In this episode, I’m going to be talking about whether you should fix up a house or sell it as is.

So let’s get started.

When you sell a house, you have two options. You can either make improvements on it or simply sell the house without making repairs that are needed.And this is known as selling the house “as is.”

Fix Up

So when you make improvements, obviously you’re going to have to pay for those improvements. You’re going to have to put money in to fix things in a house which will make it look better and more attractive to the home buyer, which will then lead to a higher home price.

So in other words, you’re putting money into a home so that you will get more out of it. And as far as what you’re putting it into to make these repairs, you know, it could be floors that need repairing, or appliances, or walls, or roofing, anything really, you know, that could be in a declining or deteriorating state for the house.

Sell As Is

But not everyone wants to make those repairs. Some people just want to get out of their house because whether they’re financially strapped or it’s a house that they inherited, that holds no sentimental value for them. And they just want to get rid of it. And in that case, they sell it “as is.”

But really, it depends on your situation. Because if you have the time, why not make the repairs, you’re going to get more out of it. Also, if every other house in your neighborhood has new appliances: fixed walls, fixed roofs, whatever. Then obviously, you’re not going to be able to compete with those other houses on the market.

It Might Depend On Your Situation

So you might as well make those repairs, but if every other house in your neighborhood is being sold “as is,” then you really don’t have to make repairs because comparable to the market, your house really isn’t one that stands out, you know, it’s…it’s normal, you might say, to have a less than desirable house if you live in that sort of area.

However, even in that situation, I would say if you have the time, why not make the repairs, your house is going to stand out and will probably get sold a lot quicker than the other houses in the area. But if you’re financially strapped and, or you don’t have a connection to the home that you inherited and you just kind of want to get rid of it, then I would say, selling the house “as is” is a good, a good option.

And, it’s really just a case by case thing. Even if the other houses in the neighborhood have had repairs and say you’re financially strapped, I would say just sell the house as is because even though it’s not going to, to stand out and it’s not, you know, the market norm, so to speak, because financially, if you can’t hang onto it, then obviously just, just sell it “as-is” and move on.

Again, just very case by case basis. Just look at, A: if you have the finances to do it. B: if you have the time to do it and, C: if you have the desire to do it.

The post Fix Up or Sell As Is? [Podcast Episode 14] appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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The idea of someone giving you a house sounds nice in theory. Imagine the money you won’t spend. Yet, often when you’re given a house, it’s an inheritance and it comes with some complications attached. 

Often the inheritance is a result of a loved one’s death and the home may have some emotional stings to your heart too.  

Nevertheless, you still find yourself with a house and the need to know how the sudden gift will impact you and what you should do with the house. Selling inherited property is often the route taken by those who find themselves with a property they didn’t choose to buy. Yet, it’s not the only option.

Whether you keep the property or sell the inherited home, are some things you should know about this newfound wealth. Read on to learn more about the inherited property and your options once it belongs to you.

What Is Inherited Property?

Inherited property is a piece of property like a home, cottage or condominium or a piece of land that’s given to you by another person. Often the gift comes to you as a result of another person’s death. The property gets gifted to you as part of the estate of the deceased. 

So, while this can appear on the surface to be a generous gift, it isn’t without a bundle of complications. The property may have been gifted to more than one person. The property might not be owned outright and still have a mortgage. It might be a piece of property in need of some repairs and attention.

Further complicating the picture, you might already own a home. Or the home by is far away from where you live and work now. There are a variety of considerations to be aware of as you navigate the plethora of decisions you need to make about your inheritance. 

Obligations Related to the Property

As you consider what to do with the property you know you will have some financial and legal obligations related to the property. You will need to consider things like a mortgage, taxes, insurance, and other co-owners. More on this later. 

You might have some emotional attachments to the property. This makes decision making a little murkier as you navigate what to do. You want to be sure to investigate all your options and obligations as it relates to the property before making a definitive decision either way.

