Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Real Estate Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jenna Harris
If you are looking to buy or sell a home, get all the information and the latest updates, tips, and tricks from The SEAL Group - your professional Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex Real Estate Agents.
Have you ever thought about listing your home as for sale by owner? Before you do, there are some things you need to consider.Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas-Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***
When you put your home up as a for sale by owner (FSBO) listing, you’re compromising your ability to be aware of certain risks associated with putting a home on the market.Without a professional helping you step by step as you prepare, list, and sell your home, you become vulnerable to scams. Not only that, when you forego the help of a professional who could assist you with things like negotiations, contracting, and paperwork, you could be missing out on getting the best deals possible. If you do, however, decide to do a for sale by owner listing, it would be a good idea to hire a real estate attorney. Before you decide though, I’d like to list just a few of the things that can go wrong with for sale by owner listings. As I mentioned earlier, FSBOs are often targets for scamming. For example, while there is nothing wrong with cash offers, you need to be wary of them in this situation. If you don’t have an agent representing you, be careful of things that may sound too good to be true.“
If you don’t have an agent representing
you, be careful of things that may
sound too good to be true.”
The second problem with FSBOs is that, without a Realtor, all of the liabilities become your responsibility. Realtors have insurance to help cover these kinds of liabilities, but most people listing their homes as FSBO do not. Next, keep in mind the amount of paperwork involved in closing a real estate transaction. Not only is this work tedious, but unlike a Realtor, the average person lacks the training to understand some of what is being discussed within this various paperwork. Lastly, a lack of experience with the real estate transaction process can put your deal at risk. Without the same license, expertise, and experience as a real estate professional, it’s very easy to make a mistake that could end up costing the whole deal. So if you’re considering listing your home and would like more information or have any other questions, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Buying a home isn’t as expensive as you think. In fact, it can be more affordable than paying rent.
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas-Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.If there’s one thing I know after living in Austin since 2006, it’s that the city has changed tremendously in the time since. Up until a few years ago, I was constantly moving each year after my lease was up. I rented apartments, houses with roommates, traveled the world and came back, and still ended up renting. *It wasn’t until I was asked by a Realtor why I was renting instead of buying that I stopped to consider it. I had no idea how to answer their questions because I had no idea what was out there.“
I just assumed I wouldn’t be able to
afford to buy a home.”
I assumed I wouldn’t be able to afford a home purchase, but I assumed incorrectly. It turns out that I was able to find a home in the same neighborhood I had been in the last five years and my payments were the same as what they were in my 1-bedroom apartment. I want to ask you the same question if you’re renting. Why haven’t you bought yet? If you have any questions or concerns about the home buying process and whether you can qualify to buy a home, give me a call or send me an email. We’re always here to help at The Seal Group.
If you have any other questions about this topic or know anyone interested in buying, selling, or investing in real estate, just give us a call or send us an email and we’d be happy to speak with you.
As promised, I’m back with your DFW market flashback. There’s a lot we can learn moving forward.
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas-Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***As promised, today I wanted to give you a brief market flashback.We saw the same trend at the beginning of 2016 through the end of 2016. Basically, it was a seller’s market with heavy buyer demand and low inventory. We saw multiple offers on properties in a short amount of time.If you had a good agent, they were able to explain the difference between the offers that came in that would get you the most amazing deal.
“
Thankfully, the election is over,
interest rates are still low, and
inventory is still low.”
Thankfully, the election is over, interest rates are still low, and inventory is still low. Whether you’re in a position to buy, sell, or do both, it’s time to hop on the boat, because it’s a great time to do it.
If you have any questions for us or you’re ready to buy or sell a home in the DFW market, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!
I'm really excited to share some news about our new real estate team, The SEAL Group. Here's why we formed and what we're all about.
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas-Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***Happy 2017!I know many of you have New Year's resolutions, and I do too. Today, I wanted to give you an update on some exciting things going on in 2017.We have joined eXp Realty, and amazing changes are in store. We're expanding both locally and nationally, and from here on out, we'll be known as The SEAL Group. We're a group of single agents who came together because we believe that when a group of individuals have a single goal that's built on a foundation that is moving in the same direction, impossible feats can be accomplished together. We're SEALs: specialized, ethical agent liaisons.
“
We're SEALs: specialized, ethical agent liaisons.”We're specialized in our craft, we're professionals, we're full-time, and we always push ourselves to the next level. We're ethical. Integrity is never left behind in anything that we do. We're agents, which is not the same as just a real estate licensee. We're Realtors who are held to educational and ethical standards at both a state and national level that regular agents are not.We're also liaisons; we will always fight for what is best for our clients above ourselves, and we'll always reach across the table to make sure a deal is done in your favor. We are also liaisons because we are professional connectors. We want to connect you with all of the resources you could possibly need to have an amazing experience with us.I can hardly wait to let you in on some more exciting details coming in 2017! Stay tuned!
