Selling your home in Battle Creek, Michigan in the present market environment can be a challenge. However, selling your home in Battle Creek, Michigan is possible. I can mean that new marketing approaches need to be tried, and most likely they do. Sometimes it can mean examining new ideas about how you sell the home, or offer some additional buyer incentives to see your home and make an offer.
Traditional methods of print advertising and open houses should not be discounted, however, one cannot overlook the importance of having a strong online campaign to draw attention to your listing. There is more to online marketing than just placing it on a local mutliple listing service.
I have taken to making videos of the homes I am marketing for my clients, as the present day home buyer is looking online most of the time in search of a new home. Having them see some quality videos of the home are key to raising their interest, and getting them in the door for a closer look. This all ties in with traditional methods, as it provides a road map to directing the people to the home for a showing.
In addition to a video presentation, it is important to have a Realtor that help you utilize the power of social media and blogging to get the home additional exposure. Tying in video marketing with all the aspects of blogging, and social media is the new effective way to increase exposure for your home above the competition. Being that most homeowners are not doing this to a full extreme, if you have a Realtor that can pull all of these elements together it can give you the greater edge in the marketplace.
For more information on selling your home in Battle Creek, watch this video I have put together below. You can also visit my website at: www.michaeldelaware.com.
The butterfly exhibit is a great opportunity for photographers and nature lovers.
The butterfly exhibit runs from March to April.
This past weekend I took a trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan to visit the Frederick Meijer Gardens Annual Butterfly Exhibit that runs annually from March 1st through April 30th each year. This year I decided to take some extra cameras and shoot not only photographs, but also some video.
I had a Canon Rebel ESI that I had purchased used last fall, and was looking forward to testing it out. I managed to get some nice photos with this camera before the battery died on me. I then switched to my Canon Powershot, and shot a majority of the video and photos seen here primarily with it.
The Fredrick Meijer Gardens also has a sculpture park, and during the warmer months when the leaves are full it is a beautiful place to visit and stroll the grounds. For more information about the Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, visit their website at: MeijerGardens.org.
The butterfly exhibit is an indoor exhibit in a special atrium that is kept quite warm and humid to approximate the climate of the butterflies natural habitat. The butterflies are primarily imported from Asia, Africa and South America in the exhibit, and they are a mix of some of the most beautiful species you may ever have a chance to see in Michigan.
I highly recommend people mark this annual event on their calendar, and visit it. The entry fee is $12.00 per adult, and there are reduced prices for children. You will want to bring your camera, and I suggest a fast action camera if possible. The butterflies are faster than you think, and are often gone before you can click the photo. So it is quite a challenge to get photos, and well as shoot video.
I hope you enjoy this sample of the exhibit that I have presented here, and if you like the video please click the ‘like’ button on Youtube. Thank you!
If you have grown tired of renting, than you might want to consider making the transition to owning your own home. This article is about ‘How to stop renting and buy your own home in Southwest Michigan.
If you set the goal to become a homeowner and stop renting, and you really decide to do it, nothing can stop you from getting there.
The most important thing to realize about renting is that although it offers flexibility in being able to move and relocated easier than when you own a home, it also offers no return on investment. In other words, when you pay rent each month, you are not buying into an asset of your own, but more exactly you are buying “Time to Remain” in the location from your landlord.
Although most people start as a renter when they move out into the world, many remain renters for a long time. Granted, in many areas of the country people cannot afford to buy a home, and renting may be less expensive. However, realize that when you rent your dollars are going towards someone elses investment, and not your own.
Making the transition to homeownership may sound like a daunting task to some people,
You can stop renting and become a homeowner.
but in actual fact, it is not as difficult as it may seem. Certainly there may be obstacles to overcome on the road to buy your own home, but if you approach it from the viewpoint that these obstacles can be overcome, you can arrive at your goal.
Being a homeowner offers you more freedoms than renting does. You can make modifications to your home without asking permission, unless you live in a neighborhood that has an association. In Southwest Michigan, we do not have a lot of these neighborhood associations as some other parts of the country.
If you are interested in making that transition from renting to owning your own home in Southwest Michigan, give me a call at: 269-441-8182 or contact me through my website at: www.michaeldelaware.com. You may find it is easier to become a homeowner than you ever realized.
