BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized January 7, 2023

Avoid These Common Snow Removal Mistakes

Winter is in full swing. And, in many parts of the country, with winter comes harsh, inclement weather—including snowstorms.

Understanding how to deal with snow is a must if you want to protect your home this winter—and that includes understanding what snow-related mistakes to avoid.

So what, exactly, are those mistakes?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined snow removal mistakes homeowners tend to make during the winter months, including:

Not cleaning gutters or downspout drains. If your gutters are congested, snow melt can’t drain properly. If temperatures drop, that melting snow can freeze—and as the ice expands, it can break your gutter or downspout material (or, in severe cases, rip the gutters off your home completely.) To avoid this issue, make sure to regularly clean your gutters.

Not removing snow from the roof. A few inches of snow on your roof isn’t likely to do any damage. But if you live in an area where it snows heavily and often, you need to stay on top of roof snow removal. When accumulation hits 60 pounds of snow per square foot (which generally translates to six inches of compacted snow or 12 inches of fluffy snow), it puts your home at risk for roof damage—so make sure to clear any snow off the roof before it hits that point.

Not using pet-safe ice melt. Ice melt can be a great way to de-ice walkways, driveways, and sidewalks. But certain products can be hazardous if ingested by pets—so if you’re going to use ice melt, make sure to use a pet-safe version.

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized January 3, 2023

Reasons To List Your House in January 2023

If you’ve been thinking about selling soon, you’re probably leaning toward doing so when the spring market rolls around, since it’s often considered the best time of year to sell a house. However, you might want to reconsider what constitutes the “best” time for you to sell your house.

It’s hard to qualify any specific time of year as the best time to sell, but spring probably gets ranked highest more so because it’s when more people tend to list their homes, and more buyers tend to look for a home. But that doesn’t mean it’s the most strategic time to sell yours.

In fact, listing your house well ahead of the official start to the spring market could be the most strategic thing you do in any market, but even more so given the current market conditions. Let’s take a look at reasons you should consider listing your house in January 2023:

Spring Market Actually Unofficially Begins in January
First off, even defining when the spring market begins is a moving target, but March, April, May probably sounds right to most people.

Unless you’re in the real estate business, the chances are you wouldn’t lump January into the mix of months to describe the spring market. However, March comes pretty quickly, and agents see a lot of activity from buyers who want to buy in the spring market, but actually start looking in January. Some of them just want to get a head start, while others want to beat their competition… and some simply want to be in their new home by spring.

Less Competition
Just like early bird buyers jump into action in January to avoid competition from other buyers, homeowners who list their house in January capitalize on less competition from other sellers who are waiting for spring.
Over the past couple of years, that probably didn’t matter quite as much, since there weren’t enough houses for sale to keep up with the number of buyers in the market. But now that the market is starting to shift—and there are fewer buyers competing for more listings in many areas—listing before more sellers add to the number of choices buyers have might be a wise move.

Prices Are Still Historically High
While there’s a lot of chatter about real estate prices coming down, home prices are still higher than they were last year, when prices were considered historically high.
Whether or not home prices are actually higher, lower, or about the same depends a lot upon your area and price range. But overall, prices haven’t taken a dive off of a cliff… yet.

Mortgage Rates Are Currently Lower
You’re probably well aware of the fact that interest rates skyrocketed from being historically low for years, to over 7% in October of 2022. While they certainly aren’t back down below 3% like they were in 2021, they’ve recently come down closer to 6%, which has some buyers breathing a sigh of relief and trying to buy before they go up again.

That said, rates have a tendency to change quickly and often, so it’s hard to bank on lower rates being an enticement for buyers. But if they’re relatively lower than they have been, it’s something you don’t want to overlook.

Seasonally Pent Up Demand
There’s often pent up demand from buyers after the holiday season, since many of them take time off from searching during the last couple of months of the year. So when January rolls around, they can be anxious to start their search back up and find some new options on the market.

