Did you know that over 500 thousand homes are sold every month in the United States alone?

Buying a home is a serious investment and is often the largest single investment most people will ever make in their lives. This demand has created a great opportunity for both real estate developers and investors to build and renovate homes to put on the market.

Ever wondered, what is the 70 rule in house flipping? This is a general rule of thumb that helps guide real estate investors as they plan a flip. This rule is arguably one of the most important and should be used by everyone trying to maximize their profits when flipping a home.

Interested in learning more about house flipping and the 70 rule real estate investors use to maximize their profits? You’re in the right place. Read on for everything you need to know.

The Basics of Flipping Houses

Real estate investors that want to flip homes have a very simple goal: buy an undervalued home, renovate the property, and sell it for a profit. Homes get sold for several reasons. Owners may be relocating, or the property may have been inherited from a family member that passed away.

Either way, real estate investors are always on the lookout for properties that could quickly be upgraded and flipped for a profit. While this may sound easy in theory, home flippers are constantly doing the math in their heads to try and figure out if a home would be worth buying.

This is where the 70 rule comes in, as it can help real estate investors figure out whether or not a property would be worth investing in. This rule basically means that investors should not pay more than 70% of the home’s after-repair value. 

What Is the After Repair Value?

The after-repair value, or ARV, of a home is what the home could be worth once all the renovations are complete. This is where real estate investors can flex their eye for opportunity, as they are experienced in how to make the most of any space.

While most of us may see a broken-down home, professional real estate developers can see the potential. Experienced developers will take a wide range of factors into account to try and determine a home’s after-repair value. This includes doing market research to compare the property with similarly designed homes in the area.

Despite the fact that many people may try and take the cost of the home and add on the repairs, the more accurate method to determine a home’s after-repair value is to look at the general market. This is where the average homeowner may not be as knowledgeable as real estate developers or industry professionals.

How Homes Get Their Value

Property tends to derive most of its value from the general property market. This is evident throughout the country as a one-bedroom apartment in Ohio is much more affordable than a one-bedroom apartment in New York City. This is because of the demand for property in New York along with the intrinsic value of property in the city.

This applies to the general real estate market, as most homes are priced according to the sales price of the most recent sale in the area. Classified and real estate websites take this into account and even list some of the most recent sales in the area for potential home buyers to get a good idea of what property is going for in that area.

With this being said, real estate investors will do their research to find out how much the home could potentially be worth after all renovations are complete.

How to Make Money Flipping Houses

The primary goal of flipping homes is to make the most amount of profit possible. The ability to profit from selling a home relies on you buying and repairing the property for much less than you eventually sell it for.

This follows a very simple formula that takes both the cost of the home and the cost of repairs into consideration. The formula looks something like this:

Profit = After Repair Value – (Cost of Home + Cost of Repairs)

What Is the 70 Rule in House Flipping?

While there are tons of ways to reduce the costs of repairing and upgrading the home, the easiest way to make sure that you profit on a property is to use the 70 rule. As mentioned above, this is a general rule of thumb to help investors figure out if the home is worth investing in.

This rule helps investors know the maximum amount of money they can buy the home for in order to still make a decent profit at the end of the day.

The rule simply states that investors should not spend more than 70% of the home’s after-repair value after deducting the repair costs. To make this simple, you can break it down by using a formula. The formula looks something like this:

Maximum Buying Price = (After Repair Value x 0.70) – Estimated Costs of Repairs

As mentioned above, this formula tells investors how much they should buy the home for in order to still make a profit after they completed repairing the home. This is why investors deduct the estimated costs of repairs from the ARV of the home in this calculation.

If you rework the formula, it basically means that the price that you pay for the home plus the cost of repairing the home should only account for around 70% of the home’s end value. This ensures that the property you have at the end of the day is worth 30% more than what you paid for it, confirming a decent profit in the process.

Profits

While many may see this as only a 30% profit, the math actually works out to ensure that investors walk away with a profit of around 42%. However, it’s important to understand that this is just the gross profit if the home manages to sell for its after-repair value.