Tax Considerations

For most people one of their first concerns related to an inheritance like a house is what the tax implications will be. Will you suddenly owe a whole bunch of taxes now that you have inherited. 

Just because you have inherited doesn’t automatically mean you owe taxes necessarily. Really the tax implications come as you make decisions whether to sell, keep or rent the property.

Let’s take a closer look at the issue of taxes.

Capital Gains

Most often when you sell a property and make a profit, you worry about capital gains taxes. A capital gains tax is the tax on the amount of profit you make on a property from you bought it to when you sold it again.

There are short term capital gains taxes and long term capital gains taxes. The rate you pay depends on how long you have the property from when you bought to sold again. 

In most cases, you won’t pay capital gains on an inherited house, as you never actually purchased it. You will more likely need to consider something called step up taxes. 

Step Up Taxes

Step up taxes apply for homes and property that get inherited. The fair market value of the home will be considered from the day you officially inherit the home. 

Then when and if you sell the home, you pay taxes on the difference between the home’s value from when you inherited it to when it sells. 

This can be big tax savings over actually paying capital gains taxes. 

It’s Yours, Now What?

So, now you have inherited the home and it’s decision making time. Before you can make a sound decision, there are several things to consider related to the home. Each might impact your decision in some way.

Mortgage

One of the first things to know about the property is if it’s owned outright before it’s gifted to you or if there is still a mortgage on the property.  

If there is a mortgage, you need to figure out what type of mortgage and the terms of the mortgage. Sometimes a home will be inherited and have a mortgage, but the estate of the deceased pays off the mortgage as part of the estate. 

You want to know if there is a traditional mortgage that may have a due-on-sale clause. This means the entire amount of the mortgage is due as you become the owner. It could also have a reverse mortgage that often has terms requiring an immediate sale to pay it off. 

You want to know what the house is worth compared to what is owed and hope it isn’t an upside-down property, meaning you owe more than it’s worth.

Taxes

You will want to know the property taxes on the property. You want to be sure they’re paid on time while you decide what to do with the property. As the new owner, you don’t want to lose the property because you fell behind on taxes while trying to figure out what to do with it.

Insurance

Whether you opt to live in the home or rent it, you will need to maintain insurance on the home. You want to factor in the cost of insuring it as you make decisions going forward. 

Repairs and Maintenance

When you inherit a home you get it as is. If the person who gifted it to you was elderly, there may be a change it needs some work done on it. 

As you decide what to do with the house, factor in the expense of repairs as needed. If you opt to keep the home, remember, there will still be expenses related to maintenance whether you opt to live there or rent it to someone else. 

Are There Other Stakeholders to Consider?

In addition to those considerations related to the inherited property, you also need to consider if there are other stakeholders involved. If the property was gifted solely to you, then you can make whatever decisions are your prerogative. 

It gets more complicated when the inherited property was given to a number of people. Say a parent passes away and leaves their home to their three adult children. There can be complications if one person wants to keep the property and others don’t.

It then also becomes necessary to decide how the house will be divided. That might mean one person buys out the interest of the others. It might mean you all agree to sell the home and divide up the revenue.

What Are Your Options for the Property?

One of the first things is to figure out the value of a property. It might help you to make decisions about the best route to take with the property. It can also be one more hassle in the process of taking care of the property if you need to meet with realtors and appraisers. 

Now that you have considered all the factors, you need to make decisions about what to do with the property.

Live In It

One option is that you will opt to live in the property. In this scenario you will need to consider possible capital gains taxes and whether there are other stakeholders who may have rights to the property. 

Often, this option is not often followed. Many people already have their own homes when they inherit. Maybe they don’t even live in the same town.

Rent It

If you have some of the above issues, you could opt to rent the property. In this scenario, you would again need to consider capital gains. You’ll also need to evaluate if the property needs repairs before renters move in. You also need to have some available to handle maintenance issues. 

Sell It

After considering all those factors, many people decide the right choice is to sell the inherited property. In many cases, you already have a home, or you don’t live near where the inherited home exists. 

