Necessary Upgrades, "Upgrades" & Over Upgrading

Ever heard these terms before?  I swear that I didn't just make it up!

One of the first slides that I have in my presentation when meeting with a prospective new seller is "What will my home sell for?"  Pretty important, right?  It's something that I take a lot of time to talk about.  But even after going through the slide that says that you won't get out of it all the upgrades that you have put into it, I have so many people that will continue to tell me all of the upgrades they have put into the home to justify the price that they think that it is worth.

So I thought that it would be a great idea to talk a little on here about Necessary Upgrades, "Upgrades" and Over Upgrading.

What are Necessary Upgrades?

          Necessary upgrades are things that you have done to the house because it was necessary for your comfort while continuing to live there.  This includes NEW roof, furnace, a/c, hot water tank, garage door, etc.  Things that have broken that you needed to have fixed for the convenience of your living there no matter if you sold it or not.  

          We can also include updates in this portion too.  These are items that were necessary to update if you want to get the home sold.  Painting old paneling, removing wallpaper, fixing broken items, replacing the hardware in the kitchen to give it a more modern feel, etc.  They are still things that you are putting money into, but money that you won't necessarily recoup back from the sale of your house.

What are "Upgrades"?

           Yes, I purposefully put these into quote marks.  These are those lovely items that a seller thinks were absolutely necessary but will have no impact on a buyer.  The reason for some of these is because of the way that a buyer and a seller will see things differently.  I had a client once that was selling her house above market value despite advice from her real estate professional, and put laminate throughout the the 1st level living area.  This was a neighborhood where hardwood was almost a standard and should have been used instead, but it was an upgrade in her mind.  

What are Over Upgrades?

          These are upgrades that you have made to your house that were a great upgrade and makes the home more desirable, but won't get you more money necessarily.  Your house is in a small subdivision where the average home price is $130,000 ~ for example ~.  The homes are 10+ years old.  Everything was just average when they were built and some of the neighbors may have done a few upgrades here and there.  YOUR house has granite counter tops throughout, double headed shower with sauna, spay foam insulation throughout, real hardwood flooring, custom cabinets, marble time flooring in the bathrooms & kitchen, hand-lain stone patio and porch with attached sunroom.  You get the point.  With all of the money that you had put into these upgrades you wouldn't be able to recoup that money.

Okay, Angie....what is your point on all of this?  When you are doing any updating to your house because you're thinking of selling your home, keep these in mind.  I promise that when I meet with you and we speak about the pricing of your home, it's going to be about the Market Value that it is going to sell for...not the upgrade value.

Welcome To The New Year!

Many, many people make New Year's Resolutions.  We've all heard them (lose weight, stop smoking, exercise more or lose weight, etc.)  The funny thing is that most of them are not kept after February...if that long.

Are you one of those people?  Is one of your resolutions to finally get your house sold in 2015?  I'm here to tell you that we can get it done!

2014 ended with a bang.  There are stories that the economy is recovering and buyers are feeling confident in spending money on purchasing a home again.  Banks are loosening up a little with the lending and allowing more people to actually get financed.  Gas prices have dropped.  All of these things are great at helping the housing market too.

There are 3 things that are going to get your home sold.  You think I'm going to say location, location, location right?  Nope!

1. The first item truly is location.  If you have a good location then you are on the right track.  But I believe that every location is good for somebody...unless it is really bad.  Good schools, easy commute location, low tax district, etc.  Each buyer is going to have a different idea of what is a good location for them.
2. The second item is condition.  This is where I am going to ask you to step out of your own shoes and take away all of your feelings for your home and look at it through a buyer's eyes.  Is the house move-in ready or is there work that needs to be done to the house like new paint, carpet or upgrades that are needed?  When a buyer walks into a house, they are looking for things that will need to be fixed in the home and dollar signs begin to dance around in their head.  They will start subtracting amounts they think it will take to fix items when they are calculating how much to make an offer for.  These may not be realistic numbers, but it is justified to them.  
3. Price is the last and probably the most important aspect of the equation.  First you have to look at what the houses are selling for in your area.  This is where the professional will help.  Then you need to think about the condition discussed above.  You can either put your own money into the updates that need to be done and price it a little higher, or you can adjust the price and allow the buyer to do it on their own (unless they are things that absolutely need to be done!)

When I am talking with a potential seller, these are all items that we go over and create a specific plan of action based on each individual's needs.  I look at the whole picture and come up with a game plan based off of the whole picture.

So, if you're ready to knock one item off of your resolution list, and actually stick to it, give me a call today so that we can start your game plan and get your home sold!

Help Me Santa!

Are you hoping to get out of your home before the holidays?  (Ok.  Let's be realistic and figure that it will probably be around the first of the year.  But still...)  Why don't you have the holidays work with you instead of against you?

Why don't you make an offer that a buyer can't refuse?  We know that they are already going to ask for closing costs, so if you have the wiggle room in your numbers...go ahead and put it out there for them.  $XX bonus in closing costs paid if in contract or closed by December 31, 2014.  This will take away some of the negotiations and make you look like a hero as well.

Another option that you could do is give an agent bonus if closed by a certain date.  Of course we don't steer clients into making an offer on a house just because it has a bonus on it because we always do what's best for our clients.....but it is always nice to get a little something extra for our hard work too.

So my suggestion is to think outside of the box and think like a buyer.  This is the season of giving, and you may receive something special when you are looking at your next home too!

Open House ~ Yes I Still Do Them!

