Having a great real estate professional on your team when buying or selling a house can be a huge help, and can save you loads of stress, hassle, headache, and money. But how do you hire a Realtor? We always recommend interviewing an agent before hiring them, and below are a few sample questions to consider in the interview process.

What’s your experience in the industry?
While tenure in the industry may be an important factor to consider, think about continuing education. Ongoing trainings, mentorships, and professional involvement are critical to an agent’s continued success and longevity. To be licensed, a real estate agent needs just over a hundred hours of coursework, but there is no minimum education, vocational training, or on the job experience requirement. Understanding how an agent is staying active, involved, and educated in the field will help you understand how your values may align.

What’s your experience in the neighborhood?
Neighborhoods have stories to tell and it’s important they are told right. People buy into communities just as much as they do the individual home. We recommend asking about real-life experience in your area and their ability to service it. Agents who know the neighborhood and its nearby amenities, schools, and attractions will much more effectively sell a home, and much more earnestly help you buy your own.

What’s included in your services?
From pre-listing activities, price guidance, a Multiple Listing Service posting, contract negotiations and management, and general advice (to name a few), there’s no standard model for “what’s included” and many agents, teams, and brokerages vary. Understanding what’s included ahead of time can potentially eliminate surprises down the road.

Where and how will my home be marketed?
In the past 20 years, real estate has gone from paper printouts to 3D tours. Every agent will have a different strategy for marketing their clients’ homes, so you’ll want to know exactly how your agent plans to find buyers for your home. Local, domestic, international. Print, digital, and social media. Open houses and virtual walkthroughs. Know their plan, and ask why they believe it’s right for your home.

In your own words, why should we hire you?
This is a good open ended question that allows the agents you’re interviewing to answer how they feel best. Take note of how they answer and what they say. Does it align with your goals and timing? In most cases, you’ll be working regularly with your agent on what is most people’s biggest purchase of their life, so you want to make sure you can work well together.

Our Take
It’s up to you to find the right real estate agent, and the more prepared you are when you decide to interview them, the better. Take the time to figure out what you want from your agent, and find the right fit to help guide you through the process from start to finish.

Maximizing your outdoor space

People love to come to SunCrest for the clean air, the gorgeous views of the mountains, and to recreate, energize and rejuvenate in nature. When it comes to our homes, adding a functional outdoor exterior patio, deck or entertaining space can become an extension of your home and weave the outdoors and indoors together – a perfect compliment to the SunCrest Lifestyle.

Utah receives about 300 days of sunshine a year. Expanding our living spaces into our yards allows us to create specific areas to make memories, gather with family and friends, or find a quiet respite from our busy lives.

Through the use of adding things like visual screenings in our landscapes, cooking stations, gatherings spaces, placement of comfortable furniture and other design elements, we can improve not only the value of our homes but our quality of life in our SunCrest homes.

Our Take
There’s nothing like a SunCrest sunrise or sunset. Maximizing your outdoor space to compliment one of the many views that SunCrest offers is not only a fun and relaxing way to spend your time living here, but outdoor spaces are common “must haves” on buyers wish lists. Considering an update? We’d love to share our opinion on what’s trending.

How has COVID-19 affected real estate?
We’ve been receiving a lot of questions about how real estate is handling the COVID-19 situation. We’re going to break it down into two parts: How is the real estate market performing, and second, what are we advising when it comes to buying and selling homes?

Are buyers and sellers still moving forward?
The short answer: yes. The long answer. Let’s look

at the data. Almost immediately following local announcements of stay at home orders, we saw a sharp decrease in showings according to ShowingTime Showing Service – Utah’s leading provider for home showing analytics. Through the end of March, showings continued to trend downward as many home sellers and buyers adjusted to our temporary new normal. Showing activity has since increased since the beginning of April.

But are people buying and selling? Even if homes aren’t being shown as much, they’re still selling. March 2020 does not show any significant changes in number of homes listed or sold when compared to the previous three years. However, looking forward to April, we do anticipate a decline in pending home sales, as the number of current homes under contract is down versus previous years.

How are homes being bought and sold during a pandemic?
One thing is constant—change! Much of the transactional process of buying and selling already went through a paperless transition thanks to cloud storage, electronic signatures, and technology-driven startups that complement a Realtor’s workflow. Real Estate was declared an essential service and things like inspections, appraisals, and walkthroughs are being handled with extra caution and should follow recommended guidelines. We’ve seen increases in 3D tour experiences, more attention driven to digital media, and a stronger emphasis on virtual tours in lieu of (or prior to) physical tours. In-person walk throughs often have gloves, shoe booties, sanitizers, and only those purchasing are encouraged to tour the home.

Our Take
In short, people still want to buy and sell homes right now, and with extra care we’re seeing the market adapt. If you have any questions throughout all of this, don’t hesitate to call, message, or email. We’re here to help.

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Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.

