What Are Your Home’s Chances ​of Selling in This Market?

What are the chances of your home selling in this market? Right now, the reason so many homes are not selling is that there are, on average, six or seven sellers for every buyer. In order for your home to sell, then, it has to be perfectly positioned in every way. The best thing you can do to stack the odds in your favor is to choose the right agent. To know what it means to choose the right agent, watch this short video. 

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Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home

What are the odds your home can sell in the current real estate market?

We still have a pretty good number of buyers in the market right now. The reason you see so many homes not selling is because we have between six or seven sellers for every buyer. In order for you to sell your home, then, it has to be perfectly positioned in every single way.

In order to set yourself up for success, you need to choose the right real estate agent to market your home. Most agents have been in the market for 10 years or fewer, which means they’ve never seen a market like this. They’ve only seen the really good times for sellers - they’ve never seen the challenging times. 

"Choosing the right agent will determine whether or not you’re successful."

The chances of your home being the one that sells out of six or seven other homes depends on how well your Realtor positions your home in the marketplace. By “positions” I mean everything from staging to preparation to marketing. Many agents that have been in the market for a short period of time don’t advertise very broadly because they don’t know how or they don’t have the resources. Thus, choosing the right agent will determine whether or not you’ll be successful. 

When you’re ready to talk about selling your home with an agent, please include me in your list. I would recommend you interview at least two or three agents so you can find the one that’s been in the business long enough to have the knowledge of the market we’re in. The last time we saw a market like this was in 1988, which means anyone with fewer than 30 years of experience has never seen these conditions before.  

To find out how much your home is worth, go to myvalue123.com for a free market analysis, or just give me a call. I’d be happy to chat with you about the value of your home or any other real estate concerns you may have. See you soon!

What Is an Appraisal?

 Looking to buy a home in the Houston area? Get full MLS access
Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home

I wanted to take a minute to talk about the three types of appraisals we have in the real estate world.

You have the tax appraisal - which really should be called an assessment, because it is not an appraisal where someone comes out to look at your home to determine its value. Then you have the market value appraisal; typically a mortgage company will come out and make an appraisal for them to be sure they're safe in lending money to a buyer. Then, you have the refinance appraisal, which has nothing to do with the value of your home, but has everything to do with how much the mortgage company can lend you and still feel safe. These typically come in much higher than a market value appraisal.

The property tax appraisal can be challenged every year in Houston, and I recommend that you do so every year, even if your value does not change. It'll prevent future excessive increases if you protest every year.

The market value appraisal can sometimes come in below market value. That doesn't necessarily mean the home is "worth" less. It only means that the mortgage company is only comfortable loaning up to that certain amount on the property.

"Refinance appraisals have nothing to do with a home's value."

The third type - the refinance appraisal - the gloves come off so to speak, because the rules are stretched. Typically by the time a refinance appraisal comes up on your home, the mortgage company has run your credit and they know it's good, and they want to lend you as much as they possibly can, because they get paid a percentage of what they lend you. They have nothing to do with real value.

Whenever you're in a situation with an appraisal, it must have a specific purpose. The purpose will make a difference in the validity of the appraisal.

If you have more questions about appraisals or are interested in a free home valuation, please don't hesitate to contact me. I look forward to continuing this conversation with you!

What Does 'Days on Market' Reveal?

 Looking to buy a home in the Houston area? Get full MLS access
Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home

A lot of people have been asking us lately about how long homes are taking to sell in Houston. We measure this statistic by looking at the average days on market. However, there are actually two numbers to look at. One is the average days on market for all homes, and the other is the average days on market for homes that actually sell. 

In the Houston area, homes that are priced properly in the first place typically sell in 14 days or less from the first day the home is put on the market to the seller accepting an offer from a buyer. However, most homes aren’t priced properly from the get-go. The overall average days on market in Houston is 48 days. Many sellers are unrealistic at first about how much they can get for their home, then the home sits on the market for longer than need be.

These sellers will eventually reduce their price and when they do, the home will sell much quicker. When overpriced homes are reduced to what buyers think they are worth, they sell in under two weeks. That’s why it’s so important to price correctly from the beginning. Your home sale will be much quicker, and you won’t have to deal with the uncertainty that comes with overpricing and having your home sit on the market for months. This will help it sell for the most money possible.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you!

What You Need to Know About Your Double Pane Windows

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Market Analysis. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

More and more, we’re starting to see the same problem during home inspections.

In 2002, the state of Texas started requiring double-pane windows to be installed on all homes moving forward. These windows have a life expectancy of about 20-30 years, depending on the type. Since builders use different manufacturers and different types of materials for their double-pane windows, they are not all created equal.

As a result, we’re seeing a 15% failure rate on some of the earliest windows, typically installed sometime between 2002 and 2005. The cause of these failures is our extreme weather. When you have 100-degree summers, the seals in the windows expand and contract; over time, they lose their elasticity and you get moisture in the window. A sign of a failed window is cloudiness on the inside of your windows, so if you’re seeing that on some of your windows, you may want to get them checked out.

