Common Questions
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What’s the difference between an appraisal and an assessment?
An appraisal evaluates your home for its market value – it’s something you or the buyer will need to pay for on any financed sale and is required by the lender to ensure that the property’s value is in line with its purchase price. By comparison, an assessment is something done by your local or county property tax assessor, to determine the value of your property on the tax rolls. Your assessment may not reflect actual market values as the market often moves faster than tax assessments are updated.
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What happens if I want to cancel my listing?
If for some reason your situation changes, you decide you no longer wish to sell your home, or you’re simply not happy with our service you may cancel your listing with no penalty or fee. Some brokerages will charge you a fee, as high as $1500, to cancel a listing. At Rio Rancho Realty we value satisfied customers and would rather lose the listing on your home than have an unhappy client.
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I’m moving in from out of state – can you help me find a good home?
Absolutely! We’ve help many relocating buyers find a home. We know the local neighborhoods well and can help you narrow your search for the area that best suits your wants and needs.
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I’ve had two very different prices for my home – which one is right?
It’s hard to tell. Some brokers try to cover too large an area and just don’t know every market as well as they should. Some may try to give you an inflated value just to get you to sign the listing. Be careful of choosing a broker to list your home for sale based solely on price. Remember, the market sets value, not your broker. The best advice we can give is to pick a local brokerage with great knowledge of the local market.
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Is a home inspection really necessary?
While it’s not required it’s highly recommended. While many of our investor clients forgo inspections they generally are familiar enough to make their own assessments of condition and often they are specifically looking for homes that need work to rehab for resale or to rent. For everyone else we highly recommend getting a home inspection.
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I need my home to sell quickly, can you help me get it ready?
Absolutely. We can either refer you to a qualified professional stager or point out what needs to be done so you can do it yourself. The two most important things you can do is clean and declutter. You’re moving anyway, start packing stuff up now.
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I’ve never bought a home before. Where do I start?
Congratulations! Investing in a home is a great way to invest in your future. The first thing you should do is find a good lender (we’d be happy to help you) and get approved. First, it’s important to know what you can afford. You don’t want to go looking at homes, and possibly fall in love with one, only to find out it’s out of you price range. Second, it shows sellers that you are serious and you can buy their home. In a competitive market you don’t want to lose your dream home to another buyer because they were approved and you weren’t.
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What home improvements will yield the most benefit?
That’s difficult to say, and varies by neighborhoods and price ranges, but any deferred maintenance items should be given priority. In Rio Rancho, particularly in older homes, the two items that have the best chance of giving a 1 to 1 return on investment and are most important to buyers are refrigerated air conditioning and re-plumbing of polybutylene pipes.
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I want a great house and heard purchasing a foreclosure is a great way to do so. What are the risks?
Buying foreclosures can be risky. Many will not qualify for financing due to condition and banks generally will not make repairs or allow buyers to do so before closing. That means cash only buyers. Another risk is that they are sold “AS IS” which means banks generally will not make any repairs. They also will not do any inspections. You can, at your expense, but you’ll usually have only 5-10 days to complete inspections. We’ve sold over 300 foreclosures, most as listing broker for the banks, so we know how they work. We’d be happy to help you determine if buying a foreclosed home is right for you.
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What if there are problems with the closing?
Honestly it’s highly unlikely you won’t have some type of problem pop up between contract and closing. Trouble free closings happen, but as transactions and contracts become increasingly more complicated they’re rare. That’s why having an experienced broker to stay on top of the closing process is important. It can be the difference between closing on time, having a delayed closing or not closing at all.
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What if I have other questions about the sale or purchase process?
Contact us! We’ve helped hundreds of home owners over the years and we’d be delighted to help you.