When you are in the process of buying a foreclosure, there are some things that might happen at closing in Michigan that it is good information to be prepared for. This may also apply to other states, but I know this information to be a fact in Michigan, as I have experienced this as a Realtor helping people buy many foreclosures.
Knowing a few things about what might happen at closing can help you be prepared.
When you go to a closing, if you are paying cash, your closing should be relatively fast, usually taking about a half hour to sign the required papers. If you are financing, you need to prepare for at least a half hour to as much as an hour, depending on what type of loan you are taking out to buy the home. The government type loans, such as VA Guaranteed, FHA and USDA Rural Development for example usually take more time as there are more required documents to sign than conventional loans.
One of the things that might happen at a closing in Michigan is that you will have completed all of the signing, and pay any required payments, and then be informed that you will not be able to receive your keys until the seller signs. You then learn that the seller is not present, and the package needs to be overnighted to another location for their signatures.
Essentially what is happening in that circumstance is that you are attending what is called a ‘Witness Only’ closing. What this means is that the seller, which is usually a bank or mortgage company, is using a centralized title company in the state you live in, and then hiring a local title company close to you that is having your sign documents as a witness. In Michigan the centralized title companies typically used by the banks and mortgage companies are based mostly out of the Detroit area, or sometimes in Lansing.
Where the orders to ‘withhold keys’ comes from is usually the asset manager’s instruction
Foreclosures can offer some subtle differences when it comes to closings.
to the listing agent on how to disperse keys. Some are more strict on this issue than others, and more recent you do not see this happening as much, however it does happen. As a Realtor who represents a lot of buyers, I usually try to work through this issue to get the keys for my buyers at closing and am usually successful.
In either case, the worse case scenerio is that you have to wait a couple of days to receive your keys. With that in mind, I usually recommend to buyers that they do not plan anything to be done or delivered to the house immediately following closing until we know more about when the closing is going to occur, and what the disposition of the seller is in regards to possession of the property and the subject of keys.
Buying a foreclosure in Michigan usually means things are coordinated through a central title company in Detroit or Lansing.
Other things you can expect at closing is that you will be required to present to the title company a copy of a picture ID, which is usually a drivers license with most people. In case you do not have a drivers license, you will need to bring a picture ID of some form.
Additionally, any funds you are required to bring to closing, be it a loan or cash sale, will need to be certified funds. This means you will need a certified check from your bank or credit union. The funds are usually payable to the title company handling the closing, so coordinate with your Realtor on who this is.
If you are looking to buy a home in Southwest Michigan, and are interested in foreclosure properties, give me a call at: 269-441-8182 or contact me through my website at: www.michaeldelaware.com.
I was out showing houses just the other day, and I could not help but notice the beautiful clear blue skies. In Michigan we tend to grow accustomed to an overcast sky most of the winter months, so when you have a day where you see these rich blue skies, it makes one stop for a minute. As a child, evenI did not live in Michigan then, I used to lay on the cool grass of early spring and look at the blue skies, and let my imagination run…
Clear blue skies inspire the imagination...
There is a freshness to the early days of spring, before the leaves come on the trees that makes the landscape very interesting. We still in early April do not have the flowers, the green leaves that will soon cover the landscape, but the blue skies seem to lead the way.
As a Realtor that spends a lot of time on the road, through many weather condition through the different seasons, I like seeing a blue sky. I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I do. I long for the trees to be filled with leaves, and to hear the wind rustle as they move like ripples on the water. Early spring is a wonderful time in Michigan, despite the still chilly weather.
An old Irish blessing goes as follows: “May flowers always line your path and sunshine light
Clear blue skies are somewhat like the Irish blessing after a long bitter cold gray winter.
your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that’s always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.”
As a Southwest Michigan Realtor, I consider selling a home and getting homebuyers into the homes they are excited about is a way to help others achieve happiness. It is kind of like the effect of a seing a blue sky on a clear day. I hope if you are reading this, that you always remember to stop now and then and admire the beauty of a clear blue sky. As a child I used to lay on the grass in the early days of spring, and watch clouds in the blue sky and let my imagination run…
