If you'd like an update on the housing market (are you thinking of buying or selling a home?) and how it is affecting Charlotte, NC, read on.



The National Association of Realtors, in light of the recent economic developments, released this statement about the stability of the housing market:

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said home prices have been moderating. “Median home prices have been moving up and down in a relatively narrow range in many markets, which shows a stabilization trend,” he said. “Markets showing consistent price stability or increases are those with solid labor market conditions, such as in Washington, D.C.; San Antonio; or Fargo, N.D.”


Charlotte can certainly be grouped in with other cities with solid labor markets-there are multiple Fortune 500 companies in Charlotte and our hospital systems, energy and banking centers bring in new people every month.

Read the article regarding the housing market in its entirety: Second Quarter Metro Prices Mixed
.

Also, check out this video from YUN on the AAA credit downgrade:



If you'd like stats or update info on your particular neighborhood or neighborhood of interest, email me at Sarah@SarahMartinHomes.com

Buying a house in Charlotte can be a rewarding and challenging experience. The right Realtor can make the entire process as smooth as can be. In this section we will explore what happens in the weeks after your offer has been accepted By this point you have already secured your loan, found the home of your dreams and submitted an offer that has been accepted by the seller.



Weeks 2 and 3 after we’re in contract

• Schedule closing date and time with attorney and have attorney order survey, if a survey is desired.
• Lender will order an appraisal of the property (valuation of property)
• You will set up homeowners insurance policy with assistance from lender. Check with your current car      insurance carrier for potential discount rates.
• Set up utilities at new address for closing date

• Re-inspect any repairs that were made
• Review HUD/Settlement Statement
• Get certified check from bank (based on final HUD numbers). Check made out to closing attorney.
• Walk through property morning-of or day before closing
• Close on property in the morning before 2pm so the deed can be recorded the same day and keys can be exchanged. Make sure to bring picture ID to closing and certified funds!
• Bribe your friends to get them to help you move in!
• RELAX…. This process can be educational and empowering.

• Building Inspection:  $300 to $600 (depending on size of home)
• Wood destroying insect inspection:  $55 to $80
• Survey: ~ $375
• Attorney fees: $550 - $750
• Down Payment: ask your lender how much you’ll need to put down. Will probably range from 3.5% to 20% depending on your credit, income, and price range of home
• Lender fees:  Ask your lender to give you a Good Faith Estimate
• Average estimate of closing cost’s: 2.5% – 3% of purchase price
• Radon inspection: ~$300
• Home Warranty: $350 - $450
• REMINDER: asking the seller to pay for the above expenses (a.k.a. closing costs) is always an option      during negotiations

In today's real estate market the homes that sell the fastest are the ones that potential clients can't stop thinking about for days after a viewing. Staging your house can prove to be a very effective tool in making your house stand out from the rest and leave a lasting impression. However, hiring a staging professional might not always be within reach for budget-minded sellers. If you are thinking about selling your home and don't want to break the bank in the process, I have a few tips to get you started.


Look at your floors...
Dirty (Sippy Cup spill?) or worn carpet (is your house is the neighborhood hangout for all of your son's friends?) is an eyesore and potential buyers will notice. Depending on your budget you may want to consider doing a professional carpet cleaning or even replace the carpet. Carpet cleaning prices can range from $200 to $500 depending on how big your house is, but will make a significant improvement in the appearance and the smell of your carpet.




 If your budget allows, you may want to consider replacing it completely. Complete carpet replacement is definitely more expensive than cleaning but in some cases it may be necessary. If you opt for replacing your carpet with a lower grade carpeting you might want to consider upgrading the padding underneath to give the carpeting a more luxurious feel while still saving you some money.
If you really want to get the potential buyers interest, consider installing wood floors. According to a 2010 study on national floor trends, red oak was listed as being the most popular flooring option among interested buyers. Wood flooring isn't usually on a list of budget-friendly upgrades, but it can make a huge impact when selling your house.

