Hometown Happenings

Jingling All The Way Through Real Estate and Holiday Festivities

• Angela Ballard & Aundrea Rogers

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Ever thought how a simple pre-approval for a loan can make your house hunting journey smoother? Or how being upfront and candid about your needs can pave the way for a hassle-free home buying or selling process? In our latest podcast episode, we create an inventory of crucial real estate tips and tricks that can come in handy when you are on either end of the deal. We shed light on the importance of negotiating delayed occupancy, early occupancy, and why calling a professional to get a value of the house is a game-changer.

The holiday season is right around the corner and we're discussing its impact on home buying and selling. Join us as we explore the dynamics of real estate during this festive time. We've also got the scoop on local happenings in Harrison, Arkansas that will add more cheer to your holidays. From farmers and artisans market, downtown Christmas market, and Camp Jack's pancake breakfast to the much-awaited Harrison Christmas Parade, there's a lot to look forward to. And, don't miss out on our chat about the community event - Santa Shuffle and a special bonus for Veterans Day. We've got your queries covered too, as we answer listener questions and help you navigate the real estate market with ease.

Downtown Christmas Market
https://www.facebook.com/events/302535065454297/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[]%7D

Santa Shuffle
https://www.facebook.com/events/291967097055335/?acontext=%7B%22event_action_history%22%3A[%7B%22mechanism%22%3A%22calendar_tab_event%22%2C%22surface%22%3A%22bookmark_calendar%22%7D]%2C%22ref_notif_type%22%3Anull%7D

The Home Team
Angela Ballard & Drea Rogers
870-577-6754 | 870-577-0276
Weichert Market Edge

https://aundrea-rogers.weichertmarketedge.com
www.angelaballardrealtor.com

Speaker 1:

So welcome to today's episode of hometown happenings. I'm Angela Ballard, I'm Drea and we are gonna give you a little bit of real estate tidbits today. We've been asked several questions over the last few months and so we're gonna go through some of those questions and give you guys some insight on Some things that are happening in the real estate world.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so the biggest one that I've been hit with lately is Angela. I want to sell my house and buy a new house. However, I don't want to be homeless. Okay, so how do I? How do I? Was that process need to work Well as?

Speaker 1:

a seller. If someone came to you and wanted to purchase your home and wrote you an offer and said but my house isn't even up for so yet, how would that make you feel like you weren't all that serious, exactly? So there are some options built into the contract that we can negotiate with people with delayed occupancy. Early occupancy, so Delayed occupancy would mean you could stay in your home for so many days.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, we just had that one. They stayed.

Speaker 1:

They got a few days after to move out because they need the funds from the sell of their home to be able to Purchase the next one. So once they close, they have so many days post closing before they have to have all their Belongings out and can move into the next house. Now I know it can also be scary that you list your house and then somebody comes in, purchases it you know, brights a contract and it's under contract within you know, a few days or a couple of weeks and they haven't found the house that they want to move to yet. Right, so you can. Also, as we did in that transaction, we worked with those people that were buying it and said Can you give us some time to locate another home? Right, and so they also gave us a extra like four or five days to try to find a home. So right that those people were not homeless, right?

Speaker 2:

So we do have options.

Speaker 1:

We're not gonna leave people homeless on the side of the road during their I know some people have had to go into our rental For a period of time until they found things. I know some people have picked up like some Airbnb's and stayed like a short term rental for a couple of weeks. So we work with people in a bunch of different instances. It's just always helpful to make sure both sides know what everyone wants.

Speaker 2:

So you're saying, being upfront and honest about it, is it just the best ticket?

Speaker 1:

Yes, because if you brought your your seller to me and said, hey, we want to make an offer on this house that you have, so it would be a buyer for me, we would just work with you and say, hey, my seller hasn't found a house yet that they want to move to, and so can you give us an extra?

