December 2015

 Some agents, unfortunately, can cause a home to sit around unsold. And worse, others can be outright lying; lounging around the place when they say they've been showing it all house of the day. With all that in mind, here are five signs to look out for: suggestions that your agent might not be getting up to all the selling activities they need to sell your home at a great price. 

Asking a Low Commission

Believe it or not, selling a home is hard work! And if your agent is cutting you a deal on the commission, it might be because they don't intend to do a lot of work to earn it. If you find out that your agent is looking for a much lower commission than many other agents in town, consider evaluating their work more stringently. Often, if an agent

Are you hunting for a house? Believe it or not, man's best friend might have a lot to teach you about finding the perfect place! Not only are they a great reason to look for a home with a fenced in yard and hardwood floors, but they can give you some fantastic tips.

Sniff Out Issues

A dog's nose is many times more powerful than a human's: they can identify a gram of unique sweat in a ten story apartment building! And most dogs love to go snuffling around. When you go to a showing or an open house, take a note out of Fido's book and go nosing around in common problem areas, including basements and attics, and pay close attention to ceilings and behind bit furniture. And actually use your sense of smell. Do things seem musty? There might be a mold

Many homeowners come to the decision to sell slowly; and most, when they begin the process, are in a hurry to find out how much their home is worth. Unfortunately, a little bit of legwork before beginning that process can help save a lot of stress and headaches later on! And not just that, but these simple chores can help make any home more appealing to buyers, meaning more offers, more foot traffic, and possibly a higher selling price. 

Clean Your Carpets

When's the last time you had your carpets deep-cleaned? It doesn't matter if you think they don't look funky: get them cleaned! You'd be amazed to see what a major difference this can make to the appearance of a home. Even carpets which look clean build up dirt and dust over time, and become

With the recent raise in interest rates, it looks like renting in Nashville will continue to be a popular option, especially for the younger generations. But the landscape of apartments and rentals has been shifting dramatically over the years, with more and more complexes offering unique and interesting amenities to build into the cost of renting. 

Apartment Gyms

Already a big trend, this one will only grow, as more and more apartment complex stock more and better equipment! A gym membership can set individuals back hundreds a month; but if there's one in your complex, there's no need to a membership, and you can save time compared to traveling to and from your gym. More and more complexes are also allowing yoga or spin instructors to hold classes

Great agents will make buying or selling a home look easy; but if you're considering selling the FSBO route, we urge you to pause and think a little bit more on all the ways an agent can save you money. A commission can seem like a lot to swallow when you're needing to sell your home for a profit, but the advantages of using an agent often pay for themselves and then some!

For example, many agents can offer expert advice on staging, fix-it work, and can help connect sellers to other industry professionals who can help yield a quick sale. Great agents are also strong negotiators, who can help net higher seling prices by driving more buyer traffic to a listing. But all in all, here are the best reasons to consider listing with an agent, rather than going

It sometimes happen that individuals posting their home for sale come across scammers. One of the most common guises of scammers is in the form of all-cash buyers, who use their projected status to swindle home sellers and agents out of cash. These folks have no interest in actually buying a property... though they'll work pretty hard to make certain sellers and agents believe they do.

Common Scam No. 1: The Foreign Email

Just as with other common email scams, this one comes in the form of an email from someone living abroad, who offers to purchase a home without ever having a walkthrough. They'll shoot their name, phone number, address, and offer to send a cashier's check...

Often, these scammers pose as individuals from Canada or China, and

 Agents can be more likely to recommend one over the other, but research says that one approach can lead to more success than the other when you're looking to buy! Can viewing homes in a crowd and information-sourcing with other visitors yield a better result, or is seeing the home on your own the way to go? 

Why Go to an Open House?

Open houses can be elaborate enough to resemble parties, and often the informal, cocktail party vibe can yield a lot of information. It's easy to overhear questions and their answers, and other people might think to ask things not on your list, or point out items you might not have noticed. 

But there are cons. Open houses can produce a false sense of urgency, forcing you to feel like you need to make a great offer

Planning to sell your home in 2016, and wanting to make certain it's a quick process? Use tips from recent real estate cycles to help put the ball in your court! For example, knowing that there was a hike in interest rates recently can be played to your advantage, and the fact that it was the first interest rate increase since 2006 means that the market might be a little leaner than last year.

Price Your Home Right

There are different schools of thought regarding to pricing; one believes that underpricing a home for market can create more interest and bidding wars, which ultimately drive the price up. Others believe that pricing the home high can get more money; but pricing high also runs the risk of reducing interest in the critical first 90 day

When an offer falls through, it puts home sellers in a pickle, and there are a lot of big decisions to make. It's tough to start over, and the stress and emotions can run high all throughout a closing process... only to lead to devastation when it falls through. And there are dozens of legitimate reasons for a home sale to fall through, from a low appraisal to family emergencies. 

Do you continue with your current agent?

Often, agents will recommend just changing the listing status back from pending to active, and to brace yourself for another wave of showings. And there are some good reasons to continue working with the same agent: they did their job, after all, and got you a buyer for your home, and often they have little part in the ways a

Homeowner's insurance; most people are under the mistaken belief that it covers everything which could happen to or in one's home! But that's hardly the case, and even the most robust policies often don't cover some of these common 'gaps', which require additional policies. Many might opt out of some of these because they don't live in an 'at risk' area, but all too often disasters happen even outside of known risky zones.

Local Flooding Can Cost You

Nashville had major flooding within the last decade, which decimated many homes. And the awful part is, most homeowner's insurance doesn't cover flood damage. And before you say, 'it can't happen again!' just consider the many recent floods which happened in areas of the country where they typically