There are also a few other costs to factor into your calculations to get an accurate picture of how much money you stand to make on a house flip. Additional expenses such as registration costs, utilities, taxes, closing costs, and capital gains taxes should also be factored into the equation.

Capital Gains Tax

The capital gains tax (CGT) is a special tax that is applied to the profits that investors make when they eventually sell their investments. While many are aware of this tax when selling stocks and shares, it also applies to physical investments such as real estate.

While the capital gains tax is 0% for long-term investments, the rate can be a lot higher for investors looking to buy and sell investments quickly. This makes it a tax that house flippers should take into consideration when thinking about making a profit on a home.

This is one of the main reasons why house flippers need to make sure that they are making enough profit on a home, as they may have to pay a decent percentage of their profits to the IRS. If an investor buys the home and sells it within the same year, they will have to pay short-term capital gains tax.

Short-term capital gains tax is determined by the individual investor’s personal income bracket. This means that the rate can be anywhere from 10% to a staggering 37% depending on how big the real estate investor is and how much money they make every year.

While short-term capital gains tax can reduce the amount of profit a property investor takes home, this tax is only calculated on the profit after all expenses have been deducted. This includes administration costs, repair costs, advertising costs, and even closing costs to secure the sale of the property.

Deducting these expenses from the gross profit reduces the amount of capital gains tax the investor has to pay. In most cases, real estate developers flip homes through a company. Doing this helps deduct additional costs and further reduces their tax liability at the end of the year.

How to Increase Your Home’s Value

Once an undervalued home has been purchased, there are tons of things you can do to organically improve the value of the home. As mentioned above, real estate developers would have already estimated the after-repair value of the home as part of their initial calculations.

Despite this, there are a few things developers can do to make the most of their investment and maximize the value of the property as they get ready to put it back on the market. Here are some of the most effective ways to increase your property’s value.

Natural Light

When renovating a home, make sure you introduce as much natural light to the space as possible. Natural light is one of the best ways to make the space feel bigger and more comfortable. In addition to this, natural light helps reduce your energy consumption as you won’t need to use your interior lights as much.

Natural light can be introduced by installing large glass windows, glass sliding doors, or even a skylight. While skylights are more costly, sliding glass doors are one of the most efficient ways to improve the space. This is because sliding doors don’t take up floor space when they open, making the room feel larger in the process.

LED Lights

The lighting you use in your home can help make the home more appealing to potential buyers. This is because LEDs are far more reliable and use less energy to light up the home. To buyers, this shows that the home is low-maintenance and future-proof.

LEDs also light up the room without producing too much heat. This can help keep the home cool during the warmer months of the year.

Smart Home Devices

While smart home devices are by no means cheap, they are steadily becoming more affordable. Smart home devices can allow homeowners to control various aspects of the home from their phones. This helps make the home more practical and convenient while increasing the home’s value at the same time.

Solar

One of the biggest trends in the real estate market is the rise of solar. Installing solar panels in your home is a great way to quickly increase the home’s value. Research has shown that prospective buyers are actually going out of their way to find homes with solar panels as they know this means lower utility bills every month.

Curb Appeal

A home’s curb appeal plays a major role when valuing a property. The curb appeal of a home refers to how the home appears to people as they pass the property. Some of the best ways to improve your home’s curb appeal are to invest in front-yard landscaping and even consider investing in lights and pathways to your door. 

Flipping Houses Made Simple

If you have ever asked yourself, what is the 70 rule in house flipping? Hopefully, now you know.

This general rule of thumb is known as the 70 percent rule real estate investors rely on to make sure that every project remains profitable. This, along with various other techniques, help make flipping a home easier than ever before.

iBuyer.com offers a wide range of tools to help you save time by finding qualified buyers for your home. You can learn more about our services by visiting our home page and even get a free home valuation online!

The post What Is The 70 Rule in House Flipping? appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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Studies show that it’s possible to develop a strong emotional attachment to an inanimate object, which they describe as a sense of well-being derived from proximity to the object. The object in question might be a beloved toy when we were young, a car, or even a favorite sofa, à la Sheldon of Big Bang Theory.

