REMOVING HOME SELLER ROADBLOCKS By Christian Hello, Seller! This Page is intended to help you get ready to put your home on the market. Feel free to print this page out as there is lots of usful information! SELLER ... DON'T FORGET TO THINK LIKE A BUYER! OK, you know your home better than anyone. You have lived there after all this time, right? Well, when we live somewhere long enough we can tend to get used to seeing the same things day after day and become numb to important issues that might alarm us if we were noticing them for the first time. So when it comes to selling your home, it always helps to immediately start thinking like a buyer! Remember the saying? "Do unto others as you would have them do to you?" Well ... when a buyer sees you are going out of your way to make them comfortable with the purchase of your home, more than likely they will not be able to resist psychologically putting your home near the top of their list! Before you even start dealing with any agents, I would advise getting together a group of your close friends, neighbors and/or family (or anyone who you know will tell you the absolute truth) and play a game. Have everyone go outside with a pad and a pen, and as you start coming back into the house, start jotting down a list of things you would want to see done if you were to consider putting an offer on the house tomorrow. Act like an inspector who is seeing the entire house for the first time. If you see something that needs tending to, write it down!! It is amazing how we see these same things all the time (and think to ourselves how we need to take care of them) but soon forget because something else distracts us! So ... write everything you see as an issue down! And once you ask me (your agent) to come on the scene, I can help you realistically go through your list and determine what is most necessary to do before your open house. Of course you want to use common sense and start on the repairs you know are major and important to accomplish, like terrible stains on the floor, foundation issues or pet urine smells. The rule is: if you can see, hear or smell that something is wrong with your house, chances are a prospective buyer is going to as well! TYPICAL ROADBLOCKS TO SELLING YOUR HOME If your home is not receiving showings here are some things to consider: Is the property overpriced? (Please see my "Keep the Price Right" link.) Is the outside appearance truly appealing to buyers? (For more check out my "Improving Curb Appeal" link.)
If your home is getting shown but has not received any offers, it could be that your home is not appealing on the inside or that buyers feel the home is overpriced. You might want to rethink your home's decor and purchase (or rent) new/more updated furniture. Or you might want to go the extra mile and hire a staging and/or landscaping crew. Keep in mind: How you LIVE and how you SELL are going to be two very different methods! Ask yourself honestly, is your living space being kept organized and clutter free? Are the walls painted an inviting color or are they painted a neon color that makes them feel as if they just got shot with a stun gun? Faded or bright neon-like paint colors tend to turn people off, where soft neutral or pastel colors are currently all the rage! Does the buyer identify with you more than he or she can see themselves actually living in your home? This is very important! While you may enjoy all your pictures, books, memorabilia and collectibles scattered through out the house, buyers can actually become distracted by them. Personal items can often steal away a buyer's "imagination factor" (of seeing themselves ACTUALLY LIVING in your home.) The biggest points deducted are from immediate impressions: ° dead or dying plants ° scuff marks on the walls or floors ° a bathtub that is stained and needs to be painted or re-caulked ° broken or cracked tiles ° stained sinks, countertops, toilets and toilet seats (toilet seats are very inexpensive to replace, so if there are any stains whatsoever, switch these out these immediately!) ° long cracks in the walls or water stains on the ceiling ° broken fixtures ° light switches that turn nothing on (make sure bulbs that have burnt out are replaced) ° out dated, peeling wall paper and borders ° animal heads on a wall - from hunting trips ° accumulated dust on furniture, ceiling fans and over door hangs ° stained, flattened, worn carpet ° dirty, unorganized kitchens ° squeaky doors ° doors or cabinets that do not shut ° garage packed to the hilt with stuff! (always try to put the bulk of your things in storage.) ° Keeping your home in SHOWING CONDITION will always require consistent effort on your part, as most showings can and will happen without warning. Have you allowed your house to be overly messy or in total disrepair during a showing? You never want to allow this to happen! If an agent (showing your home) becomes embarrassed about showing your property to his now displeased 'high-end' client, not only will he or she never return with other clients, they will put the word out to other agents within their company (and at agent meetings) that your house is unpleasant to show. ° Always be aware of your home's odor! This is one factor that can actually turn a prospective buyer off more than them actually seeing something in disrepair! If there is any trace of strong cooking or pet smells, dusty, musty or moldy smells ... 95% of the time you will have lost a sale!
