Trees and DFW Real Estate

A mature tree on your property can account for as much as 10% of its assessed value. With that much at stake you want to sure your trees remain healthy.

Annual Inspecting Your Trees

No one knows your trees better than you do. Just after they leaf out in the early spring walk around and look at your trees from top to bottom and see if you notice any changes in foliage, branches, roots, or the bark. Inspect all sides of the tree and check for peeling bark.

Leaning Trees

Trees growing around DFW homes usually don't grow straight as an arrow and a little bit of a lean is normal. When your tree starts leaning more and more it is dues to poor weight distribution or root damage. This would be a good time to call an arborist. Lookout for these danger signs:

• Exposed roots around the base of the tree.
• Cracked soil, especially on the side opposite the lean.

Cures:

• Prune branches on the leaning side to distribute weight better.
• Brace the tree trunk with cables attached to stakes on the opposite side of the lean. Make sure you pad the tree before placing cables around the bark.

Trees With Multiple Trunks

A tree with multiple trunks, or with splits in one trunk, can be tough to stabilize. Danger signs:

• U-shaped or V-shaped multiple trunks are weak the points for mature trees. The connective wood where the trunks come together may lose strength and be more likely to split.
• Cracks that extend deeply into or through the trunk.

Cures:

If you plan on selling your Plano real estate before you list it you may want to hire a professional arborist can stabilize split trunks by attaching cables between trunks and branches high in the tree. Cables won't repair existing damage, but they will increase its strength and extend the life of your tree. This is dangerous work best left to experts. Arborist generally charge between $500 and $1,800 for this service.

Tress Damage - Construction Destruction

Building construction is tough on trees. Renovating foreclosures by installing a driveway or building on an addition, digging up utility lines puts trees under a lot of stress. Construction can damage shallow feeder roots which can starve and destabilizing trees. Construction equipment can damage tree bark, which can set a tree for disease and infestation.

Danger signs of construction stress:

• Damaged bark
• Reduced, smaller, or no foliage
• Premature fall color

Cures:

Prevention is always your best option. Before beginning construction make sure to set up a barricade around your trees. A good rule of thumb is for each inch in diameter of the tree's trunk, add a foot of protection. If the tree is damaged by construction:

• Prune to reduce weight and remove damaged limbs.
• Install cables or bracing rods.
• Water and aerate compacted soil around the roots.

An Arborist to the Rescue?

If you think your trees are sick they are likely to fall and destroy what's near them including your house. This is a good time to call an arborist. An arborist can help save your tree, or let you know if it's beyond their help. If bacteria or bugs are harming your tree an arborist's inspection can diagnose which disease, trauma, or fungus is the cause. Also, an arborist can determine if your tree is decaying internally, something that may not yet be obvious. Arborists can either fix the problem, or calculate the risk of the tree falling and the likely objects it could damage. Such a calculation will help you decide if it's worth spending money to keep the tree alive and upright, remove the tree, or just let nature take its course let the tree fall on its own.

What About Lightning Risks to Your Trees?

If you live on high ground in your community it will increases your chances of a lightning strike to your trees. If lightning strikes one side of a tree, your tree might close the wound on its own. But if a bolt travels through the trunk, exploding wood and bark and damaging roots, it might be the end of your trees life. To protect you trees from lightning, an arborist can ground a tree with a copper cable system that extends from near the top of major trunks down to copper ground rods.

 

To Get Professional Home Photos or Not

According to the National Association of Realtors, 94% of consumers start their home search online. A photo says a 1000 words right? Then how come some photos posted look terrible? We have all seen photos looking unprofessional with bad lighting or they are out of focus.

Photos are crucial to the successful selling of Plano real estate. The quality of the photos will determine if the potential buyer will want an actual showing to consider purchasing the property. As a seller, you should preview the photos before they go into the MLS or any marketing medium.

As technology has gotten cheaper and more readily used, consumers are demanding professional photos, dedicated websites, and virtual tours. It used to be that professional photos were only done for high-end homes. Now you are seeing it more common place. So by comparison if your photos are not professional, it really stands out. We are even seeing the technology being used on foreclosures in Dallas.

A professional photographer will have the wide lens to create space where as the average camera does not. They can also create the lighting and make things appear greener, brighter, bigger, and better. As a seller, when you are interviewing agents to sell your home. Ask them if they use professional photography. Often that is part of their marketing plan. If it's not, you may need to insist on it. A good agent that concentrates on listings will often have a photographer on retainer who can do it very inexpensively.