Speaker 2:

week. Let's slow our roll a little bit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, we can still work on inspections, we can still work on the things that need to be done to get the house to the closing table. But we may delay when we actually transfer funds and things like that, if needed To make everything work right, okay.

Speaker 2:

So the other question that I've heard a lot since recently getting into real estate is the idea of being pre-approved. Do you have to be pre-approved to start the house hunting process?

Speaker 1:

So technically, the way our contracts read, you don't have to have a pre-approval letter. You our contract state, you have five business days to get financing approval.

Speaker 2:

So we could go ahead and write an offer on the house without pre-approval, so technically you can.

Speaker 1:

Yes, now, as a real estate agent, I don't recommend that for a few reasons. Okay, I Don't want to take you to look at a A $200,000 house and then you go to the and your heart is set. You just love it, like it's got everything you want. It's your home.

Speaker 1:

Yes, mm-hmm, it's not a house anymore, it's a home, mm-hmm and then the bank tells you you can only spend a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, right, that's crushing, right. I actually experienced that with someone. It was crushing for them, so a Don't want to do that somebody because that hurts them, right? It also can sometimes kind of be a waste of time for them if they find out that they Could, aren't, can't even be approved for something that would purchase them something. The way our market is right now, right, so that can be even more crushing. It just helps us know where we can start and where we can go with things.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes people find things on their credit that they didn't know were issues that need to be repaired and then that before they could make An offer on something right, and so then that's also, you know, can make it a crushing situation. Now, beyond whether or not you actually get approved or not approved for an amount, it makes your offer stronger when you can get up. Yes, that you've already been to the bank. I have this connection with the bank and I bring this.

Speaker 2:

I'm serious, I've started this process. Yes, that makes. That makes sense to me.

Speaker 1:

It lets the seller know if they've got one without a letter and one with a letter, they may choose the one with the letter because they know you've already done part of that work by you know talking about your finances and getting your tax returns and that sort of thing together.

Speaker 2:

Right, I think that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

So another question that I have been getting a lot is where do I, where do I start when it comes to selling a home?

Speaker 2:

Yes, because that could be intimidating all on its own.

Speaker 1:

Yes. So when it comes to getting the process started to sell your home, calling a professional is usually the best place. So call me up. So we like to go out and look at houses and put our eyes on them and give you a value, what we think that it is worth. I'm not an appraiser.

Speaker 2:

So I can't, we catch numbers and we run comparables and we have ours. Yes, yeah, that takes some time.

Speaker 1:

Yes, so I'm not an appraiser, so I can't give what an appraised value would be, but I can give you what I believe market value is based on closed comps. That's all a real estate agent can give.

Speaker 2:

Right, because if you price it too high, you could end up on the market for a way longer than what you could have been if you priced it right.

Speaker 1:

Exactly and if you price it just right, sometimes you end up getting more because you get multiple offers Right.

Speaker 2:

Especially in this market.

Speaker 1:

Yes. So starting out with a real estate agent, having them come out look at your house, sometimes they can identify things that would be inexpensive for you to fix or do that would actually bring several thousand dollars in value to your home. Just basic sometimes just basically cleaning the gutters, can add quite, or power washing can make a huge difference, maybe not necessarily add dollar value, but can help your house. The perception's there Exactly, and so, as a real estate agent, that's some of the advice we give people to kind of get the ball rolling and have a checklist of things that they can do to get it going.

Speaker 2:

So Well, and you know me, I'm never gonna undersell the idea of photography. So having a professional photograph your house, his first impressions are huge.

Speaker 1:

Exactly, I have. You take photographs of all my listings, right, and as you obviously take photographs of your own listings as well, I think it makes a huge difference because what I can do I have a professional camera, but I don't know how to do the lighting and I don't have all the fancy lenses like you have and that sort of thing, and it definitely makes a huge difference.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 1:

In having your eyes. Yeah, and getting your best foot forward, because what people see first when they like, we're online shoppers these days, and so it's like shopping on Amazon, but for a house, and so they're on their phone and the first thing they see are the photos of your phone, of your home. They're not seeing it in person in a drive-by. So if the photos they see on their phone are not quality and formatted properly, Right, or if they're slow to load, yeah they get the do to do yeah, then they're going to be on to the next thing.