Selling a home is not without its hassles either. Between getting the property ready, appraisals and realtors, it can be a laborious process. 

For many when they get to the decision to be done with it, they want it sold and quickly. One option is to use a service like iBuyer that matches buyers to your home. You can skip the hassles of listing with a realtor and get fair market value quickly.

Selling Inherited Property

While gifting someone a piece of property is generous, it can offer challenges too. Often inherited homes come with some sentimental value making it hard to make a decision. 

If you decide selling inherited property is the way to go, we can help. You can skip the showings and the realtor. We can arrange a flexible closing that works for you and the house gets sold quickly and for a fair price. If you want more information on our services, start by submitting your address.

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In this episode, I’m going to be talking about real estate markets, the winners and the losers. In real estate currently, there’s winners and losers. Winners being areas that are growing, that is more individuals moving to the area and more houses being built. Losers, on the other hand, are the ones that are not growing.

In fact, they’re shrinking, especially now. And in this podcast, I’m going to explain three markets that are winning and three that are losing. Let’s get started.

So winning.

Boise, Idaho.

The median sales price is $400,000. According to Boisedev.com. According to Norada Real Estate Investments, the population job growth is triple the national average, a low unemployment rate  – it’s around 3.5%.

Forbes ranked Boise, Idaho, number six for most in job growth. And then finally, the one-year appreciation forecast is 3.2%. Now, what does that mean? It means that the value of the homes will appreciate by roughly 3.2% and this equates to more money in the seller’s pocket.

Albuquerque, New Mexico.

According to Real Watch Network, the median sales price is $219,000.  The one-year job growth is 53% better than the national average, monthly rent is 21% below the national average, average home price is 14% below the national average. It’s the 32nd most populous city in the U.S. And  supposedly Netflix is supposed to expand into the area which will lead to around a thousand new jobs in the future.

This is according to RealWealthNetwork.com.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

And I’m going to give the statistics of each city individually. So, according to Mash Visor, Raleigh real estate statistics are as follows. The median sales price is $477,440. The price per square foot is $197.

The top Raleigh neighborhood for real estate investing is Northeast Raleigh and the forecasted real estate appreciation for 2021 is 7%. Next, Durham, the median sales price is $377,133. The price per square foot is $209. The top neighborhood for real estate investing is Scarsdale Village and the real estate appreciation for 2021 is 6.9%.

Both of those city statistics were found on MashVisor.com.

Losers of the real estate market.

Mountain View, California.

It’s near San Antonio. The current median home value is $1,224,900. There’s a forecasted value drop of around 5.83%. Why is this, you may ask?

Simply put the more expensive houses are, the less people are gonna move there. So there you have it. When you have a median home value that high, specifically in the millions, you’re really going to see a drop off there of the market. The stats from Mountain View by the way, were found on BusinessInsider.com.

Next is St. Louis

. According to Financial Samurai, the population growth is negative 2.2%. Employment growth is about 0.9%.

Finally New York

Population growth of 0.5%. Employment growth of 1.2% and increase in home values by 7.8%. However, when you have such high home prices, for example, in Manhattan, the median sales price is around $1,000,000, that high median sales price negates or detracts from the small population growth and small employment growth.

The statistics for New York, New York were found on Financial Samurai and PropertyShark.com. Now, so a bit about the reasons as to why these real estate markets are acting as they are. In the three winning cities that I covered.

The main reason why people are moving to those cities is because they’re affordable relative to some of the big, big, you know, New York, LA, areas that we’re all familiar with. So I think that the reason they’re moving to those winning cities is because of their affordability.

Now as to why the losing markets are performing as they are. It varies a little bit more. In Mountain View, California, which is of course near San Antonio, California, as I’ve mentioned, the reason why the area is really losing is because of the high housing prices. And the reason those high housing prices are there is because of Google having one of their headquarters in the area.

