Several clients ask me about their homes and real properties during estate planning sessions at my law firm. I can answer some of their questions from a legal standpoint, but when they get into the meat and bones of what to do as far as increasing the value of their property, and when they should sell it, I always defer to my husband. He is the most knowledgeable person in our office building when it comes to real estate, values, and what to do if you are thinking about selling or buying a home. Conveniently, his office is just a small walk down the hallway if a client starts asking me real estate questions.
This week, I decided to interview my husband and ask him a few questions about the main things to consider when buying or selling a home, and what improvements or renovations are going to give you the most bang for your buck if you are getting ready to sell a home. After he answered the questions, I realized that this will be a two-part article, because I just did not want to edit out any of the great information he shared.
Phillip, tell me a little bit about yourself so the readers can get to know you as a Broker. “My name is Philip Demoran. I am the broker-owner of the Demoran Realty Group in Ocean Springs. Over the past few years, I have helped both residential and commercial clients on the Coast buy and sell over $40 million in properties.”
Question: I know the interest rates are higher than people anticipated, what would be your advice be for people regarding buying or selling a home right now with the interest rates at their current level? The thing to remember about interest rates, and whether they are high, is that historically we are running about average right now at the interest rates we're at when you consider interest rates were as high as 14% or more in the late 80s. Even though homes cost less then, the dollar was valued as less too, so looking at everything from that standpoint, we are average compared to where interest rates have been in the past. So, with that in mind, and the current environment we are in now, the best time to buy or sell a house is now. If rates drop, you can always refinance your house.”
Question: If you have a client that asks you what would be the best improvements or renovations to make on a house before you sell it, what would you tell them?
“That is a great question. Preparing your house to be sold is one of the most important things the seller can do and some of the things you can do will not break the bank and are pretty economical and aren’t major. One of them would be to make sure your shrubs are trimmed in the front yard. Your yard is cut. Your flowerbeds have been worked, and if necessary, plants and plants out in front to give us some good carb appeal. Nothing is worse than getting out of a car and walking up to a house in the yard looks terrible. You are starting off in a bad foot before someone has even walked in the door to see that what’s inside is immaculate, but they have to get through your messy yard to get there. The next thing would be painting changing paint colors going with more earth tones or grays inside. The house can definitely add pop to a house that is older and in need of it more expensive things would be adding flooring Luxury vinyl plank or some type of flooring to the house to add more than just the walls being painted.”
Question: What about renovating bathrooms or kitchens?
“Absolutely consider this. Updating and rid of bathrooms and kitchens, especially kitchens because that is the area most people end up in in the home add to the value normally the value, but the sell ability and liability of the house. Those of course are higher ticket items and require more planning and work than the simple, painting and flooring I talked about earlier. However, again, kitchens are going to be your most important high-ticket item to renovate, as most people look at the kitchens before they look at the bedrooms and other rooms in the house.”
Question: Several clients ask me about what to do in their backyard. Is it worth it to put in a pool to increase the value of a house?
“Good question, a swimming pool does not necessarily improve the value of a home. It can improve the market ability of it for people who are looking for a pool. However, some people are not looking for a pool, and those people would see it as a negative as opposed to positive. Some people would see the Pool as a liability, or a risk if they have young children, or additional maintenance costs and labor each month.”
Question: We live on the coast, so hurricanes are an eventuality. What hurricane preparedness things can you add or do to your home that will increase the value of your house and help you possibly lower your home insurance rates?
“What are the things you can do is get hurricane shutters either automatic shutters or shutters you install yourselves that should be able to help you with it. Not only with protecting your home, but it could help you with your insurance rates as well. You would have to check with your insurance provider on that. A generator, a home house generator is a great item to have. It is expensive. There is no doubt about that. However, when you don’t have power for a couple of weeks, you’ll really appreciate it and believe it or not we actually have power outages around here other than storms during hurricane season that that would come in handy for that you would come to appreciate. Aside from that a metal roof on your home is a purse to shingle roof would also eliminate you having to worry about shingles being blown off your roof during a hurricane that should be less upkeep and less more peace of mind during hurricane season than a shingle roof cost maybe more initially, but replacing a roof repeatedly over a period of time has its own cost as well.”
Question: What advice would you give a client who is trying to decide between buying a new or an older home?
“That is another good question that kind of goes to beauty is in the eye of the beholder some people like new homes want a brand-new home that they’re the only person who’s ever owned it they’re the first owner and everything in there is checked off and they know exactly what’s going on with it and it’s the way they want to be. Other people want older homes, because typically they’re in there in more established neighborhoods with trees spaced out more in older neighborhoods. The homes aren’t all the same type of house they’re various types of homes in the area be at ranch tutor style, whatever styles they are there are various different styles not one not per se, cookie cutter, looking homes people some people don’t like that some people do. It really depends on what they are looking for. I will say this from my experience insurance rates on newer homes are a lot less than the older homes because of building codes, and Just the way insurance works I guess itself so from an insurance standpoint we may be better looking at a newer home and also when people are buying new homes from builders, sometimes are able to offer incentives that you’re not able to get with an existing older home, such as buying down interest rates which you brought up earlier they can give you a lower interest rate than what you’re looking at three different promotions. They have maybe blinds, appliances, things that you yourself would have to get with an older home. The homebuilders can provide that, so honestly, it really comes down to a choice the buyer needs to make. What are they looking for?”
Question: Clients can sometimes choose their paint colors, flooring, countertop, and other options in new construction, as well, right?
“That depends on the builder prior to inflation and building cost going up. A lot of homebuilders offered totally customized houses to where you could pick out everything just about however, you wanted it however because of spa chain issues and issues trying to get items like windows and air-conditioning units and other things they had to start buying them in advance with the anticipation of building those homes, so it eliminated choices that the consumers are able to pick out in an effort to be able to construct a home in a timely manner not be waiting six months for windows. “
Have real estate questions? You can contact Philip directly at: 228-697-5704.
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