Yet another wonderful success story from one of our satisfied home sellers. It took James just 3 months to sell his Schenectady, NY home and he saved over $14,000 in commissions! 

James C. said…
“I have sold several homes through your service. It’s very good and I would recommend it to anyone…”

We were thrilled to learn that Joann sold her Niskayuna Home, NY in only 60 days! She reported that she especially appreciated the advice and support of our staff when she needed encouragement.

Joann P. said…
“Your magazine is a great asset. The buyer saw the house in FSBO magazine and it resulted in the house being SOLD! Your ads are much better than the realtors ads….”

Originally uploaded by thekitchendesigner.org

Thinking about a home improvement project for your Albany home? When home prices are declining, the financial benefits of remodeling are not nearly as apparent as when home prices are high. Are you trying to maximize your investment in order to sell or are you looking to make your home a better place to live?

If your goal is to sell your home, you might want to reconsider spending lots of money on those high end projects and opt for practical, less costly alternatives. When the market is slow, you are less likely to recoup the cost of high end remodels.

If you are planning on staying for the long haul, then by all means make the investment that will maximize your comfort and enjoyment of the home.

According to real estate experts, the exterior of your home becomes a more important asset than the interior when trying to sell your home in a flat market.

When buyers have more to choose from first impressions become vital to the sale of a home. Curb appeal is more important than ever, with high end exterior renovations returning a better payoff than comparable interior projects.

Statistics show that home prices have fallen by an average of 7 percent nationally in the past year. But the value of home owners’ investment in remodeling projects has declined only 3.86 percent on average between 2007 and 2008, according to Remodeling’s 2008–2009 Cost vs. Value Report.

According to the report, on a national level, wood deck additions and all types of siding replacements returned more than 80% of the projects cost upon resale. Window replacements returned more than 76% of costs. A major midrange kitchen remodel returned 76% of costs, while a minor midrange kitchen remodel returned 79.5% of costs. Bathroom remodels returns were down from previous years to around 74.4%.

The Top 10 Home Improvement Paybacks
1. Upscale fiber cement siding (86.7%)
2. Midrange wood deck (81.8%)
3. Midrange vinyl siding (80.7%)
4. Upscale foam-backed vinyl (80.4%)
5. Midrange minor kitchen remodel (79.5%)
6. Upscale vinyl window replacement (79.2%)
7. Midrange wood window replacement (77.7%)
8. Midrange vinyl window replacement (77.2%)
9. Upscale wood window replacement (76.5%
10. Midrange major kitchen remodel (76.0%)

As illustrated in the above list, the home improvements that boost curb appeal offer the best return on investment. In fact, the only interior home improvements that made the top 10 were kitchen remodels.

Remember do your homework and consider your goals when planning a remodel project. Make an informed decision that will benefit your individual situation and maximize the return on your investment!

Regardless of what you hear in the news regarding the state of the national real estate market, Albany Homes are still selling! Attractive mortgage rates and a relatively stable job market here in Albany NY account for the better than national average results.

Anne listed her Guilderland home so she could move to North Carolina to be close to her family.

Anne C. said…
“I sold my home in 3 weeks and For Sale By Owner Albany saved me nearly $17,000 in commission. Thank you for all of your assistance. It was a very pleasant experience. I was a little nervous in the beginning but all went smoothly…”

The Albany NY real estate market is still alive and kicking. Every day we’re reminded by the media that homes aren’t selling but we’re happy to report that Cathy P. sold her Brunswick home and saved over $10,000 in real estate commissions.

Cathy reported…
“Good news. My closing has been scheduled. The house is “SOLD”. Thank you for all your help. I am one of those happy people you advetise ‘SOLD MY HOUSE ON FSBO’.”

It’s no secret that many homeowners, both locally and around the country, are feeling the effects of the weakened economy fueled by our current housing crisis, rising costs of living and negative job growth. This current economic climate puts some homeowners behind on their mortgage payments and then ultimately at risk of facing foreclosure and losing their homes.

MSNBC reports that help may be on the way. As some may remember, control of IndyMac bank was taken over by the FDIC a few months back. Well now the FDIC is “experimenting” with a program to help homeowners who have fallen behind and risk losing their home.