Before your home gets photographed, there is a big checklist of things that will need to be done first for your photos to turn out the best they can be. To mention a few, remove all personal affects and valuables. Examples include: family photos, jewelry, firearms, etc. All the countertops should be free and clear of clutter. Don't keep your mail in a pile. It should all be stored away. The last thing you want is a custom made virtual tour of your effects making it tempting for the internet onlooker to want to steal. How easy it is for that internet onlooker to get your address? You have your house for sale with the address easily at their fingertips with a sign out front.

You don't always get a second chance to make a first impression. Don't take a chance and end up selling to one of those We Buy Houses companies. Be safe and use common sense while selling your home. If you truly want to sell your home, you will want to do everything in your power to make it a home for someone else.

~ Jennifer Clark VIP Realty Platinum

Are You Looking at Current Home Listings?

Are you a first time home buyer? Are you driving around and looking for properties on your own? Are you surfing all the real estate websites? Congratulations for taking the first step towards home ownership! Before you get super excited about what you see online, you may want to consider a few things.

Did you know you can get a list of properties as they become available, both regular listings and listings of DFW foreclosures? Many agents today have websites where you can search for properties or you can be emailed a current list.

Did you know that all real estate agents who sell DFW homes share the data that is directly from the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). Not all the websites you are searching are kept current or up-to-date. It is ultimately up to the webmaster who hosts the site to keep their data feed current. Sadly, there is no way to monitor all the different sites or control what they post at all times.

Nothing is worse than finding out the house you really like online has sold already sometime to one of those We Buy Houses companies. Unfortunately, not all the real estate sites keep current data. Your best bet is to get a list directly from a Realtor® who provides you the most current information straight from the MLS.

Another benefit of working with an agent is they do all the work and there are no upfront costs to utilize their services. They work on commission and their commission is already negotiated in the sale of the price. They also can save you a lot of time and money by providing you a good buying experience. Have you ever heard the term "buyer beware"? What happens if there are repairs that need to be done? Do you understand the contract you are signing? Who is doing the inspections? Do you know how to open escrow? Are you going to give the seller option money? These are all events that occur in a transaction and you would be foolish not to use a real estate agent to help you through the process.

No two transactions are alike and even if you have purchased several homes in the past, it's wise to use a licensed agent who has the properly trained to successfully guide you through the buying or selling process.

The Benefits of Pier and Beam Foundations

Are you lucky enough to live on a pier and beam foundation? If you do, you know you have less foundation problems than the typical house in Dallas. Because the ground shifts so much, many homes in Texas have foundation issues. Having pier & beam is great because if you do need an adjustment, it's often much cheaper to fix than traditional concrete slab foundations.

Pier and Beam foundations on DFW real estate incorporate a crawl space beneath the home and footings filled with concrete to support the slab. The crawl space allows access to heating and plumbing utilities without having to break through the concrete slab. Traditional slab foundations are cheaper and easier to construct however don't last very long before foundation work is necessary.

If you do live in one of the many Tarrant County homes on pier and beam foundation you notice a lot of benefits including the ease on your joints. Wood has so much more give than concrete. Also your plumbing is so easily accessible. The only downside to having your plumbing is so accessible; you often get a sewer odor that just won't go away. Before you lose hope, I learned the coolest trick to get rid of that smell and it's much cheaper than calling a plumber!

First, purchase several bottles of bleach. Any kind will do. Pour the entire bottle of bleach down each drain where you have the sewer odor. Generally you will pour bleach down the kitchen drain, tub/shower drain, and toilets. For the toilets, first, remove the lid from the tank; flush the toilet and while the water starts filling, pour as much bleach as you can into the tank. Do this for every toilet. Then, throughout the course of the year, every time you flush, you are sanitizing your sewage water and eliminate that nasty odor that you had to experience.

This is a one time a year maintenance plan. The other alternative is to call a plumber and they can pour bleach or another substance that does the same thing and charge you for it. When it comes to resell value of your house you may find yourself selling to one of those We Buy Houses companies if you don't maintain the foundation, plumbing and all of your other homes systems.

~ Jennifer Clark with VIP Realty Platinum

Emotional Mistakes When Selling Your Home

We all have at one time or another said something in the heat of the moment just to wish we could take those words back. The truth is that we all commit emotional mistakes in different areas in our lives. But what about when it comes to selling a home? The stakes are too high to allow yourself and your sale to fall victim to your emotional pitfalls. Fortunately, what's predictable is certainly avoidable if you are willing to adjust for your feelings and how they can cloud your decision making abilities. Do your best to avoid these common decision traps driven by your emotions.

