If you are considering the purchase of a home in a specific area or neighborhood, talk to people in the neighborhood, pick up fliers from the Real Estate Professionals’ Listed homes, as well as the For Sale by Owners’ homes. Talk not only to the area home owners but to service people, like home builders or remodeling specialists, insurance agents and mortgage brokers or others that may have some contacts in your specific area or neighborhood. Additionally your computer gives you a wide choice of web sites. However be wary, for some of the information you may glean from the Internet may be skewed due to age or various other reasons.

The value of a home depends on so many things, in addition, of course, to the latest sales in the area or neighborhood. Like, for instance, the square footage, the age of the home, the size of the lot, the location of the lot in the neighborhood, the lot amenities, the neighborhood amenities, the home amenities, the materials used, the quality of the work, etc. I may have missed a few items and I am not a professional appraiser, however, please realize, as a Realtor®, I work with the MLS (Multi-Listing Service) daily and know how to find up-to-the-minute sales data in your neighborhood, even the homes that have been sold For Sale By Owner, if they have closed.

The absolute best way to know you are paying a competitive price is to ask a Real Estate Professional to do a search for you requesting the latest sales in the neighborhood. Many people do not realize a Realtor® can request a specific sub-division or neighborhood by name, like Jacksonville Beach or Atlantic Beach, or Deerwood Estates or Kernan Chase. If there have been no sales in the neighborhood, then the real estate agent will search the greater area of the town or city you want. This type of search is done in the same database a Real Estate Appraiser uses to find the latest market data. This doesn’t mean Real Estate agents are Appraisers because there are so many factors that can impact a home’s value. It just means we are certified to access the data for you, explain how to analyze it and apply it , and have it available, if you decide to make an offer. The Multi-Listing database search is called a Certified Market Analysis or Competitive Market Analysis, a CMA in Realtor® lingo.

So please know if you are relocating to this area, have been planning to downsize to a condominium or smaller single family home, or, if you are a First Time Home Buyer, you will get the very latest home sales data from me before you make a offer. As a Real Estate Professional, I make this promise to you. I can be reached at gracehughesjax@gmail.com or give me a call on my business number at 904-249-6545, and ask to be connected to my cell phone.

To find homes listed for sale in the Jacksonville or Jacksonville Beach MLS area, or the Greater Jacksonville five county MLS area, including Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach and Neptune Beach, log onto my web site at: www.FindaPlaceWithStyleNgrace.com or call me Direct at 904-233-1341.