With this in mind, it’s easy to imagine that seller’s remorse can easily occur when disposing of a significant item, like a house. The exercise might not mean pending homelessness, and may even represent a move for the better, yet many home sellers experience a sense of regret when they finally find a buyer. 

Keep reading to discover everything you need to know about seller’s remorse when selling a home. 

What Is Seller’s Remorse?

Seller’s remorse in real estate is a fairly common occurrence. It describes the nagging doubts that plague home seller’s after closing on the sale of their house.

This is a normal reaction to change, and most sellers go through this mix of emotions when they complete a home sale.

After all, our homes represent safe havens where we can relax and be ourselves. They’re also places where we make memories with family and friends and celebrate many milestones like birthdays, anniversaries, first days of school, and more.

Regardless of your reasons for selling your home, you’re bound to experience a twinge of regret when you finalize the sale, no matter how much you profit from selling your home.

In some cases, home seller’s remorse stems from having no choice but to sell the home, such as:

• Moving to another city for work
• Financial distress
• Divorce
• Imminent foreclosure

If you inherited a home, and you need to sell it, you might experience a sense of sadness remembering the good times you spent there while visiting a family member, and a lingering sense of grief over their passing.

Helping your elderly parents sell their home as they prepare to move on to a retirement home, is another sad sale. After all, their home was once your home, too.

Even selling a run-down house can lead to real estate remorse, due to a sense of failure to make things right again. 

In other cases, homeowners might experience elation about finally moving into their dream home, tempered with a sense of loss and some concerns, too. They might wonder if they should have held out for a better offer, or the stresses associated with moving to a new neighborhood.

Dealing With Seller’s Remorse

Home seller regret is a complex emotion that can affect everyone differently, but there are things you can do to move on from these feelings faster.  Try some of these tips if you anticipate a bout of seller’s remorse after selling your home: 

Dampening the Emotional Attachment to Your Home

Make sure you’re serious about selling your home. Make a list of all the pros and cons, including the things you’ll miss about living there.

It’s hard to say goodbye to your old ways when you move on to the next phase of your life, but focussing on the positive aspects of this change can help ease the process.

Updating familiar parts of the property in anticipation of the sale can help you distance yourself from the home.

If you can’t bear to part with your treasured memories, and you can afford to buy a second home, you could also opt to rent the house instead of selling it, if you can deal with all the hard work involved. 

It’s unwise to allow your emotional attachment to slow the progress of your home sale, or tempt you into backing out of the sale. Both the buyer and the listing agent could sue you if you attempt this.What Happens if You Change Your Mind About Selling Your Home?

If you’re considering backing out of your home sale, you must do so before you sign a purchase agreement. This is a legally binding contract between the buyer and the seller. 

These agreements typically include contingencies that favor the buyer over the seller. For instance, the buyer might have the right to cancel if your home doesn’t meet certain criteria during a home inspection.

This year alone, buyers have legally canceled 15% of home sale agreements. If the seller backs out of the agreement, the buyer can sue them and file a lien against the property.

If you live in one of the 22 attorney review states, you must allow an attorney to review your purchase agreement before it becomes official. 

This can give you one or two days’ leeway if you’re considering backing out of the deal. 

Apart from a purchase agreement, you need to sign a listing agreement when you decide to sell your home. This document outlines the procedure for listing, marketing, and selling your home.

When you sign the listing agreement, you agree to pay a commission to the real estate agent for these services. That means they’re entitled to receive something for their efforts if you change your mind and may sue you for the commission they would have earned. 

It’s best to anticipate seller’s remorse and seriously consider whether you want to sell your home before you sign anything.

Allaying Fears Surrounding the Sale of Your Home

Some homeowners also experience a fear of missing out on achieving the best prices for their homes. While this was rarely a concern during the real estate boom of the last few years, it’s a growing issue now that the market is cooling.