Speaker 2:

Exactly what do they say? There's like a two to three second window there and if you yeah, attention span is gone, move on On to the next thing. So you're actually in competition with the other things that showed up in the search results, exactly. The other thing is we can also offer walkthrough videos and add on things that regular people don't think about schematic floor plans.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you do that Matterport thing, the Matterport tour. It's like Google.

Speaker 2:

Maps, but for inside a house, right? Yeah, so there's a lot of things that we can offer just that way in marketing. That is huge. Okay, so we've got the photos taken of the house. What happens next?

Speaker 1:

So after we get photos done and we've agreed to, we've done our numbers and we've talked to the seller about the price and they've agreed to what they want to list it for, we get an agreement signed with them to sell their home and then we get the listing put on the MLS and so there's lots of things that go into that, because we want to have the best description of that home Right Possible because of same idea as the photos.

Speaker 1:

People are reading that they're going to search specific words. We want the words we're putting in our listing to be words people search that are going to pull it to the top Right, like if you wanted a house with the boat dock.

Speaker 2:

we need to make sure we put boat dock in there.

Speaker 1:

Correct, correct. And then, after it gets on the MLS, then you know we're putting signs in the yard, we're bringing lock boxes out, and then we're starting all sorts of marketing that we do, from open houses to realtor open houses to online marketing, to making TikTok videos, youtube videos, yeah, all the little things that we do, just all the little things to do, extra marketing on the home and then coming back around to bring in your offers, showings and offers, and talking to you about all of this as it's happening.

Speaker 2:

Right holding hands through the whole thing, because it's a million step process. Yeah, so I'm going to change the subject from real estate on you. Well, I have a question for you.

Speaker 1:

I don't know, I don't know what is it. Have you ever thought about trying to move in the holiday season?

Speaker 2:

No, but now that you're saying it, that kind of gives me anxiety.

Speaker 1:

So I think that kind of goes back to what some of our questions were. We have a lot of sellers who are not wanting to be homeless during Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2:

Where am I going to?

Speaker 1:

feed my family, or where am I going to put up? I want to put up my Christmas tree, right, yeah. So that's where we can offer some help and guidance. So don't think just because it's the holidays that you can't buy and sell your home. Right, because as you, as a seller, you want to be somewhere where you can have your family gatherings, just like the buyer wants to be somewhere where they can have their family gatherings Right. So everybody would be willing to work together to make that work.

Speaker 2:

Right, this is a constant cycle all the time.

Speaker 1:

And people need to realize that both parties have the same goal. Right, you have a house you want to buy and a house to sell, and these other people have a house they want to buy and or sell.

Speaker 2:

Right, that makes sense. So now I'm transitioning here. Okay, so we're talking about holidays? No, not anymore. I'm totally going to throw one out of left field at you. So we live in Harrison, arkansas, and I don't know about you, but one of my favorite pastimes living in our area is social media and I like. I like the Facebook group called a little birdie told me. Are you aware of this? I am.

Speaker 1:

I am Okay, but I don't like to look at it. I do, I love it. It's like drama.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, yeah, but I don't have drama, so I like to read other people's drama.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah. So what have you found on little birdie?

Speaker 2:

Okay, so I actually have it pulled up on my iPad.

Speaker 2:

Of course you do so someone posted 15 hours ago from right now and it says to whoever lives in the house that already barfed Christmas on seven before Hudson Road going to town. Thank you, you made my day Now. When I first read that I didn't make. All I said was, you know, to the point of the house that already barfed Christmas and I was like, oh my God, someone's drove by Angela's house because I'm sure with all the decor you have all the time it could be you, but it wasn't.

