Howard County Real Estate with Mike Sloan

Where Can You Find the Best Deal in Real Estate?

There are many Howard County 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 property valuation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at 410-964-2400 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Whether you're a homeowner or an investor, we are your go-to team if you are interested in purchasing or selling an REO or foreclosed property. The reason is simple: we have over six years of experience selling foreclosures and have sold over 500 of these properties!

We have something very special we offer our clients here in Howard County. We have a list of over 200 homes that have been assigned to us by our financial institutions to bring to the market. These homes aren't on the market yet, but our agents can let you preview those properties before they become widely available.

Our buyer agents have a wealth of experience to help you navigate through the financial world of buying or selling foreclosure properties. Whether you're a cash, FHA, or conventional buyer, our agents have the expertise necessary to work with the lenders and get the deal done.

It's quite simple: we understand the foreclosure market better than any other agents. Don't believe us? Give us a call and schedule a time to interview us. We think you'll be impressed!

What Should You Look for in a Seller's Agent?

At The Pat Hiban Group, we take home selling seriously, working on a home-by-home basis to ensure the needs of each seller are satisfied. Here's what we bring to the table: 50 years of combined experience, 6,000 homes sold, and over a billion dollars in sales. But those are just numbers - there are three things that separate us from other agents out there that you should know about.

Flexible commissions: We sit down and discuss every listing and decide what a smart commission would be for us and, more importantly, for you as a seller. We adjust commissions based on what makes sense for a particular home and the particular needs of the seller.
Do not lock clients in: Most agencies have sellers sign a contract that makes them committed to their agent for 6 or 12 months. With us, you're not locked in to a seller contract. We allow you to cancel if you give a 24-hour notice. If you don't like us - fire us! This promise keeps us accountable, so you always have the best possible service.
Freedom to find your own seller: If you list with us but find a seller on your own, you don't need to pay us a penny. We understand that people often have family or coworkers that may want to buy their home. Most contracts require you to pay a commission even if your mother buys your house - we don't!

As you can see, we have a lot to offer sellers. If you would like to learn more about what The Pat Hiban Group can do for you, give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to hear from you!

Who Won Our Latest Challenge?

We want to say thank you to everyone who participated in the Candy Corn Challenge. The guesses have been submitted and the candy has been counted, so we're ready to announce the lucky winner. The person who guessed the closest is... Maria Mathios of Sandy Spring Maryland! Congratulations Maria! The exact number of candy was 2,877.

Thanks again to all of our clients, past clients, friends, and families, who continue to support us. Be sure to stay tuned for our next video - you never know what we're going to do next!

What Does this New Luxury Development Have to Offer?

Today, I want to introduce you to a brand new luxury apartment complex, the Metropolitan. This is going to be Columbia's most dynamic apartment building and is fantastic for empty nesters. It's appealing to people of all ages, but 65% of the available spaces are single-bedroom apartments. There are various floor plans available, including multilevel living spaces.

I was lucky enough to get a pre-construction tour of these rooms and let me tell you: they are something to behold! There are 217 available spaces located downtown right next to the Columbia mall, so you can walk everywhere you need to go. On the ground floor, the architects of the Metropolitan have created a sense of community; there's a billiard room, tech room, movie room, bike room, and just about everything else you can think of. Outside, there are grills for cooking out, a pool, fireplace, and many other things. The whole main level is more like a hotel than it is like an apartment building.

The Metropolitan will be right next to the still-under-construction Promenade, which will provide residents many commercial outlets. There will be three major restaurants, which can't yet be disclosed, with outdoor seating. In addition to the shopping and food, there will be an interactive playground in the area for kids to play on, making the environment one for people of all ages and interests.

If you would like more information on this brand new development, don't hesitate to reach out to the Hiban Group. We would love to answer your questions and show you the best places for empty nesters to settle. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

What Should Your Buyer's Agent Be Doing for You?

There are many reasons to work with The Pat Hiban Group to find the home of your dreams. For one, we have a team to represent you from the early stages of your home search to the settlement table.

Rather than working with an agent who is juggling a million things at once, we have more than two agents working on your behalf at all times. Here is how our team shares the responsibilities of the buying process to ensure that it is efficient and stress-free:

Personal Agent: You will have a primary agent whose responsibility is to work with you personally, represent your best interest, and negotiate on your behalf.
Inside: We have a client care coordinator working at our office whose job it is to scour the MLS for listings. They are available to answer questions if for some reason your agent isn't free, as well as coordinate showing times and send you details about listings.
Outside: This agent will show you homes and meet you at properties with additional information on the neighborhood and surrounding areas.

Why work with a single agent when you can have at least 3 sharing the responsibilities for no additional charge? We provide you the resources you need to make finding your dream home an easy task. Our client care coordinators are licensed Realtors who will help you and your agent throughout the entire buying process.