If you think your double-pane windows might be failing, it’s best to get them checked out and fixed before you list your home. You don’t want to lose a buyer over an issue like this, and even if the buyer sticks around while you get them repaired, it will really slow down the process. If you have any questions or concerns about this topic, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We would love to give you a hand!

When Is the Best Time to Sell Your Home?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

A seller recently wrote in asking, "Which is the best month to sell a home? Which is the slowest?"

The best time is whatever time frame works best for you. Price doesn't change much within a year. Yes, there are more buyers in the summer, but there are also more sellers in the summer, so it's kind of a wash. Prices are more stable in the winter months because there are fewer sellers, but there is still a good number of buyers out and about in the winter.

As for the slowest month, the answer is simple. January is always the slowest month for home sales. However, we do have fewer sellers on the market in January, so that's to be expected.

If you price your home properly, it will sell no matter what month you decide to list it.

If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

The Latest Trends in Houston Real Estate Market

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

Today, I want to give you a late summer market update. Our sales are fantastic, and there are many buyers in the market.

The biggest difference between the market last year and this year is the number of sellers. We have about three times as many sellers today than we did in 2014. This is good news for buyers because there are more properties to choose from.

Days on market is up year over year, and the number of homes going off the market unsold is up by 70% as well. We're at the point where two out of every five homes on the market will not sell this year, which is a huge change from 2014.

As for interest rates, right now they are steady. There was a rumor that they would go up in September, but that remains to be seen. If interest rates do go up, I don't think there will be a huge impact on buying activity. However, higher interest rates will affect affordability for buyers.

If you have any questions about the Houston real estate market, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

What Are the Different Ways to Value a Property?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

There are several ways to value a property, and there are different ways to evaluate a property, depending on what you're valuing it for. Overall, online home evaluation sites are inaccurate, and I would also strongly suggest staying away from Zillow's Zestimate. 

The tax-assessed value, Zillow values, and any other instant evaluations will not take into account the unique features that you have on your property. These are all the least reliable in terms of the true value of your home. 

There are two distinct mortgage values. One of them is a mortgage refinance value. This usually comes out higher because the lender wants to be able to lend you as much money as possible. There is also a mortgage buyer appraisal, which doesn't necessarily indicate the market value. The market value is what you and the buyer finally decide upon.

An appraisal value is also not the same as the market value. The appraised value is what the bank determines your home to be worth in order to estimate a loan amount for the buyer.

If you have any questions about this or if you want to know more about the Houston real estate market, please don't hesitate to reach out to me!

Your Home Came Off the Market Unsold. Now What?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

If you have listed your home for sale on the market, only to have to take it off because it didn't sell, don't make the mistake of relisting your home with the same agent. 

That person should have already done everything in their power to get your home sold. The danger that comes with relisting with the same agent is that if they did everything in their power to sell your home last time, what are they going to do differently this time? Whenever you are relisting your home for sale with the same agent, it will go back on the market with the same plan and get the same result. 

Here at The Dale Ross Group, we specialize in selling homes that didn't sell the first time around. Usually the biggest problems our sellers have that relist with us is where they are going to stay if we sell their home in under 30 days, which happens frequently.  We want you to be prepared to move when you list with us, because we expose your home to the highest number of potential buyers. 

If you have any questions about this program that will sell your home in 30 days or less, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to speaking with you!

How Can You Take Advantage of Houston Real Estate?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

Despite the news that you may have been hearing lately, there are a lot of buyers in Houston. While it's true that demand has fallen by 20%, the biggest news in Houston is that the supply of homes is actually up by 30%. 

When you combine these two factors, that accounts for nearly a 50% shift in the market when we compare it to last year. Prices are finally stabilizing, and appreciation rates have become more sustainable (4% per year instead of 12%). 

Despite the market slowing and steadying a bit, you can still expect your home to sell in 7-14 days if it's priced correctly and in good condition. It's still a wonderful time to sell your home in Houston. 

It's also a good time to buy a home. Interest rates are low and inventory has increased, so you're sure to find a good home at a very affordable price. 

Please let me know if I can help you with your buying or selling needs in Houston!

How Do You Increase Your Home's Resale Value?

Considering Buying? GO HERE to perform a Full Home Search, or if you're a prospective seller, CLICK HERE to receive a Free Home Value Report. For any other questions, feel free to call me at (281) 599-6575, or shoot me an email at rdr@daleross.com.

Today we are going to talk about the different things you can do to get your home sold. We have some great tips for you to make your sale go faster and become more profitable.

Whenever you are getting ready to sell, you really need to prepare your home properly, and every little detail matters. Whenever you give us a call to talk about selling your home, the first thing we will do is send you a list of over 60 items that you should take care of immediately, as they are the most scrutinized by buyers. It's a simple checklist, but everything you check off the list is important.

After you've completed everything on the list, I will provide you with a professional stager, free of charge. This stager will come to your home, thoroughly inspect the house, and will give you their opinion on how to optimize your home for resale. It's a proven fact that homes that are staged sell faster and for 6% more money than other homes. It will help your home stand out from other properties.

If you have any questions for us, we are always available to talk. Give us a call or send us an email and we will talk to you soon!