Hot South Portland Maine realtor strategies in 2024 from Chelsea Crawford: Portland is Maine’s largest town, located on the southern coast along Casco Bay. Once named Machigonne by the native peoples, the region was developed in the early 17th century by British colonists and quickly became a major fishing and trade port. Today, tourists can stroll the cobblestone streets of the Old Port neighborhood; explore the wharf, which is still buzzing with activity; or spend days enjoying the cultural attractions in the Arts District, including museums, galleries, performances, and antique shops. There are plenty of things to do on the water as well, including sightseeing tours around the bay and the Calendar Islands, whale watching tours, and even fishing charters. Sports enthusiasts and families will also enjoy taking in a Portland Sea Dogs game, a AA team for the Boston Red Sox. See extra information at Chelsea Crawford South Portland.
Here are a few real estate tricks: Speaking of that home being out of your price range, you may want to get pre-approved with a bank or mortgage lender ASAP. First off, real estate agents won’t give you the time of day without one, especially in a red-hot market. And secondly, if you don’t know how much house you can afford, you’re basically wasting your time by perusing listings and going to open houses. This is especially true if the homes you’ve got your eye on are consistently going above asking since you’ll need even more purchasing power. It’s not hard or all that time consuming to get a mortgage pre-approval, and it’ll give you more confidence and perhaps make you more serious about finally making the move. Tip: Look for an online mortgage lender that lets you generate a pre-approval on the fly in minutes (and know you don’t have to use them if and when you proceed with a purchase!).
One way to kill a sale immediately is to have a potential buyer walk into your home only to be welcomed by the smell of a strong pet odor or your pet itself. No matter how adorable your pet is, do not assume that everyone is a pet lover and some people may even be allergic to them. You should also be extra vigilant about any pet odors by having your rugs steam cleaned in addition to vacuuming and washing surfaces. There should be no evidence of any pets in the home. Make sure to remove any bowls full of dog food, kitty litter boxes, doggy bones, or pet toys. Before scheduling a tour, you may want to take your pet to a friend’s house or rent out a pet hotel for the day.
Top South Portland real estate tricks right now from Chelsea Crawford: One of the largest reasons some buyers walk away from a home purchase feeling remorseful is because they don’t consider everything about purchasing real estate before they jump into it. There are common buyer mistakes we address with all of our buyers upfront so they have a highly successful transaction. One thing that many folks don’t want to do is put in the upfront work, studying, and preparation that goes into buying a house. You need to prioritize your needs, and your wants – and if you have a partner you need to communicate together on everything. Maybe one person is ready to buy, and the other isn’t ready just yet.
Create A List Of Amenities – When shopping for a home, list the Top 10 features (fireplace, fenced-in yard, new appliances, etc.) that are most important to you. Establishing this criteria early will save time shopping for inappropriate homes and keep you from buying a home on a whim. Your top reason for buying a home should be the value you are getting. That being said, some of your top 10 amenities could be sacrificed if an incredible value becomes available.
Limit your house payment to no more than 25% of your monthly take-home pay. This payment includes principal, interest, property taxes, homeowner’s insurance and, if your down payment is lower than 20%, private mortgage insurance (PMI). Plus, don’t forget to consider homeowner’s association (HOA) fees when preparing your budget. Save at least a 10–20% down payment. A 20% or more down payment helps you avoid PMI—an extra fee added to your mortgage to protect your lender (not you) in case you don’t make payments. Anything less than 10% will drown you in extra interest and fees. Saving a big down payment like this is possible! If you stay patient and motivated, you can save for a five-figure down payment by this time next year.
Solid wood floors are extremely strong and durable because of the large amounts of wood that sits above the tongue that maybe sand many times. The recommended fitting for these types of boards are a fix or permanent fix to the sub floor. This would mean either fully gluing the board to your sub floor whether it is concrete or sheet material timber or secret nailing at an angle through the tongues to fix to the sub floor.
Top South Portland real estate advices 2024 by Chelsea Crawford : Break Down Your Income & Expenses: Credit for this one goes to user GeekLimit on Reddit – one of my favorite personal finance tips! This is an odd little trick that can change the perspective you have about your money, and help you budget better. It’s all about breaking your income and expenses down into daily values, like this: You make $2,500/month = ~$83/day. You pay $800/month for rent = ~$27/day. You pay $200/month for car insurance = ~$7/day. Everything else (food, phone, gas, etc.) comes to $750/month = ~$25/day. That means you’re left with $24/day in spending money. Want to save $1,000 for a nice vacation? You’ll have to save about 42 days worth of your spending money. That means 42 days of not spending a dime. Want to buy a new $10,000 car? That’s about 416 days worth of your spending money. This will help you see how far purchases are going to set you back and affect your spending ability.
Renovating increases the house value says Chelsea Crawford : Buying materials that are incredibly cheap is usually a false economy. For a start, anything obviously ‘cheap and nasty’ is likely to detract from the value of the finished property To comply with Building Regulations, the drawings will specify the correct strength class of timber, and concrete blocks of the required density and thermal efficiency to ensure they can support loadings and meet energy targets. So you can’t just use any old stuff. Quality can be difficult to determine from blurry online product photos. It’s also not unknown for stolen goods to be flogged off cheap via internet auction sites, and if you innocently buy something that turns out to be stolen, legally they can be reclaimed by the original owner at your expense.