Ray Peckham Real Estate

Surfside Real Estate / Help for Buyers and Sellers

Surfside Homeownsers Insurance

Surfside Home Safety Measures. You can usually obtain insurance discounts for having a smoke detector, burglar alarm or dead-bolt locks. However, take note that some fire systems can be costly and not every system may qualify for an insurance discount, so check with your insurance company first.

Don’t Over-Insure. Homeowner’s insurance is designed to protect you against loss should your Surfside home and furnishing be damaged or lost through theft, windstorm, fire, etc. The land under your home is not insured, as it is not at risk. If, in considering value, you include the cost of the land under your house, you may end up paying a higher insurance premium than you should.

Guidelines for Buying Surfside

Whether you are a seasoned veteran of real estate transactions or a first time buyer, my advice is the same: Know the Market, Know Yourself and Rely on Experts to give you the whole picture of what you are buying.

Know the Surfside Market. Another way of stating this is Research, Research, Research. Of course the Internet is a great way to give an overview of Surfside homes or homes in any given area but may not be enough, especially if you are looking to buy a home some distance from where you currently live. If you are looking to buy locally you can drive the neighborhoods that you are focusing on to get an idea if there are any problems you need to be aware of. Does part of the development back up to a busy highway? If so and if you want to avoid looking at homes in that area, know what streets are involved so you can recognize listings that may be involved.

Bitten by the Surfside Home Improvement Bug?

Before you finalize your decision regarding remodeling versus moving, it is wise to get a professional estimate of your Surfside home’s current value, the actual costs of moving to a different home and the estimated return on investment of the most common types of home improvement. I’ll be happy to provide you with a complimentary analysis of your home’s current value. Simply call or E-mail me whenever you are ready. As for improvements that traditionally bring the highest rate of return on investment, here are some statistics. Kitchen remodeling and adding a bath tends to bring rates of return with averaging anywhere from 85% to 95% return on your dollars spent. Compare that with the 64% return on investment for adding a home office.

Does Your Surfside Have Curb Appeal?

Good curb appeal is definitely an advantage to home sellers when prospective buyers visit your Surfside and can be an advantage in advertising in the newspaper and on the Internet. However, it is important to note that even a home with great curb appeal can look bad in an advertisement if the photographer did a bad job with the camera. A photograph of a Surfside home on a dreary day will look quite different from a photo of the same home when the sun is shining. Sometimes it is better to take a picture of a home from an angle rather than a straight on shot that may turn out to be more about the garage door than about the house itself.

Taking Title to Your Surfside

Each owner has a separate title to an undivided interest in the entire property. Each owner is allowed to sell, mortgage or give away his/her interest. Any number of people can take Tenancy in Common ownership of Surfsideand husband and wife may choose this option as well. When an owner dies, his/her interest passes by will to his/her heirs. In other words, there is no survivorship right.

Each owner has an equal interest in the Surfside. If one owner dies, that person’s share of the property passes automatically to the other without going through probate. Any number of people can take ownership under Joint Tenancy and husband and wife may choose this option as well.

Community Property. Only husband and wife can take title to Surfside in this way. Title is in the community

Tips for Buying or Selling Surfside

Most experienced real estate agents and brokers already have Websites that showcase their local MLS data so your Surfside can show up online as soon as it is listed. On the other hand, if you are selling on your own it will take time or a considerable advertising budget to get your individual Surfside property to show up on the major search engines where prospective buyers will find it. You could tap into one of the several For Sale by Owner Websites but that would limit your market of buyers.

Buying real estate in Surfside is also much easier when you work with a real estate agent who knows the area and the market. While there is a great deal of information online about real estate asking prices, it is not always so easy to find out what a property actually sold for. And even then, specific terms of a sale often make a difference in how to interpret the sales price.