My Advice for Homebuyers in Today’s Market

Here’s a great example of why you should buy a home sooner than later.

Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home Search

Selling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation

Does it make sense to buy in today’s market? I’ve been hearing this question a lot lately, and I wanted to offer insight into why my answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

I recently saw a colleague of mine post about a house they sold in 2012 for $360,000; it’s a gorgeous home. The exact same house, with just a few updates, just sold for $692,000. That’s $330,000 worth of appreciation in just about 10 years. 

Now, the home didn’t increase in value by $30,000 every year. In the last few years, home prices have grown exponentially. Most of that value came within the last 12 to 18 months. The house might have gone from $450,000 to $692,000 during that time. 

I didn’t see this coming, and I don’t think anyone in their right mind would have thought the real estate market would be rebounding like this amidst a global pandemic.

"In the last few years, home prices have grown exponentially."

 

So does it make sense to buy in this market? Absolutely; real estate is a fantastic long-term investment. I guarantee that $692,000 home is going to sell for over a million dollars one day. The question is, do you want to be involved in a great investment like that?

If you have any real estate-related questions for me, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon. 

Zillow Made a Mistake Buying Homes

Here’s why Zillow shuttered their home-buying program at the end of 2021

Something happened at the end of 2021 that you might not have heard about. Many people visit one platform when they look for available properties. The name of that platform is Zillow, and for the last few years, they have been not only marketing homes but also buying them.


Zillow would make an offer on a property without seeing it, close that transaction, and send someone out to renovate it. They were buying and rehabbing houses all over the country, but at the end of 2021, they shut down that program.

At the end of the day, nothing can replace a seasoned agent.

It’s funny because clients used to bring up Zillow’s estimate at listing appointments. To me, those numbers felt like they were as much as 25% over or 35% below the actual price. It was interesting when Zillow announced that they would start buying properties based on these estimates.


After a couple of years of trying this, it turns out Zillow was losing money on almost every house they bought. They obviously hadn’t gone the right way with their algorithm. At the end of the day, nothing can replace a seasoned agent who knows the market, lives in the area, and works in it every day.


On top of that, every market is different, and every market changes. It can depend on what’s in the newspaper that day or what announcements were recently made. There are just too many pieces for an algorithm to put it all together. It was interesting to see if Zillow could succeed, but they couldn’t, and that’s why you still need to depend on your local experts.


If you have any questions, or if you truly want to know what your home is worth, please call or email me. I’d be happy to do a home valuation for you.

Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a Full Home Search

Selling your Jonesboro home? Get a Free Home Price Evaluation

Make Sure Your Closing Process Runs Quickly and Smoothly

Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a full home search

Selling your Jonesboro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Today we are here to give you four great tips on how to keep the closing process moving when buying a home. At this point, you’ve had your offer written and accepted, but today we want to let you know about some potential hurdles you may come across, and how to overcome them.

We want you to get through the closing period without any hassle, and here are four ways to do that:

1. Have us stay on top of it- When you hire our team to sell your home, you are hiring our entire team. That includes our closing coordinator, who has the job of orchestrating your closing from start to finish.
2. Keep your lender in the loop- It’s good to keep in touch with your lender on a regular basis. In this case, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so to speak.
3. Be aware of last minute surprises
4. Keep your finances stable- Don’t go out and buy a house full of furniture and appliances or a new car. We have had clients in the past fail to close on homes due to mistakes like this, and we don’t want to see it happen to you.

Thanks for hanging out with us today. If you have any questions for us, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to speaking with you soon!

How Are You Protected Throughout the Buying Process?

Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a full home search

Selling your Jonesboro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

What happens if you're under contract with a home, but you end up finding big problems with it? What are your options?

It's not always easy to spot problems yourself, and often big problems aren't known right away. This can be frustrating for home buyers. Luckily, the Arkansas Real Estate Association (ARA) writes contracts up to protect the buyer. They feel, as I do, that buyers shouldn't have to worry about buying a $400,000 home that has major defects.

The ARA gives the buyer 10 days to have the property inspected in any way they see fit and allows for the buyer to request a property disclosure from the seller. This disclosure, which 99% of sellers will share with the buyer, lists any and all issues the seller has had with their home during their ownership of it. During that 10-day period, if you find something that you can't live with, there is no harm in walking away. Your earnest money will be safe and you will not be penalized for backing out at this time.

Now, if the appraiser finds something wrong with the property, the bank is typically not going to loan the money on the house until the problem has been addressed. We call that a third-party repair because you didn't request it, but the bank did and will not move forward until any defects have been addressed.

These are just a few of the ways you're protected when you're buying a home. If you have any questions about this topic, or if you would like a team of experts to lead you through the buying or selling process, don't hesitate to reach out to us at any time. We would love to hear from you!

Three Ways to Buy the Home that You Want

Buying a Jonesboro home?  Get a full home search

Selling your Jonesboro home? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

We're seeing a competitive real estate market right now, and in order to help you compete with other buyers, I'd like to give you some tips on how you can make stronger offers to win the home that you want.

Making a solid offer:

This means that you're pre-qualified, you're putting down a nice down payment, you're ready with your paperwork, and you're coming into negotiations without a lot of contingencies.

Keep the offer clean and neat:

What I mean by this is that your offer should be clear, and if possible, it should have as few contingencies as possible. To ask for new flooring and a new fence would weaken your offer over others that aren't asking for these things, so try to avoid asking for too much.

Writing a personal letter to the seller:
If you take the time to write a heartfelt letter to the seller explaining why you like the home and why you want it, your offer will surely stand out. You will no longer be a number - you'll have a face and a story to go along with it. This can help to tug on the heart strings of the seller.

Hopefully these three tips can help you to strengthen your offers so you can win the Jonesboro home that you desire. As always, if you need any help buying or selling, please don't hesitate to contact me!