The Trulane Group, EXP Realty

12/09/2025

✨ Take a look at my current listings across the Carolinas! ✨
🏡 Whether you’re looking for cozy charm or a spacious retreat, these stunning Carolina homes have something special for everyone:
📍 150 Rapids Rd – Fort Mill, SC
2 Bed | 3 Bath | 1,584 sqft
🔗 https://kaila.thetrulanegroup.com/.../150.../bid-47-4325800
📍 12313 Westbury Glen Court – Charlotte, NC
5 Bed | 3 Bath | 2,915 sqft
🔗 https://kaila.thetrulanegroup.com/.../1231.../bid-47-4324428
📍 290 Roger Drive – Salisbury, NC
3 Bed | 3 Bath | 2,169 sqft
🔗 https://kaila.thetrulanegroup.com/.../290.../bid-47-4287319
📍 5217 Waterfall Court – Gastonia, NC
3 Bed | 6 Bath | 4,633 sqft
🔗 https://kaila.thetrulanegroup.com/.../5217.../bid-47-4268389
💬 See something you love? Let’s chat and schedule your private tour today!
Kaila Trulane Lindsey
📞 704-559-9169
📧 [email protected]
🌐 https://kaila.thetrulanegroup.com/
Brokered by eXp Realty Powered by PLACE 🏠

02/29/2024

👋Hey there, Kaila Lindsay here with EXP Realty. Have you ever wondered what school ratings actually do with the effect on your home's value?

📖Well, there's been a few studies done on this, so I'm going to dive in and give you the high level items that you need to be aware of. In, on an average, should I say, there's about a 205, 000 difference in average home price.

🏫For properties in not great school districts to properties in great school districts. In addition to this, the great school districts had a higher demand and were larger.

🏡In addition, the homes in that area had on average a 1. 5 bedroom count more. than the average homes in the lower or less desirable school districts.

🔍Now, another interesting fact about this is, yes, the homes in both districts actually sell just as fast, but we do see that based upon the percentage of growth in equity, the homes that have the better school district are always going to sell for more.

💰So, does this mean that you need to buy in the best school district to get the most money back?

❌Not necessarily. See, if you're buying already in a great school district, it should mean it's because you already have a child that you want to go there.

🚸Those that are buying in lower or not as great school districts might be planning to send their child to private school. All of these are options, but at the end of the day, it comes down to the bottom line.

🧑‍🎓Do you want to spend more now on getting to the right school district, or do you want to send them to private school?

‼️The second question you need to think about is, do you even have children right now? Does it matter what school district you're in? If you don't really care about the schools personally, it's not worth spending the money.

💭At least that's my two cents. So if you need any help with real estate, whether it be buying or selling or trying to find some investment properties, be sure to give me a call. Have a wonderful rest of your week and I'll see you next time.

02/21/2024

Summer is right around the corner and the beach is calling!

If you're looking for a great spot for summer, look no further than Surf City, NC!

Booking Now Available!

Luxury Beach Getaway with Golf Cart in Surf City

02/08/2024

02/08/2024

👋Hey there, Kaila Lindsay here with your update on the market. You do not want to miss this. And stay tuned to the end of this three minute video because I'm going to give you some tips as we're coming in to the spring season. So, whether you are buying a home or selling a home, what you can expect going on right now is rates are coming down.

✅That's right, we've already started to see them move and I actually had a client just the other day that got a 6. 1 percent interest rate. Now, for some of you who are used to those 2%, it doesn't seem like a lot. But we have been as high as 8 percent over the last year, so 6 percent is pretty darn good.

👷‍♂️Now, in addition to that, there's a lot of builders out there that are offering lower amounts when it comes to interest rates. Of course, you have to use their lender, which is totally fine. If there's a deal to be had, I encourage you to do it. But here's what I will tell you. If you're looking to sell your home, you have to understand what you're up against.

📉new construction with lower interest rates. And here's the thing, because there's less buyers still coming into the market, less than we saw back in 2020 and 2021, when everybody was running for houses and putting in multiple offers. We need to understand that pricing the house appropriately is going to be important.

🏠The good thing is, though, we still have lower inventory than we did at one time, so there's less competition. Why do I tell you all this? It's knowledge to have going forward. So, if you're listing your home, here's what you need to do. Make sure your home is in great condition. I mean, it's clean, you've got the walls freshly painted, if there's scuffs and things like that, you want to get rid of them.

📜And you want to make sure you're presenting it as well as you can. Most importantly, though, you want to make sure you have it priced appropriately. Now, the more competitive of a price that you put it at, the better the chance that you're going to get multiple offers that'll bring you up over the price you were hoping to receive.