If you want to work with an efficient team that gets quality results, give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to show you what we have to offer!

How Mike Sloan helped a client buy a new home

"My husband and I were in no rush to buy a new home and started passively looking. Mike was very patient and professional! When we started to look more aggressively he jumped right in with us and was extremely attentive, available and personable. He is honest and provided appropriate counsel and wisdom. We couldn't be more in love with our house and enjoyed working with Mike throughout the process!"

How we made Anthony's home buying experience a pleasantly successful one

"Kathy Sloan Beard helped make the search process for a new home a very positive experience from start to settlement. I enjoyed her personable low key approach and never felt rushed into making a final decision. Her long time familiarity with Howard County of course was a big plus also."

-Anthony C. Pagnotti, Home Buyer

How we helped Ralvin and Tiffany find a home

"Thanks to Kathy Beard, our home buying experience was far less stressful than we could have imagined it to be. She was very understanding and took her time to explain the whole home buying process and answered all of our questions and concerns in a knowledgeable and confident manner. It only took us several weeks to find the house we wanted and within a couple months settled into our first home and couldn't be happier with our purchase. Thanks Kathy!"

-Ralvin and Tiffany Ngaya, Home Buyers

What Are the Options for Empty Nesters?

Recently, the Pat Hiban Group has been talking to our friends and family members who no longer have kids living at home. We've wondered what motivates people to stay in their current home, and why others choose to downsize.

Because the answer wasn't immediately clear, we've created a list of people we know personally who are empty nesters or soon-to-be empty nesters. We're going to ask them what they plan to do and why, and share the results here on our video blog.

We are passionate about helping people sell their homes and buy other homes. To help empty nesters get a better picture of what options are available to them, we'll discuss different communities, builders, and areas of interest - as well as what people who decide to stay put can do to improve their current home - in our upcoming videos.

We would love to hear what you have to say on the topic, so give us a call or shoot us an email. We want to have a helpful conversation about the pros and cons of being an empty nester. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Howard County Real Estate Seller Tip's

Are you thinking about selling your home or is it currently on the market? We've got 20 great tips to make your life a whole lot easier:

Replace your light fixtures.
Replace hardware in your kitchen: An updated kitchen adds a ton of value to your home.
Paint old cabinets: Replacing them can be expensive - painting is an easy way to make them look brand new.
Replace old faucets in kitchen and bathrooms: This is an easy way to freshen up.
Update vanities: You can find quality, affordable ones at Costco.
Add curb appeal: Get fresh mulch, trim your trees, and detail your yard.
Remove screen windows.
Paint your front door.
Replace light bulbs with high-watt lights.
Remove unused clothes from closets.
Fold linens in your closets: Making your closets look nice will impress potential buyers.
Set table with your best china.
Pull out best towels for guest bathroom.
Buy new bedspreads.
Make it smell good.
De-critter: Put animal cages, food bowls, toys, and litter boxes away.
Give every room a purpose: Working with a professional stager can help you with this.
Have windows professionally cleaned.
Reorganize under sinks.
Get rid of the dehumidifier.

Sure, the list might look daunting - but these are all pretty simple and affordable things to do. We're sure they will make all the difference when the time comes to show your home.

If you have any questions about our list or would like more home selling tips, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to make the selling process a whole lot easier!

Howard County Real Estate Market Snapshot

Interesting things have been happening here in Howard County. We're currently inching our way out of a seller's market and toward a more healthy and balanced one. While we saw a small decline in inventory from July to August, inventory is up 40% over last year.

Home prices have been rising steadily since 2012 - from $436,000 two years ago to $472,000 this year. There's good news for buyers as well: with inventory up, buyers have more homes to choose from than at any time in the last 5 years.

What does all of this mean? Buyers should take advantage of low interest rates and the wide selection of homes - there is no better time than now to find that perfect home. Sellers, on the other hand, need to price and market their home aggressively if they want to maximize their profit.

Whether you're buying or selling, we can help you make the most of your real estate transaction. Don't hesitate to reach out to us with all your real estate needs!

What Do You Need to Do Before Putting Your Home on the Market?

