Archive for the 'Selling Thoughts' Category
Dear Mr Lender-I would have shown your listing Today
February 19th, 2010 Categories: NOVA Foreclosures, Selling Thoughts
However when my buyers and I arrived we couldn’t get to the front door.
I know it we have had an unusual amount of snow this year in Northern Virginia but buyers are still out looking for homes. In fact they are out in droves trying to find homes to put under contract before the current tax credits expire at the end of April.
You have a listing agent who you have put in charge of taking care of your listings for you. As you can see by the lack of footprints in the snow that not only are the sidewalks and driveway still covered in snow, no one has gone to check on the interior of the property.
We have had a lot of problems with leaks due to clogged gutters and if the house is winterized chances are it is freezing cold inside. Cold and wet are not a good combination as I’m sure you know. When a buyer can finally make it to the front door they may be in for an unpleasant surprise or two.
There is no doubt that you want your property to sell for top dollar and time is wasting. Would you please contact the listing agent, ask them to check on the home and hire a crew to shovel a usable path to the front door and check the interior?
My buyers are qualified and ready to go. Sorry we had to pass your home by.
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Fortunately the home was vacant. The “buyers” wandering around the property were poking in every corner. When I asked where their agent was, hoping they were just somewhere else in the house, I learned they weren’t on site. They had given the “buyers” the combo code and told them to go check it out for themselves.
The property was NOT a foreclosure so there is an owner who is still responsible for the home. Sure it might be a short sale but that does not mean that the standard rules of real estate practice do not apply.
Article 3-9 of the Code of Ethics states:
“REALTORS® shall not provide access to listed property on terms other than those established by the owner or the listing broker.”
I am fairly certain that there aren’t many sellers who state in their listing agreement anyone can enter their house without a licensed agent with them. Combo codes are not entered into public remarks for anyone to see. So if a “buyer” is wandering around a property unaccompanied they didn’t get there without an agent violating the Code of Ethics.
There is a lot of talk these days about professionalism in real estate. If you hired an agent to represent your interests and they can’t track who is accessing your home, you may want to ask them about how they are protecting your property and who is liable for the anything that turns up missing? Ask homeowners who have discovered kitchens gone, copper plumbing removed and graffiti sprayed on the walls how they feel about just anyone being able to enter their homes and see what they say.
Combo lockboxes are cheap but the insurance claim you might need to file to put your home back in the condition it was in when you left might not be. Ask the agent you are hiring to list your house their plan for tracking visitors not only for feedback but for security too.
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Who Says MLS Photos Aren’t Important?
February 9th, 2010 Categories: Focus on Prince William, Selling Thoughts
If you are thinking about listing your home in Northern Virginia soon or your home is already on the market and you wonder why you aren’t seeing much in the way of traffic one of the reasons could be the lack of MLS photos. With over 85% of all buyers starting their search for a new home on the internet the lack of photos can make them pass your home by or drop it to the bottom of their must see list.
Anyone who has watched the news about the “snowpocalypse” in Northern Virginia knows that buyers and there agents have been hampered in showing properties for the last few days and may for the next few as well. However that didn’t stop one agent and their buyer from sending in an attractive offer on my new listing in the Port Potomac neighborhood Prince William County VA.
The buyer has not set foot in the home but is familiar with the neighborhood and the model. Her tour of the home has been through my photos in the MLS and my video tour posted on my blog. They knew they loved the neighborhood and after viewing the photos they knew the home was in good condition and was the right one for them.
If your are talking to agents who say photos don’t make a difference they obviously do. Say NEXT and call an agent who knows that photos DO help sell houses in today’s Northern Virginia real estate market.
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There are hundreds of agents vying to list your Northern Virginia home for sale. Some of them will offer you the moon and only deliver cheese. Here are a couple of hints for you consider when talking to agents about selling your home.
PHOTOS-do they take them? What is the quality? Do they make an effort to adjust the light so you can see the rooms. Do they help you stage the home for the best photos. How many photos do they take and when will the photos be uploaded to the MLS?
BROCHURES-do they provide them? Of course if they don’t take any photos probably won’t be any brochures (I’m not talking about a stack of MLS listings sheets in your house.)
DIRECTIONS-do they actually know how to get to your house? See MapQuest, use your GPS or Google the Address are not acceptable.
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Short Commercial prior to Video
Read more on this Short Sale Fraud story
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Listing Your Home for Sale-A Market Report is Not a CMA
January 1st, 2010 Categories: Focus on Prince William, Selling Thoughts
If you are planning on listing your home in Woodbridge Virginia for sale in 2010 you are probably searching the web for information on the value of your home. There are plenty of sites including the Prince William County real estate assessment sites and Zillow that can give you a rough idea of one type of value for your home.
You can also find dozens of sites where you can read the latest for your neighborhood. Market reports are easy for any Realtor® with access to the MLS to create. In fact the MLS can do most of the work for you with just a few easy data selections.
Pick a neighborhood, a type of home (detached, townhouse), garage or no garage, throw in a date range and the system will create a market report for you. The report can also include a comparison of time frame so you can get a general idea of whether values are up or down.
A Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) on the other hand is a different type of report. It is specific to the value of your home. It is based on a thorough evaluation of the pluses and minus of your home as compared to another similar home in your neighborhood. Is your home a detached, colonial with 4 BR’s and 3 BA’s in Westridge? Then a CMA is going to start with looking specifically at the same style and model.
Then a CMA will go deeper. Have you upgraded your kitchen with granite and have new Stainless Steel appliances? Does your home have a walkout basement? How about hardwood floors? All of these can add value to your home above a similar home without them. And of course it could work in the opposite direction if you are missing those items.
