If you google for information about a specific Outer Banks house, it’s highly likely that you'll end up at a zillow or realtor.com web site. These national web sites have the resources and the know how to get their web site to the top of the first page. An Outer Banks zillow search has limited information. Some of it also may be inaccurate. This article will help you understand why local Realtor's web sites are an important part of your OBX real estate searches. First, Not Best Just because … Continue reading...
Five Inexpensive Improvements to Sell a Vacation Home
Selling vacation homes can be challenging. Today’s buyers watch HGTV where home updates are the norm instead of the exception. Often times OBX vacation homes don’t have those updates. If you are preparing to sell or not getting activity on your home then here are five items that will encourage buyers to look and make offers. By doing some of these simple updates you may make your home stand out among all the ones for sale. Tidy yard and exterior: Pruning trees and/or bushes can often be … Continue reading...
Carolina Review Newsletter Summer 2018
It's been a busy summer so far on the Outer Banks. The roads and beaches are full of vacationers enjoying all the Outer Banks has to offer. We've just completed our latest newsletter that should arrive in the mail any day to about 3500 people. Great progress is being made on the new Oregon Inlet Bridge. Here's a picture I took on my way back north this morning after videoing a lot for a client. If you enjoy the ocean then this summer has been one of the better ones. July's surf has … Continue reading...
What does sold “as-is” mean”?
“As-is” can mean numerous things in an Outer Banks real estate transaction. It could relate to the condition of the home but also it could relate to an encomberance or an encroachment. Most commonly means that the seller will not make any repairs. This frequency of this type of sale waxes and wanes with Outer Banks market conditions. Almost all distressed sales are sold this way. Banks rarely want to make repairs to a property and sellers of short sales don’t have the cash to make any repairs. … Continue reading...
What should I expect when negotiating on a vacation home in the fall?
It's common sense that sellers should be more anxious to sell their house in the fall than in the middle of the busy summer season. Negotiating on a vacation home during the spring or summer eliminates a seller's summer rental income. They also will miss out on using the property during those great summer beach days. With winter around the corner it makes sense that sellers would not be interested in paying the bills for a house they are not using very much. Trying to quantify what would seem to … Continue reading...
Why is the OBX Tax Assessment not near the asking price?
Over the last 20 years, more often than not OBX tax assessment values of properties were not equal to their market value. When properties were reassessed in 2013 many tax assessment values went down over 20%. In some cases even more. That’s a huge change in value from one assessment to another! Why is that? Did local property values dropped that much over that onet year? The simple answer is no. The reason for the large change in OBX tax assessment is that neither Dare County nor Currituck … Continue reading...