Good photography can make the difference between a home selling in weeks or selling in months. We’ve all seen the weird real estate listings circulating on the internet and made fun of the rooms full of porcelain dolls and weird tchotchkes. Don’t let that be your house! 

Although real estate photographers are skilled in making your home look its best, they’re not miracle workers. The photos representing your home should give potential buyers a true feel for the space—without having to imagine what it could look like without your clutter.

Here are a few things home sellers do that mess up their real estate photos!

1. Leave the home dirty and cluttered

One of the most important ways to get your home ready for photos is to clean and…

Investing in rental properties can make you a lot of money in the long run - but only if you do it right! Here are some of the biggest mistakes you can make when starting the journey into buying rental properties. 

1. Not getting a home inspection before you buy

A home might look perfectly ok to the untrained eye, but don’t forget that your investment isn’t just those four walls. It’s the plumbing, electrical, foundation and other important elements that you need to get a professional to assess before you commit. 

2. Not properly calculating to cost vs. revenue

A deal may seem incredible, and you feel like you need to jump on it. We get it. BUT don’t do yourself a disservice and sign on the dotted line without doing your homework. You need a…

The idea of saving enough money to buy your own home can seem daunting. A downpayment for a home needs to be at least 3-5 percent of the purchase price, which even for a $100,000 home is $3,000 to $5,000 you’ll need up front. 

So, how do you save that kind of money? We have some money saving tips and tricks to help you be more frugal and save money fast.

1. Come up with a time frame

Decide when you want to buy a home. If your goal is to buy a home next year, that gives you 12 months to save up for your downpayment. If you want to put 5% down on a $150,000 home and start saving now, you know you need to put back $625 a month to make it happen! Now that you’ve broken it down like that, it doesn’t seem as scary right? 

2. Set up a separate…

Nathan Torgerson and The Torgerson Team at Keller Williams Realty was recently presented the honor of Top Team at Keller Williams Realty Greater Downtown Chattanooga for 2018 in Units and Volume as well as Top 5 Team at Keller Williams Realty in the state of Tennessee for 2018.

“Each year we recognize the top groups, teams and individual agents in our office for their accomplishments in the year before,” says Nathan Brown, chief leadership officer for Keller Williams Realty of Greater Downtown Chattanooga. “For someone to earn these awards in particular, they have to be ridiculously effective and efficient at providing phenomenal service to clients, otherwise (the client) wouldn’t repeat business with that agent.”

Three or more agents working…

Many homeowners want to know how much their home is worth—and understandably so! Whether they intend to sell in the near future or are wondering how much added value their home improvements have created, most homeowners want to know just how much their home is worth in today’s market. 

Unfortunately, there is no simple answer to this question, and it definitely can’t be answered with a visit to an internet site. Finding out how much your home is worth is a complex process that shouldn’t be done without the advice of a local Realtor who is familiar with the market. 

Here are some FAQs we receive from homeowners to help you on the way of finding out the value of your home: 

Q. Can I determine my home’s value from an internet website? 

A.…

The Chattanooga area housing market is booming. Homes are getting multiple offers and selling in just days of being listed. There are hardly enough homes in inventory for the amount of people looking to buy.

So … when will the bubble burst? Are we looking at another housing crisis on the horizon?

With the demand for homes only going up in this bustling market, we’re looking at the possibility of housing prices raising to the point that buyers won’t be able to afford them. Although we aren’t there yet, with home prices trending upwards, we have to look back and consider what that meant historically in the real estate market.

In the past, when home prices have gone up at this rate, it kept many potential buyers—from young newlyweds looking for…

There has never been a better time than now to list your home! The home inventory in Chattanooga and North Georgia is so low that homes are selling in just hours of being on the market. 

Choosing a Realtor is the most important step in the process, so if you’re thinking of listing your home, here are just a few questions to get you started: 

1. How many clients do you have right now? 

This question is worthwhile for two reasons. First of all, you want to know how much business your potential Realtor is doing. If they only have a couple couple of clients, you have to wonder why. But also if they are a mega agent with more clients than they can handle, will your home get the attention and effort that it needs? Make sure that there is a good balance…

Buying your first house is a huge step into adulthood. And as most of us know, it’s an expensive one! In fact, a 2017 Zillow survey of 13,000 adults found that only 39 percent of millennials are able to make the standard down payment on a home, and just one in five can pay the minimum to secure a home loan. Ouch. 

The good news is, there are definitely ways to cut down on the cost of buying your first home. Here are 7 of our best tips:

1. Choose an experienced Realtor

This is first on our list because it’s the most important! And it’s not just because we’re biased. You might be amazing at searching sites like Trulia and Zillow for potential homes, but what you probably don’t know is sometimes that information is totally incorrect. So you can find…

Now that we’re halfway through 2018, we thought it was a great time for a mid-year review of Chattanooga’s booming real estate market. With low home inventory and plenty of people either relocating here or choosing to buy a home, there are great opportunities for both buyers and sellers in today's market. Here’s what we know looking back on 2018 so far:

1. Median sale price is at a three-year high in the Greater Chattanooga and North Georgia areas

The median sales price for 2018 is currently at $201,000, while in 2016 it sat at $172,000. Home prices are doing well in many areas of our market. For example, in St. Elmo homes sell 30 days faster than the area average and for almost $10,000 more than other areas! Many sellers are surprised by home…

Selling Secret #10 - Price your home right the first time

So many sellers make the mistake of pricing their home way too high at first with the idea that they can always lower the price later. But this is the wrong way to go! When a home is first listed on the MLS (Multiple Listing Services - a service your realtor has that shows all the homes available in our market) , that’s when you’ll get the most interest and buzz about your home. If you price it too high out of the gate, people will pass right by your listing and by the time you figure that out and lower the price, it can be too late. Not to mention, if you see something with its price marked down, sometimes your first thought is that something is wrong with that item. Same goes for a…