The Buyers Are More Serious
There are typically more active buyers during the official spring season, but they’re not all serious buyers. However, any buyer looking at houses in January tends to be highly motivated to buy a house. So, you’re not dealing with as many lookie-loos waltzing through your house like they’re auditioning for an HGTV show.

Shorter Days
As the days go by, they also get longer. More sunlight later in the day also means more buyers wanting to see your house in the evening. Most people prefer to see a house while the sun is out, so listing in January increases your odds of having less buyers coming through when you’d prefer to be home relaxing.

If you’ve been thinking about selling, and you were leaning toward waiting until the spring market officially arrived, you might want to consider listing in January instead.
There are always strategic benefits to listing your house in January, but given the current shift in the market, there are even more reasons to do so.

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized December 27, 2022

Why “iBuyers” Are Failing (But Real Estate Agents Stand the Test of Time and Shifting Market)

The term “iBuyer” probably isn’t something you think about until and unless you’re thinking about selling your house. But once you start thinking about it, there’s a good chance you’ll come across one of these companies who typically position themselves as innovators who are disrupting the real estate industry by offering an easier, less costly approach to selling a house. They use technology and algorithms to make an instant offer on your house, and promise a quick and easy process to close on the sale of your house in a matter of days.

While the market was “hot” over the past couple of years, most of them seemed to be thriving. There are still some out there who are functioning, but with the market suddenly shifting, many of them are either shutting down their operations entirely, or are at least pulling back on how many houses they’re buying. So, you might have a tougher time finding one who’ll buy your house if it’s an option you hoped to pursue.

Why are they failing?
recent article on TheRealDeal offered some objective insights into some of the reasons why iBuyers are on the brink of demise, including:

– They were trying to treat homes as a commodity.
– Many of them rely on investors who have lost patience and faith in their business models.
– They relied on selling related in-house or affiliated services—like mortgages, title, and escrow—in order to be profitable.
– While they factored in some potential economic changes, they weren’t prepared for a major shift in the market like we’re seeing now.

The article also mentioned that real estate agents will joyfully claim, “I told you, this would never work.” To be fair, many agents have been saying that all along, but not necessarily in a smug manner. They just know how complex the process is to buy and sell real estate, and could easily see how they were approaching the business wasn’t going to be sustainable.

Why agents stand the test of time and changing markets…

iBuyers aren’t the first industry “disruptors” to come in and try to change the industry with technology. There have been many companies and business models that hoped to do so, only to fail. And every single one of them comes in pretty much bragging that they’re going to end the need for real estate agents.

Yet every single time real estate agents come out the other end of these threats doing things the way they’ve always done them, while using technology in a way that enhances their services and process.

To suggest that agents shouldn’t be proud of doing that, and that they should be cheerleaders for companies who come into the industry belittling and berating what they do for clients is a bit much to ask. The reality is, they are in the trenches and just understand what many of these companies fail to recognize time and again, such as:

– Houses aren’t commodities. There are so many differences from one house to another, and one area to another, it’s hard to buy and sell them in a simplistic, large-scale manner.
– People aren’t commodities. In many ways, buying and selling houses isn’t about the brick-and-mortar product, so much as it is helping the people who are buying and selling them. It’s a complex, stressful, and emotional process and is often a person’s biggest asset or purchase in their life. Every single person and situation is different, and every house sale has several people involved in it.
– They are self-reliant and self-driven. Oh, what an agent could do with a huge pile of cash from investors like tech start-ups often get! Many of the “disruptors” come into the market functioning with the use of capital they haven’t earned, and often operate at a loss. When investors lose their patience and faith, there goes the business. It’s out of their control. On the other hand, agents have to rely on their own money, patience, and faith to persist in this business, which they have full control over. They learn how to use a limited amount of money to build their business over time.
– They don’t rely on selling you related services. While agents may have services that their brand offers or is affiliated with, they aren’t relying on clients using them to earn their income. (They actually can’t receive compensation when you use an affiliated service.) So they may offer you affiliated services to make your process smoother or easier, but they aren’t using them like many of the tech companies do as a means of making profit and being able to survive.
– They’re always prepared for a market shift. That doesn’t mean they like it when a market shifts, but they’re certainly used to having to weather the changes. In fact, what many people consider “hot” or “good” market conditions are often the toughest for real estate agents. The past couple of years were no picnic for agents, despite the fact that many people probably considered it a great time to be one. In fact, there’s probably never a market that’s “easy” for agents; they all have their challenges.

