Category: Buyers

Does Anyone Buy or Sell in the Fall?

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If you think “Back-to-School” and the upcoming foliage season signals an end to the Vermont real estate market, then let’s dig into the “fall market” mentality. To understand where we are in the calendar let’s recap where we’ve been. Vermont has it’s own “timing” for real estate sales. You’ve heard that spring is the best time to sell. We call that the “spring market.” For us, that starts when the snow stops, usually by mid-April. If you plan to put your house on the market before mid-April you may end up with “snow photos” rather than “spring photos.” Then, we transition to the “summer market” which is a rollercoaster ride of buyers in and out of the market based on their summer obligations – traveling, boating, grilling, and chilling. Now, in September we are settled into a “fall market.”

Why would someone list their house in September or October? Here’s what we have learned after decades of tracking buyer and seller trends:

Curb Appeal – In September and October “curb appeal” has maximum impact. Mulch has been spread, driveways resealed, and annual flowers are blooming. Who doesn’t love walking up to a house with a few pumpkins on the steps?

Cooler Weather – The cooler mornings and evenings help sellers keep their houses comfortable for showings. Outdoor spaces are easier to view when you’re not frying in the mid-day sun or sweltering in the humidity.

Serious Buyers and Sellers Only – Sellers in the spring may try to “test” the market with high list prices with the intention to reduce as the season goes on if their house doesn’t sell. Fall market sellers know that they have a shorter amount of time and want to price their homes to attract the maximum number of buyers. Buyers in the fall market may have been looking since the spring. Once September hits they know this is their last chance to buy until next year.

If you’re thinking of buying or selling don’t wait until next year, we can help you get your home ready to list this fall. Contact us to get started.

Who Pays the Buyer’s Agent Fee?

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Everyone wants to know how Buyer’s Agents get paid. Here’s the truth.

The buyer is the only party to the transaction that brings a check to the closing table. So, simply, the buyer pays the fee. In most cases, the buyer’s agent fee is “baked” into the sale of the house. It’s the whole enchilada.

How Buyer Representation Works: When you hire a Realtor to represent you in the purchase of a home you sign a contract with the Realtor’s agency that outlines the terms, conditions, and most importantly the fee that is due to the Buyer’s Agent. This contract is between you and your Buyer’s Agent. The seller does not pay the Buyer’s Agent fee, it is paid through the transaction as a line item on the seller’s settlement statement.

Here are the two ways to pay your Buyer’s Agent:

In most cases the purchaser may request that the seller cover the Buyer’s Agent fee in the transaction. This means that when you see a “sale price” for a house it does not reflect the “net proceeds” to the seller.

Less commonly, the purchaser may want to pay the Buyer’s Agent fee directly to the buyer’s agency as part of their closing costs. This means that the “sale price” for the house does not have the Buyer’s Agent fee baked into the transaction.

If you are thinking about buying and still have questions – please feel free to reach out, we are always happy to help!

What Stays With the House?

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All buyers want to know “what stays with the house?” In other words, what personal items convey with the sale, or, what the seller is going to “leave” at the property. In most cases your buyer’s agent will point out the items that “stay” and the items that may “go” as the seller’s pack up. Here’s what you need to know:

Read your Purchase and Sale Contract. This is the definitive source for contractual obligations between the buyer and the seller. In the Vermont Association of Realtor’s Purchase and Sale Agreement, for example, “curtain rods” stay but not curtains.

Appliances are personal property. This means that the refrigerator, range, washer/dryer, etc. may or may not convey with the sale. Be sure to have an addendum to the contract to list appliances if they are to “stay” with the house. Be aware that personal property is typically in “as is” condition. If the microwave has a loose handle, for example, it is not the seller’s obligation to fix it.

What about furniture? In the last few years buyers began to express interest in purchasing furniture and art from the sellers. This is becoming more and more common and sellers and buyers are working out this transaction on their own. We refer to it as “outside of closing” meaning that it is a private sale that is not part of the Purchase and Sale Contract. If you’re a seller, have your Realtor check with the buyer’s agent before you post on Facebook Marketplace, you may be able to sell directly to the buyer.

Have more questions about the buying or selling process? Feel free to get in touch, we’d love to help you out!

Do I Need a Coffee Bar?

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Do you need a coffee bar? The short answer is “yes!” One of the coolest things about being a Realtor is that we see how people are setting up their homes. Recently we have been tracking a trend to include a dedicated space in kitchens or adjacent eat-in spaces for coffee bars. Since 74% of people looking to remodel their kitchens have coffee bars on their “wish list” we’re digging deeper into the coffee bar obsession.