Knowing the market is one way to allay these fears, and it can ensure you price your home right for a timely and efficient sale. Adjusting your advertised price may put buyers off, and if you list it too high, you might struggle to find any takers.  

You must price your home in a way that entices multiple offers, without ending up out of pocket. 

If you have concerns about your sale price, get your home professionally evaluated, use a free online valuation tool, or speak to a realtor about compiling a comparative market analysis for your home.  

You could also opt to sell your home yourself, and save some money on a real estate agent’s commission.  

In the same light, sellers might feel if they hold out a little longer, they could get a better price at a later date.

Selling your home under duress adds an extra layer of stress to the process. A real estate agent can help you work towards a solution that suits your troubles, or you could opt to sell your home fast for cash.  

Dampening the Anxiety Associated With Moving

A lack of preparation will trigger home seller regret, so it’s vital to have every detail of your next move planned before you put your home on the market. 

In some cases, you can receive multiple offers on your home within days of listing it. This is bound to cause panic if you haven’t figured out your next steps yet.

Once you decide to sell, you’ll spend a lot of your time focused on finding a buyer, negotiating, home improvements, and all the paperwork associated with the sale. Before you know it, you could end up with nowhere to go once the new buyer moves in.  

You can opt to buy a new house at the same time as selling your old one, so make sure you can afford to achieve the mortgage you need to do this in time. 

A contingent contract is one way to alleviate the risks associated with this process. Some buyers might agree to give you time to find a new house before closing or allow you to rent from them until you do. 

Be advised that these types of contingencies can put keen buyers off the deal, so proceed with caution. Finding an alternative rental is difficult amid a housing shortage and an expensive option, and moving in with relatives is never a long-term solution.

Sell Your Home Fast With No Regrets

At the very least, when you sell a home, you can ease your seller’s remorse with the profits you make from the sale, or relief from the financial pressures brought about by homeownership.

When you need cash fast and a conventional sale can’t deliver the relief you need fast enough, working with iBuyer can help ease some of the anxiety associated with selling your home.

We can provide a fair valuation of your house almost instantly and connect you with committed and qualified buyers to hasten the process. Enter your home address and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re getting the best price you can as fast as possible.

The post What To Do About Seller’s Remorse appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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House prices in the U.S. jumped by nearly 20% in 2021! That’s the most significant increase in over three decades.

This is fantastic news for those whose investments have shot up in value. But it spells trouble for first-time buyers. Getting on the property ladder was already hard enough; now, it may seem out of their reach.

Some consider selling their homes cheap to help out friends, relatives, and children. However, before making this decision, it’s best to become familiar with the tax implications of selling a house below market value.

There are many routes to passing on your property to your children, each with different fees to the state. One of the options going viral is buying and selling a one-dollar house. But is a one-dollar home sale all it’s cracked up to be?

This tactic means your child gets on the property ladder quickly and easily. But there may be a better route.

Here’s our guide to whether you can really sell your home for $1, as well as other home selling advice to consider.

Can You Sell a House for $1?

Yes, you can! It’s your property, and you are legally free to do with it as you wish. It’s well within your rights to sell it for just one dollar.

However, the state will recognize that you’ve sold your house well below market value. Therefore, it taxes the sale in a different way than usual.

The difference between the price you sold your house for and its estimated value is seen as a gift. You passed on the disparity as a gift to your children. Therefore, it is subject to gift tax.

Gift Tax vs. Lifetime Exemption

Depending on local laws and the transaction details, gift tax can be up to 40%! Say you sold your $400,000 home for $1; your children will have to pay gift tax on the $399,999 you “gifted” them.

But it’s not all bad news. There are some gift tax exemptions.

First of all, there is an annual gifting limit that is left untaxed. As of 2022, you can pass on $16,000 each year to each child tax-free.

That would lower the taxable amount in our example to $383,999. Considering the size of the sale, that doesn’t really make a dent.

Thankfully, there is another option: your lifetime exemption.

As of 2022, each individual has a gift tax exemption of just over $12 million spread over their lifetime. Therefore, unless you plan to resell dozens of homes for cheap, you can probably use that allowance for the sale.