The new “Loan Modification” program does not forgive debt. In the case of the family profiled in the story, the interest rate was lowered from 6% to 3% for a 5 year period and increased the term of the loan from 30 years to 40 years. This resulted in reducing the mortgage payment from $3000 to $1700.

According to FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair this program has already helped 5,100 families stay in their homes. Other banks including Bank of America are introducing similar programs.

Check out the full story here…

Don’t miss the next deadline of For Sale By Owner Magazine, Tuesday, November 11. The magazine will hit the stands in hundreds of high-traffic locations on November 20.

It’s still a good time to sell your house! Interest rates are low (but perhaps not for long), and Albany Homes are selling! Make sure your home is showcased in its best light in our full color magazine and fabulous new multi-photo website. Advertise NOW and get a full free month of advertising! Call us today at 518-452-6330 for details!

Remember, selling your home is easy and we are here to help every step of the way!

In an effort to conserve energy and contain the cost of doing business in a tough financial climate, we have decided to shorten our business hours to 10-4, Monday – Friday beginning Nov 3. By instating these cost saving measures, we can avoid raising our rates and keep our services affordable to you our valued customer.

While other companies are opting for a 4 day work week, a 5 day week allows us to best serve our customers. We can be contacted all week should you need to make changes to your ad, update your Open House information, or if you have any questions or concerns that need to be addressed.

If you are calling after hours please leave a message and we will return your call as soon as possible. Customer service is always our top priority. If these winter hours do not work with your schedule, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you.

As you may have noticed, we recently completed an entire site re-design. Just to give you a little background, this is the fourth generation of our site which was first launched back in 1998. While the previous version of the website served it’s purpose for nearly 3 years, the design was somewhat limiting. We were looking for a design that would give us the flexibility to expand our offerings to both our home-selling and commercial clients as well as a more enjoyable browsing experience for home buyers.

This new design has many new features that are, in our minds, functionally superior to it’s predecessor. Just to name a few…

• The featured listing on the home page
• The ability to do property search from almost every page on the site
• Learning Center for buyers and sellers
• Paginated listing results with expanded preliminary property information
• Ability to sort listing results by town, BR’s, Baths, or price
• Much larger property photos – more than twice the size of the previous site
• Links to local experts on each home detail page
• Expanded open house directory
• Secure email contact to the sellers.
• Recommend a listing with ‘Email to a Friend’
• And, of course, our Blog where we’ll keep you informed on the latest news, company updates and client success stories.

As this should in no way be considered a finished product, we will strive to add new features and updates to this new platform.

As with any major update, there are many small glitches that we are working through as we find them. We appreciate all of the feedback we have received to date and welcome any comments or suggestions that may help us improve our site. Feel free to comment to this post below or use our contact form to email us privately.

A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast of a prominent real estate consultant. I’ll call him Jim. Jim is a very successful real estate broker who typically lists 300-400 properties per year. He also earns a very good living by charging Realtors to help them boost their business.

I enjoy listening to these consultants (and Jim in particular) from time to time because it often will give me some insight on the real estate industry from a broad perspective. A lot of the information deals with the “business” side of real estate and does not really pertain to the “for sale by owner” market.

But one idea really got my attention. It was pointed out that most successful real estate agents have a price reduction policy that is incorporated into their listing agreement with the client. The reason? Realtors only get paid when houses sell. The last thing an agent wants is to have inventory sitting on the market. Every day that passes with inventory that isn’t selling is another day without earning a commission. An example of a price reduction policy is: “The listing price will be reduced by 1% every 30 days until the house is under contract” or “The listing price will be reduced by $2,500 after every 12 showings without a contract”.

Let’s analyze this a bit. As we know, setting an asking price is not an exact science. Market conditions must be taken into consideration. In a slower market, setting your asking price based on comparable properties that have sold in the past may not be indicative of current market conditions. Therefore, adjusting your price to the current market may be what’s needed to get the home sold. Smart agents know that the lower the price, the quicker it will sell. I can’t tell you how many times Jim stated “Agents don’t sell houses – price sells houses”.

Having a clearly laid-out plan that addresses how price reductions are going to be handled can take the guesswork out of finding the right price for the current market conditions. When you put your home on the market with For Sale By Owner consider implementing a “price reduction policy” and then stick to it.