Although you may have loved your home and the many memories it contains, most prospective homebuyers looking at Dallas Real Estate do not want to take a trip down your memory lane when looking at houses.  Homebuyers want to envision their future lives in a house, not feel like they are intruding on yours.

You may have spent years perfecting the decoration in each room of your house, and to you, it most likely is your ideal room set up.  However, everyone has different taste, and you are no exception.  As a future home seller, you should plan on staging your home to ensure it stands out amongst the many Dallas Homes for Sale. 

The Dallas Real Estate market is extremely competitive, with many similar homes competing against yours.  Staging your home is an inexpensive way to give your beloved house a competitive edge.  One can stage a house on any budget, with inexpensive and simple tricks, such as removing personal items, to more elaborate techniques, including buying new furniture.

Although you can hire a professional stager to help you with this task, people interested in selling their house in the Dallas Real Estate market can just as easily stage it themselves.  The first, and easiest step to staging a home is cleaning and organizing.  No one wants to tour a messy space.  The nicest house will seem neglected and in bad condition if there is clutter and dust everywhere.

On the most basic level, this means making sure there is not a dust ball in sight, a generally pleasant aroma in the air, and no clothes on the ground.  Clean the windows and vacuum the floors.  However, home sellers should not stop at this—knickknacks may seem like decorations to some, but to many, are akin to clutter, including those on your counters.  Many home sellers may need to rent a storage facility for many of their possessions to avoid overcrowding the house with their objects.

After a basic cleaning, home sellers need to make sure the exterior of their house is up to par.  The paint should look fresh and be a neutral color.  Additionally, home sellers should take the time to work on basic landscaping—getting rid of weeds and planting flowers to make the front of your house inviting.  This can also be achieved by repairing fencing and replacing your mailbox.

The next step is to finally finish the minor repairs that you most likely have been putting off for months.  This is the time to make sure the faucets aren’t leaky, the dead light bulbs are replaced, the loose doorknobs are tightened, and the walls are repainted.  Although these might seem like small or inconsequential tasks, small annoyances will cause a different house to stand out over yours amongst Dallas Homes for Sale.

Finally, when showing the house to potential homebuyers, the presentation is key.  Quiet, inoffensive background music can be played in many rooms.  All lights should be left on and air fresheners and fresh flowers can be placed in many rooms.  Although many of these are basic tips, staging may make the difference of getting your asking price and selling your home quickly.

According to a recent report in the Dallas Morning News, foreclosures on Dallas real estate are down from last year. Statistics from the Foreclosure Listing Service, based in Addison, Texas, show that foreclosures have dropped by 16 percent dating back to February of 2011.

As of Tuesday, Feb. 7, there were 4,672 homes, condos and townhouses scheduled for sale at monthly foreclosure auctions in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties. That number is a slight increase from the Dallas homes for sale at January’s foreclosure auction, but is still much lower than the number of foreclosures seen in 2011, which is a good sign for the Dallas real estate market. 

George Roddy, the chief executive of Foreclosure Listing Service, predicts than foreclosure numbers will continue to creep upward as 2012 carries on, but after that, the numbers should settle down.

“I think we have probably another year at least of high foreclosure rates in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Roddy told the Dallas Morning News. “There are just so many.”

Still, the foreclosure numbers over the last few months have not been nearly as high as in recent years. According to Steve Brown of the Dallas morning news, lenders filed for 56,358 total foreclosures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2011, the lowest level in three years. In addition, foreclosures have been down from the prior year in each of the last 12 months.

With mortgage rates at an all-time low, the foreclosure problem that has swept the nation and the Dallas-Fort Worth area over the last few years should be close to subsiding, as potential home buyers regain confidence in their ability to afford Dallas homes for sale.

If you are looking to buy Dallas real estate, there has never been a better time to do so. While previous buyers have succumbed to foreclosure, things are turning around. Interest rates on 30-year mortgages are currently averaging at just 3.87 percent, meaning even those with a modest income can afford Dallas homes for sale without the worry of a foreclosure.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has enacted a program that benefits Dallas real estate area law enforcement officers, pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers, and firefighters/emergency medical technicians who are in the market to purchase a new Dallas home for sale in the metroplex. The Department states the reason for this program as an attempt to revitalize urban areas. Visit http://sfgis.hud.gov/index.html to find Dallas homes that are eligible within HUD revitalization areas. When you find a home you are interested in, submit your interest in the home to HUD. If anyone else has submitted an interest in the same home you will be entered in a random lottery where one person will be selected. Current homeowners cannot participate and neither you nor your spouse can have owned any other residential real estate for 1 year prior to lottery submission.

According to HUD.gov, eligible participants are determined as follows:

Law Enforcement

You may participate in the Good Neighbor Next Door program as a law enforcement officer if you are employed full-time by a law enforcement agency of the federal government, a state, a unit of general local government, or an Indian tribal government; and, in carrying out such full-time employment, you are sworn to uphold, and make arrests for violations of, federal, state, tribal, county, township, or municipal laws.

