Sell Your Home with Kids | 5 Tips To Sell Your Home | Ukiah Real Estate

Are you thinking of planning a surprise trip for your kids to Disneyland? I'm sure they would love that. A trip to move to a different house from the only home that they've ever known or loved or lived in. Probably going to be a different scenario. So, these are my five tips to help you with the sale of your home if you have kids. Hi, my name's Kasie Gray. I'm a realtor, a mom, and a broker associate in Ukiah, and I love helping people find their dream homes. Today we're gonna talk about selling your home with kids and some of my tips to keep them involved in the process and keep their emotions high. Excited, emotions high, and just some other tips to help you through this process. Number one on the list is don't make it a surprise. Be super transparent. Let them help you get ready for the sale of the home. Include them in the prep. I'm happy to have them at the listing table when we're ready for a presentation. Answer all of their questions, you know, openly and honestly, and the more that they understand, just like you. The seller will feel more comfortable and confident in the sale of the home. Number two on the list is if you are planning a move to a new house and you have secured that replacement property, it's a wonderful idea to let the kids come, and have them pick out the rooms. Decide what kind of new big girl or big boy bedroom they might want. Take a look at the new yard. Let them explore every part, and their excitement will be sure to flow over into helping with the sale of their home. Tip number three is to not expect them to be a good little helper on moving days. Honestly, it's probably just easier to have a grandma or grandpa or a trusted one. Friend or babysitter, watch the kids on a moving day because it is so overwhelming. And to see it getting all packed up and all the things can add to their stress, add to your stress, and nobody wants that. Obviously, you'll want them. To help you pack some boxes up here and there and you know, it contributes in that way. But it's probably a lot smoother of a process to have them go somewhere else for the day on a fun trip. If they do wanna be involved, you know, have somebody designated to be in charge of them. So then, You're not worrying about all of the people in and out in the cars and, um, if there are movers, you're not having to worry about who's in charge of them. You know, designate one person to mainly focus on the kids and other people to focus on the moving part. Number four on the list is to set aside a cute little box. Filled with all of their favorite things. So their blankets, their toys, maybe some special treats or some new decor items for their new house, have that ready for them for when they get to the house. So when all of their other stuff is packed up, they still have a box of things to play with. And don't feel super overwhelmed that all of their stuff is packed up and that they're never gonna see it again. Number five on the list is to plan for moving day meals. It's super overwhelming. Half your fridge is packed up and at the new house, and the other half is tucked in the way back of the moving truck. So, plan for moving meals, and get it scheduled on DoorDash or pizza delivery. Prep for some ideas, a snack box, a drink box, you know, have those ready to go because just like everybody else gets hung, kids definitely do. So make sure to have their favorite snacks ready to go. Maybe some popsicles for all of the hard work that they're putting in. So that is my list of five things I recommend to help the moving process go a lot smoother with kids. If you have any questions or are you looking for a reason to bust out the popsicles, you can call me and I'd be happy to help you find your dream home!

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Interest Rate Buy Down | Ukiah Real Estate

A big topic that is currently going on is interest rate buy-down. So, I'm going to get into what those are what those mean and how they could help you or hurt you. Hi, my name is Kasie Gray, your homegirl, and broker associate here in Ukiah California and I love helping first-time sellers buy their dream homes. So, this is a perfect time to look into that move-up sale. There is a lot of potential for a move-up sale but some things that you'll want to know are about interest rate buy-downs. So essentially what that is is you pay a chunk of money to buy down a percentage of your interest rate now. I am not a mortgage lender, and I am not licensed in mortgage lending but this is just information that you can get from the online Google bestie that is on everyone's computer. So if you have more questions, I would love to refer you to a mortgage lender but this is a brief understanding from a normal gal's brain. So, buying down your interest rate is a one-time upfront fee. So it's a way to lower your interest rate by using some of that cash that you might have on hand each point costs one percent of the mortgage full. For example, for a three hundred thousand dollar loan, the point would be three thousand dollars, and each point lowers the interest rate by around a quarter of a percent. So one point would lower the interest rate from six percent to five point seven five percent forward the entire life of the loan. So this isn't just for the first five years, this is for the entirety of your loan whether that's 30 years or 15 years. If you've got some extra savings you don't have a ton of work that needs to be done to the home when you get into it and you have the ability to buy down the interest rate, it could be a smart investment. You can talk to your mortgage lender to run different scenarios for you at different interest rates with different payments to see what will work best for you. If you have any other questions about getting approved for selling your home about buying a dream home, it's never too late to give me a call!

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Prepaid vs Closing Costs | Ukiah Real Estate

With all of the things that happen during the home-buying process, prepaid costs can sometimes be a surprise, and we don't want any of those. So you're in the right place to learn the difference between closing costs and prepaid costs. Let's get into it. Hi, my name is Kasie Gray, a Realtor broker, associate, and mom who loves helping families find their dream homes. Today, we're gonna talk about the difference between closing costs and prepaid costs. Your closing costs are your standard fees that come with buying a house, um, as a buyer. Those include escrow fees, title fees, title, insurance fees, and various notary fees if any. And lender fees, you don't pay for your realtor. Typically, as a buyer's agent, they get paid through by the seller, so that's not a closing cost fee that you have to worry about as a buyer. But there are various fees when it comes to closing costs. If you would like my free buyer's guide, that will be linked down below, but we're talking about prepaid costs right now, so let's get into that. Prepaid costs are going to be your initial escrow deposit, which is a chunk of money that you're going to put towards. The house, think of it kind of like a security deposit on a rental. Um, you give them a chunk of money. If you uphold your end of the bargain, that money goes towards your down payment. If for some reason you decide to back out while you still have contingencies or reasons to, you get that refunded to you. And if you go through with it, it goes towards your down. So that is a prepaid cost. Next up on the list is your homeowner's insurance premiums. So typically most lenders, depending on how much you're putting down, will want you to pay some prepaid and put some money towards your impound account. Your impound account will collect money for your taxes, your insurance, and your mortgage. The mortgage company will then pay out your insurance and taxes, but you'll make one payment to one place. So, it kind of wraps it all into one, which can be great for first-time home buyers or people who aren't so great at managing all of the different monies and funds and the places that money needs to go. So some lenders could wanna see up to six months. Or just three months depending on how much you're putting down. So that's a question that you're gonna ask your lender specifically. Um, but six months of prepaid insurance could be quite an index expense for most people. So that's the money you're going to make sure you have in mind when it comes to your prepaid. Next up is real estate property taxes. So, as I said, your lender is going to take the. From your payments and pay out those taxes and that insurance. But this impound account will hold the extra funds. So if you don't make the payment, they can still pay towards property taxes. Um, or if for some reason your property tax bill is more than you have expected, they can pay towards those. So that's a fee that you're going to wanna expect. Again, you'll wanna talk to your lender, but it should be around six months of property taxes and then mortgage interest. So depending on the lender, the type of loan, and, um, what you are, If you're buying down your rate, you could be paying towards your mortgage interest. So these are all the prepaid costs that are separate from closing costs, but kind of all wrapped in the same bubble. If you have questions about what kind of funds you're gonna need to have ready for buying your first house, your dream house, whatever it might be, I am here to run some numbers for you. Of course, free of charge. I want you to be aware of what that looks like, what the process looks like, and how I can help you!

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