Classic movies of the 1950s often featured cocktail stations or bar carts. Check out the bar cart in The Seven Year Itch (1955) with Marilyn Monroe and a homemade martini. Flash forward to today where everyone is looking to recreate their favorite drive-through coffee brew whether it is a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte or a Dunkin Cereal and Milk Latte. The home coffee craze, whether iced or hot, has lead to the coffee station trend.

Coffee not your thing? How about a smoothie bar, hot chocolate bar, or energy drink bar? So many possibilities to explore once you delve into this trend. Whether it’s a dedicated section of your kitchen countertop or a separate built-in area, all of our buyer clients appreciate the option to skip the drive-through and concoct a brew at home.

Whatever you choose for your beverages we highly recommend setting aside an area dedicated to your favorite drinks. If you’re looking for design ideas for your current kitchen or searching for a dedicated coffee bar in your next place, get in touch. We’d love to help make your at-home beverage dreams a reality.

The Right Home May Not Be Your ‘Forever’ Home

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Your “right home” may not be your “forever home.” Sometimes your life circumstances and current lifestyle lead you to a property that doesn’t fit your needs “forever,” but it fits your needs right now. Interestingly, 81% of buyers who think they bought their “forever home” end up moving in 5 years.

Over the last few years some buyers focus on finding the best home that fits their criteria of a “Forever” home. The search is frustrating, long, tiring and sometimes elusive. Buyers focus on future needs rather than their immediate circumstances. Of course, it’s natural to look for a house that you absolutely love, the house of your dreams, the house that you can grow into. In reality, though, the search that “checks all the boxes” rarely ends with the ideal house. Why does the search for a “forever” home turn into endless showings and frustration?

After working with buyers for many years, we ask more questions than other real estate agents. Instead of asking for a list of “must have” features in a home we ask these lifestyle questions:

  • What do you do for recreation?
  • Do you need to be on a school bus-line or close to school?
  • Where do you work? Do you need to live close to your company or do you work from home?
  • Do you want the option of public transportation?
  • How close do you want to be to the airport, the interstate, grocery shopping, restaurants and health care providers?

The “forever home” may have the “wish list” items but it may not fit the lifestyle questions. If you’re frustrated with your home search, or just thinking about starting, reach out – we’d love to help you find the best home to suit your needs, now and for the future.

The Truth: Real Estate and AI

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) creeps into our real estate world daily. Even writing this blog AI is offering assistance, which is ironic and disturbing. From listing descriptions to seller and buyer appointments, we have run into AI and we’re not impressed. Here’s what we’re noticing:

1. Descriptions in listings are starting to sound the same.

It’s easy to figure out which agents are taking “short cuts” with AI. Check out listing descriptions that describe a house as “nestled” when it is smack dab on top of a hill. This week at least 3 descriptions boasted “nestled” houses. AI is unaware that air conditioning window units are portable and need to be taken in/out seasonally. AI crafted this for a listing description, “Window units provide cooling which allows you to choose your climate control.” Ummm, yeah, basically the house does not have central cooling or mini-split units.

2. Market information does not need an AI interpretation if you are a professional Realtor.

We don’t rely on AI’s interpretation of market sales. Sure, it is a good overview but any Realtor should be able to use data to let clients know what is happening in their particular situation. After sampling AI offerings to analyze seller and buyer trends we are unimpressed. All basic information needs to be interpreted on an individual basis for each property. AI may boast a “seller’s market” with few days on the market, but, how accurate is that in the broad view of the real estate landscape for your city, town, or neighborhood. All real estate is local.

3. Each house is unique.

Zillow, Realtor.com, etc. have never been in your house. Do you have significant acreage? Do you have common land for recreation? Is there access to shopping, schools, etc.? Dirt road? Paved road? Class 4 road?

Do not rely on AI to find you a house. It’s best to rely on expert opinions from real estate professionals rather than information harvested by AI algorithms. And, don’t believe it when they say the house is “nestled.”

Summer Buyer’s Market?

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Yes, there is a Summer Buyer’s Market! If you’re thinking about buying or “have” to buy, now is the time to jump into the Vermont real estate market. Sellers who have their homes for sale are eager to sell before the fall. If you’ve been discouraged over the past few years, now is the time to get back out there to find your new home. More houses for sale, fewer buyers competing.

Here are the top 3 reasons to buy in the summer:

Everyone is on vacation. The pool of buyers goes up and down in the summer months depending on vacations. You are competing with fewer buyers.

Back-to-School season is here. Believe it or not, people are preparing for back-to-school which means college trips, school supplies and new clothes and shoes. Even people who aren’t going back to school get excited about office supplies. This phenomenon distracts many potential buyers from the real estate market.

One last trip! If people aren’t taking a scheduled vacation, then they are planning that “one last trip” before the summer is over. Concerts, horse shows, or just a quick jaunt to the ocean. The “last trip” of the summer means that those buyers are still vacationing rather than house-hunting.