Teachers

You may participate in the Good Neighbor Next Door program as a Teacher if you are employed as a full-time teacher by a state-accredited public school or private school that provides direct services to students in grades pre-kindergarten through 12. In addition, the public or private school where you are employed as a teacher must serve students from the area where the home you are purchasing is located in the normal course of business.

Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technicians

You may participate in the Good Neighbor Next Door program as a Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician if you are employed full-time as a firefighter or emergency medical technician by a fire department or emergency medical services responder unit of the federal government, a state, unit of general local government, or an Indian tribal government serving the area where the home is located.

            For those who qualify, you may be eligible for up to a 50% discount on the list price of DFW homes that are in revitalization areas. For example, if the list price is $100,000, you can buy it for $50,000. Of course, there is a catch! You must live in the house for three years before you can sell it. When you buy the home at the discounted price, you must agree to and sign a “silent” second mortgage for the discounted portion. In our example above, you would have a primary mortgage of $50,000. This mortgage would operate normally, i.e., it will accrue interest. The discounted 50% or $50,000 would be secured by the “silent” second mortgage. No interest accrues on this mortgage and you do not have to make payments on it. The “silent” second mortgage only becomes active if you move out of or sell the house prior to fulfilling the 3-year occupancy requirement. At the end of this 3-year period, assuming you have fulfilled all of the requirements set forth by HUD, the “silent” second mortgage will be released. At that point you are free to do as you please with the house. You could sell it, rent it, stay in it, and you do not have to pay the second mortgage. You are however, still liable for the primary mortgage.

Just when it seemed like mortgage rates couldn’t get any lower, Freddie Mac released its weekly primary mortgage market survey on Thursday, Feb. 2 and revealed that national interest rates were averaging at 3.87 percent for 30-year fixed rate mortgages. That means that financing Dallas real estate has never been cheaper, as 3.87 percent is the lowest mortgage rate ever recorded, according to an Associated Press report.

Back in January, low mortgage rates made national headlines when the Freddie Mac mortgage survey showed 30-year interest rates at 3.89 percent, with 15-year mortgage rates at 3.16 percent. At the time of the next mortgage report, 30-year numbers fell again, but then in the following weeks mortgage rates started to climb, reaching nearly 4 percent by the end of the month.

Prospective home buyers looking at Dallas homes for sale may have thought they missed their chance to cash in on low mortgage rates when they saw the rates rise last month, but fortunately for buyers, both 30-year and 15-year mortgages are once again at all-time lows, making headlines once more. While the 30-year rates are averaging at 3.87 percent, 15-year rates currently carry an even more attractive 3.14 percent interest rate.

There’s simply no way to tell whether mortgage rates will remain this low, so if you are considering investing in Dallas real estate, now is the time to do it. Contact DFW Realties today to browse a wide selection of Dallas homes for sale. If you find one you like – and we’re confident that you will – not only will you get a great home, but a great mortgage rate, too.

The most important and simplest thing you, the tenant, can do to create and maintain a healthy relationship with your landlord is…PAY YOUR RENT ON TIME! When and if the time comes that you cannot pay your rent on time, be upfront about it. Call, or better yet, go talk to your landlord in person. Tell them that you are going to be late in paying your rent. Your landlord has bills to pay the same as you so of course he/she will not be happy about it, but most time they will be much more understanding than if you had just remained silent and said nothing at all.

            Another easy way to stay on your landlord’s good side is by caring for your rental property as if it were your own. In a sense it is yours. You have a legal right to use and occupy the property so keep it clean and in as good a condition as when you moved in. It is not the landlord’s responsibility to clean up your mess. It is the landlord’s duty to repair any issues you have. However, if the problem is a minor one that you can handle on your own without investing too much of your own time or money, then do it yourself and don’t bother your landlord with menial tasks that you can easily do. Of course, if you cannot do it or it is a costly repair, then by all means, your landlord should take care of it.

            If you have neighbors who are also tenants of your landlord then it is a good practice to be considerate of your neighbors. Any problems that your neighbors may have with you will be directed to your landlord. Loud music, late night parties, trash, and parking space issues are all common problems amongst tenants who live in close proximity to one another. It is not a pleasant situation for a landlord to have to mediate a dispute over something like a parking space between neighbors. Be considerate of your neighbors and landlord and follow the rules that everyone else has to follow.

            If and when the time comes that you move out you will be much happier if your relationship with your landlord has been a positive experience. They are likely to cut you some slack on your security deposit for things like minor carpet stains and repainting the walls after you leave. Also, if for some reason it becomes necessary for you to vacate the property before your lease is up, thereby breaking you lease, the landlord may be much more lenient in not charging you a termination fee if you have been a good and respectful tenant.

So remember these few things and your landlord/tenant relationship will be a positive one:

• Pay your rent on time
• Keep the property clean
• Care for the property as if it were yours
• Do minor repairs yourself, if you can
• Be considerate of your neighbors
• Follow the rules