Does that mean selling a home before market value doesn’t incur any gift tax?

Possibly. But as always, laws differ from state to state.

Allowance levels are also inconsistent across the country. In some places, you may even have to pay gift tax both to the state and country! On top of that, tax regulations such as the gift tax amount and lifetime exemption amount can change year to year.

Stay up to date with current gift tax regulations. And speak to a financial advisor before making your decision. They will be able to spell out for you the exact tax implications of selling a home below market value in your situation.

This method is accessible, doable, and potentially tax-free. But that doesn’t mean selling a home for one dollar is the best option. There are benefits to more traditional routes that could help your children in the long run.

Below Market Sales vs. Inheritance Valuations

The traditional method of passing on a property is to leave it to your children when you pass away. They then inherit ownership of the property. In that case, there may be estate taxes due.

So why might this method, which involves taxes, be better than selling your house for one dollar?

Tax Implications of Selling a House Below Market Value

It’s all because of something called tax basis. Tax basis is the recognized cost of an asset from which taxes are calculated.

Here’s the catch. If you sell your home for $1, the sale is perceived as a gift. This means that the house has not been resold, only gifted.

For tax purposes, that means the tax basis stays the same. A house you bought for $100,000 may now be worth $400,000 at fair market value. But if you pass it on as a gift, its tax basis is still $100,000.

In the future, if your children ever want to sell the house themselves, its tax basis will be far lower than it should be.

When you sell a house, you pay tax on capital gains or how much the value has increased. For example, if you leave your $400,000 home to your children and they sell the inherited house soon after, they will be selling it at fair market value. They will most likely not need to pay any capital gains tax.

But if you had “gifted” it to them, its tax basis would still be $100,000. When they sell, their capital gains tax will not be calculated based on the difference between $400,000 and the sale price, but between $100,000 and the sale price! That works out to a $300,000 difference in the amount subject to capital gains tax.

New owners might qualify for home sale tax breaks if they have lived in the house. But, again, speak to a financial advisor to determine your exact tax situation.

The long and short of it is you can sell your house for $1, but it is viewed as a gift. When the home is resold, your children will be subject to far more capital gains tax than usual. Whether this is worthwhile for your family is a personal decision.

Can You Still Live in a House After Sale?

What is the situation if you want to sell your house for $1—or at least below market value—but still occupy it? Some favor this route to avoid the complications of dealing with inheritance paperwork after their passing.

It is, of course, doable, but it changes the nature of the sale. Because you continued to live in the property, even if that is not agreed in writing, the sale becomes part of your estate. In other words, it’s not subject to gift tax but estate tax.

Overall, this works out reasonably similar to gifting the property. That’s because the $12 million lifetime exemption includes gifting while you’re alive and passing on your estate afterward.

Even though the sale’s tax changes from gift to estate tax, it still falls under the lifetime exemption. And just like the gift tax situation, the house’s tax basis remains the same.

A word of caution, though, is that the gift and estate tax lifetime exemption is not the same in every state. While in most places, it is over $12 million as of this year, in some states, it is as little as $1 million. Check local laws and speak to a financial advisor when deciding how to pass on your property.

Can I Add My Children to the Deed Instead?

Surely if you add your children to the title deed, you can avoid these issues. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. 

As the house has not been sold, you’ll face the same tax basis problems discussed above. The tax basis will stay at its original value, snookering your children if and when they sell the home. 

Besides this issue, adding your child to the deed means any financial difficulty they run into will impact your home.

For example, if they divorce, their former spouse may be entitled to part of your property. If they file for bankruptcy, they may sell their share of your home to pay the debts. In fact, at any time, they could sell their share.

Depending on your circumstances, adding people to your title deed could affect your mortgage terms. Make sure to speak to a financial advisor before making a decision.

All in all, adding your child to your title deed is a feasible strategy. But it leads to capital gains tax issues and could put you at risk.

Work Out Your Home’s Value Today

Figuring out your home’s value dramatically affects the decision-making process. Knowing the value of your house can help you decide if the tax implications of selling a house below market value are worth it or not.

