Laurel Path Properties

Dealing with termites? 😬

It’s a homeowner’s nightmare… ESPECIALLY if you’ve been thinking of selling your home.

Unfortunately, you can’t sell your home the traditional way if it has termite damage (not until the termites are killed and the damage is completely fixed).

But you CAN sell to a professional homebuyer like ourselves who buy homes as-is for cash (we can even close within a couple of weeks). If you’re interested in getting a no-pressure fair cash offer on your home, give us a call at (610) 345-7281.

If you still want to go the traditional route, then the first step is to hire local pest control to get rid of the termites. Depending on how serious the damage is and how many termites your property has, this can cost anywhere from $500 to $2,500 — just call pest control to get a quote.

Once you’ve got rid of the termites, it’s time to fix the damage. You basically have two options when it comes to fixing termite damage…

1/ Replace the damaged wood with brand new wood.
2/ Add pieces of new wood to the damaged wood as support (beware that this might cause your house to not pass inspection, though).

The first option is your best bet for not running into more problems down the road. How much it costs will depend heavily on how much wood you have to replace. Feel free to give us a call if you’re wondering what the best next steps are for your situations (610) 345-7281!

Want to pay less in bills toward your property this month… and next month?

Whether you have tenants in it or not, here are 5 ways that you can reduce your monthly bills on a property that you own (and estimated monthly savings).

Refinance ($100+ per/month) — Refinancing your loan is one of the best ways to save. If you really want lower monthly payments and don’t care about paying more to interest over the life of the loan, then you can refinance to a longer-term loan. Or, if you have good credit, you can refinance to get a better interest rate.

Eliminate Mortgage Insurance ($100 – $200/month) — If you have 20% or more equity on your house and good credit, you might be able to cancel your mortgage insurance. It’s definitely worth asking your lender if that would be an option for you.

Rent Out Part Of Your Home ($300+/month) — Looking to downsize? Why not rent out some of that extra space instead? In today’s world, you can even rent out a bedroom to digital nomads, students, or seasonal visitors.

Try Out An App Like Truebill ($100/year) — If you don’t have tenants who are paying for monthly services, you might consider using Truebill, which is an app that can negotiate with your house’s service providers to decrease your annual bills by $100 or more per year.

Programmable Thermostat (10%-30% of energy bill) — Purchasing a programmable thermostat can help you save on energy bills every month so you’re not running the heat or AC when you don’t need to be.

Or if the house you own is more hassle than all this is worth and you’d rather sell it for cash, give us a call at (610) 345-7281 and we’ll make you a fair offer within the next 48 hours.

Does your house need to be cleared of trash and junk? Not sure what to do about it?

Here are your options…

Clean It Yourself — This is definitely the most time-intensive option. But if you love the property and don’t have the budget to pay for cleaning services, then you’ll have to put in some of your own elbow grease. Set aside a weekend to clean up as much as you can, invite friends and family to help (ask them to bring their trucks), assign some people to load the trucks and others to take trash to your local dump, buy pizza for everyone who helped, and you might be surprised at how much you get done in a day. Do it again and again until all the trash is gone.

Hire a Cleaning Service — If you have more money than time and you want to keep the property, then consider hiring a professional cleaning service. Just go to homeadvisor.com/cost/cleaning-services/ and type in your zip code to get estimates. They will bring their own trucks and leave your property trash-free. The average cost is $50 to $90 per hour.

Sell Your House For Cash — If you don’t want to worry about cleaning out your property or fixing it up… if it’s more work than it’s worth, you can sell the property as-is to us for cash (we can get you a cash offer in just a few days). Feel free to call us at (610) 345-7281.

When is the best time of year to sell your house?

The winter season?
NOPE 👎⛔ ❌

Summer?
YEP 🤝🤑😎

Assuming that your house is in tip-top condition (fresh paint job, sparkly clean, great landscaping), then if you list your house during the summer, you won’t only sell your house faster, you’ll get more money for it.

As far back as we can track historical data, the price of homes naturally increases (because of demand) during the summer and naturally decreases during the winter by between 5% and 8%.

Plus, if you sell in the winter, it’s going to take you longer to sell and you’re less likely to benefit from a bidding war between buyers.

List your house at just the right time (the best months are between May & July) and you could make an extra 8% profit.

Cool, huh?

Of course, this is assuming that your house is in great condition with lush landscaping, a fresh paint job, quartz countertops, new stainless steel appliances, etc…

If your house ISN’T at MAGAZINE-level condition (🙄buyers today… geez) or you just want to get the property off your hands as quickly as possible (rather than patiently waiting for the right season to sell), give us a call at (610) 345-7281 and we’ll make you a fair cash offer (and we don’t care what time of year it is 😉). We can even close within a few days!

Selling your home soon in the Lehigh Valley?

Here’s what to expect (according to cold, hard data)…

Overall, It Takes Between 65 and 93 Days To Sell — According to Zillow, the average house spends 2-3 months on the market, from listing to closing.

It Takes 1-2 Months To Get an Acceptable Offer — The average house seller accepts on offer on their home after about 1-2 months of having listed it.

5-10 Days To Complete Home Inspection — The buyer will want to inspect the home within a couple of weeks after you accept their offer. They can then make a counter-offer or “retrade” to try and get a better deal.

Counter-Offer After Inspection — Most buyers, after the home inspection, will make a counter-offer that’s contingent upon you repairing anything that’s broken or cleaning anything that’s dirty.

You’ll Pay Between 1% to 3% at Closing — For closing costs, most sellers spend 1% to 3% of the purchase price. On a $250,000 home, that’s $2,500 to $7,500.

If you’d rather avoid the hassle of selling your house the traditional way, give us a call — we can make you a cash offer for your property, as-is, and close within just a couple of weeks: (610) 345-7281