Staging helps you show off your house’s best features while minimizing it’s shortcomings. Not only do the rewards of staging a home give higher returns per dollar spent, but it could also shorten the time your home sits on the market. On average, sellers receive $2 in increased sale price for every $1 they put into staging a home. As this infographic below shows, the following five golden rules of home staging will help you show off its best assets: Continue reading
Author Archives: Bill Petrey, Realtor
Six Questions You Must Ask a Real Estate Agent
When preparing to buy or sell a property, you will want to find the best possible real estate agent for your needs. There are many agents in the business today, and you will have to sort through the various choices to settle on someone that has the necessary experience and knowledge to successfully complete a deal for you. Real estate is a highly competitive business, so you will likely have many agents ready to fight for the chance to work with you.
Understanding Realtor Reviews
Don’t Be Fooled By Realtor Reviews
The internet is a wealth of information, some pieces more valuable than others. One area of the web that has exploded in recent years is the area of consumer reviews. There are sites dedicated to the reviewing of anything and everything in the marketplace. Restaurants, hotels, contractors, doctors, lawyers, health clubs, and more are all subject to the comments of current and past patrons. Continue reading
Finding the Best Real Estate Agents
When preparing to buy or sell a piece of real estate, one of the most important decisions you will have to make is which real estate agent you wish to work with to complete the purchase or sale. A good real estate agent will have extensive knowledge of the local market and many years of experience successfully closing deals. Your agent can make all of the difference between a stress-free process and one that pushes you to your wits end. Fortunately there are many excellent real estate agents to be found in every city in the country – you just need a good plan for finding the best one for you.
Real Estate Agent vs. Realtor – What’s the Difference?
If you are using our free service to find a Realtor or a real estate agent in your area, did you know the titles “Realtor” and “Agent” describe different things? Most people think that the terms “licensed real estate agent” and “licensed Realtor®” mean the same thing, but they really don’t. A licensed real estate agent is an agent that has been licensed by the state after meeting the state’s licensing requirements, which usually involves a series of real estate classes and exams. Realtors are real estate professionals that are professional members of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). To join the National Association of REALTORS as a licensed Realtor, you have to already be a licensed agent and agree to abide by NAR’s rules and regulations. Continue reading
Real Estate Quotes from L.A. Real Estate Professionals
“I focus on 12 zip codes in the mid-city and south regions of Los Angeles. There are numerous forces impacting our local market that have lead to extremely low inventory levels. Low prices & interest rates making it attractive for homeowners to buy, large financial institutions buying large volume of inventory for long term rentals (removing inventory from the marketplace for indefinite periods), a slowdown in the amount of foreclosures and abuse of use of short sales as a “live-in-my-house-for-free” strategy by unscrupulous homeowners and real estate agents. Continue reading