We would like to buy a new home soon but interest rates seem very high – we see advertisements for internet lenders offering what seem to be below market rates. Is this too good to be true?
If you were simply refinancing an existing mortgage debt, you MAY be ok choosing an internet lender. You would just need to be very careful that, before you apply to refinance your loan, you receive from the lender a full disclosure of all the costs and not just the rates. Often times I see lenders have exorbitantly high fees connected with low rates. In a sense, you would be buying down your rate by paying high fees upfront. You would want to be sure to compare them on the same day to a couple of local lenders and understand what you are paying to get the quoted rates. The reason you must compare rates on a singular date is because rates go up and down continuously and a rate may seem lower simply because you called a particular lender on a date rates dropped.
Since you are buying a new home rather than refinancing, I do NOT recommend that you use an internet lender. They do not tend to be familiar with area norms and that can cause you more headaches than you can imagine. There is a long list of particularities to PA Agreements of Sale and the last thing you want to do is have your closing delayed (while your movers are standing at the curb) while you wait for your lender (who does not have a local presence that you can visit personally to address any issues) to sort things out. As they are not familiar with our Agreements and processes, internet lenders may also impose requirements on you that are not requirements generally imposed by local lenders that may disadvantage you later. Finally, internet lenders often do not understand that PA Agreements of Sale declare “time is of the essence” inside the contract – what that means to you is that if you miss your closing date because the lender isn’t ready to close, the seller does have the legal right to declare you in default, keep your hand money and sell the home to someone else.
When buying, why take a risk? Rely on your trusted Realtor to help you find a local lender who offers the most competitively priced loan products and delivers exceptional customer service. Realtors cannot accept referral fees from lenders, so you can be sure we are motivated only by knowing you will have an outstanding transaction. Feel free to reach out to me for help finding you the best local lender to meet your financing needs!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Interest rates jumped up again. Is it time for us to just wait until spring and hope they start to come back down?
If you are a buyer, the real estate market offers you a great opportunity right now! Don’t be fooled by the higher interest rates – this is an awesome market for you to buy in! Why? Because all of the people who you would have been competing with are afraid of the interest rates and sitting by the sidelines. This allows you to have a competition – free opportunity to buy a home! Just six months ago, buyers would have been overjoyed to have an opportunity to buy a home without competition, to have had an opportunity to have had an offer accepted on the first home they offered on instead of their seventh, to have been able to purchase a home at asking price rather than asking price plus 10 percent! Do not miss this golden opportunity – there are some very nice homes available right now. You can refinance later with a convenient no cost refinance loan – get the house now! Once rates start to come back down, the buyers (who have all been sitting by the sidelines with you) will come racing back into the market, and bidding wars will be back. Make the smart move – buy now.
And as a side note, I do not feel we will see a “crash” in prices. Inventory remains at record lows and those homes that are selling continue to increase in their sales prices to new record highs, despite the increasing rates. This is not 2008 – I am not anticipating any “deals” to be had this spring – if anything the natural increase in the buyer pool we see every spring will boost prices because of the extreme lack of inventory. Feel free to reach out to me and we can strategize on how you can take the most advantage of the current real estate market while you still can!
A home’s value is set by the market. Value is always determined by what a buyer is willing to pay for your home. Many factors come into play in setting that value. Market value reflects quantitative factors such as: # bedrooms, # bathrooms, # garages, placement of garages (attached or integral), lot configuration (large and functional back yard? Cliff lot?), location of the home generally, age of roof, age of mechanicals. Market value also reflects more qualitative items: how updated is your home, and is it all new, or just refreshed? What is the floorplan (open concept?) What are your wall colors? There is always a range that value will land in, which we call the range of reasonable. There is no ONE price at which a home will sell. If there are many buyers seeking a home like yours, it will sell at the top of the range of reasonable. If there are not, it will take longer to sell and may sell a bit lower in the range. What the market does not consider in setting a value of a home is what you need from the home. In 2008, many homeowners had used their homes as ATMs and withdrawn large sums of money for educations, vacations and cars. When the market softened, there was not enough equity for them to be able to sell their homes and not be in a short sale situation. This fact, that a homeowner over-extended themselves on mortgages, is not the least bit relevant to market value. The market is also not going to consider what you plan to do next. If you plan to move to Los Angeles to be closer to family and are finding that the Pittsburgh market is not going to yield you enough to be able to buy in L.A., you will need to turn to other investments to make up any difference.
We are in a very robust market – your home is far more likely to garner more now – whatever that may be – than it could have in the past. Forecasters are also suggesting that values will soften by year end. My crystal ball is out for service, but what I can tell you is that every hot market eventually softens. Waiting out the market so that you can get a price that the market is unprepared to deliver at this time may have you waiting many, many years, and during that time you may need to invest even more in your home in order to deliver to the market what it needs in order to deliver an acceptable sale to you.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We see recent projections forecast a housing downturn. What do you think?
You are correct – Goldman Sachs recently released a paper forecasting that the US housing market will see a downturn. Their reports predicts that new home sales will drop 22%, existing home sales will drop 17% and the housing GDP will drop 8.9% this year and that the decline will continue in 2023. This downturn is attributed to rising interest rates that were implemented to combat inflation. They have also noted that pandemic trends for second homes are fading. That said, the report does not anticipate a downturn in prices – just demand – and suggests given other economic factors at play that the market will remain flat for most regions.
What does this mean for home sellers? It means a return to traditional marketing. In other words, home sellers need to anticipate that they will need to take the time to condition their homes for market, stage their homes, and present their homes in an appealing way for buyers. Gone are the days, at least for now, when buyers are so desperate that they are going to buy homes in any condition just to get a home. Sellers also need to anticipate that it may take longer to find a buyer for their home — typically in Pittsburgh most homes would take between 120 and 150 days to sell in traditional market. Home sellers need to adjust their expectations and not anticipate that their home will likely be sold in one week. It will also be very important to price your home correctly and not take giant stabs at the market just to see if it might stick. It probably won’t stick. Appraisers are starting to doubt valuations on homes and we are starting to see some appraisal failures. For you sellers out there, it will be very important for you to pay greater attention to whom you choose as your listing agent. Marketing techniques and agent experience will become all the more important in generating a successful sale of your home. Take the time to do your research and choose an agent with great experience in all kinds of markets.
Buyers – I seriously doubt that this is going to become a buying a free-for-all like we saw back in 2009. There is no anticipation that there is going to be a downturn in pricing in Pittsburgh. But the good news is you may be able to buy a home with less competition and you may even be able to get a small discount. You still need to plan on being well qualified when you go in with your offer. And again, choosing a buyers agent with significant experience who can help you to understand market trends and where you should be offering will be critical to a successful home purchase.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We find the inspection process confusing – do we have to fix everything in the inspection report before we close on our home or just the repairs the buyer requested?
The home inspection report is the document from which your buyer works to make their repair requests of you. Some buyers will ask for everything and others will ask for only those items that they think are important. They may let some things go, for example, if they are planning on renovating an area and anticipate fixing those items as a part of the renovation.
Once you and your buyer agree on a list of repairs, these are memorialized on an addendum. It is that addendum, called a Change in Terms Addendum (“CTA”), from which you work when completing your repairs. You need not refer to the inspection again unless the CTA references it. You do, however, need to make sure that you do everything on the CTA exactly as specified, so be sure to read it carefully and provide a copy to your contractor(s). For example, if the CTA says that you will have GFCI outlets installed by a licensed electrician then you need to make sure you hire a licensed electrician, and not your favorite handyman, to make the repair! If the CTA says you must paint to match existing then you need to take a sample of the existing paint to the paint store and color match it – don’t rely on old paint in cans – paint fades with age and it won’t match. Be very careful to be sure you are complying with the terms of the CTA – if you do not, or if your contractor does not, your closing may be delayed or postponed until the work is done as specified. Along those lines, be sure to review your contactor’s work when complete and make sure that he actually did what you agreed to do on the CTA. If not, request that he return before it becomes a walk-through issue.
And of course, be sure to get paid receipts from all contractors, or if they have not been paid, notify the closing company so that they can be paid at closing. All repairs must be paid for before ownership changes hands so be sure to stay on top of your bills, and provide receipts to the buyers agent.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
My home has so many special features. I think it would be best if I were at showings so I could explain them to prospective buyers. Is that ok?
When you are selling your home, its normal to think that only you can fully convey your home’s fine qualities to a buyer. This leads some sellers to consider the possibility of being home for showings, so that they can make sure that the buyer prospects appreciate all of the home’s amenities. While this may seem sensible to a seller, nothing could be further from the truth!
When buyers visit your home, it is important that they be allowed the space to imagine the home as their own. This starts, of course, with home staging, so that the home is not overly personal when the buyers arrive. But it extends to allowing them to tour the home alone with their buyer agent. For buyers to buy a home, they must bond to a home. For buyers to bond to a home, they need to be free to relax in your home and chat with their agent about what they would do to make the home their own. This will not happen if you are present. So what can you do to make sure they appreciate your home’s qualities? Hire a listing agent who will design a custom brochure for your home that is available when buyers visit your home. Such a brochure is your best ammunition – they can take it home and recall all of your home’s wonderful features and get their questions answered as well.
Giving the buyers their space extends to the home inspections as well. The period during the home inspection is one of normal buyer remorse. Did we buy the right home? Will a better home become available? Allowing buyers the freedom to return to your home alone will allow them to bond again to your home and stay committed to it during the sometimes difficult inspection process.
In fact, the only time you should interact with your buyer is at the closing. From initial showing to return visits, inspections and walk throughs, you should always vacate your home and give the buyers their space!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’re hoping to move in 2023 and are beginning our search online – is there anything we should keep in mind?
The majority of buyers will shop online during their search for a new home, and many will actually begin their search there, like yourselves! The internet has made it incredibly easy for buyers to do preliminary research for a new home. It does have its limitations, however, which is where your expert real estate advisor can fill in the gaps.
Online listings, if managed well by the listing agent, will always look amazing. Wide-angle lenses and professional photographers are employed, as well as photo-editing software and virtual staging, to make a home look as attractive as possible online. It’s worth keeping in mind that pictures may lie – be careful not to screen out potential homes just because the photos aren’t fabulous – rely instead on the wisdom of your agent. If she has listened to your feedback and is familiar with the inventory, she will be your best screen for which homes are better than they appear, and which may be worse.
Online listings also don’t give you much of a sense of location. While google earth may help with some of this, until you actually drive by a property, you may not be able to tell physical lot characteristics that may be a positive or a negative to you. Online listings also can do little to convey a sense of neighborhood or community. Again, that is where your real estate advisor should be able to fill in the picture for you.
Finally, online listings are only as good as the agent who enters the data – there may be information about the property that is not entered into the MLS, either by agent oversight or by simple lack of space, that might make a home more desirable to you. Information such as camera security systems, water softener and purification systems and high-efficiency mechanicals may have real value to you and is rarely listed online. Thus, while online is a great place to start, it’s a great idea to choose your real estate advisor early (and you can also research qualifications on his/her individual website)!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We aren’t ready to move but want to update our home – what are the best choices for paint colors and flooring changes, assuming we may want to move in the next few years?
New paint colors must harmonize with the rest of your home, unless you plan to repaint the entire interior of your home, so any suggestions need to be taken in the context of what else is going on inside your home. My best suggestion for a currently fairly timeless paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Edgecomb Gray. This color blends with virtually every shade of white that might be on your trim and nearly every color flooring that might be in your home. It is really more of a greige than a gray and, like a chameleon, changes color a bit depending on what is in the space and what kind of light is filtering in through the windows. However, if your home is a palette if golds, for example, this color might not be the right choice! Trending now is white on white (with trim and walls painted the same or nearly the same shade of white), but this is a design style that is best incorporated throughout the entire home, and not just a singular room. If you have wallpaper in your space, then it’s a very good investment to have it removed (do not paint over it, no matter what the painter tells you) and painted in a color that coordinates with your design aesthetic. Wallpaper overall remains a difficult sell.
As to flooring, real wood floors remain the best investment you can make. They are timeless and easy to refinish if they become worn or if the buyer prefers a different color. I highly recommend choosing a medium tone brown, not too yellow, red or dark and preferably in ¾” thickness. If engineered wood floors are what your budget requires, choose one that the manufacturer indicates can be refinished at least once, and keep a few extra pieces on hand in case you damage any through normal wear and tear. Bamboo is another great option and there are on-line suppliers that offer a variety of shades in ¾” planks – it is very resilient, environmentally friendly and installed can look like hardwood. I do not recommend that you choose the latest trend, “LVL” (luxury vinyl flooring), for anything beyond the basement level of your home. These are plastic floors, and if your home will likely sell for over $500,000, these floors will not be appreciated on the main or upper levels. Finally, carpet in a neutral tone plush (no berber, no mixed colors) is acceptable as long as they are clean and stain free. If you stain them during the remaining time in your home, you would need to replace them again before you sell your home.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are thinking of remodeling our kitchen. Any advice for us if we want to be making good choices for resale?
As much as we would all like to be creative, when it comes to the “hardscapes” of your home – the things that are difficult to change – if resale is even a remote possibility for you, or if you want to be sure to get a high return on your investment (most people expect 100% which is not always realistic), its important to make “mainstream” choices that the buying public as a whole loves! How do you figure that out? Pay attention to what sells quickly in our market. Watch some HGTV. Check out Pinterest! Here are some easy rules to follow!
The most popular cabinet color by far is white! Yes, I know, everyone has been saying for the past two decades that white is on its way out, and that is just not true! Can you choose natural woods? Sure. Will it generate the same excitement on resale? It will not. Yes, it will resell, but probably not as fast or for as much as white. Colored cabinets? If you pick the right (think trendy) color and are selling soon, that can work well. But if you stay in your home for 10 more years, the color you chose may no longer be in vogue and may be a challenge to resell.
The most popular flooring in a kitchen is hardwood. Can you choose tile? Yes, but it will feel dated more quickly, so choose carefully. Bamboo, cork and upscale vinyls are far less popular but can be good choices, depending on the price point.
Countertops? Either granite or quartz are the most popular choices – either will sell well, but choose the color carefully. Right now lighter color palates are in style for countertops. Avoid Formica unless the property is lower end.
Appliances? Choose stainless. Brand is less important. It is the look that is key.
Lighting? Here is where you can show some of your personal style. Buy economically but not cheap. Lights are very easy to change, so if styles change, it’s a very simple way to give your kitchen a facelift before you sell. The same is true for paint, although wallpaper should be avoided. Yes, the design industry claims wallpaper is back in style, but as far as buyers are concerned, nothing has changed!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We plan to move out of our home before we put it on the market. Any thoughts on selling an empty home?
Some homes definitely sell more readily vacant – my last home was one of them – and so I definitely do not dissuade sellers from emptying their homes before selling them, but there are some important tips to keep in mind!
If you are emptying your home, then empty it. Do not leave behind the items you don’t want. Do not leave behind soaps, shampoos, chemicals, lawn fertilizers… Empty is empty. So please plan on a complete clean out. If you need help finding people to help dispose of items, give me a call!
It is critical to be sure that once your home is empty, you bring in a handyman to make sure that everything is in good order. Holes should be patched and touch-up painted, scuffs eliminated, carpets and windows cleaned, all lightbulbs working … When there is no furniture to look at, the condition of the home is all the more important.
Make sure you have a plan for upkeep of your empty home. The yard must be regularly maintained, including weeding, leaf and snow removal. The interior tends to be easier to keep up, but do be sure you arrange for a periodic quick clean. It is also a good idea to hire a neighbor or friend to check your home regularly to make sure that there has been no crisis at your home (such as a broken water pipe).
Be sure to keep your home properly conditioned (warm enough in the winter and cool enough in the summer). I have actually seen mold grow inside a home when sellers do not keep the air conditioning running in warm weather in their vacant homes – this will cost far more to clean up than the air conditioning bill! Finally, consider putting lights on timers so when buyers drive by in the evening, your home does not appear dark and unloved!
Selling a vacant home is not a bad thing, but it is important that you follow these tips to be sure your home is presenting well to prospective buyers!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
How do home sellers protect themselves from big walk through bills from a buyer?
Buyers conduct a final walk through right before they close on a home. This is probably the first time they have seen your home vacant. If they find conditions they aren’t expecting, you can expect a bill at the closing or a last minute request to remedy the condition.
What kinds of things might come up? There are many things that can cost you money at a walk through. Here are a few. If you have any damage to your floors (even if it was there when you bought the home) and you failed to list the damage on your disclosure, and it wasn’t obvious when you walked through your occupied home (under rugs or furniture), you can expect that the buyer will expect you to pay for the repair/replacement when he discovers the issue, which could be a significant expense. What should you do? Disclose. Disclose. Disclose! When you list your home, take the time to make sure your disclosure lists every possible condition issue with your home.
If you leave anything behind that isn’t attached or specifically included, you should anticipate you may be required to call a last minute hauler to remove the items. If the items were there when you bought the home, that’s no excuse. The house must be empty when you leave unless you have the buyers’ specific consent to leave the items behind.
Forget to cut the grass in a few weeks? You could be asked for a credit to have the lawn mown. Forget to clean the house? If its not at least “broom swept clean” you could be paying a cleaning fee. Forget to complete your inspection repairs or forget to check the work and make sure it’s done correctly? You can’t rely on the contractors to get it right – you must check the work – if they didn’t finish or did the wrong thing, you will likely have to pay for the repair again. Accidentally remove an inclusion such as the TV wall mount bracket? You may have to pay for a new one.
Take the time to make sure the home is exactly as you would want it were you moving in and be pro-active with your buyers if you discover any issues on your move out to avoid any closing table surprises.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Is it necessary to neutralize our home to sell it and what exactly does that mean?
If you watch HGTV or read my weekly articles, you likely know how important it is to neutralize your home before you sell. But what exactly does that entail? Paint color is obvious. Your home is far more likely to sell for top dollar if its painted in a neutral color palate. This does not mean your home must be nothing but white. It does, mean, however, that you should remove most strong colors in favor of “colored” neutrals – colors such as harvest beige or light gray. A colorful room or two is fine as long as the color was chosen in the past couple years (trends in color change quickly, but when you live with a color daily and are not in the design business, you probably don’t realize when a color is no longer “in”)
Neutral colors in floor coverings is also key. Colored carpets are extremely difficult to sell. Be careful with ceramic tile –when it goes out of style, it is painfully obvious that you have dated tile and its expensive to replace. However, neutralizing a home goes beyond paint color and floor coverings. Consider the age of your most likely buyer. Buyers these days in their 20s, 30s and 40s as a general rule favor clean lines to florals. If you have floral drapes, silk flower arrangements or large floral prints on your upholstery, this could be a real turn off to a buyer even though these items do not convey with the home. The impression says dated even if the structure itself is not. This is pretty simple to address, however. Pack these things up – you are moving – get a head start. Drapes are great for decorating but unless they are very recently installed, they are unlikely to help your sale – most buyers prefer to see your windows. Slipcover furniture if it’s fabric trends toward yesteryear’s design styles.
Neutralizing also goes to removing personal effects – family photos being the most obvious. And of course, its important to neutralize odor. If you have pets, keep litterboxes perfectly clean and pet beds, blankets and toys frequently laundered. Have a friend double check – you should not be able to tell you have a pet when you enter your home. If you smoke, don’t smoke inside. If you like to cook with spicy food, avoid it while your home is on the market. If musty odors emanate from your basement, run a dehumidifier 24/ 7. If your refrigerator stays with your home, make sure it is clean smells fresh. Whatever the source of odors, remove them — your home should be odor free.
A neutralized home may seem impersonal to you, but try to remember, you are moving! While it may not be your style, it is far more likely to attract a buyer and a good price!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What kinds of items would be viewed as “hot buttons” for home buyers on inspections?
If you are a home seller, there is an ever increasing list of items that you will be expected to address if any are discovered on your home inspection. Given that, if you are thinking about selling your home, it would be a good idea to determine if any of these conditions exist at your home and remedy them prior to listing your home. Items that sellers are generally expected to address these days include:
Radon: if your home exceeds 4.0pCi/l, you will be expected to remediate the radon, even if it was a low reading when you bought the home. Radon varies over time. The estimated cost for a system is approx.. $1300.
Mold: If there is mold anywhere at all, you will be expected to have it remediated. Basements and attics are the most obvious places mold hides out, but be sure to check showers and under sinks.
Electrical: If you have knob and tube wiring, you will likely be paying for it to be removed and replaced, unless you price your home with a rewire in mind and disclose its presence. If your home has any Pushmatic brand electrical panels, buyers will also expect those to be replaced.
Broken Seals: if you have thermopane windows, doors or skylights in your home, buyers will expect you repair the broken thermo seals. This is evident because the windows have a cloudy look to them. There are a few companies in Pittsburgh that can do this reasonably affordably.
Septic/Sewer: Sewer lines are the newest “must do” inspection. If a buyer finds roots in your sewer line, at a minimum you will be expected to clear the roots from the line, but if they are bad you will be expected to line or replace the line. This can be extremely costly so I highly advise that you camera your own lines in advance of selling and get them in good shape.
You can be certain that if any of these conditions exist in your home, you will be expected to remedy the condition unless you disclose its presence and price accordingly.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We find the inspection process confusing – do we have to fix everything in the inspection report before we sell our home or just the repairs the buyer requested?
The home inspection report is the document from which your buyer works to make their repair requests of you. Some buyers will ask for everything and others will ask for only those items that they think are important. They may let some things go, for example, if they are planning on renovating an area and anticipate fixing those items as a part of the renovation.
Once you and your buyer agree on a list of repairs, these are memorialized on an addendum. It is that addendum, called a Change in Terms Addendum (“CTA”), from which you work when completing your repairs. You need not refer to the inspection again unless the CTA references it. You do, however, need to make sure that you do everything on the CTA exactly as specified, so be sure to read it carefully and provide a copy to your contractor(s). For example, if the CTA says that you will have GFCI outlets installed by a licensed electrician then you need to make sure you hire a licensed electrician, and not your favorite handyman, to make the repair! If the CTA says you must paint to match existing then you need to take a sample of the existing paint to the paint store and color match it – don’t rely on old paint in cans – paint fades with age and it won’t match. Be very careful to be sure you are complying with the terms of the CTA – if you do not, or if your contractor does not, your closing may be delayed or postponed until the work is done as specified. Along those lines, be sure to review your contactor’s work when complete and make sure that he actually did what you agreed to do on the CTA. If not, request that he return before it becomes a walk-through issue.
And of course, be sure to get paid receipts from all contractors, or if they have not been paid, notify the closing company so that they can be paid at closing. All repairs must be paid for before ownership changes hands so be sure to stay on top of your bills, and provide receipts to the buyers agent.
