Well, if you are thinking of buying or selling in 2013, here are a few tips to get you on the right track.
1. Get your credit in check. Maybe
you don’t have any credit horrors - kudos to you! But let’s get real,
this year will be a year in which many post-foreclosure,
post-bankruptcy, post-layoff Americans will find themselves sufficiently
recovered, post-recession, to get back into the real estate market and
buy a home. If you count yourself among the number of 2013 wanna-be
buyers who experienced a financial glitch of any degree during the
recession, now is the time to start pulling your credit
reports and doing a damage assessement and control campaign.
Visit
AnnualCreditReport.com (the only website through which you can access
your government-mandated free reports) and order your own credit reports
from all three reporting bureaus.
Review your report for any discrepancies or anything you can remedy quickly. If possible, go over your report with your mortgage lender. He can lend some insight to what needs to be taken care of now and what can wait.
2. Donate. It’s time. Time to get rid of all that things you know qualify as clutter - all of the stuff you know buyers won’t want to see when they tour your home, and all the stuff that you won’t want to move to your next place. If you donate your junk before the end of the year, you might be able to get a receipt and deduction for the taxes you file in 2013. And tax break or not, getting all that stuff out of your attic, your closets, your shelves and your rooms will clear up loads of mental space and energy, minimize some of the overwhelm latent in the prospect of moving - and might even surface a few things you can sell to boost your down payment savings or your home staging budget.
3. Prepare! Talk
with your agent; they can help you make
good decisions which projects to do (and which to forego), as well as
choosing finish materials and colors that will appeal to the broadest
segment of buyers - to boot, they often can refer you to the most
cost-effective contractors in your area for any sort of pre-listing
projects.
4. Collect your gift money. Buyers
who get gift money from a relative to apply toward their down payments
are often subject to seemingly strange and definitely invasive
documentation requirements - the most onerous of which is to produce
copies of the gift GIVER’s bank accounts proving the source of the
funds. If you know Mom, Dad, Granny or Aunt Bernie is going to chip in
some cash toward your down payment in the Spring, consider asking them
to go ahead and give it to you now, so you can put it in your own
accounts and begin “seasoning” it as yours, which will help you avoid
all those documentation demands.
5. Connect with an agent and a mortgage broker - stat. Don’t
wait until the month before you want to buy or sell to ring up your
trusty agent and initiate the conversation. Ask around for referrals. Get a mortgage broker (or 3) on
the phone, and ask them to help brief you long-lead topics like:
- Whether your market is a buyer’s market or seller’s market, and how that translates into what you can and should expect when you plan to buy or sell next year
- Whether there are any area-specific timing issues you should factor in as you map out your timeline
- What - given the specifics of your financials, your savings, any past credit or other issues you have - you should be doing now in terms of paying bills down, setting savings targets, and such
- What changes, if any, you should plan on making to your property before listing it
- What sort of property you can get for your money in the areas you’re targeting as a buyer, and what kind of money you can expect to command for your property in your local market (this, obviously, will change over time - even over the few months or so between now and the time you list your home, but it still helps to have a general ides of the current market values).
Looks like you have some tasks to do, so I will wish you a fabulous 2013. May all your goals be kept and resolutions made (at least until February 2013!)
Best,
Kimmie DelAndrae
Realtor
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