1. Confusion with Listing Price. Some sellers are confused about the mechanics of determining fair market value of a home and setting a realistic price. A DFW homes fair market value is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay for it at a given time. The best way to estimate what a home is worth before it actually sells is to look at what homebuyers have actually paid for very similar homes nearby. This is what real estate agents call comparables or "comps". Most listing agents will do a formal version of this process called a Comparative Market Analysis, and present that to a seller to consider in setting the list price for their own home.

2. Stagnation of Price Reduction. Wikipedia, on the web, defines panic as "a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prevent reason and logical thinking, replacing it with overwhelming feelings of anxiety and frantic agitation consistent with an animalistic fight or flight reaction." In cases where a home has been overpriced, the seller has most often started out overconfident in their home's value in the current market place. But as the days on the market turn into weeks, or months, that confidence turns into panic. Unfortunately, this panic is often accompanied by a fear that actually reducing the houses price will actually kick off a free fall in price and elicited low ball offers. This couldn't be further from the truth. When a house is overpriced, cutting the price is the only way to fix the problem and render the home more attractive to buyers. Some sellers have found that reducing their price gets them to a sweet spot and then they receive multiple offers and ends up selling somewhere between the reduced price and the original list price. The best way to deactivate this panic is to put a plan in place before it ever arises. Work with your agent to understand how to use the data around how long most homes in your area take to sell as a guidepost for making price reductions, if and when the need arises.

3. Ignoring the Needs of Your Buyers. By virtue of putting your house on the market for sale, you have become a marketer. Almost every marketer knows that it is essential to understand your buyer's wants needs and lifestyle in order for them to get top dollar for their house. It's up to you, working with your agent, to figure out who the target market for your home is and to market it accordingly. Understanding your target market is one thing but marketing appropriately for them is another. Your townhome buyer might be drawn in by mentions of built in closet organizers, an espresso and coffee machine included in the sale and incentives like HOA dues paid a month in advance. Make sure you mention just how close and convenient the place is to the subway station entrance in your marketing materials.

4. Celebrating the Sale. Multiple offers and above asking sales prices are happening frequently on today's market, even with all the foreclosures in Dallas. but it is critical not to assume your home will be in that number until the transaction actually closes. Sellers who celebrate too soon can put themselves at a disadvantage in a number of ways. Even in today's brisk market transactions sometimes fall out of escrow because a buyer has a change of heart, their job or their family, or because they could not qualify for the mortgage they were pre-approved for. Many sellers keep their houses meticulous and their finances in excellent shape throughout the entire time frame from property preparation through close of escrow.

With all that said some sellers are so emotional about their plans for the next stage of their life they convince themselves to base the list price for their current home not on its fair market value but base it on how much money they need for their next home purchase. This is the quickest and worst route to pricing your home so high that no one comes to see it and it sits on the market with no offers at all, or very low ones. Sellers can fight this tendency by staying focused on comparable sales data, and committing to being responsive to market feedback like low buyer traffic or having your home sit on the market for many days beyond the average in your area.

Online Buyers - How to Fill Your Open Houses

So you have a new listing and you want to hold an open house but you have been told by many of your peers that open houses are a waste of time. No one wants to waste a Saturday or Sunday afternoon sitting at an empty open house. These days with new digital tools it makes it easier than ever to get buyers in the front door. Here are some great ways to get home buyers out of their cars and in to your open house.

Attract the "Tire Kickers"

Encourage these seemingly unmotivated home buyers with your online marketing by mentioning that you will have a gift for all the folks who attend and complete your sign in form. Get these folks excited and have them post on sites like FoureSquare or Twitter. This way everyone on their networks will know they are at your open house, and you will expand your marketing reach tenfold. A good give might be a gift card or a scratch-off lottery ticket. Print fliers and remind your visitors to check in for a chance to win.

Update Your Open House Listing Information

Many DFW real estate agents mistakenly think that the details about their open house are automatically updated from one site to the next. It is paramount to make sure your open house times are updated on real estate websites like Realtor.com and other popular real estate sites. Make sure that your listing information is mobile friendly and will load properly on smart phones that are so popular today. This is important because many people are out and about running errands on the weekend.

Invite on FaceBook

FaceBook is all the rage today. It only takes minutes to set up a FaceBook Event for your open house even if you are holding Dallas foreclosures open. Make sure that you include photos of the home and selling details on the event page that will make people want to come to your open house. Once you have set up the event, you can advertise it on your FaceBook Business Page. Google + and Pinterest are great places to market your open house as well.