Use our home value calculator to discover how much your house is worth today. We make cash offers to provide you with a reliable selling option just as quickly as a $1 sale.

The post Can You Sell Your House For $1? appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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Social distancing has become the norm for just about every industry in the world in the past few years. The need to social distance has challenged the real estate industry to re-think how they conduct open houses.

How do you sell a house when you don’t feel comfortable having dozens of people walk through it with you? How can a real estate agent do their job if they want to stay safe? 

They hold a virtual open house. A virtual open house allows sellers to showcase the home to dozens and maybe hundreds of clients without ever shaking a single hand in person. 

By the time you finish reading this article, you will understand the benefits of a virtual open house and gain valuable tips for holding a virtual open house. 

What Is a Virtual Open House?

A VR open house is a great way to bring top buyers to the property you’re selling regardless of their location. It works much like an in-person one with one exception. Your attendees view the house and interact with you through a screen. 

Once you’ve done your research to learn your home value, you can list your house through a realtor or on your own. Then you can set up a virtual open house quite simply so prospective buyers can see your home. 

Real estate agents will use a video conferencing tool or specialized real estate software to walk through the property and answer potential buyer questions on the screen. They may do this either live or in a pre-recorded fashion. 

Pre-Recorded houses allow the seller and realtor to curate exactly what they’ll show on film. They can edit the film and then host the open house from any location with a good internet connection. So the realtor can sit in the comfort of their office or the seller can sit in the comfort of their home as they host the pre-recorded session. 

Live sessions take more work. With these sessions, the realtor or seller will walk through the property in real-time and answer questions as they conduct the walk-through. 

Why Use a Virtual Open House?

You can use a virtual open house to sell just about any property. There are a few circumstances, though, where a virtual open house works especially well. 

There are two main types of virtual open houses: pre-recorded and live.

With a pre-recorded open house, the seller films the rooms of the house and the property. Then, when they host the open house, they show the event from the comfort of their home or office. 

If a seller hosts a live virtual open house, they conduct a live stream of the property. The potential buyers will watch the event live. Here are a few situations where a virtual open house makes sense: 

• Multiple parties interested in the property
• Out-of-state buyers who have shown interest
• A high volume of searches online
• Sellers that want to avoid foot traffic on the property

A virtual open house allows the seller and realtor to show the property to multiple people at once. It saves time and energy while maximizing the number of people who can see the property and ask questions about it. 

How To Do a Virtual Open House Tour

Virtual tours fulfill the same primary goal that in-person house tours have. They will attract interested buyers and close sales. The success of the virtual tour depends on the approach the seller uses as well as the technology they utilize. 

Here are the basic steps for conducting an open house tour. 

Pick the Platform

You must choose whether you’re going to host your open house live or through a recorded video. The recorded video can happen with a professional videographer or something as simple as your own cellphone. With a recorded video, you control what people see, and you can highlight the most important parts of the house. 

Your clients won’t get the real-time feel from a video, though, and you cannot zoom into areas of the home that the client asks for.

With a live video, your potential buyers will interact more as they view the house in real-time. This platform allows for a more personalized experience as buyers can ask questions about what they see on their screens while the realtor or seller walks through the house. 

Technical problems can cause problems for a live video feed, though. So be prepared with some troubleshooting techniques if you plan on using this platform. 

Buy Ad Space

After you’ve decided which platform to use, advertise your event two weeks before you host it. This will give clients adequate time to RSVP and you adequate time to promote the event. 

Create a custom landing page for the open house. If you’re a realtor hosting several open houses, create a landing page for each one. Use social media to post a teaser snipper with the date of the open house. 

Prepare the Property

In the same way that you’d prepare the property for an in-person open house, prepare the property for the virtual open house. Plan out the route for the open house, and take notes on what you want to draw attention to. Do not skip this step, as going off the cuff will lead you down a rabbit hole of information.

You want to use your time efficiently and keep your audience. 

Then practice a run-through to get your timing right. Practice close to the day that you will hold the open house, and practice multiple times. 

