When it’s time to sell your lake home, you’re likely keeping a mental list of what home buyers find important. However, your attempt to read buyers’ minds could be incorrect. To avoid this pitfall, Lake Homes CEO, Glenn Phillips, shares 5 things that home buyers don’t care about.
What you paid for the lake house
The price of nearby homes in the market
Personal effort that you put into the home
Using outliers in the market as a proxy for your home
Your feelings about the home (don’t take an offer personally!)
If you’re preparing to sell your lake home, it’s natural to wonder how the market will be doing this Fall. Although COVID-19 has left the market’s future more uncertain, some reliable predictions still exist. Lake Homes CEO, Glenn Phillips, shares five things to consider when predicting the Fall real estate market:
Stimulus checks, the PPP program, and other initiatives have created an artificial economy that will likely continue through the Fall
A high demand for lake houses has persisted throughout the pandemic
Despite the demand, there’s a housing shortage of appropriately priced inventory for lake homes
Consumers’ fear of uncertainty means they are not willing to overpay for homes
As stimulus money fades later in the year, an economic cliff is likely to happen when the true state of our economy becomes clearer.
If you’re buying or selling a lake home, it’s important to keep these Fall real estate market predictions in mind. As a national specialist in lake real estate, we’re here to help. Check out our website for more information.
Are you thinking about using a mortgage to buy a lake home? Since interest rates are low, it’s a good time to use a loan. However, mortgaging a home comes with unusual considerations during the pandemic. Lake Homes Realty’s CEO, Glenn Phillips, names these 4 mortgage challenges to keep in mind:
Money is not easy or fast
The process requires extra verification
The pre-approved letter doesn’t matter as much as it used to
It’s important to take extra time in the process
When you’re ready to buy a lake home, visit lakehomes.com and check out our daily listing updates.
Lake Homes Realty CEO, Glenn S. Phillips, reveals two unspoken real estate secrets– not all real estate agents are equally skilled, and many use the same formula when listing a home. With a special property like a lake house, how do you determine which agents can successfully sell your home?
Glenn recommends interviewing potential agents and asking three questions: What else will you do to sell my home? Who do you know? and Can you name 15 areas where people are shopping at my lake? The best lake home agents will feature your property on highly-targeted websites, have connections with multiple lake-focused agents, and have expertise in several lake areas.
Especially during the pandemic, many people are considering buying a lake home for social distancing. If this is you, Glenn Phillips, Lake Homes CEO, has some tips. First, set appropriate pricing expectations, keeping in mind that the lakeside location may add to the home’s cost. Although a market peak should keep prices from further escalation, appropriately-priced property is hard to come by, so it can help to seek multiple lakes for your dream home. When you find that home, be sure to act quickly because other buyers are looking, too. Finally, when buying a lake home, it’s best to seek out a Lake Homes agent with local expertise.
During the pandemic, many buyers are anticipating finding a “good deal” on a lake house. However, Glenn Phillips, Lake Homes CEO, gives us three reasons why this is not likely. Foreclosures are rare due to majority cash transactions, and the new stimulus laws protect against foreclosures. Further, lake homes are currently in high demand as popular social distancing destinations. Besides the rare possibility of AirBnb and VRBO owners selling their properties due to less travel, you’re unlikely to find a good deal right now. That said, if you’re ready to buy, contact one of our lake agents with local expertise at to help you out.
Lake real estate transactions can be confusing, especially if you are unfamiliar with the terminology most often associated with the process.
At Lake Homes Realty/LakeHomes.com, we are committed to providing you with all the tools you’ll need to ensure your lake home buying or selling experience is both convenient and straightforward.
In tandem with our buyer-focused articles on the questions to ask before you buy and the many options for buying lake property, this guide to common lake real estate terms is an excellent tool for preparing you for a successful lake home shopping experience.
Dockable Lakefront: Properties with “dockable lakefront” are properties where no dock currently exists, but the land has a permit for future construction of one.
Seasonal Full-Pool: Some lakes, specifically those managed by power companies and the Army Corps of Engineers, experience scheduled water level drawdowns for flood control, shoreline protection, and invasive species control purposes. Lakes are usually at their lowest in the winter months.
Short-term Rental Restrictions: Not all lakes welcome weekend renters. Before buying a lake home with intentions of using it as a hotspot for summer vacationers, check with your agent about any short-term rental restrictions that may apply in your market.
Bulkhead: Usually made of wood, stone, steel or concrete, bulkheads are barriers or retaining walls around your lake property’s shoreline. These structures help protect against shoreline erosion, flooding, and poor drainage, as well as help to maintain water depth.
Rip Rap Seawall: Similar to a bulkhead, a rip rap seawall is a barrier between your lake home’s shoreline and the water created using rocks, stones, and other natural materials.
