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Expert Tips for Navigating the Real Estate Market

Our mission at Venturi Realty Group is to be your best resource for real estate advice. Whether you are a buyer, seller, or investor, our team of professionals can answer any questions you might have about real estate. Subscribe to this blog to get the latest news on local market trends and receive expert tips for buying or selling a home.

How Can Failing to Prepare for Winter Cost You Thousands?



There are many great Albuquerque 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 (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

It's important to prepare your home before the winter sets in, so you can protect it from damage that will cost you down the road. Home maintenance isn't something we like to do, but it's something we must do to improve our home's value and keep it looking nice. Today, we have a few tips on what to do to prepare for the cold weather season:


  • Winterize the cooler: If you have an evaporative cooler, make sure you drain it, take the belt out, and ensure the pump is dried out. You want to make sure all the water is off before sealing it up. If you have a damper, make sure you put it between the cooler and the furnace at this time.
  • Check the roof: During home inspections, the roof is typically the one item we see that gets the least amount of maintenance. If you're not comfortable checking the roof, we understand. However, we recommend having a roofing company come out and take a look at it. They'll check the penetrations and make sure everything looks good.
  • Check your gutters and canals: Make sure there is no debris clogging the waterways on your roof. It's important that water is properly diverted to protect your foundation.
  • Sweep your chimney: If you have a wood burning fireplace, be sure to sweep the chimney so it's ready to go when the cold weather sets in.
  • Winterize the gas powered equipment: Make sure you drain the fuel of your lawnmowers, weed whips, and leaf blowers. You can also use stabilizers to protect the motors over the winter season.
  • Change smoke detector batteries: This is just a good habit to get into. They should be changed every six months.
  • Check your fire extinguisher: If you don't have one, you should get one. If you do have one, you should check it - they often go years without being used.
  • Check for air leaks in the house: To maximize energy efficiency, use weather sealing and caulk to keep warm air in the house.
  • Reverse the ceiling fan: This will push warm air down and circulate through the home. This is another easy tip to increase energy efficiency.
We hope this checklist will make your winter preparations a bit easier. If you have any questions about these tasks, or would like more advice on how to protect your home, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to help you!

Tune in to ABC’s Shark Tank premiering on Friday Sept. 26 at 8/7c to see Tracy & Tego Venturi



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Albuquerque, NM – Tune in to ABC’s Shark Tank premiering on Friday Sept. 26 at 8/7c to see Tracy & Tego Venturi of The Venturi Team Realtors at Keller Williams Realty side-by-side with real estate magnate Barbara Corcoran.

Corcoran is Shark Tank’s resident real estate mogul and a prominent self-made multi millionaire. She is now endorsing a select few of the best real estate minds in the country, Tracy & Tego included. Tracy & Tego Venturi will appear in a commercial airing during the premier episode of The Shark Tank and in several additional episodes throughout the season.

Venturi’s company, The Venturi Team Realtors, is a dominant leader in the real estate industry, providing phenomenal service and expertise to a wide base of clientele in New Mexico, being the #1 real estate team with Keller Williams Realty in the state of New Mexico for the past 5 years.

Tracy & Tego Venturi are also part of the exclusive Radio & Television Experts (RATE) group, an elite network of real estate rainmakers. The RATE group has worked with numerous celebrities in addition to Corcoran, including Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bobby Bones and John Tesh, to spread awareness of the group’s real estate endeavours.

Corcoran is an iconic figure in the New York real estate scene and nationally known as the real estate contributor to the NBC TODAY show.   She has invested in more than two dozen businesses to date on Shark Tank, and has written several well-received books including Shark Tales: How I turned $1,000 into a Billion Dollar Business.

For more information, please contact:


Tracy Venturi – 505-263-2526
Email: Tracy@VenturiTeam.com
Website: www.WelcomeHomeABQ.com

Are You Eligible for Down Payment Assistance?



There are many great Albuquerque 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 (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.