If you are reading local market reports and see that the average home in your neighborhood is selling for $500,000 remember this may not be the value of your home. Make sure before you decide on list price for your home that you contact an agent familiar with your neighborhood who will take the time to visit your home and provide you with a CMA. Check to make sure the numbers they are using are within the last 90 days and that the basis for the CMA is an apples to apples comparison.
Pricing your home correctly is a major step to putting the SOLD sign in your yard.
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This week an offer came in on one of my listings. The prospective buyer has been hanging around awhile so we figured it was only a matter of time before an offer would arrive. When they presented the offer it was for almost $100,000 less than the asking price. Now I’ve learned not to be very surprised by anything that rolls off the fax machine anymore, so despite shaking my head I thought lets see how we work with this.
Serious conversations ensued where the buyer defended the offer and explained their rationale. That is terrific but the logic wasn’t 100% on target. We countered with what was a very reasonable offer with appropriate concessions. The response…well let’s just say they didn’t think we had our heads screwed on straight.
Then I started thinking how do I explain this to the buyer in terms that they might understand better. Finally I asked “if a buyer offered you $100,000 less for your home how would you react?” The answer was firm and loud. “I would be insulted, I wouldn’t bother to respond, and I’d think they didn’t have a clue about the value of my home? And then the pause came, you know the one I’m talking about. The long pregnant pause as the realization hit them about their offer and how it might have been received.
I don’t know if we will make a deal or not. But I do know the buyer has a little different perspective on a low ball offer.
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Marketing Data-A Simple Mistake Could Cost You
June 8th, 2009 Categories: Buyers Corner, Selling Thoughts
Marketing reports are always up to interpretation. There isn’t anyone who is involved in the current market in Northern Virginia that isn’t aware that housing prices are down. But they aren’t down the same way in every neighborhood so when an agent puts out a marketing report that is specific to a neighborhood and type of home they need to be careful that the numbers are reasonably accurate.
Recently I noticed a marketing report for a neighborhood that I know well. Not because I am the #1 Agent in the neighborhood but because I track sales, show homes in the neighborhood on a regular basis and even owned a home in the neighborhood for 7 years.
This particular marketing report showed that the average net sold price of a detached home was $428,876, yet when I ran a sold report for the neighborhood I came up with an average net sold price of $482,655. This is a significant difference. So I started looking at why the numbers would be so far apart.
What I figured out is it comes down to a matter of the placement of the “wildcard” that an agent uses when searching the MLS. The movement of the “wildcard” (aka asterisk) made the difference in pulling up only detached homes in the neighborhood and pulling in townhouses with a similar name close by.
As a consumer looking to buy a home or an owner in the neighborhood reading a marketing report with a $60,000 lower average sold price is not something to scoff at. This is one reason why checking and double checking marketing reports is so important and why consumers need to read them with caution. If you are thinking of buying or selling a home in a specific neighborhood make sure you double check the data before you make a decision on an offer or list price. You might not be looking at apples to apples comparisions if the “wildcard” was wrong.
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HAP-Military Families There May Be Help for You
May 27th, 2009 Categories: Military Relocation, Selling Thoughts
Military families stationed at Fort Belvoir, the Pentagon, Quantico and other Military District of Washington installations who purchased a home prior to July 1, 2006 may find that Homeowner Assistance Program (HAP) may offer some relief if you have upcoming PCS orders to move.
This week I had the opportunity to start working with a family applying for HAP benefits. The official guidelines for the program are still pending but the counselor I spoke with in Savannah says they already have over 1300 applications waiting. We have a listing agreement in place (one of the requirements) and as soon as the final program rules are announced we will be ready to market their home.
The HAP program is aimed towards helping:
Active Duty Military Personnel with PCS orders who are upside down on their mortgage
Wounded soldiers who must relocate due to medical conditions (wounded after 9/1/2001)
Surviving Spouses (death of military member after 9/1/2001)
According to the Homeowners Assistance Program information the Department of Defense (DoD) will reimburse the covered groups up to 95% of their loss if their homes was purchased prior to July 1 2006.
If you live in Northern Virginia and you are anticipating PCS orders this summer and you qualify for HAP, now is the time to start gathering your documents and call the HAP Field Office for our area (located in Savannah) at 800-861-8144 for additional information.
Download information on how to apply for the HAP program.
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How fast can you put a home on the market? Can you do it in an hour? Can you do it in a day? On a recent listing appointment a seller indicated that a previous agent suggested if they signed the listing agreement right then they could have the house on the market tomorrow. Gasp!
Sure I can run home and put the basic data in the MLS. I don’t have to fill in all the data fields or at least not correctly and certainly I don’t care if you clean your house or we take any photos to give buyers an idea of how great your home is. We can slap that puppy on the market and sit back and wait and wait and wait for a buyer to show up at the door.
Or perhaps we could do some prep work and make sure that your home is ready the moment the first buyer walks in the front door. In our current market in Northern Virginia the adage “you only get one chance to make a good first impression” is alive and well. Photos, color brochures, websites and complete MLS data are just a few of the up front activities that need to take place before your home hits the market.
Then there are the things you need to do. De-cluttering, cleaning and touch-ups don’t happen over-night unless you happen to have a crew of worker bees on call. Northern Virginia buyers are picky and want your home to be close to perfect before they will put it on the short list.
If an agent suggests to you that if you sign the listing agreement right away they can put your home on the market overnight stop and think about it. Unless your home is already picture perfect then you might want to do a reality check. A well prepared home and listing are the best way to put the SOLD sign in your yard!
Check out my latest tour of a new listing in the Westridge Community in Prince WIlliam County
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