Did you know that over 5 million property transactions take place every year in the United States?

This shows how important the entire real estate market is to the American economy. This market has provided ample opportunities for real estate investors to buy undervalued homes and renovate them before selling them for a profit.

Knowing how to run comps on a house can help you price the property accurately. It’s vital that you price your property accurately as setting the price too high can scare off potential buyers. This can end up costing you both time and money as you try to find another buyer for your home.

Interested in learning how to find comps for houses? You’ve found the perfect blog. Here’s everything you need to know about real estate comps and how to pull comps on a house.

What Are Real Estate Comps?

Real estate comps are groups of properties that share characteristics with each other. Due to the fact that the homes are similar, comparing the value and price of these homes help guide sellers looking to price their home on the market.

When it comes to valuing a home, things can get very complicated very quickly.  There are tons of factors that can influence the price of a home, making it an incredibly difficult task to do by yourself. These factors can also evolve and change, meaning that the value of a property today won’t stay the same forever.

What makes real estate comps great is that they give you an accurate picture of how much a property is worth based on previous experience within the market. Instead of having to do all the research yourself, you can simply look at the research that’s been done on a home similar to yours. You can then use that price as a guide to help you put your property on the market.

For example, if you have a two-bedroom home in Atlanta and want to figure out what the market value of your home is, you can use real estate comps to give you an idea of how much it’s worth. Since you are trying to sell a two-bedroom home, looking up the price of the last two-bedroom home that sold in the area would give you a good idea of how valuable your home is.

Factors To Consider

Real estate comps group properties that share similar characteristics. This is not limited to the number of bedrooms each home has but also extends to the location, size, and condition of the home. These variables help narrow down the market so that you can find the most accurate home to compare yours to.

Two homes that are both 200 square feet in size are not necessarily the same on the inside. Nowadays, the finishes and amenities within the home also count. If your home has solar panels, LED lighting, or even a new HVAC system, it could add to your overall property value.

In this case, you should compare your home to other homes in your area that have the same amenities and finishes.

Who Uses Comps?

As mentioned above, comps are a great way to give homeowners a good idea of what a home is worth. While this is a great way for homeowners to know how much to ask for their home, this is also useful to people looking to buy a home. This helps them figure out if a home is overpriced as they look for the best deal.

Homeowners

If you own a home and you want to sell it, the most important metric to work out is the price. The price that you sell your property for is essential as you may need the proceeds to pay off your mortgage or buy another house in another city.

Due to these pressures, sellers typically don’t have time to put their homes on the market for years and wait for negotiations to settle on a fair price for the property. Real estate agents and investors know that the key to selling a home fast is to accurately price it for the market.

When a home is perfectly priced, you open yourself up to the greatest number of potential buyers while also maximizing the amount of money you can make from the sale. If you price your home too high, you may scare off potential buyers. However, pricing the home too low may be throwing money away.

Real Estate Investors

Real estate investors are interested in generating a profit from a property. This can be through flipping the home for a profit or renting the home out to generate an income. Regardless of what the investor plans to do with the property, investors will always do their research to make sure that they are not overpaying for a home.

This is why real estate investors run comps on a home to find out what the home is worth in the market at that time. Especially if the investor plans to flip the home for a profit, a comp can give them a good idea of what the after-repair value of the home would look like.

How Do Homes Get Valued?

While comps simply compare the value of a home with other homes in the area, one of the biggest questions that arise is how to actually value a home. The truth is that there are tons of factors that influence a home’s value. Here’s a quick guide on how homes get valued.

The Property Market

As we may all be aware, everything is about supply and demand. This economic rule also applies in the real estate market as areas that don’t have a lot of housing tend to see a rise in property prices and even the cost of rent.

This is most evident when comparing the living costs in big cities compared to smaller towns. There is a massive difference between renting a three-bedroom apartment in Ohio compared to renting the exact same apartment in the middle of New York City.

Due to the fact that New York City is home to millions of people all looking for housing, the price to rent or buy a home is through the roof. This showcases the principle of how the property market in the area influences the price of the property there.

While some like to isolate this to be about the location, a more accurate way to look at it is the geographical demand for housing. This way you take the location and the demand for housing in that location into account.

Amenities

Homes come in all shapes and sizes. However, most homes come with the same basic rooms and amenities. This includes common rooms such as a bedroom, bathroom, lounge, and kitchen. However, the state and amenities within these rooms can help set the property apart from others in the market.

For example, a home with a brand-new kitchen is not the same as an old, wooden kitchen from the 30s. In this case, the state and quality of the amenities in the one home help increase the value of the entire property.

Amenities are not limited to the basic rooms but also include things that help make the home unique. Things such as solar panels and smart home devices go a long way in adding value to your home. This adds value by adding convenience but also helps futureproof your home at the same time.

Larger amenities such as a patio, swimming pool, hot tub, cinema room, outdoor kitchen, and even a guest room can all play a big role in increasing your home’s value. Each of these amenities adds value to your property but also allows you to accurately compare them with other homes in the area. This is because the more you have in common with another home, the more accurate the real estate comp is. 