Let in the light...
Install CFL's (compact flourescent bulbs) around your house. This cuts down on electricity and makes your home more energy efficient-which can be a huge selling point to a lot of environmentally friendly buyers. If you have a basement, add lighting to give the space a more usable feel. Use accent lighting to highlight certain areas of your home (bookcases, dark corners, foyers). Under cabinet lighting, sconce lighting, etc... all can be used to make your home shine. Literally.


Break out the paint rollers...
Paint can be one of the cheapest methods for improving both the look and feel of your home. Stay away from using flat or matte finishes as they often show more scuffs and can be difficult to clean. Using finishes with a higher sheen can help make rooms feel larger by reflecting light off the walls.  Steer away from colors that may be too personal (pink, bright yellow, orange) and try to stick with colors that are neutral to help buyers envision their own furniture matching the house.



Don't forget the baseboards and trim when painting!!! Such a simple chore that can make a huge difference. Choosing antique white or navajo white to repaint the trim and baseboards around your house can give your house a clean feeling and make the details in your homes architecture look amazing.


Pack up the clutter...
Nobody wants to walk in to the home you're selling and see all of your personal belongings laying around the house while they are trying to envision themselves living in it. Start by boxing up items you use once a year and know you can live without for the time being ( i.e. items your closets, basement, attic, etc... ). This will help those areas appear larger and more appealing to potential buyers. Next, start going through the house and box up excessive personal items like family photos, toys, clothes, etc... The purpose isn't to make your house feel like nobody lives there, but rather to help the potential buyer envision themselves living there. The more things you are able to box up and move out of the house, the bigger and cleaner it will feel to a buyer.



Spending money on staging can increase the chances of selling your home but there are plenty of budget-friendly options for you to explore that won't break the bank. If you have any questions about these tips or need a staging referral (I use one of the best in Charlotte), shoot me an email. Good luck!

I know that, at first glance, this info can look sort of useless-but, if you look closely, you'll see how valuable it can be. Read on if you're selling your home. Or if you're buying, but not exactly sure what you should be looking for. The facts below might just give you a clue into what buyers these days are thinking, wanting, needing:

• 85% of homes have either a porch, deck, or patio. If you're thinking about it: expand outward!
• Interior fireplaces are not as hot (no pun intended) as they used to be; only 1/3 of homes have a working fireplace. However, put a fireplace outside (see above), and you will be the coolest patio on the block!
• Most popular floor plan is the ranch. The days of the McMansions may be over: last year ranch homes accounted for 47% of new single-family home sales.
• Having a floor plan where the master is separated from the other bedrooms seems to be another popular floor plan choice.
• Most homes today have at least 6 rooms: at least 3 bedrooms and at least 2 bathrooms
• Average property size in 1973 was .36 acres. Today, the average property lot size is .27 acres
• Census Bureau research shows that homes built in 2009 were nearly 100 square feet smaller than the average home two years earlier.

All info above was gathered from the 2010 American Housing Survey, a biannual survey completed by HUD (Housing and Urban Development) and may help be your beacon as you think about what's important when you're selling your home:


How does your home stack up to the current data found by HUD?

If you'd like me to come by and share my thoughts on how functional your floor plan is or which updates are more important, email me and I'm happy to come out.

I say that this photographer is exclusively for home or baby...but that's not true, of course. She does amazing wedding photo's, too. It's just that homes and babies is what I have used her for! She is a phenominal local photographer who is great with kids and also magical at making homes pop from the screen or page.

If you're in need of someone to snap shots of your home (because you're putting it on the market, let's say) or of your little one, please give Courtney Linnehan a call.

See below for some of her work....



Happy Networking!

For all of you real estate-working mom's and dad's out there, read on about what we're supposed to be doing NOW to get ahead of the curve during tough times and be positioned for greatness when the tide starts to turn.


Here are a few survival tips to balancing family life and real estate success:

1. DO NOT CUT BACK ON YOUR BUDGET! Keep in touch with your past customers--meaning ALL of your past buyers and sellers--on a monthly basis. Superstars get 80% to 90% of their business from past customers through continuous prospecting and marketing. Consider that we're still on track to sell four million re-sales nationwide this year. Who's going to sell them? Certainly not the ones who "give up." Stay in the game.

