Montgomery County PA Real Estate Video Blog with Diane Cardano

Why You WON'T Find the Advice You Need Online

There are many great Montgomery County area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Do you want to sell your home, but are unsure where to start? If so, you're not alone. Luckily, I have some advice that will help you achieve your home selling goals.

Many people think they can prepare their home for the market by watching HGTV or going online, but it's not that simple. In fact, if you want to get the most out of your home sale, it's crucial to meet with your real estate, marketing, and negotiating expert months before you're ready to sell! This way, you get expert advice from someone who's out in the field selling houses every day.

It's all about avoiding mistakes by being prepared!

People who think all the answers are online are sorely mistaken - Google is (unintentionally) costing home sellers and home buyers THOUSANDS of dollars every year! The average consumer is going online to find "everything" they need before talking to a professional.

Statistically, over 55% of internet searches today are coming from a mobile device. While you may be able to diagnose the problem, you're not going to find the remedy by searching online!

If you're sick, you go to a doctor to take care of your ailment! Buying and selling real estate is no different - sure, there's help online, but you're not going to get everything you need to solve your problem!

When buying or selling a home, you need to work with an expert. When you go online to find answers, there is no way to tell whether the information you are getting is coming from an expert. Most likely, it's not. It's important to make sure you take online information with a grain of salt. For every piece of accurate information, there's a boatload of speculation.

Be sure to find an expert who has the negotiating and marketing skills to help you accomplish your real estate goals! Being prepared is your number one asset!

If you have any questions about this topic, or would like to speak with an expert today, give us a call! We would love to help you get top dollar for your home in a short amount of time!

Don't forget, we're having our first Home Seller Seminar on Saturday, January 24th, 9:30 a.m. You can register at HomeSharkSeminar.com! Hope to see you there!

Thanks, and Happy New Year!

How Will Rising Interest Rates Hurt Your Spending Power?

How Will Rising Interest Rates Hurt Your Spending Power?

It's time for the December edition of the HOT OFF THE Press Real Estate Market Report!

This year, existing home sales started out slow. However, they continue to climb, as we've had an incredibly strong fall here in Montgomery County. Currently, foot traffic levels are skyrocketing, even though this is the time of year they usually fall. Additionally, pending home sales have stayed consistent through the fall season, which is also quite unusual.

Rather than watching the numbers fall off, they have stayed pretty steady this fall. So, why are there more buyers out there right now? For one, mortgage credit availability is becoming easier. Even though we hear that it's getting harder to secure lending, we are seeing more and more people take out mortgages.

The average FICO score on conventional purchase loans was an average of 763 in 2012. As of September of this year the average score is only 755, a significant drop. Looking at FHA loans, the average FICO scores of people taking out loans have dropped from 700 in 2012 to 682 right now! This makes buying a lot more feasible for a lot more buyers.

The combination of responsible, but flexible, lending standards and low interest rates makes now a fantastic time to buy. Interest rates have dropped a little bit over the past few weeks, but the NAR and Freddie Mac are expecting rates to rise to over 5% by the fourth quarter of 2015. To see the effect this has on your spending power, let's take a look at an example. If you took a mortgage out for $250,000 after rates have risen to around 5%, you could lose as much as $60,000 in family wealth over the life of a 30-year loan.

What does all this mean? To me, it's obvious: right now is an incredible time to buy real estate! The conditions are almost too good to be true, so you need to start testing the waters if you have even considered buying - the market can't get any better than it is now.

If you need to sell your current home, I want to invite you to one of our home seller seminars. We're having a Breakfast Seminar on January 24 at the Hilton Garden Inn from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Also, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., I am hosting a private staging workshop that's offered exclusively to people who follow our video blog! Go to HomeSharksSeminar.com to sign up and have breakfast on us!

Thanks, and we hope to see you soon!

How Are We Giving Thanks in 2014?

How Are We Giving Thanks in 2014?

The phones have been ringing off the hook lately and we believe it is going to be a huge year in real estate in 2015. Right now, however, we would like to take you on a journey with our team.

One of the most very special times of year for us is Thanksgiving. It has become a time where we reflect on what we are thankful for, and thank all of our past and current clients for their business.

Every year, on the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we go out and get hundreds of homemade pies to give to our great clients. We just picked up 250 pies for Thanksgiving and are excited to be giving them out!

Spy Inspections is sponsoring our pie drive this year and we are very thankful to them for helping us out this year, but the only way we are able to continue this tradition is due to you, our wonderful past clients.

