Category Archives: Real Estate

5 essential checks you should do before buying a home that everyone forgets

Posted on March 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

If you want to avoid that sinking feeling, add these oft-forgotten tasks to your home-buying checklist.

1. Visit the house at different times

The ME survey found 58 per cent of property owners spent less than 60 minutes checking out the property they went on to purchase and 36 per cent said they missed picking up issues with a property because “they fell in love with the property and overlooked them”.

It’s important to spend as much time at the property as you can and don’t be shy about requesting a viewing outside the advertised opens.

2. Talk to the neighbours

We’ve all heard stories about “the neighbours from hell”, so it makes sense to see who’s living next door before you outlay hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home. Not only does this give you the opportunity to size up your future neighbours, these people have front-row views to the house that may become your biggest asset.

“Neighbours are gold,” says Jacobs. “Knock on their door and see how they like living in the area, ask if they rent or own, and see if they know why the vendors are selling.”

Viner also makes a habit of touching base with other agents in the area on behalf of his clients, especially if they were invited to do a listing presentation for the vendor.

“Those conversations can be very revealing,” he says. “They may have information on the neighbours, or knowledge about price expectations or any problems with the property.”

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San Diego is 7th worst place for first time homebuyers

Posted on March 19, 2019 | Leave a comment

America’s Finest City scored poorly in a new study from personal finance website Bankrate that looked at the 50 biggest metros in the United States and ranked the best and worst metros for first-time homebuyers.

Metros were judged on affordability, job market, safety, culture, property taxes, days on market for homes, average commute times and homeownership rates. Metro San Diego scored seventh from last.

Bankrate said the worst places for first-time buyers are San Francisco and Los Angeles. The best are Pittsburgh and Raleigh.

“I think the story in San Diego is you are going to have to be both ready when the time comes to buy a home,” said Adrian Garcia, Bankrate data analyst, of the quick time homes sell, “and make compromises, and that might mean you move farther from the neighborhood you want to live in.”

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You can check how accurate Zillos and Redfins “estimates” are.

Posted on March 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

When you type in a home’s street address to obtain an online valuation from the two biggest players in the field — Zillow’s Zestimate or Redfin’s Estimate tools — how good is what you get?

Accuracy matters a lot in this arena because many buyers and sellers use the online estimates to price their homes or make purchase offers, literally handing sellers or buyers the estimates as part of their bargaining strategy. This is despite both companies’ warnings that these are not appraisals, only algorithm-based computer estimates. They are starting points, not holy writ.

So which company’s estimate is the more accurate?

For two years, Redfin has claimed that it produces estimates that are superior, based on the results of an independent study. When it values homes that are on the market, Redfin says its median national error rate is just 1.77 percent. That is, the selling price, compared with the estimate, is within that margin of error half the time. On houses that are not for sale, Redfin’s median error rate is 6.66 percent. Redfin has a total of 74.4 million properties in its valuation database — 1.3 million on the market and listed for sale, 73.1 million off the market.

Before using either tool, it’s a good idea to go their Web pages and check how far off their estimates tend to be where you live. You can find them at Zillow.com/#acc and Redfin.com/redfin-estimate.

And focus on the key term “median.” In Chicago, the median Zestimate error rate is an impressive looking 3.8 percent; but 41.4 percent of Zestimates are not within 5 percent of the actual sale price. That’s sobering. In the District, the median error rate is 3.1 percent. But fully a third of Zestimates aren’t within 5 percent of being accurate.

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