3 Tips for Moving on a Tight Budget

No one ever said moving was easy, but sometimes the expenses can make it especially challenging. Sometimes moves come unexpectedly and you don’t have as much money to spend on it as you’d like, or you have other expenses to deal with after you move. Moving on a budget can be difficult, but it’s not impossible if you know where to save. Here are some of our favorite tips for moving without breaking the bank:

Move in the Winter

For movers, fall and winter are considered the “off-season.” It’s understandable. No one wants to have to drive for hours through the snow or load up all their stuff in the middle of winter. But if you’re moving on the budget, it might be worth it to consider moving in the colder months. Because movers get less business in the winter, they’re likely to offer sales and discounts during the off-season. You could save up to 30% on moving costs and have your pick of pick-up and delivery dates. You also might get to your new home faster, since there will be less traffic on the roads.

Lighten Your Load

Moving is a great time to go through all your stuff and see what you need to keep and what you need to toss. Think about it. You’ve downloaded all your music by now, right? Do you really need that big, outdated stereo? Are you going to read that book ever again? What about your wardrobe, is there anything that can be cut back on? Getting rid of the things that you don’t need anymore, or don’t want anymore, will not only make the move a bit cheaper and easier, but it might pad your budget a little. Rather than throwing out all of that, consider throwing a yard sale to make some extra cash.

Re-use Boxes

Rather than buying packing boxes new, save the next box that comes in from Amazon. Take boxes home from work. You can ask your friends, family, or local stores if they have any empty boxes they don’t need. Put feelers out on social media, even. Most people have more boxes than they need, and they’re just going to go in the trash if no one uses them. On the other hand, when you’re moving on a tight budget and every penny counts, buying new boxes for moving can be an expense you can’t afford--especially since moving companies know that movers need them and they’ll make you pay for it. There’s no need to spend that much on cardboard boxes when there are so many opportunities to get them for free.

Moving on a tight budget can be done with these savings-savvy tips, but to make the stress of the move easier, it’s worth considering hiring a realtor. A local expert in the Brazos Valley area can help you sell your home for the best price or move into the right home for you within your budget. She might even be able to offer a few extra tips to save you money on your move.

House For Sale in College Station

Sarah Miller, your RE/MAX realtor bryan-college station can help you discover a lot of great tips for making a profitable sale of your home. Call Sarah Miller at 979-255-1904 for your real estate needs in Bryan-College Station and the entire Brazos Valley!

Real Estate Predictions for 2018

2017 was quite a year for real estate, both in Brazos Valley and around the country. Now that it’s at an end, it’s time to look ahead to the predictions for 2018. Though it’s hard to know everything that will happen over the course of a year, economists and realtors alike have noticed trends moving in very specific directions. Based on those trends, here are some things you can expect when buying or selling your home in 2018:

We’re In for Another Seller’s Market

2017 was a seller’s market to be sure, with the price of home’s rising a whole 6.9 percent. 2018 is expected to be less extreme, but home prices will have a higher than average increase. Zillow’s chief economist, Svenja Gudell expects home prices to increase by 4.1 in 2018. There are a few factors that contribute to the rising home prices, like the rate of inflation, the desirability of the neighborhood, and the rate at which people are selling their homes. In 2018, it’s expected that more homeowners will decide to stick it out with their homes and remodel, which means there will be more buyers looking for homes than owners trying to sell their homes. It also means that if you’re considering selling your home, this may be the year for you.

Homeownership Will Stabilize

In 2016, homeownership dropped to an all-time low. Many people couldn’t afford to buy their own home or enjoyed the reduced responsibility that came with renting. Things started to improve somewhat in 2017, but in 2018, the rate is expected to finally stabilize at 63.9%. Many of those former rental apartment dwellers should start to seek out the security of a homeownership and will now have the savings to make it possible.

Millennials Will Take the Suburbs

For the past several years, the vast majority of millennials have preferred urban areas for a variety of reasons: it’s closer to work and has better public transportation coverage, it’s closer to their friends, and there’s more to do in the heart of the city than the suburbs. There tend to be more apartments in urban areas as well, which is what most millennials have sought. However, as millennials come into their 30s, market experts predict we’ll see more millennials moving into the suburbs...and into houses.

Buyers Will Move Away from High-Tax States

With major changes coming to tax laws, many buyers will no longer be willing to live in states with high income and property taxes like New York, California, and Maryland. In view of this prediction, Texas may receive an influx of homebuyers drawn in by the lack of personal income taxes and lack of property taxes for senior citizens.

