Tag Archives: Business

Time to Sell?

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Thinking about selling your home?  Just a few things to think about…

Renovations: The changes that make your house work for you may not appeal to potential buyers. Not everybody loves that bright blue paint color — no matter how much you personally adore it. Make sure any big changes you make will increase, rather than decrease, your home’s value.

ALWAYS leave during open houses and showings: No hovering!  Current homeowners hovering over potential buyers as they tour the house…it’s a lot of pressure and can prevent them from giving honest feedback that could ultimately help you sell your home.

Waiting to list in the Spring: Most people house hunt in the spring and summer, but that’s also when most people list their homes. List yours when it’s available and you’ll reach those buyers who need a home now and aren’t finding much on the market.

Setting the price too high: What your home is worth to you and what it’s worth on the current market can be vastly different. Take a good look at the comparables provided by your REALTOR® and follow their advice…we are the experts!  Ignore Zillow…the Zestimates they offer are just WRONG!

Not doing enough marketing: Just putting up a “for sale” sign isn’t enough. Talk with your REALTOR® about other options, like online listings with virtual tours to attract buyers who aren’t looking on Craigslist!

Not getting a real estate agent: Unless you’ve had plenty of experience, going the “for sale by owner” route is probably not a smart bet. A REALTOR® can give you insights, marketing advice and, most importantly, can get your property on the multiple-listing service (or MLS or if you are in Indianapolis, BLC), which gets it in front of other agents.

Not staging your house: You need to help buyers envision themselves in your home. This includes removing any clutter and overly personal items (like family photographs) and making sure furniture flows well and demonstrates the purpose of each room.  Don’t go overboard, sometimes you can declutter and depersonalize to the point that the potential buyers can’t envision anything!  Discuss with your REALTOR® and if they don’t have a good eye, bet they know a good stager!

Okay, now are you ready?  Call, text or email me and let’s get started!

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Vicki Reed

 

Think you are ready to buy a house?

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Buying a home is an emotional decision for most people, this is where you will likely spend the next 5 to 7 years of your life, more if you buy right and love the area.  Do your research!  Think about these things and when you are ready…CALL ME!

Researching the neighborhood: Is this some place you really want to live? What amenities are nearby? How is the school district? What does the traffic and street activity look like when you drive by it at different times of day, like Sunday morning and Monday evening rush hour?

Get an inspection: This is one of the biggest investments you’ll ever make, and you’ll be living with it for years to come. Don’t pinch pennies — shell out $400 for an inspection. Make sure you know exactly what you’re signing up for.

Remember, you can paint!  Don’t buy or not based on decor: Paint color can be changed. Tiles and cabinets can be changed. What you want to look at are the bones of the house. Will it meet your needs? Does it flow well? Does it have enough space?

Don’t buy the most expensive home on the block: Hate to break it to you, but the most expensive home on the block isn’t a good deal. It will only depreciate over time, and you could have trouble selling it when buyers can see plenty of more reasonably priced options in the same neighborhood.

Be realistic with your budget: There are 2 numbers to look at when you are buying a home, just because your lender says you qualify for a $250,000 mortgage, that doesn’t mean you can afford it, especially when you factor in the other costs that come with homeownership. Be real and only look at houses you can realistically afford.

Be realistic about your DIY abilities: Will you really tear down that wall to make a master suite or gut the entire kitchen to make it work for you? Don’t let too much HGTV and delusions of grandeur drive you to buy an ongoing project you’ll regret taking on.

Have money for a down payment:  FHA financing requires 3.5% down, Insured Conventional 5 or 10%, Conventional 20%.  Anything less than 20% down and you’ll pay private mortgage insurance (aka PMI) payments and a higher monthly mortgage payment overall. It may be worth saving up for an extra year or two to reduce your long-term costs.  VA and USDA are 100% down programs, but make certain that’s how you want to go.

Make sure you are ready: Are you financially ready?  Are you ready emotionally? Are you sure you want to stay in this area for years? Does your income feel stable? Are you prepared to take on all that yard work and the repairs you avoided as a renter?

Think you are ready?  Time to call in the experts and find a realtor!  Call or text me at 317-919-7931 or email at vlrrealestate@gmail.com…I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Buying a house

Vicki Reed

 

 

Booze at the State Fair…

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For the first time in 67 years, alcohol is being served at the Indiana State Fair…in an exhibit hall behind the fried food and lemonade stands and across from the Coliseum, the new Indiana Beer and Wine Exhibition at the Indiana State Fair isn’t the spectacle of stumbling drunks opponents expected.

There are strict drink limits, those who wish to partake purchase wristbands with three detachable drink vouchers to spend as they please.  The choices are simple, a drink consists of a 12-ounce glass of beer, a 5-ounce glass of wine or four smaller samples of beer or wine for those who want to try a variety.

