owner Financing?

Owner financing is exactly what it sounds like; instead of seeking a loan from a bank or broker, the seller of the property will finance it for you. Owner financing is becoming a great option in this slow market, since many homeowner hopefuls have taken a hit to their credit through a job loss, foreclosure or short sale. Owner financing may also be a great option for a seller, especially if they own the home outright, or if they don’t want to pay a big chunk of taxes on the full sales price of the home. Owner financing will provide the seller a steady stream of income, like renting does, and they can often times charge a higher interest rate than a bank, since they can decide whether they want to sell to a “higher risk” individual or not. And, finally, the beauty of owner financing is that the terms are 100% negotiable, and can create a win-win situation for both the buyer and seller, if they’re done right. Here are a few ways you can go about an owner financing deal:

Lease Purchase – Also known as “Rent to Own,” a lease purchase allows for part of the down payment or part of the monthly payments (or both) to contribute to the purchase price. This is great for both buyer and seller, since the buyer doesn’t need a big chunk of money for the down payment, and the seller can observe how the tenant-buyer will pay back the loan. Most times, a seller can back out of the deal if the tenant-buyer is constantly late or behind on payments. Another reason this is a great deal for a seller, is because if the buyer defaults on their loan (misses payments) the owner can foreclose, just like a bank could. The process does require legal action and can be a bit tiring, but the ownership transfers back to the seller, and he keeps the money he collected on the home, as if he were renting it.

Lease Option – In real estate an “option” means you are giving the party a right to something without a commitment. In lease option Cherry Creek homes for sale, you are letting them lease with the option to buy at the end of the lease period. The tenant can choose to exercise this option if they choose, or can walk away. Typically, a seller will want to structure the monthly payments to include extra towards a down payment, so not exercising your right to buy could leave you with a loss at the end of your lease.

About PorchLight Real Estate: PorchLight Real Estate Group has the most experienced and knowledgeable Denver real estate agents in Colorado. For more information about homes for sale in Denver CO or specific neighborhood homes please visit www.porchlightgroup.com.