A home’s value is set by the market. Value is always determined by what a buyer is willing to pay for your home. Many factors come into play in setting that value. Market value reflects quantitative factors such as: # bedrooms, # bathrooms, # garages, placement of garages (attached or integral), lot configuration (large and functional back yard? Cliff lot?), location of the home generally, age of roof, age of mechanicals. Market value also reflects more qualitative items: how updated is your home, and is it all new, or just refreshed? What is the floorplan (open concept?) What are your wall colors? There is always a range that value will land in, which we call the range of reasonable. There is no ONE price at which a home will sell. If there are many buyers seeking a home like yours, it will sell at the top of the range of reasonable. If there are not, it will take longer to sell and may sell a bit lower in the range. What the market does not consider in setting a value of a home is what you need from the home. In 2008, many homeowners had used their homes as ATMs and withdrawn large sums of money for educations, vacations and cars. When the market softened, there was not enough equity for them to be able to sell their homes and not be in a short sale situation. This fact, that a homeowner over-extended themselves on mortgages, is not the least bit relevant to market value. The market is also not going to consider what you plan to do next. If you plan to move to Los Angeles to be closer to family and are finding that the Pittsburgh market is not going to yield you enough to be able to buy in L.A., you will need to turn to other investments to make up any difference.
We are in a very robust market – your home is far more likely to garner more now – whatever that may be – than it could have in the past. Forecasters are also suggesting that values will soften by year end. My crystal ball is out for service, but what I can tell you is that every hot market eventually softens. Waiting out the market so that you can get a price that the market is unprepared to deliver at this time may have you waiting many, many years, and during that time you may need to invest even more in your home in order to deliver to the market what it needs in order to deliver an acceptable sale to you.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
With all of the bidding wars happening in this hot market, should we put an appraisal contingency in our offers?
Appraisal contingencies are added to agreements when buyers are concerned that their offer may be over market value. If you are getting a mortgage, they really aren’t necessary if you are putting 20% or less down on your home. Your bank will need your new home to appraise so that your debt percentage is not greater than 80%. If it doesn’t appraise, you will either have to throw in more cash or reduce the sales price of the home, or the bank will refuse to fund the loan.
If you are paying cash for your home, or have a small planned mortgage, your only protection from over-paying is to insert an appraisal contingency into your offer. If the home fails to appraise, you will have the option of terminating the agreement if you choose, or possibly re-negotiating the price. While this may sound like a fool-proof option, when we are in a hot market, with limited inventory and limited options for buyers, the goal is to reduce the number of contingencies to make your offer more appealing, not to add more! When evaluating whether they want to take their home off the active market to work with your offer, a seller will weigh all of the components, and an appraisal contingency weakens your offer as it is one more hurdle the seller must overcome before they can proceed to closing.
There is a definite risk that in a hot market you could overpay for a home. Homes are in some circumstances selling for tens of thousands of dollars in excess of the list price. Unfortunately, this may be what it takes to get a home. Inserting an appraisal contingency will only weaken your offer and could cause you to lose a bidding war. The best course of action if you want to win is to ask your agent to prepare an analysis of comparable sales and use that to determine your best offer, leaving out the appraisal contingency and hopefully succeeding in your bid to buy a new home.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
It seems that high end home sales continue to lag as compared to the rest of the market. Thoughts?
Our high-end market in the Quaker Valley School District is moving more slowly than the rest of the market, and this is particularly apparent when homes under $1 million are selling fast and at premium prices. Speculation abounds as to why that is the case. Many attribute that to the fact that our tax system was restructured several years ago to allow for a larger standard deduction and lower marginal rates but at the cost of limiting the deduction for property and income taxes to a combined total of $10,000. Our property taxes are high in Western PA as compared to many parts of the country and that will impact expensive homes, with the possibility of the highest taxes, the most.
Buyers may need a general mindset adjustment. As a whole, our income taxes in PA are lower than the majority of states. Our earned income tax here in Sewickley is only 1%, compared to 3% in the city of Pittsburgh. We do not have sales tax on clothes or food as many states do. So while our property taxes may be on the high side, we are in a far better position overall than many residents of metropolitan areas with similar advantages to Pittsburgh. Property taxes are just a cost of living, and if your bucket list includes the amenities of a higher-end home, the taxes are what they are. The sooner our marketplace accepts this reality, the sooner our higher end homes will start selling again!
However, other high-end Pittsburgh markets are selling more readily than ours and while this article is not a political commentary, the reason most often cited by high-end buyers choosing against Quaker Valley is the school situation. No one likes controversy – why move into it if you don’t have to? If we can make unified forward progress, that may buoy our high-end market.
In the meantime, our middle and lower end market segments are moving fast and often with many offers. Homes in these segments that are priced appropriately for condition and amenities are often selling with multiple offers, and in a very short amount of time. These market segments are accelerating quickly in their pricing. Waiting for the home to show up on your Zillow search is likely going to be too late. If a move is something you’ve been considering, give me a call and we can strategize on how you can best meet your needs in this complex market we find ourselves in! 412.779.6060
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
How do you guard against overpaying in this competitive market?
You have a good reason to worry about prices in the market that we are in. Currently it seems that prices have risen at least 10% in some price brackets since the new year. That’s an incredible amount for the Pittsburgh market which typically appreciates at the rate of 1 to 2% per year. That increase is not being seen a crossed all price brackets – the million dollar plus market has as a general rule seen less. However, the majority of our homes are still seeing multiple offers and the prices are still coming in over the asking price.
Given the current state of the market, there is a high likelihood that those participating in some of the more intense bidding wars going on right now are going to end up overpaying for their homes. If they remain in their homes for 5 to 7 years, however, that should not be an issue. We should see enough market appreciation in a 5 to 7 year period to make up for any premium that might be paid in the current market.
If you are getting a mortgage, the appraisal required by the mortgage company provide some level of protection. However, most appraisers are trying to make their appraisals come in where the market is presently, so that doesn’t exactly protect you from the “bubble” we may be experiencing. Additionally, if you are involved in a multiple offer situation, to be the winning bidder you will probably have to offer some level of “appraisal gap coverage” meaning that you agree to accept the appraisal at a lower number than the purchase price, should that occur. So, you will not benefit from the typical protections afforded by an appraisal.
In the end, the answer to your question is that if you are buying in this market, you are just going to have to come to peace with the fact that you may need to do what appears to be overpaying in order to get a home for you and your family. However, in the end, even if the market does settle down a bit, as long as you are not planning to move in the near future, the market will eventually catch up with any premium you might have to pay.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
How are rising interest rates impacting home sales?
Rising interest rates are definitely impacting buyers. Many buyers are having to step down their affordability levels and focus on homes that are less expensive homes than those they might have considered three months ago. If you are a buyer and have been looking for more than a month, it’s a good idea to check in with your lender and request a new pre-approval and cost estimate so that you can be comfortable with what your payments will look like at the higher rates.
For most sellers, however, the rising interest rates are not impacting home prices. We continue to sell homes astonishingly quickly and at record prices. The pool of buyers considering a home may be different, but their number is not less. At the present time, it does not appear that the notable increase in interest rates has impacted our market in the “affordable” ranges at all.
However, the high-end market (over $1.5M) has always been much more susceptible to broader market factors such as interest rate increases. There has been a notable (and hopefully temporary) decrease in high-end activity in recent months and rising interest rates may be playing a key role in that decline (along with the volatile stock market and other concerning world events). If your home falls into our high-end market, you may need to exercise patience with our market as your time on the market will likely be more in line with historic norms as compared to the current “flash sale” market we are experiencing in the $1.3M market and below.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
The market is so hot right now and we aren’t having any luck getting a home – should we waive home inspections?
You are correct –the market under $1million is very fast paced right now, and in many instances, the winning bidder has waived home inspections. That does seem to be what it may take to “win” right now but I cannot recommend that you make that choice. Now several months into the “waive inspections” craze we are starting to hear stories about the expected fallout from this hasty decision.
From the seller’s perspective, I highly recommend that you have your home pre-inspected and repair or disclose the relevant items. While an inspection might cost you upwards of $500, it is money well spent toward a smooth closing. If you have pre-inspected your home and provide the report to prospective buyers, you are doing your part to make sure your buyer is well-informed. In the absence of a pre-inspection, I do not recommend that you accept an offer from a buyer who has not inspected your home. I have started hearing from home inspectors that disgruntled buyers are seeking post closing inspections to find problematic items and sue the sellers for failure to disclose. You don’t want that to be you. If you have not pre-inspected, we can discuss strategies to allow a buyer’s inspection and still protect you.
From a buyer’s perspective, as we all imagined would happen, the post-closing stories are starting to mount about buyers who purchased without an inspection and are now having all sorts of forseeable issues – roofs leaking, furnaces failing… If you are going to make this risky choice, you need to do so knowing that you will be assuming the risk of potentially tens of thousands of dollars of issues The contract specifically states that your inspection is your opportunity to find issues – if you waive that, you will be fighting an uphill battle to recover against anyone. Before you make an offer without an inspection contingency, you really do need to ask yourself if you are prepared to absorb those costs!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We have security cameras in our home – is it ok to leave them on when we show our home?
Video recording is permitted, except in areas where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy, such as a bathroom. In those areas, you may not record. Audio recording is much trickier, and most security cameras these days record video and audio. In the state of Pennsylvania, audio recording requires the consent of all parties being recorded. Therefore, the best practice, to protect yourself from any legal consequences, is to disable audio recordings of your showings. This does not mean that you cannot listen in – you can! It means you cannot make an audio recording of the showing.
Some sellers are just curious and want to know what people are saying about their homes. Some won’t be able to figure out how to disable the audio recording component of their system. In those cases, it is important that you prominently disclose that the property has video and audio surveillance. This needs to be done in a conspicuous way – you should post a notice at your entry door as well as someplace immediately visible on entry – I create a fun little sign with a smiley face that says “smile – you’re being recorded. Property is protected by audio/video surveillance.” When people enter your property having viewed the signage, it is deemed implied consent to the recording. It is also important that you make sure that your Realtor clearly indicate that there is audio and video surveillance in the MLS Realtor comments as well as in the lockbox instructions, if applicable. Do not forget to fully disclose your cameras to your agent (this should be done the first time your Realtor comes over, as recording anyone without their consent is illegal – not just the prospective buyers!) Over-disclosure is a good thing when it comes to recordings!
If you are a buyer, you should of course assume that every property you view is protected by audio and video recording and be sure to keep your comments to yourself until you are back in your car (many homes have extensive exterior surveillance as well as interior surveillance, so talking near the home is generally not a good idea!) Keep interior conversations positive, but don’t say more than you would want to say directly to the seller in advance of submitting an offer!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What impact do you think rising interest rates will have on the real estate market?
I can’t tell you how many years the Fed has been warning us that they are going to raise the interest rates, and then nothing happened. But now, it looks like it is finally happening. Less than one year ago, conforming loans with good credit could be procured at rates below 3% fixed. Now they have inched up to 3.75% for conforming loans. While these are still historically great rates, the days of mortgage interest rates in the 3% range appear to be gone and we are slowly inching upward.
What impact will this have on the market? Typically, when rates increase the market slows. Buying power decreases – a buyer will qualify for a smaller mortgage amount when rates are higher. Even if a buyer qualifies for a loan amount, they may not want to pay the added amount each month attributable to the higher rate. Many buyers are cognizant of how much they don’t have available to spend on quality of life purchases, such as dinners out, when they have larger mortgage payments. This boils down to the fact that they may be unwilling or unable to buy at a price they could have last year, and this could depress housing prices.
However, this is counterbalanced by the fact that we are in a market with record low levels of inventory, so it is highly unlikely that interest rates will have any effect on housing prices in the short run. If anything, rising rates should cause buyers to move quickly and lock in homes and mortgages before rates continue to climb. And this would be the most sensible short-term response to rising rates. Buyers – rates are actually going up! The time to act is now!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Sometimes it seems like everything is breaking around our house and we get behind on repairs. Isn’t there some level of wear and tear buyers of “previously enjoyed” homes are expecting to have to accept?
The process of selling and buying a home involves many fine lines. How far do you take preparing your home for sale? Do you really need to address all of the items suggested by your agent, the home stager or the home inspector who did a pre-inspection? Do you really have to attend to everything your family has broken or worn out over the years
Anything that could come up on an inspection, if you know about it, really must be repaired or disclosed. My vote is repair. Even with items that are very obvious, when an inspector gets involved, he may blow the issue out of proportion and something that might have cost you $1000 to repair before you listed ends up costing you $3000 on the inspection request. If its something an inspector might find, you can bet he will find it and you will be expected to cover the cost of repair anyhow, so you might as well repair upfront.
Many buyers actually get quite nervous during the home inspection (also known as buyers remorse). If you happened to have gotten one of these buyers, it is possible that they could walk away from your deal if the inspection concerns feel too weighty to them. After you actually receive and negotiate the offer, the last thing you want to do is lose the buyer over items that you could have fixed but didn’t think anyone would notice or care about! In today’s market, they notice, they care. Sometimes they are willing to let you pay for the repair. Sometimes they just walk. Don’t take any chances. If you suspect it is likely someone would seek a repair, get it done!
Buyers, as much as I advocate for sellers to take care of the wear and tear items on their homes, it is important for you to be reasonable on your inspection requests as well. If you see an item that needs to be fixed while you are touring the home, take that into account when you make your offer and do not revisit it on the inspection. Inspection requests are supposed to be for items you didn’t know about and didn’t have a chance to adjust for in making your offer. Again, its a fine line buyers also walk in deciding what are fair and appropriate inspection requests of a seller.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are interested in diversifying our portfolio and purchasing rental properties – any thoughts?
The first thing to keep in mind when considering a rental property is how you intend to pay for it. Rental properties are investment properties and subject to different lending rules than the home that you live in. Therefore, a lender will expect that you put more down as a down payment on a rental property and you will pay a higher rate of interest. Typically, lenders are looking for no less than 20% down on your purchase. And of course until you establish yourself as a successful landlord, your income is going to need to be sufficient to support the mortgage on your primary residence as well as any debt on your rental investments.
The second thing you need to think about is what kind of tenant you are interested in renting to. If you are hoping to rent to a family who might be in town for a couple of years with a temporary job assignment, then purchasing an apartment building with one and two bedroom apartments is unlikely to attract the type of tenant you hope to find. In that scenario, you would be looking for a single-family home in all likelihood (or possibly a townhome) in a good school district such as Quaker Valley. If you are hoping to find young professionals, you might look for something closer to downtown that has a trendier vibe to it.
You also need to take a look at the return on investment that you are seeking from the property. You will need to consider how much you are putting down on the property, how much you were paying in interest on any mortgage that you take out, your property taxes, maintenance of the building, any homeowners association fees, and any utilities that might be the responsibility of the landlord (these are typically utilities that are not separately divided in the particular structure, such as water). Putting together a spreadsheet with all of the expenses and your expected income will help you to determine whether or not the anticipated net income is worth the risk of investment to you. Be sure to build in some vacancy months – most properties are not leased 100% of the time.
Finally, you need to give some thought to how you will manage the property. Are you going to hire a property management company to handle that for you, or will you be more hands-on? Who is going to handle maintenance requests when something goes wrong? The beauty of being a tenant is that if something breaks, it’s not your responsibility to get it fixed. But as the landlord, are you going to be taking care of the repairs and if not, do you have a reliable handyman on-call that is willing to handle those items for you. If you are planning for others to manage the property on your behalf, you will need to build those costs into your financial projections as well. If investment properties are something you would like to consider, feel free to reach out to me and we can discuss these opportunities further.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We would like to move to Sewickley. Are there any affordable homes anymore?
Of course there are! But Sewickley, particularly in affordable price ranges, has become a very competitive market. It seems the secret is out – many people know about our very unique combination of a highly rated school district and a charming, walkable shopping district. Every agent I know has a list of buyers waiting for affordable homes to become available!
What does this mean for you as a home buyer? First, its critical to make sure you are fully pre-approved for a mortgage. If you are fully pre-approved (having submitted all of the supporting documents to your lender), you may be confident in your ability to get a mortgage and feel comfortable waiving your mortgage contingency, which will make you a much more competitive buyer if there are multiple offers.
Second, keep your offer as “clean” as possible. Try not to add in special requests or inclusions that sellers don’t usually leave with a home (such as furniture). Keep your inspection period as short as possible, or consider waiving inspections altogether if it is a newer home.
Third, keep your offer prices up. If you love a home, that is no time to lowball a seller. Even if a home has been on the market for a while, we often receive multiple offers at the same time. You don’t save anything when you make a low offer and you don’t get the home.
Finally, be open to compromise. If a home meets 7 out of 10 of your wish list items, consider it a home run. In a tight market like we are in, if you hold out waiting for your perfect 10, you will likely find yourself sitting on the sidelines. To get a Sewickley home, you may have to give up a garage, or a two car garage. You may need to take on a few projects. You may need to accept that there is no master bathroom or no main level family room. You may need to accept that the basement ceilings are lower and so any “game room” is a little more basic. You may have to accept a less open floorplan or a longer distance to the center of town. But remember, once you close you will make it your home, flaws and all, and will absolutely love being a part of this vibrant community!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Everything you could ever need, in one home, to live an exclusive life of leisure, luxury, convenience and privacy. This spectacular 11 acre Sewickley Heights estate is less than 1 mile from the heart of Sewickley Village and yet here, you will feel in a world all your own! 6 bedrooms, 7 full & 2 half-baths. Fully equipped chef’s kitchen, expansive family room. 2 home offices. Main level owners’ suite with private den and outdoor patio, spa-bath. Main level laundry, mudroom, attached 3 car garage, home gym, wine room. In warmer months, enjoy poolside entertaining with the walk-out lower level gathering space with kitchenette and two locker rooms that opens onto the lush lawns, heated inground salt-water pool with poolside terrace and sport court. Entertaining is magical on the expansive stone terraces, with covered outdoor living room and outdoor built-in kitchen. Easy access to the Allegheny Country Club, Pittsburgh region luxuries, easy access to I-79 and the Pittsburgh airport. $3,750,000.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are eager to buy a new home but worry that we may not make a good choice. Any advice?
Surveys have shown that 33% of baby boomer and 64% of millennial home buyers have some level of regret when buying a home, and given the fast-paced market we have been in this year, it is easy to understand why. The leading regrets center around financials – buyer often worry they may not be able to afford the home. Other concerns include the house being mis-sized for their needs, or the location not being ideal. In this market it is important to strike a balance between achieving your dreams and actually getting a house. Inventory is very limited and has been for nearly two years, so holding out for your perfect location, or the precisely correct amenities, may keep you waiting on the sidelines for a very long time. However, there are many things you can do to avoid having financial doubts. Before you enter into a contract to purchase a new home, start with your budget. Make sure you have a realistic idea of how much cash you have available each month after income taxes. Even if a lender can “qualify” you for a mortgage, you may not feel the payments are affordable, depending on how much you need for your monthly “lifestyle” outside of housing. Ask your lender to do a deep dive into your financials and really understand what your monthly payment will be – this number will vary depending on your interest rate, taxes… As you consider whether or not to view a home, look at the taxes, including what they might increase to after you buy the home. Also consider the cost of property insurance as well as some of the costs lenders don’t look at such as utility costs, maintenance costs (this can be grounds, pools, or general household upkeep) and homeowner association fees. Finally, when considering a specific home, consider any deferred maintenance that will need to be attended to in the next 5 years, such as replacing old roofs or heating systems – these items all need to be added into your current budget. Once you have a good sense of what the actual monthly cost of a home will be, make sure that you are comfortable with what is left over. Being “house poor” for a very short term, such as if you are expecting a major promotion, is one thing. Stretching to your maximum affordability long term with no significant income adjustment, however, might start to feel tiresome when you can’t afford the vacations or entertainment that you have come to enjoy. Take the time to do the hard work up front and educate yourself on these factors and you will be far less likely to regret the home choice you ultimately make.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Do you have any tips on how to get through the mortgage process as smoothly as possible?
I certainly do! Below are a few pointers on what you should not do if you want your mortgage to move smoothly through the process! This is critically important these days when competition is more intense for homes!
Don’t quit your job
Don’t change your job
Don’t get a promotion
Don’t buy any large ticket items (like five hundred dollars or more!)
Don’t make David Copperfield deposits (all funds need to be traceable)
Don’t forget to tell anyone making a funds gift to you that you will probably need a gift letter and some proof (usually a bank statement) that they had the money to give
Don’t forget to tell the lender about child support, alimony, wage garnishments or any other payroll reduction
Don’t co-sign for even a candy bar!
Don’t schedule a vacation before we close (especially a cruise)
Don’t order Direct TV, Cable, Telephone or any utility that will pull a credit report unless you want to write a letter of explanation about the credit report to the mortgage company
Don’t change your name during the mortgage process
Don’t go window shopping and let people pull your credit
Assuming that seems pretty straight forward to you, below are a few more choices some buyers make that make the process more difficult than it needs to be:
Not being up-front with your loan officer (hiding information)
Finding a lender on the internet that offers an unbelievable low interest rate
Using a 100% Online Lender
Not using the name on drivers licenses for mortgage docs (use Jr. and Sr. if required)
Not telling your lender if you lose your job before you close
Not shopping for the lowest costs and best rates
Delaying paperwork because you are irritated by the frequency and number of requests from the mortgage company
Take these pointers to heart and you will greatly simplify your mortgage process!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Are you starting to see the market cool down at all yet?
The answer to that question is both yes and no. In part it depends upon the price range that you are looking in or are selling in. Our homes priced under $500,000 are still selling quite readily and often with multiple offers. However, the buyer pool is definitely smaller right now. And at the higher end, while offers are still being received, the pool is much smaller than it was a couple of months ago.
This does not mean that sellers are not doing well with their proceeds – they are. But if you are a buyer, what this means is that there is an opportunity for you to be able to buy a new home without having to compete with a dozen people. You may still be competing with a couple of other buyers. It’s still very important that you be fully preapproved for your home purchase so that you present yourself in the best possible light to the seller, but you have a much better chance of winning at this point in the year. So if you’ve been sitting on the fence waiting for a chance to buy a new home in a more manageable market, this would be that market. At this point we are definitely expecting another busy spring market so if you are hoping to buy, the fall market will be your very best opportunity to do so without the overwhelming crowds that a spring market brings.
If on the other hand you have been sitting on the fence hoping to see a downturn in the market so that you can jump in and get a buy, I wouldn’t hold your breath. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that we are going to see a downturn in our market. I have watched the market carefully for many many years now and just when I think that the housing prices are ridiculous and there has to be a softening coming, another selling season opens and prices are even higher. Excepting 2008, which there are no indicators to suggest will happen again in the near future, our prices continue to steadily climb (and even in 2008 we did not see a housing crash – we just remained stable for a year or two with no additional appreciation).
A home’s value is set by the market. Value is always determined by what a buyer is willing to pay for your home. Many factors come into play in setting that value. Market value reflects quantitative factors such as: # bedrooms, # bathrooms, # garages, placement of garages (attached or integral), lot configuration (large and functional back yard? Cliff lot?), location of the home generally, age of roof, age of mechanicals. Market value also reflects more qualitative items: how updated is your home, and is it all new, or just refreshed? What is the floorplan (open concept?) What are your wall colors? There is always a range that value will land in, which we call the range of reasonable. There is no ONE price at which a home will sell. If there are many buyers seeking a home like yours, it will sell at the top of the range of reasonable. If there are not, it will take longer to sell and may sell a bit lower in the range. What the market does not consider in setting a value of a home is what you need from the home. In 2008, many homeowners had used their homes as ATMs and withdrawn large sums of money for educations, vacations and cars. When the market softened, there was not enough equity for them to be able to sell their homes and not be in a short sale situation. This fact, that a homeowner over-extended themselves on mortgages, is not the least bit relevant to market value. The market is also not going to consider what you plan to do next. If you plan to move to Los Angeles to be closer to family and are finding that the Pittsburgh market is not going to yield you enough to be able to buy in L.A., you will need to turn to other investments to make up any difference.