Stage the house by removing personal items and making the home look neutral. You want viewers to picture themselves in the home. Set up the lighting and test the sound to minimize live technical problems. 

Prepare For Virtual Open House Day

The virtual open house is your chance to shine as a seller and realtor. So if you’ve done your work ahead of time like testing technical details and staging the house, you should be able to relax and just do your job. 

Get a good night’s sleep so you’re fresh for the day. Then arrive at the property early so you can set it up. Review your notes and conduct a final walk-through to make last-minute changes. 

Then smile and focus on making your potential buyers feel at home. Make sure you include the address of the property in the video. Focus on being yourself and letting your warmth come through the screen. 

Once the camera starts rolling, let your experience as a seller come through with your confident voice and smile. As the open house begins to close, leave time for buyers to ask questions. 

This is when you can get your buyers engaged and excited about the property. The better you feel and more confident you are, the more likely you are to score a buyer for the property. 

Some Final Tips

The industry experts succeed because they know the tricks of the trade. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you prepare for your open house. 

• Recruit a friend or real estate associate to help you with tech setup
• Highlight the outside of the house including the backyard
• Highlight finishes, garage space, closet sizes, and any other essential selling points you’d note if you were in person
• Keep the virtual open house to ten to twenty minutes
• Keep recorded virtual open houses to around ten minutes
• Think ahead about what questions clients may have if you’re going live

After you’re done with the virtual open house, save snippets of the videos you’ve made. Then post those on social media as well as your real estate website so clients can see the property in real-time. This way you’ll maximize your video for extra promotion. 

After the Event

When the cameras stop rolling, it’s not quite time to pack up and go home. You still need to turn the open house into a sale. Here are a few things you can do. 

Reach out to all the potential buyers who viewed the open house. Pay attention to buyers who had questions and comments throughout the tour. Set up an appointment with these clients for more viewing, and do this while their interest is on the property. 

Prepare a package of information that you can share via email or text when a potential buyer asks for it. This should include home specs as well as a link to the pre-recorded tour along with a high-quality picture. 

Follow up on all leads. Most real estate deals don’t happen with a single interaction but rather with a persistent realtor or seller that wants to work with their buyers. 

Real estate agents find their biggest successes through an open house. You can find the same success with a virtual open house. 

Go Virtual, Find Success

A virtual open house gives you the opportunity to showcase a property to potential dozens of clients at once. It maximizes time through the power of technology. It also allows both buyers and sellers to distance themselves during a time when social distancing is necessary. 

Do you want to know the value of your home? Have you been thinking about selling your property? If so, contact us. 

We can help you pinpoint the value of your property and get you started on the road to selling it today.

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Selling your home is a big step to take in life. It can mean that you are ready to take your career in a different direction, you want to be closer to a loved one, or maybe you are trying to move on to the next chapter of your life. 

Regardless, if this is the first time that you are selling a home, you may not know what to expect from the first offer on your house. You also may not be prepared for the process it takes to sell your home. 

The first right offer is something that you should be looking for in this situation. Houses tend to get taken off the market very quickly, with the average time in the United States being just 18 days. 

But, how do you know if your first home offer is the best that you are going to get? When selling a house, should you take the first offer? 

This guide will explain to you when the first offer may be the right offer for you. 

Personal Circumstances 

The first factor that you have to consider when selling your home is what your personal circumstances are. Once you go over why you are selling your home, you should have a better idea of how quickly you will need to do so. 

Certain factors are going to motivate a seller to speed up the process more than others. 

A big example of this is people who are moving a considerable distance for a new job or a step up in their career. Of all of the reasons that Americans have for moving out of state, 42% of those people said the primary reason for moving was because of their job and/or career. 

If you are moving to start a new job, you may only have a few weeks or even a few days before you have to show up to your new city or state to start your job. That means that you are more pressed for time and will probably be less likely to want to deal with a lengthy sales process. 