Most people think down payment and closing cost assistance is for lower income individuals. The truth is if you earn a moderate income, you may still be eligible for these benefits here in Albuquerque. There are a lot of different assistance packages available to those looking to buy a home:
  • Payment$aver: If you qualify, you get a 'soft second' loan that has no interest rate and doesn't require monthly payments.
  • Hero Program: Low- to moderate-income home buyers that are employed in specific occupations - such as teachers, safety workers, healthcare workers, and active armed forces members - can obtain 3% down payment assistance.
  • Mortgage$aver:  Allows first-time home buyers to secure affordable mortgage loans.
  • Helping Hands: Aids individuals with disabilities.
  • Rio Rancho: Community development block grant allows down payment and closing cost assistance in Rio Rancho - up to 50% down payment and closing costs may be covered up to $5000.
  • Greater Albuquerque Housing Partnership: Currently, four neighborhoods in the Albuquerque area are eligible for assistance.
To get more details about the many programs available and whether you qualify, visit DownPaymentNM.com. For another great resource on assistance programs, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We work with some great lenders that can give you the helping hand you deserve!

Albuquerque Real Estate Market Update for Summer 2014


There are many great Albuquerque 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 (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today we're going to give you a quick update on the Albuquerque market so you know what to expect when buying or selling in the coming months. Overall, the quarterly report looks good, with the number of home sales holding steady from what we saw last year. Median sale price is also on stable ground, as we've seen a 2% increase. The most interesting part of the report is the difference between what homes are listed for and what they actually sell for - list prices are up 7% as opposed to only a 2% increase in sale price. It appears people are getting ahead of the market. While healthy, it's not quite to the extent homeowners think.

As far as foreclosed properties are concerned, we've seen some progress. The number of bank-owned homes on the market has dropped to about 15%, which is the lowest in 3 years. That's a great sign for the market, as working through that inventory will only help with the market's recovery.

I hope this bit of information has been helpful in some way. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to call. We'd love to here from you.

Know the Limits of Online Home Estimation Tools





There are many great Albuquerque 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 (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

There are many useful tools on the web that will help you find the estimated value of your Albuquerque home. As convenient as these sites might be, there is something you need to know about them.

New Mexico is a non-disclosure state, which means that the sales prices of properties are not publicly disclosed. Online home estimation tools asses value based on what homes are listed at in your county. This value is determined by a unique algorithm.

The problem is that homes rarely sell for their listed price. Most of the time there is a 3-6% variation either above or below the asking price. Because of this, websites like Zillow don't have the necessary information required to give an accurate estimate.
In fact, Zillow ranks lowest in terms of the accuracy of its estimates. But this doesn't mean it isn't useful.

Zillow and other online home estimation tools are a great place to get a basic idea of what your home is worth, a good place to start.

Once you have that baseline, contacting a real estate agent is your best option to get more detailed information on market conditions. We have the resources to do a full market analysis, see what other homes have sold for, and give you a full Comparative Market Analysis.

So give us a call or shoot us an email and we'll give you a clearer picture of what your home is worth, it's what we do!

Protest Your Property Taxes with our Assistance



There are many great Albuquerque 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 (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Today I will be covering a topic that most home owners or land owners in Albuquerque will be familiar with. I will be discussing property taxes and what you can do if you believe that your home is being valued too high.

This property tax notice is a precursor to the property tax bill that you will be receiving later on in November. This notice tells you what the value of your home is at the county level. The value of your home will be directly correlated to the amount of taxes that you owe on the property. Your property tax bill will likely not be ready until November, but right now is a good time to look at the notice you have received.

You should pay close attention to what the estimated value of your home is because if it seems too high, now would be your chance to go and protest your bill. You have 30 days to protest the valuation of your home after receiving the notice.

Keep in mind that your property taxes are only allowed to rise by 3% each year unless you've bought your home or the property in the past year.

There are lots of companies that can help you protest your taxes, and one of them here in Albuquerque is Double Eagle Property Tax Consultants. If you choose to use them, all you have to do is fill out their forms and they will do the rest for you.

If you choose to protest the taxes on your own, you will have to provide evidence to the county assessor in the form of comparable properties with their correlating values. We can help you to provide this evidence and also help to pinpoint a more appropriate value for your home.

Property values in New Mexico do not always match what your property is actually worth. If your property is valued at lower than what you believe it to be worth, then don't worry because that means you will be paying less in taxes on your property. The main thing to worry about that could cost you is if the county assessor values your home far beyond what it is worth.

If you would like to protest your property value and need some comparable data or advice, please be sure to contact me and I would be glad to provide you with advice and assistance.

As always, if you are looking to buy or sell in Albuquerque, then please do not hesitate to contact me and I would be more than happy to provide you with assistance. Call or email today to set up a time for us to speak!

Thanks for tuning in!

