Kansas City Real Estate Video Blog with Adam Butler: 2014

What You Don't Know About Reverse Mortgages Could Cost You

Welcome back folks! Today we want to talk to you about reverse mortgages and why you should avoid them.

Reverse mortgages are generally a bad idea. They take advantage of the elderly by foreclosing as soon as someone passes, without giving payoffs to whoever is in charge of the estate. Essentially, they foreclose and take the equity of a property as soon as the owner passes away. In short, it's an ugly business.

Some lenders may tell you that's not how it happens. However, we have had clients who have personally had very bad experiences with reverse mortgages. Our advice it to STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

If you have a loved one who is older and considering getting a reverse mortgage, let them know that there are other options, other ways to pull equity out of a home. If equity is left on the home after passing, they will try to take it on top of the large amount of fees that the reverse mortgage sets up.

We want to make sure you don't get taken advantage of. If you have any questions about this dreary topic, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to advise you on your other options when financing your home!

Why Is Now the Perfect Time to Sell?

Today, I want to talk to you about putting your home on the market or leaving your home on the market during the holiday season.

Right now, there is a shortage of homes and a lot of buyers looking. This is a little unusual for this time. A few homes we've listed have multiple showings lined up and one already has an offer. One of our sellers took their home off the market around Thanksgiving, which is very customary for many listings, but an agent reached out to us and we ended up getting it sold!

What I'm trying to say is this: Don't wait until after the holidays to list! Christmas decorations help your house show like a home and really generate a warm feeling in potential buyers. If you do want to wait, give us a call or shoot us an email so we can get you ready to go by January of February.

We hope you and your family have a wonder Christmas and New Year!

Our Client Appreciation Party Was a Hit!

We just wanted to say thanks to all the wonderful people who came out to our client appreciation party out at the cider mill. We went through 180 hot dogs, 120 burgers, and a whole bunch of cotton candy and popcorn. It really was a blast - in fact, we had so much fun we forgot to shoot footage!

If you didn't make it, we hope to see you next time. On the other hand, if you get a chance to refer someone to us, we're having a referral party soon. It will be a black tie event and there will be catered food, casino games, drinks, and drawings for lots of prizes. We take great care of our referrals, so don't keep us a secret if you know someone who is looking to buy or sell a home in the Kansas City area.

Again, thanks for making it out to our client appreciation party. We look forward to seeing you next year or at our upcoming referral party. Have a great week!

Now's the Time to Get Your Home Ready for Winter

The cold months are just around the corner here in Kansas City, so we have some advice on how you can protect your home from water damage. Here are 3 easy and inexpensive ways to you can do just that:

Plumber's putty: Apply some plumber's putty around the area the AC pipes enter your house. Water damage can crack the seal and damage your siding - adding the putty will insulate the area and protect it. A jar of the stuff only costs a few bucks!
Spigot protector: When you take the hose off your spigot, use another $2 item to protect it. It surrounds the area to keep the water from getting too cold and freezing. This is an extra step, in addition to the freeze plug, that will prevent your pipes from freezing and breaking.
Gutter screens: Another cheap item you can use to protect your home is a gutter screen. They're only a dollar a piece but they'll save you a lot of trouble down the road. Jam these screens where your gutters drop to the ground to prevent leaves from getting stuck. This way, water won't overflow and run down parts of the house it's not supposed to.

To thank you for visiting our blog today, the first person to email us and let us know they intend do these 3 things will get a $20 gift card to Lowes! That should cover the cost of doing these simple tasks. The next two people to email us will get a gift card for smoothies at Robeks.

If you have any questions about or concerns with anything dealing with real estate, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We want to be your Kansas City real estate resource!

Would you like to go to a Chiefs game on us?

There are many great Kansas City area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (913) 685-2326 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Football season is finally here! To celebrate, I want to have a little contest. In today's video, I kick a football over my house, with the hopes of it landing in the pool. The first person to guess if it landed in the pool or the closest distance from the pool without going over, will win two pairs of preseason passes to the Chiefs game against the Vikings. It's a Saturday evening game, so it should be great.

