The Terranova Team

  All agents develop and adapt their own toolset and processes over the years in order to make the most of any home sale or purchase, even their own. Here are 5 things Delaware real estate agents do when selling their own properties. Full Disclosure In the instance of an agent selling their own property, there are municipal, state, and federal laws that outright require the agent to inform the potential buyer that the property seller and agent are the same party.  For some buyers, this can be a warning sign that stokes fears of being conned into purchasing a faulty property, but oftentimes the opposite is true. Experienced and knowledgeable real estate agents live or die by their reputations, and making sure to keep everything on the up-and-up throughout the sale of their own properties is of the utmost importance.  Therefore, full disclosure of an agent’s ownership and role in the sale of a property is key to moving forward with the transactio...

  Throughout the process of selling a home, owners have to deal with different offers coming in with the potential for wildly varying details. Part of selling your home is making sure you select the right person behind the offer, so let’s look into what Delaware home sellers need to know buyers who are pre-qualified or pre-approved. Pre-Qualified vs. Pre-Approved The average home buyer and seller don’t have a great idea of what the difference is between a lender pre-qualifying and pre-approving someone.  Each mortgage lender has minimum qualifications that any borrower must meet in order to pass the initial application process.  A borrower who has been pre-qualified means they made it past these first few hurdles, but have not been thoroughly scrutinized to deem their request for a loan acceptable to the lender. A lender then goes about doing a complete check through the borrower’s credit history and current financial situation in order to make ...

  Once you have found a home that you feel suits your needs perfectly, you want to come out of the gate with a proposal that is going to make a terrific impression on the seller. To help you become the new owner of your dream home, here’s how to make a competitive offer when buying a house in Delaware. Make a Financial Commitment Besides a price in your offer, there are a few other approaches to prove your interest in a home by putting your money where your mouth is.  Any serious offer when buying a house in Delaware should include earnest money, which typically ranges between one and three percent of the total offer price and acts as a sort of deposit. If your offer is rejected or the transaction falls through, your earnest money is returned to you.  Another road to take is providing a sizable down payment, which can go a long way to pleasing both the seller and any mortgage lender you may have involved. Aim to put down a minimum of 20% of the...

  Given enough time, real estate investing has the potential to produce wealth, but even with plenty of research, knowledge, and sound decisions, it remains something of a gamble. It really all boils down to picking the right property at the right price. A good agent can help you select the right property and greatly increase your odds of winning the investment game. So let’s investigate how an agent will help you buy investment property in Delaware. Access to More Properties When you have access to more properties, you’re likelier to find one that meets your investment needs and that will produce a profit. An investor-friendly agent will have access to a multitude of properties, many of them not even on the market yet. And those off-market deals can be some of the best when you want to buy investment property in Delaware. A good agent will also work with wholesalers and even do some leg work and door knocking to find owners who want to sell for cash. To di...

  It should come as no surprise that 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic threw real estate markets around the world for quite the loop. If you’re looking to make your move this year, it’s good to have some idea of how things have changed by reading these 5 ways selling a house in Delaware has changed in 2021. Supply and Demand As things started to become complicated near the beginning of 2020, home buyers and sellers both rethought their situations and started to rein in their desire and motivation to make a move.  This provided owners an opportunity to make adjustments to their properties to place them in a prime position once the market began to recover, and also gave buyers a chance to maximize their savings while carefully considering what they wanted and needed from a new home. With the global pandemic more under control and a public growing in comfortability, both the supply and demand of homes rose quickly in the spring of 2021.  However, dem...

  Once your home is looking its best and on the market, the next step is dealing with interested buyers wanting to come and take a look at the property for themselves. To get the most bang for your buck in terms of showings, here are 4 tips for hosting a safe and successful open house in Delaware. Depersonalize Your Home Deep cleaning and decluttering your home is always the first step to putting it up for sale, but carefully depersonalizing your living space is just as important.  Depersonalizing means removing any personal items and heirlooms from your home. Family photographs, jewelry, and other items of high sentimental value are all on the table. Keep in mind that during a showing or open house in Delaware, complete and total strangers will be touring your home and searching every nook and cranny for things they may or may not like about the property. During this time, less-than-trustworthy individuals could then have an opportunity to pocket some...