We are in a very robust market – your home is far more likely to garner more now – whatever that may be – than it could have in the past. Forecasters are also suggesting that values will soften by year end. My crystal ball is out for service, but what I can tell you is that every hot market eventually softens. Waiting out the market so that you can get a price that the market is unprepared to deliver at this time may have you waiting many, many years, and during that time you may need to invest even more in your home in order to deliver to the market what it needs in order to deliver an acceptable sale to you.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We hear selling a home can be a trying process. Any annoyances a seller should be expecting?
Below is a short list of many of the “joys” sellers might experience during the listing process. Being aware that these are possibilities will hopefully help you take them in good humor if they happen to you!
The agent showing your home will miss appointments and not call or show up.
Appointments will be made and cancelled at the last minute.
Some showings will last about five minutes and some will last 3 hours.
There will be a day when I call you and say someone wants to see your house, and you are going to ask me when. And I will say: “Look out your windows, they are sitting outside now”!
Agents are going to knock on your door or even drive by, see you in the yard and ask if can they see you house.
Agents showing your home will forget to turn lights off.
Agents showing your home will let your pets out (best to remove them from your home for showings) or your neighbor’s pet in.
Agents will provide unhelpful feedback – buyers buy homes when they attach emotionally to a home and when they don’t, their feedback is often nonsensical.
Agents will not provide any feedback – incredibly annoying, I know.
Expect lowball offers (at least it is a starting point). If your home has been on the market for more than a month, there is a reasonable chance that you priced it too high – maybe the lowball isn’t as low as you think.
Things will come up on the inspection that you had no idea were wrong with your home and you will be sure the inspector made a mistake. A pre-inspection is a great way to protect yourself against this!
The buyer will make ridiculous inspection requests.
The buyer will ask to bring in contractors for estimates for work they want to do after the closing at the seemingly most inconvenient times.
The property might not appraise at what you are selling it for. In a hot market like this one, this is a real risk. Be prepared to adjust your price if your sales price is over the listing price and it doesn’t appraise.
The closing date on the contract may change. Lenders and closing companies remain swamped right now – be open to the possibility of a delay.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
In your articles you often write “when it is priced right, it will sell.” Our home is on the market, has not sold and we feel it is priced right. Is this maxim always true?
The short answer is that it is not always true. Some homes just take longer to sell than others. If your home is “quirky” in its market, then it may take longer to sell, even if it is priced correctly. By quirky I do not mean dated décor or with deferred maintenance you have not yet completed. What I mean by quirky is, for example, if you are trying to sell a 2 bedroom home in a market that is nearly uniformly 3+ bedroom homes, that could slow down its resale.
However, if your home has been on the market for several months and is under $1.5M and has not sold, it is likely it is overpriced. We have a tremendous backlog of buyers looking for homes in our area. It does take time for buyers to view and assess the possibilities of a home, but certainly not months. As a general rule of thumb we like to say that if a home has had 13 showings with no offer or if it has been well-marketed for 13 weeks without an offer, an adjustment must be made to draw an offer. In this hot market, it should take less time than that! Sellers currently have expectations that the market should yield them tremendous premiums, and 2021 has certainly been the year of increasing prices, but it is overall still grounded in reality. In the end, in this market if your home has not sold in the first month, you are likely aiming too high with your listing price. The three time-tested factors that determine sale-ability of a home are price, condition, and location. Location cannot be changed but does have a big impact on price. In Sewickley, even a block can dramatically impact whether a home sells quickly or not. Condition can be adjusted and I suggest you read some of my prior articles on my Ask Kathe blog at www.kathebarge.com for important information on what buyers expect in today’s market.
The final factor is of course price. Depending on the price range your home is in, even a small adjustment can result in renewed interest in the home. Additionally, if you have received constructive feedback regarding either deferred maintenance of dated décor, you will either need to adjust your condition or your price. In the end, price is the key and if this market is not yielding you an acceptable offer, in all likelihood it comes down to one factor – it is not priced correctly and should be repositioned in the market.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We recently viewed a home that is on the market, only to find out the seller was taping the showing – we were stunned. Is this common?
Welcome to the age of cheap technology! If you are viewing a home, whether at an open house to at a private showing, these days you must assume that you are being filmed. There are many systems that are available, from ring to nest to cameras installed as part of a home security system. They are fairly inexpensive, are often not recognizable as cameras and frequently record sound as well as video. Sellers typically install them as part of a home security or doorbell system – they are not usually installed just to spy on buyers and their agents. Typically, homeowners have security in mind when they install these systems. But when their home goes on the market, these systems do provide a handy way to see firsthand what people are saying about their home. So yes, it has become reasonably commonplace to be filmed at a minimum around the doors of a home, but often inside as well. The owners can usually access these videos in live time on their tablet or phone, and they are also recorded for later review.
Knowing this, I would suggest that you simply revert to old-fashioned good manners when viewing homes. Don’t say anything near or in someone else’s home that you wouldn’t want to see on YouTube! Don’t criticize the seller’s décor choices or the condition of the home – it may come back to haunt you if, after reviewing the inventory, you decide that it was in fact the best option for you, only to find out that you unintentionally offended the sellers. Save all commentary for when you are back in the car with your agent.
If you are viewing the home with children, be mindful of their behavior as well. Keep them with you at all times. Be sure that they are not running or jumping inside of someone else’s home or touching their things. Have a hard time managing high energy children at an open house or showing? Schedule a babysitter so that you can view the home without having to worry about monitoring their every move. And in these pandemic times, it is best to wear a mask – if the seller requests masks, your agent can be charged with an ethical violation if you don’t wear one – even if you are fully vaxxed! In this day of minimal privacy and cheap technology, the best approach is to assume you could very well be on Candid Camera!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We have been sitting on the sidelines for a while now waiting for a home that meets our wish list to come on the market – what’s coming this fall?
You might be surprised to find out, you are one of dozens of prospective buyers sitting on the sidelines waiting for their ideal home to come on the market. Nationally we are at a 20-year low in available housing inventory. What is going on you might ask?
Many blame it on the Baby Boomers! Seventy-eight percent of Boomers own their own homes, and 85% of them have no intentions to move within the next year. This is tying up a significant portion of potentially available housing inventory. Why aren’t Boomers moving? Stated reasons range from being happy where they live and not wanting to uproot their lives, to having inadequate choices in empty nester inventory to escalating prices that make scale down homes more and more expensive. Boomers are reportedly less interested in destinations like Florida and Arizona these days and are choosing to stay in the homes and communities where their family and friends are.
In Sewickley, we have very few opportunities for scale down housing, and so Boomers are remaining in their homes. As a result, our inventory continues to dwindle and there are very few new introductions. There will likely be a few relocations, but with the low inventory and large backlog of buyers, I expect pricing will be high and bidding wars will continue.
To be successful in this housing market, if you define success as actually getting a home and moving, you are going to have to accept a few key premises. First, you need to reevaluate your wish list and see what compromises you are willing to make. We still have many nice homes on the market – they may not be a perfect match for you, but could you make one work? You are more likely to receive a discount on a home that has been on the market. Second, if you decide to wait and a home comes on the market that is a good fit for you, be prepared to act fast and bid high. Complete the preapproval process now so that your offer is as strong as possible.
Our market is a steady one and I do expect we will see some new introductions as we move into fall, but your best recipe for success is one that includes reevaluation of the current inventory, compromise, fast action and generous, well crafted offers.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We have heard the foreclosure market may be opening back up again – should we hold off on our home purchase so we can grab a “great deal”?
There has certainly been some commentary lately about the fact that when the moratorium on foreclosures expires, there will be a backlog of foreclosures that ultimately hit the market. Pennsylvania has never been a state which has processed foreclosed properties very quickly and so I would not anticipate a large and immediate influx of foreclosed properties. I’m not sure I would count on the market being flooded with foreclosed properties, even if that is seen in other states.
That said, there will ultimately be some properties that are foreclosed upon. However, there are several things to think about with these opportunities. First of all, the properties may or may not be in a neighborhood that you are interested in living in. If you are particular about where in the greater Pittsburgh metropolitan region you hope to purchase a home, hoping for a foreclosure in your desired neighborhood may be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Second, even if a home happens to come available at an address that you find desirable, there is no reason to believe that there won’t be a dozens of other buyers as interested as you are, and the likely bidding that will ensue is likely to drive the prices up to current market prices. In other words, it is unlikely that there will be “deals” to be had even on the foreclosed upon properties. We are not in a recession – this is not 2008 – and we have experienced many months of a severe housing shortage – I expect foreclosed properties will not be the value opportunities they were in 2009/2010.
Also please keep in mind that if you are contemplating a foreclosed property, you really do need to wait until it moves through the foreclosure process before trying to buy it. If you try to purchase it before the bank has taken ownership, you will be responsible for all liens on the property which includes back taxes and any other liens that may have been placed on the property by the prior owner. These liens may take it well above the actual market value of the property, which is why it is generally advisable to allow the foreclosure process to be completed and the home to hit the MLS.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We have read that the real estate market is beginning to cool down – is that the case locally?
We have been in an incredible sellers market for the past six months now like nothing we have ever seen. In prior articles I have written about the why: more millennials entering the home buying market (and at higher prices than you might guess for first time home buyers), boomers downsizing at a later and later age (whether advisable to delay or not), and new construction starts never having rebounded from 2008 are among the many reasons. And while these factors have not changed overnight, it’s expected that the market will eventually be able to meet the demand and it is in fact starting to do so.
What we are seeing now is still multiple offer situations in the moderately priced and lower priced housing brackets, but rather than receiving 8 to 10 offers, sellers are typically receiving three or four offers and prices may still exceed the asking price but may not be quite as high as they were in May. Even with three or four offers, buyers are still having to compete strongly for the homes they want, and many are resorting to tactics such as waiving appraisal contingencies, mortgage contingencies and in some cases (while probably inadvisable if the home hasn’t been pre-inspected), inspection contingencies. In the million dollar market, we have started to clear some of our inventory but I would not describe the buying pool as “robust.” And in the ultra-high end market, we are seeing almost to no serious buyer traffic right now. In these higher-end brackets, buyers do not have the same urgency that we see in the middle and lower-end brackets. They remain very picky about what they are looking for in a home and if the home does not meet their exact expectations, they will just sit on the sidelines and wait for the perfect match for them.
So yes, I would say that the housing market has cooled since May, as we all expected it would. However, if you are a home seller planning to introduce a middle or lower-end home to our market this fall, I still anticipate that your home will be well received provided that you take the time to condition it well for the market (and, I highly recommend, pre-inspect your home). If you have a higher dash and home to sell, then it’s imperative to develop a plan and a longer-term strategy to maximize your return – it is possible to still reap an excellent price at all levels of our market. Reach out and I am happy to meet with you to discuss a strategic plan, at any price point!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What should we expect from the Buyer’s walkthrough?
Buyers conduct a final walk through right before they close on a home. This is probably the first time they have seen their new home vacant. If they find conditions they aren’t expecting, a seller can expect a bill at the closing or a last minute request to remedy the condition. What kinds of things might come up? There are many things that can cost a seller money at a walk through. Here are a few.
If there is any damage to floors (even if it was there when a seller bought the home) and the damage was not listed on the disclosure, and it wasn’t obvious when the buyer walked through the occupied home (under rugs or furniture), a seller can expect that the buyer will expect the seller to pay for the repair/replacement when he discovers the issue, which could be a significant expense. What should a seller do? Disclose. Disclose. Disclose! When listing a home, sellers should take the time to make sure the disclosure lists every possible issue with the home.
If a seller leaves anything behind that isn’t attached or specifically included, a seller should anticipate they may be required to call a last minute hauler to remove the items. If the items were there when the seller bought the home, that’s no excuse. The house must be empty unless you have the buyers’ specific consent to leave the items behind.
Forget to cut the grass in a few weeks? A seller could be asked for a credit to have the lawn mowed. Forget to clean the house? If its not at least “broom swept clean” a seller could be paying a cleaning fee. Forget to complete inspection repairs or forget to check the work and make sure it’s done correctly? A seller can’t rely on the contractors to get it right – they must check the work – if its incomplete or incorrect, a seller will likely have to pay for the repair again. Accidentally remove an inclusion such as the TV wall mount bracket? A seller may have to pay for a new one.
Take the time to make sure the home is exactly as you would want it were you moving in and be pro-active with your buyers if you discover any issues on your move out to avoid any closing table surprises.
If BUYING or SELLING real estate is in your future, please get in touch with me and put my expertise to work for you!! As YOUR REAL ESTATE ADVOCATE, I will help you avoid pitfalls like those mentioned above. 412.779.6060
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Our home went under agreement quickly! When we moved in we installed expensive hardware that we really love (door knobs, switch plate covers, towel rods, etc.). We would like to take it with us. Can we substitute other items before we close?
Absolutely not! First of all, with a quick sale you likely got a high price or your home and when a buyer is paying top dollar, it is not appropriate to start pulling things out of your home! Additionally, any item that is affixed to your home with a screw, nail, etc. must convey with your home unless you have specifically excluded it from your agreement of sale. Unless you raise this question during negotiations and your buyer agreed prior to signing the agreement, the items must remain with your home.
About 20 years ago I represented a buyer of a home that was remodeled with high-end Restoration Hardware items – cabinet knobs, towel bars… After we agreed on a price but before closing, we returned to the home to discover that the sellers had removed the expensive Restoration Hardware items and installed baseline builder items from Lowes. This was not what my client had seen when they toured the home and not what they had agreed to purchase. The seller ended up providing a $7000 reduction in the purchase price to make up for the items that had been switched. I’m not sure if the buyer ever replaced the items – what is relevant was that the removal of the high end items made the home less valuable.
If you find yourself heading toward a closing and you are just realizing that there is something affixed to your home that has sentimental value that you forgot to exclude, you can certainly ask your buyer if they would agree to a substitution – most buyers will allow removal of a sentimental item if you replace it with a like value item. Absent buyer consent or upfront exclusion, all affixed items must stay. Items that are occasionally inappropriately removed include: appliances, doorknobs, switch covers, towel bars, curtain rods, mailboxes, attached shelving and TV wall mount brackets. Mirrors that are attached must stay. Those hanging on hooks can be removed if you have to have them (although most buyers do expect them to remain).
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
It seems like there have not been very many new homes coming on the market. Why do you think there is such an inventory shortage and when do you think it might change?
In my professional opinion, there have been many factors that have led to the current inventory shortage. The first dates back to the recession of 2008. At that time many homebuilders got stuck carrying their spec homes for lengthy periods of time, which cut into or eliminated all of their profits. In order to hang on during this challenging period, builders cut back significantly on what they were building for the market, and to this day have not recovered to 2008 levels. With fewer homes being built, there are fewer opportunities for people to make moves. The pandemic has only compounded this problem. There are many shortages in electronic component parts that are causing shortages in appliance availability, for example. The cost of raw materials also skyrocketed during the pandemic, making it almost unreasonably expensive to build a new home.
On top of this, we have a very large generation, the millennials, entering the home buying market for the first time. The millennials as a generation are comprised of 88 million individuals (as compared to the 80 million individuals that comprised the baby boomer generation), many of whom delayed buying a home until a bit later in life. This very large generation, many of whom have double incomes, is now surging into our home buying market. However, the baby boomers, the youngest of whom are now 56 years old, are often not ready to downsize, and when they are, they are often finding that there aren’t many acceptable alternatives to move to. Most boomers, when asked to describe their ideal Sewickley down-size opportunity, would describe a village patio home with a main level master suite and a small spot to be able to garden. We have very few homes that fit this bill. Often their mortgages on their current homes are paid off making it reasonably affordable to stay put in their current homes and so many boomers are simply electing to age in place. The lack of affordable and appealing scale-down opportunities is a pervasive theme across our market generally (not just Sewickley) and is contributing to the chokehold on inventory availability.
Unfortunately, I do not see any of these factors changing in the short term. To release the chokehold on area inventory, we are going to need to see builders jumping back into construction (which will require a decrease in materials pricings and an increase in the willingness of laborers to show back up to the job). We are also going to need to see some of the baby boomers moving out of their bigger homes, whether it be to a local down-size community or to warmer weather! In the meantime, buyers are going to have to adjust their expectations and be more willing to accept homes that may not check all of their boxes, and will probably have to allocate more funds to get into these homes as sellers are well aware of the captive market buyers are in.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
It seems buyers can be very picky on home inspections. What should a seller expect?
What a Seller needs to be prepared for on a home inspection needs to be evaluated in the context of the entire deal! Both buyers and sellers need to keep things in perspective. If a Buyer got a great deal on a home, then the inspection should be more about major things that the Buyer could never have known about. If a Seller got top dollar for a home, the Seller should expect to be very generous on the inspection resolution with the buyers. Sellers do need to expect that a buyer paying asking price or above will expect the inspection items to be addressed by the Seller unless the Seller had disclosed them on the Disclosure.
The Disclosure is a Seller’s friend. What a Seller discloses is supposed to be outside the scope of inspection requests. These are items that the Buyer should be taking into account when making their initial offer. Therefore, when filling out the Disclosure, Sellers will want to review it carefully to be sure it is thorough. Inspectors do not miss anything these days, so it will be far less of a financial blow to a seller if all possible issues are noted up front.
Of course, a pre-inspection may be a Seller’s best approach for a smooth transaction for all parties. While a seller will spend approximately $400 up front, it gives you a chance to repair or disclose the issues before they possibly destroy a deal. Remember, if buyers and sellers can’t come to a resolution about inspection concerns, the deal is terminated and both parties move on. Sellers, you obviously want to sell or you wouldn’t be undergoing the joy of preparing your home for showings. Keep the big picture in mind and understand that unless you are giving your home away, your buyer will expect you to fix what you didn’t disclose. Don’t like the sound of that? Pre-inspect so you know what you will have to address upfront.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
With all of the bidding wars happening in this hot market, should we put an appraisal contingency in our offer?
Appraisal contingencies are added to agreements when buyers are concerned that their offer may be over market value. If you are getting a mortgage, they really aren’t necessary if you are putting 20% or less down on your home. Your bank will need your new home to appraise so that your debt percentage is not greater than 80%. If it doesn’t appraise, you will either have to throw in more cash or reduce the sales price of the home, or the bank will refuse to fund the loan.
If you are paying cash for your home, or have a small planned mortgage, your only protection from over-paying is to insert an appraisal contingency into your offer. If the home fails to appraise, you will have the option of terminating the agreement if you choose, or possibly re-negotiating the price. While this may sound like a fool-proof option, when we are in a hot market, with limited inventory and limited options for buyers, the goal is to reduce the number of contingencies to make your offer more appealing, not to add more! When evaluating whether they want to take their home off the active market to work with your offer, a seller will weigh all of the components, and an appraisal contingency weakens your offer as it is one more hurdle the seller must overcome before they can proceed to closing.
There is a definite risk that in a hot market you could overpay for a home. Homes are in many circumstances selling for tens of thousands of dollars in excess of the list price. Unfortunately, this may be what it takes to get a home. Inserting an appraisal contingency will only weaken your offer and could cause you to lose a bidding war. The best course of action if you want to win is to ask your agent to prepare an analysis of comparable sales and use that to determine your best offer, leaving out the appraisal contingency and hopefully succeeding in your bid to buy a new home.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Is there a preferred style that is more desirable to buyers?
Six months ago, I would have told you that buyers overwhelming preferred the gray and white aesthetic. You know the look. White as the base color for “hardscapes” like tile, countertops and cabinetry with gray as the primary color (and perhaps a few pops of color reflected in easy to change items such as throw pillows).
How times have changed! Today, the answer is – buyers just want a home, and if the home is well-conditioned, they seem to be looking past style and focusing on whether their baseline needs, such as the number of bathrooms, bedrooms and garages are met. Design aesthetic and color schemes have become much less important in this sellers’ market.
The next obvious question then would be does that mean that any home will sell in this market? And the answer is yes, as long as it is properly priced for condition. What we are seeing in this market is some homes are coming on priced as if they were completely remodeled and in perfect condition when they may in fact not be. Buyers are paying seemingly ridiculous prices for many homes on the market. However, the common thread amongst homes that are being snapped up quickly and achieving market high prices are that they are perfectly conditioned and well remodeled or are priced in line with the condition and updates that they do have.
In the end, this is an extremely strong sellers’ market in which sellers are receiving more money for their homes and they would have even six months ago. However, while the prices that are realized may not be a function of the design aesthetic of the home as it perhaps was last year, it is still a function of how recently and fully updated the home is and how pristine the condition is, both mechanically and from a cleanliness perspective.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are planning to update the color palette in our home. What are the “in” colors these days?
Gray (and its many shades including greige) have been in-style for so long now that its hard to imagine it ever going out of style. Gray is still quite popular with buyers – homes painted in a gray/greige and white color palette almost universally fly off the market. However, the incoming trend is strongly leaning towards the whites. White comes in so many shades – and even straight out of the can white is quite a nice and refreshing color. In some cases, white is being combined with an accent wall in a gray tone or other neutral, and this can work quite well.
Of course, like any other color, it is critical that you choose the correct shade of white to compliment your trim. It is easy to end up with the walls clashing with the trim if you are not careful! An easy solution is to paint the walls the same color white as your trim! Don’t let the shades of white fool you – there are so many hues of white, and before you paint be sure to look at the undertones in the white to determine which undertone you prefer – a tiny hint of gray? Pink? Green? Unless you use the white straight out of the can, there will always be an undertone.
White is also a very popular base for countertops and tile. Ideally, they are not pure white – most popular are those that use white as the base color and then include other neutrals such as the grays and browns.
Where to start your painting? Strong colors are not currently where the market is, so it’s best to begin repainting the rooms that are currently wallpapered (also not popular with buyers unless the wallpaper is pretty new and very trendy) and rooms that are painted the strongest colors. In an ideal world, you will ultimately create an interior aesthetic that, while every room does not need to be the same, the colors blend nicely together.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What are the most popular “must haves” in higher end homes?
The pandemic has certainly shifted the most sought after features on a buyer wish list a bit, and it will be interesting to see how this continues to evolve as we achieve higher percentages of full vaccination and start moving back to “normal.” Right now, pools are at the very top of the wish list for high end buyers. As people have migrated away from larger social scenes and toward family-only or small group events, pools have skyrocketed in their popularity, which is not typical in climates like ours where pools have such a short season.
Other sought-after features in higher end homes include large kitchens. The appliance selection is less critical as long as they are stainless or panel-front. Commercial grade ranges are always a hit, but if the home has a cooktop and double ovens, that will work as well. The brands are less important than the look. White kitchens remain our most popular, but whatever the cabinet color, the trend has definitely swung toward lighter countertops.
A complete wish list would also include a home gym, a home office (two is even better), at least three garage bays (more is better in this case), a large walk-in closet in the owners’ bedroom (two walk-ins are strongly preferred), and a luxury owners bath with large shower, separate free-standing soaking tub and double vanities. Other popular items include upper level laundry rooms, lower level movie rooms, wine cellars and covered outdoor patio spaces (and outdoor kitchens and/or fireplaces). As more boomers enter their retirement years, main level owners’ suites have also become quite popular (and very hard to find in this area).
