Agents Heaven - Real Estate Blog

VIDEO: Top 5 Tips For Home Sellers

As you know, I like to bring readers all the best real estate tips I can find, whether it’s home buying tips, home selling tips, or even ways to avoid foreclosure. Usually I present a few of my favorite tips from real estate articles I’ve dug up, and link you to the articles to read the rest, but today I’d like to try something a little different.

We are, after all, in the YouTube/internet media generation, and more and more real estate agents are making internet videos to sell homes. It only stands to reason that real estate experts would share their tips via internet video as well.

Today I stumbled across a guy at YouTube who calls himself the “Real Estate Dude”, who offers his top 5 tips for home sellers, that focus a lot on the little things you can do to think like the buyer and make your house more appealing to them.

Tags: house for sale, real estate tips, real estate selling, home seller, real estate, how to sell real estate, real estate agents, home for sale, house selling, homes for sale, how to sell homes, real estate dude, home selling, selling your home

Yahoo! Real Estate’s “How much house can I afford?” Calculator

The other day I told you about a basic, but very cool, mortgage calculator widget, that makes for a great addition to any real estate site. Today I’d like to bring to your attention another type of calculator, that may not come in the form of a widget for us webmasters to use, but it couldn’t be more important for home buyers, specifically first time home buyers.

Check out Yahoo! Real Estate’s “How much house can I afford?” Calculator. In addition to stupidly going with adjustable rate mortgages, the current surge in foreclosures is due to people not understanding how much house they can afford.

Folks today seem incapable of adding up their monthly bills (with high-ball estimates) and then comparing it with the low-ball estimate of what they make each month, and then determining from there, what they can afford. I don’t know why people don’t understand this, but the “how much house can I afford” calculator eliminates the excuses from those who are incapable of figuring out their budget.

Update: Bank of Green is sharing this calculator, along with a list of other mortgage calculators, with their readers.

Tags: mortgage calculator, mortgages, how much house can I afford, budget calculator, real estate calculator, first time home buyer, home buyer, real estate budget

VIDEO: Internet People

A little off topic Friday night fun… Are you an “internet person”? Watch the following video, and if you are familiar with most of these references you spend WAY too much time at your computer, and at YouTube (but don’t worry, you’re not alone… I’m embarrassed to tell you what percentage of these I recognize/remember)

h/t HotAir

Rumors Daily has an “internet people” reference cheat sheet, for those who may not recognize everything in this vid. Pajama Market has a cheat sheet as well.

Even some ladies are “internet people“.

More internet people: Inquirer Bloggers, Somewhat Frank, WebGlobe, DwingDwang, Peter Black

Tags: animation, meth minute 39, viral vids, internet people, funny, dan meth, viral vids, youtube, meth minute, internet videos, danmeth, viral video, funny video, internet, cartoon

Mortgage Calculator Widget For Real Estate Web Sites

*UPDATE* - Big thanks to Widgets-Blog.com for linking to this mortgage calculator widget post. If you’re in to widgets, subscribe to Widgets-Blog, as it is quickly becoming a guru for identifying the latest widgets and bringing the latest widget news to its readers. In fact, Widgets-Blog is the site that turned me on to WidgetBox in the first place.

This is awesome! I was checking out WidgetBox.com to see what they had for real estate widgets to might jazz up the ol’ blog, and I happened upon this sweet mortgage calculator widget:

For anyone running a real estate blog, forum, or just a local real estate site this mortgage calculator widget is a must have. The widget is clean and professional looking, and even offers the option for annual taxes due. We’ve all seen the widely available free bland and ugly mortgage calculators, but this mortgage calculator widget blows them all out of the water. Pick yours up and custom is to fit your real estate site today, it’s free!

*UPDATE* - Portland-Real-Estate-Agent Blog has discovered another mortgage calculator widget, so you’ve got your pick. If you choose to use one on your site, I’d be happy to hear your comments on the pros and cons of each, and what mad you decide to go with the one you did.

Tags: real estate, mortgage payment, mortgage payment calculator, mortgage widget, mortgage calculator, property taxes, real estate widget, mortgage calculator widget, calculator widget

How To Make Successful Low-Ball Offers In Buyers’ Markets

Whether or not you like the future of the real estate market, there is no debate over who currently holds the cards: the buyers.  With home prices projected to fall and more existing homes sitting on the market, buyers are justifiably beginning to wield their power.

The “lowball” offer isn’t exclusive to the buyers’ market, but it’s especially important in a buyers’ market and can lead to you saving a bundle.  MarketWatch’s Amy Hoak has written an article, detailing the “dos and dont’s” of low-balling and the potential outcomes of making these types of offers.

Amy discusses a case study, and then details the three major points of low-ball offering.  The main points follow, but you should read the entire article as she details each of these 3.

1. Learn how motivated the seller is to make a deal
2. Make your case with hard facts
3. Prepare for the possibility of rejection, or negotiation

Elizabeth Weintraub at About.com offers similar advice.

Tags: low-ball offer, cheap real estate, buyer’s market, make an offer, buyers market, home buyers, real estate offer, real estate, buyers’ market, first time home buyer, lowball offer, home buyer, discount real estate, real estate market