We hope you had a safe and happy Labor Day! We're here today to give you some tips on how you can prepare your home for the market. Regardless of whether you plan to move today, in a few months, or years down the road. we think you'll find these 5 tips helpful:

Decultter: This one is obvious, but you would be surprised by the number of people who don't clear their home of clutter before putting it on the market. By storing seldom-used appliances, cleaning out junk drawers, and moving random items from surfaces you not only make your home look better, you make the moving process easier.
Depersonalize: You need to make your home as neutral and anonymous as possible. Remove family photos, artwork, refrigerator magnets, and other personal items. You want potential buyers to think of their families living in the house, not yours.
Study the market: If you are familiar with the real estate trends in your area, you will have a much better chance of selling your home. Contact anyone from our team and we'll happily send you the comparables from your area.
Search your home: Get online and go to the various home search sites and see if your home stands out in terms of price and condition. Your home needs to be in the top 6 in your price range if you want it to get maximum exposure. An agent can help with this.
Improve: Do small, affordable jobs around the house to improve your home's value. Replacing light fixtures, applying a fresh coat of paint, and cleaning your carpet will go a long way toward making your home look great. Ideally, you want to spend less than 1% of the sales price on these little improvements.

These 5 tips are just a starting point. There are plenty of cheap and easy things you can do to and around your home to sell it quickly and for top dollar.

If you're interested in selling your home, shoot us an email with your address and neighborhood, and we'll send you a free comparative market analysis on a monthly basis - simply email us at Homes@Hiban.com. As always, if you have real estate questions of any kind, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We're your number one Columbia real estate resource!

Howard County Real Estate Market Update for August 2014

There are many Howard County 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 property valuation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call us at 410-964-2400 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Thanks for joining us, everyone. This is the first edition of our video blog, where we will be talking about all different kinds of real estate topics to help educate you on what's going on. Today, we want to give you a quick market update for Howard County so you know exactly what's going on.

The bottom line today is money is cheap! It is a fantastic time to buy a home right now. Mortgage rates are steady at historical lows around 4.25% for conventional and 4% for FHA and VA loans. Rates for jumbo loans, or loans over $495,500, are at an affordable 4.375% when you put 20% down. We would suggest that this market is very balanced compared to where it was at this time last year. Due to increases in inventory over the last year, we are trending towards more of a buyer's market than a seller's market.

The supply of homes in Howard County is up 56.6% in June 2014 as compared to June 2013. This can be attributed to basic economics and supply and demand. What happens is, inventory has continued to increase while demand has laid flat. Over time, if these conditions continue, there will be a downward pressure on price.

A note to sellers, even though our inventory is high, it's still a great time to sell your home. If your home is priced well and in good condition, your house will certainly sell with help from the Pat Hiban group. As for buyers, there has been no time in the last 5 years where there has been more opportunity to choose from the supply of inventory on the market.

If you or anybody you know are looking to buy or sell real estate in Howard County, please give us a call or send us an email. We would be glad to help. Thanks, and have a great day!

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Why work with the Pat Hiban Group?

If you are looking for a real estate agent who listens to his clients, pays attention when they talk about their goals – what they want and need, develops an effective game-winning plan, and uses all his experience and skill to negotiate a successful transaction, then Mike is the agent for you. Mike has been a full time agent for more than 12 years. In that time, he’s sold more than 700 homes, generated more than $200 million in sales, and made The Wall Street Journal’s list of “Top Agents.” In 2010, he became managing partner of the Pat Hiban Real Estate Group. While he enjoys overseeing the sales team and the administrative side of the business, what he likes best is meeting people, building relationships and helping clients – that’s what drives this competitor who enjoys a challenge.

Mike Sloan
Keller Williams - Pat Hiban Real Estate Group
8840 Columbia 100 Parkway Suite 110
Columbia, MD 21045
Phone : 410-964-2400
homes@hiban.com

What our clients have to say

Nikki, first, we wanted to let you know how impressed we both were on how you handled that situation with your vehicle. You are a true professional! We would have had no issues if you had wanted to call it a day after that, but you were professional through and through! You have no idea how much we appreciate that. Larissa and I are both impressed with your knowledge and passion for your job, and we look forward to completing this journey with you. We hope your vehicle is fixed soon and with little out of pocket expense.

-Richard Rice

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Kathy, I've moved a lot of my stuff in and I got your card. I just wanted to thank you for all your help. You were truly awesome and I really appreciated all the help you gave me throughout the whole process.I'll definitely be recommending you to anyone I meet that's looking for a home!

- Austin

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On behalf of Ivone, her daughter Patricia, and my entire family, I would like to thank the the entire team of Pat Hiban Group for the help and support on the purchase of condo on Tamar Drive! We remember the great experience we had in 2002 when Mr. Hiban himself sold Ivone's townhouse in Stonegate Ln. Today's success is just a confirmation that the Pat Hiban Group is a great TEAM! Also, many thanks to Lakeside Title Company team! Everyone did a superb job!

Special THANKS to Kathy Sloan Beard for guiding us all the way! From the very first contact phone call, she always did her best. And, she showed us the way with a joyful and positive spirit. We are so happy for the acquisition of Tamar condo and we are so blessed to have a new amazing Friend (that we intend to refer to others for future businesses).

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