Overpriced Homes-Sell Slower and For Less If there’s anything we can take away from the plethora of Bank Owned Foreclosures is they certainly know how to price a home to move!

I maintain that you almost always shoot yourself in the foot by overpricing your home. Your home will almost always sale at or above market value by pricing at or below market value.

So why is that? Well think back at when YOU were buying a home. Remember when a “great deal” came on the market and everybody and their agents were “swarming” to the open house? You placed your offer only to find out their were 10 other offers and they were going above the asking price? This “bargain price” created an auction affect and got people excited. THAT is how banks are pricing their homes and if you want your home to move quickly and for the most amount of money, this is a winning strategy.

So why don’t sellers do it? I think it’s because there’s a little voice inside of our head (and pocketbook) that says “what if”.

“What if”- I can get $50K over market value. (even if someone were excited enough about your home to pay $50K over appraised value, their lender won’t loan the money if the value isn’t there. No loan, no buyer)

“What if”- I don’t get multiple offers and I only get one offer (May be still overpriced!)

Often fear (and greed) hold us back from making smart choices! Don’t feel bad though, even Real Estate Agents are guilty of senselessly overpricing their homes. Somehow when it’s our turn to sell all of our “market knowledge” becomes goo and leaks out of our ears! It’s like the hairdresser with bad hair!

The bottom line is, almost always, an Over Priced House will sit on the market longer and sell for less than it should have had it been priced strategically from the beginning.

 

Copyright © 2010 By Stephen Munson,Munson RealtyPasadena|Overpriced Homes-Sell Slower and For Less*overpriced homes,overpriced house

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Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just need more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, please call 918-852-5036 or visit my primary website at www.loricain.com. While you’re at my web site, please sign up for my monthly e-newsletter to receive a complimentary calendar of events for activities in the midtown Tulsa area!

Lori is a residential Realtor with Chinowth & Cohen Realtors serving the greater Tulsa area and specializing in downtown Tulsa and midtown Tulsa real estate.

“We think maybe we should pull the house off the market and wait until next year…?“ Many of our sellers are opening their weekly reports and wondering if waiting until next year would get them a higher price. Showing activity has dropped off and the number of price changes on hotsheets far outnumbers any new sales. Sellers are frustrated after a long hot summer of keeping the house clean and showing ready. We know we’ve been doing great marketing, so if the house is in good shape and staged to perfection, then price drops are the only thing left to do to get the house sold.

So is yanking the listing off the market a good idea? Probably not.

Patrick Newport, an economist for IHS Global Insights, expects median existing home prices to fall another 8 percent or so before bottoming out in the first quarter of next year. From there, he expects prices to begin a slow and fitful climb.

Yesterday I came across a blog post from Steve Harney that addresses this very issue. Steve clearly states that the experts he follows believe that it will be at least two years before the drop in housing prices stabilizes. Steve concludes his post with this recommendation:

“If you are thinking of waiting for the market to show appreciation before selling your home, you have a two year wait not a one year wait. And if you are looking for double digit appreciation, it is five years away. Perhaps it is best to sell now and get on with the things in your life that caused you to think about moving in the first place”.

Sell Now or Wait? What the Experts Are Saying

Excerpts from a blog post by Steve Harney on July 30, 2010 ·

……Is there any evidence that the market will come roaring back next spring? The evidence actually points to the exact opposite. Most experts are predicting that we will not see appreciation until the end of 2012 and even then the appreciation will be minimal…

……“The consensus indicates diminished confidence in the prospects for a near term recovery … This month, 60% of the panelists projected negative home price growth for 2010.”  That percentage was up from 40% just two months ago! 

……The experts are predicting that cumulative appreciation will not reach positive numbers until the end of 2012 and will still be under 10% by 2014.

 

This post was written by Leslie Ebersole of Baird & Warner Real Estate.

If you would like more information about the Chicago Western Suburbs and the Fox River Valley
St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, Wayne, Elburn, and South Elgin

Please call (630)945-7935
My website www.leslieebersole.com
Email me at leslie.ebersole@bairdwarner.com

 

 

 

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Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com 

I Am A Local Real Estate Expert – Zillow is Not

Whether you are thinking of buying a home or possibly selling your home you more than likely have stumbled upon Zillow and thought you hit the mother-load of real estate information!  It’s a fancy site with Zestimates, has homes marked on a map that are either currently listed or have recently sold, and you can spy on your best friends home on the other side of town to see what it’s worth and that’s cool, right?  Wrong!  Well, if spying on your neighbor is cool to you then that’s your business BUT if you are thinking of buying or selling a home then you want to steer clear of Zillow.