BackPage and Craig's List

More and more home buyers are searching for homes on BackPage and Craig's List to find open houses in their area. Marketing your open house on these sites is another simple way to spread the word online. To make sure your event stands out and increases your post's appeal, add photos or upload your online ad or property flyer.

Shout and Spread the Word

Tell everyone you know about your open house on social networks. Try making some minor modifications to your message to help keep it from getting shut off. Try some messages like these: "Baking cookies to bring to my open house at 423 Maple St today" or "Bummer, it's raining; I have my towels to protect the carpets for the buyers who brave the weather and come to my open house at 423 Maple St this afternoon." With so many people engaging online and accessing information on mobile, it's essential to use all the modern tools in your arsenal to communicate about your open house. Of course, there are many other ways to market online. Wherever you are - spread the word!

Previous Owner Costing You Money Because of Their Insurance Claim?

Some storm damage causes damage to your house and you file an insurance claim and collect a check from your insurer and then you make the repairs. You may think that it's over but it's bot. Every time you make a claim you make on your homeowners insurance the claim is recorded in a insurance industry database called a CLUE report. Most insurance companies use CLUE to check on the claims history of prospective policyholders. The CLUE report includes claims made on your house before you even bought it. This database is used by most insurance companies to check your claims history and it follows you from one insurer to another. Claims remain in the CLUE database for seven-years from the date you filed them. CLUE advises insurance carriers not to report loss information just because you called to ask a question about whether your policy will cover a particular loss. Individual insurance companies may keep a record of these inquires though.

How Insurance Companies Use CLUE

Insurance companies depend on CLUE reports for DFW real estate because these statistics show that if you have filed a claim in the past you are more likely to file another one in the future. The dollar amount of a claim is not as important as how often you have filed a claim. Each insurance company has its own formula to calculating how much a claim will affect your premium. It is safe to say that the fewer the claims you have filed the less you will likely be charged.

Homebuyers knowing what's on your CLUE report will give you an idea of whether you will need to pay extra for homeowners insurance or even if you run the risk of insurance rejection. Unfortunately, even a squeaky clean report doesn't mean you can be sure of getting homeowners insurance at the best price. This is because the claims on your CLUE report aren't the only things that affect your overall insurance risk.

Most insurance companies that insure Frisco real estate will also take into consideration your credit score, which is based on such things as how much debt you carry, whether you pay your bills on time, etc. Insurance company studies show that how people manage their finances is a good indicator of whether they will file an insurance claim. And the more likely you are to file a claim the bigger risk you are to them and more risk means a higher premium or denial of coverage all together. Other factors insurers take into consideration include the location of your home and its type of construction.

How to Understand Your CLUE Report

If you do decide to check your CLUE report, it is a relatively easy process. Under federal law, you can get one free CLUE report a year just like with credit reports. You can order the report online, by phone, or by mail.

Your CLUE report will include:

• The type of loss fire, water, etc. for each claim and the claim number

• Your name, home address, birth date, and Social Security number

• The number assigned to the report

• The name of your insurance company

• The type and number of the insurance policy

• The date of the loss and the amount of each claim

The report will also tell you how to dispute any errors you find. Because risk calculations vary by insurance company, it is nearly impossible to determine how a claim on your CLUE report will affect your insurance premium. This makes it tough for you to decide how much value checking your CLUE actually gives you. Taking less than an hour once a year to order and review your report could pay off big for you, especially if you find an error.

Finding You on the Internet - Realtors

How important is social networking for real estate agents? In today's market social networking is increasingly getting more important. What you post about yourself is really the first impression perspective clients have. Many employers have easy access to social media and use it to decide if they want to hire you or not. Are the photos you have up on Facebook something you would want a future employer to have of you or how about a future client? As a tech savvy person, you can find out practically anything about everything online.

Home buyers and sellers are doing all their research on the internet first before contacting a DFW real estate agent. It makes our jobs easier and tougher all at the same time. The act of searching for Dallas foreclosures or non-foreclosure homes is the building block for developing a working relationship. Perspective buyers and sellers have already met you online and have gotten to know your profile. You only get one chance to make a good impression. Your first chance was online, so don't screw it up when you meet them in person.

Just as your perspective client knows your profile. As an agent, you should do a little detective work and see if they have an online profile on Facebook, My Space, Linked in, Google+, etc. You would be surprised at how easy to see a photo of them and find out what their likes are. You can quickly find out who they are and it will help you relate to