Michelle Peacock, Realtor®

Well, that went fast… I recently listed a home for sale in College Station. Did you blink and miss it? This home sold FAST! ~ Showings started before it hit the market! ~ An offer was received in the first week! ~ From listing to closing it was 6 weeks! ~ It sold for the highest price in the neighborhood in the past year! It’s obviously time for me to find another house to sell! Have you been thinking about selling your home? I would love the chance to chat with you about what I did to help this home sell quickly and for a good price. Give me a call ~ I would love to help! If you missed your chance to see this home, don’t worry. There are so many amazing homes to choose from, I am sure I can help you find the perfect one for you! Michelle Peacock, Realtor ® TM5 Properties michelle@tm5properties.com

It’s Fall y’all! Fall officially starts on September 22nd each year ~ but the Fall activities come rushing into Aggieland during the last month of Summer. Around here the end of summer is a very anticipated time of year ~ eagerly for some and with a little bit of fear for others. There’s no stopping this busy and exciting time of year in Aggieland! New residents have arrived by the thousands! The University really starts to bustle, with students filtering in for new student conferences, Fish Camp, move in, and then the start of school on August 28th this year. Many are also students at the Bryan Campus of Blinn College. The population of Aggieland increases in size very quickly. Most locals have learned to adjust their schedules in order to get shopping trips completed and to get to their destinations (jobs, schools, etc.) on time. The influx of new people contributes greatly to our economy as well ~ the students eat at our restaurants and shop at our stores ~ it’s very good for

To fix it up before I sell or not? THAT is the question! This is a very hard question to answer for so many. There are so many variables: What is the current market like? Is it a seller’s market? Is it a buyer’s market? How quickly do I need to sell the home? Will my improvements result in a higher sales price? If your goal is to sell your home you probably don’t want to fix it up specifically to your taste. There are, however, quite a few things that will not break the bank that can be done to improve the odds of receiving a good offer on your home. Here are just a few ideas: 1. CLEAN. Clean the house, clean the yard, declutter everything, clean the toilets, clean the tile grout, clean the windows, clean the baseboards - you get my drift. Make it feel like a home you would love to walk into and purchase. CLEAN. 2. If you have broken knobs and pulls in your bathrooms, kitchen, laundry or anywhere else these can be replaced in a fairly inexpensive manner. 3. Surprisin

Considering Buying a Home? Contract to Close! So you’ve done all of the preparation work, you’ve checked out some amazing homes with your Realtor and you’re ready to make an offer! Your Realtor will help guide you through your offer and any negotiations that may be needed to get your offer accepted. Many people think that this means they own a house ~ not so fast. Once your offer is accepted you begin your contract period, it will still be about a month, or possibly more, before that home becomes yours. The first phase of your contract period is called the Option period. This is the time frame where you have the home and property inspected. Licensed professionals will be hired to come and look at the structure, the roof, the foundation, and check all the fixtures and appliances that will remain with the property. They will also check out the heating and cooling systems as well as inspect for wood destroying insects. It can take a couple of weeks to get all of this done, as w

Considering buying a home? Consider the value. Hopefully you have had a chance to read through my previous posts in this blog series. You’ve thought about your timeline , checked your credit score and have worked with a lender . You are a prepared and educated buyer who knows how much you want to spend (in this market it makes all the difference) and you are ready to go out to look at some amazing homes! As you enter into your earnest home search you need to consider the value of your potential purchase and how it will impact your decision. Price per square foot? What does that mean right? More often than not, homes for sale are priced at a comparable price per square foot to the other homes that have recently sold in the neighborhood. The average price per square foot can vary widely between different cities as well as different neighborhoods within each city. The average price per square foot for homes in Bryan over the last month was about $113 and for homes in College

Considering buying a home? Consider your budget. In this blog series we have been talking about the items in your timeline to purchase a home. The last post we talked about reviewing your credit report and what that score might mean for you when you are working to purchase a home. Hopefully you’ve had time to look at your credit report and if you found items you wanted to improve or needed to correct you have started to work on them. In this blog post we are going to talk about some of the costs you will want to think about before you head out to look at houses. After you have reviewed your credit report and are content with the score you will want to speak with your lender. Your lender will be able to tell you what you qualify for in a home loan (we all know that, right?). They will also be able to tell you what your monthly payments can possibly look like. These monthly payments can vary widely depending on how much of a down payment you plan to make, what type of loan you