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We keep reading that now is a seller’s market. Do you agree?
YES! We currently have the perfect storm for a seller! We have been experiencing historically low inventory for several months. It has been suggested that as a great portion of our population is fully vaccinated, we may see an influx of inventory. Some sellers, who may have been on the fence about having prospective buyers in their home because of COVID may start to feel more comfortable once we achieve higher vaccination levels and may be more willing to put their homes on the market. Some homeowners have seen COVID as an opportunity to retreat to homes they own elsewhere and, returning to Pittsburgh, are deciding they would prefer to remain in their alternate location on a permanent basis. Some have simply taken a longer vacation to a new location and decided to make that home – with the rise of telecommuting it is now possible to work in remote locations. Whatever the reason, we are expecting a return to more normal inventory levels as we move through 2021, and with that will likely come a cooling in demand – so if you are a seller, NOW is your chance to get your best price from our market.
Also in a seller’s favor are the low interest rates. Rates have creeped up a bit and have seemed to stabilize again – still at historically low rates. Low rates allow a buyer to afford more home, while still paying the same each month. This supports the increasing prices we have seen. If rates continue to climb, that will likely soften the prices a buyer is willing to pay.
It is worth noting, however, that the perfect storm is really happening in our middle market and below. High end homes have not been experiencing the same demand this spring, and are not as affected by interest rate fluctuations. Our high end market is its own entity – yes, it is fair to assume that if you were ever going to achieve your desired price, it would be in this very robust market. But we simply don’t have the same influx of buyers in this price range, and those that we do have tend to be very exacting about what they want in their new home. If yours is a high end home, then its important to be patient – the market does surge in the high end as well – its just less predictable!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Are you still seeing multiple offers on homes these days?
Yes, we are, depending on location, condition and price range. Multiple offers are primarily coming in the under $500,000 market. If your home is in a higher price range, that does not mean that you won’t get an offer, and it doesn’t mean that it won’t be a good offer – but you may only get one, and you may need to wait for it – the market does not always offer instantaneous results. The market is still strong, just not as crazy as it was a few weeks ago – more homes are coming on the market and the buyer demand is starting to be satisfied.
Multiple offers, over-asking-price offers and full-price offers are also far more likely in our hottest neighborhoods and historically most popular locations. Additionally, sellers who have conditioned their home for market, both in staging and making changes to meet current buying trends, are most likely to be those with multiple and/or full price offers. It is very important, however, to keep in mind that your initial asking price will dictate whether or not you receive a high offer. If you choose to challenge the market with your asking price, and are at the top of your neighborhood, it’s unlikely your home will be snapped up or will receive an asking price offer – you may need to be patient and wait for a buyer who sees the value as you do. On the other hand, if you price with last year’s prices, or shoot below market, you are far more likely to spur a bidding war. Yes, we are selling at premium pricing on premium products, but this typically happens because the asking price feels a little on the low end to buyers to begin with. So my best advice to sellers is to take the time to condition your home to meet market expectations and then price carefully – no one wants to give their home away, but do be careful not to overshoot the market’s historic guidance on pricing.
Buyers – you still have a lot of competition out there. If you are looking for a historically hot property (based on size, location or price range), you still need to plan to be very aggressive with your offers if you want to win!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
A home’s value is set by the market. Value is always determined by what a buyer is willing to pay for your home. Many factors come into play in setting that value. Market value reflects quantitative factors such as: # bedrooms, # bathrooms, # garages, placement of garages (attached or integral), lot configuration (large and functional back yard? Cliff lot?), location of the home generally, age of roof, age of mechanicals. Market value also reflects more qualitative items: how updated is your home, and is it all new, or just refreshed? What is the floorplan (open concept?) What are your wall colors? There is always a range that value will land in, which we call the range of reasonable. There is no ONE price at which a home will sell. If there are many buyers seeking a home like yours, it will sell at the top of the range of reasonable. If there are not, it will take longer to sell and may sell a bit lower in the range. What the market does not consider in setting a value of a home is what you need from the home. In 2008, many homeowners had used their homes as ATMs and withdrawn large sums of money for educations, vacations and cars. When the market softened, there was not enough equity for them to be able to sell their homes and not be in a short sale situation. This fact, that a homeowner over-extended themselves on mortgages, is not the least bit relevant to market value. The market is also not going to consider what you plan to do next. If you plan to move to Los Angeles to be closer to family and are finding that the Pittsburgh market is not going to yield you enough to be able to buy in L.A., you will need to turn to other investments to make up any difference.
We are in a very robust market – your home is far more likely to garner more now – whatever that may be – than it could have in the past. Forecasters are also suggesting that values will soften by year end. My crystal ball is out for service, but what I can tell you is that every hot market eventually softens. Waiting out the market so that you can get a price that the market is unprepared to deliver at this time may have you waiting many, many years, and during that time you may need to invest even more in your home in order to deliver to the market what it needs in order to deliver an acceptable sale to you.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We continue to look at homes on the Howard Hanna website and have noticed there doesn’t seem to be many homes coming on the market. Just wondering if we’ve missed the peak of the spring real estate season? Have you found that there are typically more houses coming on the market in early summer as school ends?
Historically, our market peaks in April, so if you have been watching our market all spring, you would have noticed the surge in April and the much more modest introductions in May. We will continue to have properties come on the market during the summer months, but fewer than we see in the spring months. The late summer is not a typical time to see new introductions, but they will pick back up after Labor Day.
However, if you are one of the many buyers sitting and waiting for their perfect Village home, this may be a good time to reevaluate your priorities. Inventory is at an all time low and if your goal is to move into our community, you may need to start making compromises. With our continued Village development and all of the exciting new amenities as well as the top-ranked school district, Sewickley has become an extremely popular community choice for buyers. Homes have been selling like hotcakes! Not because they are perfect homes but because buyers are making compromises on their wish list and choosing homes that will work despite their imperfections. Some might need updates. Some might not have the desired lot size or configuration. Some might not have enough garages or even a garage. Some might have too few bathrooms or a less than typical bedroom configuration. Some might be in a noisier location. Some might check every box but be a slight drive “up the hill” where we still have a wonderful selection of fantastic homes available. If Sewickley is your dream, it may be time to start thinking about how to work with one of the many wonderful homes still available rather than sitting on the sidelines as values continue to increase and you get even less for more.
Considering a move outside Sewickley? It is true that the North Hills have a larger selection of inventory due to the larger population base, but the prices are no lower and they are struggling with an equally tight inventory.
One final thought:If you are a seller and you have been sitting on the fence about selling your home, now is the time to call me!
We have a severe inventory shortage across many price ranges and many eager buyers.
This spring market will yield your very best possible price.
The fall market is much more typically a buyers market, so lets get your home on the market today!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
The market is very hot right now and we are having no luck winning a bidding war. Should we waive inspections?
It’s certainly true that waiving inspections will make your offer much stronger than a competing offer in which the buyer is inspecting the home. Most sellers would gladly choose an offer waiving inspections over one that is not. However, before you make such a bold choice, you do need to consider the consequences.
If the seller has pre-inspected the home, then you have a reasonably limited amount of exposure should you choose to buy without inspections. Most home inspectors are pretty thorough and so while there are always things that a home inspector misses, a pre-inspection should give you a good sense of what you are buying. After reviewing the report, if you feel that the report is thorough, it may be a reasonable risk to waive inspections, understanding that doing so may open you up to unanticipated expenses. However, this may be a way to help you win a home that is receiving multiple offers.
If the home has not been pre-inspected, then it’s quite risky to make an offer without planning to inspect the home. If you happen to be a contractor and you feel comfortable assessing a home on your own, that’s one thing. But if you don’t have any experience with contracting or any experience with being involved in the maintenance of your own current home such that you feel very comfortable assessing the conditions of homes, you may be poorly equipped to get a handle on the condition of the home you’re buying. You could be looking at tens of thousands of dollars of unexpected expenses, depending on the size of the home. This is something you would need to weigh in deciding whether or not that’s an acceptable risk to you in order to be the successful bidder. It’s not a course of action I would recommend, but you may decide it’s the only way you’re ultimately going to get the house you want. If that’s the case and you do move forward waving inspections, you do need to keep in mind that if you later find problems with the home, the only person responsible for taking care of the cost of related repairs is you – not the prior owner, and not the Realtors. So do proceed with caution!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We have noticed that several homes have sold lately before they have hit the MLS. Are these “pocket listings” a good way to sell your home?
If a home sells before it hits the MLS, as a “pocket listing” as they are often called, it is highly likely that the seller could have sold the home for significantly more money, particularly in this market. The MLS exposes a home to a large number of prospective buyers in a very short amount of time. This widespread exposure is what has the potential to drive the price up for the seller.
A “pocket listing” is more like a secret sale. The agent you are dealing with may have a buyer that is willing to buy your home, but if it’s that easy, chances are you could have received more money if the general public had a chance at your home, and a bidding war could have possibly ensued. If an agent is being straightforward with the seller and discusses the strategies involved with using the market pressure of the MLS to drive in a higher price, it’s a rare seller who will willingly leave money on the table.
So why do we occasionally see these seemingly “secret sales” taking place? Some sellers perceive these pocket listings as a good thing – some don’t want to be hassled with multiple showings, some don’t want the general public to know their home is available for sale. If a seller’s goal is to maximize financial return, however, a pocket listing, or accepting an agreement of sale before the home is marketed in the MLS, is rarely the best strategy.
So no, my 22 years experience indicates that a pocket listing is usually not in a seller’s best interests. The highest returns I have seen sellers achieve occur in scenarios when they have used strategies to maximize the excitement within the buying community through proper pricing, excellent conditioning and staging and full MLS exposure.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Why don’t we see new inventory hitting the market – has spring not sprung?
The freeze is over and our real estate market should be opening with new introductions as I write. In fact, I have new introductions coming this week! That said, there is a glut of buyers looking for homes in our market across nearly every price range. We have been starved for inventory for quite a long time now. Forecasters are predicting that we will see greater mobility from baby boomers in the coming year, and that will undoubtedly bring more inventory into our market. However, it seems that natural fallout from the pandemic has included some potential sellers hunkering down and preferring to just stay put for the time being, and others who might be in homes that are probably too big for them at this stage of life appreciating, at least for now, the additional space that their larger home offers.
I expect this will be a very tight year for inventory because even though I suspect we will see introductions, the buyer competition is going to be fierce. To every potential seller out there I would note that if you are considering a move in the not too distant future, this particular market is one in which you could extract a premium, and I would be more than happy to meet with you to help you strategize how to take advantage of this unique blip in our market. We will ultimately see more inventory introduced and that will cause prices to level out again so this would be the ideal time to take advantage of premium prices generated by our lack of inventory. To those buyers out there sitting on the fence, I would suggest that there are some very nice homes currently on the market and this would be a great time to lock in one of those homes. If I had a crystal ball, I suspect it would tell you that we are not going to see an excessive amount of introductions in this spring market and homes that have been sitting on the market for longer periods of time will surprisingly end up with multiple offers. Why not buy one of those homes now and avoid the unpleasantness associated with a bidding war?
This is definitely a market in which strategic planning, whether as a buyer or a seller, is key. If a real estate move is in your future, I would be more than happy to meet with you confidentially to develop a plan for your success!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Sometimes it seems like everything is breaking around our house and we get behind on repairs. Isn’t there some level of wear and tear buyers of “previously enjoyed” homes are expecting to have to accept?
The process of selling and buying a home involves many fine lines. How far do you take preparing your home for sale? Do you really need to address all of the items suggested by your agent, the home stager or the home inspector who did a pre-inspection? Do you really have to attend to everything your family has broken or worn out over the years? Anything that could come up on an inspection, if you know about it, really must be repaired or disclosed. My vote is repair. Even with items that are very obvious, when an inspector gets involved, he may blow the issue out of proportion and something that might have cost you $1000 to repair before you listed ends up costing you $3000 on the inspection request. If it’s something an inspector might find, you can bet he will find it and you will be expected to cover the cost of repair anyhow, so you might as well repair upfront.
Many buyers actually get quite nervous during the home inspection (also known as buyers remorse). If you happen to get one of these buyers, it is possible that they could walk away from your deal if the inspection concerns feel too weighty to them. After you actually receive and negotiate the offer, the last thing you want to do is lose the buyer over items that you could have fixed but that you didn’t think anyone would notice or care about! In today’s market, they notice, they care. Sometimes they are willing to let you pay for the repair. Sometimes they just walk. Don’t take any chances. If you suspect it is likely someone would seek a repair, get it done!
Buyers, as much as I advocate for sellers to take care of the wear and tear items on their homes, it is important for you to be reasonable on your inspection requests as well. If you see an item that needs to be fixed while you are touring the home, take that into account when you make your offer and do not revisit it on the inspection. Inspection requests are supposed to be for items you didn’t know about and didn’t have a chance to adjust for in making your offer. Again, it’s a fine line buyers also walk in deciding what are fair and appropriate inspection requests of a seller.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Why does it seem like there are no new homes coming on the market!
Your perceptions are correct! We have less than one half of the homes we had on the market at this time last year. At the time of this writing, we have only 61 homes actively available in the Quaker Valley School District, with only 34 of those being priced at 1million or less! In 2020, we sold 252 homes in the Quaker Valley School District with 225 under 1million. I suspect the reason you are not seeing more inventory is because people who are willing to sell their homes have no where to go. Unless you are leaving the region or moving into a retirement community such as Masonic Village or Sherwood Oaks, you might be interested in taking advantage of this market that is yielding record prices but can’t figure out how to make it happen! If you are one of those potential sellers who has a plan to depart, give me a call so we can devise a strategic plan to drive in the best price and terms for you! Now is NOT too early — right now buyers are shopping for late spring/ early summer closings! Its been an exciting spring market so far — as you will see below, my first three spring opportunities sold the first day they were available and for top dollar! NOW is the time to join this exciting market!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’ve been cooped up in our house for nearly a year now with this pandemic and are feeling like it’s time for a change. Your thoughts?
We are in the absolute best sellers market I have seen here in western PA in my 22 years in the business! We have less than one half of the inventory in our MLS right now than we had last year, which was also a historic low. Prices are rising faster than the algorithms that predict price can keep up with. This is fueled in part by historically low interest rates, which we do anticipate will hold through this selling season – but I would not count on 2.5% interest rates being the norm forever. Buyers are able to afford more with these low rates, which is supporting the increasing prices. We are also seeing an influx of coastal buyers – most of these people have a prior connection to our region – many of them are returning “home” to be closer to family. I honestly have lists and lists of buyers seeking a home for their families in our area. So YES! If the pandemic has caused you to reassess your home or your lifestyle, there is no better time to reach out to me than TODAY to discuss the possible sale of your home. Sadly, my crystal ball is out for service so I can’t predict 2022 or forward, but what I can tell you is that now is a great time to be a seller.
The big question is of course where are you going to go? If you have dreamed of moving to a warmer location, now is the time to dive deeper into that dream and make it a reality. If you want to move to be closer to your family in another city, also a great time to make that happen! If you are working in another city remotely and just sticking around Pittsburgh and waiting for the pandemic to end, now is the ideal time to pack up and make that move. If you own multiple homes and aren’t in the Pittsburgh region too often anymore, now is a great time to liquidate your Pittsburgh area housing investment and invest elsewhere. If however you aren’t leaving the area and you don’t own another home to move to (at least temporarily until the housing market changes courses and becomes a buyers market again – and yes, the market ebbs and flows – we will see another buyers market in the future), then we should chat about what options might work for you here in Pittsburgh! Please reach out to me and lets start a conversation about how I can help you achieve the highest possible price for your home and make your real estate dreams a reality!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Now that 2020 is coming to a close, do you have any reflections on the year in real estate?
2020 is a year we will all be happy to see in the rear view mirror, and that day is coming soon! In March, we were all worried that the pandemic would result in a major down turn in real estate, and for a couple of months, the market barely had a pulse. But when we moved out of the “red” zone, the market came crashing back like nothing we have ever seen before. While there was a huge influx in inventory that resulted from the near zero level of new listings in the “at home” months, there was an even larger crush of buyers looking for a new home, and the summer months were plagued with bidding wars at many price points. The lower price ranges saw significant appreciation as buyers vied for an opportunity at an affordable home in our school district, but even the two million dollar market saw more sales than it had in several years. In most years, our market slows down in August, but not this year. As we head toward the holidays, we don’t have the extreme over-supply of buyers that we saw this past summer, but many homes are still selling fast and for top dollar.
As we move into the new year, buyers are getting anxious. We are seeing minimal new inventory (not unusual this time of year) and they are justifiably anxious about whether there will be a nice selection in the spring. Being “stuck” at home, many homeowners have taken the opportunity to fix up the home they live in, and there is a real possibility that more people may be staying put for 2021 and enjoying the fruits of their labors. In the coming months, buyers will need to be prepared to compromise on their must haves and act fast if they see something that meets most of their wish list. And of course sellers, please reach out to me right away if you are thinking of selling this spring. Interest rates are low, prices are up and demand is high – there has never been a better time to sell.
As 2020 comes to a close, I wish you all a fabulous holiday season. It has been my great pleasure to work with so many in our community during this unusual pandemic year and I am looking forward to continuing to do so in 2021, a year we all have high hopes for! The Herald will not be published over the holidays, but you can check out my website, www.AskKathe.com, for continued real estate advice every week!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
If our home is on the market, how long is it ok to keep our decorations up?
In this incredibly dark time of the year, and even more so in this difficult holiday season as we continue to muddle through this global pandemic, festive holiday décor certainly helps to brighten everyone’s day, so if your home is on the market, it is certainly a good idea to tastefully decorate for the holidays. This year might be the year to embrace an inflatable (maybe a large Santa for example) to bring a little extra levity to the neighborhood! Even if your home is vacant, a seasonal wreath on the front door is a nice touch to welcome guests. We have been unusually busy this fall, so presentation remains important, even when its cold and snowy outside.
Once we start 2021 (and yes, we are all quite eager to put an end to 2020), if your home is on the market, it is important to have your holiday decorations down and stored as quickly as possible, ideally by January 2nd! Our spring market should jump into high gear as soon as we hit mid-January. Buyers themselves will have put the holidays behind them and will enter the new year with a new sense of urgency to find their new home. Once the holiday celebrating has past, decorations quickly look tired, so take them down and store them for another year. If you enjoy door wreaths, that could remain as long as it is more “wintery” and less holiday.
And don’t forget my other wintertime showings tips – lights on for showings, and use the highest acceptable wattage. Keep walks and driveways free of snow and ice. If you’re not going to be out or too long, a fire in the fireplace is also a nice idea. Thermostat at a warm, cozy temperature (Buyers will not embrace a home if it feels chilly). Boot mats by the front door to save your floors.
Enjoy the holidays – stay warm and safe!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
If there was one thing you would advise us to do to our home as we continue our months “at home,” in this global pandemic, what would that be?
Whether you are planning to sell your home this coming year or not, the best thing you can do to your home is a home inspection! We all live in our homes but rarely take the time to stop and give them a careful look. Weather beats up the outside of our homes year round. Caulking fails, flashing fails, paint peels and exposes wood to rot. We forget to clean our gutters on a regular basis – gutters and downspouts fill with decaying debris, causing water to back up into our homes and cause mold problems. We forget to have our furnaces serviced and fittings loosen and cause condensate to leak and rust our furnaces. The list goes on and on. Simply living in and not doing a regular check up on your home, you are leaving it open to the possibility of major repair bills later and major depreciation in your investment’s value. A home inspection will give you a to do list of projects to tackle throughout the year to keep your home in great shape and maintain its value!
You may not think about this until you go to sell your home. Some of the wear and tear may be obvious to a buyer, who will typically have checked out every available home, be able to see signs of your “benign neglect,” and pass on yours because of its comparatively negative condition. Even if a buyer doesn’t’ notice at first, there is no doubt that a home inspector will notice! After working hard to get your home sold, you may find yourself in the all too common situation of being presented with a long list of inspection requests that you need to complete in order to hold your deal together, or worse yet, a buyer who backs out of your deal because the house needs “too much work,” leaving you in the position of having to fix everything and start all over again. A homeowner should expect simply keeping a home in acceptable condition will cost them $3,000 – $10,000 a year, depending on the size of the home – some years will be more if its time for a major project, and some less. If you’re not investing this, chances are someday you will when you are faced with a long list of inspection issues.
So while you remain “at home” waiting for the day the vaccine arrives, why not give your home a check up and attend to its needs! Give me a call if you need the names of reputable local inspectors.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
This time of year we all take the time to give thanks for all of the wonderful things in our lives. I have much to be thankful for. The obvious chart toppers are good health, wonderful family and friends, and of course, a warm home to come home to each day.
My gratitude extends much deeper, however, to all of the people I work with every day that make real estate transactions so seamless for my clients – from the best mortgage brokers and closers to incredible home inspectors and handymen, contractors, electricians, roofers… that I can count on to give their best to my clients. With them by my side (or on speed dial) I have been able to provide the highest level of service to those I work with, and for that I am grateful.
My gratitude, however, extends even further – to forces I can’t control. We have been very fortunate to have historically low interest rates for a very long period of time, and a taxing structure that still favors home ownership as an investment vehicle to some extent. I am always reminded that Uncle Sam, through the mortgage interest deduction, effectively pays a portion of my mortgage every month. Through the system as structured, we are not only able to own homes for less than we could pay to rent them, but at the same time we are building equity which will be there for us when we retire and are seeking that nest egg to purchase our retirement home with.
Are you taking advantage of all that is available to you? It’s hard to imagine that there will ever be a better time to increase the size of your nest egg in real estate – it just doesn’t get any cheaper to buy than it is today. If you’re ready to downsize and cash in your nest egg, it’s an absolutely ideal time – inventory is low, interest rates are low too and we have buyers waiting in line for Sewickley homes.
In fact, the lines of buyers are so long that if you would consider selling your home, I would be even more grateful! The spring market starts in January – the time to sell is now!
2020 has been a year we would all love to forget, but before we say goodbye to 2020, even with all that has been so challenging this year, we have much to be thankful for this holiday season!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Our home is on the market – is it ok to show it decorated for the holidays or should we take it off the market?
Buyers who are shopping during the holidays are some of the most serious buyers we see each year – most people don’t bother spending their precious holiday time looking at homes unless they have a need to buy. So keeping your home on the market over the holidays is generally a good idea!
Decorating for the holidays while your home is on the market is also not a bad idea – homes often look their best decorated for the holidays – as long as a few basic guidelines are followed. Briefly stated, when decorating this holiday season, keep your decorations more neutral and reasonably simple.
Start by taking a more minimalist approach. You may have bins and bins of holiday decorations like I do, but when your home is on the market, its best to leave some of those decorations packed away. Choose decorations that have less of a religious theme. Snowmen, evergreen wreaths, poinsettias and nutcrackers, for example, have broad appeal. Be careful that the decorations that you do choose compliment your décor. You may have changed the color scheme in your home since buying your holiday decorations and it’s important that they don’t clash! Don’t over-decorate the exterior of your home either. A few well placed, tasteful strands of lights or an attractive evergreen wreath can add sense of warmth to your home, but keep your inflatables packed up!
