Louisville, KY Real Estate Video Blog with JP Pirtle

Should You Rent or Sell Your Home?

There are many great Louisville 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 Value Report so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (502) 458-2722 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

When deciding you want to move out of your current home, the question often comes to mind: "Should I sell it or rent it out?" In our opinion, it's often better to sell the property. Here's 2 reasons why:

Look at the numbers: You need to make sure your principal payment is no more that 60%. If you think you can rent your home for $1000 a month, your principle payment should be around $500, $600 maximum. You need to account for expenses such as taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, vacancy, marketing, and managing.
Money in the bank: Prepare to get your home back in much worse condition than when you started renting it out. We've seen homes that need as much as $15,000 worth of repairs. Even if the repairs aren't that expensive, you're unlikely to get as much as you would have if you sold it years ago.

All in all, it's better to sell your home than to rent it. Tenants are unpredictable and can often cause more problems than it's worth. However, if you have the right financial situation and a temperament for renting houses, there is no reason you shouldn't. Renting isn't for everyone, but if you are up to the challenge you should do it. If you want any further advice on the issue, we'd be happy to talk. Give us a call or shoot us an email for some tips on your particular situation.

Why the Web isn't the Best Place to Start Your Home Search

Online home search websites, such as Trulia and Zillow, are the starting point for the majority of people who are looking to buy a home. While convenient, these large sites are often full of misinformation. We've put together this short list to let you know about the limitations of online home search tools:

They are often out-of-date: Because they don't update as fast as the Multiple Listings Service (MLS), there are often homes listed that are sold, pending, or no longer available. This can be frustrating if you thought you found a home that was priced right and had the amenities you were looking for, only to find it's not even an option.
They sell your information: Sites like Trulia and Zillow make money by selling the information of their users. Your email address and contact information will be sold to a third party when using these sites, something you don't have to worry about when working with a Realtor.
Their pricing is typically inaccurate: Big home search websites do their market analysis using the averages and medians of local home sales data. It's an algorithm that doesn't take into account the subtleties of the local market. Working with a Realtor is an advantage because he or she can come to your home and price it out according to the particular market.

Fundamentally, we feel there is nothing wrong with these big websites - they're actually quite helpful in many ways. But at the end of the day, your best option is to hire a professional expert Realtor in your local market. They will direct your search with the MLS to give you the most up-to-date and accurate real estate information, all while giving you the personal service a computer can't. As always, if you're interested in buying or selling property in the Louisville area, give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you!

How Sellers Should Handle Multiple Offer Situations

How Sellers Should Handle Multiple Offer Situations
Multiple offer situations have not been very common in the last few years in Louisville because we found ourselves in a large buyer's market. However, as we move towards a seller's market I would like to give some advice on how to handle multiple offer situations when you're selling a home.

Getting multiple offers on your property is a great thing to have, but you will always need to look over those offers with a professional real estate agent. A professional agent will help you to determine the strength of the offer which will include: financing, down payment, cash offers vs financed offers, and much more.

I would also recommend not accepting any offers on your home if they do not have an approval letter from the lender that state that they accept the terms of the contract and will be able to finance the purchase of the home.

You should also be wary of the timing of your home inspections. I would set aside 7-14 days for home inspections to occur, but I would not want to wait any longer than that.

What I want all of my sellers to know is that you do not have to respond to any offers whatsoever. If you see an offer that you really don't like, then you are allowed to simply ignore it. You do not have to respond to every offer that you receive.

There are a lot of different considerations that can be made when handling multiple offers as a seller in Louisville. If you are confused about the information above or would like to know how I go about handling multiple offers, then please do not hesitate to contact me or my team.