Until then, if you have any questions about the DFW market or you're thinking about buying or selling a home, give me a call. I'd love to hear from you!
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.Today, Chris Pedison of First Choice Loan Services joins us to share some insight on the lending process. He is a production manager and loan originator who has originated hundreds of loans since 2006, so he has a ton of experience. This year, he was even given the Five-Star Professional award! He was kind enough to answer some of the most common questions people have when it comes to applying for a loan.Is no credit better than bad credit? A credit score is a grade of risk that tells lenders the likelihood of you defaulting on a loan. Scores range anywhere from 350-850. Those below 620 are considered poor; scores 621 to 679 are considered average; and scores 720 and above are considered excellent. If you have limited or no credit, you have a score of 0. Is this worse than having a bad score? If you have a score under 580, it is most likely the result of late credits, collections, judgements, or other financial gaps. In some circumstances, these slip-ups may have been unavoidable, but once your credit takes a hit like this, you need to do everything in your power to correct it. To build up your score, you have a few options, such as opening up a secure credit card or applying for installment loans, for example. If you have no credit, it simply means you haven’t had a chance to build it. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it’s not a sign you’re unreliable when it comes to making payments, but it will still make it somewhat difficult to obtain financing. It’s not bad to have credit, and the sooner you starting building a good score, the better! Establishing credit is much easier to do that rectifying bad credit. It’s just a matter of getting started! “Establishing credit is easier
than fixing bad credit!”*The better your credit score, the easier your life will be! If you plan on buying anytime soon, or if you want to start establishing credit so you can buy later down the road, it’s never too early to get the ball rolling.
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.Today’s topic is a little bit of fact or fiction. Is it better to list in the spring and summer time or the fall and winter months? Let me explain this in terms of supply and demand. When you increased demand for a product, like there is in the spring and summer months with the increased number of buyers, the supply (sellers) are going to start to take notice. When everyone knows there is increased demand, they are going to list their homes in greater numbers. The supply will come up to meet the demand, giving you a wash at the end of the day. What does that mean for you? Well, if you do decide to list in the fall or winter, it’s more than likely not going to hurt you at all. Here’s why. In the fall and winter, there are fewer people who list their homes in general. There will be fewer homes like yours and in your area on the market. You are going to have less competition from other homes and less competition creates more demand. Here in Dallas/Fort Worth, an area that’s always growing, there’s always going to be demand.
“
Less competition
creates more demand.”*I hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions or comments from me, write them below, or give me a call/email. I look forward to hearing from you!
"We have done plenty of work with Jenna and she’s been nothing but excellent as an agent. She definitely will go out of her way to work within our needs and our acquisitions as well as what we are trying to accomplish as far as dealing with both sides of the transaction. She holds herself to the highest standards and will even meet with the contractors or go all the way out to the property to clean or change keys. She does what she needs to do in order to get the job done!"
"Jenna is more like a partner with us. She’s the agent we exclusively use for all of our investment properties and she just has a tenacity about her that’s enabled us to acquire a significant amount of properties. She basically transferred our business to where we were using multiple agents to where we exclusively work with her! After she had her baby, we visited her at the hospital and there was about five minutes of talking about the baby, she immediately jumped back into the transactions we were working on by asking if certain things were taken care of! That’s just how Jenna is, she cares a lot about our business."
"My experience was incredible! Our journey started two years ago in which we were initially going to buy a home and she showed me a ton of houses and gave great customer service, but we ended up not buying, so she helped us locate a rental. A year later, because of that great customer service, even though she did all that work and not get paid, she found us our forever home. We love it and she helped us find exactly what we were looking for. Our satisfaction is very high on Jenna!"
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.
Hello and welcome back to my blog! Today’s question can be answered in one word, but we’ll also explain why. That questions is, "*Will staging my home in Dallas-Fort Worth help it sell?"The answer is YES!This can be tough to do if you’re currently living in your home, especially with kids. My advice is to keep it as neat and tidy as possible. If you’re not living in the home or don’t spend much time there, you should absolutely get it staged if it’s in your budget. Staging your home makes it cozier and creates an emotional attraction. With the help of a professional, it will be clean and tidy with colors that flow throughout the house. If professional staging isn’t in your budget, don’t panic.Houses at or below the average home price of $250,000 will always be in high demand. Under that price range, it’s not absolutely necessary to stage! Homes above this price range like trendy homes or those in downtown areas should probably be staged, however. Once you get into the $500,000 range and above, you definitely want to look into staging. Usually those are larger houses, and some buyers have a hard time envisioning how to occupy all that space.I hope you find these tips helpful! I’d love to give you some more tips or answer any real estate questions you have for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Just reach out to me today!