If you’re interested in buying or selling your home in College Station or the Brazos Valley area this year, it’s a good idea to stay informed. If you have any questions about what to expect from the real estate market this year, talk to your local realtor. She can give you an expert look at the market and the best ways for you to buy or sell your home in it. 

House For Sale in College Station

Sarah Miller, your RE/MAX realtor bryan-college station can help you discover a lot of great tips for making a profitable sale of your home. Call Sarah Miller at 979-255-1904 for your real estate needs in Bryan-College Station and the entire Brazos Valley!

Christmas in College Station

The holidays are finally here! It’s a wonderful, blissful time of year wherever you live, a time of waiting for the first snow to fall and meeting with friends and family you haven’t seen all year. There’s something playful and exciting in the air. This is especially true here in College Station, where we proudly apply the Texan tradition of making everything bigger to our holiday cheer. Here the residential streets are decked out in impressive lights and yard displays. The Christmas pageants are a spectacle, and there are several outings full of holiday cheer for Christmas lovers. Here are some of the holiday events going on in College Station this year:

Santa’s Wonderland

If you live in Brazos Valley, you may have already visited Santa’s Wonderland this year. Located at 18898 Hwy 6, College Station, it opens as early as November 11th and stays open through the first week of the new year. Santa’s Wonderland is a holiday paradise. It’s a massive campus full of Christmas light displays, food stands, and shopping centers to find the perfect gift this year. It has everything from hayrides to carriage rides, a chance to see Santa Claus (decked out in a cowboy hat and all), live music, and lovable mascots like Marshall Frostbite, the snowman charged with “defending the spirit of Christmas.” Kids can enjoy the tallest mountain slide in Texas and the petting zoo, while parents can stop into the Wonderland winery. To finish off the day of family fun, there’s a big screen that plays your favorite holiday movies.

Community Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

On November 30 at 5:30pm, the Bryan-College Station community will hold their annual tree lighting ceremony at the George Bush Presidential Library Center. Musical entertainment will kick off the ceremony, and there will be celebrity guests to help light the large, beautiful Christmas tree. Throughout the month, you can visit the tree and take a family photo to cherish for years or send to long distant friends and family. The George Bush Presidential Library will also be collecting non-perishable food items and toys for Food for Families Food Drive and Toys for Tots, to help families in need during this time.

Christmas in the Park

Christmas in the Park runs from December 1-3 from 6-10pm. There, the Stephen C. Beachy Central Park is decked out in lights and transformed into a world of fun. Hayrides, inflatables, live entertainment, hot cocoa, and, of course, the big man in the red suit himself can all be found at this event. To make it easier to get there, shuttle buses run from downtown to the park and back starting at 5:30 and ending at 10:30. Guests are free to bring their own refreshments, but no alcohol is allowed. If you don’t bring refreshments, don’t worry. There will be plenty of food vendors right there at the park.

College Station is a sight to behold, and an even better place to live, during the holiday season. From our community, we’d like to wish you and your family a very happy holiday season. If you decide to make the move this season to College Station, choose a real estate professional and local expert to help you find the right home--and the best places to celebrate this year.

House for Sale in College Station

Sarah Miller, your RE/MAX realtor bryan-college station can help you discover a lot of great tips for making a profitable sale of your home. Call Sarah Miller at 979-255-1904 for your real estate needs in Bryan-College Station and the entire Brazos Valley!

Moving During the Holidays

Even if you’re excited to move, very few new homeowners are excited about the moving process. No matter what the time of year, it can be a headache. If you have to move sometime between November and January, that stress can be tenfold. There are a lot of adjustments to be made. What traditions will need to be foregone during the moving process? How are you going to manage visits to and from extended family? If you’re moving a long distance, how can you help the kids prepare for a semester at a new school away from their old friends? It can be trying, but it’s possible. Here are some of our tips for moving during the holidays this season:

Plan Ahead

If you know that you’re going to have to move by the end of the year, try to do most of your packing in November or early December. Keep only the necessities out of boxes so that by Christmas, all you have left to pack is the decorations and casserole dishes. The best thing to do is to move after Christmas, but if you have to move sometime between Thanksgiving and December, take care of most of the family get-togethers during the earlier holiday and agree to have a more laid back Christmas--you’ll have enough on your plate. Be realistic. If you have to tone things down this year, you can always make a bigger to-do next year.