Create a Non-Negotiable Must-Have List to Narrow Your Home Search



There are many great Albuquerque 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 (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Meet my buyer team specialist, Jane Elizabeth, who is here with us today to discuss how to make your home search more successful. As a buyer specialist, Jane helps people find good homes all the time, so pay attention to her advice.

Jane has found that even if you were able to build a dream home with an unlimited budget, you would probably still be wishing for something more out of your home after it was built.

Because of this, Jane recommends that you begin your home search by sitting down and writing 5 Non-Negotiable Must Have criteria for your next home. These would be 5 things that you absolutely must have in your next home, such as a large garage or a home located in a good school district.

For example, in Albuquerque we have the Green Belt, Rio Rancho, and high desert areas. One way to narrow down your search is by figuring out what area you want to live in.

Or narrow down your search by looking for a home with only three bedrooms, for example. Try to keep it at right around 5 things, though, because if you put too many on this list it can grow harder and harder to find a suitable property for all of your needs. Just ask yourself what is most important to you.

The 5 things you put on your list will help narrow down your home search, which helps eliminate unnecessary time spent searching for homes that don't fit your needs. This helps me to do my job better, and you will be wasting less time and energy on properties that you will never want to buy.

If you're unsure of what you want or need, please feel free to come on into the office. We can talk about your specific needs and then search our list of inventory for a suitable home.

You can reach me directly at (505) 263-2529 or visit our website at www.welcomehomeabq.com.

Comprehensive 2014 Market Forecast for New Mexico




There are many great Albuquerque 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 (877) 933-6881 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Comprehensive 2014 Market Forecast for New Mexico

Hello, I'm here again to forecast the real estate market in Albuquerque for 2014. As 2013 acted as a year of recovery, we hope to experience some growth in 2014. Here are some things you can expect to see.
  • Nationally, the market is expected to be pretty hot. There has continued to be a shortage of homes for sale, and interest rates are supposed to remain steady.
  • Locally, appreciation is expected to remain at 1-3%
  • Trends you can expect to see this year are an increased velocity of home sales, as well as lots of new construction going on as the inventory of available homes declines. More custom-home builds are appearing as well, so land sales will also see some increased activity.
  • Real estate will become more technologically driven. More than ever, buyers are looking online for listings and using their cell phones to find homes.
  • Challenges here in New Mexico will most likely be affected by the loss of federal jobs, as real estate is linked with job growth.
  • This will be the year for sellers as supply will be down. The inventories of certain areas will be impacted differently, but overall you can expect to see less homes for sale.
  • Interest Rates are expected to take a slight hike this year and reach 5-5.5%

There are many things to take into consideration when purchasing real estate, so feel free to give us a shout and we'd be glad to sit down with you and take care of all your needs. Call us at (877) 933-6881 or email at info@welcomehomeabq.com.

Has Your Well Been Inspected?



Today we are at an inspection in Corrales; it is not a home inspection, but we are here to inspect the well. This is vacant piece of property that someone is buying to build a house on. Since there is an existing well on the property, I am here with Marty Deford from A-OK Home Inspections to perform the inspection. Marty is the best and is a wealth of knowledge! He knows a lot about everything and will talk to us about wells and water.

As I stated previously, Marty Deford is with A-OK Home Inspections, but his expertise reaches far beyond homes. Marty also is a commercial inspector, commercial buildings and a catastrophic insurance adjuster in 40 states. His duties at A-OK deal with anything from radon, mold, air quality, swimming pool inspections (with scuba gear!) and roof-to-basement home inspections. Marty is a nationally certified home inspector through NAHI and this allows him to train up and coming home inspectors.

As for today’s inspection, the first Marty will do is go over to the well area and inspect the pump and retaining tank for pressurization to make sure there are no leaks. Marty also checks to see that everything is connected correctly and that the electrical has continuity and no open grounds or anything that could damage the well motor.

After the internals are checked, Marty goes outside to perform a “recovery rate” inspection. This shows him the gallons-per-minute and how long it takes to recover that time. If you have a good pressurization tank, you can expect to see 8-20 gallons-per-minute. To calculate this, Marty runs the well for 15 minutes and after that he will fill up a five gallon container. Once the container is filled, he will time it and let the water run again. This is done three times so he can obtain a good average and to make sure the well doesn’t run out of water.

If you have any questions, give us a call at (877) 933-6881. Thanks and have a great day!