So Google will bring those employees over and the housing market knows that they’re willing to pay those high prices. So that’s why those prices have gone up. So really that’s the main reason, I believe, for Mountain View, California.

Now, New York City and St. Louis have a slightly different reason as to why the real estate market is not performing well there. So first in New York City, according to the Wall Street Journal, they’ve seen a surge in shooting victims and other violent crime. Shooting victims were up 81% and shooting incidents were up 76% from January 1st through January 2nd, compared to the same period in 2019.

So we see an 81% increase in shooting victims and then a 76% increase in shooting incidents. Now, if you can help it, if you have the means, no one wants to live near violent crime. Period. So that’s why people are leaving New York City. Now, St. Louis.

According to KSHB Kansas City, which is a local Kansas City news outlet, the 2020 homicide rate was the highest it’s been in 50 years. According to police, 262 people were killed in St. Louis last year, which is five less than the record of 267, which was set in 1993. So they were very close to that record. Again, this was found on KSHB, Kansas City. So what does all this mean?

It means that if people can help it, like I was saying, if they can help it, they’re going to move their family away. Period. They’re not going to put their family’s life in danger. If they can move away from crime, they’re going to do it.

The post Winners and Losers of The Real Estate Market [Podcast Episode 13] appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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On average, more than five million homes are bought and sold in the United States every year. This means that if you are looking to sell your property, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding a buyer. 

However, high-demand for property sales doesn’t necessarily mean a potential buyer will snap up your home quickly. In fact, last year homes in America sat on the property market for an average of 56 days. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of things you can do to speed up the process. Need to sell your home quickly? Then you’ve come to the right place! 

Read on to find out exactly how to sell your house in 5 days!

How Fast Can You Sell a House? 

The property market in America is in a constant state of flux. Demand for properties, asking prices, and how long it takes to sell all varies throughout the year. 

This can depend on a number of things including: 

• The location of a property
• The time of year that you want to sell
• The global economy
• The condition of a particular property 
• Whether or not the sellers and buyers are tied into property chains 

For example, the best month to sell your home in America is May. This is because people are keener to move into properties during the summer months. So properties on the market during this time of year will generally seller quicker than winter properties. 

However, even these properties will still be on the market for longer than a few days. If you want to find out how to get a house sold fast then you need a solid game plan in place and there are a lot of factors to consider.

Pricing Your Home to Sell It Quickly

There is a fine art to pricing your home so that it will sell quickly. Going in too high will reduce your chances of a quick sale. However, if you go in too low, you may lose out on a lot of money. 

The average closing house price in America is currently $230,000, although this depends on the size and location of your home. Deciding how to price your home requires a bit of research on your part or with the help of an agent.

Try to look for similar properties that have recently sold in the local area. Finding out as much as you can about the state of the property and its asking price will help you figure out how to price your property. 

For example, if a smaller property down the road from you sold for $500,000, you could put yours on the market for $540,000.

If you have an agent on your side, you will be able to do more digging about properties that are just entering escrow. This will help to find out the asking price of a property and how much it sold for.

That way you will be able to pitch your property at just below market value to attract buyers, without underselling by too much. If you manage to get multiple buyers interested in your property then they may compete with one another and raise the asking price.

However, price isn’t the only thing that is important when it comes to selling a house. There are plenty of other things you can do to secure a sale as quickly as possible. Let’s take a look at some of the other things you can do to sell your home in five days!

Provide a Thorough Listing 

If you are going to sell your home as quickly as possible, you need to provide as much information about it as you can. This means you will answer the potential buyer’s questions quickly. 

Any buyers will want to see: 

• Excellent quality photos of a property 
• An up-to-date floor plan
• Information about the neighborhood and local area

They may also have questions about the history of the property itself, so it is good to have this information to hand. If you have had any work done on a property, make sure you know who carried it out and when. 

3D property tours are one of the most recent developments in property listings and it is worth including one of these if you can. This allows buyers to view your property virtually rather than in person. For some buyers, especially those overseas, this will be enough to secure an offer quickly. 