How To Run Comps on a House

Comps are a great way to accurately value your property. While you may have a good idea of what the home is worth, comps can help give you a clearer picture of how to price the property.

Real estate investors often plan the entire project ahead of time and work using the after-repair value of the home. However, the market could change as time goes by. This would ultimately change the way you approach selling your home.

Looking for a quick guide on how to accurately value your home? Here’s a quick guide on how to do comps on a house.

1. List Your Home’s Characteristics

Real estate comps use common characteristics to try and find the value of your home. This is why listing your home’s unique characteristics is the best place to start. These characteristics will help you find similar homes in the area for you to compare prices with.

2. Research Recent Sales

Once you know what kind of home you’re looking for, you can then cross reference this information with recent sales in your area. Remember to look for the most recent sale as this would be the most accurate information to work with.

3. Consider the Property Market

The general property market should be taken into consideration as well. This is especially important if anything major has occurred after the last sale in the area. If the general property market is up, you can expect your home to be slightly more valuable than the comp. However, if the market is down, you may have to drop your price a little to attract buyers.

4. Take External Factors Into Account

There are tons of external factors to consider when selling your home. This includes the demand for property in the area and the state of the economy. While many may not like to think about these factors, they play an important role as they dictate whether it’s a seller’s or buyer’s market.

5. Do Some Math

The last step of the process is to do some math to work out a final price for the property. If you have a real estate comp with five homes at five prices, the easiest method to determine your home’s value is to average the five sales prices.

How To Get Comps for a House in Another Area

If you don’t have all the information you need about a home but want to do a quick real estate comp on the property, there are alternative ways to value the home. The most accurate method is to make use of trusted valuation tools.

These tools take basic data into account and estimate the value of any property based on accurate records of previous sales in that area. These valuation tools are incredibly easy to use and can give you the price of any property in any area with just the click of a few buttons.

While some valuation tools are expensive, iBuyer offers a solution for free on our website. Known as iValuation, this online tool lets you enter a physical address and it will do all the research for you in the background. This provides you with a real-time home value based on actual sales data.

Selling Homes Does Not Need To Be Difficult

Ever wondered how to run comps on a house? It’s a lot easier than you may think. While you may have needed to conduct market research by yourself in the past, there are dynamic online tools that make the entire process more efficient.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about how iBuyer can help you sell your home, feel free to contact us. You can also take a look at our website and make use of our online tools to help you accurately value your property.

The post How To Run Comps On a House: Find and Use Them Correctly appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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Over $485 billion is spent on residential rental properties every year.

With over 27% of all Americans renting a home, rental properties make for some of the best investments. However, things can get a bit tricky if you have a house with tenants that you want to sell.

Tenant occupied homes can still be sold. In some cases, real estate investors are actually looking for tenant occupied homes for sale so that they don’t have to go through the effort to find someone to rent the place.

Interested in learning more about selling a rented home? You’ve found the perfect blog. Here’s everything you need to know about selling a rental property.

Rental Properties

Rental properties are a lot more common than you may think. With millions of Americans renting apartments and homes across the United States, rental properties have become some of the best investments for people looking to create a passive source of income.

Rental properties often refer to properties designed to be rented out in order to generate an income for the homeowner. While property companies purchase and rent out thousands of homes around the country and the world, many rental properties are individually owned.

This refers to families or individuals that own more than one property and wish to use their second property to provide them with an additional source of income. While these properties can be rented to tenants long-term, platforms like Airbnb have made it easier than ever before to rent to people on a short-term basis.

These kinds of platforms allowed rental properties to expand and become even more versatile investments. This also saw more people diversify their investments to include a second property specifically to rent out. While renting can provide you with a stable income, rising property prices may make you consider selling your rental property.

Should I Sell My Rental Property?

There are a few factors to keep in mind when thinking about selling your rental property. This includes the market condition, the amount of equity you have in the property, and the potential returns you could expect from the proceeds of the sale.

Property Equity

The equity that you have in the property refers to the difference between the home’s value and how much debt you still owe on the property. For example, if the property is worth $200 but you owe $100 on the home, your equity position is worth $100.

This effectively means that as soon as you sell the home, you need to send $100 to the bank or mortgage company, leaving you with $100 in profit that you get to take home. This is important as many people think that selling the home at $200 means that they walk away with everything.

Another factor to consider is capital gains tax. This tax is a levy placed on the profit or financial gain that your property has experienced while you’ve owned it. For example, if your home is worth $200 now but you originally paid $150 for it, the $50 gain is subject to tax.

Capital gains tax applies specifically to the $50 gain and can range from 0% to 37% depending on your personal circumstances. If you have held the asset for a long time, you won’t have to pay short-term capital gains tax. Short-term capital gains tax applies to people that made the initial investment within the last 12 months.

This tax is also dependent on the financial status of the taxpayer. Depending on the tax bracket that you fall under, you can pay between 10% and 37% in capital gains tax.

Potential Returns

If you rely on your rental property to provide you and your family with an additional source of income, you should consider how you’d deploy the proceeds of the sale to create another source of income. While the big sum of money may seem great at first, a regular, stable source of income lasts a lot longer than liquid cash.