You see, I cringe when I speak with a buyer or seller and they come at me with all their research from Zillow.  They already have a predetermined listprice based on what they learned from Zillow or they think they already know if a home is over or under priced with information they received from Zillow.  Well, let me set the record straight – more often then not, Zillow is inaccurate.

Zillow is a computer generated program that acquires information from various sources and then runs it through a program to give you information based on a mathematical equation.  Trust me, there is no human sitting at a desk inputting data about all of the homes throughout the country.  What Zillow can not replicate and therefore will never be able to accurately price real estate is the human touch and the ability to physically see into other properties.

Zillow does not take into account upgrades and/or updates to a home or lack thereof.  It doesn’t know:

• While your home may have Formica countertops your neighbors have all upgraded to solid surface counter tops.
  
• You have replaced your carpet, vinyl in the kitchen and bathrooms and updated the appliances while your neighbors have carpets that are worn thin, 15 year old outdated vinyl and brass fixtures from the 80s
• ZILLOW DOES NOT KNOW THAT THE HOME NEXT TO YOURS WAS A FORECLOSURE AND THE PREVIOUS OWNER RIPPED OUT ALL THE CABINETS, TOILETS AND MADE OFF WITH THE COMPRESSOR UNIT TO THE HVAC.

All Zillow knows is what is found on other public sites – statistics.  There is no room for the human touch.

So, please, if you are thinking of buying or selling a home don’t consider Zillow as your source for pricing.  It’s a fun site – lot’s of bells and whistles – cool tools and great graphics but that’s about it.  If you are serious about buying or selling real estate then you want to rely on a real estate professional that can add the human element and knows your neighborhood and the local real estate market. 

                         

Whether you are buying or selling Real Estate in Wake Forest NC it just makes sense to use a Realtor® that knows the area!  I live here, work here and play here – I call Wake Forest NC home!  For more information regarding Wake Forest NC be sure to visit my websites:

• Leesa Finley – Homes for Sale in Wake Forest NC, Wake Forest NC schools, restaurants, shops, entertainment and MORE….
• Circa Properties – My company website with information for the entire Raleigh NC area including Cary, Apex, Garner, Franklinton, Youngsville, Holly Springs and MORE….

 

 

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Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com 

 

If you are a seller that does not want to replace the 20 year avocado-colored Formica countertop or you think the buyer of your home will be comforted knowing there is a another good year left on your roof or water heater that is two decades old…

You may want to rethink your “as-is” mentality.

“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”

Well, sorry to say to all of you “as-is” sellers out there, that phrase is not always true in today’s real estate market. In Philadelphia, where we represent many sellers and buyers for condos and single family homes, we have come to the conclusion that today’s buyer has very discerning tastes. The Modern Consumer (of all goods these days, not just RE) is educated, qualified, and ready to buy, but these folks are willing to wait for the very best property with the lowest possible price. Good for them. But that does not make it any easier on the “as-is” seller.

What is an “as-is” seller to do?

The easy answer is to wake up and smell the nonfat extra foam iced vanilla latte (aka coffee)! Fix it or forget it and lower your price. If you plan on sticking to your “as-is” approach you must price the property under market value and expect your buyer pool to thin out considerably. For buyers, an “as-is” sale is scary and risky particularly for first time buyers. When it comes to the fine art of real estate sales, sometimes it does not have to be broken to recommend something be replaced.

Creative option for the “as-is”-ers

Converting to the creative approach might be a better solution for sellers who really want to sell their property “as-is” but are finding that is not working. The creative path is a good one for sellers who may not be able to put the cash out for a repair. The creative approach is giving the prospective buyer choices whether repairing, replacing or a credit is the best option. The seller can defer the cost of any repair to be paid at settlement from the proceeds of the house.

Example:

A 22-year-old avocado counter top or a roof that needs replacement are samples of an “as-is” feature. The seller can give the prospective buyer a few options to choose. These options prevent the seller from making unnecessary improvements and gives the buyer some power in the decision as well.