Maintain Normalcy

Normalcy may seem impossible when trying to move during the holidays, and of course it won’t be the same, but keeping things as close to tradition as possible will be best for everyone’s peace of mind. If you usually decorate the house for Christmas, but you have to move out by December 31th, go ahead and decorate the house as you might have before. When it’s time to take the decorations down, you can save yourself some time by putting them in packing boxes rather than moving them back into storage. Open presents on Christmas Eve, but open them at your old home if you can. On the drive to the new house, listen to your holiday favorites to keep in the spirit. If you don’t have time to visit family because of all the demands of the move, have your neighbors over for both Christmas dinner and a farewell, whether you’re moving to a new city or just a new neighborhood.

Hire a Professional to Help

You have enough to worry about: let a real estate professional help you when it comes to selling your home or getting the best deal on a new home. Many homeowners think that the process will be simpler if they try to sell their home or buy a new home themselves, but they compound the stress of moving by taking on too much. Your local realtor not only does this kind of thing every day, but is an expert when it comes to the housing market in the area. You can focus on packing and transitioning into your new home and just trust your real estate agent to take care of finding the best deal for your home, old or new.


Moving during the holidays is a challenge, but not an insurmountable one. Let your local real estate professional help make it easier this year.

House for Sale in College Station

Sarah Miller, your RE/MAX realtor bryan-college station can help you discover a lot of great tips for making a profitable sale of your home. Call Sarah Miller at 979-255-1904 for your real estate needs in Bryan-College Station and the entire Brazos Valley!

How Much is Your College Station Home Worth

If you’re planning to move sometime in the next year, now is a good time to start to consider your home value. The price you can get for your current home is one of the most important factors when it comes to budgeting for the next house hunt. But just because you bought your home for $350,000 does not mean you’ll be able to sell it for the same. Over time, there can be several factors that can cause your home’s value to increase...or decrease. Some of these factors, like the housing market in your area, might be out of your hands, but there are some steps you can take to increase your home value before you sell.

What Causes Home Value to Decrease?

Most decreases in home value are due to market factors rather than your actual home. Increasing mortgage rates can dissuade people from buying a home, making it more difficult for homeowners to sell even the most stellar home. Foreclosures and short sales can also cause home value for the entire neighborhood to decrease. When a homebuyer can find a home for $100,000 or more less than the price of other houses of roughly the same size, why wouldn’t they take it? Thus comparable houses have to decrease in value in order to stay competitive. Environmental factors in the area, like propensity for flood damage or storms, can impact home value, as well.

One thing that is somewhat within the homeowner’s control is wear and tear to the home from storm damage or simply age. A home with an old roof or poorly sealed basement will decrease in value, but these things can be repaired before you move.

How Can Homeowner’s Increase Home Value?

Homeowners who plan to move but have some time before they do so will often remodel their home to make sure it’s in prime condition before they put it on the market. First, tackle problem areas in your home: a slightly sagging roof, chipping kitchen tile, low water pressure in the shower. Once you’ve fixed the most glaring problems, you can make cosmetic changes and, if you can afford it, update appliances to newer, more energy efficient appliances. Don’t forget to boost your curb appeal before you put your house on the market. New siding, a new roof, and a fresh front yard garden will draw the eye of prospective buyers and make them more interested in your house. Finally, staging the interior of your home by rearranging furniture in a way that’s more favorable to prospective buyers can help you to list a higher asking price. Do everything you can to make your home the most appealing home on the market.

How Can Homeowners Find Out Their Home Value?

Few homeowners are experts on the housing market, so now is a good time to talk to an expert. Have your home appraised. Talk to a local real estate agent who is well acquainted with the prices other homes in the neighborhood go for and what a fair asking price would be. Your realtor can do more than help you to understand the current market. They can also give you tips to increase your home value and go to bat for you with the potential buyers and their agent. Your realtor will make sure that you not only successfully sell your home, but that you get the best value possible out of it before moving on to your new home. 

House For Rent in College Station

Sarah Miller, your RE/MAX realtor bryan-college station can help you discover a lot of great tips for making a profitable sale of your home. Call Sarah Miller at 979-255-1904 for your real estate needs in Bryan-College Station and the entire Brazos Valley!

The Importance of Staging Your Home

If you’re selling your home, it’s time to start looking at it through the eyes of potential buyers. What kind of impression does your living room make? Your kitchen? Your master bedroom? If you’ve lived there for several years, you may have become used to chipped tile in the kitchen or a little bit of clutter in the living room. You might not even see it anymore. But potential buyers certainly will, and it could make all the difference when it comes to price negotiations.