I am a research Queen.  Notice that I put a capital on that "q"?  I want to know all that I can about every subject that has to do with my job.  One of those subjects lately has been about Open Houses.

I have read different blogs where agents complain about sitting around for a couple of hours and nobody comes through or that it doesn't matter because "nobody buys at an open house anyways".  My opinion is that these people just aren't working it.

I AM AN AGENT THAT WILL STILL HOLD AN OPEN HOUSE IF MY SELLER WANTS ME TO HOLD AN OPEN HOUSE.

I understand that some sellers are not comfortable with open houses, especially if they have a lot of valuables, breakables or firearms.  I respect that.

I don't ever give my sellers the false hope that I am going to have 1 million potential buyers come through the door during that 2 hour period or that someone is going to fall in love and have to write an offer on the spot.  I have held many where nobody comes through.  That's just how it works some days.  What I like to tell my sellers is this is another opportunity to get exposure for your home.  In most cases, it would be advertised in the newspaper, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, MLS and on other websites.  I am going to put out signs like the one listed above to drive the traffic on the day of.  A lot of times for the first open house I hold after a house goes on the market, I will send out invitations to the neighbors asking them to come to the open house.  (I know that not many agents do this because they don't like the "nosy neighbor" coming through.  I welcome them because you never know who they know!)

In my personal experience, I have had (1) a lady and her family (2) a couple of ladies come through an open house and spend almost the entire 2 hours there.  These were 2 different homes, listed at 2 different times in totally different locations.  They didn't write an offer on the spot, but they contacted their agent after, scheduled a time to walk through and ended up writing offers on these 2 homes.  As a buyer's agent, I have had 2 different clients that visited open houses and wanted me to write offers on them after.

It doesn't work every time, but it does have the potential to work.  When you are interviewing different agents that you are thinking of using to list your home, ask them if they hold open houses and just listen to their answers.  If you want to use an agent that will hold one, and actually enjoys it, you can always contact ME.

There's Snow on the Ground...I can't sell!

So not true.  

What is true is that this will be a more difficult time to sell, but not impossible.  

Challenge 1:  Buyers will not be a ready to look, but they are still out there.  We had a shortage of inventory when the weather was nice.  Now most sellers are thinking like this and the inventory is really low.  They will still come!  Your difficulty will be that you will need to keep the driveway and sidewalks cleared off at all times so there is no safety hazard when a showing call comes in.

Challenge 2:  I'm going to have to move all of my stuff when it's cold outside!  This is very true.  But, it's also the perfect time to look into hiring a moving company to do all of the hard work for you.  As an incentive to selling your home, you could possibly offer to pay a certain dollar amount towards the buyers using the same moving company too.  This will help make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Challenge 3:  I'm going to have holiday presents and decorations out when people are walking through my house!  I understand.  I know that the title of my blog is that selling your house doesn't have to suck, but this part of it may.  My best suggestion is to not keep presents at the house, especially expensive ones.  We like to think that people are honest, especially around the holidays.  But we can't always predict what someone is going to do.

Part 2 of that is the holiday season is one of the best times of year to showcase your home.  It is usually decorated and festive.  This looks great in pictures.  Most people don't put that much effort into their home in the Spring.

Challenge 4:  There will be snow and mud and dirt on my floors after I just cleaned.  This can easily be alleviated a couple different ways.  Make sure there is a clean, cleared path to your door so that the buyers will be tracking in as little as possible snow.  Make sure that you have a mat inside your door for them to be able to remove their shoes.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with putting out a very nice note asking them to remove them.  If you're still not sure, your agent may provide shoe covers that the buyers would be able to slip over their shoes and then dispose of after.

One of the best transactions that I ever had was working with a young couple looking for their first home.  We had been looking a couple different times, different sides of town, and they just were not able to find anything they were interested in.  So one Saturday afternoon we were scheduled to go out and look but the news was calling for some nasty weather.  I consulted them to see if they still wanted to go look.  We all agreed that we would give it a shot and if it got too bad that we would pack it in.  At the end of our tour, it started snowing, freezing rain and visibility got horrible.  We trudged on to the last house and they found "the one" here.  We joke about it to this day.  I have since helped them sell that house and they have upgraded.  Love my clients!!!!

Location, Location, Location ~ No More

There have been way too many movies that really stress that selling a house is all about location, location, location.  Let me be the first to tell you that is true no more!

There are still 3 things that determine the sell-ability of a home, but it is now location, price and condition.

Location is still important to a buyer and always will be.  There are certain reason that a buyer will choose a location and it is unique to each buyer.  This could be because of work, school, church, family, taxes, etc.  Most buyers are wanting to be close to something.

Price of course factors in because a buyer only has so much buying power.  They have hopefully already spoken with a lender who has qualified them for a certain amount for the purchase of their new home.  They may or may not be working with a real estate professional that is helping to guide them as well.  Thanks to technology, buyers are starting their searches online and will start their search with the price.

Condition is the third factor.  In the past when there was an abundance of inventory.  Sometimes the condition of the home was the only thing that set properties apart that were similar in structure.  Now that the market has changed, condition is what is really going to draw a buyer to your property.  Buyers still think that it's a buyer's market and they want the champagne house on the beer budget.  We are teaching them little by little though.  A great real estate professional will showcase these assets in the property description and pictures, letting the buyer know exactly what your house has to offer.

So knowing these 3 things are what really drives a buyer, you can use these to your advantage when marketing to buyers.