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Our Take:

What a year! While it was a very active year for SunCrest real estate and we find it informative and helpful to look back, we also recognize that each home sale and purchase are a unique case. It’s always best to take a hands-on approach and assess each home for its own merits. Averages can also be misleading, as there are always wide exceptions to it—that’s how averages work, after all. Things like timing, condition, location, and quality all have an impact on buying and selling and you can get frustrated pretty easily if your home sale or purchase don’t seem to be fitting the “average” experience. Having a hyperlocal expert in your corner who knows how to spot out of average opportunities can help turn any transaction to your benefit.

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Our Take:

The Realtor.com study and our own data prove it: winter is definitely not a bad time to buy and sell a home. In most cases, you just need a season-specific game plan. Depending on your circumstances,  winter might actually be the best time to buy or sell in SunCrest. Working with an experienced agent or team who can help guide you through the home buying or selling process can help you make the smartest selling or buying decisions in any season.

Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.

Follow along: Newsletter | Facebook | Instagram

Where Exactly Is Your Home “Listed” For Sale?

When you hire a real estate agent, your home is typically listed on the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Here in Utah, we use the Wasatch Front Regional MLS, or WFRMLS. The MLS is one giant database of all the homes for sale in an area, listed by licensed agents who pay to have access to the MLS. This is obviously one advantage over listing your home for sale by owner, as there are thousands of eyes on the MLS each day.

Do You Have to List on the MLS?
Historically, home sellers could opt out of being listed on the MLS. Although very rare, some sellers had their reasons. Celebrities, for example, may not want their home and address posted on the internet. In most cases, however, it presents a huge advantage to a seller to have their home in front of as many other agents as possible. Additionally, the MLS is searchable by the general public, although agents do have access to much more enhanced information and more specific search capabilities. The big third-party real estate websites also scrape the MLS and give sellers extra exposure there.

Recent Trends in the MLS (What in the World is a Pocket Listing?)
Recently, we’ve been seeing agents delay or opt out entirely of adding homes into the MLS. Instead, they have been marketing these homes to their own private network. This often includes sending around the listing to other agents, sending an email blast to a curated list of potential buyers and home investors, placing a sign in the yard with a “coming soon” sign, flyer distribution, and other marketing tactics outside of the Realtor-run MLS. This tactic of marketing only to a small pocket of interested buyers has been dubbed a “Pocket Listing.”

Recent Changes In Pocket Listing Policy
This month, we attended the National Association of Realtors (NAR) Conference in San Francisco. This yearly gathering is the largest annual event for real estate professionals, with hours of education, technology, and policy updates. This year, Pocket Listings were a hot topic. In an effort to create a more transparent and open market for real estate, the National Association of Realtors board recently passed a cooperation policy to limit the practice of Pocket Listings. It compels agents to add their homes to the MLS within one business day of any action announcing that it’s for sale. If a yard sign goes up, or an email goes out, it has to be listed on the MLS within a day (with a few exceptions).

Our Take: What Does This Change Mean To You?

Proponents say that keeping one big database in the MLS allows agents to better serve their clients, and ultimately puts your home in front of the most amount of buyers possible, creating demand that ultimately gives you the highest sales price. Opponents believe there is great value in letting you “test run” the market with a Pocket Listing before going public with it. Here’s the deal: we think you should decide. There’s no one size fits all approach, but we think you should not only be aware of what your agent is doing, but also work with them to make the right call. Consumers should be able to dictate how their home is marketed, and having a conversation with your agent will help you do what’s right for your particular situation.

Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.

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Do homes sell in the winter?

We totally get it. The snow starts to fall, and especially here in SunCrest we go into hibernation mode. When people ask us if homes still sell in winter, we’re not bashful in saying yes! The best time to buy or sell is when you’re ready, not any one day, month, or season. Here are a few advantages to selling in winter.

Less Competition
We looked at historic trends over 1, 3, and 5 years. There are simply less homes available for sale in winter so your home will have less competition. And the data also reveals something interesting about the sales price. On average, homes sold during the winter receive offers that are closer to their listing price. Overall, less homes are sold, but those that do sell have a shorter escrow period which may suggest that winter buyers and sellers are a lot more serious about making that sale happen.

Job Transfers
Many companies work on a calendar year basis, and a new year brings new opportunities. It’s not uncommon to see future transferees schedule trips to visit and scope out neighborhoods. As Silicon Slopes continues to boom and the prison site redevelopment turns into reality, SunCrest stays poised as “must see” for many future Utahns. Job transfers don’t wait for sunny weather.

Inversion
Almost like clockwork, when the inversion rolls in, our phones start ringing with some folks looking for a reprieve from that “Utah inversion.” As emphasis and awareness of clean air escalates, outside of Park City, SunCrest is quickly becoming the go-to spot for fresher air and bluer skies.