If you bring in a tree, make sure it doesn’t overwhelm the room. This year a tall, skinny tree might be the best choice so that the room doesn’t feel small. And of course, consider using decorations to highlight some of your home’s special architectural features, such as using candles to draw attention to an attractive fireplace.
When showings are scheduled, a brewing pot of mulled cider or a plate of freshly baked cookies is not only seasonably appropriate but will go a long way toward creating an inviting feel for your buyers. And don’t forget – even if you normally keep your thermostat down, be sure to turn it up for showings so that buyers are comfortably warm!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
I’ve heard a lot about having my home professionally staged – I think my home is well decorated – is it something I need to do?
Home staging is more about marketing a home and less about interior design. Your home could be beautifully decorated and poorly staged. The distinction is critical if your main focus is getting your home sold. Interior design is often about creating a home that reflects you personally and showcases your personal effects. Home staging is about decluttering, neutralizing and showing off your home’s best qualities. It is after all, your home that you are selling, and not your stuff!
Home staging consultations generally cost less than $400 and are well worth the investment when you consider the size of the asset you are selling and your hoped for gains. Home stagers often stage hundreds of homes each year and are very familiar with how to tweak a home to make it as appealing as possible to today’s buyers. We’ve all heard stories about home sellers in California who pack their entire homes up and bring in a new home of rented furniture to stage the home to sell. Home staging does not have to involve renting expensive furniture. It is sometimes an excellent idea however—if you bought your “dream home” and didn’t have time to furnish it with furniture appropriate to the home’s value, for example, renting furniture is likely a sound investment and will give the home the feeling that it is of a higher caliber. Most of the time, however, a home stager will work with what you have, although some of it may find its way into storage for the duration!
Offended at the concept of stripping your decorating from your home? It is important to keep your end goal in mind – you are moving. This is not about impressing your friends. It’s about showcasing your home so that prospective buyers appreciate all that it has to offer. A home’s positive attributes are often missed buyers when they are too busy focusing on your stuff. Whether they like your stuff or not, you want them admiring your home – not what you have in it. Home staging is designed to make your home – that which you intend to leave behind – sparkle – a stager eliminates, rearranges and augments to enhance the impression buyers have of your home. So yes, no matter how beautiful your décor, I strongly recommend a home stager, and working with your agent as you implement what she recommends!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Do you think living in a top ten school district adds value to our homes?
Absolutely! There is no doubt in my mind that living in the Quaker Valley School District, ranked in the top ten in Western Pennsylvania, adds both value and sale-ability to our homes. We are fortunate to live in a district with well state-of-the-art elementary and middle schools and a hard-working board that continue to work to keep the caliber of our schools at a very high level.
How do these impressive rankings translate into more money for you? Families moving into Pittsburgh have been a significant force behind our home sales for decades. Buyers with children almost universally start their home search considering school districts. Our school district not only offers top numbers, but it is small and can afford more personal interactions between families and faculty. This personal touch makes Quaker Valley both unique and a highly sought-after school district for people moving to Pittsburgh.
Relocation buyers are not our only customers. We see dozens of home sales each year to families living in other Pittsburgh communities where the school districts are not as acclaimed looking to improve the educational opportunities for their children. Pittsburgh neighborhoods that seemed fun and exciting to DINKS give way to sensible communities with outstanding schools like Quaker Valley once kids come along.
And yet we are a small community, with limited housing options. As our educational performance continues to shine, living in Quaker Valley continues to be a strong draw for buyers coming from both near and far, and yet we only have so many places to house these buyers. The increased demand for housing in the District has continued to push our housing prices up, and that has become particularly evident in some of our more affordable price brackets, which are feeling less affordable each year.
So yes, absolutely – living in such a highly acclaimed school district is a very important component of housing value and driving more and more families to explore the possibility of living here. Despite our new construction, the very limited nature of our housing inventory, when combined with the strong demand resulting from the excellent reputation our school district has maintained, is continuing to put strong upward pressure on our housing values.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
With all of the bidding wars happening in this hot market, should we put an appraisal contingency in our offer?
Appraisal contingencies are added to agreements when buyers are concerned that their offer may be over market value. If you are getting a mortgage, they really aren’t necessary if you are putting 20% or less down on your home. Your bank will need your new home to appraise so that your debt percentage is not greater than 80%. If it doesn’t appraise, you will either have to throw in more cash or reduce the sales price of the home, or the bank will refuse to fund the loan.
If you are paying cash for your home, or have a small planned mortgage, your only protection from over-paying is to insert an appraisal contingency into your offer. If the home fails to appraise, you will have the option of terminating the agreement if you choose, or possibly re-negotiating the price. While this may sound like a fool-proof option, when we are in a hot market, with limited inventory and limited options for buyers, the goal is to reduce the number of contingencies to make your offer more appealing, not to add more! When evaluating whether they want to take their home off the active market to work with your offer, a seller will weigh all of the components, and an appraisal contingency weakens your offer as it is one more hurdle the seller must overcome before they can proceed to closing.
There is a definite risk that in a hot market you could overpay for a home. Homes are in some circumstances selling for tens of thousands of dollars in excess of the list price. Unfortunately, this may be what it takes to get a home. Inserting an appraisal contingency will only weaken your offer and could cause you to lose a bidding war. The best course of action if you want to win is to ask your agent to prepare an analysis of comparable sales and use that to determine your best offer, leaving out the appraisal contingency and hopefully succeeding in your bid to buy a new home.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We have been waiting for a while for some new homes to come on the market –are you anticipating more listings soon?
It has in fact been a very active summer season and it sure does feel like inventory is very low. In fact, we currently have ONLY 82 listings available for sale in the Quaker Valley School District – in most years that number would be approximately 200! So when we say that we need listings, we mean it!
Yes, we do expect that there will be more homes coming on the market in the new year. While March & April tend to be our largest listing months every year, we have had a few introductions recently and as a general rule they have flown off the market. We have a tremendous amount of pent up demand. There are dozens of buyers in every price range sitting on the fence waiting for their “perfect” listing. If you are one of those buyers, you should expect that you will have some stiff competition as we are seeing bidding wars with multiple offers in many price ranges. So make sure you have your financing in order and be prepared to move quickly if you see something that looks like it could work.
If you are one of the many Village dreamers we have out there, start thinking now about what compromises you might be willing to make to get a home. As Pittsburgh grows, our inventory is not keeping up with housing demands and we will continue to see a tighter and tighter housing market and increasing prices. Compromise will be necessary to even get into a home here.
Finally, if you are thinking of selling your home, I have said it many times before, but PLEASE reach out to me! I offer completely confidential consultations and strategic plans to maximize your returns, with a nearly 22-year proven track record. There is no better time to be selling your home!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are looking to buy a new home – where is the market these days? Do you have any advice for buyers?
We have had an unbelievably strong summer market – unlike anything I have seen in my nearly 22 years in business. Homes are often selling with multiple cash offers in a day or two for over the asking price. If you want to buy now, you need to go into every home with the assumption that you will pay asking price at a minimum – unless you are willing to sit on the sidelines for a week or two and see if the market feels the price is too high.
Why is this happening? We have had an extreme shortage of inventory for years now and its only getting worse – we simply don’t have enough homes available for sale. Interest rates have never been lower and people who have rented are taking the opportunity to jump into the market and lock in a 30 year mortgage at an unheard of rate.
Does this mean you will overpay? Quite possibly, if you need to sell in the next 1-3 years, you might be challenged to return 100% of your investment. But none of us has a crystal ball, so you never know.
Is it better to wait out this surge? Probably not. There is no end in sight, nothing that suggests that we will see a sudden influx of inventory. If you want a new home, you are just going to have to jump into the market.
So how do you win? First, you must be fully preapproved by a reputable local lender. Once you are fully preapproved, it is possible to waive your mortgage contingency so that you can compete with cash deals. You also have to have confidence in the price you are paying so that you can waive the appraisal contingency. You need to anticipate that you will pay at least asking price and may have to bid over the asking price of the home in order to get the home. Finally, you will want to consider whether you are willing to waive your inspections. The vast majority of buyers who are winning in bidding wars right now are waiving all inspections. The best place to start is with an experienced buyers agents such as myself who can give you the very best, up to the minute advice on how to approach each house in its individual neighborhood.
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
With all that is going on in the world, why should we consider a move now?
I know it might seem counter-intuitive, but local market indicators suggest there has never been a better time to be in the market for a move. Why buy now? Here are my top reasons!
Interest rates are unbelievably low! Fixed 30 year loans under 3%? Yes! You can buy more and spend less!
We have some very nice homes available to purchase – its been a long time since I have seen so many nice choices.
Some buyers are concerned about economic uncertainty right now and sitting on the fence. However, the economic factors associated with the housing crash in 2008 are not present now, so while the economy may slow down, we are not anticipating housing prices to drop. Take advantage of other buyers’ hesitation and buy now before you find yourself in a multi-party bidding war.
Housing prices have continued to rise in our local markets despite the pandemic and economic uncertainty. If you are sitting on the sidelines, there is a good chance you will pay more at a later date!
I have outstanding opportunities across all price brackets. Why buy now? Check out more reasons below!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What impact do you think the recent economic downturn will have on our local real estate market?
This is the million-dollar question right now. There seems to be no doubt that real estate consumers are a little less confident this week. But will we see an actual downturn in our market?
My hope is that this will simply result in a temporary delay in our spring season. Before the most recent events, we had an incredible amount of excess demand and low inventory, resulting in frequent bidding wars and many disappointed families who lost out on yet another home. I have personally experienced that on several of my listings – several offers but only one home to sell. Those buyers are still out there – maybe focused on other things, but still out there. If you are a buyer, I would encourage you to press forward in your search for a home. The reality is that much of your competition may be focusing on other aspects of their lives right now and you may have a better chance of actually succeeding in buying a home without having to compete with multiple bidders. Interest rates are low – it remains a great time to buy!
I do not expect values to plummet, so if you are planning on sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how low they go, you are probably going to lose out on some great homes. When we saw our economy falter in 2008, we did not see a drop in housing prices. We also did not see continued appreciation, but we were very stable. Pittsburgh has historically been a very stable real estate market—we don’t have a spike in values – just a steady climb – so we are unlikely to see a significant drop.
Sellers, I encourage you to continue to ready your homes for sale. Our spring market surge may happen slightly later this year – and that will be good news for those of you who are still organizing your closets, attics, basements and garages. You only have one chance to make a great first impression – now is your chance to make sure you are doing just that!
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are planning to buy a second home in another location. How can we find a great agent to work with there?
You might be surprised to learn that I can help you with this! No, I am not licensed in other states, but I can help you find a great agent wherever you are thinking of buying (or selling) a home. And yes, I do have access to resources not easily available to the general public to do that for you and have done it for many others!
It is a daunting task when you are looking at a real estate market from afar to figure out which agent will best serve your needs, and yet you know from your experience here how important that is! Here’s how I can help! First, I would want to chat with you about what you are looking for in your new location. Understanding your goals with respect to that home will help me refine the agent selection process. Then I will get to work finding you the best match for a buyer’s (or seller’s) agent. I can do this by utilizing networking communities I have developed through the certifications that I have earned over the years, including my ABR (Accredited Buyers Representatives), CRS (Certified Residential Specialists), CNE (Certified Negotiation Experts) and SRES (Senior Real Estate Specialists), all nationwide groups to which other highly-qualified agents belong throughout our country.
Once I identify a few candidates for you, I will do the screening work for you, reviewing their experience both online and with an over-the-phone interview. In a short interview I will be able to get a quick sense of whether the agent will be a good fit for you! Because I do this every day, I am able to quickly cut through all of the online noise, such as the paid Zillow ads where you will see not necessarily the most qualified agents but instead the ones most willing to pay to get themselves in front of you, and find you the best agent for your specific needs. Additionally, most websites hide the identity of the listing agent in order to be able to sell your lead to agents willing to pay for them, so simply going online and contacting who appears to be the listing agent on homes that you like will likely be unhelpful.
So why hassle with trying to sort through all of the online information on your own when I can easily sort this all out for you! If you need a Realtor in another location, reach out to me – I’m happy to help you!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’re first time home buyers. Where do we begin? (continued from last week)
For those of who just picking up the conversation today, check out my blog at www.askkathe.com to read the past two weeks’ introduction to the home buying process. If you are following along, so far you have gotten pre-approved for your mortgage, researched and chosen a buyer’s agent to be your advocate, saved money for your down payment, shopped for a home and gotten one under agreement. Now the fun continues!
Once you have a home under agreement and have deposited your hand money, you will be ready to schedule your inspections. Your buyer’s agent should provide you with guidance in finding reputable home inspectors. You will want to consider scheduling a general home inspection as well as inspections for radon, wood boring insects (termites), mold, and possibly of the sewer lines. If the home has a septic system you will absolutely want to fully inspect the system – they are quite costly to replace. If there is a well on the property, you will want to test both the water quality and the capacity of the well. You may also need to have specialists evaluate aging components such as the roof. You generally have 10 – 14 days to complete your inspections and at the end of that period, you will need to make a request of the seller if you would like any items addressed. To reach a successful conclusion of inspection negotiation, it’s a good idea to keep some simple tips in mind. First, anything on the disclosure should have been considered when you were making the offer – its not a great idea to revisit disclosed items. For example, if the seller disclosed that the roof is at the end of its useful life, asking for money toward a new roof is unlikely to be well received. The same can be said for items you could have easily seen. If the inspector notes that the driveway is cracked and you should have seen it while visiting the home, asking for the seller to pay for a new driveway will also not be well received. So when deciding what, if anything, to request of the seller, eliminate disclosed items and things you noticed when visiting the home and then turn your focus to the items that concern you most. Of course, if there were multiple offers and you were the winner in a bidding war, you may not be able to ask for much if anything as there is likely another buyer on standby! Ultimately, you and your seller will need to reach a compromise on the inspection issues and that agreement will be formalized in a written addendum to your Agreement of Sale.
At the same time you are working through inspections, you will also need to make application for your financing. This must be complete (in other words, you must have all of your paperwork to your lender) within 7 days of the final Agreement of Sale. Applying for a mortgage these days can seem quite challenging – be prepared for the lender to ask for what will seem like a mountain of documents. And do NOT make any major purchase until after you close on your home – changes to your outstanding debt at this point could affect your ability to qualify for a loan at all! Once you get through inspections and mortgage application, it should be smooth sailing. We will cover the final step in the process next week!
Incredible central Village home in a phenomenal neighborhood with flat, fenced yard, 2 car garage. Newly remolded kitchen and baths. Upstairs features 3 bedrooms, 2 baths. The main level includes living, dining and family rooms, eat-in kitchen and den. Charming covered back porch. $725,000. Join me for our open house Sunday, 1-3pm.
Beautifully remodeled Sewickley Village Victorian with high ceilings, open floorplan and fabulous original architectural detailing. Wonderful newer master suite with stylish newer bath. Four finished levels of living space including lower level gameroom. Flat backyard, two car detached garage. In a wonderful Village neighborhood, within a very easy walking distance to Village shops and restaurants. $795,000
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Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’re first time home buyers. Where do we begin? (continued from last week)
For those of who just picking up the conversation today, check out my blog at www.askkathe.com to read last week’s introduction to the home buying process. If you are following along, so far you have gotten pre-approved for your mortgage, researched and chosen a buyer’s agent to be your advocate, and hopefully saved money for your down payment. Now the fun begins!
Once you are preapproved for a loan and have determined what price range you are comfortable shopping in, you can start your home search. Typically this begins with an online search – your buyer’s agent should set you up to receive new properties as they become available. As interesting homes come on the market, you will want to tour them immediately. In most price ranges, we have an extreme shortage of inventory and those who snooze tend to lose. It is important to have seen enough properties upfront so when you see the right one, you know it and are ready to make a move. When evaluating homes, it is also important to be realistic. There is no perfect home, so establish your list of criteria upfront. If a home achieves 7 out of 10 wish list items, in real estate we call that a home run. If you are going to hold out for all 10, a move is probably not in the cards for you in the short run.
Once you find a home that works for you, in this market you do need to anticipate a bidding war is a realistic possibility. Interestingly, even homes that have sat on the market for seemingly prolonged periods of time will often receive more than one offer at the same time, so if you find a home that peaks your interest, do not delay in making an offer. Any delay could end up costing you money if another buyer comes along! If there are multiple offers, you must put your best foot forward out of the gate. I have written many articles in the past on how to do that, and they can be found in my AskKathe archives on www.askkathe.com, but briefly stated, you should not assume you will get a second chance – work with your buyers offer to make the highest, “cleanest” offer that you can out of the gate, and consider including a personal letter to the seller telling them why you love their home and hope to make it yours – that personal touch will often sway a seller when they are reviewing multiple similar offers.
Once you have a home under agreement and have deposited your hand money (anticipate 1%-5% of your purchase price depending on your price range), you will be ready to schedule your inspections. Next week I will talk more about inspections and how to get through them!
Start planning now for your fun this summer — 16 Highview offers a beautiful inground pool, ideal for warm weather entertaining, a NEW deck and 3.8 acres of privacy, yet sited in a mature Sewickley neighborhood. With over 4100SF of living space plus a finished lower level, the home features an open floorplan ideal for entertaining. Newly remodeled kitchen, 3 car garage, main level bed/bath for guests, walk-out lower level, sauna, wine room, screened porch & more! Remodeled throughout and ready for immediate occupancy! $595,000.
Amazing privacy on 10+ acres in Sewickley Heights, this custom designed and built home offers 11,000+ SF of exceptional living space set on a stunning parcel of land. Gorgeous outdoor venues are ideal for warm weather entertaining, including resort-like pool and stunning patio with fireplace. Additional exceptional features include 3 bedrooms including luxurious master suite and nanny/in-law suite, soaring ceiling lines, massive stone fireplaces, finished lower level gameroom and exercise studio, 5 car attached garage, huge custom kitchen open to family spaces and more! An exceptional opportunity. $5,900,000
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Buying a home is one of the best choices you can make. Rather than paying money to your landlord so that he can be closer to owning an asset outright each month, when you make your monthly payment each month a portion actually goes to your benefit – when you sell the home someday, as long as the market is in a good place, that money is refunded to you (called equity) and you can use it to buy again. It is, in effect, a forced savings plan and over time you can amass quite a large amount of savings while you are simply doing what you would have done otherwise – paying for housing each month.
To buy a home, however, you must have two things to start: a down payment and good credit. There a host of specialty loan products for first time home buyers far too extensive to review here, but figure on saving no less than 2.5% of the purchase price for a down payment if you are able to use an FHA product or 10% if you are going to use a typical mortgage. Credit scores are also key. Again, there are many things you can do to help or hurt your credit as you prepare to buy your home. Do not open any new credit – don’t buy any new cars. Pay all bills on time.
When you think you are ready, start by finding a full-time buyers agent. We now have Buyer’s Agency in this state and you need someone looking out for you from the outset. Check the agent’s website, review references, interview if you wish. Make sure you understand what the agent will do for you and be sure you have done your homework and are selecting the best agent for your needs. Once you select an agent, you will need to sign two documents: a Consumer Notice, informing you of your rights, and a Buyer Agency Agreement, whereby you actually hire the agent to work for you. While the seller still pays the commission, an Agreement is still required to create the legal relationship whereby the agent is working for you and not the seller.
Your agent should then refer you to a mortgage broker for a pre-approval. The broker will review your assets, liabilities and credit and give you a written statement of how much you can afford to buy. This step cannot be skipped. There is no sense looking at homes you can’t afford.
With pre-approval in hand and agent on board, you are now ready to begin the home buying process…stay tuned next week and I will continue to walk you through the process…its when the fun begins!
Beautifully remodeled newer high-end custom construction home nestled on 8 private acres in Sewickley. Newly painted interior. New carpeting. New lighting. Newer designer kitchen. Updated/new baths. Half-court indoor basketball court, full racquetball/squash court, complete locker room facilities including sauna, 60’x30’ heated in-ground concrete salt water pool w/ stone waterfalls, patio w/ outdoor fireplace, 6 bedrooms, 5 full & 4 half baths, 9 fireplaces, 6 garage spaces, two kitchens, wine room, roof-top observation deck, new home theater. Simply remarkable! $3,500,000
An exceptional opportunity to live on 42 gently rolling acres in very desirable Sewickley Heights. Beautifully remodeled, this classic historic colonial perfectly blends sophisticated living, modern amenities, and stunning architectural details throughout! Featuring 6 bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half baths, this home boasts a grand entry hall, large open kitchen and inviting two-story family room, well-cabineted butler’s pantry, two mudrooms, handsome private den, spacious formal rooms, main-level gameroom with three walls of windows, large bedrooms and fabulous master suite with dressing room. Glass doors open to charming patios which spill out onto the sprawling lawns! Wonderful pool, outdoor kitchen and living space with impressive outdoor fireplace offer ideal venues for warm-weather entertaining and fun! Four car garage. $4,250,000
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Sometimes it seems like everything is breaking around our house and we get behind on repairs. Isnt there some level of wear and tear buyers of “previously enjoyed” homes are expecting to have to accept?
The process of selling and buying a home involves many fine lines. How far do you take preparing your home for sale? Do you really need to address all of the items suggested by your agent, the home stager or the home inspector who did a pre-inspection? Do you really have to attend to everything your family has broken or worn out over the years?
Anything that could come up on an inspection, if you know about it, really must be repaired or disclosed. My vote is repair. Even with items that are very obvious, when an inspector gets involved, he may blow the issue out of proportion and something that might have cost you $1000 to repair before you listed ends up costing you $3000 on the inspection request. If its something an inspector might find, you can bet he will find it and you will be expected to cover the cost of repair anyhow, so you might as well repair upfront.
Many buyers actually get quite nervous during the home inspection (also known as buyers remorse). If you happened to have gotten one of these buyers, it is possible that they could walk away from your deal if the inspection concerns feel too weighty to them. After you actually receive and negotiate the offer, the last thing you want to do is lose the buyer over items that you could have fixed but didn’t think anyone would notice or care about! In today’s market, they notice, they care. Sometimes they are willing to let you pay for the repair. Sometimes they just walk. Don’t take any chances. If you suspect it is likely someone would seek a repair, get it done!
Buyers, as much as I advocate for sellers to take care of the wear and tear items on their homes, it is important for you to be reasonable on your inspection requests as well. If you see an item that needs to be fixed while you are touring the home, take that into account when you make your offer and do not revisit it on the inspection. Inspection requests are supposed to be for items you didn’t know about and didn’t have a chance to adjust for in making your offer. Again, its a fine line buyers also walk in deciding what are fair and appropriate inspection requests of a seller.
An exceptional opportunity to live on 42 gently rolling acres in very desirable Sewickley Heights. Beautifully remodeled, this classic historic colonial perfectly blends sophisticated living, modern amenities, and stunning architectural details throughout! Featuring 6 bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half baths, this home boasts a grand entry hall, large open kitchen and inviting two-story family room, well-cabineted butler’s pantry, two mudrooms, handsome private den, spacious formal rooms, main-level gameroom with three walls of windows, large bedrooms and fabulous master suite with dressing room. Glass doors open to charming patios which spill out onto the sprawling lawns! Wonderful pool, outdoor kitchen and living space with impressive outdoor fireplace offer ideal venues for warm-weather entertaining and fun! Four car garage. $4,250,000
Boasting newer kitchen and baths in a sought after Village neighborhood, 49 Woodland offers a unique opportunity for newer construction in the heart of Sewickley Village. The main level master offers hard-to-find convenience – with 3-5 additional bedrooms upstairs. The beautifully remodeled white kitchen opens to family room and sunroom, with 3 walls of windows overlooking the private backyard. The three car attached garage offers another hard-to-come buy amenity in the Village, as does the finished lower level! $1,625,000.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’re hoping to move in the New Year and are beginning our search online – is there anything we should keep in mind?