In this situation, you probably will want to part ways with your original house as fast as possible to make your new move smoother. Any situation that involves you having to be in a new destination sooner rather than later is likely going to motivate you to cut ties with your old town or city as fast as possible. 

Having Another Mortgage 

One thing that you need to consider as a seller is what your financial situation is. The reason for this is that most people who are selling a house are looking to buy a new house to live in. 

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule such as if someone is selling an inherited house or if they are moving in with a spouse. 

However, let’s assume that you are looking to buy a new home while trying to sell your original home. Let’s also assume that this new home is going to be around the same price range as your original home. 

You could find yourself in a situation where you find the new home that is perfect for you and you are in a competitive housing market. That means that you are going to have to make a lucrative offer quickly and be ready to pounce on it. 

If your bid wins for the new home, that means that you are going to have to come up with the money to buy that home as soon as possible. With your old house still being on the market, that could force you to have to take out a second mortgage. 

Taking out a second mortgage could cause problems such as adding more interest to your debt that you are going to have to pay off later. Even worse, you may not financially qualify for another mortgage and you could potentially lose your dream home because everything could be delayed by your original house. 

If a seller is actively looking for a new home, they may be more likely to accept a quick sales process for their old home. 

Time of Year 

Believe it or not, the time of year that you are trying to sell your house matters a lot. The toughest time of year to sell a house tends to be during the winter. To be even more specific, December is regarded as the toughest month to sell a home. 

So, let’s say you listed your home for sale in the beginning of November. From there, you played the house offer waiting game and have not seen an offer that you found acceptable for about three weeks. 

Thanksgiving is fast approaching in this situation and after that, a lot of buyers are going to be focused on Christmas activities. During the holidays, buyers tend to be too distracted to give 100% of their focus towards buying a new home. 

With that said, this could leave a seller in a really bad spot. It can force them to have to take some money off of their asking price or even force them to hang onto their old home a lot longer than they may have wanted to. 

If you find yourself trying to sell a home and are quickly approaching a colder season for home sales, you may want to consider an early offer that is reasonably close to your asking price. 

The Right Buyer 

As a new seller, you are probably wondering what the right buyer even is? Well, the right home buyer is someone who has as few of hurdles as possible to jump through in order to close this transaction. 

Let’s say you get two different offers for your home. The first offer is about $10,000 below your asking price but the second offer matches your asking price. 

On paper, you are probably thinking that there is no doubt that you should take the higher offer. Well, this is not always the case. 

In this scenario, the first buyer is coming in with a cash offer while the second offer is pending a mortgage approval. What this means is that a seller would not have to wait at all to complete a deal with the first buyer but with the second buyer, they run the risk of the mortgage not being approved. 

If the latter happens to the seller, it can set them back a lot of time and they may lose out on a legitimate buyer. 

Another example is if the seller has a buyer that offers less money but with no contingencies versus another buyer that comes in with a higher offer but more contingencies. These may include a house inspection, removal of a pool or trampoline, or fixing some holes in the wall. 

Some sellers may be willing to meet these contingencies but for others, they may not find it to be worth the time to do all of that work themselves. If you fall into that category as a seller, perhaps accept the first reasonable offer that does not include any contingencies. 

Time on the Market 

Finally, take into consideration how long your house has been on the market. If it has only been on the market for a week or two, it may not seem like a big deal to reject an offer you felt was low and to wait. 

However, there is no guarantee when the next offer is going to come and you run the risk of giving the impression that there is something wrong with the house. This tends to happen when a house has been on the market for a few months without being sold. 

Most of the time, this means that buyers believe that there is either something wrong with the home or that the asking price is way too high. That can give a buyer some leverage if they have that mindset and it can result in you getting not only lower offers than you deserve but lower offers than you may have had before. 

Keep track of how long your house has been on the market and if you get one close to asking price after a few weeks, consider accepting it. 

Know When to Accept the First Right Offer

These are five of the biggest examples of when you should accept the first right offer for your home. If you keep all of these scenarios in play, you are more likely to get the fairest value on your home as possible. 

Do you want to know how much your home is worth? Use our home valuation tool today to get started.

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