Are you considering buying a home? In a month? In six months? Ever? In my last blog post: " Consider your timeline " we talked about the timeline for the home purchase process. The first thing you should do is check your credit report (if you haven’t already). Most of us will have to work with a lender for at least one home purchase in our lifetime and when we do we should be aware of what our credit score is and how it can help or hurt our efforts to purchase the home we want. There are several credit reporting agencies that lenders use: Equifax , Transunion and Experian . You can pull your credit report from each of these agencies once per year for FREE - and you really should. " How does my credit score affect my ability to purchase a home? " When talking about your credit no one really likes surprises, I mean unless your score is HIGHER than you thought it would be, right? Pulling your credit report allows you to see your score so you know what to ex

Thinking about buying a home? Here are some things to consider about your timeline. I often talk to people who are interested in purchasing a home and feel like they are “starting early” when, in reality, they may be starting the process right on time. I want to take this opportunity to go over a few aspects of the home buying process that may come as a surprise and provide some suggestions that may make this process go more smoothly. Check your credit reports Take the time to pull your credit report from all the major companies (you can do this each year for free). Check for inaccuracies & errors that you can call and have repaired. Check to see if there are any payments that you may need to make or bring current that might improve your score. A better credit score means a better rate. You may find your credit report to be exactly what you expected, no surprises at all. If that is the case this process will go pretty quickly. You may find, however, that there are

Living in Bryan-College Station In my last blog post I talked a little about what it’s like to live in “Aggieland”. The impact our university has on the twin cities is undeniable; Bryan-College Station would not look anything like it does today if it weren’t for Texas A&M. These towns have a lot to offer outside of the university! Local Parks & Outdoors Bryan-College Station has PLENTY of spaces to enjoy the outdoors. The combined parks and recreation departments for the City of College Station and the City of Bryan have 50+ parks and trails listed on their websites. They also have pools for hours of summer activities and fun, facilities for rentals for events, and they run year-round programs for children, adults and seniors. Lake Somerville is a Texas Parks & Wildlife park about 40 minutes from Bryan-College Station and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It offers trails for hiking and mountain biking; state park access with boat ramps, wat

“Living in Aggieland” If you are thinking about or even planning on moving to the Bryan-College Station area and DID NOT attend Texas A&M or grow up in the area adjusting to the Aggie culture can be a bit of a shock. The cities have built up around the university, and are thus closely tied to Texas A&M. Understanding at least a little bit about Texas A&M; the students, traditions and events will make the transition to living among Aggies go smoothly (and be a lot more fun). The “Spirit” of Aggieland Texas Aggie events are notoriously noisy. The students take pride in their position as “The 12th Man”. They stand throughout the football games and make as much noise as possible to support their team in any sport. The Aggies do get used to all of this racket, but the opposing teams can have trouble keeping up through all of the noise. The noise you might hear coming from the students (and former students) are “Yells”. At Texas A&M there are no cheerleaders, ins

Why hire a Real Estate Agent to help you sell your home? In the last blog post we talked about why it is useful to hire a Real Estate Agent to help you purchase a home. Now we are going to talk about why it is helpful to use a professional to help you sell your home. Knowledge About the area - Just as it is important for your Agent to have knowledge of the area if you are looking for a home to purchase it is also important for them to have knowledge of the area when you are selling your home. This knowledge helps them understand current market conditions which will affect your pricing strategies. They also have access to specific knowledge on prices of homes in the area that have recently sold. These "comparables" will be very useful when determining a list price for your home. Staging and Presentation - Real Estate Agents spend a lot of time looking at homes and showing their clients homes. They listen to and participate in feedback on homes that are currently list

Why Hire a Realtor to help you purchase a home? It seems like wouldn’t be that hard, right? You’re ready to purchase a home. You drive around, check all big the websites, make a few phone calls and BAM! You find your perfect home, make an offer & in 30 days you move in. If the home buying process was that easy there would be a lot of Realtors out of work. Truth be told there is a lot more involved in the process of purchasing property and there are plenty of great reasons to hire a Realtor to help you through it.  Knowledge  When you hire a Realtor you have access to their knowledge, training and experience. How often does the average person purchase a home? How often does a real estate agent assist a client in the purchase of their home? You get the idea. When you use a Realtor, you automatically gain additional experiential knowledge to tap into.  Knowledge about the area . Especially if you are trying to purchase in a new or unfamiliar area. What is traffic flow l