Florida Real Estate Blog - Jen Dollar

The Best Strategy For Selling Your Home

The best strategy for selling a house is to focus on the important details and let the minor ones fall into place on their own.  You do need to have a strategy because without it you are flying blind and leaving the progress of your home selling efforts to chance.  Take this strategy and follow it to the letter.  You will see why it is the best.

Pick A Deadline

Pick a deadline for when you want to have your home sold.  This will force you to decide if you are in a rush or if you can afford to have the home sitting on the market month after month.  How quickly you want to sell your home will affect how you sell it, so get clear on when you want your deadline to be.

Decide On Your Acceptable Price Range

Your acceptable price range will be…

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How To Sell A Home In Any Housing Market

It's true that selling a home is possible in any housing market.  Don't believe the naysayers who claim that it isn't possible because they are often the ones who either don't know what to do to sell a home, or who aren't willing to do it.  Let them tell you that you can't sell your home in this market right up until the day that you do.

Price It To Sell

Pricing your home to sell in the current housing market is imperative.  To do this, you need to know what the current real estate market is doing in your area, but you don't want to ask your friends, watch the news, or read a few isolated articles to figure out what it is doing.  Instead, you will want to locate those homes in your area that are comparable to yours and find out what their stories…

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5 Tips for Saving Money for a Down Payment

Your goal is to purchase a home and, in doing so, you know you need the largest down payment you can. Most lenders now require some level of a down payment. This could be between three percent, if you are getting an FHA loan, up to 20 percent or more, for a conventional loan. Saving that amount of money can seem challenging, but a few tips can help you to do just that.

#1: Go to a Cash Flow System

Don't use your credit cards. Realize you spend more when you use credit, both in terms of buying more freely and in paying interest. Moving to a cash only system, where you buy what you need to only with cash on hand, can help you to save significantly.

#2:  Make It Automatic

Don't trust yourself to transfer a set dollar amount from each paycheck into…

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7 Key Features to Look for in a Real Estate Agent

Choosing a real estate agent can be just as important as choosing a home to buy. After all, this person, you hope, is going to help you to find the home that's right for your needs. Don't overlook the process of choosing a professional you can count on. These tips will help.

1. Choose a professional with local experience. This is by far the most important component. You want someone that knows the area well and that can give you frank, honest advice about any property available in the area.
2. Choose an agent that will tell you no. You want to ensure you are working with a real estate agent that is willing to provide you with accurate information, not just information you want to hear. Be upfront with the agent about this before agreeing to work with him…

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RIS Media Article About Jennifer Dollar

Questions & Answers With Broker Jennifer Dollar...

Keeping your agents motivated is key to maximizing your business; in the following interview, Jen Dollar, Broker/Owner of Realty Executives Orlando in Central Florida and Seminole, lets us know what it takes to stay on top.

Years in real estate: 10
Number of offices: 3
Number of agents: Over 100
Region served: Seminole and Orange counties
Best advice for creating work/life balance: Hire a great assistant. You can’t do it all and if you try to, you’re going to fail. Focus on what you’re good at.

Why did you choose the Realty Executives International franchise?
We interviewed pretty much all of the major franchise companies and we found that Realty Executives Intl. gave us the flexibility to run…

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What Does Pre-Approved Mean?

When it comes to buying a home, your first step is likely to gain pre-qualification. This step is important, mainly for your benefit. Once you talk to a mortgage specialist, he or she will gather information from you, such as income, expenses, and credit information. The goal is to find out how much of a loan you can obtain as well as what you are likely to pay monthly for that loan. Pre-qualification is just the start, though. Before you start shopping for a home, or during the process, you'll need to go one step further to pre-approved.

What Does Pre-Approved Mean Really?

A home buyer that is pre-approved is one that has the financial information provided by them verified. For example, instead of just asking for your income information, the…

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Lost Your Home to a Foreclosure? When Can You Buy Again?

The circumstances were not good for you a few months or years ago. You lost your home to a foreclosure. The lender forced the foreclosure because you didn't make payments on your loan or the taxing authority auctioned your home off. You feel overwhelmed and frustrated by the entire process. Perhaps you've moved in with someone else or you've been renting since then. Nevertheless, you still want to buy a home. When can you do so? Will a lender even let you consider buying a home again?

Don't give up just yet. The fact that you had a foreclosure is important, but it doesn't mean you will never own a home again. It does mean you'll have to work harder at obtaining a loan and getting a low interest rate. Nevertheless, for many people who have gone…

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Buying to Rent: How to Make the Best Investment

You are interested in purchasing a home. You don't plan to live in it, but you plan to rent it out as an income property. There are plenty of television shows that indicate that this is a good time to make such a move. Is that really the case though? And, if you want to make this move financially, how can you make the best decisions through the process?

Realize There Is Risk

Before getting involved in the investment business, realize there is a significant amount of risk present. You'll have to take on the risk of not having a renter and, in that case, paying two mortgages yourself. You'll also have to handle all investment into the property, from new roofing to a new foundation, if it is needed. Yet, there are plenty of benefits to this process,…

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Secrets To Winning The Bidding War And Your Dream Home

There are secrets to winning house bidding wars that don't make it into most basic guidebooks.  These secrets are to be used in addition to the normal actions and tactics of bidding to give you an advantage in this arena.  Learn them and use them in your own house bidding negotiations knowing that they will help you get your dream home.

Appeal To Their Humanity

When you submit an offer, you can include a cover letter that details the connections that you feel you may have with the seller.  You can talk about how you want to raise your kids in the house or how your dog will love romping around the spacious backyard.  If you can make this type of connection during the house bidding process without trying too hard, then you might get your new house…

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What Is an Earnest Money Deposit?

One of the terms you may come across in the home buying process is an earnest money deposit. In the home buying process, every dollar you spend is important. You need to know what it all means to ensure that you are making the best investments possible. So, what is earnest money?

Earnest money is usually a small deposit that you put on a home that you want to buy. In short, you are providing a down payment at the time of placing the offer to show the buyer that you are serious about the process. It helps to show the home sellers that you are earnest, which means serious. From the seller's point of view, it is unlikely that any buyer would put earnest money down on multiple homes, though some less-than-ideal borrowers may place numerous offers on…

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