If you are not willing to attend to your home's deferred maintenance (dilapidated roof, old flaking paint, worn floors, etc) you basically have two options: 1. You might want to consider drastically reducing your home's asking price -- keeping in mind that every home usually will sell at 'some' price, regardless of condition or other negatives. 2. Let the buyer know you are willing to grant an allowance for the item or items in need of repair. This is usually a really good selling feature, as many people like the idea of improving or picking out the items used in their new home themselves. OK ... remember to whistle and stay positive as you work! Your effort will pay off in the long run! Christian © 2007 Christian Bielstein SELLER ... MOTIVATE YOUR BUYER! By Christian OK Seller... You have made up your mind that it is time to list your house. Great! Now ... if you want to know what step ONE is: start looking around your neighborhood. Do you see quite a few for sale signs up? If you do ... then you will want to think about what you might do to give your home a competitive edge. And once you have it ... you will be "oh so glad" you do! Here are a few possibilities: 1. Offer money toward the buyers closing. Most buyers, dread closing! This is where they have to come up with cash beyond what is being offered in financing to take care of move in costs. You offering to help in this area can really help push a contract through. 2. Another selling feature that can help set your home apart (if your home's warranty has expired) is to offer the buyer an independent home warranty program. These are actually quite inexpensive (priced around $300-$400) and considering the peace of mind this can give your buyer, it may ease their concerns over your "used" house and be worth everyone's while! 3. Be creative and create good vibes between you and your prospective buyer ... offer to take care of something that you know your buyer would appreciate. For instance, if you have a pool, offer free pool cleaning service for 6 months to a year. You can do the same with lawn care. 4. Offer to purchase a brand new refrigerator or a dishwasher or a clothes washer and dryer in exchange for a quick closing. 5. Offer to replace the carpet, have the floors waxed or present a modest allowance toward paint. 6. If your kitchen or bathroom counter tops are out dated and you hear everyone complaining about this issue, offer $1000/$2000 toward new ones. Granite and marble counter tops are especially popular right now and if a discriminating buyer thinks they have a chance at getting them, that can definitely sweeten the deal! 7. Have an inspection done AFTER YOU LIST THE HOUSE and offer the results at no charge to the buyer. This is an excellent way to establish trust. Also, if you want to go the extra mile, there is something called, "A Sniff Test" that I think you should know about. This is where you have a specialist come out to your home (for about $50 to $75) to test your Air Conditioning and Heating units. This can give comfort to a buyer, as home temperature issues are often not fully investigated during the home inspection. If your AC/HV unit is especially old, consider replacing them. Consider doing the same with your hot water heater, upgrading it to a more economical model. I know this can seem very pricey ... but doing this can cause a buyer and their agent to take extra special notice of your property when they see "NEW A/C" and/or "NEW HOTWATER HEATER" on your home's MLS page online. My advice is simple: Always do all you can to make your home as attractive to a buyer as possible! Doing so always helps you to yield a better return on your investment! The more pristine your home becomes, the more buyers will be willing to pay whatever it takes to move in! And yes ... (I know) few people like the idea of having to work on a house they know they are not going to live in for much longer, however, keep in mind as you are scrubbing, painting and sweeping away ... all that extra effort is going to pay off and put some serious $$ in your pocket! Seeking to Bring Home and Heart Together! Christian KEEP THE PRICE RIGHT!!By Christian | | |
HOW I PLAN TO PRICE YOUR HOME As a kid, (during the summer months where I was home from school) I remember rarely missing the television show, "The Price is Right!" The reason I loved the show so much was because early on I realized I had a gift for matching the value of an item with what a consumer might be willing to pay for it. I have since found that I also have a nack for eye-balling and pricing homes too! And using all the available tools available to me as a Realtor, I am usually not that far off when the final price is set. So while using this talent, as your Listing Agent I will also do something popularly called a, "CMA" (other wise known as a Comparative Market Analysis.) This data will be retrieved by me as I review all the houses listed (comparable to yours) within a one to three mile radius that have sold within the last 6 months. Next, I will study some of the various statistics and trends that occur within your particular neighborhood to see if (or when) we might expect any economic changes or shifts, while at the same time keeping an eye out on what real estate summation/market reports have to say about your property. By comparing the square footage of actual living space, lot size and then the various amenities your home offers, the research will give us a good idea of what the current market value on your home might be -- as well as an idea on how an appraiser might value or appraise the home once someone is ready to purchase it. A FEW GOOD REASONS TO NEVER OVER PRICE YOUR HOME 1. When buyer financing is involved, (and it usually always is) the buyer's lending institution will send an appraiser to reveal the 'actual value' of the home so that the asking price and loan amount can be justified. This process is called, "finding collateral." When the appraiser proves that the house has met collateral, then the loan will typically be justified and pass through after closing. However, if the appraiser reports that the house is not worth the asking price, in most cases (unless the buyer can come up with the extra cash needed - which happens rarely) the loan will not be approved and the deal will fall through. 2. If you have other homes in your market for sale ... guess where the buyers are going to go look first? You got it ... the less expensive ones. When pricing your home, remember to always THINK like a buyer! Also, a good tip I can share with you is that most buyers tend to think in $25,000 dollar increments. If a ready buyer has told their REALTOR that the top of their range is $250,000 then the REALTOR will not look for homes any higher. If your house is priced at $260,000, when the REALTOR does his or her search, your home will never even come up on the report and you will be missing out on a huge number of prospects. 3. Some agents will actually make a point to show over priced homes to their clients *ON PURPOSE!