I recently ran across a great idea...wish I'd thought of it!....when it comes to handling your pets for showings. When your house is on the market and you've got furry ones, it often leaves you in a quandary when buyers want to tour your home: You don't want to leave Mr. Personality locked in a crate because you know he'll howl the whole time the potentials are in the house. And you certainly can't leave him loose; he'll jump all over them! (Granted, now may be the time for some behavior intervention, but you've got enough on your plate. Save that for summer-time.)


Ok, so here's the brilliant idea: Have someone come and whisk the dog, cat, gerbils, or bird away for an hour or so during the scheduled showing. Love it! Now Fido doesn't have to worry when strangers come waltzing through the house, Mr. & Mrs. Buyer don't have to fear or be annoyed by the yapping dog or hissing kitty, and if they aren't pet-lovers, they don't even have to think about the terror the pet has wreaked on the house. A pet-sitter from a great little boutique firm in Charlotte will come and indulge your pet in a walk or other appropriate activity.



I met the owner of Queen City Pet Sitting, Stacey, a few months back at Modern Salon & Spa while we were both having our own grooming sessions. I loved her ideas about pet-sitting, dog-walking, etc. and her background. She had previously worked in the financial arena but chose to leave that downward spiral of a career and follow her passion. I felt 100% comfortable leaving our two dogs (now three) in her care.

We're using them on an upcoming trip to Hilton Head Island (I'm not sure yet if we'll leave the dogs home and have someone come over or if we're going to send them away to Queen City's place) and I think this niche idea about partnering up with home sellers is even more entrepreneurial.

If you have questions about their services and are interested in them taking care of your pets while your home is being shown, give me a ring (704-604-2445) or contact Queen City Pets directly.

Happy Pet-Sitting!

I mentioned in a blog of recent past that you may want to consider a neighborhood with a community pool amenity if building or maintaining your own pool isn’t ideal. I thought I’d expand on the homeowner association topic a bit since it can play a major part in the home buying & home owning experience.



HOA’s are in place to maintain the look and, more importantly, the value of the neighborhood. It insures that your kooky neighbor won’t paint his door with a huge skeleton face on it or that the sweet old gal down the block doesn’t adopt all of town’s stray days and keep them in her backyard.

Some homeowners, however, don’t love the idea of being restricted by an HOA. Their mantra is: I own this house, how can they tell me what to do with my property? If you’re considering living in a neighborhood that is managed or maintained by an HOA, read on…

Here’s a scary scenario...

Week 1:      
Realtor puts your house on the market

Week 2-5:  
You get a lot of great showings because you’ve staged the home and priced it right.

Week 6:     
You get an offer!

Week 7:     
The offer, after a few negotiations, is now a contract and you’re set to close in 30 days. Home is now taken off the market and you start looking for your next home while the buyers of your home get their inspections & appraisal scheduled.

Week 8:
You put an offer in on your next, larger home. It’s accepted!

Week 9:
Your buyers pull out of buying your house because the inspector has found several things that need repair on your current property and the buyers have been scared away. You have to give them back their Earnest Money because they fall under Alternative 1 in the contract you signed with them. You are forced to back out of your new home’s contract and you lose your Earnest Money.

Week 10:
Start all over


Sounds pretty awful, huh?


How could this have been avoided? Would you pay $300 to make this awful situation go away?

With a $300.00 pre-inspection, you could have been in-the-know and well on your way to closing this deal. Your buyers wouldn’t have been scared away by the report findings and you could have been better prepared for the results, too.
It may seem ornery or even like a waste of hard-earned money to get a pre-inspection before putting your home on the market, but as you can see from the scenario above, $300.00 could have saved a deal from falling through-a deal that, in the end, was certainly worth well over $300.00! (If you know of property I can get for less than $300.00, please email me immediately at sarah@sarahmartinhomes.com!!!)

