The housing market is depressed in Phoenix and the East Valley. You cannot sell a house if you have to so don’t bother trying.
If you read newspapers or listen to the news you would believe that statement is true, but I have a buyer I am working with that would never believe that statement right now. We have sat down to write offers on three homes in the last two weeks and to date we have not landed him in a house.
All three offers were for houses that were priced right. One we were probably a little low in our offer. We came in a little under asking and the home sold for full price to a cash buyer who was able to close quickly. That home was on the market for less than two weeks. The second home also on the market for less than two weeks and we came in over the asking price and still did not land the home. The third home got a full price offer the first day it was on the market. A fourth home he wanted to make an offer on had an accepted offer on the home well above the asking price and it was accepted before it had been on the market for a week. So what was the secret for these homes?
They were priced right to sell quick. Most agents have talked to home buyers who want to sell their home right away, yet they refuse to price the house right when it goes on the market. A home that is priced right will sell quickly, a home that takes months to get priced correctly will sit on the market for months. Sellers are learning their homes are not worth what they they are worth, but instead are worth what the market says they are worth.
I have been talking with one couple recently about listing their home. It is a beautiful showcase quality home in an adult community. They want to list the home for over $300K while the current market is bringing about $250K for the same house in the same community. Right now they have the home for sale by owner at $309K, but why will anyone look at their home when there is another home in the community that is only 50 sq feet small on the market for $229K and eight homes total in the community under $250K.
Most of the foot traffic a house will get is when the home is first listed (see graph to left). A house that is priced right will get foot traffic immediately, while a home that is priced over the market value will sit until either it is priced correctly or taken off the market. As this one buyer has seen recently there is not a huge danger in pricing the home a little below market. The likely results we have seen recently is a home priced a little below market will end up in a bidding war and go for the correct market price.
So if you need to see your house quickly you now know the secret weapon, price it correctly from the start. If you want to sell your home, for your price not the market price save yourself the hassle of going through the listing process and wait a few years for the market to recover.
With nearly 50,000 homes on the market for sale in the Phoenix metro area, if you want to sell your house it needs to stand out. There are two ways to make it stand out, either price it under the market value, or make it a home that when others walk in they say to themselves, I have to have this house.
There are some small changes you can make to your home to make it stand out. Every house has little quirks that can easily and cheaply be fixed to make it look better. You may not even notice these things because you are so used to living with them, but trust me, buyers will notice them.
Patch holes in the walls. If you have any small holes or cracks in your walls either patch them yourself or hire a handy man to do it for you.
Cracked floors and counter tiles. You may have lived with that cracked tile on your back splash or floor for the last two years and not think it is a big deal, but a buyer is going to see that and think the house was not taken care of properly.
Many homes have a leaky faucet. Take a few minutes to try and fix these yourself or hire a plumber to help you. It may only be a few bucks to fix the faucet where a buyer may be thinking I can ask for another few hundred off the price to replace all the faucets.
Fix any doors or kitchen drawers that don’t work properly . If the buyer is really interested in your home, they will be opening all the doors and drawers so make sure they are all operating properly
That favorite sedona red room you have, consider painting it a neutral color. Neutral colors not only can help make the room look bigger, but chances are the buyer is not going to like your bright colors and again will be thinking about a discount on the selling price to have the house painted.
Make sure all your lights are working properly. If you have any bulbs that are burnt out take a minute to replace them.
These little fixes can make a big difference in a competitive market. Make your house stand out. Don’t be the house that has the orange bedroom and the broken utensil drawer, be the house that was loved and taken care of.
Last week I talked about not being at the house when an agent is showing your home to a buyer. This week I am again going to be talking about getting yourself out of the house, but in a different way.
When a buyer is looking at your home, you want them to feel like it could be their home. To do that, you need to remove as much of yourself and your family from the house as possible. I have walked into houses before that have a beautiful entry way with a gorgeous maple wood stair case leading to the second floor and a chandelier hanging that would make a princess happy.
Problem – that is not what most people saw when they walked into the home. There were about 40 pictures of the home owner, their kids and grand-children on the wall going up the stair case. The pictures, the frames and the layout was absolutely stunning. The family was a great all-American family anyone would be proud to show off and display. But the the buyers were focusing on the pictures when they walked in and not the wonderful features of the home.
The buyer and seller were both missing out on opportunities that should have been had. The buyers were not getting a true sense of the home because they were distracted by the pictures. The buyers also could never easily picture themselves in the home because every room they walked into had family pictures of the current homeowners. If the homeowners had taken a few hours to pack all those pictures before the house was shown it would have been much easier for buyers to not only see the features of the home, but also to place their own pictures on the walls in their mind and make the home theirs.
The seller also lost out. This little work would have added value to the home and it would probably have sold for more money and sold faster.
So when you are getting ready to open your house for buyers to come through do yourself a favor, remove personal items like family pictures as it will allow the buyer to more easily place themselves in the home.
This week’s selling tip is one sellers do not like to hear. When you are selling your home the more people coming through to look at it the better. When they are there, you should not be. Sometimes people will be coming through because your agent is holding an open house that day and sometimes it is just your agent or another agent showing it to a prospective buyer. Either case is the same, the house should be empty of people while others are looking at it.
You may ask why? I can show them the best features. Sure you could,, if you knew 100% what they were looking for. But you don’t. It is your agents job and the job of the buyer’s agent to know what they are looking for and point out those features. While you may think you are helping, often the owner of the house has the opposite effect they are after.
It is a fact that buyers spend less than half the time in the house when the owner is there than when the owner is not there. The buyer feels much more comfortable when the owner is not home. When the house is empty they will open the closets and cabinets and spend more time picturing how their things would look in the home. If you want the buyer to feel at home and get a better flavor for the house, help him feel more comfortable and not like they intruding or snooping.
Finally buyers will talk a lot more to their agent if the owner is not around. You want the buyers talking as much as possible, the more they talk ti the agent, the more the agent can help them see the benefits of the home. In addition to that, if there are concerns the buyer faces about the home, the layout, the condition or any other concerns they can relay them to the agent who can discuss them with you and this will allow you the opportunity to improve the home for future showings.