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***
*Today, Chris Pedison of First Choice Loan Services joins us again to address some of the biggest questions that homebuyers ask. Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases you’ll ever make, so it’s crucial that you are comfortable and confident with the professional company that is walking you through the process.*The first question you should ask a lender before hiring them is what company they work for -- you want to make sure they actually work with a company and are legit. You’re going to providing your information to this person, so you want to make sure they can be trusted.*
Next, you should ask whether their company is a mortgage broker or a mortgage banker. A mortgage broker is usually a third party or middleman to a transaction and they work with many different lenders; a mortgage a banker is lending their money directly, so they have a lot more control of the transaction. The process usually goes faster and smoother when you’re working directly with the bank that is lending the money.*A telltale sign that the company is a broker is when everything is underwritten by a third party. Brokers often operate remotely from another state, which can slow down the process. That’s why it’s important to ask whether your loan officer is local. A local officer is going to be easier to get a hold of when you have questions and they will be easier to hold accountable as the process moves along. If you work with someone out of town, they likely won’t be familiar with the appraisers in the area, know appraisers in the area, or know how property taxes and other laws and regulations work in your state. A local appraiser will know all these things and more, so they will have no trouble making the lending process as smooth as possible.*In the age of the Internet, it’s pretty easy to jump online and find out information about lending officers before hiring one. One thing you should look into is the fees the lender charges. They might charge flat fees or percentages, which often include a loan origination or discount charge. It’s important to look into these to ensure a lending agent isn’t charging you excessively and to make sure you’re comfortable with what you’ll be charged. The best resource for information on lenders is NMLSConsumerAcess.org. This resource is provided by the government, and it allows you to search loan originators and find out detailed information about their past transactions. The mortgage market is changing every day, so it’s crucial to work with someone who is experienced, knowledgeable, and most importantly, someone you can trust. If you would like to get a hold of Chris, or if you have real estate questions of any kind, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!***
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.*Today I have Chris Pedison with First Choice Loan Services. He has been in the industry since 2006 and he is a production manager. Chris has closed hundreds of loans for us, and we always recommend him to our clients. Chris recommends that all buyers get a pre-qualification, and this is true for many different reasons.
- Most sellers won’t even entertain an offer without a pre-qualification. If you can’t prove that you can afford the home, you won’t win over many sellers.
- After you have been pre-qualified, you can get a good idea of what type of home you will be able to afford. When you know your price range, your home search becomes much easier. You’ll be happy not wasting time on a home that you cannot afford.
- Make sure you use a reputable lender when you get a pre-qualification. This will make your letter of pre-qualification very strong in the eyes of a seller.
- It’s also best to get pre-qualified right at the beginning of your home search process. This way, you don’t waste time when you’ve found the home you want. Chris has seen buyers lose their dream homes because they weren’t proactive and didn’t get prequalified beforehand.
- Chris recommends upgrading your pre-qualification to a pre-approval. This is a much stronger statement than a pre-qualification because it requires a lender to provide a commitment for a loan. It takes longer, but it will put you on the same level as a cash buyer.
The moral of this story is that if you’re wanting to buy in Dallas, you absolutely have to be pre-qualified. If you need help with this, please don’t hesitate to contact Chris or myself.
Also, if you have any questions, we would love to answer them via this video blog. Please don’t be shy - there’s no such thing as a bad question!
We look forward to hearing from you!****
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***
Today, we discuss a topic that often perplexes both buyers and sellers: the option period. Below, we take an in-depth look at this crucial stage in any real estate transaction. What is the option period? The option period is the time period where the buyer can back out of the contract for any reason whatsoever. This is state-specific, and doesn’t exist everywhere in the country. It’s negotiated upfront between the buyer and seller. The average payment ranges from $50 to $500, and the average number of days range from 3 to 10.How does it affect buyers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area? The buyer can enter the contract with little risk up front. They won’t risk earnest money, but instead, only that $50 to $500 initial payment. Although a buyer can find another home to pursue during this time, a buyer should also complete an inspection on this property as well. They can approach sellers with negotiable requests, but if the requests aren’t met, they can easily walk away without losing a lot of money.How does this affect sellers? It’s not great for sellers. The seller can lose a deal if they’re not willing to work with buyer’s requests. The seller should take the measure to work on repairs anyway, since they’ll need to address and resolve them eventually. If you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in the surrounding area, feel free to reach out by phone or email. I’d be happy to answer any real estate questions you have! I look forward to hearing from you.
