Why Do You Need a Buyer’s Partner Representing You?

Buyers need a buyer partner to represent them in our market so they can look out for their best interests and get the best deal possible.

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In our market, it is very important that you as a buyer have a buyer partner representing you. As our very own buyer partner Melissa Hayes explains it, a buyer partner is someone who protects the buyer, works with them from start to finish throughout the transaction, and helps them through the whole process. They can also make sure you have certain stipulations put in the contract that are for your benefit.

A buyer’s partner protects buyers and makes sure they get the best deal possible.

What do buyers need protection from? A few different things. For example, if you pull up to a house and see an agent’s name on the “For Sale” sign, that agent is representing the seller and looking out for their best interests—not yours. A buyer’s partner like Melissa, on the other hand, protects her buyers and makes sure they get the best deal possible. Think of it this way—if you were getting divorced, you wouldn’t want the same lawyer representing you and your soon-to-be ex-spouse, would you? If you have any questions about buyer partners or you’re thinking of buying a home in our market, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We’d love to speak with you.

What's Going on in Today's Clarksville Market?

Today I’m joined by one of our buyer partners, Melissa Hayes, to bring you the latest information from our market. It’s time for another market update.

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Today I’m excited to bring you the latest information from our market. To help me do so, I’m joined by Melissa Hayes—a buyer partner on our team.

Whether you’re a buyer or a seller, it is critical to understand what’s happening in our Clarksville market.

First of all, we had 1,377 properties on the market at this time last year. That number has since dropped to just 1,046 properties on the market right now. This 24% decrease means we’re in a seller’s market.

As a buyer’s partner, Melissa is a valuable resource to people trying to get an offer accepted in this kind of market.

According to Melissa, we’ve closed on 3,108 properties so far in 2017, compared to the 2,794 that closed last year. This 11.24% difference illustrates just how much the market can change in a year.

Homes on the market move quickly. As Melissa puts it, they are “here today, gone tomorrow.” Right now, the market is truly competitive.

Homes in today’s market are here today, gone tomorrow.

In 2016, the average list price was $174,800. This year, that average has gone up to $183,400. However, the average number of days on market has decreased—moving from 66 last year to 57 now.

If you’ve been thinking of selling, the time is now. Buyers have a lot of opportunities right now though, too. Even so, many buyers wonder what an appropriate offer looks like.

Typically, this can be determined by following the statistics related to the list-to-sale ratio. The list-to-sale ratio refers to what sellers ask for compared to what they actually get. Currently, sellers are receiving about 99.02% of the list price.

This is sometimes a good starting point for offers, but in competitive situations it may be better to offer more. It’s incredibly important to work with a buyer partner like Melissa who will be able to guide you through the market.

If you’d like to contact Melissa, you can give her a call at (931) 245-7435.

Also, if you’d like more information or have any other questions, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

How to Hire the Right Buyer's Agent

In this crazy seller’s market, it’s important to find the right buyer’s agent for a number of reasons.

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If you’ve been watching the statistics every month, then you’ve seen that we’ve been shifting more and more to a seller’s market. This month, we are definitely there. So what does that mean to you? In a seller’s market, there are a lot more buyers in the market than we have inventory for. It’s very important as a consumer looking to buy a home that you find the right buyer’s agent that will get the job done for you. You need the right agent for a number of reasons. One, in this crazy market, you need to make sure the agent you work with knows how to navigate the market and can find properties using unconventional methods.

In this market, you need the right buyer’s agent.

You need an agent who also knows how to negotiate in a multiple offer situation. When you’re trying to win a bid for a home, it’s important that you have an agent who knows how to negotiate and make your offer stand out.

Lastly, you need an agent who knows the statistics of the market. Knowing how the market is changing from week to week will help the agent educate you on how to make the right deal.

If you have any questions about this topic or you’re looking to buy or sell your home, give me a call. I’d be happy to help!

Can You Sell Your House While Still Living in It?

If you want to sell your house without moving out, follow these four tips.

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Lately, a lot of people have asked me whether you can live in your home while selling it.

Of course you can!

The key to selling your home while living in it is staging. Your home's first showing is on the Internet, so it needs to look great online. It's better to have a home that's staged than to have a vacant home, so we like to give our sellers these tips:

1. Remove all signs of personalization: We know you're proud of your family, but things like family photos make it hard for buyers to imagine themselves living there.

Your agent doesn't the pick your home's price; the market does.

