Ray Peckham Real Estate

Tips for Selling Surfside Homes

Surfside Home Improvement

Don't change the general architecture of the home, and make sure that renovations match. For example, a modern steel door doesn't belong on a ranch house built in the 1970s. Be aware of the features in Surfside.

Do it Yourself?
Be extremely confident you're capable of taking on a project before trying to do it yourself. When it comes time to sell your Surfside home, believe me buyers can and do spot all the signs of amateur work and they discount their offer accordingly.

Surfside Homebuyers Quandry

Armed with the Comparative Marketing Analysis, it is time to approach your lender to see if you can get financing without selling your current Surfside. In most cases, financing will be contingent upon selling your home but you may be able to obtain interim financing sometimes known as a Bridge Loan.

Surfside. How Much Should You Offer?

Comparable sales figures is a good guide for homeowners who are pricing their Surfside and a good guide for prospective buyers. Make sure you compare homes that are similar to the one your are considering...the same neighborhood, the same size, the same condition. Also, make sure you compare sales within the past six months.

Ask your REALTOR for a comparison of the list price and sales price of comparable Surfside sales. This information may give you a trend and a guideline for your offer. For example, maybe homes in the area have consistently listed for more than they actually sold for. If that is the case, find out what percentage of reduction occurred. Use this information as a basis for your offer.

Buying Surfside Real Estate...Will it Pay?

With a typical 30-year loan, most of your monthly payment goes toward interest payments with only small amounts going to the principle in the early years. Only half the principle is repaid in the first 23 years of the loan. You can build equity in your Surfside faster by choosing a 15-year loan instead of a 30-year loan.

As a Surfside real estate owner you have the right to pay more towards the principle loan amount each month. Let’s say your monthly payment is $700.00 a month and $100.00 a month is being applied to the principle. If you choose to pay $900.00 instead of $700.00, the $200.00 overage will be applied entirely to the principle. Thus, instead of gaining $1,200.00 a year in home equity, you gain $3,600.00. Investing in Surfside can be a very good idea.

Green Remodeling Your Surfside

Energy conservation. The average Surfside today uses systems for heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and most homes are not built as efficiently as they could be, resulting in high energy consumption. The U.S. Department of Energy believes if current buildings were green-improved, they would use $20 billion less in energy per year. Surfside green remodeling puts a strong emphasis on making homes as efficient as possible with modifications such as energy-efficient appliances and thermostats that can be programmed at different temperatures for different times of the day.

The Benefits of Selling Surfside

As you know, you are allowed to sell your Surfside principal residence once every two years and exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) of the gain of the sale on your Federal income tax. Please note: This is not a once in a lifetime tax savings and you don’t have to be any certain age or buy a more expensive property. If you meet the two-year residence test you can sell your principal residence every two years if you are so inclined and the market cooperates. But this tax saving does not affect rental property unless you convert the rental to your personal residence, live in it for two years and then sell it.