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What’s a Home Warranty? Why do I need one?

Do I really need to purchase a Home Warranty when I list it with the Jim Buff Team or I’m buying a home?

 

Yes. That’s where we’d like to stop and everyone should just get a home warranty. Unfortunately, that’s not going to work with most of our clients and it wouldn’t work with  us  if we didn’t know anything about it either. So take a minute and read a little about it.

 

On the Buff Team here at Keller Williams Professionals Realty we offer the American Home Shield Home Warranty, and this is a home warranty company that Jim and all of his team members believe in. So much so, that many of us have it on our own homes, even though they aren’t for sale. Jim has been using AHS for well over a decade, that’s how much he believes in it.

 

You may have no idea what a home warranty does or what it covers. You also may think I have insurance I don’t need that. Well a Home Warranty covers things that your insurance will not cover, remember the time your heat stopped working when it was below freezing and you had to call the local heating and air company to come out and fix it and it was super expensive? Well with a Home Warranty if that would have happened you could have contact AHS and just paid a $75 trade service fee and that would have been it. Let me tell you more about the different home warranty packages available from AHS in North Carolina.

 

First of all, you can purchase a home warranty for any type of home, single family homes, condos, townhomes and mobile homes. You can even get it for new construction single family homes and condos. There are multiple price points you can purchase home warranties for, see AHS.com for the most up to date pricing.

 

If you’re purchasing a home, the most popular plan we find is the Shield Plus. With the Shield Plus plan it covers all major systems which includes, air conditioning, heating, ductwork, plumbing, electrical and water heaters on top of that it also covers major appliances.  If you’re selling the home, you can purchase the home warranty as a selling tool and you can also have coverage while you still own the property. The coverage you receive as a seller is on the major systems and can come in very handy. The best part about having a home warranty when you’re selling the property, you don’t have to pay for it up front, all costs come out at closing, and if you don’t close the house with us, you don’t pay for the home warranty. It’s a win, win!

 

Below are some benefits to Homebuyers and Home Sellers right from the AHS Website

Benefits to Home Buyers

Our real estate plans protect your house, so you can focus on making it your home.

  • Gain confidence and comfort knowing that your hard-earned investment is covered by an industry leader.
  • Don’t stress about potential undetectable pre-existing conditions (like lack of maintenance and mismatched systems) — they’re covered!
  • Confidence in our nationwide network of professional home repair experts that we prescreen and monitor for your convenience.

Benefits to Home Sellers

Sell faster, for more money and with fewer worries.

  • Gain confidence and comfort knowing that your budget is protected while your home is on the market.*
  • Help sell your home an average of 11 days faster and for an average of $2,314 more.**
  • Mitigate unexpected issues from the home inspection to keep the sale of your home on track.

If you’re looking to sell your home, or buy a new home you should make sure you’re really considering a home warranty. For more information on home warranties and buying and selling homes contact the Jim Buff Team at (828) 771-2310 or email us email@jimbuff.com  

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Open House, August 20th 1-3pm!

This week the Jim Buff Team  will be hosting an Open House on Sunday, August 20th from 1-3pm at 4 Lynnette Drive in Fairview.  Hosting the event, this Sunday will be Tamra Fore one of our veteran agents on the team.

 

The home on 4 Lynnette Drive has 3 bedroom and 2 bathrooms and sits on a .75 acre lot. It has been mostly remodeled within the past year with new wood floors, new paint and a bright beautiful kitchen. The freshly remodeled kitchen has all new appliances, new cabinetry and granite countertops.

 

 

 

4 Lynnette Drive is located in the Rainbow Ridge subdivision in Fairview, NC. It’s just under 20 minutes to downtown Asheville. If you’d like a private showing of this home, or any other home for sale in the area call (828) 771-2310 to schedule an appointment.

 

The Jim Buff Team

Keller Williams Professionals Realty

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Things Sellers Do That Cause Sales To Fall Apart

George Souto a mortgage broker from Connecticut wrote this article about “stupid”  things that sellers do that cause sales to fall apart.

It is a very informative read: Click here to see original article 

Stupid Things Sellers Do That Cause Sales To Fall Apart.  There are several things Sellers do or do not do which can result in their home not selling.  Most of them are things which the Listing Agent/Realtor has to deal with such as:

  • Overpricing a home
  • Refusing to negotiate
  • Not making homes available for showings.
  • House does not show well
  • Homes which smell bad.

These are just a few examples of what Sellers do or do not do which can cause a house not to sell.

However, as a Loan Originator I work with Buyers and not Sellers.  So I am not involved in the home shopping process other than providing a Pre-Qualification Letter.  The role I play in the purchase of a home is the financing, which involves:

  • Qualify the Buyer for the price range they can purchase in
  • Meeting with the Buyer to put the loan into process once the offer has been accepted
  • Following the Loan through Loan Commitment, and on to Closing.

