selling a house in san diego Archives

4 Things to Do Before Hiring a Real Estate Agent

A skilled real estate agent like Mary McTernan from McT Real Estate Group can make or break your buying and selling experience, but it’s up to you to do your due diligence before hiring a pro, let alone making a formal agreement. Keep reading for tips for first-time homebuyers and sellers about the process and outcomes.

Buyers should speak with a lender first to determine their budget, while sellers should get their house clean and clutter-free. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s everything you need to put on your to-do list so you can make the buying process as stress-free as possible.

Nail Down Financing

While the topic is somewhat debatable, most real estate professionals won’t even begin to work with you unless you already have a pre-approval letter for a mortgage. Along with determining how much you can afford, this will also indicate your interest rate. Not to mention, sellers will take you more seriously.

Getting a Mortgage — Mortgage application

You’re going to want to speak to several lenders before making a decision. Ask key questions such as:

● What type of loan is best? A good lender will gather enough information on each and explain the pros and cons.
● What are the interest and annual percentage rates?
● What are current Federal Reserve mortgage interest rates?
● What are the discount points and origination fees?
● What is the estimated loan cost and can the rate be locked?
● Is there a repayment penalty?
● How much time is needed to acquire funding?
● Are on-time closings guaranteed?
● What are all of the costs?

Assess the Competition

Not only does visiting other open houses in the area help you determine what you can afford in the area, but it’s also a great way to see other agents in action — you may even decide that one of them is right for you. It’s also a good way to get a feel for the neighborhood.

Know What You Want

You’re going to want to have a solid idea of what type of home you’re looking for before speaking with an agent so there aren’t any crossed signals. Some factors to consider are what type of floor plan will fit your needs (i.e., number of rooms, flow, views, etc.); type of neighborhood, amenities, and conveniences that are of importance to you; the type of home; whether or not you plan on staying for the long-term; and, of course, budget.

Interview Potential Candidates

Don’t be afraid to ask detailed questions as their responses will only help you select the right agent for you. For example:

● How will you market my home?
● What’s your ratio of buyers to sellers?
● How many homes are you currently handling?
● What’s the average number of days your listings are on the market?
● How long have you been in business?
● Are you full-time or part-time?
● May I see your references and business license?
● How do your fees work?
● Will I be working with you or a team?
● What do you believe will sell this home?

As a buyer, completing tasks like getting your finances in order, visiting open houses, and brainstorming what you want in your home before interviewing real estate agents will make the process go so much smoother. If you’re a seller, opt to make your home presentable before interviewing agents. Completing these tasks as either a buyer or seller helps you and your realtor hit the ground running and will get you into a new home or sell your current home in no time! And for the best possible buying and selling results in the San Diego area, work with skilled and experienced real estate professionals from the McT Real Estate Group 619-736-7003.

Which Realtor Should I Work With?

The Decisions Seniors Make When Downsizing Their Home in San Diego

The decision to downsize is the ultimate decision. As you go through the process you’ll realize that decisions await you at every corner. Will you move into a house or an independent living community? What items come with you and what must go? Another important decision is what you’ll do with your current home. Below you’ll find helpful tips to help you navigate these decisions.

Deciding Where to Move

San Diego is home to a variety of unique home styles including one-story ranch properties, Spanish styles, townhomes, split levels, and post-modern homes. However, if you’re looking to live close to other seniors, independent living communities are a good option. They come with a variety of services like housekeeping and meal plans, so there’s no need to constantly manage household duties on your own. You’ll also maintain an independent lifestyle and will have access to in-home care on an as-needed basis. It’s worth taking a tour of nearby facilities to see what you think, but pay attention to the price tag. Costs of independent living facilities in San Diego range widely from $1,655 to $16,500 per month.

Deciding Whether to Sell Your House

One of the most common choices regarding your current home is to sell it and use that money to purchase your new home. To make things easy, hire a real estate agent. Agents have access to loads of information, including market trends, competing listings, and comps. Plus, if you’re wanting to sell your home quickly, you’ll need them to help you be aggressive about marketing. While your agent works their magic, get a head start on packing and decluttering. Your new home will have less square footage and storage space, so downsizing your items is a must. Start with the stuff that’s easy to get rid of first such as duplicate, broken, forgotten, and expired items, then go room by room. Decluttering is one of the important steps in staging your home as well so that buyers can focus on the home’s potential rather than your stuff.

