Patricia Rohan - Real Brokerage

The trick-or-treaters have gone home. The oven is still warm.

These caramel apple bars are what I make when I want the house to smell like October without doing any actual work, and they hold up on a plate for two days if they last that long.
Recipe is on the graphic, and my free book is yours if you want one.

https://patriciarohan.book.live/biz-card-book

Two to five percent of the purchase price is the range most buyers should be setting aside for closing.

That covers the lender's fees, title and escrow, and the taxes and insurance collected in advance, and the part people miss is that it sits on top of your down payment rather than coming out of it.

Ask your lender for an estimate early, and ask me for a free copy of my buyer guide.

https://patriciarohan.book.live/first-time-buyer-book

People assume downsizing is mostly a question of square footage.

It tends to be a question of which version of your life you want to be living in three years, and the square footage falls out of that answer rather than driving it.

The practical part is that sorting through forty years of belongings takes far longer than anyone plans for, which is why starting in October rather than January is the difference between choosing carefully and having someone haul it all away.

Line the sale and the purchase up together if you can manage it.

Request a free copy of my book and we can map it out.

https://patriciarohan.book.live/biz-card-book

Your five o'clock showing in October is happening in the dark.

Walk through the house at that hour some evening this week with every lamp you own switched on, and pay attention to which rooms still feel like caves, because those are the ones quietly costing you offers.

My free book covers the rest of the staging, so ask me for a copy.

https://patriciarohan.book.live/biz-card-book

Almost every move begins with the same knot, which is whether to sell first or buy first.

Selling first means you walk into the next negotiation knowing your exact number, which is a real advantage, though you may need somewhere to live for a stretch in between.

Buying first means one move rather than two, and a great deal more pressure on the timing of everything.

There are ways to bridge the gap, and which one suits you depends far more on your savings than on your preferences.

I keep free copies of my book on hand for this exact conversation.

https://patriciarohan.book.live/biz-card-book

I sold a house last year that had been in the same family since 1961.

The legal side was settled before we listed, and that mattered more than anyone expected it to, because an estate still working its way through probate can stall a closing at exactly the moment you cannot afford a delay.

Clearing the house took the family most of a month, so we built that into the schedule instead of pretending it would take a weekend.

Once it was ready it sold in eleven days.

There is a chapter on this in my free book, and I will happily send you a copy.

https://patriciarohan.book.live/biz-card-book

Sellers ask what they are actually paying for, and it is a fair thing to ask out loud.

Pricing comes first, and it has less to do with opinion than with knowing exactly which three houses on which three streets a buyer will be weighing yours against next month.

Then the marketing, meaning photographs that survive a phone screen, a description that sounds like a home rather than a spec sheet, and enough reach that you end up with more than one interested party, because one party is not a negotiation.

After that it turns into logistics: showings scheduled around your actual life, paperwork chased, the lender and the title company nudged along every few days.

And then the negotiating, which is usually where the compensation earns itself back several times over.

Very little of that is glamorous, but it is most of the job.

Ask me for a free copy of my book if you want the longer version.

https://patriciarohan.book.live/biz-card-book