Houston Real Estate Podcast with Dale Ross - What Are Your Home’s Chances of Selling in This Market?

What Are Your Home’s Chances of Selling in This Market?

11/21/16 • -1 min

Houston Real Estate Podcast with Dale Ross

What are the chances of your home selling in this market? Right now, the reason so many homes are not selling is that there are, on average, six or seven sellers for every buyer. In order for your home to sell, then, it has to be perfectly positioned in every way. The best thing you can do to stack the odds in your favor is to choose the right agent. To know what it means to choose the right agent, watch this short video.

Looking to buy a home in the Houston area? Get full MLS access
Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home

What are the odds your home can sell in the current real estate market?

We still have a pretty good number of buyers in the market right now. The reason you see so many homes not selling is because we have between six or seven sellers for every buyer. In order for you to sell your home, then, it has to be perfectly positioned in every single way.

In order to set yourself up for success, you need to choose the right real estate agent to market your home. Most agents have been in the market for 10 years or fewer, which means they’ve never seen a market like this. They’ve only seen the really good times for sellers - they’ve never seen the challenging times.

"Choosing the right agent will determine whether or not you’re successful."

The chances of your home being the one that sells out of six or seven other homes depends on how well your Realtor positions your home in the marketplace. By “positions” I mean everything from staging to preparation to marketing. Many agents that have been in the market for a short period of time don’t advertise very broadly because they don’t know how or they don’t have the resources. Thus, choosing the right agent will determine whether or not you’ll be successful.

When you’re ready to talk about selling your home with an agent, please include me in your list. I would recommend you interview at least two or three agents so you can find the one that’s bee...

Looking to buy a home in the Houston area? Get full MLS access
Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home

"Choosing the right agent will determine whether or not you’re successful."

Previous Episode

Why Am I Paying a Property Tax Certificate?

What is a property tax certificate and why do you pay it every time you sell a home? Today we're discussing the finer points of why a title company orders this certificate.

Looking to buy a home in the Houston area? Get full MLS access
Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home

A customer recently asked me about property tax certificates and why you have to pay them every time you sell a home. It's a great question, as not many people know exactly what a property tax certificate is.

Basically, whenever you sell your home, the title company will prorate taxes from the beginning of the year up through the closing date, and as a seller, you're responsible for those property taxes. The buyer, then, is responsible for taxes moving forward. The title company will actually hire a property taxes certificate company, who will then determine exactly what the property taxes were for the previous year and certify the number. This gives the title company a hard number to use for prorating the taxes.

The certificate ensures you've paid property taxes up to the point of sale.

At the end of the year, the taxes could have increased or decreased. If they increased, the seller may actually owe the buyer a little more money for the time frame in which they owned the home. On the other hand, if the property taxes decreased, then the buyer may owe the seller some money based on the tax amount.

Next Episode

How Can You Successfully Sell a House in the Winter?

Thinking about selling your house this winter? There are a few extra steps you need to take to get the most out of your sale this time of year that I wanted to share with you.

Looking to buy a home in the Houston area? Get full MLS access
Considering Selling your Houston area home? Get a market analysis of your home

Since winter is nearly here, it’s important to remember that the winter market in Houston is still very good—it always has been and it always will be. In fact, December is often the second-highest closing month of the year in real estate here. Why?

People want to buy a home and be living in it by January 1st to take advantage of the homestead exemption. If you buy a house any later, you may not realize the tax exemptions for that particular year.

Another important thing to consider is your landscaping, especially since we have a lot of grasses here that tend to go dormant in the winter. There are several ways to work around grass turning brown.

For starters, you could just leave it as is because you’ll be on even footing with just about everyone else on the market right now. Another option is to buy winter grass or rye grass, which is very inexpensive. It’s a grass you can seed now that’s very hearty throughout the winter months. When the heat comes, it dies off, so you don’t have to worry about it coming back ever again. You can pick it up at Lowe’s or Walmart.

Homes are sold first on emotion.