Staging is not the Same as Decorating

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You know that making a good first impression with potential buyers is important when selling your home. But that’s not an invitation to unleash your decorating skills on the living room.

Decorating a home is personal, and staging is the opposite. Staging removes clutter, decorations, and anything else that distracts buyers from seeing themselves in the house.

You may think staging is easy to do, but it’s far from easy to be objective about your home. Good staging decisions come from a detached expert who understands what buyers see when they tour homes in your area.

***This article and more can be found at: www.TexasRealEstate.com ***

Why You Should Hire a Property Manager for Your Rental

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People do manage their own rental properties, but it’s not always the best option. In addition to taking care of maintenance, you need to know the rules and laws that govern leases in Texas. Here are just a few of the issues that could crop up with your property:

  • When are you required to change locks?
  • What can you deduct from a security deposit?
  • Where are smoke detectors required?
  • What happens when there’s a plumbing leak or the AC doesn’t come on?
  • What will you do if there’s a burglary?
  • What are your options if the tenant stops paying rent?
  • What can you do if the tenant leaves before the end of the lease?
  • What’s the optimum amount for rent?

Fortunately, you can hire a Texas REALTOR® to handle all of the above—and more. Your REALTOR® can also collect rent, market your property, and a take care of other tasks that come with being a landlord.

This article appeared on www.texasrealestate.com on October 23rd, 2018 and is shared with permission from the owner.

When Is It Time To Sell Your Property?

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There are a number of reasons as to why someone might be tempted to sell off their rental property in Killeen or Central Texas. Ultimately, it tends to come down to the desire to simplify one’s life. You may have income streams that serve to make the need to own and maintain a rental property irrelevant. You may simply be tired of dealing with the stress that is sometimes inherent in owning a rental property in Killeen or Harker Heights, even with a good management company based in Central Texas in your corner.

Regardless of your reasons, when it comes to selling your property, there are certain times that are more ideal than others.

The Best Times To Sell Your Rental Property

When it comes to owning and maintaining a rental property in Central Texas, the temptation is to hold on to the property for the rest of your life. After all, land is not limitless, but the need to have a place to live is limitless.

However, at the end of the day, you’re going to get to a point in which the benefits of selling take precedence over everything else. When you begin to think along those terms, you’ll want to consider the following scenarios for selling:

  • When the depreciation benefit comes to an end: Depreciation refers to the non-cash expense that all rental property owners can take. Accelerating your depreciation is one option, but straight-line depreciation remains the most popular approach. The formula breaks down to determining the building value, which involves subtracting the purchase price from the land value. From there, you’re going to divide that figure by 27.5, which will then give you the annual allowable depreciation deduction.
  • When it becomes possible to access your 401(K) or IRA: This can happen at age 59.5. Hopefully, by the time you reach this age, you will have a decent amount of capital stored up in either of these options. If you do, and you get to the point in which there are no fees for early withdrawal, it might be time to sell off the rental property.
  • When you start picking up Social Security and Medicare: Although you can begin to collect these things as young as 62, most people tend to wait a little longer than that. Chances are, by the time you’re about 65, you’ll be ready to simplify your life to a significant degree. If you find yourself in a position of being able to collect from a reliable, strong revenue stream, then it might be time to sell off your property.

Contact Gloria Ashmore located in Killeen and servicing Copperas Cove, Harker Heights and Fort Hood by clicking here.

Why You Should Get A Market Analysis For Your Home

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When it comes time to sell your home in Killeen, Copperas Cove or Harker Heights, there are a variety of elements that you are going to need to keep in mind. While it is true that selling your home can be one of the most significant, satisfying challenges of your life, it is also true that it is something that will be fraught with a certain amount of peril.

Obviously, you can avoid the potential pitfalls by establishing the best foundation possible. One aspect to that foundation will involve knowing exactly how to price your home for the Killeen housing market. Price too low, and you’ll lose a certain amount of money. Price too high, and you’re going to find yourself priced right out of the market. The challenge, then, is to find the happy medium, which you can achieve through a market analysis of your home.

The Benefits Of Market Analysis

A market analysis is designed to give you the most accurate price possible for your home in Killeen. This is a report that is generally put together by a professional in the real estate industry. This report is going to look at homes that are similar to yours (in terms of things like size, location and features), and determine how these homes performed on the market. The analysis will cover a specific period of time, and it will strive to be as current as humanly possible. The report will look at houses that are on the market in Killeen, houses that were recently sold on the market, and houses that failed to sell on the market in Killeen and other parts of Central Texas.

If the market is in a state of transition, then your report doesn’t need to stretch back further than three months. If the market is enjoying a period of stability, the report doesn’t need to go back more than six months.

