Frequently Asked Questions
If you don’t find an answer to your real estate questions below, please contact Kevin.
Real estate, with its complexities and nuances, often brings a myriad of questions to the minds of buyers and sellers. At SLC Homes, we understand the importance of clear, accurate information in making informed decisions. Here are some of the most common questions our home buyers and sellers have.
Buyer FAQ
As a buyer, why do I need my finances in order before I start looking at homes with my Realtor?
There are so many reasons to have your entire down payment saved and your pre-approved financing in place with a lender.
- You’ll want to know how much you can borrow, and then determine how much you are comfortable paying per month based on your budget. Then you back into a purchase price for your future home based on your comfort level.
- You Realtor will want to talk to your lender so they understand your position and so they can determine how fast your lender can move if a fast close is needed in order to compete if the home has multiple offers.
- The seller of a home and the seller’s Realtor, will want to be sure that they are dealing with a serious buyer that can close on their home within the terms of the offer the buyer is making.
These are just a few of the things I discuss with new buyers when we start working together.
What is the best time to buy a home?
For buyers, there is a lot to choose from in the spring, but some of the best deals I see my buyers get are in the second half of the year. That said, when the right home for you comes on the market, sometimes it’s best to make your offer and not miss that opportunity if you really love the home.
Every home and location is unique, and if you have a specific area your prefer, you might not find another one quite like it.
These are the conversations I have with my clients to help them determine what is best for them.
In a multiple offer situation, can a buyer that has a loan compete with an all-cash buyer?
It can be challenging for a home buyer with a loan to compete with an all-cash buyer in a multiple offer situation, but keep in mind, cash is just one part of an offer, and there are several parts of an offer that effect the strength of the offer including:
- Purchase Price
- Earnest Money
- Contingencies for Due Diligence, Appraisal and Financing
- The Settlement Deadline/Closing
- Possession of the home
- Experience of the Realtor making the offer and their presentation and follow up with the seller’s agent on your offer during negotiation
- Not all cash offers are created equal. Some are flippers, wholesalers or have contingencies that turn sellers off
- Sometimes the seller would prefer to sell to someone who intends to occupy the home
- If you don’t get into first position contract, backup contact sometimes works out
A great Realtor will try to determine what’s important to the seller and then the buyer can decide what they are comfortable with as far as making their offer. Again, choosing a Realtor that understands how to present you and your offer in the best light to the seller is key, especially in a multiple offer situation against a cash buyer.
You win some, you lose some, but I’ve had several buyers with loans win against cash buyers.
Seller FAQ
What should I do to get my home ready to sell?
There are a lot of options and every house is different. Your best bet is to give me a call and have me evaluate your property, because it really depends on how much effort you want to make, how much time you have before you want to get your home on the market and how much money you want to spend getting your home ready to sell.
Helping home owners make a list and set priorities is part of the professional services I provide to my clients.
What is the best time to sell a home?
In general, around Salt Lake, and there are exceptions to this rule, the spring selling market is where most of the appreciation happens each year.
As we come out of winter and into spring, inventory of homes for sale in a thriving market tends to be low, and buyer demand tends to be high, so a lot of people list their home for sale from March to May.
Regardless of that, sometimes the timing works best for a home owner to sell later in the year based on their need to relocate or desire to buy another home.
Also, the appreciating values of homes that typically happens in the spring supports a higher appraisal for a home later on in the year.
The end of the year tends to be a less favorable time to sell most years as far as getting the best price for your home.
There’s a lot to consider when selling and this is another good reason to hire a real estate professional to sell your home.
How do I determine what the asking price for my home should be?
Values can change in just a few months time. What a home sold for at the end of the year compared to what it sold for four months later in the spring, could be significantly different.
You could get an appraisal, but an appraisal considers homes that are sold in the previous months, so depending on the time of year, this could vary. Also, an appraisal doesn’t consider the homes currently under contract or for sale, whether the market is going up or down, the demand for homes or the time of year your home is being listed, all of which effect the asking price.
You could check Zillow for your Zestimate, but Zestimates vary in accuracy. I recently compared my own home to the Zestimate for my home, and the average Zestimate was more than 20% below the actual value of my home.
The range for the value of two homes of the same square footage, style, lot size and neighborhood can vary greatly, sometimes by more than $100/square foot.
Determining the asking price for a home is part of the package of services I provide for both sellers and buyers, as their Realtor.
If I currently own a home, what are my options to sell and buy another in the same time frame?
There are a lot of different ways for someone who currently owns a home to get from their current to their next home. This is a very good reason to work with an experienced Realtor for these types of transactions.
Here are a few of the questions I ask home owners when they are considering this type of move:
- Are you in a financial position to buy before you sell your current home?
- Can you qualify for the new loan with all your existing debt?
- If you are in a position to do this, are you willing to carry the costs of two mortgages for a few months or is that too much for you?
- If you need to sell before you buy, is there somewhere you could stay temporarily in between homes?
Selling one home to buy another can be a challenging process, and hiring a real estate professional that understands how this is done, can make the process a lot easier.
General FAQ
What qualities should I look for in choosing a Realtor?
- The Realtor should be familiar with the type of property you are looking to buy or sell.
- The Realtor should be familiar with the area your home is located in or you are looking to buy a home in.
- It’s nice if your Realtor is experienced. According to the National Association of Realtors, only 13% of Realtors make it more than five years.
- Speaking of experience, doing real estate transactions is learned by doing real estate transactions. The average Realtor does less than three transactions a year.
- In any business, choosing someone you can trust is important, and since buying and selling real estate is one of the biggest financial decisions most people make in their lifetime, this applies to your Realtor as well.