If you are carrying out viewings in person, make sure you offer flexible viewing hours. This means that buyers will be able to view your property as soon as they can, which is key to selling a house fast.

Work on Your Curb Appeal 

First impressions matter when it comes to selling your home and making a bad one could significantly slow down your selling time. This is why ‘curb appeal’ matters. 

‘Curb appeal’ refers to what a potential buyer will see when they arrive at your property for the first time. This includes:

• Your driveway
• Any front garden or greenery in front of your property
• The sidewalk outside your home
• The state of any paintwork on your property
• The condition of your window frames, doors, and shutters 

A shoddy outside appearance can get a viewing off on a very bad foot. It will immediately make your house look like it needs work, which will put some buyers off. On top of this, a poorly maintained exterior could leave buyers concerned about how well you’ve looked after the rest of your property.

Giving the exterior appearance of your property a little bit of TLC will improve your curb appeal and make a great first impression with buyers. This shouldn’t take too long but it will make a big difference.

Declutter Your Home

Presenting the inside of your property well is also important when it comes to how to get a house sold fast. This is the case whether you are doing viewings in person or online. Try to get rid of as much clutter as possible. 

This will make your property appear more spacious and makes it easier for buyers to look around it quickly. They’ll be able to see all of your home’s potential. 

A great way to do this is by boxing up as many of your personal possessions as possible before viewings and storing these in a garage, attic, or at a friend’s. This will also save you time when you do come to move! 

If you do have to keep things in your property, try to make them look as minimalist and neutral as possible. The aim is to create a property that feels light, open, and airy.

Connect With a Broad Buyer Pool 

Thanks to the internet, it is now possible to reach more buyers than ever before and this means it is easy to broaden your buyer pool extremely quickly. This is one of the fastest ways to sell a house. 

To do this, make sure that your property is listed both locally and internationally. When advertising your property online, make sure you check the radius of your advertisement. 

For example, if you are promoting a listing on Facebook, make sure you increase the radius of who you are targeting. This will ensure that people from out of town also come across your posts. 

Get Creative With Your Marketing 

Making your house stand out from the crowd is a sure-fire way to bring in more potential buyers. This significantly increases your chances of a quick sale. 

To do this, you will need to think outside the box for how to advertise your property and any viewings of it. 

You may want to take the time to make short videos about your home, its features, and the local area. Making a series of videos means that you can share information about your property multiple times. If you do this, make sure that each video ends by directing your viewers back to your property listing or open house.

You can also attract local viewers by hosting a moving sale outside your property. This helps you to clear out any clutter and promotes your sale at the same time!

If your home has any links to famous people or events, make the most of these when trying to sell it. Getting in touch with local news outlets could result in a valuable promotion about your home sale!

Provide a Home Warranty 

One of the biggest challenges about trying to sell your home quickly is to create a relationship of trust between you and the buyers. You don’t want them to feel like you are trying to push a sale through. This can create suspicion that something might be wrong with the property. 

You can overcome this issue by offering a warranty on the property along with a home inspection report.

A home inspection will highlight any work that needs to be done on a home. Ideally, you should carry out these repairs yourself to help close a deal on your home as quickly as possible. 

You can also sweeten the deal by offering a warranty for any issues that arise during the first year of ownership. This means that if anything goes wrong in the first year, you will make a contribution to any repairs or emergency works. Usually, sellers offer between $300 and $500 for warranties. 

Give Potential Buyers an Incentive 

Throwing in a limited-time offer is a great way to secure offers from potential buyers. These are incentives that are only available if a buyer makes an offer within the first few days of a property being on the market. 

Including any of the following may entice a quick offer on your property: 

• Furniture
• Gym equipment 
• The first year’s worth of HOA fees 
• Entertainment systems
• Games equipment
• Cars

If you know that your property has a certain flaw the buyers will notice you might be able to deal with this in your offer.

