Home Selling 101 Part 3

This is the 3rd and final post about a home I sold. You can read more in my Part 1 and Part 2 posts. We closed sucessfully on Monday with absolutely no hiccups or problems whatsoever. Preperation ahead of time makes the transaction go much more smoothly.

The home closed for $345,000 or $171 a square foot. Not too bad when you consider the average dollar per square foot for the neighborhood this year before my sale was $151. I achieved the highest dollar per square foot sales price this year. Also, we received a contract in 64 days. The average days on market for the neighborhood before my sale was 140 days.

To find how I did that read part 1 and part 2. In a nutshell my home:

• Had excellent marketing
• Was priced properly
• Showed well
• Had good representation ;-)

The Sanderling Club

I had the pleasure of showing a home in The Sanderling Club last weekend. This is a great neighborhood if you are looking for a luxurious home on the beach in a gated community. It also offers plenty of recreational amenities include: deeded beach access, tennis courts, private gulf front cabanas, marina with boat docks and security.

View all of the homes for sale in The Sanderling Club here. To see any of these homes contact me or call me at 941-308-6491.

Five Credit History Boo-Boos and How to Fix Them

Guest Author: Calum MacKenzie

With lenders tightening up their mortgage restrictions all around the country, a clean credit report is going to be more important than ever. If you’re thinking of buying and will need a mortgage, the time to start thinking about your credit is well before you make your mortgage application. That will give you time to fix it up. These are five of the most common credit boo-boos and the quickest way to fix them.

1) Not knowing what the credit reporting agencies know. Seriously, it’s important to keep an eye on your credit report. You’d be amazed how often errors make their way into those files. You’re entitled to order your credit report for free once a year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies. You can’t fix something if you don’t know it’s there.

Fix: Get your credit reports and check them over carefully.

2) Not enough credit history. Your credit report can be TOO clean. If you’ve never held a credit card or taken out a loan of any kind, the lenders have no way to judge how you’ll handle paying your bills. Sometimes, they’ll turn to your utility payments, but more often than not, they’ll just say no.

Fix: Get a credit card or take out a personal loan and pay it off promptly and on time. Depending on other parts of your life – job and residential stability, specifically – it could take as little as four to six months to fix this one.

3) Late payments on your accounts. The effect that late payments have on your credit report/score depends on how long ago they happened and how often your payments are late.

Fix: Time and money is the only thing that will fix this one. Make payments on all of your accounts on time. For best results, get at least a year of on time payments behind you before you apply for a mortgage.

4) Not communicating with creditors. Communication is one of your most potent tools in any situation. When it comes to your credit, it’s vital. When your creditors don’t hear from you, they’ll assume the worst. A telephone call to make payment arrangements – BEFORE the due date on your bill – can be all it takes to avoid a black mark on your credit report.

Fix: Pick up the phone and call!

5) Maxing out your credit cards. Creditors look at more than whether you pay your bills and when. They also look at how much you owe in relation to how much credit you have available. Carrying big balances on your credit cards and revolving loans will bring your credit score down.

Fix: Pay down balances on all of your credit cards and loans. At very least keep them to less than half of your available credit.

6) It is possible to fix your credit. However many of these are not “quick fixes”. It’s even better to keep your credit clean in the first place. Beware of an ever increasing number of companies out there that claim to be able to “fix” your credit.

For more information on fixing your credit score read The Credit Fixer Upper.

Calum MacKenzie is Broker-Owner of Real Living Southern Homes, a top residential real estate company serving the Wesley Chapel real estate and Land O' Lakes real estate markets.

Sarasota County Inventories

The chart above represents the inventory levels of single family homes in Sarasota county. As you can see the latest inventory numbers from August don't show much of a decline in the number of homes for sale.





Here are the latest condominium figures for Sarasota county. The drop off off inventory since the high of April 2007 is a little more obvious here. Keep your fingers crossed for more declines in inventory.