Those are just a few of the reasons why agents are able to stand the test of time and changing markets, and why, as they state in TheRealDeal article: “The evidence proves that there’s more people using agents now than ever before. We’ve had billions of dollars come into this industry [to disrupt it through technology], but the gravitational field of the traditional industry and agents and expert advisors is really strong.”

Buying and selling real estate isn’t something most people want to (or should) do with a few quick clicks on their laptop. It’s a complex, emotional, and high-ticket purchase or asset that they need an expert advisor and advocate helping them with.
While agents are constantly being threatened by “disruptors” who are trying to change the industry by offering a short-lived tech solution, they stand the test of time and changing market conditions by incorporating tech that enhances their service and product, while embracing the challenges of a complex industry.

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketUncategorized December 20, 2022

New Listing 728 224th Avenue, Somerset, WI 54025

New On The Market on Wednesday 21st December!

728 224th Avenue, Somerset, WI 54025

This charming 4 bed 3 bath home is nestled on a 3.5-acre lot. Large 3-car attached garage. Spacious kitchen with granite counter tops and center island. Open concept layout. Oak hardwood flooring. Living room and informal dining area with beautiful large bay window. Fireplace, sauna, home theatre, reverse osmosis faucet, patio. New asphalt milling driveway. All appliances are less than 6 months old. The walkout basement leads to a huge yard which includes an impressive detached, heated office/workshop with a 2nd fireplace and loft. Bonus if you are working from home!.
$455,000

See Pictures And Virtual Tour Here.

Year Built: 2004
Garage Stalls: 3
Stories: One
Tax Year: 2022
Tax Amount: $4,084
Foundation Sz: 1,388
Abv Grd Fin SF: 1,388
Bel Grd Fin SF: 1,192
Total Fin SF: 2,580

School Dist: 5432 – Somerset (715-247-3313)

Acres/Sqft: 3.540
County: St. Croix
Lot Size: 677x219x675x219
Postal City: Somerset

Living Room 16×13
Dining Room 11×10
Family Room 19×12
Kitchen 17×12
Bedroom 1 16×11
Bedroom 2 11×10
Bedroom 3 11×9
Bedroom 4 11×11
Deck 10×10
Game Room 16×11
Bedrooms 4
Bathrooms 3

Heat: Forced Air
Fuel: Natural Gas
Air Cond: Central
Water: Well
Sewer: Private

Contact me to schedule a showing.

715.245.3261
info@soldbyshaw.com

BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized December 10, 2022

Self-Employed and Buying a Home?

Self-employed people can absolutely get approved for mortgages and purchase real estate. But the process can be a bit more challenging—and if you’re self-employed, it’s important to know what to expect when you apply for a mortgage.

So what, exactly, should you expect?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined things self-employed individuals need to know before they start shopping for a home, including:

You’ll need to have been self-employed for at least two years. Most lenders will want you to submit documentation that verifies the past two years of your employment. That means, if you’re self-employed, you will need to have been working for yourself for at least two years. Be prepared to show tax returns going back two years in order to verify your self-employed status, and the amount of income you gross and net from your work.

