What I am Thankful For

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

Today I just wanted to make a quick video to talk about the 5 things I am most thankful for. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so what better a time to talk about what I am thankful for every day. Here is my top 5:

1. My Family
 I love my wife and my children, and wouldn't be where I am without them.

2. My Team
 I have an amazing team and without our team, we wouldn't be able to do everything that we do for our clients, which brings me to number 3.

3. Our Clients
 Our current, past, and future clients, you are what keeps us going and always wanting to improve and get better.

4. My Health
 I am extremely grateful for my health, and the health of my family.

5. My Mentors
 I am very lucky to have people in my life that are helping me learn, grow, and constantly get better. I am always thankful for people making me better so I in turn can help our clients and make their lives better.

Thanks for taking the time to check out our post. If you have any questions, or want to let us know what you are thankful for, give us a call or send us an email. 

5 Things About our Guarantee Program

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

Hey guys, thanks for coming back to our blog. Today we just wanted to explain, a little more in-depth, our guarantee program. We have come up with 5 quick statements about our program that will hopefully be able to help you understand it better, because we know it is confusing at times. 

1. This is a trade-up program

To qualify for our guarantee, the client must be moving up and buying directly through a Briley Team listing. We can still offer you the guarantee if you don't, but we won't be able to offer as much. 

2. The Briley Team will buy your home for market price minus our 10% program fee

This figure is determined by both parties involved, based off comparable sales in the area. 

3. The commission then comes off of that net price

4. The Briley Team will offer the guarantee on homes up to $250,000

The average price for a home in Omaha is $200,000.

5. The client agrees to accept any offer that results in a net price equal or higher than the guarantee price.

If an offer hasn't been received within 180 days, The Briley Team will purchase the home for the guarantee price and close the sale within 45 days. 

Our guarantee program benefits both buyers and sellers. Buyers have the benefit of being able to sell their homes no matter what. Sellers benefit by knowing that our buyers will have no strings attached when it comes to purchasing a home if they are in our guarantee program. 

If you have any questions, feel free to give us a call. We would be glad to help.

A Beginner's Guide to Escrow

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

The word "escrow" is thrown around a lot in real estate, but it doesn't always refer to the same thing. Today, we want to give you different examples of where this word is used so you can be better informed. 

The 1st time you hear the word escrow is probably when you are a buyer. When you write a purchase agreement, you are going to also write an earnest deposit, which shows your good faith in purchasing the home. The deposit is then put into an escrow account, a 3rd party that's going to hold the money until the day of closing. 

The 2nd time you will probably hear the word escrow is when working with your loan officer. You will have to "escrow" about 7 months of property taxes and 1 year of homeowner's insurance. This money will be held in your mortgage company's escrow account. 

The last time you will hear it is with the title company and "closing of the escrow". This is where the title company transfers ownership from the old seller to the new buyer. 

If you have any questions about escrow, or about real estate in general, give us a call. We'd love to answer them for you. 

How Can You Know What Mortgage is Right for You?

 
There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

With so many different mortgages out there it can be difficult to know which kind might be right for you. Because staying informed is one of the best ways to ensure you make smart real estate decisions, we have put together a list of 4 types of mortgages you need to be aware of to be a smart home buyer:

1. Fixed-rate: These mortgages charge you the same rate for the agreed upon term - either a 15-, 20-, or 30-year period. While it's great to know exactly what to expect, the downside is when rates go down, your payments will not. 
2. Adjustable-rate: This mortgage is a bit more of a risk. There is no long-term rate - rather, the period is usually 3 to 5 years. The upside is you initially lock in a lower rate; the downside is your payments vary and will go up when rates go up.
3. FHA: These are often used by first-time home buyers. With an FHA loan you can get into your home with as little as 3.5% down. The downside is that there is a cap on how much they can loan you.
4. VA: Both active and former U.S. service members are eligible for this loan. You can get into a home with no money down, but there is a cap on how much you can borrow.

Knowing the difference between the many loans out there is an important step in being an educated home buyer. If you have further questions about borrowing, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to help you make the best possible real estate decisions.

How Mortgage Lenders Determine your Loan

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

When you are purchasing a home, you will probably need to apply for a mortgage. Lenders will then take many factors into account to determine how much of a loan you qualify for. What exactly are those factors? We are here to let you know so you can be prepared before you go meet with a lender. Here are the 3 main things that lenders look for:

1. Credit Score

 The first thing that lenders will look at is your credit score. There are 3 scores from 3 different bureaus. They range in value from 300-800 and the higher the score, the better.

2. Debt-to-Income Ratio

 The 2nd thing lenders will look at is how much money you have coming in vs. how much money you are spending. If you are married, they will look at both you and your spouse's ratios.