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***
The holidays are approaching. Today, we thought we'd do something a little different and share this festive video on holiday decorating tips from HGTV. Designer Angelo Surmelis shares several great ideas to spread holiday cheer throughout the home. Here are some of our favorites.1. Pay attention to the mantle. If you don't have some already, buy some kind of garland to drape over the mantle. Next, use leftover ornaments and candles to add light and texture. When choosing ornaments and candles, ensure they are in the same color-palette. This helps make your mantle a great focal point!
2. Use smaller Christmas trees. Every house has their main Christmas tree. In addition, you can also purchase smaller, inexpensive, eco-friendly trees to place throughout the home. Decorate these trees with strips of fabric from a T-shirt in holiday colors to save money for the main tree.
3. Use what you have. Be resourceful. Adding a plate charge and place mat to your everyday dining set adds some jazz to your table. Fresh-cut flowers and candles will help finish the look. You don't need grand, expensive candles -- a little candlelight goes a long way!
As you can see, it doesn't take much to make your home feel more festive. If you have any questions, give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help you!
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***
Zillow is immensely popular right now, as buyers and sellers alike typically start the real estate process by going to the website for information. But should you really trust everything you find on Zillow?
Zillow is very user-friendly and has some great information; the problem is it also has a lot of misinformation. For instance, they often have listings on their website that have expired or are under contract or sold. If you are serious about finding a home, you're wasting your time by looking through the listings on Zillow.
We have a fully updated and accurate Multiple Listing Service that is free for buyers to use. While Zillow has a lot of great features that make it fun to look at homes, they aren't held accountable for the listings on their site. Realtors, on the other hand, are fined for not updating information on the MLS! This means that a lot of listings that are no longer available appear on Zillow.
For sellers, it's crucial to take the home evaluations, or Zestimates, with a grain of salt. Zestimates are typically off on the sales price by 5-15%. If you're trying to price your home or check out what is going on in your neighborhood, I highly recommend either getting an appraisal (which will cost you a couple hundred dollars) or use a real estate professional (which is free!).
Zillow is a fine website that offers certain great features. However, once you're starting to get serious about buying or selling, you need to reach out to an agent who will look out for your best interest. If you have any questions about this, or if you would like real estate assistance of any kind, please give us a call or shoot us an email. We're here to make your real estate experience as stress-free as possible!
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.
A lot of people have been asking me, *"Is it risky to make an offer on a new listing?" Honestly, in my opinion, it depends entirely on the market you are in. For example, in my hometown, the market moves slow as molasses, so there's no reason to make an offer on a new listing.
However, in Dallas, the market is hot, hot, hot! It is a seller's market, and as a buyer, you cannot afford to wait to put down an offer on the home of your dreams. Even waiting just 48 hours means that you are the fifth or sixth offer coming in, rather than the first.
When you do make your offer, make sure it is a fair one. Do not make any lowball offers. You have to be aggressive if you want the house. You don't have to offer over list price; go through the contract. Maybe don't ask for closing costs. Maybe allow the seller to choose the closing date. Doing so could give your offer an edge.
Another thing you can do is write a letter to the seller explaining why you love the house and how you and your family would take care of the property. I've seen sellers ignore higher offers and pick an offer because they were touched by the buyer's letter.
Ultimately, if you want your dream home, do not wait to put in an offer. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help you!
Selling your Dallas-Fort Worth home?* Get a free home value report. Buying a Dallas Fort Worth home? Get full MLS access here.***
Today we are going to give you a bird’s-eye-view of what’s going on in the Dallas/Fort Worth market and the surrounding areas.
Everyone is always asking us whether we are in a buyer’s or seller’s market. I can tell you for certain, today, that we are 100% in a seller’s market. We have extremely low inventory and huge demand from buyers.
If you’ve been interested in selling your home for a while, how does this affect you? Well, right now, your home is going to be worth a lot. We have seen price increases of up to 15% in the last few years. If you want to cash in on that equity, now is a great time to sell.
What does this mean for buyers? Yes, it’s going to be a little more competitive when looking for a home. However, you also have the advantage of historically low interest rates. If they were to rise just a single percentage point, your affordability would be affected by 10%! That is a huge decrease in buying power. If you are out buying in this market, you’ve got to be aggressive and decisive, because inventory is low.
If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to speaking with you soon!