Comment here, on Youtube, or shoot us an email with your guess, so you can win tickets to the game! Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

What does Zillow's Acquisition of Trulia mean for You?

An absolutely massive transaction took place recently in the real estate industry. A $3.5 billion dollar transaction, in fact. No, we aren't bragging about a deal we closed, we are talking about Zillow's acquisition of Trulia. These are 2 of the 3 biggest players in the online home search industry and 98% of buyers look at these sites first before they even contact an agent.

These sites are important, both to the consumer and the agent. We work a lot with Zillow and spend thousands on their site each month to get better online listings and to get our buyers on the site in touch with our sellers. Zillow currently receives over 80 million visitors a month , and with the acquisition of Trulia, that number is only going to increase.

These sites are great for searching for homes online and we are proud to do business with them, but we do run into problems from time to time. One thing we don't like about Zillow is their zestimate feature. It's not very accurate and can cause a lot of headaches for buyers, sellers, and agents. When it comes to getting an accurate and true value of your home, you need to speak with a real live agent who has boots on the ground in your area.

If you have any questions , please feel free to give us a call. We are here to help. Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Kansas City Real Estate Market Update Summer 2014

I want to start off by saying that if you haven't yet, check out the "Where's Adam?" segment from my video above. You could win a Robeks gift card if you answer my location correctly. So, the first three people to email me at adam@adambutlerteam.com will receive a Robeks gift card.

Today I'll be giving you a brief market update on what is happening in the Kansas City area. It has been a few months, but let me start off by saying that the market is pretty similar to where it was a few months ago, but change is coming soon.

Inventory on homes is still low and we are still in a seller's market. Now is a great time to get your home on the market. Families that are looking to move will want to get everything taken care of before mid- August, so that they can settle in by the time the kids go back to school. I fear that if you wait too long to put your home on the market, the number of buyers will dramatically decrease. You will have a more difficult time selling your home if this is the case. My team wants to get your home sold as quickly and effectively as possible and is doing well above the industry and Kansas City average with a number around 30 days.

If you have any questions for us, or would like to put your home up for sale while the market is still hot, give us a call. At the Adam Butler Team, we cater to you!

Adam is so friendly and he just does a really good job

"When we were looking to buy a home, we decided to go on Dave Ramsey’s website and that’s how we met with Adam Butler. I can’t say I’ve have bad experiences working with other Realtors, but we’ve always felt that Adam was by far the best Realtor we’ve dealt with. Adam is so friendly and he just does a really good job. He is very knowledgeable and patient, especially with us! It took us a really long time to find the exact house we wanted but Adam was always more than happy to show us more houses. We really enjoyed our experience of working with Adam. He’s a great Realtor. Adam will always be honest with you and he will absolutely do his best to make sure that the house your selling will be sold or that you find the house you want. Adam Butler can definitely be trusted!"

Mark White, Home Buyer

He makes you feel really comfortable throughout the whole process

"When we were looking to buy a house, we decided to drive around a particular neighborhood to see what we could find. We found a house we liked and decided to call the number on the sign and that’s how we met Adam. After we called him, we met him in person and we really liked him. Since then, we’ve used Adam to buy and sell 2 other houses. We are so glad we found him! Adam does a really great job! Before we had used a different Realtor to buy my first house and the experience didn’t really compare to Adam. Adam is just more professional and that’s one thing that really sets him apart. He does everything right. Adam is very honest and he makes you feel really comfortable throughout the whole process. There are so many other things that set Adam apart that I can’t think of them all! One thing that sticks out to me is that there isn’t anything he isn’t willing to do for his clients. For example, if I need him to bring me paperwork, he’d come bring me the paper. I was getting my house ready because we listed yesterday and I contacted him to see if he could come by to tell me what else needed to be done to my house and he came by that day! Adam just goes above and beyond for his clients. If you want the best agent that is going to sell your house and do it in the most professional manner, Adam Butler is the Realtor to go with!"

Mark Pratt, Home Buyer

Capture Buyers Effortlessly with Improved Curb Appeal

Spring Cleaning: You Never Get a Second Chance at a 1st Impression

Today I wanted to talk about the importance of spring cleaning on both the inside and outside of your Kansas City home. You need to make an impact on your potential buyers as soon as they see your house, and to do this you need to spruce it up a bit.