The best way to go about this is to talk to a financial advisor and let them draft a professional portfolio for you. This can outline investments you can make along with the potential returns they can provide for you.

While most bank accounts offer 0% to 1% in interest, fixed deposits and ETFs can offer you far more in dividends and growth. The stock market is known to be unpredictable and risky, but many experts agree that general ETFs are some of the best investments you can make.

When comparing returns, remember to include all the costs associated with owning a home. This includes maintenance costs and property taxes. These costs are often forgotten but would be an extra saving if you were to sell your home and invest the cash elsewhere.

The Property Market

The most important factor to consider is the overall property market. The property market is known to grow steadily, but external factors can quickly increase the value of property in an entire area overnight. Property tends to heavily depend on the market and area to derive an accurate value.

This is why most property websites indicate what homes in the area recently sold to potential buyers. These prices are generally used to determine how much property is worth. If the price of property in the area is skyrocketing, it could be a great time to sell and stash the profits.

When the property price goes up, your equity in the home grows along with it. This means you can sell the home for more money and take more money home after paying off whatever debt you may have on the property.

Property prices fluctuate, which means what goes up can also come back down. This is another reason why you should capitalize on a seller’s market while you can.

How to Sell a Rental Property

There are many different ways you can sell your home. The most effective way to sell your home is to make use of online tools such as iBuyer.com. One of the most frustrating parts of selling a home is trying to filter through buyers to find the serious, qualified ones.

Platforms like iBuyer make this process effortless as they evaluate your property instantly with an accurate estimator and use the information you provide to match you with potential buyers that are looking for everything you’re offering.

This kind of service is more personalized than just posting an ad on a classified site. Personalization helps save you tons of time and effectively links you with serious buyers that are interested in viewing and buying your home.

Can You Sell a House With a Tenant in It?

If you have a rental property that has tenants in it, you can still sell the home. Many advise that the first people you should talk to about your intention to sell the home are the tenants. This is because they may be interested in making a bid for the place.

Even if your tenant does not want to move, you can sell the home inclusive of the rental agreement. This is perfect for buyers that want to purchase the home as an investment property.

This becomes tricky when the new owner does not want to rent the property but wants to live in it. In this case, the tenant would have to find another place to stay. 

How to Sell a House With Tenants

As mentioned above, it’s possible to sell a home with tenants living there. While there may be some extra paperwork to do, it can actually increase the price of your property to real estate investors looking to rent the place out. This is because they won’t have to go out of their way to find someone to rent the place from them.

If you want to learn how to sell a home with tenants, here are a few ways to go about it.

Offer the Home to Your Tenant

The first thing you should do if you plan to sell your rental property is to tell your current tenants about it. This is because they may be interested in making an offer for the place. As mentioned above, tenants often fall in love with the homes they rent and become used to living in the area.

This is why most renters end up buying the home they rent or a similar home in the same area. Even if your tenant does not have any interest in buying the home, it’s still the right thing to let them know in advance so that they can make alternative arrangements in case the home gets sold to someone who does not want to rent the place out.

In most cases, one to two months’ notice is ideal to let your tenants know that they need to find another place to stay. This depends entirely on the lease agreement that you have signed with them. If your agreement stipulates that they can stay for five more months, they are contractually allowed to stay for the remainder of their agreement.

Wait for the Lease to End

If you don’t want things to get complicated, you can simply wait for the tenant’s lease agreement to end before selling the home. This avoids any conflict with the tenant, as you would simply not renew their lease. This is also a better way to clear the home instead of having to ask the tenant to find another place to stay.

Most leases are between three and twelve months. This means that you can still advertise the property and even negotiate prices for the property as long as the potential buyer knows that they can only assume ownership after the lease agreement is completed.

This is also a great way to maximize the revenue that you receive from the property. By completing the lease agreement, you benefit from a few more months of rent while you try to find a potential buyer to take the property off your hands.

It can also help to find out what the new owner plans to do with the home. If they plan to do some renovations and rent the place out, it could be a good idea to introduce your tenants to the new owners before they move out of the rental property.

Sell the Property With the Tenants

Another option is to sell the property with the tenants and rental agreement in place. This effectively sells both the property and the lease agreement to a new owner. The new landlord can then collect rent from the tenant as soon as ownership of the property has changed hands.

This kind of deal is a real estate investor’s dream as they know how hard it can be to find a tenant that you can trust. If the home already comes with a long-term tenant, it’s almost a guarantee of income. This can even result in a higher price for the property.

Sell Your Tenant Occupied Property

Selling a property that already has a tenant in it can make the property appeal to real estate investors and even help raise the price. While there may be a few administrative tasks to handle to ensure everything goes smoothly, with the right help, there shouldn’t be any major issues.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about how to sell tenant occupied homes, feel free to contact us today.

iBuyer offers a wide range of services to help you save both time and money as you sell your home. 

The post Selling a Tenant Occupied Property appeared first on iBuyer Blog.

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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!

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