Deciding Whether to Rent

If it looks like your home might be on the market for a while, you won’t be able to get the price you want, or you want to keep your home, renting is an option. However, this requires some investment on your end, including a renter’s insurance policy, permits, and repairs/updates. You must also decide if you want to be your own landlord or hire a property management company to help you find/screen tenants, collect rent, handle repairs, and communicate with tenants. You’ll be happy to learn that renting does have some tax benefits, including the ability to deduct rental-related expenses like mortgage interest, taxes, repairs/maintenance, cleaning, insurance, and even depreciation.

Deciding Whether to Keep the Home

For many seniors, the thought of selling the family home is difficult. Perhaps you want to pass the home on to children, or at least keep it in the family a little while longer. You may have this stipulated in your will, but how can you pass your home to children while you are still living? You may have heard about homes being sold for $1, which is a large gift. Nothing is stopping you from doing it, but if the home is worth $250,000, then you just gave a gift of $249,000. You get a $15,000 gift tax exclusion per person per year. You must then decide whether to pay the gift tax now or apply it to your lifetime exemption of $11.4 million. There are other ways to transfer the property including re-titling or deeding.

Downsizing is a decision that requires much thought, and the same can be said as to what you’ll do with your current home. You can go the traditional route and sell your house, or choose a completely different path and rent or keep it altogether. Other decisions like where to move and what to do with your belongings will also have to be made. Think them through and talk them over with family and friends (and professionals) to arrive at the decisions you’re happiest with.

If you do decide to sell your home in San Diego, The McT Real Estate Group can help you with the process of selling your house. Contact us at 619-736-7003 so we can set up a time to have a conversation.

Selling Your House in San Diego the Fall

Selling Your House Fall — Selling Your House in the Fall

The McT Real Estate Group would like to share our Fall Guide to Selling your House in San Diego in the Fall. It is full of great information about the current San Diego Real Estate market that we are in right now. We have all heard about the Real Estate Inventory Nationally being at an all-time low. This news has been everywhere, but here you can get into the nitty-gritty.

In this Sellers Book, we talk about why buyer demand continues to outpace the inventory and what you, the seller, can do with this. We go over “Supply and Demand” and what this means for a seller. We also talk about the benefits of prices still rising.

Typically when inventory is low, interest rates tend to go up, but this is not the case as of today. With this being said, this benefits both the buyer and the seller. It means that the buyers’ purchasing power is still relatively high. Download your “Free Sellers Book” here. Once you read it and have any questions, feel free to email us or call us right away at(619) 940-1554.

Download Book Here!

Renting Your House in North Park vs Selling

Renting your house in North Park can be easy if you are the owner of the home. However, are you ready to be a landlord? There are certain things to consider if you are planning to turn your home into a rental. Here are a few tips that will help you decide whether this is the best thing to do.

Hiring a Property Manager?

Will you be the one responsible for finding the tenant, running the credit check, checking their references, etc.? Will you be the one they call when something goes wrong with the plumbing, electric, roof, etc.? Do you have a handyman, electrician, roofer, plumber and these types of tradesman ready to tend to you if you get one of these distressed calls from your tenant. Having a relationship with these people is very important, especially when you need them in a hurry.

Will You Have Enough Cash Reserves for Maintenance and Repairs?

If you own a house in North Park, South Park, or any of the Metro neighborhoods in San Diego, you will most likely have a one-hundred-year-old house or close to it. Even if it has been upgraded, it most likely has older plumbing and some older electric, to name a few things. You will need to have a rainy day bucket for this. It is not “if things break” but more like “when things break.” It would be best if you planned on having an account with at least $3,000-5,000 dollars in it for emergencies.

Create Home Rules for the Renter

Rules are essential to have. This should be in writing and signed by the tenants at the time they are signing the lease. This brings me to the lease part. Make sure you have a written lease. There are many places you can pick one up. If you are in San Diego, you should have one that is specifically for Southern California. You can pick them up at any Staples or take a look at wiki downloads. Everything should be in writing. If you want something to happen or not happen, you better put it in black and white. Otherwise, a year later, it will be like it was never agreed upon.

Will You Live Local Or Out Of State?

If you are going to live locally while renting your home, this may be a little easier to do yourself. If you are out of state, this may be a bit more challenging to do since you won’t be around to check on how your investment is doing with a simple driveby. Remember, this is no longer your home sweet home. This is a true investment, and you will want to make sure that it is being maintained, so your investment continues to grow.

What Are the Benefits Of Selling A House While You Have Lived In The House 2 out of 5 Years?

