Thursday, August 15, 2019

Home Sellers have new options when selling a home: help with pre-sale, home inspection repairs.

Baltimore Maryland/ Washington D.C.



When preparing to sell your home, there are several things you can do before and during the home sale process that will help you get maximum returns and reduce your time on market. Often, some contractors like to push for a whole house renovation but Teris Pantazes, co-founder of Baltimore and Washington D.C. Based Settle Rite Pre Sale Home Improvement has advice and warns against this.

For over 30 years, Mr. Pantazes has worked on hundreds of homes that were being sold or being preparing to be put on market. His experience includes working with home sellers, banks, and even municipalities and developing a plan which would help a home move quickly.

“They key is knowing your market” Pantazes states. “Simply taking a shotgun approach and replacing everything in the home is not always the best option, in fact, it can reduce your return on investment and often money is wasted by a contractor who wants to install a high price home improvement product that buyers really don’t want and your realtor doesn’t need”. Pantazes is referring to items that often are high dollar but rarely fetch a return.







A recent study found that the average homebuyer spends between 15 and 25 minutes in a home prior to making a decision. If this is accurate, an item like focusing your funds or finances on a kitchen or bathroom remodel gives the highest return, because those are the items that buyers remember. However, there is a point of diminishing returns as home sellers decide to invest money in their homes and each circumstance is unique. A kitchen or bathroom investment might have a 60% return for some home sellers whereas sealing your driveway might provide none (imagine how many home buyers look at a driveway before making an offer compared to the new countertops you have installed).

Pantazes also highlights the amount of time it takes to renovate an entire home. “When selling a property, as any realtor would attest, time is of the essence and a home seller must hit at the right moment and be ready for negotiation. Realtors don’t want to engage on your property and then wait 2 months for a contractor to do a full renovation or rehab. This holds up the sale”. In fact, in the U.S., most homes are sold in the warmer spring and summer months and if a home seller were to start a renovation in mid-summer, chances are they would loose most of the potential buyers for that home sale season.

In summary, when preparing your home for market, it is much more important to use a professional group that is focused on precision updates that have the highest return, not a shotgun approach of renovate everything. Each property is unique and you want to work with a company like Settle Rite to determine which updates and improvement will get you the most return on your investment and interest buyers to move quickly.

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Paying For Home Inspection Repairs

How to pay for Home Inspection repairs




When selling a home in Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, or Pennsylvania, a home seller may have to consider a great deal of repair work as a result of home inspections. There are many options to consider, like consulting with Baltimore Handyman website, which is arranged like a Freelance site for contractors, you can call a contractor directly, like Baltimore Handyman and TV Mount,  or you can use other sites like Angie's List, or Craigslist.

However, matter who you use, it has to be taken into consideration of how to pay for the repairs. That is why we are interested in the home repair payment organization, Settle Rite. You can't put repair costs on your credit card, you can't finance them, if you are going to purchase a new home, these are not options because you will be seeking a new home purchase.

Inspection repairs can be costly, imagine a week before settlement having to replace your HVAC system or installing all new smoke detectors. This is enough to make any home seller or realtor nervous, and should be researched fully.

This happened in baltimore last year when home seller was told to replace several outlets, and other home inspection repairs. They did not have the money to pay for them and their bank, said no more debt. This was a problem and their realtor turned to local handyman group. They were able to obtain the best contractor and finance for their pre-settlement home inspection repairs.

Thanks for reaching out- we are based in Washington D.C. and are here to help.


As you are likely aware, EFynch often works with Agents from Long & Foster and other Realtor groups. In doing this, we have launched Settle Rite by EFynch. Settle Rite helps homeowners prepare their homes for market and perform Home Inspection Repairs as Settlement approaches. The benefit of a home seller using Settle Rite is that in most cases, we can defer payments until closing so you can obtain home and inspection repairs immediately, but not have to pay until closing. There are no credit checks or marks on your credit so our services will not effect your ability to get a new mortgage when upgrading to a new home.

Looking for more information on pre-sale home improvement services: There is a website for that! Maryland Pre-Sale Home Improvement is a blog and information site that caters to this group- we recommend you check them out!