Even in a hot sellers’ market like today’s in which homes are selling so quickly, it’s still important to make a good first impression on potential buyers. Taking the time upfront to prep your house appropriately can bring in the greatest return on your investment.

Here are four simple tips to make sure you maximize the sale of your house this fall.

1. Price It Right

One of the first things buyers will notice is the price of your house. That’s why it’s important to price it right. Your goal in pricing your house is to draw attention from competing buyers and let bidding wars push the final sales price up. Pricing your house too high to begin with could put you at a disadvantage by discouraging buyers from making an offer.

Your trusted real…

281 Views, 0 Comments

Are people still buying houses here in 2021?

Hey, it's Andy with the Mandel team at RE/MAX. And if this is your first time to the channel, this is where we go over everything there is to know about South Florida, including the housing market, eating, living, sleeping, playing and enjoying the beautiful South Florida lifestyle. So if that interests you, make sure you subscribe to the channel and tap that bell icon, so you get notified every time we do a new video. We get tons of calls, texts, and emails every single day from people relocating here to South Florida or moving within South Florida, and we absolutely love it. So if you're thinking about making a move to South Florida, or within South Florida, make sure you give us a call, shoot us a…

698 Views, 0 Comments

Is the housing market starting to crash here in South Florida? Hey, I'm Andy with the Mandel team at Remax. If this is your first time for the channel this is where we go over everything there is to know about eating, living, sleeping, playing, and loving the beautiful South Florida lifestyle. So if that interests you, make sure you subscribe to the channel and tap that bell icon. So you get notified every time we do a new video. We get so many calls, texts, and emails every single day from people moving here to South Florida. And we absolutely love it. So if you have any housing related questions and you're planning a move here in South Florida, make sure you give us a call, shoot us a text, or send us an email. However you want to communicate. We…

451 Views, 0 Comments

Did you know that the average homeowner has a net worth almost 40 times more than the average renter? Homeownership is part of the American dream and it's one of the biggest financial assets that most people have and it's one of the biggest drivers of wealth in America.


Owning real estate allows you to build wealth because you have an asset that usually appreciates over time. Right now, obviously, in this market it's appreciating very rapidly. But in addition to the appreciation, every month when you make your mortgage payment, you're paying down the debt on the property, so every single month your net worth gets a little bit higher. So, with the combination of paying down the debt and the appreciation in the values, especially like we're…

497 Views, 0 Comments

If you’ve been in your home for longer than five years, you’re not alone. According to recent data from First American, homeowners are staying put much longer than historical averages (see graph below):

As the graph shows, before 2008, homeowners sold their houses after an average of just five years. Today, that number has more than doubled to over 10 years. The housing industry refers to this as your tenure.

To really explore tenure, it’s important to understand what drives people to make a move. An article from The Balance explores some of the primary reasons individuals choose to sell their houses. It says:

“People who move for home-related reasons might need a larger home or a house that better fits their needs, . . . Financial…

336 Views, 0 Comments

An important metric in today’s residential real estate market is the number of homes available for sale. The shortage of available housing inventory is the major reason for the double-digit price appreciation we’ve seen in each of the last two years. It’s the reason many would-be purchasers are frustrated with the bidding wars over the homes that are available. However, signs of relief are finally appearing.

According to data from realtor.com, active listings have increased over the last four months. They define active listings as:

The active listing count tracks the number of for sale properties on the market, excluding pending listings where a pending status is available. This is a snapshot measure of how many active listings can be…

305 Views, 0 Comments

With home prices appreciating so rapidly, we're seeing a big gap between the appraised value of the property and what buyers today are willing to pay. Here's what you need to know about this appraisal gap.

It's economics 101, with supply low and demand high, that's gonna drive up prices. So what we've been seeing in this market since basically the middle of last year, when all the lockdowns ended, was that buyers are rushing to buy properties, it's greatly increasing the price, but the appraisals just are not keeping up with where buyers today are willing to pay.


So what does that mean? If you're a buyer and you say, I'll give you $300,000 for this house, but then you're getting a mortgage, the mortgage company is going to require an…

396 Views, 0 Comments

One of the major story lines over the last year is how well the residential real estate market performed. One key metric in the spotlight is home price appreciation. According to the latest indices, home prices are skyrocketing this year.

Here are the latest percentages showing the year-over-year increase in home price appreciation:

  • The House Price Index (HPI) from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA): 18.8%
  • The S. National Home Price Index from S&P Case-Shiller: 18.6%
  • The Home Price Insights Report from CoreLogic: 18%

The dramatic increases are seen at every price point and in all regions of the country.

Increases Are Across Every Price Point

According to the latest Home Price Index from CoreLogic, each price range is…

312 Views, 0 Comments

There's a lot of headlines and news articles about the market getting back to quote unquote normal, what we were seeing pre Corona virus and in some parts of the country, that might be the case, but here in south Florida, we're just not really seeing it that strong yet.Here are five reasons why this market right now is anything but normal.

The first reason is interest rates. In a normal market interest rates are much, much higher than they are right now. As you can see from the graph interest rates historically are significantly higher. Your parents and maybe even your grandparents probably had ridiculous amounts of interest that they were paying on their loans compared to today's rate. Today's rate at just less than three percent is anything but…

388 Views, 0 Comments

If you’re on the fence about whether or not you want to sell your house this year, there’s good news. Real estate professionals are highly experienced in how to sell houses safely during the pandemic. Over the last year, agents have adopted new technologies and safety measures designed to keep you safe. And experts say these practices are here to stay. As Bob Goldberg, CEO of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), puts it:

“The pandemic has confirmed to all of us in the industry that technology will continue to transform real estate.”

Below is a closer look at some of the new tools real estate professionals are using to better serve sellers.

New and Existing Technology Are Impacting the Process

In the 2021 Realtor Technology…

234 Views, 0 Comments