Archive for December, 2007
Flip or Flop: 5 Ways To Become A Solid Real Estate Investor
Categories: Chattanooga Market Conditions, Chattanooga Real Estate Investing, First Time Buyers, For Home Buyers
“Flipping Houses,” the new nickname for Real Estate Investing, has spread like wildfire over the nation. Before the market took a drastic downturn in most areas, and a slight downturn here in the Chattanooga market, pretty much anyone could jump on the house flipping bandwagon and make a good chunk of change. Now with the new market conditions, it is important to have a strategy in place or you could lose your shirt!
Following these 5 simple steps can make your next “Flip” a profitable one…
1. Know The Market! If you know what homes are selling for in the area, it’s easy to pick out a good deal from a bad one. It is important to what’s sold and what hasn’t and why. Gaining access to accurate information about the details in the homes that have sold is key. Finding a Realtor to represent you in your search can give you the access you need to the comparable home sales and keep your finger on the pulse of the market in your area.
2. Get an Inspection! A reputable home inspector can be priceless when buying investment properties. While no home inspector is perfect, they are trained to look for red flags in a home, and are up to date on the current building codes in the area, which most people are unaware of. Missing these potential issues can costs you thousands, so spending a few hundred dollars on an inspector makes dollars & sense!
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3 Tricks to Remove Clutter and Not Scare Buyers
Categories: Chattanooga Real Estate News, Home Maintenance
“The most important thing most people can do to improve their home is to clear out, clean up, and get rid of clutter.”
Be merciless as you go about purging your cherished possessions. If you haven’t used it in three months box it up and store it away; if you haven’t used it in a year, get rid of it.
Make a new rule in your home, anything new that comes in, something old has to leave.
If your bookshelves are bursting at the seams, for instance, “clear them off and start over”. It is okay to have empty space around your books and knickknacks.
1. Inexpensive baskets make great hiding places for unsightly paperbacks, and add texture and visual interest.
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3 Quick Tips to Preventing Fire Loss
Categories: Chattanooga Real Estate News, First Time Buyers, For Home Sellers, Home Maintenance
I read an article recently in the Chattanooga Times Free Press about Home Inventory Lists and it really got me thinking of 
how many of us are pretty well insured for our homes, but have no idea what we have in our homes. The article, a sad one, talks about a family who had a fire in their home and lost everything. When it came time to deal with the insurance company, they could not give an itemized list of valuables and treasures they had owned for many years.
“No one ever expects that this will happen to them, but, are you prepared it this unfortunate event ever happened? The answer is, probably no.”
There is a Nationwide Insurance agency here in Chattanooga and I spoke to a Master Claims Representative and asked him what percentage of individuals actually keep an inventory of their valuables. Mike told me that he personally keeps one updated, but the majority of homeowners do not keep a list.
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Don’t Let Your Pet Soil The Deal!
Categories: Chattanooga Real Estate News
Many of us love them, but most buyers hate them - pets. It’s the strangest phenomenon, even pet lovers will move away from homes with pets - odor or not, or they’ll “penalize” the seller with a lower offer. A pet odor, even a slight odor, can make a home totally unsellable at a reasonable price; many buyers are allergic to pets and just won’t buy a house with a pet.
I hate to say it, because I love my dog Taffee, and my family couldn’t do without our “man’s best friend”, but bottom line, pets cause problems for sellers. It’s happened to me countless times when a buyer walks in the front door of a beautiful home, smells an animal and then turns around and walks out. Exotic pets have their own problems and smells that need a sellers attention.
“To find out if you have a pet odor, ask someone else because chances are you can’t smell it.”
Any odor requires an aggressive response to eliminate it; don’t try to cover it up as buyers will see (or smell) right through it.
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