Keeping Our Clients Informed

Preparing You For Your Home Search or Sale

Stay confident during your home search or listing process with our experienced and knowledgeable team at RE/MAX Hometown in Pampa, TX. Our real estate agency is reputable throughout the area and takes pride in informing and guiding our clients through every transaction.

Whether you want to write an offer on a home or list your current one, our professional agents can walk you through each step. Our focus is ensuring our clients feel comfortable and confident throughout their real estate journey.

Meet Our Team

Tips for Selling a Home

Change Your Current Home Perspective

When you’re thinking about listing your home, you need to change your perspective on your home. You may think your home looks great the way it is, but a buyer needs to be able to picture themselves living there. Remember, the home may be a great place for you, but a new buyer will see things differently.

Take a look outside your home to assess if it needs any washing or a new paint job. Check if the driveway needs repair or the landscaping needs refreshment. Look around inside your home, open cabinets, examine doors, inspect the bathroom, and make notes of things that may turn a buyer away.

Declutter Before Listing

Gain more potential buyers by getting rid of clutter in every home area. Be sure to check closets, attic storage, kitchen cabinets, drawers, vanities, and more for things you know you don’t need. Buyers are seriously put off by clutter, so have a big garage sale and get rid of whatever you don’t use.

Don’t forget the furniture and fixtures when getting rid of clutter – most of us put too much in too little space, making a buying prospect think your home is too small. If you can’t bear to part with some possessions, store them in the attic or another spot out of sight.

Clean, Scrub, & Polish Your Home

Once the clutter is cleared, it is time to perform a deep clean on your home. Having a refreshed and clean home can attract potential buyers you never expected. By deep cleaning, we mean having the carpets professionally cleaned, stripping and polishing the floors, sanitizing the bathroom, and more.

You should even check behind your washer and dryer in the laundry room, polish the furniture, scour out the cabinets, wash the windows and coverings, and spiff up the ceiling fans and kitchen appliances. In short, you should ensure everything is spotless.

Invest in Home Repairs

Listing your home is the perfect time to start investing in those home repairs that we tend to put on the backburner. You can even use the money from declutter garage sales to patch up the roof, touch up all the paint, repair the screens, and truly make your home shine.

Don’t forget to water the lawn and landscape beds, and take the time to trim, mow, and edge. A good agent will advise you on what needs to be done. An “as-is” sale keeps you from doing all this work, but a buyer assesses about twice the price you would have paid for repairs.

Stage Your Home for Showings

Now that the clutter is gone and your home is spotless, it’s time to stage your home for potential buyers and showings. Open your blinds, turn on lights, and make your home shine. Also, you can open interior doors to make the home seem more spacious and inviting.

In addition, make sure to remove all your pet’s litter pan and clean it so the home smells clean and fresh, not like an air freshener. Remember, you need to make sure your home is available to be seen by prospective buyers with as little notice as possible. That means less than an hour or even five minutes.

Understand the Market

Before listing your home on the market, check out the competition and take some time to understand the market. Houses with similar prices in similar neighborhoods can show you what to expect for purchase offers and a listing price.

Remember, after the location, the most essential item to a buyer is a well-maintained home. Potential buyers can overlook many flaws if they know they can move in without a lot of trouble and expense. Elevate your home to get the most out of your sale.

Ready to List Your Home? Contact Us Today!

Tips for Buying a Home

Plan Ahead & Get Pre-Qualified

When starting your home search, every decision needs to be well-planned. You may even want to use a binder with sections on house hunting, home financing, and service providers. Pre-qualifying helps you determine the home price you can afford and proves you as a genuine prospect to the seller.

In approving your loan, a lender typically uses the 28% formula (your monthly mortgage can’t exceed 28% of your monthly income). Planning your actions and getting pre-qualified will keep you out of panic mode and allow you to take advantage of opportunities.

Know Your Search Value

In today’s market, you’re looking at slow growth while preventing the possibility of falling prices, skyrocketing ARM rates, and corporate layoffs that can affect your home values. The classic rule of buying the worst house in the best neighborhood still applies.

If you buy with an eye towards improvement, you can customize the home to fit your needs. The saying, “make money buying a home, not selling one,” should keep you focused on the long-term importance of the purchasing price.

Create a List of Amenities

It is important to know your search criteria when shopping for a new home. Maybe you’re looking for a fenced-in yard, multiple acres, or new appliances, and your home search must reflect what you desire in a new home.

Establishing “your criteria” early on will save time shopping for inappropriate homes and may keep you from buying a home on a whim. Your top reason for buying a home should be the value you are getting. You should logically sacrifice some of your top 10 amenities.

Fixed VS Adjustable Rate Mortgages

Adjustable-rate mortgages have an initial fixed-rate, followed by a period of adjustment intervals during which the rate adjusts based on the performance of several key indexes. Typically the initial fixed rate on an ARM is slightly lower than the comparable rate of a fixed mortgage.

Fixed-rate mortgages allow buyers to take out a long-term loan without worrying about changing interest rates or monthly payments, and most fixed-rate loans are offered in either 15 or 30-year terms.
A fixed-rate loan will well serve most buyers, but each situation is unique.

Whichever loan you choose, make sure to scrutinize all the closing costs. If you are required to have a mortgage escrow account and private mortgage insurance, make sure you understand the terms and cancellation procedures (your real estate agent has publications to assist you).

Get a Home Inspection

Often, many individuals believe they can skip an inspection to make their offer more appealing or because they don’t see anything wrong on the surface level of the home. We strongly recommend including an inspection before closing on your home.

Paying for a qualified home inspection before you buy a home isn’t just spending “a little extra” for peace of mind; it’s absolutely essential for anyone who doesn’t want to spend thousands of dollars on repairs. We can miss things that an experienced home inspector won’t.

Research Home Protection Plans

A home warranty, or home protection plan, can protect homeowners against the cost of unexpected repairs or replacements of their major systems and appliances that break down due to normal wear and tear. A negotiable contract between the buyers and sellers does not replace the homeowners’ insurance.

This warranty can save the new homeowner lots of headaches and put the seller’s fears to rest. For example, if a water heater bursts and destroys a wall in your home, the warranty would repair the water heater, and your insurance would pay to fix the wall.

For answers to your questions or concerns about real estate, please
contact us at (806) 665-7355 today!