2. Redefine each room for its intended purpose: Say you converted one of three bedrooms in your house to an office—you want to change it back to a bedroom so buyers can see how all the living space works.

3. Pick the right price: This is where the expertise of a real estate professional comes in. They'll give you a thorough market analysis to help us understand the right price. We don't determine the price; the market does.

4. Price your home right the first time and don't lower it: Lowering your price isn't always the best option because there are other things we can do before resorting to a lower price.

If you have any questions about selling your home or you're ready to list it on the market, give us a call or send us an email soon. We'd love to go over more with you!

Clarksville’s Latest Real Estate Market Statistics

Our market keeps getting better and better for sellers. Homes are now selling for 5% more and 33% more quickly than last year.

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The Clarksville real estate market continues to be very strong. We’ve had some big changes in the last year and even in the last week. These are the trends you need to know about:

• Closed sales are up from 1,777 in 2016 to 1,949 right now. This 9.68% increase is another good sign.

• Inventory is down from 1,491 at this time last year to 1,021 right now. That’s a drop of over 31%.

• The average sale price is up to $178,500 from $169,000, a 5.5% increase.

• The average days on market have dropped 32.86%, from 70 days to only 47 right now.

Our strong seller’s market is getting even stronger.

What does this all mean for you? As you can see, we are definitely in a strong seller’s market. We will talk more about this in our next video and how you can take advantage of the conditions. If you have any questions in the meantime, give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Avoid These Mortgage Mistakes During Your House Hunt

If you're looking to buy a house, you'll want to avoid these four mistakes when it comes to your financing.

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When you're shopping for a home, there are four mortgage mistakes you should try to avoid: 1. Thinking the advertised you see is the rate you'll get: The advertised rate will be that company's lowest possible rate. In reality, many things go into determining the rate you'll get, like your credit score.

2. Not comparing lenders: There are plenty of ways to compare lenders and their rates these days. You also want to compare their closing costs, especially in an area like Clarksville where you might ask the seller to pay some closing costs.

3. Waiting for a better rate: If you wait for rates to drop in an active market like ours with prices going up, you might end up paying more for the house itself, even if the rate goes down. In many cases, it could actually cost you more money if you wait.

4. Choosing the wrong type of loan: For example, many people think that since we're in a VA market, they should automatically choose a VA loan. However, it all depends on what else you plan to do with the the financing. One big thing to consider in this situation is how much money you're putting down.

Waiting for a lower interest rate could mean paying more for the house itself.

We can provide more details and advice on any of these points if you have any other questions. Just give us a call or send us an email. We're happy to help!

How Much Do You Need for a Down Payment?

How much money do you need to put down when you purchase a home? Contrary to popular belief, you don’t necessarily need to have 20% down.

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How much money do you need for your down payment? Clarksville is a military town, so many of our residents are eligible for VA loans and can get a house for no money down. If you do not qualify for a VA loan, there are still many loan programs that can get you into a house for less than 20% down. Depending on your credit score, you can get a conventional loan with 5% down. If you qualify for an FHA loan, then you only need 3% down.

Depending on your credit score, you can get a conventional loan for 5%.

We also have local programs where the seller can pay most of the closing costs for you and you won’t have too much of a down payment. 

If you have any questions about your down payment or if you want to know more about buying a home, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

The Latest Stats From Our Hot Clarksville Market

Here are some of the latest stats from our Clarksville market and how we stand compared to where we were at this time last year.

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We have a hot market here in Clarksville, and today I have the stats to prove it. To give you an update on where we stand, I’ve compared the latest market figures to the same figures from March of last year. In March 2016, we had about 1,400 houses on the market for sale. Right now, we have about 1,100 houses on the market for sale. At this time last year, our number of year-to-date home sales was 827. This year, we’ve closed 834 houses so far. That’s not much difference, but it shows that we had a great market last year as well. Our average list price increased 6.4% from $164,000 in March 2016 to $174,600 in March 2017. Our average sales price increased 6.81% from $161,500 in March 2016 to $172,500 in March 2017. In that same time frame, our average days on market dropped from 101 to 91. As you can see, prices are going up in Clarksville, so it’s a great time to put your home on the market.

The market’s been busy since January, and it continues that way.

Something else we’ve started tracking lately is the most active price ranges, and right now the most active price range is between $140,000 and $180,000. There are 207 houses on the market within this price range, and about 25% of those houses have been sold already. 