3. Down Payment

 The last thing they will look at is how much you are going to put down for a down payment. There are a lot of different loan programs out there, from FHA loans where you can put 3.5% down, or conventional programs where you can put anywhere from 5%- 20% or more down. 

If you have any questions about financing or about real estate in general, be sure to give us a call. We'd love to help out with anything you need. 

How Your Credit Score Can Hurt Your Chances of Buying a Home

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

Your credit score is complex combination of multiple factors that greatly affect your eligibility to take out a loan. Three companies - Equifax, Transunion, and Experian - provide information that your lender will use to determine whether or not a loan will be approved. These companies track where you spend money, what kind of debt you have, medical expenses, car payments, and credit card expenditures, among other things, to determine your score.

The range is between 300-800 and the baseline for eligibility depends on your particular situation and lender. To make sure you don't run into any problems, you need to err on the side of caution and work to build as good a credit score as possible. To do this, we recommend you check your score on a yearly basis, either through the IRS website or the many free credit score websites. This way you know what to expect before meeting with a lender.

If you are worried that your credit score is too low to qualify for a loan, feel free to reach out to us. We will put you in touch with experts in the field that can help you build your score to acceptable levels. We are also available to answer any of your questions about real estate in the Omaha area, so don't hesitate to give us a call. We would love to hear from you.

How to Get the Best Value for Your Home

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

Pricing your home right is one of the most crucial things you can do if you want to sell it quickly in the Omaha area. How do you price your home correctly?

The media spends a lot of time talking about rising home prices, but that doesn't mean you can raise the price of your home substantially. If you put it on the market for too much, it's going to sit there for a long time. You'll have buyers come through to look, but getting a solid offer will be difficult.

If you want your home to sell quickly, you need to make sure it's put at a fair market price. This will lure more buyers, increasing the chance you'll get a favorable offer. It's important to remember that a good offer is not just about the price, but the terms of the deal as well. We've seen a lot of multiple offer situations lately when homes are priced right, which is good news if your looking to sell your house.

If you have further questions about pricing strategies or about the Omaha market, give us a call or shoot us an email. We'd love to talk to you!

Get the Most Accurate Listing With our Help

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

Both Zillow and Trulia are amazing websites. We advertise with them a lot and they are very helpful in getting good exposure on homes for both buyers and sellers. However, due to their lack of access to a true MLS like the one we use at The Briley Team, their estimates on homes can be a bit off.

You may wonder how these sites are getting an accurate estimate on what your home is worth, but the truth is they really aren't. They are pulling data  from a mixture of county assessors, newspapers, and other listing services that take into account homes in the area, but not your specific home. Each home is unique and it's very common that these online estimates are as much as $100,000 off the actual worth of the home according to the MLS database. This could cause you to pursue a home you can't afford or to not pursue a home you should be.

It is really important that whether you are looking to buy or sell, you are talking to actual real estate professionals like ourselves. We know what these homes are really worth and we can talk you through the best strategies on pricing your home or putting an offer in on a new home. Our listings are the most accurate and if you would like to access them, you can do so right on this page! If you have any questions at all please feel free to contact us at (402) 680-5733 or at adam@brileyhomes.com.

Omaha Real Estate Market Update for Spring 2014

There are a variety of opportunities in the Omaha real estate market for both buyers and sellers. If you're a prospective buyer click here for a full home search, or if you're considering placing your home on the market, get a free home value report, right here.

Omaha Real Estate Market Update for Spring 2014

Today I just wanted to provide you with an Omaha real estate market update to help you make more informed decisions when you enter the real estate market.

• The biggest thing that we're seeing in the Omaha market right now is a low amount of housing inventory. In comparison to the last 5-7 years, we are seeing a significantly lower amount of homes to sell.
• This is a very opportune time to sell if you are considering putting your property on the market. Demand is high and you will likely get a great price on your home. Be sure to do this sooner rather than later because the market will become much more busy as we head into the summer.
• If you're a buyer you need to remember that interest rates are still very low. There are still good homes out there to choose from, but you will be facing competition and so you will need to be prepared to buy. Get your finances in order and get Pre-approved, and be ready to make a decision when you see a property that you like.
• Multiple offer situations are not uncommon, so be willing to fight for a home that you really like. We can help you to make an attractive contract that will increase your chances of getting the home that you desire.

The real estate market in Omaha this spring and summer will be moving quickly, so whether you are buying or selling you need to be prepared to act. My team can assist you in making smarter decisions so that you get the maximum benefit out of your real estate transaction.

If you need any assistance in finding real estate to buy or sell in Omaha, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am always willing to sit down and discuss your situation.

Thanks for tuning in!