* just to justify other homes they want them to buy and prove what a great deal they are getting. Yes! I know, that seems tacky, doesn't it!? Well, that is business for you. When you are at the grocery store and you pick up an item (when you are working from a budget) you usually pick up the more expensive item before you reach for the least expensive one. The same goes for home shopping. Everyone starts at the top and then goes down from there. 4. Then there are the "wise agents" who are going to sit back (with their buyer who is in no big hurry) and wait us out till we seem desperate to sell. They will then make their move and shoot us a low ball offer that we would have never considered before had we set the price right to begin with. And as the double mortgage payments loom and it is time to move into the new house, get the kids in their new school or do the job transfer out-of-state ... money will seem of very little importance compared to time. Two rules to follow... If your home has had 10-12 seperate showings and got no offers, your price is too high. If your house is in good shape and yet you have not gotten any showings in 2 weeks, the price is too high. BUT! I SAW YOU CAN GET A HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY WHEN YOU IMPROVE YOUR HOME! RIGHT??? There is a whole lot of talk going on about what people speculate they might get for their home today. Thanks to television shows which focus on home improvement, this topic is becoming more than a household conversation ... it's a down right obsession! And to make matters worse, people are being convinced that spending money on their home ALWAYS causes it to go way up in value, beyond the price they originally paid. This is not always true! Here is my point: Every day now folks are now running out, taking out home equity loans and spending $$ on improvements, in the hope they will make a $50,000 to $100,000 return (beyond the home's normal appreciation) once they sell in a few months from now! After all, that very thing seems to happen to so many on the television shows, right? Well, there is a little something you need to be let in on... As shocking as this might sound (in the real world, no matter what HGTV might lead you to believe) 95% of all top dollar homes do not sell *in a matter of a few days, let alone months* based on the home's merit alone. The real reason it sells is because of the current demand going on for that neighborhood. FACT: You have already heard the term, "Location, Location, Location!" Right? Well, when you start talking about producing ' really big numbers' on a home, you need to understand that the final price has more to do with the land or neighborhood the home's foundation is set upon than the condition of the home its self. I know that may sound bizarre, but it is true! What the producers of some of these slickly produced "make over" television shows are not telling us is the featured properties (that do exceedingly well $$ wise) are based in hot areas where the property its self is in great demand and gone through the ceiling in value! Therefore, improving the home (otherwise known as 'modernizing' it) is in their best interest. While Houston (my particular market) is certainly experiencing a significant boom and coming along fine, we still have a way to go before we can compare ourselves (in actual value) to the west or east coast, where a lot of these programs happen to be filmed. Therefore, it is always a good idea to pay close attention to the money we are spending in comparison to our home's true value. So, while having crown molding, marble countertops, wood floors and even a pool installed in the back yard is certainly a significant plus (that can and will add value to a home), in Houston, Texas these items are not always seen as HUGE revenue makers, but rather they are viewed more as 'features' or 'amenities' that help attract buyers to a property so that a home can be more easily marketed, negotiated and sold. Keep in mind, your home's selling price (or over-all value) has more to do with the popularity of the surrounding neighborhood (and what the surrounding homes are currently selling for) than the value of your actual home. This can explain why certain homes (that might not be as attractive or have as many amenities as yours) receive more money after they sell. This is due to the fact there is a high demand for that particular area and available homes there are seen as scarce. So, when you finally decide to put in that wonderful $60,000 dollar pool, don't faint dead away when you find out 6 months to a year later a local appraiser only wants to give you $10,000, $20,000 (or maybe ... if you are lucky) $30,000 for it. In many areas of the country, people actually get absolutely nothing! And when you jump up and down screaming (holding your pool bill tightly in your hand) he or she (the appraiser) will tell you that you just "over improved" your property ... and exercised a term used in appraisal known as, "the principal of contribution." (Meaning you just gave that piece of land, the neighborhood and the future buyer of your home one heck of a Christmas present!) I know, frustrating, isn't it?! This is why it is a wise idea to find a good REALTOR (who knows your particular market) and get their opinion before you start serious home improvements. (And in this case, of course, I am speaking of doing renovations, beyond the cost of doing normal/necessary repair and replacement costs.) Another fact you need to know: replacing a roof or broken fixtures that came with the house, fixing torn siding, filling in cracks or holes in the drive way, painting, etc are never considered home improvements. These are seen as maintenance issues, and nothing will subtract value in a home like deferred maintenance can and will!
ALWAYS HAVE A CMA DONE BEFORE YOU DO HOME IMPROVEMENTS ... SO YOU HAVE A GOOD IDEA DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR WHAT YOU IMMEDIATE RETURN MIGHT LOOK LIKE.
Now, all this being said: as a home owner myself, I want to assure you that I know exactly how you feel when it comes to wanting to get the most out of your home! And please believe me when I tell you that as your listing agent, I will try my darndest to make sure you get top dollar for every dime you have invested! No matter what anyone says, the true "value" of your home is not just based on what your neighbor got ... or what some appraiser might say, but more on what you and a willing and able buyer can agree upon as the final purchase price. Anyway, don't let all this get this "home pricing stuff" best of you! Just make sure you get your facts straight. Seek to find out the market value of your home annually. And when it comes time to sell, be prepared to be flexible ... keeping in mind that if the asking price is set too high in the beginning, there is a very good chance the listing is going to just sit on the market and become stale. Here's to a future successful and profitable home sale! Big Hugs! Your Friend and Brother in Real Estate, Christian © 2007 Christian Bielstein Please do not copy or publish without author's permission |
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