We have a 100% success rate for helping our buyer clients find their next home. Reach out if you are ready to take the first step in purchasing.

3 Tips for Snowy Showings

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pexels-jill-wellington-1638660-259583Neither snow, rain, or sleet will keep us from helping you buy a house in the upcoming snowy, cold months in Vermont.

If you are looking to buy in Vermont during our snowy months of January, February, or March we want you to be “winter ready.” From weather alerts to slippery walkways and snow covered boots, we have tips and tricks to make your snow days easier.

1. Watch the weather: Sign up for VT Alerts. While we can dodge rain, snow, and sleet we can’t outrun a snow squall. The snow squall warnings are no joke – these are the most accurate of the predictions. If there is a squall we are not going out!

2. Bring indoor shoes. You will need to leave your snow boots at the door so you don’t track snow through the house. To protect your feet from frosty floors bring some indoor shoes to keep your feet warm. You will need shoes to check out the basement because if you are only wearing socks, the chill from the concrete floor will stay with you all day. We can’t guarantee that the walkways or driveways will be cleared and salted for your visit so be sure to wear boots or shoes with non-slip soles.

3. Schedule your showings during the day. As soon as the sun goes down, the walkways and steps may freeze up making them slippery and dangerous. Also you will want to see the property in the daylight to really decide if the house is a good fit for you.

If you are looking to buy in 2025, contact us to start your home search and begin the process to get qualified.

Goodbye to Pop-Tart Agents

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cff86c842404d182d2920a489434cd3acaa80df3First, who doesn’t love a warm Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tart? Alas, I digress. Back to the topic at hand, what is a Pop-Tart agent? Whenever there is a hot seller’s market, as it has been the last few years in Vermont, buyers are eager to run out and see property. This means that a buyer would call an agent, and the agent would pop up at the front door to let the buyer into the house, thus the practice of “popping up” to show a house morphed into a “Pop-Tart” showing as Pop-Tarts, well, you know, pop out of the toaster when ready.

Today, the Pop-Tart or pop-up scenario is a bit more complicated. Due to a proposed lawsuit settlement with the National Association of Realtors (NAR), real estate agents must have a signed Buyer Representation Agreement before touring properties. This ensures transparency as to how buyer’s agents are paid and your choices as a consumer. You can opt “not” to hire a buyer’s agent to represent you in a purchase and that involves dealing with the seller’s agent, who is not looking out for your best interest in the deal.

Why do you need a buyer’s agent? Basically, a buyer’s agent is your key to your success in the buying process. A good buyer’s agent provides access, advice, and expert negotiation to help you reach your goal – buying a home.

For a more detailed explanation reach out – we’re always happy to hear from you and want to make sure you have the best home buying or selling experience possible.

4 Location and Lifestyle Tips to Help You Choose Your New Home

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DJI_0738 copyNothing gets us more excited than finding the “almost perfect” house for our clients and then pointing out the highlights of their location. If you are a hiker, we like to find the closest trails. Do you love a good boat day? You’ll want a place on or near the lake. Raising a few kiddos? We keep our eyes open for the closest place to pick up milk and diapers. Not crazy about cooking? Neither are we, so we know all the places with the best food. Pizza? Hamburgers? Mac and Cheese? We’ve got you covered. Here are our favorite “tips” for choosing a spot, based on your lifestyle:

PLAY – What do you like to do after work and on the weekends? If you have last minute guests then it’s helpful to live within 10 minutes of a convenience store to pick up chips, dip, and drinks on short notice. If winter sports are your passion, you’ll want to have easy access to the mountain. If you like to walk, bike, or hike then picture yourself close to your recreation spots.

EAT – How often do you go to the grocery store? If you like to do a “big shop” that lasts a week then 20 minutes from the store should be fine. If you find yourself running out of food, ingredients, or you simply just like to get your steps in roaming the grocery store aisles, then 10 minutes should be your goal. Don’t cook? Make sure that the food delivery services go to your area. Restaurants, coffee shops? How far do you want to drive for Burger Night or your morning cold brew?

DRIVE – Always running out of gas? Whether it’s you, your spouse, or a new teenage driver, if you find your gas gauges running on empty it’s best to live near a gas station. If your lawnmower and other small engine tools require 0% ethanol, you’ll want to make sure you know where to go for that type of gas.

SHOP – Who doesn’t love retail therapy? This can be a bit further away if shopping is a special occasion. If you find yourself picking up birthday presents often then 15 minutes should be good. But if your shopping is mostly at home improvement stores then we recommend 15 minutes maximum as you will inevitably need a different size of something.

Sounds basic, but “location” is the number one factor that predicts happiness in your new home, according to our independent research. Contact us to find the ideal location for your Home Sweet Vermont.