Peoria Homes / A Guide for Buyers and Sellers
Peoria Home Inspection
The purpose of a thorough home inspection is to ensure that Peoria home buyers know exactly what a home’s condition is prior to completing the transaction. A good Peoria home inspection should include an evaluation of the foundation, framing, roofing, site drainage, attic, plumbing, heating, electrical system, fireplaces, chimneys, pavement, fences, stairs, decks, patios, doors, windows, walls, ceilings, floors and built-in appliances. All significant or pertinent findings should be reported in writing to the prospective Peoria homebuyer. The home inspection report gives the Peoria homebuyer the information he or she needs to determine whether to buy the property as is or to ask the seller to make repairs.
In most cases, when an Peoria homebuyer makes repair requests, sellers usually agree to some if not all of the conditions.
Bitten by the Peoria Home Improvement Bug?
Money isn’t everything however so that if the most important consideration for remaining in your Peoria home happens to be the school where your children attend or the proximity to your work or to a particularly attractive recreational opportunity then remodeling may be the best option. On the other hand, if the idea of having your Peoria house torn up for weeks at a time makes your blood run cold, it really doesn’t matter how much money you might make turning a fixer-upper into a model home. You will be far better off selling the home you have and moving to a home that better fits your needs.
Buying a Peoria Fixer-Upper
This, of course, depends on the condition of the Peoria home and the estimated cost of the repairs you must make. Peoria real estate in a good neighborhood that is priced about 25% lower than others that are in good shape may be a good deal if it simply needs cosmetic or minor structural repairs. If the house is a gut job, that is the entire inside will be torn out and rebuilt the 25% rule may work and may not so estimate your costs as closely as possible.
Shopping by neighborhood makes good sense when considering the purchase of a fixer upper. As a buyer, the more you know about the Peoria homes in a particular area the better able you are when it comes time to judge whether or not a home your are considering meets the financial parameters you are looking for.
The Benefits of Selling Peoria
As you know, you are allowed to sell your Peoria principal residence once every two years and exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for a married couple) of the gain of the sale on your Federal income tax. Please note: This is not a once in a lifetime tax savings and you don’t have to be any certain age or buy a more expensive property. If you meet the two-year residence test you can sell your principal residence every two years if you are so inclined and the market cooperates. But this tax saving does not affect rental property unless you convert the rental to your personal residence, live in it for two years and then sell it.
What Makes Peoria Sell?
If your only reason for selling your Peoria is for the purpose of taking your profits there are a couple ways to approach this. Assuming you have lived in the Peoria for two years so you can avoid federal tax consequences, if you sell when prices are high and rent until prices come down before buying a replacement home, you will have maximized your profit. Remember, if you sell when prices are low, you will still make a profit and be able to buy a replacement home while prices are still low.
When Peoria Does Not Sell
Let’s say a home is in excellent condition but simply messy. The cat box needs changing, the dog dish is a mess, the dishes haven’t been put into the dishwasher and the beds are not made. Should these conditions affect the price of the Peoria? No, but they do. Take two identical houses next door to each other and priced the same. The sparkling clean house will sell much faster than the messy house and the messy house will more than likely sell for a lower figure. This is true of Peoria as well as real estate nationwide.
When a home does not sell, the owners tend to think that the REALTOR didn’t do a good enough job of promoting the property. There is a difference among agents and brokers and some will promote a property more than others. However, the main and most important method of promoting Peoria for sale is listing it in the local MLS.