Tax breaks can impact your borrowing potential. One benefit of being self-employed is that you can write off certain business expenses, which lowers your taxable income (and lowers your tax bill). But while paying fewer taxes is great for your bank account, it’s not always great for buying a house. When determining whether to approve your mortgage (and how much to approve), your lender will look at your net income (the total after any tax deductions), not your gross income (the total amount you earned). This can prevent you from securing a mortgage at all, or securing a mortgage for the amount you need to buy your home. So if you’re planning on buying a home in the near future, consider how many expenses you want to deduct.

The process can take longer. In theory, the approval process for a self-employed person should take the same amount of time as a traditionally employed person. But if you’ve had any recent changes in your business—or you have income from a variety of sources—it may take longer to collect all the necessary documentation and process your mortgage application.

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized December 4, 2022

Getting Ready to Buy Your First Home? Here’s How to Boost Your Credit Score

Having a good credit score plays an integral role in helping buyers secure a competitive interest rate on your mortgage. And with the average rate for a 30 year fixed-rate mortgage hovering around 6.4 percent (up from 3.22 percent at the beginning of the year), getting a competitive rate on your mortgage is more important than ever.

Which means, as a first-time home buyer, one of your main focuses should be boosting your credit.

But how, exactly, do you do that?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined tips to help first-time home buyers boost their credit score—and score a better mortgage rate as a result—including:

Pull your credit report and dispute any errors. Errors on your credit report can cause your score to plummet. But you can’t fix what you’re not aware of—so, if you’re planning to buy a home in the near future make sure to pull a copy of your credit report, review it for any mistakes, and dispute any errors directly with the reporting agencies.

Set up automatic payments. Paying your bills on time (including credit cards and loans) is an absolute must for boosting your credit. If you’re having a hard time getting payments in on time, set up auto pay; that way, all of your payments are guaranteed to be processed on time each month.

Increase your credit limits. Ideally, you would pay down your credit card debt before buying a home. But if that’s not feasible at the moment, you can still boost your credit score without paying down your balances. How? By increasing your credit limits. Contact your credit card companies and ask if they can increase your credit limits; increasing your limits improves your debt-to-credit ratio—which, in turn, can improve your credit score.

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized November 27, 2022

Thinking About Buying a New Construction Home? Some Benefits!

When you’re buying a home, one of the early decisions you’ll want to make is whether to buy a new construction home or a pre-owned home.

And while both options can be a great move depending on what you’re looking for, new construction homes can offer some advantages over pre-owned properties.

So what, exactly, are those advantages?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined some of the key benefits of buying a new construction home, including:

New homes rarely need repairs. When you invest in new construction, everything is brand new—the roof, the flooring, the appliances, the fixtures. Because everything is brand new, it should be in working order—and if it’s not, it’s generally covered by the home warranty—which means you won’t have to spend time, energy, or money on repairs, which are common when you purchase a pre-owned home.

New homes can be customizable. When you buy a pre-owned home, what you see is what you get. But If you purchase a new construction home in the early stage of construction, you can often customize the final design (for example, by choosing flooring, paint colors, finishes, and fixtures). And when you move in, everything will be exactly as you want it.

Lower maintenance costs. Again, everything in a new construction home is new, and with brand new plumbing, electric, and heating and cooling systems, your maintenance costs will likely be significantly lower than if you buy a pre-owned home, particularly in the first few years of ownership.

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized November 21, 2022

Property Title Searches

Buying or selling a home is a long, complex process. And chances are, you’re going to come across terms throughout that process that may be new to you—including “property title search.”

A property title search is an important part of any real estate sale. But what, exactly, is a property title search—and what purpose does it serve, both for buyers and sellers?

A recent article from realtor.com answered frequently asked questions about property title searches, including:

What is a property title search? A property title search is a search done after an offer has been accepted on a home. During the process, a variety of sources are searched (for example, deeds, tax liens, bankruptcy court records, and county land records) to determine if there are any liens on the property or financial judgments against the owner that could potentially impact the transfer of the property to the new owners.

