Seller Information
August 16, 2016
It’s a commonly held adage that the best time of the year to sell your home is in the spring, as parents with kids will be shopping then to move over the summer and not disrupt their children’s school year. It seems logical, and it’s a large part of why you see so many homes hit the market in March and April every year. But here’s the problem: everyone else thinks it’s a good idea. That means your home potentially has a lot more competition to grab the attention of your future buyer than you would at any other time of the year. So what is a homeowner to do? With more than 18 years in the industry, here are […]
June 28, 2016
If you do a quick Google search, you can (literally) find a million different sites with tips on how to stage your home to sell it quickly. Upon doing a little digging however, you find that each one offers contradictory advice. You’re supposed to either make your home look lived-in (like they could raise their family there) or a clean slate (so they can imagine themselves there). So what’s a home owner to do? There’s a simple answer: Curb Appeal We all know the quote, “You will never get a second chance to make a first impression.” When we’re talking about homes, that means when they pull up to the house. And trust me, I’ve been with many a would-be […]
April 23, 2016
“Shade Palmetto Bay” Free Tree Giveaway 2016 Help make our community beautiful! It is time for the 6th annual, “Shade Palmetto Bay” Free Tree Giveaway on April 23rd. Trees are given away to residents of the Village at Ludovici Park on a first-come. first-served basis. Residents are asked to provide proof of residency (Identification card). with a limit of one tree per resident. Saturday, April 23 8:00-11:00 AM Ludovici Park- 17641 Old Cutler Road (Special thanks to palmettobay-fl.gov for information and picture) If you are interested in moving to, or within, our great city, contact me here.
March 4, 2016
2013 2014 2015 On to 2016! For the third year in a row The Kern Team is #1 for home sales in Palmetto Bay, both in terms of the number of homes sold and dollar volume. I am honored by this recognition, and am thankful to my clients who have trusted my team to handle their home buying and selling needs. And as a resident of Palmetto Bay, you can see I truly take pride in my community. Whether you are buying or selling a home, if you are looking for the Palmetto Bay real estate expert I hope you will contact me. Total Sales in Units Total Sales by $Volume ($,000)
February 12, 2016
Getting top dollar in the least amount of time is my number one priority when I list a property for sale. In order to achieve this, however, I can’t stress enough how important it is for the homeowner to get the property in the best possible condition prior to it hitting the market. A month or so ago, I wrote about some big-ticket items that are often overlooked but that deserve a homeowner’s consideration before listing. (In case you missed it, you can still catch my blog “To Fix or Not to Fix Before Listing?” ) The reality is that homes with great curb appeal, that are clean and well-maintained, sell more quickly and for a higher amount. Here’s a […]
November 27, 2015
Now that we’ve had our fill of Thanksgiving turkey, it’s time to turn our attention back to real estate. One of the questions I hear most often from homeowners as they prepare to put their home on the market is, “What can I do to increase my chances of a sale?” This is a great question, and the answer I give surprises a lot of people. My response, in a nutshell, is that aesthetic repairs are not necessarily as important as those addressing the more stringent lender requirements and inspection hurdles. Most of us have seen enough shows on HGTV to know that there are many easy, relatively affordable ways to increase a home’s curb appeal before listing: sprucing up […]
September 18, 2015
For Sale By Owner. We’ve all passed a home with a handmade sign on the front lawn or stumbled onto a self-listed charmer on the website forsalebyowner.com. Maybe you have even wondered whether you really need to enlist the services of a realtor as you prepare to put your home on the market. I can understand the appeal, of course: avoid paying commission and conduct the sales process on your own terms. As tempting as the unaided approach may seem, it comes with significant risks—for both buyers and sellers. Buyers of a FSBO listing assume all the risks that come from working with an uneducated seller: Will they disclose everything they should about the home and its condition? Is […]
May 4, 2015
If you’ve traveled anywhere in Europe or Latin America in the past few months, you’ve enjoyed the dollar’s strength against many foreign currencies—a departure from years past, when our bucks didn’t stretch far in cities like London, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro. The dollar still lags behind in regions like Great Britain, Japan and China, but virtually everywhere else in the world, U.S. currency is very strong. So what does that mean for foreign buyers, who account for a substantial part of the Miami real estate market? If you look at market data comparing financial real estate data from 2015 and 2007, you get a sense of how changes in official foreign currency rates have affected prices for those buyers […]
April 10, 2015
If you’ve spent any time in the home market—buying or selling or “just looking”—you’ve probably been to Zillow’s website. Its trademarked Zestimate tool seems like a handy way to research homes in a given area; you can compare similar properties on the same street or from neighborhood to neighborhood. But what many people don’t realize is just how inaccurate its automated estimates can be. As a real estate professional, I have experienced the disappointment and frustration Zestimates can cause when outcomes don’t match the estimated amounts. One recent article reported that Zillow’s official nationwide “median error rate” is 8 percent, but studies of specific markets show error rates that are often much, much higher—for example, 19.9 percent in Manhattan; 11.6 […]