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You'll find home selling tips
for houses, townhomes, villas, and condominiums, scams to avoid, how to choose a seller's
real estate agent, what to put in your contract, real estate agent tricks to watch out for, and
negotiating tips for dealing with tough buyers.
Great Expectations
Many sellers have unrealistic expectations for their property value, especially on
condominiums and townhouses. These types of property at least here in Florida do not hold
their value very well, and very few of them appreciate.
Often the builders of new condos and townhouses charge buyers too much money
and when the buyer resells years later, they are shocked to see how much value their unit
lost. They will have a hard time selling their condo, especially if the maintenance fees
are high.
In the chapter on
How To Buy A Used House
we
tell you that sellers do not set the price, it’s the buyers and the market who set
the price. We buy stocks all the time that drop in value and real estate
can do the same thing. There are no rules of what appreciates or
depreciates. Some sellers get the idea in their head that their house should sell
for say $200,000 because they bought it a few years ago for $175,000. They may have bought
the house when the market was hot, and in a soft market, their house may not be worth the
asking price. A millionaire in Fort Lauderdale put one of his homes up for sale in 1999
for $12 million. A year later he lowered the price to $10 million. By early 2001, the
asking price was $8 million, and still no sale. This is another case of a seller
thinking they could set the price. The market was forcing him to lower the price.
If you don't price your property correctly to the market, you simply won't sell it.
So how do you price your home?
There are three tools to use, a property appraiser, a listing real estate agent,
and a list of recent home selling prices in your neighborhood. If you wisely chose
your listing agent and they have experience in your neighborhood, they can guide you to a
ball park selling price, then the appraiser will fine tune that number, and you can use a
list of recent selling prices as a sanity check. The appraisal can cost $250 or
more.
Pretty it up before you list it.
Before you turn your home over to the listing agent, make sure it’s in it's
best form. First impressions count and the first thing buyers see is your front lawn and
garden. Make sure your lawn and trees are fertilized about 2 weeks before you list the
house. Make sure that the lawn is in good shape, and has a perfect edge along the
perimeter, make sure the garden looks nice, with no weeds, and repair any cosmetic damage
to the house that can be seen from the outside. If your driveway has oil stains, it could
be time to reseal it. If you have a paver brick driveway like me, make sure it has a
good fresh coat of sealant on it. It makes a world of difference. You don’t
want any letdowns at all when the buyers drive up to look at the house. Try walking down
your street and see what looks good on the other houses,
and note what looks bad. Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and list
the items that make a house undesirable. Think curb appeal. Spending a few dollars on some
flowers can go a long way. For $50 you can buy several bags of wood chips and a few trays
of flowers and have your garden looking 100% better in one afternoon.
Fertilize the lawn also. Give it curb appeal,
and house buyers won't just slow down and drive off, they'll park and visit.
Replace your AC filter and any other filters that might be checked during the
inspection process. Don’t leave black marks and scuffs on the walls, either clean
them off or walk around the house with a can of paint and spot paint. You want buyers to
see perfectly clean walls. Remove any excess rugs and
furniture to make the rooms look bigger. If your house is empty, make sure the carpets are clean
and vacuumed. If there are any stains, have them cleaned off. Do not let buyers in your
house until you have clean carpets. You want your house to get top grades all around.
It will give the buyer fewer things to complain about, and fewer items to negotiate the
price down with. In short, pull out all the stops to make your house look as desirable as
you can. Give the buyers every reason in the world to buy your house, instead of excuses
not to buy it. Remember they are looking at 15 other houses, and your house better
look nicer than 15 other houses, or it will not sell.
How to photograph your house
Don't photograph your house with a car in the driveway. It's a no
brainer,
yet I see idiots all the time with a car in the driveway for the photo. What were
they thinking? You're
selling a house, not an SUV. Photograph your house on a nice sunny day with a few clouds in the
background and no cars! No toys, no trash cans,
close the garage door, just house and lawn. Take the picture at
the time of day when the sun is shining at the proper angle to light up the
entire front of the house. This usually means not taking the picture
when there may be deep shadows on the front.
Get a decent camera and take
several shots of the house and choose the one you like best. Then print several to
give out to your selling agent. Don't rely on your agent to take the picture, most
of them just don't have a clue. I see too many Real Estate Agent ads with cars in the
driveway. I'll bet half those cars belong to the idiot who took the picture.
Taking the photos yourself means you have more to give to a second agent if the first one
does not work out. Then you don't have to go through getting pictures taken of your
house all over again and chance that they are done wrong
again.
Related Tips
For House Seller:
-
How To Sell Your Home
Many sellers have unrealistic expectations for their property value, especially on condominiums and townhouses. These types of property at least here in Florida do not hold their value very well, and very few of them appreciate. Often the builders of new condos and townhouses charge buyers too much money and when the buyer resells years later, they are shocked to see how much value their unit lost. They will have a hard time selling their condo, especially if the maintenance fees are high.
Read more
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How To Choose A Good Real Estate Agent
"Real
Estate Agent" Is Just Another Name For
"Salesperson" Don't ever lose sight of
that fact. Their only mission is to sell, sell,
sell to YOU. Don't ever let on that you are in a
desperate situation, or that you need to sell a
house fast to pay for emergency bills, or that
you are in a desperate crunch to buy this house
now, because you are being transferred into town
this week. It's simply none of their business
and as far as they are concerned, you are not in
a rush to buy a house. Read more
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