Speaker 1:

No, there is not a stitch of Christmas decor at my house right now. Now Lauren, the child, has been begging to put up the Christmas tree.

Speaker 2:

You can't, do not do it. I think we're gonna do it this weekend.

Speaker 1:

I've never put it up this early before, but I'm in the mood too. Husband not in the mood.

Speaker 2:

No, it's an act you have to. Holidays come in an order. I know it's Thanksgiving. We've gotten past Halloween, now it's Thanksgiving time. You can put it up the day after Thanksgiving. You're gonna look at your Christmas tree while you're having Thanksgiving dinner, mm-hmm, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Anyways, the best part about this post was that normally on a little birdie is it's usually negative Right.

Speaker 2:

So when I was- reading this I thought, oh no, they're gonna complain about the horrible Christmas decor. But then it said no, that they made their day. They're really excited about it.

Speaker 1:

So I think that they should go to the Explore Harrison website, because did you know that there is a way you can nominate your neighbor for the Christmas light show award or whatever?

Speaker 2:

No, they have a first second and third place.

Speaker 1:

That's a thing, it's a thing. So Explore, harrison does Spirit of the Holiday Light Show and you nominate your neighbor and their Christmas lights, and then so. I remember last year seeing this thing where all the houses that got nominated were posted on their website and then you could drive and look at all of those houses. I don't know who they, how they or when they decide who wins, but they have a first, second, third place prize. So go on ExploreHarrisoncom and nominate your neighbor. Somebody should nominate this person. I don't know their address.

Speaker 2:

So whoever lives out here on Seven before Hudson Road, nominate these folks.

Speaker 1:

These people because they need to win. It sounds like they're getting started early. Pre-gaming yes.

Speaker 2:

Because it's not even Thanksgiving yet.

Speaker 1:

Also this weekend since we're talking about Christmas is the kickoff of the holiday market for Harrison, arkansas, and so the farmers and artisans market, the farmers market people that meet on Saturdays. They have a big Christmas marketplace called Downtown Christmas Market. It's from nine to three on Saturday, november 11th, where they have like all these homemade, crafty goodies and that sort of thing that you can go there and buy and it's kind of their end of the year event. That's cool, so that's happening. Also, it's Veterans Day weekend, right, so Camp Jack has a pancake breakfast on Saturday.

Speaker 1:

And catch our bonus episode yeah, bonus episodes all about veterans. So Saturday they're having a pancake breakfast from nine to 11. Okay, so you could hit the pancakes and then go to the square and check out the market, oh cool. And then at the fairgrounds they're having another like holiday Christmas market with different vendors, and that is actually Friday and Saturday Friday 12 to 6 and Saturday 9 to 5 at the. So it's a happening at the fairgrounds, yeah, it is. And then shout out to Christmas parade on November the 27th. So you'll have to check out the wiker float at the Christmas parade because we have a lot of work to do. We're working on that. And then December 2nd is the.

Speaker 2:

Santa shuffle. Yes, I'm excited about that.

Speaker 1:

So we, glen and Sophie, will be at the Santa shuffle. You have to pre-register for that On the NARMC website.

Speaker 2:

And in exchange for a child's toy you get a Santa suit to run in?

Speaker 1:

Yes, but it's a limited space, right? You don't have to run or dance or shuffle Right, we're shuffling.

Speaker 2:

Shuffling in a Santa suit, but there's limited, yeah. So if you're going to do it, sign up, because they're going to run out, correct?

Speaker 1:

And it's all for a good cause Helps the hospital and gives a toy drive, and all that.

Speaker 2:

So which goes to a kid in our area, correct?

Speaker 1:

So check out all of these events. This weekend we will have stuff tagged in our show notes, show notes, show notes, show notes. So also bonus episode for Veterans Day. We interviewed a vet we did so. You have to check that out. And that is it for hometown happenings. Thank you, see ya.

People on this episode

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Angela Ballard

Host
Contributor

Aundrea Rogers

Co-host