The majority of buyers will shop online during their search for a new home, and many will actually begin their search there, like yourselves! The real estate industry has come such a long way in the 20+ years since I started in this business. Back in what feels like a different century (perhaps because it was), we used bulky multilist books that were delivered every other week to find homes for our clients. If you were in good with your agent, she might lend you a coveted book to take home and peruse! Now you can access the entire nation’s real estate inventory on national websites such as realtor.com in the comfort of your own home!
The internet has made it incredibly easy for buyers to do some preliminary research for a new home. It does have its limitations, however, which is where your expert real estate agent can fill in the gaps.
Online listings, if managed by a good agent, will always look amazing. Wide-angle lenses and professional photographers are employed, as well as photo-editing software, to make a home look as attractive as possible online. It’s worth keeping in mind that pictures may lie – be careful not to screen out potential homes just because the photos aren’t fabulous – rely instead on the wisdom of your agent. If she has listened to your feedback and is familiar with the inventory, she will be your best screen for which homes are better than they appear, and which may be worse.
Online listings also don’t give you much of a sense of location. While google earth may help with some of this, until you actually drive by a property, you may not be able to tell physical lot characteristics that may be a positive or a negative to you. Online listings also can do little to convey a sense of neighborhood or community. Again, that is where your real estate professional should be able to fill in the picture for you.
Finally, online listings are only as good as the agent who enters the data – there may be information about the property that is not entered into the MLS, either by agent oversight or by simple lack of space, that might make a home more desirable to you. Information such as camera security systems, water softener and purification systems, high-efficiency mechanicals and smart home systems may have real value to you and is rarely listed online. Online shopping is a great way to familiarize yourself with the market, but a local real estate expert is your best course of action once your curiosity grows more serious.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Our home is on the market – is it ok to show it decorated for the holidays or should we take it off the market?
Buyers who are shopping during the holidays are some of the most serious buyers we see each year – most people don’t bother spending their precious holiday time looking at homes unless they have a need to buy. So keeping your home on the market over the holidays is generally a good idea!
Decorating for the holidays while your home is on the market is also not a bad idea – homes often look their best decorated for the holidays – as long as a few basic guidelines are followed. Briefly stated, when decorating this holiday season, keep your decorations more neutral and reasonably simple.
Start by taking a more minimalist approach. You may have bins and bins of holiday decorations like I do, but when your home is on the market, its best to leave some of those decorations packed away. Choose decorations that have less of a religious theme. Snowmen, evergreen wreaths, poinsettias and nutcrackers, for example, have broad appeal. Be careful that the decorations that you do choose compliment your décor. You may have changed the color scheme in your home since buying your holiday decorations and it’s important that they don’t clash! Don’t over-decorate the exterior of your home either. A few well placed, tasteful strands of lights or an attractive evergreen wreath can add sense of warmth to your home, but keep your inflatables packed up!
If you bring in a tree, make sure it doesn’t overwhelm the room. This year a tall, skinny tree might be the best choice so that the room doesn’t feel small. And of course, consider using decorations to highlight some of your home’s special architectural features, such as using candles to draw attention to an attractive fireplace.
When showings are scheduled, a brewing pot of mulled cider or a plate of freshly baked cookies is not only seasonably appropriate but will go along way toward creating an inviting feel for your buyers. And don’t forget – even if you normally keep your thermostat down, be sure to turn it up for showings so that buyers are comfortably warm!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We would like to move to Sewickley. Are there any affordable homes anymore?
Of course there are! But Sewickley, particularly in affordable price ranges, has become a very competitive market. It seems the secret is out – many people know about our very unique combination of a highly rated school district and a charming, walkable shopping district. Every agent I know has a list of buyers waiting for affordable homes to become available!
What does this mean for you as a home buyer? First, its critical to make sure you are fully pre-approved for a mortgage. If you are fully pre-approved (having submitted all of the supporting documents to your lender), you may be confident in your ability to get a mortgage and feel comfortable waiving your mortgage contingency, which will make you a much more competitive buyer if there are multiple offers.
Second, keep your offer as “clean” as possible. Try not to add in special requests or inclusions that sellers don’t usually leave with a home (such as furniture). Keep your inspection period as short as possible, or consider waiving inspections altogether if it is a newer home.
Third, keep your offer prices up. If you love a home, that is no time to lowball a seller. Even if a home has been on the market for a while, we often receive multiple offers at the same time. You don’t save anything when you make a low offer and you don’t get the home.
Finally, be open to compromise. If a home meets 7 out of 10 of your wish list items, consider it a home run. In a tight market like we are in, if you hold out waiting for your perfect 10, you will likely find yourself sitting on the sidelines. To get a Sewickley home, you may have to give up a garage, or a two car garage. You may need to take on a few projects. You may need to accept that there is no master bathroom or no main level family room. You may need to accept that the basement ceilings are lower and so any “game room” is a little more basic. You may have to accept a less open floorplan or a longer distance to the center of town. But remember, once you close you will make it your home, flaws and all, and will absolutely love being a part of this vibrant community!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are planning to buy a new home soon – we see advertisements for internet lenders offering what seem to be below market rates. Is this too good to be true?
If you are simply refinancing an existing mortgage debt, you MAY be ok choosing an internet lender. You just need to be very careful that, before you apply to refinance your loan, you receive from the lender a full disclosure of all the costs and not just the rates. Oftentimes I see lenders have exorbitantly high fees connected with low rates. In a sense, you are buying down your rate by paying high fees upfront. Be sure to compare them on the same day to a couple of local lenders and understand what you are paying to get the quoted rates. The reason you must compare rates on a singular date is because rates go up and down continuously and a rate may seem lower simply because you called a particular lender on a date rates dropped.
If you are buying a home rather than refinancing, I do NOT recommend that you use an internet lender. They do not tend to be familiar with area norms and that can cause you more headaches than you can imagine. There is a long list of particularities to PA Agreements of Sale and the last think you want to do is have your closing delayed (while your movers are standing at the curb) while you wait for your lender (who does not have a local presence that you can visit personally to address any issues) to sort things out. As they are not familiar with our Agreements and processes, internet lenders may also impose requirements on you to “fund your loan” that are not requirements generally imposed by local lenders that may disadvantage you later. Finally, internet lenders often do not understand that PA Agreements of Sale declare “time is of the essence” inside the contract – what that means to you is that if you miss your closing date because the lender isn’t ready to close, the seller does have the legal right to declare you in default, keep your hand money and sell the home to someone else.
When buying, why take a risk? Rely on your trusted Realtor to help you find a local lender who offers the most competitively priced loan products and delivers exceptional customer service. Realtors cannot accept referral fees from lenders, so you can be sure we are motivated only by knowing you will have an outstanding transaction. Feel free to reach out to me for help finding you the best local lender to meet your financing needs!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We would like to buy an investment property – something that we can fix up and then rent. Any tips?
Real estate rental properties can be a great way to diversify your investment portfolio and create an income stream for retirement, if you hold your properties long enough! During your ownership, if you have invested properly, the tenant’s rent should be covering your mortgage and taxes and maybe even generating some cash. Over time, the rent will have purchased you a home and the income stream becomes cash in your pocket, or the home an asset you can sell and invest in something else (Retirement home? Child’s education?)
However, before you run out and start buying investment properties, there are a few things you should consider beyond the financial aspects. First, consider where you want the property to be. Lower priced properties may not be in our best school districts, and while there are always people looking to rent, the rents will be lower. Also consider the risk of non-payment. The lower rent properties may also bring tenants with riskier jobs which could increase the possibility of having to evict tenants.
Consider your own location as well. Do you want a long drive to the property if there is an issue? Are you planning to stay local or might you be transferred, raising the question of whether you should sell the property? If you are not planning to manage the property yourself, how much will property management cost you and how will that impact your profits?
Finally, and most importantly, consider how much “fixing up” you are willing to do. Investors frequently underestimate the amount of time and money it will take to create a property that is actually desirable to renters. You need to anticipate dedicating a significant amount of your personal time if it is a project. The concept of calling a general contractor will deeply erode your profits – the best investments are the ones you are personally involved in at a high level. Also keep in mind when making your improvements, this is not going to be your personal home. Your choices should be what the mainstream market wants and should be the least expensive choices that still convey an appropriate level of quality. Investment properties should not be your opportunity to put your personal stamp on a home – save that for the home you plan to stay in! If you would like to consider an investment property further, give me a call – I can help you with that! 412.779.6060
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
I’m superstitious and want to avoid buying a haunted house. Does a seller have to disclose that information?
We live in an old town, with homes dating back to the early 1800s. With old homes comes a lot of history, and sometimes a ghost story or two. While approximately half of our states do require disclosure of paranormal activity, Pennsylvania is not one of those states. Pennsylvania also does not currently require a seller to disclose if someone has died in a home, although they cannot affirmatively lie if asked.
Many other states have adopted far more comprehensive disclosure laws. In our neighboring New York, paranormal activity must be disclosed. In California, any death in a home in the preceding three years must be disclosed. And in Massachusetts, the law is even more comprehensive, requiring disclosure of paranormal activity, as well as whether the home was ever the site of a felony, suicide or homicide or whether someone with HIV ever lived in the home.
Our disclosure simply asks whether there are any material defects, which is defined as anything that could significantly impact value. Material defects would clearly include any major problems with the physical structure, as well as pending tax assessments and disputes over property boundaries with adjoining landowners. But what about those ghostly apparitions or eerie cries in the night? According to a well-known California appraiser who specializes in diminution of value, a well-publicized murder can reduce value by 15% – 35%. Does a ghost reduce a home’s value and need to be disclosed? Right now, the answer is no in Pennsylvania, although sellers wishing to avoid lawsuits would be well advised to disclose anything that could be seen as stigmatizing a property, including paranormal activity and deaths in the home. For some buyers, value actually increases with the prospect of living among ghosts. But before disclosing the ghost in your attic, be sure there isn’t a rational explanation for what you are experiencing.
Buyers, if you don’t want to move into a haunted home, what can you do to protect yourself in the absence of required disclosure? You can start with the internet – do a thorough search of the property address and sellers’ names. That will likely turn up information on any more recent concerns with the property. You can also pay for a property report at Diedinhouse.com, but I can’t vouch for its accuracy. Some recommend burning sage to rid the home of spirits, and if all else fails, you can always call Ghostbusters!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are thinking of renovating our master bathroom – is that a good investment to make? If you are thinking of remodeling a portion of your home, it is important to first consider what is currently going on inside your home from a design perspective. It is not possible to overstate the importance of consistency in design when selling a home. Buyers uniformly respond favorably when a home flows in a consistent “theme” through the home. What does this really mean? In an ideal world, your color palate would move smoothly from room to room. Every room does not have to be the same color, but the colors should harmonize. In other words, you should not be using both the 1980s burgundy & green palate along with today’s grays and browns in the same home. As soon as you begin to move a newer color palate in, the old one must disappear completely. Smaller details must also blend seamlessly. If you like the nickel and chrome (silver based) colors, use them throughout for cabinet knobs, lighting and bathroom/kitchen fixtures. Do not choose nickel for one bath and brass for the next. Buyers will subconsciously feel the home needs work as they will sense the lack of consistency. The same is true for the bathrooms themselves. If you decide to renovate your master bath, that does not mean you need to renovate every bath, but you would be well-advised to plan your master bath so it also harmonizes with what is already in your home. If the “hardscapes” in your baths (counters, floors) are in the beige family, it would be a bad idea to do your master in white carerra marble, no matter how “in” that might be, unless you are prepared to update all baths. Choose instead travertine, beige granite or a beige based marble that will blend more smoothly with your existing baths. The impact to a buyer of “wonderful new master bath” will have the added benefit of helping to harmonize the entire home and will make the entire home feel more updated. So yes, renovating bathrooms are an excellent investment, as long as your investment harmonizes with the rest of your home and does not make everything else look dated. If that happens, you may be walking down a slippery slope where you need to take on more than just the master bath in order to recoup your investment!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
You often write about making sure to price our home correctly for a better chance of a successful sale. How do we do that?
We all know the story of Goldilocks – be it the porridge being too hot, too cold or just right, or the beds being too big, too small or just right, or the chair being too hard, too soft or just right, the winning combination was not an extreme but the “just right” spot in between.
The same is true when pricing homes, and in particular, Signature homes. Price them too low, and they fly off the market, most likely far below a price you could have achieved. Price them too high and they sit for months or years. The trick is finding that sweet spot in the middle that will drive in an offer in a reasonable time, maximizing your return.
But how to find this sweet spot? If I could invent an App for that, I would be rich! Zillow has tried, but their Zestimates are often hopelessly flawed for unique communities like Sewickley, and particularly for our Signature homes. A computer in a remote location simply cannot translate all of the high-end amenities you may have added to your home into a realistic number. Human judgment is required. And yet your agent may not have the most objective opinion – you may be friends, for example, and he may not want to hurt your feelings. And it is certainly not wise to rely on your own opinion – we are least objective about our own homes!
That is where the appraiser comes in. Having your home pre-appraised may be your very best course of action. For approximately $450, you can have an objective analysis that will not only allow you to most accurately price your home but will allow you to say to buyers “this home was priced based on an independent appraisal.” That will carry a lot of weight when buyers are assessing how realistic your price is and usually drives in a price close to the appraisal. Please do note, this appraisal must be independent of a refinance – it must simply be done for pricing guidance for it to be truly objective. But if you take the time to get it “just right” out of the gate, after the buyers have tried on all the “too highs” yours will be the one they pick!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’ve lived in our current home for 16 years and have kept up with maintenance but haven’t done much else – how much remodeling do we really have to do before putting it on the market?
You’ve lived in your home long enough that you have probably “used up” a lot of the value that you bought with your home and will need to restore some of that value if you hope to protect your original investment.
Carpeting is a really good example. I’m sure you are aware that colored carpeting must be replaced with neutrals, but even the most neutral of carpets should be replaced if they are 16 years old. Even if you don’t have pets and absolutely never eat or drink outside the kitchen, avoiding spills that could stain, after 16 years your carpets will have had more than a lifetime of use and the value that might have been there when you bought the home is long gone. In fact, the old carpets might even have a negative impact on price, even if there are not visible stains. The buyers will assume that they need to be replaced and will deduct their view of what that will cost from what they are willing to pay you for the home. Several of the “big box” stores have affordable neutral carpets in stock for quick delivery and installation, making this aspect of prepping a home for market reasonably straightforward.
You should also consider whether you have used up all of the realistic useful life that might have remained in your mechanicals. For example, if you haven’t replaced the water heater in 16 years, then even if it was new when you bought it, you have used up all of its value – it has outlived its expected useful life. It would probably be a good idea to replace it with a new water heater – you benefited from 16 years of use from the old one – when you replace it you should think of it as simply restoring the home to its functionality before you used its systems for the past 16 years. The same can be said for furnaces – while their useful life is longer than a hot water heater, if its pushing past 20 years old, buyers are not going to look favorably on it. In fact, as you can imagine, this thought process can be applied to anything with a predictable useful life, such as kitchen appliances and roofs.
How much remodeling you will need to do after living in the home for 16 years will depend on how quickly you want to sell it and how aggressive you want to be on price, but the higher the price you hope to achieve, the more “pre-listing” remodeling you should do, returning old mechanical systems to a full life expectancy for the new owner.
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
My home has so many special features. I think it would be best if I were at showings so I could explain them to prospective buyers. Is that ok?
When you are selling your home, its normal to think that only you can fully convey your home’s fine qualities to a buyer. This leads some sellers to consider the possibility of being home for showings, so that they can make sure that the buyer prospects appreciate all of the home’s amenities. While this may seem sensible to a seller, nothing could be further from the truth!
When buyers visit your home, it is important that they be allowed the space to imagine the home as their own. This starts, of course, with home staging, so that the home is not overly personal when the buyers arrive. But it extends to allowing them to tour the home alone with their buyer agent. For buyers to buy a home, they must bond to a home. For buyers to bond to a home, they need to be free to relax in your home and chat with their agent about what they would do to make the home their own. This will not happen if you are present. So what can you do to make sure they appreciate your home’s qualities? Hire a listing agent who will design a custom brochure for your home that is available when buyers visit your home. Such a brochure is your best ammunition – they can take it home and recall all of your home’s wonderful features and get their questions answered as well.
Giving the buyers their space extends to the home inspections as well. The period during the home inspection is one of normal buyer remorse. Did we buy the right home? Will a better home become available? Allowing buyers the freedom to return to your home alone will allow them to bond again to your home and stay committed to it during the sometimes difficult inspection process.
In fact, the only time you should interact with your buyer is at the closing. From initial showing to return visits, inspections and walk-throughs, you should always vacate your home and give the buyers their space!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Everyone says we need to “neutralize” our home before we try to sell it, but what does that mean?
If you watch HGTV or read my weekly articles, you likely know how important it is to neutralize your home before you sell. But what exactly does that entail? Paint color is obvious. Your home is far more likely to sell for top dollar if its painted in a neutral color palate. This does not mean your home must be nothing but white. It does, mean, however, that you should remove most strong colors in favor of “colored” neutrals – colors such as greige or light gray. A colorful room or two is fine as long as the color was chosen in the past couple years (trends in color change quickly, but when you live with a color daily and are not in the design business, you probably don’t realize when a color is no longer “in”).
Neutral colors in floor coverings is also key. Colored carpets are extremely difficult to sell. Be careful with ceramic tile –when it goes out of style, it is painfully obvious that you have dated tile and its expensive to replace. However, neutralizing a home goes beyond paint color and floor coverings. Consider the age of your most likely buyer. Buyers these days in their 20s, 30s and 40s as a general rule favor clean lines to florals. If you have floral drapes, silk flower arrangements or large floral prints on your upholstery, this could be a real turn off to a buyer even though these items do not convey with the home. The impression says dated even if the structure itself is not. This is pretty simple to address, however. Pack these things up – you are moving – get a head start. Drapes are great for decorating but unless they are very recently installed, they are unlikely to help your sale – most buyers prefer to see your windows. Slipcover furniture if it’s fabric trends toward yesteryear’s design styles.
Neutralizing also goes to removing personal effects – family photos being the most obvious. And of course, its important to neutralize odor. If you have pets, keep litter boxes perfectly clean and pet beds, blankets and toys frequently laundered. Have a friend double check – you should not be able to tell you have a pet when you enter your home. If you smoke, don’t smoke inside. If you like to cook with spicy food, avoid it while your home is on the market. If musty odors emanate from your basement, run a dehumidifier 24/ 7. If your refrigerator stays with your home, make sure it is clean and smells fresh.
A neutralized home may seem impersonal to you, but try to remember, you are moving! While it may not be your style, it is far more likely to attract a buyer and a good price!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
I’ve heard that agreements on many homes have fallen through lately from home inspections – why is that?
Our market has traditionally been one where buyers know they are buying old homes and allow the seller some leeway in not presenting a “perfect” home from an inspection standpoint. However, in many parts of the country, this is not the case. Sellers are expected to remedy all issues noted by home inspectors prior to closing. As more and more people migrate here from other parts of the country, our prices are going up, but so are the buyers’ expectations as to a seller’s responsibility for concerns discovered on a home inspection. At the same time, inspectors are getting significantly more particular. And so yes, it is absolutely possible to have purchased a home only two years ago and have new concerns arise that clearly existed and were overlooked when you bought your home. And yes, it is equally possible that you will be expected to fix them and if you refuse, your sale might fall through.
This can often leave a seller feeling like they are the unlucky one who got stuck holding the “hot potato.” As the years pass, the list of “hot button” issues mounts and if you are the owner when the issue is discovered, you will be the one paying the bill even though the home was bought and sold many times in advance of your ownership. These hot button issues include items such as old sewer lines, radon, mold, damp basements, lead water lines, asbestos (fireplace inserts, duct tape, pipe wrap or flooring) knob and tube wiring and pushmatic electric panels. If your home has any of these issues, you should figure you will be the one footing the bill and address them before they become an issue on a home inspection.
The best way to prevent an inspection fall through or an unexpected bill for defects is to have your home inspected before you put it on the market. A pre-inspection will allow you the opportunity to fix those items that can be fixed and disclose the rest to save yourself from a laundry list of requests. Be sure not to ignore the small stuff that comes up or that you know is wrong. For example, when I list a home, I specifically ask sellers if all of their windows open, stay open, shut and lock, and if any are cracked or have broken seals. Sellers more often than not disclose no issues with their windows and yet it is one of the most frequent inspection deficiencies. Take the time to do your homework – get your home inspected – repair or disclose any possible concerns – and save yourself from a long last-minute repair list and potentially even from losing your sale.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What do you think about all of the TV shows that focus on home buying and selling homes?
If you follow my column, you have undoubtedly noted me mentioning for what seems like years now that our market is hot and our inventory has never been lower. It certainly couldn’t be a better time to sell. You may in fact have just heard that your neighbor’s home sold for top dollar in record time. How do you make that happen? Start by watching more TV!
Surprising advice, perhaps, but TV sets our style expectations and our aspirations of how we want to live our lives. Your potential buyers are watching TV and then coming to your home and expecting to see what they saw on TV. Want to make the most money? Meet their expectations!
This is easy to do if you also watch a healthy dose of HGTV. There you will quickly find the latest trends and tips on how to achieve them in a cost-effective manner. You will see what home designers are pushing and know what buyers will be looking for in your home. House Hunters is a particularly good show to learn from. You will get insight into buyers’ thought processes – you can listen in on their conversations and take note of the factors that affect them in both positive and negative ways. Armed with this information, you will be ready to spring into action and create a home that buyers are instantly attracted to. And why are they attracted? Because they saw it on TV!
As a full-time real estate broker, every day my job lives like an episode on House Hunters. Through countless hours listening to my clients as they evaluate potential homes, I am easily able see how HGTV has greatly impacted the home selling process. Those sellers who choose to take to heart the lessons espoused on HGTV are rewarded with more money in less time. They create instant attraction by making their homes appear as if they were pulled straight from an episode of HGTV. So whether you plan to sell next month or next year, start watching more TV, put the advice into action and pocket more money when you sell! And if you’re not a fan of these shows, give me a call and I will come out and give you an abbreviated version as it applies to your home!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Is the highest offer always the best offer in a multiple offer situation?
For those of you looking for a quick answer, the answer is a resounding no! For those of you wondering why, read on!
There are many important components to an offer, and price is only one of them! First is financial ability to perform. An offer is worth nothing if the buyer is unable to pay for the home. A cash offer with proof of funds is your best bet, but most buyers take mortgages. If the offer is contingent upon the buyer getting a mortgage, make sure you receive a pre-approval letter from a local, well-reputed lender (and not an internet lender).