Having the knowledge that your roof has a growing leak or that your HVAC system is on the outs, is power. You can either fix the problem and brag in your marketing material: New Roof! New HVAC! or you can at least be up front with buyers that they will need to invest in a new roof in the next 5 years and you can adjust your asking price accordingly and before the listing hits the market. A lot of buyers are ok with the fact that the home they love needs some TLC; they just like to know these things up front. Reading it in an inspector’s report seems much scarier and can almost seem like the seller was hoping it would go unnoticed. No one likes to feel blind-sided.

Honestly, when I take listings, I encourage sellers to get a pre-inspection before I will even take the listing. I am too busy with other clients and being a mom to waste months of my time on a home that may cause headaches in the end because of an unknown termite problem or mold growth in the walls.

A lot of times, inspectors will even offer sellers a deal on pre-inspections because they can be less cursory. A few of the most common defects revealed during inspections listed in this article.

Happy Investigating!

Snow-dusted roofs and icicles hanging from eaves usually make picturesque photos, but if you’re trying to sell your home in the winter, these idyllic winter visions may not be a reality.


If your home is on the market during the winter months, here are a few things you may be forced to think about:


1. Salt your steps
The last thing you need while your home is on the market is a law suit from some buyer that has fallen and can’t get up from your front steps. Any snow or ice on the sidewalk or steps leading to your front door must be addressed…and on a daily basis, if needed. Just salt the steps with a large-grained salt or even try kitty litter. Think about it: if you fell on the front steps of a house and twisted your ankle, would you still be in the mood to put in an offer so you can fall every winter? Probably not.


2. Clear away extra snow
Your curb appeal is virtually lost when it’s covered in even a few inches of snow. All that hard work you did back in the spring to plant brightly-colored flowers may be lost for a few months. Without being able to see your steps, flower beds, or sidewalk, the house may look like a boring blank slate. Don’t go crazy and clear it all away-that will look odd, too-but just shovel enough away so we can see the window sills, sidewalk, and driveway.




3. Evergreen
Since your spring flowers are probably long-gone, consider either planting evergreens or placing potted ones at the front of your home. Dead bushes, withered flowers, and brown grass aren’t necessarily the most curb-friendly accents. Opt for an evergreen landscape that will outlast winter and still keep your home looking alive and friendly. You can, of course, add your color back in once April showers have come and gone. Which plants are good for the winter season? Find out here.


4. Invite them to stay

Invest in a classic coat rack, stand it up in the front foyer, and invite them to take off their coats and stay awhile. The more time they spend in the house, the better. And they’ll probably be more comfortable this way too-less bundled up. Place a few drops of vanilla on a cookie sheet and "bake" in the oven before you leave and you’ll have the house smelling like warm, freshly-baked cookies. Adding large area rugs to a vacant house will “warm” it up a bit, too.
I brought a buyer to a house in Burtonwood recently and the heat was either turned off or not working. Either way, we froze our tushes off. The thermostat said 40 degrees!!! We had a hard time spending time in the house and visualizing when all we wanted to do was get back in our warm cars. If your house is vacant, it’s probably worth the extra $40 a month to heat it (even to 60 degrees) and keep your buyers in the doors longer.


6. Lights, More Action
While it’s always important to have lights on during showings, it’s even more crucial during winter months. Winter days tend to be gray, overcast, and sometimes dreary. The natural light in your home just feels different when it’s chilly out side. If you’re still living in your home while it’s on the market, leave “key” lights on in each room. If it’s vacant, ask your agent to go over to the house before a showing to turn on the lights. Again, warmth is important-whether we’re talking heat or ambiance.





Happy Selling!

Well 2009, you taught us a lot. We are more thankful for the jobs we have and the money we make. More importantly, we cherish our friends and family perhaps more than ever. It has been a crazy year for all of us-some made more than ever by cashing in on the niche spots in the economy but most of us just barely made it through and are ready for 2010!






Here are some tips to take into 2010 that I gathered from some of my clients and other professionals in the real estate industry:


-Absolutely take advantage of the $8,000 or $6,500 tax credit for purchasing property before it disappears in June!