Why are property title searches important? Property title searches are important for both buyers and sellers. For sellers, a property title search proves that you have a “marketable title”—legal speak for the title being free of defects. On the buyer’s side, a property title search ensures any pre-existing financial judgments are dealt with before closing on the home, which will help them avoid any stressful, expense surprises down the road.

Who performs a property title search? Generally, the lender requests a property title search during the escrow process. (While buyers can technically do a property title search on their own, it’s a complex process; if you’re buying a home without a lender, talk to your real estate agent about the best way to navigate your property title search.)

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized November 13, 2022

Want a Better Deal on a House? You Might Want to Buy in the Next Month or Two

With mortgage rates having gone up, and home prices not seeming to come down much, some buyers are choosing to wait it out and see how much prices come down.

But there’s not a lot of consensus on whether or not prices will come down, or how much they will if they do. According to a recent Market Watch article, some predictions are that they’ll be coming down quite a bit in the near future, while others say that they’ll remain stable, if not go even higher. So, waiting may or may not pay off.

Besides, not everyone can wait it out. People buy and sell houses when they need to; it isn’t always driven by mere want. Which is kind of a key point to this whole article…

While prospective buyers can casually be looking and may or may not need to buy right now, if someone has their house on the market in November or December it’s a pretty good sign that they need to sell. It’s more of a commitment for someone to have their house on the market during two months filled with holidays, traveling, and a seasonal drop in real estate activity.

But what makes this November and December a bit more of an opportune time is that you also have buyers who are choosing to put their home search on hold due to market uncertainty, or have been edged out of the market by rising rates. In addition, some sellers may be getting concerned or influenced by news that houses aren’t selling as readily and prices are dropping, whether that’s even true or not in their area.

To put it simply: The time is ripe for you to find yourself a deal.

That said, inventory is still low, and prices aren’t necessarily dropping in every area, so a lot depends upon what’s happening in your local area and the price range of the houses you’re looking at. You also need to keep in mind that, while it’s a good sign when they’re on the market at this time of year, not every seller is motivated or desperate. So don’t bank on everyone who’s trying to sell taking a deeply discounted price for their home.

But if you’re focused on finding a deal, you can more easily find one in the next couple of months, as long as you look for and focus on the deals and opportunities.

November and December are historically great times to get a better deal when buying a house. While rates have gone up and prices haven’t come crashing down, the market is shifting in favor of buyers in many areas. If you’re focused on negotiating a better deal on a house, the next two months are a great time to capitalize on the seasonal and overall shifts in the market.

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BuyersLocal Real Estate MarketSellersUncategorized November 7, 2022

Selling Your Home? These Home Selling Rules Are No Longer Relevant

The market is changing. While bidding wars, sky-high prices, and homes flying off the market were a reality just a few months ago, rising mortgage rates, changing economic conditions, and increasing inventory have caused a serious shift in some areas.

And if you’re selling your home, it’s important to operate under the conditions of the market the way it is now, not the way it was last year or a few months ago.

So what, exactly, does that look like?

A recent article from realtor.com outlined some of the widely believed rules about selling a home in today’s market that are no longer true (and that you’ll definitely want to consider breaking!), including:

Pricing your home as high as you’d like. There was a time when sellers could virtually put any price tag on their home and it would sell, often for even higher than their asking price. But those days are over, and if you want to successfully sell your home in today’s market, you need to price your home conservatively and in line with its current market value.

Don’t worry about offering concessions. At the height of the buying frenzy, buyers were bending over backwards for sellers, and that meant sellers could forgo any concessions. But now that the market has cooled, if you want to sell your home—and sell it quickly—offering concessions to buyers (like helping them “buy down” their mortgage rate or cover closing costs) isn’t out of the question.

Home staging isn’t necessary. There was a time when just about any home would sell, regardless of how it looked. But now that buyers are more selective, you’ll want to do everything you can to make your home marketable and appealing—and that includes investing in professional staging.

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