Is Selling Your Home FSBO Right For You?

If you can do something yourself why would you ever pay someone thousands of dollars to do it for you?  Okay so most people can’t climb on their house and start replacing their roof or even go out and purchase a new air conditioner to be selling a home for sale by ownerreplaced.  Others feel like painting, setting up garage sales, cleaning and other tasks are just not worth paying for.  On the other hand maybe there is a happy medium of what you feel comfortable and knowledgeable enough to do yourself and what you don’t.  Typically it all comes back to $$$$ money and when you draw the line of how much you are willing to spend.

Selling your house for sale by owner (FSBO) is much like playing the part of a real estate agent and broker.  For a ball park estimate of cost, we will say in the majority of areas will range from 4%-6% of the sale price of the home.  For easy mathematics on a $200,000 sale price of a house that is $8,000-$12,000 right off of the top.  If the home loan is right-side-up you won’t see any of that money because that would just be less money you get back in the end, if you owe money that would be paid directly to the agents.  The following information will give you an idea of how difficult it would be to sell your house FSBO so you can be the judge.

According to the National Association of Realtors they report that the majority of the FSBO properties end up ultimately listing with a relator, reasons why are because most buyers are represented by an agent and the majority of FSBO sellers price their homes too high which scare off potential buyers.  If those are the biggest issues it seems like there is an easy fix and plenty of information available to people.  Current homeowners looking to sell have a ton of resources which include proper pricing, how to hold open houses, making counter offers, escrow, inspections and other legal advice.

The biggest upper hand that the real estate company listing your home would have besides their previous knowledge would be their branding and advertisement.  Their ability to get your home on and off the market maybe better than anything you could pull off.  On the other hand if the home is priced right it may not even matter, just remember it only takes one person to buy it.  Not having the legal knowledge could be very scary to most homeowners that do not want to become a victim but with a little due diligence it would be very possible to find the right information.

Even if you don’t have a large real estate name behind you, getting your property out and seen is still very feasible.  Setting up plans for proper signage and advertisement online along with having your home readily available to be shown and visited is most important.  Of course a relator may know how to take the best pictures and properly stage your house but this can all be done on your own.  A fresh coat of paint, nicely trimmed yard and de-cluttering of rooms like the garage and living areas cab go a long ways when you are presenting your home to buyers.  Just remember the relator isn’t going to clean and paint your house for you, they will just be telling you what they need you to complete so ultimately you are doing the work anyways.

Overall on a scale of 1-10, one being posting an ad on Craigslist and ten being you trying to sell snow cones to an Eskimo I would say with a little effort I would rate this at a seven just because of the legal part.  As far as I am concerned any house can sell in any market depending on your listing price.  Some areas sell houses at the asking prices in a few days, if this took you a little longer would it be worth the potential $10,000 savings?  Just remember you could actually get the buyer lined up and ready to go while just opting for the legal and financial portion of the transaction.  Either way if you are going to buy, buy in Florida and when you do be sure to research your home-to-be using www.MoversAtlas.com.

Florida Sinkhole Information: What Is A Sinkhole And How Can They Effect My Home

Sinkholes, like the one that recently opened up near Legoland in Winter Haven are common in Florida.  While most sinkhole locations in floridasinkholes don’t result in the kind of tragedy that cost a Tampa area man his life earlier this year, they do occur fairly regularly and can pose a significant risk to property.  In this blog post, we’ll explain a little bit about how sinkholes form and why they are so common in Florida; we’ll also give you a few suggestions on how to protect your property from sinkholes.

Sinkholes result naturally from Florida’s unique combination of limestone bedrock and surface/groundwater chemistry.  Much of Florida has what are commonly called karst features underground.  Karst topography is often described as cavernous underground terrain consisting of pits, crevices, voids, underground rivers, etc.  Karsts arise because Florida’s bedrock is made of limestone; which is an alkaline, calcium rich sedimentary rock.  Limestone’s solubility in water and weak acids causes it to become porous; gradually, surface water made slightly acidic by Florida’s soil seeps down into the alkaline limestone and dissolves it. Over eons, this process gives rise to the fissures and caves we see today.  If the cavern that develops is close to the surface, it can cause a sinkhole when the sediment (soil or clay) that constitutes the ceiling of the cavern settles or collapses into it, under its own weight.

Complicated geological explanations aside, from the surface sinkholes can be described quite simply as large depressions in the ground which can vary considerably in terms of depth and width.  Readily identifiable by their round shapes, many of Central Florida’s lakes are simply sinkholes which have filled with water.  While their true geological lifetimes span millennia, as viewed from the surface, sinkholes may open up gradually over a period of days or months, as in the case with the Legoland sinkhole; or they can evolve extremely rapidly as the ground’s surface collapses in minutes.  This was the case with the sinkhole which opened up under a Tampa man’s home earlier this year, tragically taking his life.  Fortunately, rapid-collapse type sinkholes are extremely rare.  The Legoland type sinkhole is much more common.