📈What I'm seeing a lot in the market still today is homes that are priced too high, and then they're reducing, reducing, reducing. And in fact, you can actually shoot yourself in the foot by doing this method, because you'll end up with less than you originally wanted. So Price it competitive, get more people in, get it under contract faster.

📅Now, in the Charlotte market and surrounding, we're seeing over 30 days on market for homes. This is okay, this is normal. You don't have to panic just because it's gone two days without your house going under contract. Trust what's going on, understand it'll take just a little bit longer than usual, and you'll be fine.

💰Now, if you're looking to buy a home in this market, you still have some great advantages. Because there are fewer buyers in the market, you're going to run into less and less. Uh, multiple offer situations. Now some of my clients have come up against them, but here's the thing. It's not against 20 other people.

🗣️Your voice will be heard. So, put your best foot forward, make sure you make an appropriate offer, and you know that you did the best that you could. Here's what I will also tell you about. Many of my clients were only making one to two offers on properties before going under contract. So choosing the right property, the right price and the right representation are all going to help you win that house.

💭So here's my last bit of food for thought. I've hit my three minute marker as I promised. Regardless of where you're at in the buying or selling process, you're not going to win on both sides. You're not going to sell high and buy low if you're doing it in the same week. So understand, take the wins where you have them.

🏘️The market is ever changing for what is always consistent. Especially in the Charlotte market is that you're going to see improved equity in your home year over year. In fact, over the last year we saw about an 8. 7 percent increase in equity in homes. So it's still a good investment no matter what time you're buying or selling.

💓So take that for what you will. I'm here to help you make your home dreams come true. Give me a shout if you need help. Until then, I'll be back to you with another update next week.

10/26/2023

🏠Well, the housing market just keeps getting crazier. Inflation is still high. Interest rates are still high. But what does this mean for you as someone who is either looking to buy or sell a home in the current market? Be sure to stick through this three minute video and I'm going to share with you exactly what's going on and how it's going to affect you.

💁‍♀️Kaila Lindsey with the Trulane Group at EXP Realty here in Charlotte. I help people buy and sell properties and invest. And there's a lot going on with the housing market right now that you need to know about. Now, first off, yes, interest rates are between 8, depends upon what day you're looking at it.

📉And the way that that's affecting the market right now is we do have a slight reduction in the sales of properties. Now, mind you, I said slight reduction. If we're looking at percentages of houses being sold, we're still seeing the same percentage being listed as being sold. But what's happened is there are fewer people selling and fewer people buying.

💰The individual's buying perhaps want to wait it out to see if interest rates will drop or they just can't get the kind of house that they like because of what they're approved for with the current interest rates. Same on the flip side. Many homeowners don't want to sell because they don't know how it's going to affect them or where they're going to go because the rates are higher.

🗓️So let's look historically. On average, over the last 30 years, the interest rate average has been about 7. 5%. And if we're looking at the highs and the lows. In fact, if you were purchasing a house back in 1972 and you said, I'm going to wait till rates drop, you would have waited 21 years. Now, I'm not saying it's going to be 21 years until rates go back down.

💵What I am saying is we can't control what the market does as much as we would like to. Now, there are some ways to overcome this, and here's where I'm going to help you with your plan. If you're looking to sell your property, there's options for you. One, you can always offer additional closing costs or.

📈Money to cover the buyers, uh, reduction in their interest rate, which that's going to be super helpful. Now, how do you do that without losing money? I know what you're thinking when we negotiate the sales price of your property. All you need to do is make sure we have a little bit of room built into the price to make sure that we can cover that rate buy down.

🏡Now, on the flip side, if you're looking to purchase a home, guess what? There are longer days on market than average, and most homes, although priced appropriately, even though it's accurately priced, can sit for up to 45 days. I know that sounds terrifying in both sides, but what this allows you to do as a buyer is it does allow you to negotiate either closing costs or potentially get a slow lower interest rate by having the seller buy it down.

📲Now, sometimes what we do, even if it's an appropriately priced house, we offer slightly more and then ask for the buy down. These buy downs can cost anywhere from seven to 17, 000. It's all based on your actual credit score and what you have bringing to the table, as well as the purchase price. So, Talk to me, call me, text me, email me, check out my YouTube channel if you want more information, but there's always a way.

🏘️And don't worry, we have still seen an increase in property values in the Charlotte and surrounding markets of five and a half percent. So the market is okay. Sometimes it just takes a little bit longer. For more information, give me a shout. Look forward to seeing you soon.

07/18/2023

Mecklenburg tax rates – what in the world is going on?

Are they up, are they going down, and everything in between?

So, I know in one of my last videos, I had shared with you guys that the new assessments were out.

That's right, Mecklenburg County, just to give you a background, every few years goes back out and reassesses property for their tax value.

Now, let me point this out: tax value is not the actual sales value or what we consider market value in the real estate world.