Options:

• Replace counter and roof with the seller’s chosen material by the seller’s chosen contractor and the contractor’s estimates can be disclosed to all prospective buyers.

• Credit the prospective buyer with the amount disclosed on the contractor invoices so the buyer can use that credit toward whatever they want to be installed by whoeer they want after settlement.

• Reduce or increase the sale price by the the exact amount of the materials and labor as quoted in the disclosed contractor invoices.

These choices add some complication to the negotiations but that is the nature of trying to sell an “as-is” property in a buyer market where buyers are educated consumers with a decent amount of leverage in the market right now.

 

 

Feel free to subscribe to our blog to stay up to date with our latest posts and information on the Philadelphia Real Estate Market.  You can also sign up to receive the Philadelphia Real Estate Blog via email.

     

 

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Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com 

In this home staging in Vaughan I wanted to show sellers and agents the importance of their listing photos. This condo had a beautiful kitchen but it was difficult to see in photos with the accumulation of day to day living. Hectic lifestyles leave little time to get your home ready for sale.

Fortunately, this seller listened to the suggestions I made to stage their home for sale and the results were dramatic.

All I did in this home staging was put everything away and pack up the items that weren’t required for the next 60 days. The 60 day rule allows sellers to figure out very quickly which items to keep and which items to pack away for the move.

Investment, minimal.

Impact, priceless.

Advantage Staging, preparing your home for sale in Vaughan.

  

     

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Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com

A Stager’s Advice to Realtors

Lately I’ve been on the agent circuit, having done recent home staging presentations for local Keller Williams, Re/Max and Prudential GA Realty offices.  On the third presentation I realized that there are several key points that I always emphasize when I have the chance.  I’d like to share them with you.  Here they are:

• Never lose sight of the fact that the photos you post to your listings are infinitely more important than the VTs. Why?  Because buyers shopping on the internet will always click on the photos first since they pop up immediately and do not require time to load. If they like what they see of the photos, they will then click on the VT.  Always place your best photos at the top of the page and make sure they are just as impressive as the VT.
• A nicely decorated home and a staged home are NOT the same thing. In the three years I’ve been staging homes, my most difficult clients have always been those who have spent big bucks to have their homes professionally decorated.  Yes, they are lovely, but they are also highly personalized.  Decorating is all about surrounding yourself with colors, furniture, accessories, window treatments, etc. that please you. While you are living in the home, that’s fine; when you are selling your home, having a beautifully decorated, personalized home can prevent offers.   Bring in a trained stager who knows the difference and can prepare the home in the proper way by neutralizing and depersonalizing it.  Once your client moves, he/she can call in a decorator to repersonalize the new home.
• Remind your clients what, exactly, they are selling; namely space, architectural detail, floor plans and views. If clutter is rampant, buyers will never see the space.  If the rooms are crammed with furniture and lighting is poor, the architectural detail will never be noticed.  If there is an overabundance of rugs and furniture is not placed properly for traffic flow, the floor plan will be overlooked.  If windows are dirty and/or covered with tacky blinds or overbearing window treatments, the views will never be seen.
• Homeowners will work much more diligently to make necessary changes in the presentation of their homes when a 3rd party stager is brought in. Agents repeatedly tell me they are surprised and even shocked that the homeowners will “take” the staging suggestions from me after a staging consultation.  I don’t say this to toot my own horn, but I know this is typically the case when homeowners work with stagers.  There is something about bringing in the “expert” that causes them to take note, even though you may have told them the same thing.  (I’m sure the case is similar when they hear directly from the home inspector or mortgage broker.  They are all ears!)
• Having your clients work with a home stager will help to preserve your relationship with the homeowners.  You have other battles to fight with them — namely pricing, so take the day off (or go on a listing appointment) while your stager plays the “presentation game” with your clients.

There’s lots more, but these are just a few things that come up repeatedly.  Remember that your goal and your stager’s goal are one and the same — to get the house sold.  Call a stager today!

Patsy Overton, ASP, IAHSP

Accredited Staging Professional

Patsy@SSSHomeStaging.com 770-843-2307 www.SSSHomeStaging.com

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Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Let’s Get Connected!

If you’re looking for homes for sale in Midtown Tulsa, OK or just more information on Midtown Tulsa Real Estate, you can visit my primary website at www.loricain.com