For example, if the garden is in need of some love you could offer to pay for a full landscaping job on it and for a year’s worth of gardening. That way buyers will feel like they’re getting a good deal even if your property isn’t in perfect condition.

How Can iBuyer Help You Sell Your Home Fast? 

Real estate agents are no longer your only option when it comes to selling your home. Using an iBuyer is by far one of the quickest ways for you to sell your property online. 

An iBuyer is a type of instant buyer that is interested in buying properties online quickly. This process is much more streamlined so you don’t even have to go to the effort of listing your property in multiple places. 

Instead, you simply need to sign up to an iBuyer platform that will connect you with iBuyers. These may be local individuals, investment companies, or people living abroad.

Once you have had your property valued and listed its details, all you need to do is wait for the offers to come in! If you receive an offer that you are happy to accept then you can begin the closing process, which takes about one working week.

This is a great way to connect you with buyers who are interested in closing a deal as quickly as possible!

Now You Know How to Sell Your House in 5 Days!

While some houses sit on the property market for months at a time, knowing how to sell your house in 5 days will ensure this doesn’t happen to you! Keep these tips in mind and you’re sure to get a sale in no time at all. 

Ready to get help selling your property from an iBuyer? Then get the ball rolling today with an iValuation of your property’s market worth in a matter of seconds!

The post How to Sell Your House in 5 Days appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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What is probate?

According to fortunebuilders.com real estate probate is the legal process following a homeowner’s death where the property either transfers ownership to someone or is sold.

In other words,  it’s the distribution of assets of a deceased person known as a decedent. This goes on whether they have a will or not, when there’s no will, it’s known as an intestate case. Intestacy is defined as state laws determining how to distribute such assets. And many times, included in this assets list is real estate itself.

So while houses of the deceased person can hold, you know, a special place in the hearts of loved ones, if they can’t afford the cost, they may want to get rid of it. And this is where the investor comes in. Often if the family member doesn’t want to keep the home, they’ll sell it for a reasonable price.

And that’s where the investor really benefits from this whole process is the fact that they’re getting a home, for a reasonable price in that the person selling it just simply wants to get rid of it. And the investor will be able to buy it at a discount and, fix it up or whatever they plan to do with it.

Now, I would say there’s about five steps.to the probate process and I’m just going to walk you through it. So first there’s filing, this is where you request that the will be probated or, you know, if there is no will that, because of the intestacy statutes in a specific state that it go to court, probate court, as it’s known. “All heirs and beneficiaries.” what that means in legal jargon is the involved parties. They’re notified of this, request to go into probate court. Next, the debts and assets are located.  According to Legal Zoom, once the court has appointed the executor or personal representative, they must identify and disclose all of the estate’s assets and provide a valuation.

Assets include a real estate, which is what I mentioned before, but also vehicles, investments, bank accounts, cash, personal property, intellectual property, and pets. So what gives the executor, the quote unquote stamp of approval you might call it is what’s known as a Letters Testamentary. And it’s just a document that the court gives them that says, okay, now you can begin handling the Will. It’s important to note that things in a trust are not probate assets and they’re not distributed in probate court.

So if you don’t want your possessions to be distributed in probate court, put them in a trust. Next step: pay debts. All debts and creditors must be paid.  So again, this is the responsibility of the executor to find out if the deceased person has any debts with anyone and to settle those. Finally the distribution of assets, the assets are distributed either through,  the will, which I mentioned before then also, which I mentioned before is the state intestacy statutes.

Every state is different, but again, that’s, if you don’t have a, will they go through the intestacy statutes. Now, the last step is closing the estate. After assets are given out and court fees and debts are paid, a petition is filed and the estate is dissolved. And what this means is that it’s the very end of the probate process.

So this is really,  again, those are the, the five steps of probate.  Just to review here, we’ve got, the filing, locating the debts and assets, paying debts, distributing those assets, and then finally closing the estate.

The post Probate Real Estate – Everything You Need To Know [Podcast Episode 12] appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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