The exhibit is a showcase of Indiana’s local breweries and wineries.  The offerings change from day to day, as Indiana breweries and wineries take alternating turns in the spotlight and the exhibit is geared toward a casual audience…sweeter wines and crowd-pleasing brews geared toward those who have never tried a craft beer.

Most are giving the exhibit rave reviews, the only negative I’ve heard is that there isn’t enough seating!

The state’s reluctance to serve alcohol may have been a blessing in disguise, the key to lifting the ban was that the product’s would all be from local, Indiana based wineries and breweries…no international brands allowed.

This is supposed to be an exhibit, apparently the “exhibit” leaves something to be desired on education, some servers offer in-depth explanations of their offerings; others don’t. There is a trough of hops in the entry and a teaser to a Prohibition exhibit at the Indiana State Museum but little else on display.

What do you think?  The Indiana State Fair is supposed to be about Indiana and with the increasing numbers of wineries and breweries, I think it’s a brilliant way to showcase these tax paying employers and hopefully increase their business which can only improve the economy over time.  Would love to hear from you!

Vicki Reedbeer and wine

Well…this wasn’t something I thought about before…

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I’m working with a great couple, newly married in October….in Jamaica no less…and we’re shopping for their first home!  Their lease ends at the end of February, so we are getting a great start on the search, pre-qualification…done and the home search is on!

Clients always start the search with location, number of bedrooms/baths…you get the picture, but this client has a special need…he’s 6 feet 7 inches tall and a former college football player!  This is a big man and he needs big rooms.  I’m finding myself thinking of a lot of things that I really hadn’t thought about before…the width of the hallways, the height of the ceilings, even the height of the doorways.  We were in a home on Friday that was great, they both really liked and then we went upstairs…he had to duck to go through the doorways to the bedrooms and closets…ceiling height was about 10′, but doorway height was about 6’4″…and the shower…he’d have to sit on a stool to get under the spray!

The client prefers remodeled, older homes of the Old Northside and Fall Creek Place area, most of which have tall ceilings, but small bedrooms – a king size bed it a must for this couple so I’m taking more time in selecting listings to send for their review…have to make certain that master bath isn’t in a converted attic space with slanted ceilings…that just won’t work!

I have another other active buyer client right now, he is 5’4″ and 12 foot ceilings and huge walk-in showers make him feel really small…talk about the other end of the spectrum!

As I grow my business and my client base, I’m constantly changing the way I look at homes for my clients, I care enough to take the time to really make certain the time we spend looking at homes is not wasted by looking at properties that simply won’t work for them…and my clients are so appreciative!  Each of their needs are taken into consideration, I listen as they walk through homes, make notes and then look for what they said…sometimes we are so far away from what they originally said they wanted, it’s kind of funny!

So what are your special needs in a home?

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Vicki Reed

Landing On My Feet…

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Thanks to a fantastic group I belong to, Business Women Connect, and it’s CEO/President Shelly Aristizabal (author of “This is your Year”), I had the opportunity to meet Alison Martin-Book, author of “Landing on my Feet…Learning to Lead through Mentoring” a couple of weeks ago.  What an inspiring story she had to share!

From the jacket:

Despite many years of working to achieve equality for women in the workplace, the gender gap is still very real.  Women are emerging as leaders in the workplace, but most often are not making it into the C-suite. Cultivating mentoring relationships and sharing knowledge and experience with others is an important piece in the overall strategy of advancing women leaders.

This book contains contributions from executive women leaders for a variety of industries and an account of how mentoring can impact lives and careers as well as a toolkit for cultivating your own mentoring relationships.

At the end of many of the chapters are questions designed to make you think about where you are in your life, goals that you have set and met or not met, what you want to do, who you want to be and who you are.  My favorite section of the book starts in chapter 2…Mentoring Lesson # 1:  Deciding What You Want Personally and Professionally.  Okay, so I know what I want on a professional level, but struggle with the balance in my life…I don’t know what I would do with myself if I’m not working!  Alison shared her “bucket list” or “100 things I want to do before I die”, very interesting and has me thinking about what I want to do beyond build a successful real estate business…I still haven’t come up with the answers, but will share as I work through it!

Alison is someone to admire and learn from, I really connected with her book and the story she shared, I have identified some deficiencies in my own story and am formulating a plan to move myself to the next level in my business and my life…Thank you Alison for writing this inspirational book and Shelly for making it possible for us to meet Alison and be inspired by her story.

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Vicki Reed

This is your year…

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There are so many self-help, self-improvement, books on the market, it’s tough to know what books are the right ones for you or even where to start!  I am so blessed to have Shelly Aristizabal in my life and her willingness to share her trials and tribulations is extraordinary, yet she is one of the most positive people I know.