If you look at the flower garden in this video, it needs a little touch-up, but not a whole lot because it is a rock garden. Rock is much easier to maintain than mulch, although I personally prefer the look of mulch.

Front doors are also things that might need to be paid more attention to. The door here in the video is pretty high-end, but it says a lot about the rest of the house, so you might want to consider installing a nicer front door. If you're standing outside the property waiting for the listing agent to open the door, you're going to notice the entryway while you wait, and this is your chance to impress the buyer.

Most people decide whether they like a property or not within the first 10-15 seconds of entering. You don't want to get off on the wrong foot with your customers, so pay close attention to your front entrance and the exterior.

Sometimes it's as simple as adding a few bags of mulch to an area to improve it, or repainting a front door. You'll see the examples of bad and good entryways in the video.

I want to thank you again for tuning in, and I hope that all of this information has been helpful to you. If you're looking to buy or sell real estate in Kansas City, then please do not hesitate to contact me or my team. We would be more than happy to sit down and discuss your situation.

Capitalize on Rising Land Values in Kansas City

Today I want to start off by congratulating Mark, Ryan, and Jack for guessing where I was in my last video blog. I was actually inside of my new office in Kansas City, so good guesses and thanks for participating!

We're going to do another round of Where's Adam? today as I am out in the middle of a large chunk of land outside of Kansas City.

I also thought this would be a good time to talk about land values. Land values have gone up recently, whether it's land that is vacant, or land with houses on them. People tend to want a little more elbow room these days, and we have a few properties that are situated on an acre of land. However, these properties tend to go pretty fast.

So if you're looking to buy land, I would grab it when you can. Also, if you have land to sell it's a good time to do so because it is kind of a frenzy right now. It's actually a good time to buy or sell land. Some people are buying land and sitting on it, then building, and some people are building right away.

I actually have a piece of land for sale at I-470 and Chipman Rd. in Lee's Summit. It is in a neighborhood and is a very private, 5-acre lot that is wooded with a creek in the back. If you're looking to build a dream home at a private spot in the city, then this could be your perfect opportunity. We're asking $160K for it, and it will not last long, so contact me about it.

Now, where is Adam?

Hopefully this sculpture can serve as a clue to you. So, the first three people to email me at adam@adambutlerteam.com will receive a free $25 dollar gift card to Starbucks.

As always, contact me with any and all of your Kansas City real estate needs. I can be reached at (913) 685-2326.

Find a Good Lender to Assure Your Home Purchase....and Guess Where I am to Win $25 dollars to Starbucks...

There are many great Kansas City area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (913) 685-2326 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Find a Good Lender to Assure Your Home Purchase....and Guess Where I am to Win $25 dollars to Starbucks...

Before I get started with this blog, I'm going to give you an opportunity to have a little fun. I'm going to start doing a new thing once per month on here called, "Where's Adam?". The goal here is to guess where I'm shooting this blog from, and the first three people to guess correctly will win a $25 dollar gift card to Starbucks!

Now...about real estate.

Choosing a Good Lender
In a seller's market, you want a lender that will not drop the ball and potentially lose your home. With the market here in Kansas City moving as quickly as it is, you could lose your home if your lender drops the ball. We're seeing lots of offers that are above listing prices, so if your lender drops the ball at the eleventh hour and tells you that they need another day to close, you could very likely lose that house.

With that being said, we never want that to happen. We work with some great lenders at Alterra Bank and Stonegate Mortgage that bend over backwards for all of their clients. If you're not in the Kansas City area but still want a good lender, go local. Don't utilize an online service that is based in California because it is a little cheaper. You want someone that you can talk to and reach at any point in time. Working with local lenders will help to make them more accountable for your finances and will hopefully prevent them from ruining the purchase of your property.

Once again, don't forget to email me at adam@adambutlerteam.com to guess where I'm shooting these videos from. You could win a $25 dollar gift card if you're one of the first three people to correctly guess where I am.

