Golden Realty Blog

Did you know that it is a big myth that that houses do not sell during the winter months? Sellers who wait until spring to list their homes become another property on the market to choose from. Let’s highlight a few reasons why we encourage sellers to list their homes or keep them on the market through the Holidays and the winter months, and not wait until spring.

There are statistically fewer homes on the market than there will be in spring. This means that a home for sale now is one of a few rather than one of many. Having your home listed in the winter means there is less competition, so you will stand out and chances are, sell your home during this period rather than waiting three months into spring and maybe summer.

During the winter months many buyers that have not purchased in the previous months do not stop looking. The buyers are still out there and they are ready to buy.

Typically buyers that are out shopping for houses in the winter months are motivated. If you do not have your home on the market when these buyers are looking, you are losing a valuable opportunity and the potential to get your home sold.

If you are a homeowner who is thinking about selling in the spring, think again. Don’t miss this winter window of opportunity to get your home sold.

A house is a large investment. Many times the largest financial investment one will make during their lifetime. Yet what is frequently neglected and shocking for most buyers and sellers, is the emotional and psychological investment that goes along with the process of buying or selling a home. It is not well known, but should be noted, that the process of buying or selling a home is ranked high on life stress charts, even comparable to death or divorce. If you have ever been through the home buying or selling process, you will understand and concur that it is definitely a stressful time that essentially dominates most of your thoughts and actions.

The good news is that it does not need to be so stressful. There are strategies to help make the home buying or selling process less stressful. Start by finding a competent, knowledgeable and experienced Realtor whom you can trust. The relationship between the buyer or seller and the Realtor must be based on honesty and trust. If you don’t trust the person representing you, you will find yourself in a highly stressful situation. Trust your Realtor. This one step will eliminate a large portion of the stress and allow you to focus on the fun part of the process.

Being realistic and having reasonable expectations from the beginning stages will also reduce the stress level. Unreasonable expectations only create added and unnecessary stress for everyone while expecting the best outcome for everyone will generally result in a mutually beneficial conclusion. Another way to eliminate stress during the buying or selling process is to keep things in perspective and take one step at a time. It is easy to become overwhelmed with all that is involved, but seeing the big picture and breaking things down into smaller steps will keep things in proper perspective.

Remember to make time to eat right, get plenty of sleep and don’t take on too many added responsibilities. Buying or selling a home is time consuming and will take away from your normal routine. Prioritize, postpone or cancel other responsibilities to open up more time to handle all the additional tasks that will be necessary during the buying or selling process.

If none of these stress reducing strategies work and you are still feeling overwhelmed and stressed out, GET AWAY. Take a short trip and escape it all for awhile, even a day trip somewhere. Just take some time to relax and enjoy some down time.

The largest investment you make may not be your home after all, it may be yourself.

Make Life Golden!

Think Craig’s list is a nice online tool for finding a network of online communities, and posting free online classified advertisements? I beg you to think twice before trusting what you see on Craig’s List. We have been hit by the Craig’s List scam again! (See archived post from March 2009)

This latest scam is essentially the same scam that continues to infest this online community. Here is what is happening. A person or group of people, are posting advertisements for rental housing. Once the potential tenants make contact with the scammers, they are instructed to mail a cashier’s check as security deposit, to a location outside the Country. Prospective tenants are told that once the money is received, the keys to the house will be mailed to them. Impossible…as these scammers do not own the home and do not have authority to rent or advertise the home for rent. In fact, the houses that are being posted for rent are actually offered for sale, and listed with a local broker. In our situation the scammer took information about this property directly from the Multiple Listing Service, stole the photos and written description and created and set up an email account using the Listing Agents full name as part of the email address.

There are several things wrong with this. First of all the individual whose home is for sale, has not authorized this false posting. The scammers are stealing copyrighted material including the photographs and written property description. They are also putting the home owner in a dangerous situation, with the potential for any number of predatory crimes, with the most obvious intent to con innocent individuals out of money, security and a place to call home.

Unfortunately, Craig’s List is a magnet for predators. Just Google “scams on Craig’s list” and see all the results. It’s an epidemic across the globe. As home buyers, sellers, or renters, heed caution when utilizing sites such as this. And make sure you do not try to navigate the stormy waters of real estate with out a professional Realtor by your side.