Second, make sure you receive a substantial amount of hand money. Hand money is all you have if a buyer backs out of the deal. Sometimes buyers just change their minds. Maybe a house they like better comes on the market. Maybe they figure out that the home needs more work thab they originally imagined and the remodeling costs get too high. Maybe they take a new job that is too far from your home. There are many reasons why buyers change their minds and if you lose your buyer, you will want to be sure you have a decent amount of hand money to compensate you for the loss.
Finally, some buyers will offer more for a home with the expectation that they will “beat you up on your home inspection.” Your best line of defense against these tactics is to make sure that you have been exceptionally thorough in your disclosure so that there is nothing (or almost nothing) wrong that you haven’t already told them about. A pre-inspection is a great way to make sure that your home is in great shape and that all issues are disclosed – it will save you money in the long run. Some buyers will even waive inspections if you provide a pre-inspection from a quality home inspector, which is the best scenario of all!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What is going on with the high-end market in Sewickley? Why don’t there seem to be many high-end sales?
Our high-end market has been slower than normal for over a year now. Speculation abounds as to why that is the case, but it doesn’t seem that we are alone – sales of higher end homes in many pockets of this country have slowed. Many attribute that to the fact that our tax system was restructured to allow for a larger standard deduction and lower marginal rates but at the cost of limiting the deduction for property and income taxes to a combined total of $10,000. For high property tax jurisdictions such as our own, many commentators believe this has caused a slow-down in high-tax (i.e., high priced) home sales. I have held out hope that when people filed their taxes this past Monday, maybe they would discover that they are better off under the new system despite the deduction limitation and we would see the property tax fear fade into the background. I must admit that even as a former tax lawyer I have found the new forms a bit confusing, so I am really hoping we will see some favorable spin coming from tax preparers this week.
We may however need a general mindset adjustment. As a whole, our income taxes in PA are lower than the majority of states. Our earned income tax here in Sewickley is only 1%, compared to 3% in the city of Pittsburgh. We do not have sales tax on clothes or food as many states do. So while our property taxes may be on the high side, we are in a far better position overall than many residents of metropolitan areas with similar advantages to Pittsburgh. Property taxes are just a cost of living, and if your bucket list includes the amenities of a higher-end home, the taxes are what they are. The sooner our marketplace accepts this reality, the sooner our higher end homes will start selling again!
In the meantime, our middle and lower end market segments are moving fast and often with many offers. Homes in these segments that are priced appropriately for condition and amenities are often selling with multiple offers, and in a very short amount of time. These market segments are accelerating quickly in their pricing. Waiting for the home to show up on your Zillow search is likely going to be too late. If a move is something you’ve been considering, give me a call and we can strategize on how you can best meet your needs in this complex market we find ourselves in! 412.779.6060
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What advice do you have for pet owners hoping to sell their homes?
I am a dog lover. In fact, there are two canine members of my family. 60% of Americans own a pet, and 40% are dog owners. As a dog lover and owner I am aware that not everyone loves pets. If I am a home seller, this is particularly important to keep in mind.
It is critical when selling your home to remove any and all evidence of Fido!
What exactly does this entail? Smell should be your first concern. If you live with a pet you are probably used to the smell and don’t notice it, but your buyer will. Carpets should be professionally cleaned and deodorized to remove any possible smell. If any smell lingers after that, you probably need to change the furnace filter and quite possibly have the ducts cleaned. If you are still living in the home it is critical to keep all your pet things clean – launder blankets regularly, keep crates wiped down, empty litter boxes every day and give your dog a weekly bath. I can’t stress this enough. Any smell at all could kill your chances at an offer.
Cleanliness should be your next concern. If your home is vacant, after you move out make sure there is no evidence of a pet having lived there. Make sure there are no hair balls hiding in corners or behind doors. Clean or replace air return grills as they have likely become laden with pet hair and dander, resulting in a dirty look. Clean the vent cover on the bottom of refrigerators as well – they are often clogged with pet hair. If you are still living in the home, you must address all of the above as well as making sure that physical evidence of a pet disappears during a showing. Pack up toys and beds and tuck them in a discrete location.
Finally, if at all possible, remove the pets themselves for all showings for the best chance of selling the home. While Fido is likely cute as can be, many people are either fearful or allergic – why take any chances?
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
April 15thalways reminds me of taxes, and how high our taxes are here. Is this a disadvantage when it comes to selling homes in this area?
I always counsel my new clients relocating here from other states that property taxes are something that need to be viewed as part of an entire budget. Yes, our property taxes seem much higher than in many other regions of this country, and yes, upon first look, it can be a deterrent. But my advice to out-of-towners is to consider how much they pay each year in all forms of tax.
In Pennsylvania, we only pay a 3.08% income tax rate and here in Sewickley, we add on top of that an additional 1% on earned income only. We currently have no sales tax on food and clothing. We also have very low car registration fees at only $36/car. In some states, income tax alone can be as much as 8% – 9%, car registration fees/yearly taxes can exceed $550+/car and they do impose sales tax on food and clothing. If buyers are counseled to look at the big picture, more often than not they find that they are actually saving money when they move to Western PA, despite our high property taxes, but it does take a skilled realtor to get them over this hump.
When dealing with local buyers, property taxes are a much bigger issue. When moving up, buyers definitely have to consider taxes – they won’t be getting any new income tax breaks by just moving across town. Recently, the federal tax law changed and there is a $10,000 cap on the deductibility of the combined total of income and property taxes. Nationwide, this seems to have created a softening in the sale of high-end homes as there is little to no subsidy for your property taxes anymore (depending on how much you pay in state and local income taxes and whether they, on their own, move you above the $10,000 threshold). The expectation is that the lower federal tax rates will offset the reduced deduction, but for many who haven’t filed their 2018 returns yet, it’s too early to tell. My sense is that this will all settle out over the next year or two as we all adjust to the new tax rules.
In any event, whether buying or selling, it’s important to take the time to make sure that your taxes are in line with the market value of your home – if they are not you should appeal them so that inappropriately high taxes don’t become an even larger deterrent to a purchaser.
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are ready to put our home on the market but are private people and would prefer not to have the home in the MLS. Could you just show it if you hear of a prospective buyer?
I may be repeating myself here, but in this hot spring market, it really is an important message. There is simply nothing more powerful for driving in a high offer for your home than listing it with a real estate agent who is fully engaged in the marketing and selling of your home! Yes, you did ask a realtor, so you probably expected that answer, but here’s why.
First, Sewickley loves a secret sale. Everyone loves knowing what no one else knows yet, and buyers feel really special if they get the first chance at your home. But that secret sale is unlikely to drive in your best offer. What credibility do you as a seller have for pricing your own home? All homeowners love their homes and most feel they are worth more than the comparable sales. A real estate agent with a proven track record for pricing homes correctly is going to add an air of credibility to your asking price.
Buyers at secret sales will also automatically go for the “you don’t have a realtor” discount. In other words, you are saving nothing by not listing your home with an agent – the buyers will discount their offer to you based on what they think you would have spent in commissions. So your net will be the same (at best) as if you did have a realtor and yet you don’t have an advocate on your side helping you through all of the tricky scenarios that come up in selling a home.
Secret sales are also just that – they are not publicized city wide. There could be a buyer in the South Hills waiting for a home like yours and without a full market press, they will probably never find your home and may buy another, frustrated that “nothing” is on the market.
But most important of all – buyers at secret sales don’t feel the market pressure that a real estate agent can bring to your home. If there is a potentially interested buyer and they see your home marketed absolutely everywhere, they will assume that there are many other buyers out there and they are more likely to succumb to the pressure of the market and perceived competition and pay you more. If it is a secret sale, they can take their time, think carefully, and ultimately will either talk themselves out of buying altogether or talk themselves down in price. Neither is a good answer for you.
So don’t take any chances – if you are serious about selling, list your home with an experienced full time agent and engage the power of our larger market to drive in your best deal. Give me a call today and we can develop a strategy that is tailored to your specific needs and goals!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
What is going on with the more expensive homes in Sewickley? It doesn’t seem like many are selling.
Sewickley’s high end market, defined for these purposes as homes listed above $1 Million, can be a very fickle thing indeed. I recently took a look at 6 years of data in this market segment and the results were fascinating. The fact that you sense the high end market may be less robust than in years past might be because we only sold 6 high end homes from May 1st to December 31st, 2018 (an eight month period). This was quite a surprise as we had sold 9 high end homes in the first four months of 2018. So far in 2019 we have seen three high end homes go under agreement – exactly the same number as sold in the same period last year. We are all hoping that we can return to a cycle in line with our 2017 numbers – in that year we sold an additional 17 homes after February 28th! If you look at long-term patterns its evident that these ebbs and flows are quite common in our high end. In 2014 we recorded an impressive number of high end sales. In 2015 that number was a bit more anemic.
What stands out in looking at the data, however, is that in the past six years the number of high end buyers coming to us through relocations to Pittsburgh is dropping. This may be because there are other high-end neighborhoods that have been built across the region and Sewickley is no longer one of the only communities you can move to if you want to buy a high end home. Buyers can choose a home in the north hills, for example, with the latest and greatest everything for less than they would have to spend in Sewickley. This may also be because some employers who anticipate faster turn around do not want their employees buying – our rental market is doing quite well as a result.
What to do if you are living in a high-end Sewickley home? First and foremost, we must keep our schools and community strong. What we have is unique – there are very few walking communities in the area and fewer that are in a top school district. Support our local stores, attend community events, give of your time and finances to our schools and non-profits. This helps to keep Sewickley wonderful and will help protect your investment. Don’t rely on everyone else – we are all busy but we all need to do our part to keep Sewickley appealing to new families. Second, be sure when you are ready to put your home on that market that you have taken the time to really prep it for market and that it shows fabulously. Remember, you aren’t just competing with the other homes in town – you are also competing with new construction in adjacent communities and those usually present as move-in ready!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
I am wondering if you could give an update on how the spring market is looking so far?
The spring market is off to an incredibly strong start, from a seller’s perspective, IF a home is listed under $1million. New introductions are selling, often with multiple bids, and sometimes in less than 24 hours. Homes that have been on the market for many months are also selling, and even they sometimes have more than one offer! It is exactly what we all expected – a vibrant market, and its only early March!
Buyers are understandably frustrated! While houses are coming on the market, the lines of buyers in the more affordable price ranges would look like the black Friday lines at Best Buy when they are selling TVs for $100! New introductions are selling fast and for more than a simple analysis of the comps would suggest is a market price. But if you have been waiting for 6-12 months, this may be your best chance at a home that could work for you, so you may have to pay more to beat out other buyers and get in the door!
How do you win in a market like this? Buyers, you MUST be pre-approved for your financing. You need to know exactly what you can afford and be able to prove that, in writing, to the sellers you are trying to convince to pick you. Yes, there is some up-front work involved, but this is what it takes to win in today’s market! You should also have chosen and signed on with a buyer’s agent – waiting for homes to hit Zillow or to have an open house is not an effective way to win in a hot market. You need a full-time agent dedicated to getting you home options as soon as they are available. If you really want to win, you also need to spend some time assessing the compromises you are willing to make – 20 years in this business and I can state with confidence that the perfect home is just not out there!
Sellers, we have a huge inventory shortage that has been going on for two market cycles but this is not reflective of the norm in Western PA. The tables will turn at some point back to a buyer’s market. If a move is on your radar screen, now would be the absolute best time to call me to develop a strategy to get your home on the market and give you the best return on its sale!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’ve been out of school for a few years, have been great savers and are thinking about buying our first home, but with the recession not so far behind us, it seems like a risky proposition. Any advice?
The millennials, as they are known, are a very risk adverse generation, having watched first-hand as many family members lost their jobs and/or their homes in the last recession. It’s not hard to understand why they have been the slowest generation to embrace home ownership as part of the American dream. But as scary as it might seem to take that first big step, home ownership remains one of the best investments you can make, and the sooner you get in the game, the sooner you will start making measurable progress toward achieving your financial goals.
Keep in mind that most of the housing losses from the 2008 recession were due to the immediately proceeding banking practices that are now far behind us. People were allowed to borrow without proof of ability to pay, to start with, and many used their homes as ATM machines, financing cars, vacations and college educations on their presumed housing appreciation. Today the lending laws are much stricter in an effort to prevent another crisis, and so you can be assured that if a lender has qualified you for a particular loan amount, you have passed some of the strictest standards and are more than well qualified by any objective standard to get in the housing game.
Owning a home will always be a far better choice than renting. It’s a rare day that owning what you are renting wont cost you less every month, and you are building equity (money you get back when you sell someday) with each payment. If you compare how much it costs you to own a home over 30 years, versus how much it would cost you to rent that home over 30 years, you will always have spent less money and in the end, you will have an asset that you own and can resell if need be. In addition, owning a home gives you certain federal tax breaks that renters don’t get, which further reduces the actual cost to you of owning a home. Home owners also lock in their housing cost for as long as they own that home. So while your $2000 rental payment will go up each year as your landlord increases the rent, how much you spend for a mortgage is locked in for as long as you own your home. Stay there 30 years and you will still be paying the same mortgage payment that you are paying today! No landlord will give you that deal!
This is complex, no doubt, and I would be happy to meet with you to go over the numbers in person, but there is no doubt that its never too early to get into the home ownership game!
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[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’ve been thinking about starting our search for a new home but were wondering if we should wait until more homes come on the market this spring?
The spring market is here (although with the forecasted low temps for this week it may slow things down a bit)! Buyers are definitely buying right now, so if you think a move is in your future, despite the cold temperatures, the time to get started is now! We have seen homes that have been sitting for months go under agreement in the past couple of weeks, some with multiple offers, and our inventory is dwindling. We still have many nice options available for you to consider, and this is a far better time to buy than March, April or May.
Why, you may wonder? We have such a severe inventory shortage with lines and lines of buyers waiting for homes to come on the market. Many homes are selling in just a couple of days, before many buyers have a chance to get out and take a look. As we head into spring this will only get worse. While none of us have crystal balls, there does not appear to be an avalanche of inventory coming on the market in the coming weeks. I expect by March 1st the bidding wars will begin in earnest for well-conditioned, well-priced homes. (As a side note, even with the inventory shortage that we have now had for well over a year, this is Pittsburgh and not California – buyers still exercise a healthy dose of common sense in making their buying choices and don’t tend to overpay – it is still important to price based on historic sales and not exceed recommended pricing by sizeable amounts). If you don’t want to end up in a bidding war, where there can only be one winner and it may not be you, shop now and avoid the crowd! You may very well get a better deal than you could on the same house in another month!
In doing so, be sure to follow the advice passed on in prior columns (you can refresh your memory on my blog where these columns are posted each week –see www.AskKathe.com). Be SURE that you are pre-approved so that when you are ready to buy, you don’t have to waste precious time with this necessary step. When you do this, be sure your credit is good or clean up any issues and reestablish good credit. Give me a call so we can get you set up to be notified of all new listings immediately! And if you might consider selling your home, call me today! We have lines and lines of buyer prospects for your home!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
I know you don’t have a crystal ball, but what do you think about mortgage rates right now?
The short answer: I think they will only go up! We just had a slight drop in the rates this past week, but that is not expected to hold. If you are considering buying, now is definitely the very best time to take out a loan – by next month rates could have bounced back up again! There is really only one problem I see with this otherwise sage advice – inventory is very limited right now! You may not find anything that you want to buy!
The good news is we do have a new mortgage product that will allow you to lock the rate for 60 days, even if you haven’t found a home! The process is quite simple. The loan application is processed just like if you had found a home – you make full application and turn in your paperwork. You then have 30 days to get a home under agreement and the remaining 30 days to close. For those of you who are committed to buying in the short term, this is a very good option to guarantee you the lower rate while still giving you time to shop. If you don’t find a home within 30 days, you do lose the rate lock but you would have still completed the paperwork for your future loan application!
Prospective sellers, lower rates are good news for you too! Buyers can afford more when rates are lower and home prices therefore tend to be a little higher. We are officially in the long-awaited spring market, rates have dropped a bit AND we have a scarcity of inventory – the perfect trifecta if you are contemplating a sale! Give me a call and we can develop a strategy to maximize your return in this favorable climate!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We are interested in viewing homes but have been told that before doing so, we need to provide a pre-approval letter or proof of funds letter. Is this really necessary?
Getting yourself pre-approved to buy before you start viewing homes is an excellent idea. You will have to have a pre-approval letter to submit an offer (sellers are going to want assurances from an independent third party that you can afford the home before they take their home off the active market to sell to you). And you certainly don’t want to start looking at homes that you think you can afford, or that you were told you could afford last year, before interest rates increased, only to be disappointed to find out that the home you love is outside your price range. Getting a pre-approval upfront is the most sensible approach – in this hot market, you could easily lose out on a home while you wait for a lender to pull your information together and get you the letter. It is best to get it done up front.
Necessary? That depends on the agent you are working with and the sellers of the homes you are viewing. Some agents simply will not put a buyer in their car until they have completed the pre-approval process. On reflection, this makes sense. Realtors are one of the only professions that don’t charge for their time as it is expended – they are paid for their time only when (and if) you actually close on a property. Getting pre-approved upfront shows that you are serious about buying a home and not just out for a house tour! Some sellers also require pre-approvals be provided before they will allow their homes to be shown. As you might imagine, there are some homes that many people would like to see, just for fun, such as very expensive homes or homes of celebrities/ sports stars. However, selling a home is not about providing entertainment to the general public. One would hope that buyers would understand that sellers do not want to take the time to prepare for a showing to a buyer who is just out for fun – and hence, for those homes that might be a curiosity to many, it is important for sellers to require a pre-approval in advance.
If you are serious about a move, then financing, whether through a loan or with cash you have saved, is a necessary part of the buying process. My best advice is to go ahead and line up your financial ducks before you start the home search process. If you need help finding an excellent lender, give me a call!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We last updated our home twenty years ago and are now ready to downsize. Does it make sense to put it on the market at a lower price or do we have to make updates before we list?
You absolutely do not need to update your home before you list! I’m sure that comes as a relief to you. However, if the last significant updates you made were twenty years ago, you must price accordingly. Even if your bath tiles are white, for example, and not a turn off, the size and style of tiles has changed in two decades and the baths, although neutral, will feel dated to buyers. One of the biggest mistakes sellers make is to note what their neighbor’s home sold for and price theirs accordingly. If the neighbor had new baths (as opposed to neutral baths) or a new kitchen, or new paint colors… they will get significantly more money for their home. The key to selling with no updates is to get a likely value in “as is” condition from a local expert – I can help you with that! It is important to be clear when pricing, however, what you intend to do before listing – some sellers have projects planned but not completed and that would be important to take into account. As long as you price your home right, your home will sell without updates.
Before deciding to list “as is,” however, it is a good idea to consider what the cost of recommended updates would be and what they might yield you if you make the investment. Usually, when updates are made right before a sale and are in line with current design preferences, your home will sell faster and the higher price you receive will be far greater than the cost of the updates. If this is something you would like to consider, I would be happy to meet with you to discuss what you might update and how the updates might increase your value. You could then make an informed decision about whether or not to list “as is” or update.
In the end, you may decide that you value the simplicity of an “as is” listing and the increased price realized is not worth your time and the stress of a project. Even in that case, it’s a good idea to still stage the home for sale by decluttering and giving it a good scrub down (including windows and carpets). Homes that are clutter free and have been recently deep cleaned will also sell faster and yield a higher sales price, even if they are not as updated as buyers might prefer.
[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
It’s a new year and we’re ready for a new home! What should we do first?
Well, you are asking a Realtor that question, so the answer is probably expected! The first thing you should do is call me! Once you have done that, here is a look at what comes next! First, we will meet and determine the likely value of your home in the current market. The market is quite fluid and values move up and down depending on supply. Currently we have had very low inventory for an extended period of time and buyers are getting very frustrated, so it is possible that we may see an uptick in values again this spring. When we meet we will also review all of the many ways I will be marketing your home and the timetable for rolling out the marketing to optimize your result.
Once we set a timetable that works for you, you will want to spend some time “staging” your home. At the most fundamental level, this would involve you “de-cluttering” your home. It’s amazing how quickly we will our closets, basements and attics! Movers are not cheap – you do not want to move more than you know you will want to keep. So now is the ideal time to start the clean-out. In fact, we sometimes have closings as quickly as 3 weeks after an offer is presented, so it is best to assume that you will not have much time to pack later and do the clean-out up-front. This will also help your home show off its spaciousness and storage capabilities! If you are saving things for others (such as the pile of furniture I have stored in my basement for my adult children who I am sure are going to want my 30 year old furnishings someday!), then it would be advisable to find an off-site storage facility and move those items from your home (or more realistically, I would be happy to connect you to charities to come pick them up and give you a tax deduction in exchange – the reality is that those we save for probably really don’t want our stuff anyhow!) If this all seems incredibly overwhelming to you (and you’re thinking you would rather stay put than face the inevitable clean out), I would be happy to connect you to a home organizer that can take on as little or as much as you don’t want to do!
Once you feel you are “de-cluttered,” the next step toward selling your home would be to determine whether any repairs or improvements are needed or recommended. I am happy to walk through your home with you in advance of your listing date and discuss what you might consider addressing and its likely impact on your bottom line. Not ever seller wants to make repairs and improvements and ultimately that choice is yours, but the market data I will provide to you will help you decide whether its worth it to you to make the additional investment in your home. If repairs are not possible, we will work on using the disclosure to make sure you are sharing the items upfront with the buyer and pricing accordingly. This will protect you later from costly repairs if the inspector is the one to raise the issues.
It’s a lot to do, but together we can make your 2019 real estate goals a reality!
[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
Now that Christmas is behind us, we are thinking about making a housing change in 2019. What is the optimal timing?
The strength of our early spring market is always weather dependent here in sunny Pittsburgh! In a “normal” winter our spring market starts in earnest in mid-January. Certainly by February you would want your home on the market if you are seeking a spring sale. Our early spring buyers (January, February and March) tend to be our best, especially following a period of such unheard of inventory lows. There is currently a long line of buyers eagerly waiting for new market introductions – the competition will likely be great in the early months of our new year, maybe even driving in more of the bidding wars we saw this past fall.
Of course, the interest rates have climbed steadily throughout 2018 and that may put a bit of a damper on rising prices in 2019 – but if inventory remains as low as it has been in 2018, the impact should be minimal. And if we have a rough winter, as some predict, it may slow the start of our spring market. But of course, we won’t know that until we are in the thick of it.
All things considered, my best advice to you is to give me a call today so that we can design a strategy that is best for your family and your personal goals. Being ready to go in the spring market as soon as it starts to show signs of life, be it January, February or March, will inure to your benefit!
[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We’re hoping to move in the New Year and are beginning our search online – is there anything we should keep in mind?
The majority of buyers will shop online during their search for a new home, and many will actually begin their search there, like yourselves! The real estate industry has come such a long way in the 20 years since I started in this business. Back in what feels like a different century (perhaps because it was), we used bulky multilist books that were delivered every other week to find homes for our clients. Now you can access the entire nation’s real estate inventory on national websites such as realtor.com in the comfort of your own home!
The internet has made it incredibly easy for buyers to do some preliminary research for a new home. It does have its limitations, however, which is where your expert real estate agent can fill in the gaps.
