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Moving & Selling
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• Get a binding estimate in advance specifying the cost of your move.
• Check to make sure the mover you pick is a member of the American Moving and Storage Association's ProMover program.
• In your contract, require the mover to pay a penalty if he doesn't deliver your belongings on or before a specific date.
• Buy replacement value insurance on your possessions, in case something breaks during the move.
• Before you choose a moving company, get a clear understanding from that mover what happens if something is broken that you've packed yourself.
• When the mover drops off your furniture at your new residence, do not sign the release form until you've examined your furniture piece by piece.
• The best way to protect crystal, china, and any other extremely valuable and delicate possessions is to move them yourself in your own car.
• If you want to risk your back and move yourself, be careful about what packing materials you buy for the move. You'll generally do better renting the truck from the rental company and buying your boxes and other materials somewhere else.
• To save money on truck rentals, move during mid-month or during the week.
• Consider a range of options to sell your home, including selling it yourself, using a discount-commission broker or a full-commission broker.
• Interview a number of real estate agents before you hire one. It's good to deal with someone who sells a lot of houses in your neighborhood.
• When you interview an agent, ask for a detailed, written sales plan of how the agent would market your home. Limit the listing time with that agent to three months or negotiate a fee you can pay to get out of the listing after three months.
• Listen to every offer for your house and always make a counteroffer.
• Prepare your house for sale. It should be clean, bright, uncluttered, and uncrowded.
Bubble markets seeing rising home values
Home values are up in a number of bubble markets and we’re back to a situation where all real estate is local. According to the latest Case-Shiller home price indices, Phoenix home values are up 23% from a year ago. Yet even with that great gain, the market is still ...
Home buying and selling mistakes
We're coming up one of the housing market’s peak buying and selling times. With that in mind, what are the biggest mistakes made by both sellers and buyers? For sellers, I find the number one mistake they make is in selecting an agent. If you're interviewing agents, don’t list with ...
Increase in home equity bodes well for worker mobility
Equity in homes is going up for the first time since the real estate bust began. That's a clear sign of recovery in so many places. One third of Americans who have a home now own it free and clear, according to the latest data from Zillow. The cities where ...
How to hire a reputable mover
wide berth!) -->People are moving again in larger numbers and it's a good time to take a look at how to hire a reputable mover. If you're hiring professional movers, the first step is to check the moving company's history. State governments maintain a database of moving company complaints. Make ...
Sandwich generation impacts home sales, building trends
Get ready to take a bite out of the great American sandwich! As if raising children weren't hard enough, many of us are now taking on financial responsibility for parents too. The sandwich generation -- a term that describes those homeowners who are getting hit with money obligations arising from ...
Zillow has new rent vs. buy interactive map
There's a new way to figure out whether it's better for you to rent or buy a place to live. The brainiacs at Zillow.com have a math formula and interactive map of the United States that is like an infographic that shows what they're calling the breakeven horizon. As Zillow ...
Green homes fetch more money at resale
Homeowners who have "green homes" can command 9% more in offers when it's time to resell, according to a new study out of UCLA. The Los Angeles Times reports the study looked at sales of more than 1 million homes in California between 2007 and 2012 to determine the finding. ...
New app provides instant home values & data
Pounding the pavement looking for homes just got easier. With the click of your phone camera, you can get current value, last sale price and other data for most properties across the country.
Free smartphone app gives buyers instant info on homes
When you're shopping for a home, trying to zero in on the best property is more art than science. But there's a new tool out there that's trying to shift the balance toward science. HomeSnap is a free app that lets you drive down a street, pull out your smartphone, ...
The downside of "rent controlled" apartments
Rent control sounds great if you live in a big city. But it does have hidden downsides that nobody likes to talk about. If you're renting an apartment, listen up!
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