Archive for the 'Sellers' Category
8 Quick Fixes to Increase Value
August 25th, 2008 categories: Sellers
I’m asked all the time what a seller can do to help sell their home faster. Sometimes they listen to me and implement the changes, sometimes they don’t - to their detriment. With buyers scarcer, sellers must up the ante to convince them that their property offers what many want most — top value for dollar expended. Here are eight fast fixes:
1. Buff up curb appeal. You’ve heard it before, but it’s critical to get buyers to want to look on the inside. Be objective. View listings from the street. Check the condition of the landscaping, paint, roof, shutters, front door, knocker, windows, house number, and even how window treatments look from the outside. Add something special—such as big flower pots or an antique bench — to help viewers remember house A from B.
2. Enrich with color. Paint’s cheap, but forget the adage that it must be white or neutral. Just don’t let sellers get too avant-garde with jarring pinks, oranges, and purples. Recommend soft colors that say “welcome,” lead the eye from room to room, and flatter skin tones. Think soft yellows and pale greens. Tint ceilings a lighter shade.
3. Upgrade the kitchen and bathroom. These make-or-break rooms can spur a sale. But besides making each squeaky clean and clutter-free, update the pulls, sinks, and faucets. In a kitchen, add one cool appliance, such as an espresso maker. In the bathroom, hang a flat-screen TV to mimic a hotel. Room service, anyone?
4. Add old-world patina. Install crown molding at least six to nine inches in depth, proportional to the room’s size, and architecturally compatible. For ceilings nine feet high or higher, add dentil detailing, small tooth-shaped blocks used as a repeating ornament. It’s all in the details, after all.
5. Screen hardwood floors. Buyers favor wood over carpet, but refinishing is costly and time-consuming. Screening cuts dust, time, and expense. What it entails: a light sanding, not a full stripping of color or polyurethane, then a coat of finish.
6. Clean out, organize closets. Get sorting—organize your piles into “don’t need,” “haven’t worn,” and “keep.” Closets must be only half-full so buyers can visualize fitting their stuff in.
7. Update window treatments. Buyers want light and views, not dated, fancy-schmancy drapes that darken. To diffuse light and add privacy, consider energy-efficient shades and blinds.
8. Hire a home inspector. Do a preemptive strike, since busy home owners seek maintenance-free living. Fix problems before you list the home and then display receipts and wait for buyers to offer kudos to sellers for being so responsible.
| Discussion: No Comments »
The Secrets about your house
May 7th, 2008 categories: Sellers
So, you’re thinking about listing your house? Do you think you know everything going on in the home? Most people think they know every corner of their house and, in many cases this may be true. However, if you’re a pro-active seller and have had your home inspected by a certified ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) inspector, you may find out that there’s more going on in the home than you’ve ever thought about!
Consider this. The buyer is dilligent and has an inspection. The inspector finds and creates a list of defects. The buyer then analyzes them and has valid questions about what is going on in the property. Usually, the first reaction may be a price reduction. We will buy your house if you drop the price $10,000 to replace the roof (it may only need a repair), and $12,000 for the HVAC system (it can probably be replaced for much less) and so on. The value of repairs can be doubled or tripled in the minds of buyers. So, you’re now in a position of negotiating the amount of repairs and save the deal at the same time, but probably at a lower sale price.
How to prevent getting yourself in a pinch like this? By having a pre-sale inspection. Hiring a home inspector to do a pre-sale inspection before listing a home, you will know the condition of the home. Once the inspection is completed and you know the results, you have three options before you: repair, replace or simply disclose. The Seller’s Disclosure statement is a series of questions that covers your knowledge of the functionality and existing defects of the home. Every buyer requests one and looks it over very carefully.
It’s very possible that the roof only needs a repair, if you as the seller makes the repair and removes the defect, there is nothing for the buyer’s inspector to report. By going about it in this manner, you’re removing an item in question as a surprise, last-minute, closing table negotiation.
A pre-sale inspection gives you the seller, the option of making repairs within your time frame, and within your budget. Nothing is more frustrating than having to do a large-ticket replacement or find someone in a hurry to make repairs, the costs go up.
It’s most important in choosing the right inspector. Choosing an ASHI-certified inspector is the safest choice. Members of this trade organization set high standards of education and performance for their members.
Having a pre-sale inspection is a growing trend in buyer’s markets. A full house inspection can avoid costly and unexpected maintenance repairs. People take their cars in for routine maintenance, does it seem reasonable to spend as much consideration and care for the largest and most expensive investment in your life?
| Discussion: No Comments »
Is wanting a high price such a big deal?
April 30th, 2008 categories: Sellers
If the seller’s price is too high, people will just offer less, right? Wrong. Pricing properly matters.