Time Off
Buying or selling a house takes time. Searching online, scheduling walkthroughs, or sprucing up your place can take a minute. The end of year holiday break, or the quiet winter months without all the commotion of summer, sometimes offer just that—time. We also find that when residents have friends or family up for the holidays, these people see the magic of SunCrest and start asking around about homes available.

Taxes
Winter home buyers may be motivated to capture the tax benefits of buying a home before year-end. Home buyers can write off some of the expenses of their home purchase on their taxes. Some tax deductible benefits may include mortgage interest, private mortgage insurance premiums, and real estate taxes. As always be sure to seek appropriate legal advice regarding your particular tax situation.

Our Take:

Homes sell all year long, and winter is definitely no exception. Yes, the market looks different so you’ll need a season-specific game plan. And yes, you’ll need to be smart about negotiating unknown items like sprinklers, landscaping, and air conditioning. But if you know what you’re doing, winter might actually be the best time to buy or sell in SunCrest. Working with an experienced agent or team who can help guide you through the home buying or selling process can help you make the smartest selling or buying decisions in any season.

Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.

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Preparing for a home inspection

Whether you’re buying or selling, a home inspection is almost always part of the process. As a buyer, you want to “have look under the hood” before you go through with the purchase. It’s usually written into your offer as a contingency, so if you’re not happy with the result you can reopen negotiations to address any discoveries, or even cancel the sale.

As a seller, you want to address any potential issues before the inspection takes place. Since it’s in the best interest of both buyers and sellers to ace the home inspection, here are 5 tips to help your home shine on inspection day.

Utility Room: Tidy up around the “mechanicals” (aka furnace, water heater, etc.) These are biggies on an inspection and cleaning helps eliminate any perceptions of neglect. Wipe down the units, sweep up, and change the furnace filter.
Drains, Sinks, and Plumbing: By far the most common callouts on an inspection are slow drains, missing caulk, or leaky fixtures. Flush those drains, fire up the caulk gun, and fix anything that drips.
Doors, Windows, and Screens: If they’re broken, missing, or a bit squeaky, the inspector’s eye will catch it. Clear out window tracks or give hinges a little oil. This includes the garage door!
Tighten Up: Doors, door handles, closets, and toilet bolts should all be snugly secured.
Cleanliness Is Key: It shouldn’t matter as much as it does, but well… it does. Cleaning goes a long way. Tidy up, and pay extra attention to inside appliances (fridge, dishwasher, laundry) and under sinks.

Our Take:

If you’re purchasing a home, be sure to ask your inspector questions and study the report – this often turns into a punchlist of “to-do’s” upon moving in. Working with an experienced agent can help you decide which items need to be resolved before move-in, or how to negotiate a better purchase price based on findings. When selling, ask your agent about the benefits of doing a home inspection prior to listing. Whether it’s your first purchase or sale, or your fifteenth, nobody likes surprises when dealing with one of life’s biggest investments.

Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market. The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.

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What Happens When a Home Inspection Doesn’t Go According To Plan?
Someone sells a home. Someone offers to buy it. In between the time the offer is made and the house is officially sold, the person buying the house asks for a period of “due diligence.” That’s just a fancy way of saying that the buyer needs to do some homework. The most common part of this due diligence is a thorough home inspection, where the buyer hires an independent, qualified home inspector to examine the property from roof to foundation looking for any potential issues that would be important to know before a sale can go through. If the home inspection report comes back with problems, typically a buyer and seller work together to find ways to keep the sale alive. Here are the three most common ways the two parties can work together.

REPAIRS TO BE MADE BY SELLER
In this scenario, the buyer and seller look at the home inspection report and the seller agrees to fix things that needs to be addressed. It may create out-of-pocket expenses for the seller, but it immediately address the items in question, usually on a mutually agreed upon timeline, and may not affect the original terms of the deal.

PURCHASE PRICE REDUCTION
In this scenario, the buyer and seller mutually agree to reduce the sale price of the home in lieu of doing repairs or credit. This is pretty straightforward for all parties.

CLOSING COST CREDIT
In this scenario, the seller may agree to kick in and cover some of the buyer’s costs. Think of it this way: it costs a lot for a buyer to get a loan and close on a house, so the seller agrees to cover some of those costs, and those are paid at the time of closing. This can be a good alternative for sellers who don’t want to pay money out of pocket for repairs, and it also helps the buyer lower the expenses involved in buying their home.

Our Take:
There is no “one size fits all” remedy for home inspections with surprises. Some buyers or sellers may not be big into DIY, while others would much rather tackle the projects themselves. Money, time, skills, and negotiation style all play a role. Should anything come up that needs a specific service professional or educated opinion, working with an agent who can provide references or manage this process for you will allow you to focus on the more fun parts of buying a house.

Our SunCrest Market Update is a hyper-local analysis of the most up-to-date information regarding the SunCrest real estate market.  The previous month’s SunCrest housing information and future editions are released monthly.