Here’s when you know it’s time to downsize.
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Here are the top six signs it may be time for you to downsize:
 
1. Retirement. Are you planning on retiring soon? If so, it may be a good time to consider selling your property and downsizing into something more manageable.
 
2. You have too much house. In other words, you don’t live in the entire property anymore—you only live in a few rooms and the rest stay unused while you keep their doors shut to keep the heat or air conditioning out.
 
3. There’s too much upkeep. Does it take a lot of time and resources to maintain your property? At that point, you’ll know it’s time to downsize. 
"If your home is paid off and, more importantly, well-maintained and updated, now’s the time to downsize."


4. You’re worried about maintenance issues. Downsizi ...

Remember these points will help you buy and sell simultaneously.
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If you need to buy and sell at the same time, here are the most important points to remember to pull off both transactions successfully.
1. Get pre-approved for your next purchase. You need to know what you can afford in terms of your next home, so be sure to contact a reputable lender or bank (which we can help with).
2. Decide where you want to live and what style of home you want. All of this has to be in order, because selling and buying in this market will be challenging. It can be done, but it will still be challenging.
3. Prepare your current home for sale. This is important because you need to sell in order to buy. As I always like to say, when preparation meets opportunity, success is inevitable. When preparing your home to sell, you need to have a trusted real estate professional by your side t ...

Here are the three worst mistakes you can make as a buyer in this market.
Looking to buy a home? Search all homes here.Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report here. 

There are three critical missteps that all homebuyers need to avoid. The first one will drive you nuts, the second will open you up for liability, and the third one will cost you money. Here are three home-buying mistakes that you should avoid at all costs:
1. Signing up for multiple search websites. Realtors pay these websites to generate business. If you’re using up to three different sites, you could have 10 different agents texting, calling, and emailing you all at the same time. 
"You want to hire a lender you can trust."


2. Calling the number on the “for sale” sign. The agent representing a home seller will not represent you the right way. You have to keep this in mind. The person listing the property has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller, not to you. A ...

Selling without a Realtor is an option, but should you do it?
 
Looking to buy a home? Search all homes here.Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report here. 

Since we’ve been in such a hot seller’s market, we’re getting a lot of questions about the pros and cons of selling a home off the market. We’re actually helping one of our past clients sell their home to a friend of theirs, so I can share with you the same things I told them. I gave them a list price of around $450,000, but they ended up negotiating their own deal with their friend. The price ended up at $420,000.

I asked them why they did that without even trying the market to see what buyers were willing to pay. Keep in mind that we’re in a market where buyers are willing to pay more than $40,000 above a home’s appraised value (appraised value is different from market price). 
"We’re in a market where buyers are willing to pay more than $40,000 a ...

I’m discussing why using a discount brokerage or Realtor is not worth it.
 
Looking to buy a home? Search all homes here.Looking to sell your home? Get a free home value report here. 

Today we're going to discuss why using a discount brokerage or Realtor is not worth the savings they promise. As everyone is aware, the market is still red-hot for sellers. Some people think that they can just slap their home on the market by taking photos from their phone without any preparation at all, and buyers are going to line up and provide multiple offers for their home. That’s just not true.

I had a listing appointment with someone in our database that I’ve been staying in touch with for several years, and they are planning on selling and relocating out of the area to a different state. They’re interviewing several other agents, and as always, I request to be the last in, and here's why: When I go on a listing appointment, it is truly a consultation on ...