I’m sharing the five major things that will not increase the value of your home.Today we’re going to discuss several things that won’t increase the value of your home:1. Extensive professional landscaping. It is critical to have great curb appeal, some plantings, and not have a barren backyard. However, $100,000 landscaping jobs generally translate…

Von Beck Ivins

Von Beck Ivins

Von Beck Ivins

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive from sellers when I go on listing appointments is whether or not I do open houses.Sometimes we do, but most of the time we don’t. When I’m asked this question, I like to make it very clear why we might choose to hold an open house.Frankly, open houses are more to the Realtor’s benefit than the se…

Which is the best investment: a new home or an existing home? If you’ve been thinking of buying a home, you may be asking yourself this question. Today, I’d like to give you my opinion. First of all, the answer may vary depending on where you plan on buying. When buying in a newer neighborhood, existing homes can sometimes be a better buy. These ho…

Today we’re going to talk about the best time to sell your house.Well, I’ve got an answer for that. It’s always the best time to sell your house in the world of a real estate agent.In general though, I’d say that the best time to sell your house is probably mid-February, before everybody else puts their house on the market. This is what I’d tell my…

Today we’re going to talk about the number of days on the market. “Days on market” means the period of time from when you put your home on the market to the day you put your home under contract. Our average in the Oklahoma City metro area is around 68 days on the market. Does it matter how many days your home stays on the market? The answer is yes.…

What are foreclosures and why do they happen?To make it simple, foreclosures are properties that have been repossessed by the lender. The buyer fell through with their obligation to make payments, which can happen for a variety of reasons.Whether someone has an accident that impedes their ability to produce income, they lose their job, or they are …

How do you know whether or not your house is getting enough activity while it’s on the market?There are many different types of activity. As your real estate professional, it’s important to me to track the different kinds of activity on your home. I am basically the marketing firm for your property, and I will tell you about the activity on your ho…

When you sell a home, what information are you obligated to disclose about your property?People often seem confused about disclosures in the marketplace, but there is a clear statute that you follow. There is a set form of three pages for every residential property. All you have to do is answer the questions on that list.Basically, you will confirm…

When listing your home, it’s very important that you use professional photography.Listed homes that use professional photography typically attract more attention, sell faster, and sell for a higher price than those that don’t. I have a few studies I want to show you that prove this fact.The first comes from IMOTO, a company that creates professiona…

Not everybody is a competitor. Sometimes in a multiple offer situation, you’ll have people pull out just because they don’t want to compete. If buyers back out, you may not end up in a multiple offer position in the end. But how do you get your offer accepted?The first thing to do is to look at the value of the property you’re interested in and fig…

Today, we’re going to be covering a subject that is important to any real estate transaction: appraisals.First of all, what is an appraisal? Well, an appraisal is a value placed on a property by a licensed appraiser. This is different than a market analysis done by a real estate agent.Appraisals are much more in depth, and are based upon the values…

In any market, a property can receive multiple offers. We deal with this in our office on a near-daily basis. What that typically means is that folks may like a certain property and that property receives several different offers.When you have a multiple offer situation, there are several different ways to handle it. The first thing to remember is …

People often ask me if the Oklahoma City metro area is a buyer’s market or a seller’s market, but there are actually two different answers.Because of the energy sector being out of work as long as they have been, it’s truly a buyer’s market in the upper end of homes, or those priced $350,000 and up. In the normal price ranges where average folks bu…

I get a lot of questions about whether or not Zillow’s Zestimate can nail down the true value of a property. It turns out that a woman in Illinois has actually filed a lawsuit against Zillow, stating that their Zestimate is not the true value of her property.My friend, Barbara Corcoran from “Shark Tank,” recently did an interview on “Good Morning A…