She was lead to buy and become CEO/President of Business Women Connect (BWC) when it’s founder Linda Rendlemen elected to focus her energies on her Women Like Us Foundation.  As part of the re-launch of BWC, I attended the first meeting in Indianapolis and have had an opportunity to be part of the focus group for it’s continued success…so much fun and so many things happening, changing, what works, what doesn’t.

Shelly Aristizabal is one of the world’s leading Community Commerce Executives, an author, speaker, coach, and a passionate student in the area of personal development and achievement. A product of the success principles she teaches, Shelly is committed to sharing the basic life skills and lessons of success with women through Business Women Connect.

In addition to working to expand BWC (now in Indianapolis, IN; Naples, FL and Atlanta, GA!) Shelly is committed to encouraging others to design and pursue the life of their dreams everyday and  has enjoyed her mission to discover her own true purpose and to live a more meaningful life. This journey has lead her to trust God completely and follow her heart. In addition to BWC, she blogs, speaks, writes and is a published author of a wonderful book “This is Your Year”!

“This is Your Year to Design and Live the Life of your Dreams” has a page for each day of the year, it is truly inspirational and motivational to spend 15 minutes each morning to read, ponder and hopefully…do the action items as you think about your life and the changes you want to make.

Shelly and what she is doing for us is inspirational, check out the book, it really will help this be Your Year…

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Vicki Reed

Dumb Move Day…

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Reading today’s news items, two of them jumped out…

From WTHR:

INDIANAPOLIS – A loaded handgun and four full magazines were found in the travel bags of a man at the Indianapolis airport.  A screener detected the gun and ammunition while the passenger was passing through security Monday. Metro Police arrested (name removed by me), who told them he forgot the gun and ammunition was in his bag. He was released.  The TSA kept the gun and bullets.

and from The Indianapolis Star:

Truck driver misses signs, rolls into south split construction

A truck driver this morning told police he simply failed to notice signs and barricades directing motorists away from a Downtown construction project at the south split of interstates 65 and 70.  

About 5 a.m. today, truck driver (name removed by me), drove through the barricades, got stuck and had to be pulled out of the construction area by a wrecker.  “Basically, the truck driver said he was just taking his normal route and there has always been a ramp there,” said Cpl. Wiley Mimms of the Indiana State Police. “Apparently he was not looking at all the signs and everything.”…  You can read the story here if you want additional information.

So my big question for the loaded handgun guy…why are you carrying a loaded gun in a bag you are traveling with and how do you “forget”?  I can see forgetting some TSA rules – shampoo bigger than whatever the current size is, but a GUN?

Now, about this trucker…every sign, every electronic sign, every traffic report on the radio and even the national news has talked about the closures on I-65/I-70 through downtown Indianapolis…how do you not know or notice the bright orange “CLOSED” on the big green signs and the BARRICADES set up to keep you from driving through….no offense, but you deserved the ticket at the very least…arrest at the very most.  How much money did this cost the taxpayers in the slow down of the process?  Repair of what damage was done?

So…did you make any dumb moves today?

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Vicki Reed

This life is hard enough…

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First, let me qualify this post by saying that I chose to be a REALTOR®…I love my job, I love “Turning your dreams into an Address…”, it’s more than a tagline, I truly love working with buyers and sellers, my clients have become friends and this means so much, however, several things have happened this year that I would like to address…

1.  A fellow agent called, he had received a call from someone who saw his sign in front of a house.  The potential buyer told him that he was not represented and the agent, who was out of town, contacted me to show the property.  I arranged to show him the property and during our meeting, I again asked if he was working with an agent and he said that he was, but he “didn’t want to bother him to show him the home“.  My advice to buyers – BOTHER US!  Commit to working with one Realtor, showing you homes is what we are paid for, to show you homes and represent your BEST interests in YOUR home purchase, please do not lie to other agents, we will eventually find out.

2.  Realtors… treat each other with respect and kindness, we are all trying to do what is best for our clients. During the course of a recent transaction, the Seller’s agent maligned my clients character during the course of a number of delays, was hateful and demanding of me, including trying to get me to give up part of my commission.  I’m sorry, I work really hard for my clients, I am upfront and honest with other agents during the course of every transaction.  Regarding delays…sometimes things happen and we do the best we can, but please, be patient, be kind and just talk to each other with some modicum of respect.  The end result is someone wants to sell a house, someone wants to buy that house and its up to us to make it happen and make both our clients happy.