So make sure you come out this Tuesday or Wednesday to our office and pick up your free apple or pumpkin pie!

Do you know anybody who is in need of first class real estate consulting? Let us know. We would be more than happy to help someone you know experience the same level of service you have by working with us.

Abington Pennsylvania Real Estate Market Update

Hi, ladies and gentlemen, this is Diane Cardano, with the November edition of the Hot Off the Press Real Estate Market Report. This month we are going to look at the numbers and then discuss some Seller and Buyer specific information as we have entered the final quarter of 2014.

Sellers, find out why you shouldn’t be listening to the talking heads in media about the housing market with solid, refreshing facts and what the outlook is looking like for Fall and Winter.

Buyers, I have an incredible image my team and I have prepared called “the five financial reasons to buy a home”, which is based on a study from the Joint Center of Housing Studies at Harvard University.

Check out the video above to see what this means for you and your loved ones!

Also do not keep us a secret, if you like watching our real estate market updates, tell a friend or email us their email so we can add them to the list.

The Benefits of Pre-Marketing

The Benefits of Pre-Marketing

Today's hot tip is how to market your home and how to test market before you even list your home. There are many things to do to prepare your home to list on the market. We want to share with you today some of the cutting edge ways we can get your home out there and give buyers a sneak preview in order to build demand for your home.

People today know the value of homes, so we utilize a strategy called "Pre-emptive marketing" to price a home. We determine its market value, based on pending sales in the area, and test the price. This way we can gauge what kind of response that the current price has been getting, and we know how to adjust it from there.

We never stop marketing our homes. There really are two phases to our kind of marketing. The first phase is from the day you list your home with a Realtor, and then we have a second phase, from the day the home is listed until it closes.

How are we able to do this? Well, by signing a waive with the MLS company Trend, you can waive the requirement to list your home in 3 days of putting it on the MLS. This allows us to gauge the interest in a home without it technically being on the market.

Stay prepared when selling your home and come to our next monthly home selling seminar. To sign up, visit homesellingsharks.com. We can't wait to share the secrets of selling a home with you.

Get Your October Edition Real Estate Report!

This month we’re going to concentrate on what I believe is going to be taking place over the next several months and how the momentum that has been building in the market will continue as we move into the final quarter of 2014.

There is some talk out there that this year was disappointing, and that we didn't have the
type of year in housing that people had projected we were going to have. Well, the
numbers don’t actually show that at all. Those of you who tune in each month are well
aware that this has been a strong year.

I believe, that the last four months of the year, are possibly going to be even stronger than
the first four months of the year. I think we are going to be much more productive than
many people are giving the market credit for. Look at the graphs below for information on existing home sales, amount of searches on real estate related terms and home prices back to 2005.

And don’t forget to sign up for our Home-Selling Sharks Seminar on Thursday, October 14th located at the William Penn Inn.

Expert tips on selling your home

Expert tips on selling your home

Hi Blog Listeners! Want to know how to price your home to attract a buyer who will pay you 18% more than other homes in your neighborhood?

The single biggest issue on most home sellers' minds is how to achieve the highest sale price. Like me, you realize that having an expert negotiator on your team is so important in quickly getting top dollar when selling your home. Check out this short video on how to do that!

If you want to see this Pin Point Pricing model in action, please join me as my guest at the William Penn Inn on October 14th. I am holding a home seller seminar with special guest, 1210’s own, Dom Giordano. We will be talking about the economy and how it will affect the sale of your home in 2015.

Buying a Home? Selling a Home? You Don’t Need to Do It Alone

Hello again, ladies and gentlemen! This is Diane Cardano with the September edition of the "Hot off the Press” real estate market report. The summer has been ROCKIN' so far this year and the market is continuing to be very strong, just as I predicted. We are gearing up and are prepared for this to continue right into the early fall!

Many of you have been asking me to discuss a particular event that has been in the news lately. Internet home search giant Zillow has purchased their biggest competitor, Trulia. This has a lot of people worried about the future of real estate agents.This is the week we cover that topic and if you want to get the full scoop, check out the rest of my video!!

To really get an advantage in the home selling process, don’t miss the huge October "Home Selling Shark Seminar!" I will be hosting the huge, information filled seminar at the historic William Penn Inn on Tuesday Oct 14th. It starts at 5:00pm sharp and seating is limited, so reserve your seat today, Go to www.homesharkseminar.com to register today!

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