The next hottest range is $180,000 to $240,000, which represents about 24% of the market. The third hottest range is the $100,000 to $140,000 area. You might not think it, but you can get a nice house for $100,000 in Clarksville. 

If you have any questions about our market or you’re looking to buy or sell a home, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you.

3 Options for Managing Your Investment Property

When it comes to managing an investment property, you basically have three options. Today, I'll explain the major advantages of these three options.

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There are three things you should look for in managing an investment property. Should you manage the investment property yourself or use a property management company? You can manage the property by yourself, but let me tell you, it takes a lot of time. Make sure you have both the temperament and time if you plan to do it on your own. So what about hiring a property management company? The great thing about hiring a company is that they know property management laws and tenant-owner relationships. They can manage security deposits (which have to be managed in a certain way) and can take care of credit reports and evictions if they need to.

Property management companies can handle deposits, credit checks, and evictions.

You can also hire individual property managers. If you work with an individual property manager, check their references to make sure it's not the first time they've managed property. 

If you have any questions about the best way to manage an investment property, give me a call or send me an email. I'd be happy to help!

Use These 3 Steps to Ensure a Smooth Home Purchase

If you’re thinking about buying your first home in 2017, make sure you do these three things first.

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If you’re looking to buy your first home in 2017, there are a few steps you should take in preparation. I’ll go over those today. First, you need to hire the right real estate agent. You might run into some uncomfortable situations if you work with a family member or a friend, so I recommend choosing an experienced agent who’s only objective is to represent your home purchase. Also, an experienced agent can help you find homes that might not even be listed on the market. Furthermore, the right agent is going to be able to negotiate in your favor to ensure you get the best deal on a home. Second, don’t be afraid to talk to multiple lenders. Some lenders’ rates might be better than others, or they might match each other. Either way, talking to multiple lenders can only benefit you. Also, if you are going to get a VA loan, make sure the lender you choose is experienced in dealing with that specific type of loan.

The right agent is going to be able to negotiate in your favor to ensure you get the best deal on a home.

Last but not least, mind your credit. Credit scores are incredibly important because a lender is going to base the interest rate you get for your mortgage off them. There are also going to be credit checks when you go to put insurance on your home. 

There are a few other tips, so if you would like to hear about them or if you have any other real estate related questions, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I would be more than happy to help.

How Did the 2016 Clarksville Real Estate Market Do?

How did the 2016 real estate market stack up against 2015? What can buyers and sellers expect from our current market? I’ll go over everything you need to know today.

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What’s going on in the Clarksville real estate market? Today, we’ll take a look at how the market did in 2016 compared to 2015. 2016 was a great year for real estate; everything has increased since 2015, and 2017 is already off to a great start! In 2015, 3,580 properties closed. In 2016, 4,221 properties closed, which is a 17.9% increase. The average listing price also went up. In 2015, the listing price was $171,500, and in 2016, it increased 2.6% to $175,900. So, what did homes actually sell for in 2016? In 2015, the average sales price was $168,700; in 2016, it went up 3.62% to $174,800. That is great news because our market has been flat for the last couple of years. Now, it’s finally starting to go up.

Our market is finally starting to go up.

The average days on market in 2015 was 92, which dropped to 86 days on market in 2016. 

What do all of these numbers mean for you? 

If you’ve been thinking about selling, now is a great time to get on the market. Houses that are priced correctly and in good condition are selling really fast. 

As for buyers, interest rates have gone up and the market is increasing, so the longer you wait, the more likely it is that you will get less house for more money.

If you have any other questions about the real estate market or about selling your home, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

3 Questions You Should Ask Before Hiring a Realtor

Selling your home goes a lot more smoothly with a Realtor at your side. However, make sure you hire the right one by asking these three questions.

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Entering the real estate market without a Realtor to represent you is very risky, but you don’t want to hire just anyone. There are many questions you should ask before hiring a real estate agent, and these are the top three: 1. How long have you been in the business? There are so many different factors that come into play when getting your sale to closing. You want to make sure they have experience to handle every aspect of the sale and make sure the closing process goes smoothly. 2. What is your list-to-sales price ratio? You want to make sure they are selling homes for something close to what they listed them at initially on a consistent basis. 3. How many houses did you sell last year? Knowing your agent is active in the market is key. Someone who has 30 years of experience but only sold two houses last year is not going to be the right fit to sell your home.

Make sure your agent has enough experience.

There are many more questions you should be asking, so if you’d like to talk to me about those or have any other questions, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!