The Carnes-Hyatt Group Community Real Estate Blog

We are pleased to announce a great new tool available to everyone in the Birmingham area. Our website's Local Market Report tool is an excellent way to keep up with current homes for sale, homes presently under contract, and recently sold homes. These reports can be broken down by county, city, price range, property type, year built, and several other criteria. As a site user, you can set up multiple property searches and/or market reports to be sent to you weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, or different times for each report.

Market Reports are a great tool to keep you up to date with every home that's on the market, or recently sold, within your community. Most real estate websites don't offer sold property information, so we felt compelled to make sure our website had a function to do so. The simplicity of this tool has made it very appealing to everyone that has utilized it so far. We hope it will be beneficial to you as well.

To set up a new market report, Click This Link. You will select your report criteria and then click "Go To Market Report." Only a name, email address, and phone number are needed to create an account. By the way, that information only comes to our team and is never sold to any third party. From that point, you'll be emailed an updated report as often as you choose. It's best to save a link to our site on your desktop or mobile device. You'll automatically be logged in every time you visit www.CarnesHyattGroup.com and will be able to search and view all properties for sale without the need to ever sign in again. 

We hope you enjoy this great new tool.

1. DO take good pictures. Scratch that. DO take excellent pictures. Use a pro. The very first impression of your home to a potential buyer will likely be your home’s main photo in a thumbnail gallery on website. This photo needs to be an actual photo of your home, not a picture of the other home your agent listed the same day, or six years ago. And if it is your home, the entire home should be in it….not just the left side of the front stairs and part of a window to the side of the house.
2. DO flush your toilets before showings. Close the lids as well. Double check them. This is important.
3. DON’T have scented candles burning during showings. Sinus problems, instant headaches, bye-bye buyer.
4. DON’T leave your dirty underbritches laying around the home. Hey, don’t leave the clean ones laying around either.
5. DO leave the house during showings. We have showing apps, reminder texts, showing confirmation emails, etc. Many agents do. Some don’t. If you have trouble remembering when you have showings coming up, get a reminder app for your phone. It’s hard to hear the doorbell, or the family of buyers and their agent piling through the front door, when you’re in the shower.
6. DON’T leave loud, heavy metal music playing for your potential buyer’s enjoyment. If you feel inclined, low volume classical or jazz playing throughout the home works well.
7. DO make the beds, clean the counters, empty the sink, etc., etc. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but cleanliness goes a long way.
8. DON’T leave Max at home. Max is a good dog, but your potential buyer had a bad experience with that exact breed years back. Plus, her son is allergic to him.
9. Speaking of pets, DO leave a note on the door if your cat is an escape artist. A thoughtful owner left us a note once that read “Please don’t let my black cat out.” As we were leaving the house, we noticed a black cat outside. We chased that cat for nearly an hour before the owner got back home and informed us that her black cat was the one sitting up in the front window of the living room….not the one we were chasing.
10. DON’T cook tacos the night before a showing. This particular smell lingers, gets sucked up into the air return vent, and permeates throughout the house for several days.
11. DO take down the old country duck wallpaper.
12. DON’T leave up the old country duck wallpaper.
13. DO Google “Country Duck Wallpaper Images” to ensure nothing in your house resembles this type of wallpaper.
14. DON’T shy away from leaving out freshly baked cookies and mini bottles of water for showings. Agents like cookies. Buyers like cookies. We like cookies. We highly recommend the large, chewy chocolate chip variety.
15. DO remove any creepy, life sized dolls or clowns that you have out for “decoration.” We’ve seen some pretty crazy things, but kids find these scary. And let’s face it, many adults find life sized clowns just downright disturbing.

The Carnes-Hyatt Group at Keller Williams Realty Trussville. - Jason Carnes 205.612.2616 or Jonathan Hyatt 205.617.9957

1. Standard Heat/Air Service - This is by far the most common item we see requested. In most home inspection reports, we see the inspector recommend that the heat/air system be serviced by a licensed technician. In addition, many buyers will be under some sort of home warranty during their first year of ownership. Being able to show that the heat/air was serviced prior to buying helps with any claims concerning the HVAC system when using their home warranty.
2. Loose Railings - This is very common. Loose stair or deck railings can be a safety hazard, and repairing them is usually an FHA/VA Loan requirement as well.
3. Rotted Trim - We see rotted trim mentioned quite often. The two most common areas we see are around exterior window casings and chimney trim. A close second would be trim around garage doors or basement service doors. Repairing rotted wood/trim is usually an FHA or VA Loan requirement
4. Old & Worn Roof Vent Boots - These are fairly cheap to replace, but are a commonly seen item. In speaking with many home inspectors and roofers over the years, vent boots appear to be the most common area for roof leaks.
5. Windows Won’t Open Or Lock Properly - This one is common on many older homes with wooden windows. They may just be painted shut, or there may be a bigger issue. FHA/VA typically require that windows open and close properly for safety purposes.

And as always, before hiring a professional, we recommend checking local and state websites to ensure their licenses and certifications are up to date.

Many homeowners, and even many novice real estate agents, assume that once they've found a willing and able buyer, a home is as good as sold. In many cases this can't be further from the truth. While finding the right buyer can be a daunting task for certain homes, this is only the first half of the battle to the closing table. Working a contract from the initial offer, all the way to the closing table, requires quite a bit of work. And that's for the easy deals.

An experienced agent can make all the difference during this phase of the home sale. And by experienced, we mean one that not only has the marketing know-how to find that right buyer, but one that also possesses the operational soundness to guide a transaction to a smooth closing. Some of the very top agents, or at least those that are perceived to be top agents, struggle with all the ins-and-outs of properly guiding a contract through its various stages of inspections, running point to keep all parties to contract deadlines, and coordinating with the many service providers that are involved from start to finish. Conversely, there are agents that only sell a few homes a year who are exceptionally good at this process, and never miss a beat.

When interviewing potential agents for the job of selling your home, we suggest asking about both sides of the selling process. A solid, experienced agent, should have a proven marketing program to get your home seen by all potential buyers, and a strong track record of actually getting those contracts finalized at the closing table. And as always, ask for a list of referrals.

There are seven quick tips for getting your home market ready and ultimately SOLD!

When it comes to selling a home, nothing is more important than pricing it properly. Property condition, marketing, and even market conditions in general, all play second fiddle to ensuring that your price is right. Here are a few quick tips that can make all the difference when it comes to pricing and eventually realizing a sale.

1. When setting an initial price, only look at comparable properties that have sold in the last 6-12 months. This is the criteria an appraiser will use. And a bank will not make a loan on your property unless it appraises for the contract price or higher. This will help you determine the maximum price you can ask for your home.

2. Once you have set a maximum price that your home is likely to appraise, it’s time to evaluate your competition and adjustment the price to ensure that your home is competitive. If all of your neighbors are asking more for their homes, then no adjustment should be made. But if you have some stiff competition, you may have to lower your price a little to remain competitive.

 3. Evaluate your price every 30 days or so and make adjustments if needed. Market trends can change quickly. If a handful of your neighbors sell at a discount, it will affect your home’s pricing as well…not to mention the appraisal stats used by the appraiser and lender to form an opinion for the loan. 

4. Don’t get lost in the fray.  Price your home in $5k/$10k increments, as most home search websites are built to support those increments for searching.  This way your home will usually show up on the first page of those search results.