Grandfathered Dock/Boat House: On lakes suffering from overdevelopment, restrictions may be applied to prevent further damage to the lake’s shoreline stability. On Lake Lanier, for example, docks can no longer be constructed. If the home you are interested in buying has a dock or boathouse on the property, it might be “grandfathered in,” meaning so long as it existed before the restriction passed, it can stay.
Leased Lots: When buying a lake home, you may only be buying the physical house itself, apart of the land on which it sits. Instead, the land is owned by the entity that owns the lake and is leased to homeowners.
Deeded Lots: The opposite of a leased lot, deeded properties are those where you own the rights of use.
Corps Line: On Army Corps of Engineers lakes, the Corps line marks a variance between the lake’s shoreline and the purchased property that remains in the ownership and control of the Corps.
Though not an exhaustive list by any means, these common lake real estate terms are among the most frequently asked about in the industry.
For more insight on lake real estate terminology, get in touch with your local lake expert agent.
Enjoy trivia? Be sure to join our newsletter for weekly article updates! SIGN UP
A 2017 article by Money.com reported only 10 percent of homeowners successfully sold their homes without the help of an agent. The other 90 percent chose to work closely with real estate professionals who were familiar with their local markets.
In lake real estate, working with agents who live, work and play in their local markets is key to successful real estate ventures.
These veteran experts are intimately familiar with the many nuances of their lakes — such as which parts are most active or best for fishing, and what the off season looks like — but more important, how to best gauge current market conditions.
So, what should you look for when it’s time to hire a listing agent for your lake home? We can help with that.
Listing Agent vs. Selling Agent
It’s important to learn the distinction between the roles of listing agents and selling agents, because though they sound like the same thing, they are quite different.
A listing agent works on the homeowners’ side of the real estate transaction and in the best interest of the seller.
These agents list properties on their MLSs (multiple listing services), which make them visible to other real estate agents who have clients looking for similar homes. Additionally, these MLSs feed a host of real estate websites, like LakeHomes.com, Realtor.com and Zillow, providing national exposure to their listings.
Listing agents also help the sellers price the home, assist in contract negotiations and serve as trusted advisers on various other real estate-related minutiae.
A selling agent works with prospective home buyers. Most often referred to as buyer’s agents, selling agents are responsible for representing the buyer in the transaction.
In-Depth Market Knowledge
Perhaps one of the most important things to take into consideration when hiring a listing agent is how familiar he or she is with your market. In fact, in 2017, 80 percent of sellers named local market knowledge as one of the top deciding factors when choosing an agent to work with. In specialized markets, like lake real estate, local market knowledge can be invaluable.
For example, how to price your lake home is typically one of the biggest questions you and your listing agent will face because traditional estimated value programs often incorrectly evaluate these properties.
Tools like the Zillow Zestimate use public records such as property tax records, and user-submitted data to approximate the value of a home.
Public records don’t always properly reflect the actual size and configuration of certain homes, and because much of a lake home’s value is determined by factors like proximity to the shoreline, lake views and nearest access points, public and user information can only give homeowners a rough estimate.
At Lake Homes Realty, lake home listing agents utilize resources like our Lake Real Estate Market Report — which features real estate data from more than 100 MLSs across 23 states — to analyze market trends, compare prices, and determine how local markets fit into the state market as a whole.
Armed with this wealth of information, lake-focused agents are best equipped to price your home objectively and appropriately for your market’s climate.
Strategic Marketing Plan
You can’t sell a secret, and if your listing agent hasn’t laid out a strategic marketing plan for your property, you might consider finding someone else to work with.
Many lake home buyers come from out of state, which means your listing agent must go beyond putting your home on the local MLS in order to reach these prospects.
One of these best ways to do this is to target marketing efforts via search engines and social media campaigns.
Lake Homes Realty agents tailor listing promotional efforts using Google Analytics web-traffic data to determine which areas are most frequently shopping their sellers’ markets.
This powerful tool not only shows sellers how visible their listing will be on a national level, but also shows the age demographic most interested in homes on their lake, gender and how frequently users are shopping on LakeHomes.com.
From this information, listing agents can determine who sees their listing advertisements by specifying it only be shown to males, ages 54 to 65 within 25 miles of Nashville who are interested in fishing, boating and real estate.
Trust Level and Responsiveness
How trustworthy and responsive a listing agent is are the two most important qualities sellers look for when hiring. A strong sales history, positive online and peer reviews, certifications and performance awards are all key indicators of these.
Red flags that may signal a less-than-effective listing agent include the agent encouraging the highest possible initial listing price, an unusually low commission split and unfamiliarity with your specific type of property.
Also, the best listing agents are full-time real estate professionals. This enables them to be more easily accessible to answer any questions sellers may have, provide advice on offers and to provide peace of mind that sellers have made the right choice in choosing to work with them.
Additionally, a good listing agent will respond to every client, every time, to make sure his or her client’s transactions go as simply, effortlessly and conveniently as possible.
