What Factors Determine a Home’s Value

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Hello all my great readers!!

Cory Lowe and Trae Mindiola over at RepublicPropertyTax.com put together an informative article for our site about some of the major factors that determine a home’s value. Cory and Trae specialize in working with property owners to help them save money on their property taxes.

 

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What Factors Determine a Home’s Value

You may not worry much about your home’s value, but it will be important when you finally decide that it is time to sell your house. Even if selling your home is in the distant future, there are things you can do now to make sure that you get top dollar for the property. Here are some factors that can affect the value of your home and how much you will be able to get for it.

Updates

The market is filled with homes that can be customized to suit the buyers, which means that your home will lose value if you have not done any updates. In order to improve your home, install granite countertops, buy modern appliances and install new carpet or flooring. You may even want to add a fresh coat of paint to the walls or update the light fixtures in each room.

Structural Problems

If your house has any issues with the foundation or the structure itself, then your home’s value could drop drastically. In order to get the best price possible, you should make sure that the roof is in good condition and that there are no visible signs of foundation problems. You also should check the drywall of your home and identify any cracks that are greater than .25 inches wide.

Curb Appeal

Potential buyers will begin to make judgments about your home as soon as it comes into view, which means that you need to keep the exterior looking as nice as possible. If you have siding, make sure that it is clean and does not have chipped or peeling paint. Mow the grass, maintain the garden and remove any trash or debris from the property.

Outdoor Additions

While it may seem as though the value of your home should only be based on the house itself, this is not the case. The other structures and features on the property also have strong influences on how much you can get for your home. Swimming pools can be either a detriment or a benefit depending on the market. A nice garage will raise the home’s value, and a good fence will appeal to those who want to define property lines or keep their pets and children safe.

Location

The location of your home is the primary factor in determining its value. If you are close to railroad tracks or an airport, potential buyers may be concerned about the noise pollution. Nearby foreclosures could also cause the value of your home to fall, as will numerous rental properties in the neighborhood. Your home’s value may also be affected by rezoning laws and current crime rates. In order to reduce the negative effects of your home’s location, keep it looking as appealing and pristine as possible.

The value of your home is determined by many things, and you may not have control over all of the factors. The best thing you can do to improve your home’s value is to keep it looking clean and maintained so that any negative features will seem inconsequential.

Trae Mindiola works for Republic Property Tax in Houston, Texas. They specialize in commercial property tax disputes along with residential tax appeals.

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Flipping Houses and the Value of Education

January 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

When it comes to Flipping Houses one of the best investments that you can make is in your own education. Whether you are an experienced pro or brand new to the business, your ROI on dollars spent for good, solid education is always high.

One thing I’ve learned from meeting many of the top people in our industry is that they all have spent tens of thousands, and in many cases hundreds of thousands of dollars on education and training. This education comes in many forms, from books and CD’s, to seminars, bootcamps and coaching programs.

If you are an experienced investor this education can help sharpen your skills and help you take your business to the next level. If you are brand new, investing in your education can help you greatly shorten your learning curve and help you avoid many costly mistakes.

When I first became interested in Real Estate Investing I attended a couple multi-day real estate investing conferences. These events brought together many different speakers that spoke about a variety of different real estate investment strategies. On top of the great speakers, I had the opportunity to network with 100’s of like minded investors of all skill levels from all over the country that were also attending the conference. I often credit my experiences at these conferences as giving me the knowledge and beliefs needed to succeed at flipping houses.

One such event is coming up that I think you all should check out. You are probably familiar with the website Biggerpockets.com. Josh Dorkin, the owner of Biggerpockets, featured our Blog FlippingSmart.com, as one of the Top 20 Real Estate Investing Blogs on the web….. so he definitely knows what he is talking about!! 🙂

Well, Biggerpockets is holding it’s inaugural live conference and trade show; The Biggerpockets Real Estate Investing Summit, happening March 23-24 2012 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The conference is going to be chock full of knowlegdable speakers who are actively buying and selling properties every day of the week. Along with the  great speakers there will be endless networking opportunities with the other attendees. Many times the networking is the best part of these events.

Here’s what Josh had to say about the event:

This is going to be a ground-breaking event for the real estate industry — a conference designed for a national crowd of investors with no upsell, no back of the room nonsense, no “guru” BS!

As most of you probably know already, one of the reasons I founded BiggerPockets is that I wanted a place where I could discuss real estate without worrying that some self-anointed “guru” was going to constantly sell me their “secrets.” We’ve built an incredible community that is unmatched in the space, and which is run under the same founding principles today. This Summit is designed to do for live real estate investing events what our site did for the online space.

 

The conference is going to cover many different topics, including “Rehabbing and Flipping Homes”, “Using Hard Money”, “Investing While Working Full Time”, ” Raising Private Capitol for your Investments Legally” and “Building Your Business through Social Media” to name a few.

So… make sure you check out the summit. Josh is offering an early bird discount through Feb. 24.

 

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Filed Under: Education