Everything has gone well with your rental, but you realize that the Real Estate Market is doing well. You heard about this thing called “Capital Gains.” Is it getting close to when you will have to pay capital gains if you don’t sell now? Take a look at the rules on the IRS website. It will give you an idea of where you stand. The best thing to do is to speak to your certified public accountant about this. Find out the taxes and capital gains on the house if you make money on the sale. Not knowing what this is about can cost you thousands of dollars.

Selling A Home While a Tenant Is Living In It

So you decided that you are done with being a landlord and you would like to sell the home while the tenant is still living there and paying rent. You may think that you will save money this way. In reality, it will cost you a lot more by doing this. Think about it; the tenant is not happy that you are not renewing the lease. They now have to look for another place to move to. They are not motivated to keep the home tidy and in mint condition for showings. Nor are they happy to let strangers into their space while they are not home. They also do not want to have to leave if they are home while showing. Nor do they like to permit us to do an open house. You, the seller, will ultimately receive a lot less in proceeds if you choose to keep the tenant in the house while you put it on the market for sale. This, of course, stands true if it is a single-family house. If it is a multi-family house, different rules apply. The buyer of a multi-unit house may want to have the tenants in place if the rents are good and the tenants are all paying their rent on time.

Work With A Local Experienced Realtor

Stay tuned with the local realtor in the area. Are you receiving marketing pieces from a local realtor showing their sales in the area? Are they keeping you informed? If you have been using a property manager to manage your rental, this is not always the best choice for selling. These are two completely different aspects of the Real Estate Business. Do your homework first. Google “North Park San Diego Real Estate.” Find out who is selling most of the homes in the area. Go on their website, yelp and google reviews to see what people are saying about the experience of working with them are. Have a conversation with them, and you will immediately know if you make a good fit to sell your house in North Park.

If you have any questions about buying a home or selling a home in North Park, South Park or any other metro area of San Diego, contact the McT Real Estate Group at (619) 736-7003. We are happy to speak with you.

More Information About Selling A House in San Diego

Best Time to Sell A House in San Diego

When is the best time to sell a house in San Diego?” This depends on, of course, what part of San Diego you live in and what your reason for selling is. The San Diego, real estate market is unlike other parts of the Country. The sun shines most of the year, so worrying about when the snowy season may come is not on the horizon. In other parts of the country, most would say that the best time to sell a house would be in the spring or summer. This is not the case when you sell a house in San Diego.

San Diego’s Metro Communities

Most of the homes we sell are in San Diego’s urban communities, such as North Park, South Park, Normal Heights, University Heights, Hillcrest, Mission Hills and a few others. People searching for a house in these communities are not necessarily looking to move to these neighborhoods because of the schools. We find that people want to be part of the lifestyle that comes with living in an urban type of neighborhood, which these communities offer. For them, buying a house in San Diego and being able to walk to restaurants, shopping, cafe’s and so much more are very attractive to many people.

Because of this, the best time to sell a house in San Diego depends on whether it is a good time for you (the seller) to sell your house. Does it make sense for you because of a job transfer, or you would like to move closer to the rest of your family? Whatever your situation is, I would say that is “the best time to sell a house.”

You may hear from some people that Thanksgiving or Christmas are not good times to put your home on the market. Again, this may be true in some parts of the country. All I can say is that our team has helped many buyers and sellers buy homes and sell their houses on both occasions. Although the one thing that we have noticed is during the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas, home showings do get a little slower.

With this being said, serious home buyers are out looking year-round. If it happens to be during the holiday season, this has not stopped them from submitting an offer on a home. As a matter of fact, they may have less competition as a homebuyer. But, the same is to be said for the home seller. Some sellers will hold off on putting their home on the market until after the Holiday has passed. They believe that they will have more buyers if they wait. What they forget is they will also have more competition from all of the other sellers that decided to wait as well.

What is the Average Time to Sell a House in San Diego?

If you and your Realtor have done all of the upfront steps with preparing your house to come on the market and have priced your home correctly, you should receive an offer within the first 30 days. When our listings hit the market in the San Diego Metro area, again, if priced correctly, we are receiving offers within the first 7 days. With this being said, no matter what type of market we are in, if you overprice your home, you will end up sitting on the market longer than other homes, and this will ultimately end up hurting you in the long run.

Contact the McT Real Estate Group if you would like more information on today’s real estate market in San Diego.

4 Things to Do Before Hiring a Real Estate Agent

Nail Down Financing

Assess the Competition

Know What You Want