Staging your home entails several aspects, including clearing away clutter, making repairs, enhancing lighting, and rearranging or even purchasing new furniture. It can be costly, but if it’s done correctly, it can increase the value of your home so you’ll be able to make that money back in the sale. Here’s what makes staging your home so important in the selling process:

Justifies a Higher Asking Price

When you talk to a real estate professional about selling your home, they can give you the market rates in the neighborhood so you have something to compare your home to. However, if you want to set an asking price at the higher end of those rates, your home needs to appear to be in prime condition. Even if it’s a 50 year old house, it should look as good as new to justify the asking price. Staging your home is key to creating this effect. The better the staging, the more favorably the buyer’s impression and the more they’ll be willing to pay for the home.

Helps Buyers to See it as Theirs

Have you ever gone to an animal shelter and seen a cat or dog in their crate and instantly imagined them as yours? As soon as you saw them, it clicked into place and you just knew that was the pet you had to have. That’s the impression your house staging should have on potential buyers. As soon as they walk inside, they should be able to see themselves living there. Ideally, the house should look comfortable and livable but not lived in, ready for new owners but not a blank canvas. If they cross from the living room into the kitchen and they’re already picturing themselves cooking dinner while keeping an eye on the kids, you’ve probably already won them over.

Increases the Chances the Home Will Sell

There’s an idea that if a house has been on the market for months and no one’s bought it, there must be something wrong. Maybe the price is too high. Maybe there are too many renovations needed. Whatever the case may be, the longer a house has been on the market, the less likely potential buyers are to check it out. As time goes on, you’ll have to lower your asking price just to ensure the house sells at all. If it’s staged well, however, and it makes a good impression on potential buyers, it won’t be on the market for very long. With a good staging, you may even have your pick of potential buyers.

Staging your home is the best way to make a good impression and ensure that your home sells quickly and for a reasonable price. Your local real estate professional can help you by giving you an idea of what your competition has and how to bring out the best qualities in your home. If your home is staged well, you may even be able to make a favorable impression on the buyer’s real estate agent.

House for Sale in College Station 

Sarah Miller, your RE/MAX realtor bryan-college station can help you discover a lot of great tips for making a profitable sale of your home. Call Sarah Miller at 979-255-1904 for your real estate needs in Bryan-College Station and the entire Brazos Valley!

Why You Need a Realtor When Selling Your Home

Just because you can sell your home on your own doesn’t mean you have to or that you should. The process of selling your home and moving can be a headache. You want things to run as smoothly as possible so you can move on to the next phase in your life. In the midst of managing all that, hiring a real estate agent can seem like an added complication. There’s no regulation anywhere in Brazos Valley that says you need one to sell your home, so why bother? In actuality, it’s the opposite: with the support of a professional real estate agent, the process of selling your home can only be made easier for you. 

Here are just a few ways that hiring a realtor can help you as you sell your home:

Expert Pricing Consultation

In the process of selling your home, you’ll be the one to set the price, but a real estate agent who knows the area inside and out can give you expert advice on setting a reasonable (but profitable) price. They can reference the prices of comparable homes and how long those homes remained on the market to give you an idea of what potential buyers will be willing to pay. A good real estate agent can even give you tips for increasing the value of your home so that you can reasonably set a price a little higher than average for an above average home.

Support for the Tricky Spots

No one likes to deal with negotiations and contracts. It’s uncomfortable and it can be a headache. But real estate agents are specifically trained to serve as a buffer between the buyer and seller and take care of all of those pain points. Your real estate agent can pass offers along from the buyer’s real estate agent and you can send them to counter-offer tactfully. No need to worry about bad blood between seller and buyer. Likewise, your real estate agent deals with real estate contracts on a regular basis. They can help you form a fair contract that will be reasonable to the buyer and profitable to you.

Your Realtor is Invested in Your Success

Listing agents work on commission, so how well your home sells will impact how much your agent will make at the end of the day. However, commission isn’t the only reason your realtor needs you to be satisfied with their support. Real estate agents rely on referrals for their business. If you’re satisfied with their work during your selling process, you’re more likely to tell your friends and boost their business. If you’re not satisfied or you feel you’ve been cheated by your realtor, they could lose potential customers. It’s not in your realtor’s interests to cheat you, but it is very much in their interests to provide you with excellent service.

If you’re selling your home in Bryan-College Station, make sure to contact a real estate professional who is an expert in the area. The better your realtor knows the area, the more she can help you to know what to expect for your upcoming sale. Selling your home doesn’t have to be a hassle if you have support from the right professional.

Home For Sale in College Station

Sarah Miller, your RE/MAX realtor bryan-college station can help you discover a lot of great tips for making a profitable sale of your home. Call Sarah Miller at 979-255-1904 for your real estate needs in Bryan-College Station and the entire Brazos Valley!