As always, contact me if you need any real estate advice or are looking to buy or sell in Kansas City. I can be reached at (913) 685-2326.

The Three C's of Preparing Your Home For Sale

Looking to buy or sell a home in Kansas City? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (913) 685-2326 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

With spring rapidly approaching in Kansas City, I've been receiving a lot of inquiries regarding what my clients can do to get their homes ready for sale. While every realtor will suggest different things, there are a few that you absolutely must do to prepare your home for sale. These are just a few of the necessary steps you should take to prepare your home.

1. Countertops: Clear off these spaces. Remove appliances from them and also clean them. You want to make it appear as if you do not live in the property. Let the buyer imagine what they might put on your counters.

2. Closets: This advice goes for these spaces too. Clean out your closets as best as you can. You want to show as much carpet as possible. The more empty a closet is, the larger it appears to be. Even if you have a smaller home with smaller closets, if you empty them out it can instantly make a potential buyer think that your home is larger. Empty space is your friend.

3. Carpet: The more carpet you have showing, the better. Clear away couches and recliners, or do whatever is necessary to free up carpet space. Removing the furnishings and displaying your flooring will make your home appear larger and much nicer.

These are just a few simple ways that you can prepare your home for sale. Overall, you want to emphasize empty space and aim for neutrality. You have to let the buyer imagine themselves living in your home, and the best way to do that is to declutter, clean, and neutralize your home of unnecessary items.

If you want a full explanation for your specific property, just contact me and I would be glad to give you a more detailed list of ways to prepare for a sale. There are many different things to consider, and the list above is only a small fraction. However, expect a very busy spring and summer market here in Kansas City, so start making these preparations as soon as possible.

Also, if you need assistance either buying or selling real estate in Kansas City, please contact me. You can reach me by phone at (913) 685-2326 or contact me via email at adam@adambutlerteam.com

Important Kansas City Real Estate Predictions for 2014

Looking to buy or sell a home in Kansas City? Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at (913) 685-2326 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Hello and welcome to my new video blog where I'll be updating you every two weeks on how the market in Kansas City is doing. Aside from these updates, I want to educate and inform you on various aspects of the real estate market in order for you to succeed in all your financial endeavors. Allow me to be your resource for real estate.

What We Might See in 2014

Sales prices are up 6.5% from last year, which is a good sign for this year.
Sales volume is the same, but inventory is down, which might explain the rise in sales prices.
Interest rates are expected to stay the same, which could drive sales prices up another 5-7%.

If you're thinking about doing something with real estate, this spring would be a good time to make that choice. Feel free to contact us because we would love to help you in any way.

You can reach me at (913) 685-2326 or send me an email at adam@adambutlerteam.com

Thanks for tuning in, I'll see you next time!

Why Hire The Adam Butler Team?

The Adam Butler Team has been selling real estate in Kansas City for more than 17 years and we consistently provide superior service to our clients. We are among the top-selling agency in volume sold and sell well over 100 homes per year. Some of our exclusive offers here are the Guaranteed Sold program or the Love It or Leave it program which are both set in place to ensure the satisfaction of our clients.

To sell efficiently and better serve our clients, we have an array of professionals such as a client care specialist, a marketing professional, listing agents and buyers agents. This allows us to get top dollar and sell your house faster, which is a huge benefit to our customers. Our own unique blend of efficiency and expertise is what makes our brand so great, and is also what keeps us on top of the Kansas City real estate market. We look forward to serving you.

Adam Butler
The Adam Butler Team
11005 Metcalf Avenue
Overland Park, KS 66210
(913) 685-2326
Adam@AdamButlerTeam.com

Adam Butler Testimonials

Click to hear recent
testimonials from happy clients

Mark P. - ”Adam is just more professional and that’s one thing that really sets him apart. He does everything right. Adam is very honest and he makes you feel really comfortable throughout the whole process"

Mark W. - “I can’t say I’ve have bad experiences working with other Realtors, but we’ve always felt that Adam was by far the best Realtor we’ve dealt with. Adam is so friendly and he just does a really good job. He is very knowledgeable and patient, especially with us! "