Pricing property too high can end up netting sellers less money than if they’d priced it right in the first place. First, there will be a smaller pool of buyers who’ll even look at overpriced properties. There is such a large inventory that buyers want the best buy on the market. If the house is priced outside its true price range, it may not even get a showing.
Second, if buyers in that smaller pool even make an offer, it’ll be lower than if the property had been priced right in the first place. Buyers compensate for problems with houses in the pricing. The longer a sign is out or a listing is on the MLS, the more likely buyers think something’s wrong with it. Buyers will think they should offer less to compensate for that. They also think they should pay less because when they have to sell it, they might have the same problem selling it.
What if sellers want to list too high with the expectation that they’ll lower the price if it doesn’t sell? In a hot market you may have been able to get away with it, today that’s usually a bad idea. Our present day market demands the correct pricing on a property. Here’s a good analogy: Consider a sale at Dillards. If clothing doesn’t sell, it goes on the sale rack and gets marked down and marked down and finally sells for less than it is worth. That’s the same way people respond to price issues in real estate.
If you’re holding on to a number from the peak of the market, before it became a buyers market, it may be hard to let go of that number that could have been! The important thing to remember is that it isn’t the home owner or even the real estate agent that sets the price for the home - the market does.
| Discussion: No Comments »
5 reasons you don’t want a long closing!
April 21st, 2008 categories: Sellers
In an effort to help anyone out there contemplating a long closing date on the sale of their home, I wanted to share some pitfalls that are very real today. As we all know, or perhaps there are a few sheltered people out there that don’t watch the news, we are in a buyer’s market. Sellers are now pretty much at the mercy of buyers if they want to sell their home. That means Sellers are asking for a myriad of concessions from the Buyer such as paying closing costs, deep discounts on the asking price to long closing time frames to give them time to sell their house, if they have one to sell. My focus today is why you want to avoid a long closing date if at all possible.
A normal time range from contract to closing is typically 6-8 weeks for a sale that requires a mortgage, a cash sale can range from a few days to a couple weeks if the Buyers want to move on it immediately. So knowing the normal time frames, anything outside of an 8 week closing begins to be a liability to the Seller. How? Anything can happen! Here is a list of possibilities to consider when negotiating the closing date.
1. Probably the biggest problem with long closings is that the excitement for the Buyer can wear off and they develop “cold feet”. When cold feet occur, some Buyers will do anything to get out of the contract, including forfeiting their deposit. With the media broadcasting daily doom & gloom, it’s no wonder that Buyers & Sellers are nervous about making a move. Some buyers can second guess themselves in their decision to buy a particular home by continuing to compare other homes on the market. If they perceive that they didn’t get the best deal they thought was out there, the warm fuzzy feeling is out the window.
2. In todays mortgage world, things are changing daily. Bank programs can change or be deleted even after a Buyer has been approved. If your Buyer has narrowly qualified for a certain program, and the bank discontinues that particular program, they may be out of luck qualifying for any thing else! I’ve seen home sales disenegrate the week before the closing because the lender no longer offers the program they qualified the Buyer for.
3. Another result of the mortgage crisis are that many lenders are not accepting appraisals that are more than 90 days old. If you have a Buyer who gets an appraisal within the 90 days, but then decides he needs an extension on the closing date, he will have to start all over again with the appraisal process. Some lenders will allow the original appraisal to be re-certified, which is an update to the comparables data to justify the value, but some appraisers won’t re-certify. So it becomes a nerve racking experience to start from scratch and hope that the 2nd appraisal will justify the value of the contract price.
4. You’re keeping your house off the market! Think about this scenario: Your house goes under contract at the beginning of the real estate high season. You’re very happy and are looking forward to moving on, but you have a long closing of 4-5 months. As you’re nearing the closing date, something unexpected happens to the Buyer, maybe he lost his job and no longer qualifies for the loan and the contract falls through. This would be devastating to everyone, but for the Seller it may mean not finding another buyer until the next real estate high season, NEXT YEAR!
5. If something is going to break down in a house, it always seems to happen during the contract period. I’ve seen this happen time and time again, everythings been working like a charm for years and BANG! the A/C system goes on the blink, or the septic system goes awry, or there was a high wind and the roof was damaged, etc, etc, etc. The longer under contract, the longer the chances of something going wrong. I’ve been recommending home warranties to home Sellers just for these occasions.
Beyond these major five reasons there’s also the worrying factor of the “what if’s”. What if you move out and now the house is vacant, who will look after it? What if you’ve already bought another house because your house was under contract and now you’re facing having two mortgages? If you have a choice in choosing the closing date, these are just a few of the scenarios you need to think about before accepting a long closing date. It’s not just a matter of waiting out the several months until closing, it’s a matter of anything can happen!
| Discussion: No Comments »