Online listings, if managed well by the listing agent, will always look amazing. Wide-angle lenses and professional photographers are employed, as well as photo-editing software and virtual staging, to make a home look as attractive as possible online. It’s worth keeping in mind that pictures may lie – be careful not to screen out potential homes just because the photos aren’t fabulous – rely instead on the wisdom of your agent. If she has listened to your feedback and is familiar with the inventory, she will be your best screen for which homes are better than they appear, and which may be worse.
Online listings also don’t give you much of a sense of location. While google earth may help with some of this, until you actually drive by a property, you may not be able to tell physical lot characteristics that may be a positive or a negative to you. Online listings also can do little to convey a sense of neighborhood or community. Again, that is where your real estate professional should be able to fill in the picture for you.
Finally, online listings are only as good as the agent who enters the data – there may be information about the property that is not entered into the MLS, either by agent oversight or by simple lack of space, that might make a home more desirable to you. Information such as camera security systems, water softener and purification systems and high-efficiency mechanicals may have real value to you and is rarely listed online.
Online shopping is a great way to familiarize yourself with the market, but connecting with a Realtor who is an expert in the area of interest to you is your best course of action once your curiosity grows more serious.
QUICK SEARCH
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We were approached by someone who is interested in buying our home. The buyer has provided us with an unsigned sales agreement as their offer. They are offering 1.5% of the purchase price as their hand money and have not included proof of funds (it is a cash offer). Are we wasting our time with these buyers?
The very short answer is yes! For starters, to be a valid offer, it must be in writing and signed. Without a signed writing, you have absolutely nothing to bind the buyer should you decide to proceed. What you received is not an offer at all and you should not give it serious consideration until the paperwork is signed by the buyer. If there are no agents involved, the buyer needs to hire an attorney to prepare an offer and you will need to hire your own attorney to review it.
Hand money equal to 1.5% of the offer may or may not be sufficient depending on the individual circumstances. Sometimes that is all a buyer can afford. However, this buyer is supposedly paying cash so there should be no problem with them providing a more substantial deposit. Look for a minimum of 5% in this type of scenario. The hand money is your consolation prize should the buyer decide not to close after all contingencies have been satisfied – if you have moved out, you will need at least that much to compensate you for all of your moving costs.
As far as proof of funds, I would recommend that you not engage in any substantive negotiations until the buyer has proven that they do have the cash available to close. Talk is cheap, but if they really do have the cash, they will have no problem producing copies of statements showing the cash or a letter from their banker that they have the needed funds.
Your questions address just a few of the hundreds of complexities involved in getting a home sold and highlight why its really important to engage a full-time real estate expert when buying or selling a home. Selling your home yourself may sound like a great idea in the abstract but the “for sale by owner” sellers that I have spoken to have regretted not engaging a Realtor to represent them as selling a home is far more complicated than it looks and most ended up feeling like they got the short end of the stick at the end of the day!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
This time of year we all take the time to give thanks for all of the wonderful things in our lives. I have much to be thankful for. The obvious chart toppers are good health, wonderful family and friends, and a warm home to come home to each day (which I particularly appreciate on these chilly November days!) My gratitude extends much further, however, to all of the people I work with every day that make real estate transactions so seamless for my clients – from the best mortgage brokers and closers to incredible home inspectors and handymen, contractors, electricians, roofers… that I can count on to give their best to my clients. With them by my side (or on speed dial) I have been able to provide the highest level of service to those with whom I work, and for that I am grateful.
My gratitude, however, extends even further – to forces I can’t control. We have been very fortunate to have historically low interest rates for a very long period of time (and even though they have been inching up, they are still comparatively quite low), and a taxing structure that has favored home ownership as an investment. I am always reminded that Uncle Sam, through the mortgage interest deduction, effectively pays a portion of my mortgage every month. Through the system as structured, we are not only able to own homes for less than we could pay to rent them, but at the same time we are building equity which will be there for us when we retire and are seeking that nest egg to purchase our retirement home with.
Are you taking advantage of all that is available to you? It’s hard to imagine that there will ever be a better time to begin or increase the size of your nest egg in real estate. If you’re ready to downsize and cash in your nest egg, it’s an absolutely ideal time – inventory is low, interest rates are still on the historically low side and we have buyers waiting in line for Sewickley homes. The spring market starts in January – the time to sell is now! Enjoy your holiday, and give thanks for all that is wonderful in your life!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
We need to replace appliances – any recommendations?
When choosing new appliances, my first recommendation is that you choose Energy Star certified appliances for several reasons. First – check with your electric supplier before you shop, but rebates are available from many electric companies (Duquesne Light is one) when you purchase designated Energy Star appliances. Second – you will save money every month on your electric bills. Third – and most important from my perspective – younger buyers tend to be concerned about energy efficiency and often ask for utility bill information on homes they are considering. Energy efficient appliances are a selling point and will enhance the value of your home (don’t forget to point that out when you list!) As more young buyers enter our buying market (and they are buying across all price ranges), this could be an important differentiator for your home.
I still recommend that you choose stainless appliances. While there are many options out there including some pretty interesting colors, I still see buyers responding most favorably to stainless. Sure, they might be harder to care for (you will need a can of stainless polish in your cleaning cupboard), but the look is still quite appealing and “professional.” There is, however, one circumstance when I do not recommend stainless for replacement appliances. If your kitchen has another color appliances (white or black, for example) I do not recommend replacing only one appliance with stainless. If there is one thing buyers uniformly dislike it is mismatched appliances (in color – mixing brands is fine). So if you currently have white appliances and don’t think you will be replacing the other appliances soon, stick with white. Even though white (or black) does not have the same appeal that stainless does, a kitchen with two white (or black) appliances and one stainless is the least appealing of all!
Finally, it is worth noting that it is more the look than the brand that is important to buyers. As much as we all like to think the high end brands are important to people its not what I am seeing on the selling side. If the appliance has a good look, buyers are not stopping to ask what the brand name is! So choose the brand that appeals to you – be it a budget decision or a features decision – and enjoy it while you are still in the home!
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I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA
REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street
Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
As a home seller, are there inspection type items that we are simply going to be stuck addressing?
Who can forget the old childhood game – pass the hot potato? The object, of course, was to not be holding the hot potato when the music stops. We have our fair share of “hot potatoes” in real estate too, and just like in the childhood game, someone always gets stuck holding the hot potato.
You may wonder, what are these hot potatoes of which I write? Years ago, it was radon. If you were selling your home and it had radon levels in excess of the EPA limit of 4.0 pCi/L, you got stuck paying the remediation bill (usually less than $1000) because a buyer isn’t going to agree to buy a home with a radon problem. That hasn’t changed, but if a home has sold in recent years and ever had radon, chances are it has been remediated.
Next, the media exploded with stories of illness caused by mold in homes and suddenly, sellers were faced with mold inspections. There is the very bad black mold (Stachybotrs), but honestly, all molds have the potential to make you sick. As you can imagine, buyers aren’t going to buy a home with a mold problem either, and once again, the seller bears the cost of remediation and often, the cost to solve the cause of the mold problem as well. The cost can be several hundred to several thousand dollars.
These days, the hot potatoes have expanded to include two tricky electrical issues. Pushmatic electrical panel boxes are very expensive to maintain and the manufacturer is no longer in business. Most buyers will require a seller to replace these panel boxes – the cost per panel is generally $1500+. Knob and tube wiring is the other big hot potato for homes built before 1930. Rewiring an entire home can range between $10,000 – $20,000 and so many homes retain this original wiring. Most insurance companies will no longer issue new insurance policies on homes with this antiquated wiring. Therefore, if knob and tube wiring is discovered on an inspection, the cost of the rewire also generally falls to the seller – very few buyers are willing to buy a home (at least not unless they are getting a substantial discount) if it has knob & tube wiring present.
If you own a home with one of these hot potatoes – radon, mold, pushmatic panel or knob & tube wiring – things that years ago wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow – you should expect that when you go to sell your home, you will be stuck with the cost of getting rid of the hot potato, if you haven’t already done so!
[contact-form-7 id="115311" title="Get More Information Form"]
I’m ready to answer any questions you have regarding your real estate needs.
Kathe Barge, CRS, ABR, CNE, SRES Associate Broker HOWARD HANNA
REAL ESTATE SERVICES 401 Broad Street
Sewickley, PA 15143 Cell: 412-779-6060 Office: 412-741-2200 x238 kbarge@howardhanna.com
This color blends with virtually every shade of white that might be on your trim and nearly every color flooring that might be in your home. It is really more of a greige than a gray and, like a chameleon, changes color a bit depending on what is in the space and what kind of light is filtering in through the windows. However, if your home is a palette if golds, for example, this color might not be the right choice! Trending now is white on white (with trim and walls painted the same or nearly the same shade of white), but this is a design style that is best incorporated throughout the entire home, and not just a singular room. If you have wallpaper in your space, then it’s a very good investment to have it removed (do not paint over it, no matter what the painter tells you) and painted in a color that coordinates with your design aesthetic. Wallpaper overall remains a difficult sell.
Whether you are planning to sell your home this coming year or not, the best thing you can do to your home is a home inspection! We all live in our homes but rarely take the time to stop and give them a careful look. Weather beats up the outside of our homes year round. Caulking fails, flashing fails, paint peels and exposes wood to rot. We forget to clean our gutters on a regular basis – gutters and downspouts fill with decaying debris, causing water to back up into our homes and cause mold problems. We forget to have our furnaces serviced and fittings loosen and cause condensate to leak and rust our furnaces. The list goes on and on. Simply living in and not doing a regular check up on your home, you are leaving it open to the possibility of major repair bills later and major depreciation in your investment’s value. A home inspection will give you a to do list of projects to tackle throughout the year to keep your home in great shape and maintain its value!
We have been waiting for a while for some new homes to come on the market –are you anticipating more listings soon?
We are looking to buy a new home – where is the market these days? Do you have any advice for buyers?
This is the million-dollar question right now. There seems to be no doubt that real estate consumers are a little less confident this week. But will we see an actual downturn in our market?
You might be surprised to learn that I can help you with this! No, I am not licensed in other states, but I can help you find a great agent wherever you are thinking of buying (or selling) a home. And yes, I do have access to resources not easily available to the general public to do that for you and have done it for many others!
For those of who just picking up the conversation today, check out my blog at 
For those of who just picking up the conversation today, check out my blog at 
Buying a home is one of the best choices you can make. Rather than paying money to your landlord so that he can be closer to owning an asset outright each month, when you make your monthly payment each month a portion actually goes to your benefit – when you sell the home someday, as long as the market is in a good place, that money is refunded to you (called equity) and you can use it to buy again. It is, in effect, a forced savings plan and over time you can amass quite a large amount of savings while you are simply doing what you would have done otherwise – paying for housing each month.
141 Beech Ridge Drive
The process of selling and buying a home involves many fine lines. How far do you take preparing your home for sale? Do you really need to address all of the items suggested by your agent, the home stager or the home inspector who did a pre-inspection? Do you really have to attend to everything your family has broken or worn out over the years?
The majority of buyers will shop online during their search for a new home, and many will actually begin their search there, like yourselves! The real estate industry has come such a long way in the 20+ years since I started in this business. Back in what feels like a different century (perhaps because it was), we used bulky multilist books that were delivered every other week to find homes for our clients. If you were in good with your agent, she might lend you a coveted book to take home and peruse! Now you can access the entire nation’s real estate inventory on national websites such as realtor.com in the comfort of your own home!
Buyers who are shopping during the holidays are some of the most serious buyers we see each year – most people don’t bother spending their precious holiday time looking at homes unless they have a need to buy. So keeping your home on the market over the holidays is generally a good idea!
Of course there are! But Sewickley, particularly in affordable price ranges, has become a very competitive market. It seems the secret is out – many people know about our very unique combination of a highly rated school district and a charming, walkable shopping district. Every agent I know has a list of buyers waiting for affordable homes to become available!
If you are simply refinancing an existing mortgage debt, you MAY be ok choosing an internet lender. You just need to be very careful that, before you apply to refinance your loan, you receive from the lender a full disclosure of all the costs and not just the rates. Oftentimes I see lenders have exorbitantly high fees connected with low rates. In a sense, you are buying down your rate by paying high fees upfront. Be sure to compare them on the same day to a couple of local lenders and understand what you are paying to get the quoted rates. The reason you must compare rates on a singular date is because rates go up and down continuously and a rate may seem lower simply because you called a particular lender on a date rates dropped.
Real estate rental properties can be a great way to diversify your investment portfolio and create an income stream for retirement, if you hold your properties long enough! During your ownership, if you have invested properly, the tenant’s rent should be covering your mortgage and taxes and maybe even generating some cash. Over time, the rent will have purchased you a home and the income stream becomes cash in your pocket, or the home an asset you can sell and invest in something else (Retirement home? Child’s education?)
We live in an old town, with homes dating back to the early 1800s. With old homes comes a lot of history, and sometimes a ghost story or two. While approximately half of our states do require disclosure of paranormal activity, Pennsylvania is not one of those states. Pennsylvania also does not currently require a seller to disclose if someone has died in a home, although they cannot affirmatively lie if asked.
If you are thinking of remodeling a portion of your home, it is important to first consider what is currently going on inside your home from a design perspective. It is not possible to overstate the importance of consistency in design when selling a home. Buyers uniformly respond favorably when a home flows in a consistent “theme” through the home. What does this really mean? In an ideal world, your color palate would move smoothly from room to room. Every room does not have to be the same color, but the colors should harmonize. In other words, you should not be using both the 1980s burgundy & green palate along with today’s grays and browns in the same home. As soon as you begin to move a newer color palate in, the old one must disappear completely. Smaller details must also blend seamlessly. If you like the nickel and chrome (silver based) colors, use them throughout for cabinet knobs, lighting and bathroom/kitchen fixtures. Do not choose nickel for one bath and brass for the next. Buyers will subconsciously feel the home needs work as they will sense the lack of consistency. The same is true for the bathrooms themselves. If you decide to renovate your master bath, that does not mean you need to renovate every bath, but you would be well-advised to plan your master bath so it also harmonizes with what is already in your home. If the “hardscapes” in your baths (counters, floors) are in the beige family, it would be a bad idea to do your master in white carerra marble, no matter how “in” that might be, unless you are prepared to update all baths. Choose instead travertine, beige granite or a beige based marble that will blend more smoothly with your existing baths. The impact to a buyer of “wonderful new master bath” will have the added benefit of helping to harmonize the entire home and will make the entire home feel more updated. So yes, renovating bathrooms are an excellent investment, as long as your investment harmonizes with the rest of your home and does not make everything else look dated. If that happens, you may be walking down a slippery slope where you need to take on more than just the master bath in order to recoup your investment!
We all know the story of Goldilocks – be it the porridge being too hot, too cold or just right, or the beds being too big, too small or just right, or the chair being too hard, too soft or just right, the winning combination was not an extreme but the “just right” spot in between.
You’ve lived in your home long enough that you have probably “used up” a lot of the value that you bought with your home and will need to restore some of that value if you hope to protect your original investment.
When you are selling your home, its normal to think that only you can fully convey your home’s fine qualities to a buyer. This leads some sellers to consider the possibility of being home for showings, so that they can make sure that the buyer prospects appreciate all of the home’s amenities. While this may seem sensible to a seller, nothing could be further from the truth!
If you watch HGTV or read my weekly articles, you likely know how important it is to neutralize your home before you sell. But what exactly does that entail? Paint color is obvious. Your home is far more likely to sell for top dollar if its painted in a neutral color palate. This does not mean your home must be nothing but white. It does, mean, however, that you should remove most strong colors in favor of “colored” neutrals – colors such as greige or light gray. A colorful room or two is fine as long as the color was chosen in the past couple years (trends in color change quickly, but when you live with a color daily and are not in the design business, you probably don’t realize when a color is no longer “in”).
Our market has traditionally been one where buyers know they are buying old homes and allow the seller some leeway in not presenting a “perfect” home from an inspection standpoint. However, in many parts of the country, this is not the case. Sellers are expected to remedy all issues noted by home inspectors prior to closing. As more and more people migrate here from other parts of the country, our prices are going up, but so are the buyers’ expectations as to a seller’s responsibility for concerns discovered on a home inspection. At the same time, inspectors are getting significantly more particular. And so yes, it is absolutely possible to have purchased a home only two years ago and have new concerns arise that clearly existed and were overlooked when you bought your home. And yes, it is equally possible that you will be expected to fix them and if you refuse, your sale might fall through.
If you follow my column, you have undoubtedly noted me mentioning for what seems like years now that our market is hot and our inventory has never been lower. It certainly couldn’t be a better time to sell. You may in fact have just heard that your neighbor’s home sold for top dollar in record time. How do you make that happen? Start by watching more TV!
For those of you looking for a quick answer, the answer is a resounding no! For those of you wondering why, read on!
Our high-end market has been slower than normal for over a year now. Speculation abounds as to why that is the case, but it doesn’t seem that we are alone – sales of higher end homes in many pockets of this country have slowed. Many attribute that to the fact that our tax system was restructured to allow for a larger standard deduction and lower marginal rates but at the cost of limiting the deduction for property and income taxes to a combined total of $10,000. For high property tax jurisdictions such as our own, many commentators believe this has caused a slow-down in high-tax (i.e., high priced) home sales. I have held out hope that when people filed their taxes this past Monday, maybe they would discover that they are better off under the new system despite the deduction limitation and we would see the property tax fear fade into the background. I must admit that even as a former tax lawyer I have found the new forms a bit confusing, so I am really hoping we will see some favorable spin coming from tax preparers this week.
I always counsel my new clients relocating here from other states that property taxes are something that need to be viewed as part of an entire budget. Yes, our property taxes seem much higher than in many other regions of this country, and yes, upon first look, it can be a deterrent. But my advice to out-of-towners is to consider how much they pay each year in all forms of tax.
I may be repeating myself here, but in this hot spring market, it really is an important message. There is simply nothing more powerful for driving in a high offer for your home than listing it with a real estate agent who is fully engaged in the marketing and selling of your home! Yes, you did ask a realtor, so you probably expected that answer, but here’s why.
What stands out in looking at the data, however, is that in the past six years the number of high end buyers coming to us through relocations to Pittsburgh is dropping. This may be because there are other high-end neighborhoods that have been built across the region and Sewickley is no longer one of the only communities you can move to if you want to buy a high end home. Buyers can choose a home in the north hills, for example, with the latest and greatest everything for less than they would have to spend in Sewickley. This may also be because some employers who anticipate faster turn around do not want their employees buying – our rental market is doing quite well as a result.
The spring market is off to an incredibly strong start, from a seller’s perspective, IF a home is listed under $1million. New introductions are selling, often with multiple bids, and sometimes in less than 24 hours. Homes that have been on the market for many months are also selling, and even they sometimes have more than one offer! It is exactly what we all expected – a vibrant market, and its only early March!
The millennials, as they are known, are a very risk adverse generation, having watched first-hand as many family members lost their jobs and/or their homes in the last recession. It’s not hard to understand why they have been the slowest generation to embrace home ownership as part of the American dream. But as scary as it might seem to take that first big step, home ownership remains one of the best investments you can make, and the sooner you get in the game, the sooner you will start making measurable progress toward achieving your financial goals.
The spring market is here (although with the forecasted low temps for this week it may slow things down a bit)! Buyers are definitely buying right now, so if you think a move is in your future, despite the cold temperatures, the time to get started is now! We have seen homes that have been sitting for months go under agreement in the past couple of weeks, some with multiple offers, and our inventory is dwindling. We still have many nice options available for you to consider, and this is a far better time to buy than March, April or May.
The short answer: I think they will only go up! We just had a slight drop in the rates this past week, but that is not expected to hold. If you are considering buying, now is definitely the very best time to take out a loan – by next month rates could have bounced back up again! There is really only one problem I see with this otherwise sage advice – inventory is very limited right now! You may not find anything that you want to buy!
Getting yourself pre-approved to buy before you start viewing homes is an excellent idea. You will have to have a pre-approval letter to submit an offer (sellers are going to want assurances from an independent third party that you can afford the home before they take their home off the active market to sell to you). And you certainly don’t want to start looking at homes that you think you can afford, or that you were told you could afford last year, before interest rates increased, only to be disappointed to find out that the home you love is outside your price range. Getting a pre-approval upfront is the most sensible approach – in this hot market, you could easily lose out on a home while you wait for a lender to pull your information together and get you the letter. It is best to get it done up front.
You absolutely do not need to update your home before you list! I’m sure that comes as a relief to you. However, if the last significant updates you made were twenty years ago, you must price accordingly. Even if your bath tiles are white, for example, and not a turn off, the size and style of tiles has changed in two decades and the baths, although neutral, will feel dated to buyers. One of the biggest mistakes sellers make is to note what their neighbor’s home sold for and price theirs accordingly. If the neighbor had new baths (as opposed to neutral baths) or a new kitchen, or new paint colors… they will get significantly more money for their home. The key to selling with no updates is to get a likely value in “as is” condition from a local expert – I can help you with that! It is important to be clear when pricing, however, what you intend to do before listing – some sellers have projects planned but not completed and that would be important to take into account. As long as you price your home right, your home will sell without updates.
Well, you are asking a Realtor that question, so the answer is probably expected! The first thing you should do is call me! Once you have done that, here is a look at what comes next! First, we will meet and determine the likely value of your home in the current market. The market is quite fluid and values move up and down depending on supply. Currently we have had very low inventory for an extended period of time and buyers are getting very frustrated, so it is possible that we may see an uptick in values again this spring. When we meet we will also review all of the many ways I will be marketing your home and the timetable for rolling out the marketing to optimize your result.
The very short answer is yes! For starters, to be a valid offer, it must be in writing and signed. Without a signed writing, you have absolutely nothing to bind the buyer should you decide to proceed. What you received is not an offer at all and you should not give it serious consideration until the paperwork is signed by the buyer. If there are no agents involved, the buyer needs to hire an attorney to prepare an offer and you will need to hire your own attorney to review it.
This time of year we all take the time to give thanks for all of the wonderful things in our lives. I have much to be thankful for. The obvious chart toppers are good health, wonderful family and friends, and a warm home to come home to each day (which I particularly appreciate on these chilly November days!) My gratitude extends much further, however, to all of the people I work with every day that make real estate transactions so seamless for my clients – from the best mortgage brokers and closers to incredible home inspectors and handymen, contractors, electricians, roofers… that I can count on to give their best to my clients. With them by my side (or on speed dial) I have been able to provide the highest level of service to those with whom I work, and for that I am grateful.
I still recommend that you choose stainless appliances. While there are many options out there including some pretty interesting colors, I still see buyers responding most favorably to stainless. Sure, they might be harder to care for (you will need a can of stainless polish in your cleaning cupboard), but the look is still quite appealing and “professional.” There is, however, one circumstance when I do not recommend stainless for replacement appliances. If your kitchen has another color appliances (white or black, for example) I do not recommend replacing only one appliance with stainless. If there is one thing buyers uniformly dislike it is mismatched appliances (in color – mixing brands is fine). So if you currently have white appliances and don’t think you will be replacing the other appliances soon, stick with white. Even though white (or black) does not have the same appeal that stainless does, a kitchen with two white (or black) appliances and one stainless is the least appealing of all!
Who can forget the old childhood game – pass the hot potato? The object, of course, was to not be holding the hot potato when the music stops. We have our fair share of “hot potatoes” in real estate too, and just like in the childhood game, someone always gets stuck holding the hot potato.