Meaning, if you want to go sell your house right this second, more than likely it's not going to be listed at the tax value.

In fact, the tax value is just what the county is going to tax you on.

It's going to tax you on that amount, now you just sold it for, just bought it for.

It's for the actual assessed value by the county assessor.

So, what does this mean for you?

Well, one, it could mean potentially that your tax value is higher than the market rate or market value.

If this is the case, you can have this potentially adjusted.

What do you need to do?

Call a real estate agent like me, and I can go ahead and run a comparable analysis, give you the evidence you need to say, 'Hey, this is overvalued.'

Now, for a lot of you, and this is the case with many of my clients, when being reassessed, the tax value actually came in less than fair marketable value.

Meaning, what we could put our properties on the market for today and sell it for, the tax value is under that. In that case, that's awesome and do not go fight that.

Trust me, you do not want to pay more than you have to.

So, why am I getting back to you today?

Well, as I said, by the end of June, we should have an answer as to whether or not the tax rate would also increase.

See, with the tax value increasing, most people got an increase, not a decrease because values have gone up.

That is a fact since the last time that it was evaluated.

In fact, in Mecklenburg County, the average was a 20% increase year over year for both 2020 and 2021.

Now, with all of that information, I want to focus with you on what's going on with the rate.

The rate did also go up, and I'm going to reference my numbers here to make sure I get them right.

In fact, the rate went up to 47.31 cents per $100 value. Meaning, a $400,000 home, you're going to be taxed at 47.31 cents per hundred dollars towards that value.

Now, this is an increase of 1.6 cents.

That's right, an increase of 1.6 cents higher than the revenue neutral rate.

So, what does all that mean?

Well, it means they raise taxes.

And how does this affect you?

Well, for most people, it's going to vary.

It's going to be a very minor tax change.

The biggest change you're going to see is the fact that your tax value went up, not so much that the rate went up.

So, you're not going to feel the rate as much as you're going to feel your value, But what I can recommend, and what will be helpful for you, is to make sure that you're not focusing on what your tax value is.

In fact, most people who own homes in the Mecklenburg County area and the surrounding areas, by the way, your actual equity in the home has grown drastically.

If you have some concerns, if you want to get your equity out, there are a few ways to do that.

One, sell your house!

Two, do a cash-out refinance, or three, a lot of people do choose to do a home equity line of credit, known as a HELOC, where you can pull your money out as a separate mortgage, basically off of your original, and you have cash to use for what you need.

So, is it good news?

Is it bad news?

I'm never a fan of taxes, so in my mind, I'm bringing you bad news, But it's news you need to know.

For more real estate information, tips, tricks, and everything in between about Charlotte and the surrounding areas, reach out, let me know, and I'll be back to you with some more videos in the future.

Kaila Lindsey
704-559-9169
The Trulane Group, EXP Realty
Top 1% Realtors
NC/SC Licensed Realtor

07/12/2023

FABULOUS newer construction townhome located in Indian Land!

This home is the perfect layout which features a large bonus area on the ground floor, which also has access to a full bathroom.

The bonus area leads out to a covered back patio area.

The second level of the home features a gourmet kitchen with granite counters, a large center island, plenty of cabinet space for storage and stainless appliances.

There is an office nook on this second level. A large screened porch is just off the livingroom area.

Retreat to the third level, and you will find a large primary bedroom complete with a large walk in closet and private en suite bathroom with stand up shower and double vanities.

There are 2 generously sized guest bedrooms, a full bathroom and laundry room to complete this level.

https://tinyurl.com/mrej4h3f

06/22/2023

Looking to move to Charlotte, NC? Don't miss out on the charming town of Kannapolis, just a stone's throw away! 🏡✨

🔍 Join me as I take you on a journey through Kannapolis' historic downtown. Immerse yourself in the pedestrian-friendly streets, adorned with stunning murals and unique local businesses. 🎨🛍️

🏘️ Housing Options Galore: Kannapolis offers a range of housing choices to fit any budget or preference. From cozy two-bedroom mill houses to fully renovated five-bedroom dream homes, there's something for everyone in this hidden gem. 🏡💫

🌆 Close to Charlotte's Excitement: Enjoy the best of both worlds by residing in Kannapolis. Experience the tranquility of a smaller town while being just minutes away from the bustling city of Charlotte. 🌇✨

📞 Seamless Move Assistance: Let us help you make your transition stress-free. Our expert team specializes in finding your perfect home in Kannapolis and the greater Charlotte area. Contact us today to discuss your requirements and discover exciting real estate opportunities! 🗝️💼

Kannapolis, a historic town near Charlotte, North Carolina, has undergone a remarkable transformation into a pedestrian-friendly downtown, and today we invit...