Florida’s karst geology means that predicting where or when a sinkhole will occur is extremely difficult.  Even with modern drilling equipment, sophisticated analysis of soil/rock samples in the lab, and ground penetrating radar, professional engineers and geologists still have an exceptionally challenging time predicting where, or even if, a sinkhole will occur.  The implications for homeowners are mixed.  On the one hand, if a sinkhole opened up a few blocks away from your house, there isn’t necessarily any reason to expect that you will have a similar experience.  On the other hand, if you live in an area that’s free of reported sinkholes, there’s no guarantee it will stay that way.

Needless to say, the common occurrence of sinkholes in Florida, coupled with the difficulty in predicting where exactly they will open up causes many homeowners a fair amount of anxiety.  The good news is that sinkholes rarely pose a threat to human life.  They do certainly cause structural damage to buildings, but this can be mitigated through insurance.  In fact, many insurance companies that operate in Florida provide sinkhole coverage.  These companies also have the right to deny you coverage if there are sinkholes in the ‘area’ around your prospective home.  The term ‘area’ is loosely defined and policies between companies differ, so it’s best to shop around for pricing and availability.  Chances are, even if you’re in a risky ‘area’, there will still be someone willing to provide coverage.

If you’d like to see a map of sinkholes throughout Florida, check out the MoversAtlas MoveMap, it contains sinkholes and other ‘subsidence features’ throughout the state.  The map is composed of voluntary sinkhole reports, so it tends to biased towards populated areas.  It’s important to note that there are several maps (some of which are proprietary) used by insurance companies to quantify sinkhole risk, so the one you’re looking at here may be different from what your agent is using, but will give you an idea of how many sinkholes are in your community.  Good luck with your home search!

Tips On Managing Your Money To Help Save For a New Home

For most peoples, when you were a kid, it would only take a few dollars to get through the week. The household chores or saving up to buy a housepart time job enabled you to buy pretty much anything you wanted because your overhead was much lower.  After you get through school and get your first full time job the majority of people want to get rid of that heap they have been driving since high school and look for something new. Most folks tend to finance the car and thus beginning the subtle escalation of ones overhead or cost of living.

The cars, boats, bikes and then the apartment, townhome, or house is next.  As time goes on that $150 per week part time job that used to cover your expenses begins to barely cover your gas and food.  These are the reasons it is difficult to save for a new home, but it is still possible to complete this task.  It is important to understand that managing your money while saving for a home is only a temporary sacrifice that will set you up for a lifetime of good financial stability.  The corners you will cut, the lunches you will pack for work and the movies you rent from Redbox will all be worth it in the end.

The first task is to have a written budget. Have you ever gotten that paycheck on Friday and by Monday it’s all gone without even a simple goodbye?!  The reason is because you didn’t keep track of your spending and for this reason the money spent itself without you even knowing.  Writing down a list of where your money is to be spent BEFORE you receive it is the way to go.  Simply list everything out while leaving some room for fun things and stick to the list!

After the list is complete it would be worth going back a month or two to see where you actually spent your money.  After you realize that the budgeted amount you wrote down for eating out should be no more than $150 a month and that number ended up being triple what you budgeted in past months will be your starting point.  Some people believe they are very conservative and just don’t make enough money but after you find the past months you spent $300 on restaurants or bars along with $75 on coffee shops, $150 on miscellaneous clothing and $150 on entertainment this all adds up to over $600!

The example may seem a bit excessive but try to write down your expenses and look back to see what you actually go through each month, remember you are saving for your very own home! What most don’t realize is after the budget is created and tightened up is when the magic happens. On paper you may have only a few hundred left over to put in savings each month but when you have actually lived it and stayed dedicated there is usually MORE money left over, this is because you are aware of where the money is going and you begin to surpass your own penny pinching.

A written budget is most important but being disciplined over time will be the toughest challenge.  The best way to keep this going is to set a small goal, maybe save an extra $100 for the week and celebrate the small win.  Developing a bar chart you can fill in as you go and place it on the refrigerator or a place you see every day right next to a picture of a house you always wanted or even a picture of a BBQ grill in a back yard with a group of friends to keep your goal in mind.  These actions will keep you concentrated when you feel like going out to the movies with friends or a restaurant you will look at your chart and see that $25 or $50 would be better saved and staying in doesn’t seem pointless.

I can’t stress enough how important it is to be living on scorched earth while saving for something like this but keep in mind if you need clothes or miscellaneous items you can still purchase them but be sure they are in the budget, set a limit and stick to it!  Don’t go to the mall with an open checkbook, have a plan for the work pants or shirts and don’t go over the designated dollar limit you predetermined.

Remember each extra dollar spent on the polo shirts you wanted will just push you back even further and considering your closet is full of the entire last year’s line just continue wearing them for a little while longer, this is all temporary!  The closer you look at the person in the mirror the sooner you will find the problem with the spending.  In the meantime continue to research properties, neighborhoods, and communities with the MoveMaps on www.moversatlas.com.