-Aside from investors who are doing remodeling/flipping, think more long-term when looking for your new home(perhaps holding on to it for 5-10+ years as opposed to 2-5 years)


-Curb appeal and staging have never been more important to buyers


-Don't stretch your budget: live within your means even if that means waiting on your dream house another year


-Work hard, but don't forget to leave it at the office (or hide the Blackberry) and spend focused time with your family


-Sellers may be more willing to add in extras: you like the playset they have in the backyard? Or the bunk beds upstairs? Ask for them! It may just relieve them of hauling the furntiure in the Rent-A-Truck.








Here are a few tidbits I've heard from clients that should get you motivated!


-I talked to one of my clients last week and he said that Wells Fargo/Wachovia made more money last year than ever before. They are going to start hiring new people this week.



-I also just got an email from another client that said his company targeted niches and segments of markets that were starting to come back 6 months ago (San Diego, Las Vegas) and they have seen a 26% increase in their product sales. They predict Charlotte is 6 months behind these markets.


-Agents in San Diego and southern California are desperate to find inventory for their buyers! The listing agents are getting 20 offers on listings. In Las Vegas, if you don't offer cash they won't even look at your offer.












If you have any questions regarding the tax credit extension or how to make the most of 2010's real estae market, feel free to give me a ring at 704-604-2445 or shoot me an email: sarah@sarahmartinhomes.com


Happy New Year!

I had a mommy/baby play date yesterday and joined 5 other moms at Freedom Park. It was great to get out of the house-admittedly more so for me than for Ellie. All of the babies there were older than Ellie so it was great to listen to their “horror” stories and know that I’m not alone and that after getting through the newborn stage, child-rearing will get easier.


One of the gals, Valerie, mentioned that she may be looking to move soon. Right now, she, her husband, and new baby are in a condo uptown (something they invested in when they were spry newlyweds who dined out most nights of the week and frequented Happy Hours sans baby) and they are now being squeezed out with all the baby swings, baby bouncers, Bumbo’s, Tummy Time mats, and other baby necessities. (I use the term “baby necessities” loosely obviously. And I’m not passing judgment on Valerie and her newly decorated condo-my own home has slowly transformed from young, elegant, & modern to infantile, silly, and cluttered). This home metamorphosis is exactly where our conversation led.

Valerie wondered: How can I show my home and sell it to folks who will most likely be a young couple, a single banker, or an empty-nester couple when it appeals only to 8-month olds? I was proud of Valerie for even recognizing the importance of staging and setting the tone for her potential buyers. She thought back to 9th grade Writing Class and said: “Who will be my audience?”

We talked about how Valerie & her husband must make it appear to the general public they that do not have an infant at home. In fact, she needed to make the home appear as though no one in particular lives there. I don’t mean, of course, that the condo be vacant, but that it looks simply like a new home or a home that is on display for Parade of Homes. The buyer must be able to envision themselves living there and unless they have an infant (which they probably won’t since they’re looking for a condo Uptown) then the minute they walk into 673-D they will mentally take this option out of potential purchases. I’ve seen it dozens of times: a couple walks in to a home with excitement and hope and you can see it melt off their face when the home is poorly decorated, cluttered, dirty, or “just not my style.”

Valerie’s next steps:


1. Decide if they’re really ready to put their home on the market

2. Find somewhere to store the extra “things” that are cluttering the condo (an attic, a friend’s house, a storage unit). “Store away items” might include: the cappuccino machine that’s never been used, the CD tower that goes unused since the iPod joined the family, the toy chest, winter/summer clothes, all family picture frames, extra furniture, etc.

3. Find a specific place for everything that's left in the house (including closets, cabinets, etc.). These items need to be “stored” away but kept close enough to grab for potential daily use. Remember, the house needs to look professionally staged. These items include things like: toothbrushes and other toiletries, superfluous kitchen counter items, dog food bowl, bin near the front door with shoes in it, and other daily items that don’t add to the home’s ambiance.

4. Pack it up or store it away!