In terms of why you should consider a market analysis, there are several reasons to consider:

  • It can give you a clear impression of how homes like yours are currently performing: Some people, particularly first-time sellers in Killeen, truly and disastrously underestimate the importance of pricing their home properly in the Killeen market. With a market analysis, you will have a clear impression of how pricing impacts performance.
  • It can show you how long it might take to sell: With this information, you can determine whether or not you can expect to be in it for the long haul.
  • It shows you the relationship between list price and sales price: Again, you’re talking about highly valuable information for your position as a seller.

Contact Gloria Ashmore located in Killeen and servicing Copperas Cove, Harker Heights and Fort Hood by clicking here.

Is It Time To Stop Renting And Buy A Property?

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The benefits of renting in Killeen and Harker Heights are worth keeping in mind. You’re getting something with a minimal commitment demand, and something that requires the absolute minimum in terms of personal responsibilities. Renting is most certainly not without its charm.

However, there is going to come a time in which it is going to be in your best interests to begin to consider buying over renting. As you can imagine, this is not a commitment that should be taken lightly. You’re essentially climbing to a new plateau of personal responsibility. You are going to have to weigh a number of pros and cons, and are going to want to make sure your finances are up to snuff. This needs to be an investment that you are reasonably confident you can handle over both the short term and long term.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. There are a number of reasons as to why it might be time to give up the rental game, and look for something that you can truly call home.

When To Buy Instead Of Rent in Harker Heights and Killeen

If you can’t decide between renting and buying in Central Texas, strictly in terms of potential benefits, then consider the following:

  • You’re eager to take advantage of energy efficiency: We need as many people as possible working towards as many different energy efficiency solutions as possible. To that end, we need more people to own properties, rather than merely renting them. As a homeowner, you will have a considerably greater degree of freedom, in terms of what you can actually do.
  • You’re sick of the limitations: This takes the above item into consideration. If you’re a renter in Killeen, the amount of freedom you have, in terms of what you are allowed to do with the space, can vary from one property to the next. Without question, as a renter, you have less freedom than that of a homeowner.
  • You’re sick of buying furniture: Unless you really, really love buying furniture, it stands to reason that you’re tired of dealing with the fact that on average, renters have to buy more furniture than homeowners in Killeen.
  • You want to get serious about saving money: There is no question that being a homeowner is going to force you to get pretty serious about managing your finances responsibly.
  • You’re ready to be done with landlords: Barring an obnoxious neighborhood HOA, owning a home means never having to deal with landlords for quite possibly the rest of your life.

Are you ready to own?

Contact Gloria Ashmore located in Killeen and servicing Copperas Cove, Harker Heights and Fort Hood by clicking here.

Time To Get Your Home Built From The Ground Up

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You can choose between buying and building your home in Killeen, Copperas Cove or Harker Heights, there is no question that you are in an enviable position. You are in complete control of the kind of dream house you are going to have. You can choose to shop around for something that suits your needs and wants. You can also choose to simply have your home built from the ground up in Killeen, Copperas Cove or Harker Heights.

At the same time, you are going to want to weigh the pros and cons of each possibility carefully. Either task amounts to an enormous undertaking. If you had to choose between the two, solely in terms of challenges, it is worth keeping in mind that building your home is significantly more challenging. However, the benefits are clear. You are in absolute control of every single aspect of the process. At the same time, there is also an extraordinary, intangible satisfaction to be found in having a home that is entirely your design.

If you are going to go this route, then it’s worth keeping in mind the steps that are going to be involved.

If You Decide To Have Your Home Built

Has the time come to have your home built from the ground up? Consider the following steps that you will need to meet and pass, and then make the decision:

  • Set goals: Setting goals is essentially going to involve creating a list of wants and needs. You are then going to be tasked with the challenge of finding the best compromise possible between these wants and needs.
  • Put together a budget: As you can imagine, building your own home in Killeen and central Texas is a heavyweight financial undertaking. This budget is going to account for absolutely everything that is going to go in to the creation of your home. Your budget also needs to take a contingency plan into consideration.
  • Where to build the house: In this regard, you pretty much have two options. You can build your new home over empty land, or you can work with an extremely dilapidated, older home. The benefit of the second option is that some of the initial aspects of the project might be already completed.
  • Put together your team: Building your dream home in Killeen, Copperas Cove and Harker Heights is going to involve bringing a variety of professionals to the table.
  • Begin the planning stage: With your professionals secured, you can begin the task of planning everything.
  • Deal with obstacles: Things will get in the way. It’s best to just keep this in mind.

Contact Gloria Ashmore located in Killeen and servicing Copperas Cove, Harker Heights & Fort Hood by clicking here.