3.  Last week I received a call from an agent showing one of my listings.  The home is unoccupied, yet when she arrived, the lockbox was open, the key in the door, door wide open, lights on…and no one there!  What if there hadn’t been another showing scheduled that day?  How long would it have stayed that way?  I called the agent who had shown it earlier and left a voicemail asking how he left the home, just to find out if someone showed the home and wasn’t scheduled (they still haven’t called me back!).  Agents, please leave the home secured when you leave and if you did it, own up to it.  My favorite thing an agent did at another unoccupied listing was leave the gas fireplace burning…it was over 4 days before the home was viewed again, next agent came into a 95 degree temp…in February!  Buyers, help us make certain the homes you are viewing are locked up tight and it was as you found it when you leave!

4.  Buying a home?  During a recent transaction for a client selling a home, we were on the way to closing and received a call from the Buyer’s agent...there was a large spot on the master bedroom carpet and they hadn’t seen it before…it had been there all along, never hidden, but apparently never seen by the buyer or their agent.  Now, the seller was getting money back from the sale of the home, a reward for home ownership if you will, and had already agreed to pay $3,000 toward the Buyer’s closing costs as well as pay for a home warranty of $400.  The Buyer’s agent screams at me that they wanted $500 to replace the carpet or they would be pulling out of the transaction.  First, there is no reason to scream at me, second, just  because you can see on the HUD statement that my client is receiving money doesn’t mean your client “deserves” money for something you hadn’t asked for previously.  My client was using this money in the purchase of their next home, it was not the Buyers to take.  We did close, but what should have been a joyful day for both parties turned contentious and stressful.

5.  Selling your home?  Pay attention to the terms of your contract.  When  are you to turn over possession of the home?  What items are to remain with the home?  Realtors, communicate with them on how the home should be left for the new owners and remind them of what appliances, etc. are to remain.  In addition to my own experience, I hear a lot from other agents about washers and dryers being taken when they were clearly on the Purchase Agreement, what about that fridge in the garage?  Sellers, don’t take the light fixtures and replace them with the builder grade brass one that was there when you moved in UNLESS you disclosed that you were taking the fixture.  During a recent transaction, we arrived to do a final walk-through 30 minutes before closing and they were still moving out!  This is the first time the Sellers had sold a home and they had no idea that this was unacceptable.  Sellers, your home needs to be “broom clean” when you leave, you should also make certain that you aren’t still trying to move as you are headed to the closing table and Agents…communicate with your Sellers!

Okay, enough of my rants/life lessons or whatever you would like to call this, but truly, life is tough, the key is to treat one another with RESPECT…in negotiations, in delays, in closings and even in follow-ups after the fact.  It doesn’t just apply to real estate transactions, but our everyday lives.  I strive to be a Realtor® that other agents want to work with and that my clients want to refer their friends to…it’s working so far and I look forward to a long prosperous career!  Now…if you are ready to buy or sell a home…CALL ME!

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Vicki Reed

Homes for Heroes®

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Do you know about Homes for Heroes®?  Their mission is to provide extraordinary savings to local heroes who provide extraordinary services to our community every day.

Homes for Heroes® is a company that affiliates with Realtors® (like me!), lenders and other real estate-related service providers who offer substantial rebates and discounts to the Heroes who serve our nation and its communities every day. Our Heroes include military personnel, firefighters, law enforcement officers and others who make our communities a better place to live.

This program was created after the tragic events of 9/11 as a “Thank you” to the men and women who have given so much. Heroes across the country register on the website every day looking for the savings. They are matched with Homes for Heroes® Affiliates in their area. Homes for Heroes® is now expanding its discounts beyond the home buying and selling process with the Friends of Heroes® program.

Thanks to Don Shanley and The Shanley Team at Inlanta Mortgage, this program is available in the Indianapolis area and I am so proud to one of the Realtor® Affiliates available to help our Heros achieve their dreams!

So how does the program work?  The key to the program is that there is NO COST TO THE HERO!  Here’s an example of how the program is working with Inlanta Mortgage:

Buy a $125,000 Home:
Average Realtor Commission (3.5%)*  = $4,375.00
Realtor (again…that would be me!) credits 25% BACK TO HERO AT CLOSING = $1,094.00
CREDITED TO YOU FROM INLANTA MORTGAGE = $1,350.00
TOTAL CREDITS AT CLOSING = $2,444.00
*Based on a 3.5% Commission. Credit is off actual commission paid to the Buying or Selling Agent

It’s a lot of information to take in, stop by the Indiana State Fair and meet me and The Shanley Team to talk about what we are doing for our local Hero’s as well as what we can do for YOU!

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Vicki Reed

Opportunity is Knocking…

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Research tells us that real estate may very well be at its most affordable level, RIGHT NOW.

Check out this quick video to find out why home buying is more budget friendly than it’s been in decades.

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History is being made. When you look back, will you say, “I wish I had …” or “I’m so glad I did”?

Now is the time to BUY!  Let’s talk!

Vicki Reed