So I do not get to see why a Buyer chooses to purchase a house or not, but what I do get to see is the stupid things Sellers do which cause my Borrowers to walk away from the property. There are two major things I see Borrowers walking away from a property are for.

The first and foremost reason I see my Borrowers walking away from a purchase, is Sellers refusing to negotiating repairs which are identified by Appraisers and Home Inspectors.  When a Seller takes a hard nose attitude of “I am not bugging”, the Borrower more often than not walks away from the purchase.  Many times the purchase blows up because of ridiculous little things, the Seller is unreasonable about.  This is not to say that Buyers are not equally unreasonable at times.

The second most common reason I have seen which causes a Borrower to walk away from a purchase are things which are discovered during the final walk through just before the Closing.  For whatever reason Sellers seem to think they can hide damage and get away with it.  Somehow they think the Buyer will not walk away from the purchase the day of the Closing.  Let me give a couple of quick examples:

  • On the final walk through a huge urine stain was discovered on a hardwood floor which the Seller had covered up with a large rug.  The stain was so bad that a large section of the floor needed to be replace.  It was to late to fix the floor before the Closing, and the Seller refused to provide funds to fix the damage after the Closing.  As a result the Buyer walked at the Closing Table.
  • Another was a Seller while moving their furniture out of the house, dragged the furniture across the hardwood floors causing deep gouges through out the hardwood floors in the house.  In this case the Buyers didn’t even go to the Closing and try to negotiate a remedy, the Buyers walked away right there and then.  Found another house a week later they actually liked better, and we Closed a few weeks later.

These are just a couple of examples, I could provide more, but I think these make my point of Stupid Things Sellers Do That Cause Sales To Fall Apart.

 

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New Absorption Report – Oct 2015

The latest Absortion Report for Buncombe County.

  • As of 11/3/2015 there were 1521 active home listings in Buncombe County, NC
  • 102 is the average days on the market for homes in Buncombe County
  • 82 days is the lowest days on market an that is for homes priced between $200,000-$249,999
  • 96.02% of properties that are listed are sellingAR Big

 

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Keller Williams RED DAY!

WHAT IS RED DAY?

Introduced in 2009, RED Day, which stands for Renew, Energize and Donate, is Keller Williams Realty’s annual day of service. Each year on the second Thursday of May, associates spend the day away from their businesses serving worthy organizations and causes in their communities. RED Day is just another example of our commitment to each other and to the cities and towns where we live and work. Join us!

http://www.kw.com/kw/redday.html#.VVYAbtNVhBc

 

Since it’s conception in 2009, the Jim Buff Team has been participating in RED Day. We’ve cleaned up the streets in Asheville, NC, collected groceries for the MANNA Food Bank at local grocery stores, we’ve helped with the animals at Brother Wolf, last year we helped clean up the gardens at the Black Mountain Home for Children. This year we went to Charlie’s Angels Animal Rescue to volunteer our time, or team members, walked dogs, cleaned kennels, did dishes, cleaned floors and played with the kitty cats and enjoyed ourselves!

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The 20 coolest towns in the US (Asheville, NC #1)

We all live in Asheville, NC so we all enjoy the area from the hiking trails on the  Blue Ridge Mountains to the local breweries, there is something for everyone: Recently Asheville was voted the coolest town in the US:

What makes a town “the coolest”? In the end, it’s the same as what makes travel the coolest: the people. And yet there seem to be a few common patterns that attract cool people to certain areas, or perhaps it’s the other way around: people’s creativity and innovation helps lead their towns in a cooler direction.

Read more: http://matadornetwork.com/trips/20-coolest-towns-us/#ixzz3W3iDkcz2

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Keller Williams Mobile App

Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, The Weather Channel, your bank, there is an APP for everything and most people are using their apps. 42% of people take the 1st step in home buying on the internet. Instead of using, Zillow or Truila (which is being acquired by Zillow) download the Keller Williams App and use that. By using the GPS on your phone it can show you all the homes for sale in the area you are, all the homes not just Keller Williams listings. Check links Take a minute and download the KW APP and begin your home search. Or if you aren’t into apps you can pick up the phone and give us a call at (828)771-2310 or email us at email@jimbuff.com and we can tell you all about any home you want to know about.

 

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Asheville, NC

 

A little bit on the fair city where the Jim Buff Team is located. Asheville, NC. We are nestled in the Mountains of Western North Carolina, close to South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia. Asheville and the region has the joy of experiencing all four season, but we do not receive large amounts of snow and it’s not sweltering in the summer. Besides the lovely weather we have, Asheville is home to the Biltmore Estate & Grove Park Inn, Blue Ridge Parkway access and Thomas Wolfe was born in Asheville.

One of the newer attractions to Asheville, are the breweries. Four years in a row Asheville has been named “Beer City, USA” according to exploreasheville.com and is home to atleast 21 craft breweries.

With an active downtown Asheville, is a great city to live in or near. If you’d like to find a home in the area, please give us a call at (828)771-2310 and we can help you on your search.