Month: August 2025

Selling? What you like doesn’t matter

by John Rice

A long time ago, my wife decided she wanted a Subaru Outback. We looked at a few on used car lots. I did a lot of research to find out what trim level we had to get for her to have the sunroof and heated leather seats that she wanted. There really weren’t a lot of used Outbacks in or around Lexington at that time. This was so long ago that I found a classified ad in a newspaper that said “2008 Subaru Outback, SI Drive” with the price and the seller’s phone number. That was it. Not a lot of info to work with. Definitely nothing to make the guy’s phone start ringing. But to me, this car having SI Drive told me a whole lot more about it. Having done the research, I knew that was only offered on the top trim level. It had the giant sunroof, heated leather seats, and the bigger engine. When we went to see the car, the seller kept talking about the SI Drive. I could tell it was very important to him.

A lot of home sellers are like that too. They want to focus on what is important to them when selling their house, rather than focusing on things that are important to the buyer. I see it a lot in the marketing material of For Sale by Owner listings. I once read a flyer where the seller spent a lot of space talking about how level the sidewalks are.

About this same time, I sold a house to a family that I have since become friends with. They found the house by driving around the neighborhood. They would have never come to see it if they had only seen it online. Why? Because of the marketing remarks. Instead of mentioning the hardwood floors, instead of mentioning that one of the upstairs bedrooms was huge, or that there were bedrooms on both levels of the house, or that the backyard was an awesome park-like oasis, the realtor used that space to tell you that the exterior was maintenance free, that the curtains stayed with the house, and that there was an allowance for water-proofing the basement as well as mitigating radon. The marketing remarks could only have been better if they said  “Must see! You get to keep the seller’s curtains AND fix some major problems with this house, but at least you’ll never have to paint the outside!! NOT a drive by!”

The hardest thing about real estate is getting sellers to think like a buyer and a buyer to think like a seller. I think if that ever were to happen, I’d probably be out of a job! Being a realtor these days is as much about mediation, negotiation and understanding differing perspectives as it is about houses.

BTW, “SI Drive” is a feature that has 3 settings for throttle response and transmission shift points.

Getting ready to sell?

by John Rice

Getting ready to sell your house? Here are some things to know:

Often a seller will think they need to do something like spend a lot of money refreshing a kitchen or a primary bathroom. While I am positive any buyer would appreciate that, doing so usually costs more money than it adds in value. If it doesn’t add more value to your home than it costs, it is a waste of time. The goal is to do things that add value and/or make the house sell faster. A better choice is to bring up the least best parts of your house than to make one or two areas way better than average.

Most sellers usually have one or two repairs that they think are going to cause the buyer to walk away. Often they are sort of minor issues that have bothered them the entire time they have lived in the house.

I remember once I had a seller who was planning on spending a lot of money to replace a front door because it had some wood rot between the metal on the front and back. From the side of the door, it looked like about a 3/4 inch by 2 inch area of rot. I told them not to do that. Why? To begin with, I didn’t think that a buyer would find it to be that big of a deal. When a buyer gets their inspection report, they are most focused on bigger issues usually. Something like that little bit of rot at the bottom of the door probably looks especially minor compared to the top 2-3 issues their inspector finds…..meaning that the seller can decline their request to repair it and focus on the real items that could be deal breakers.

What to do then? Fresh paint. A deep cleaning. Decluttering. These are the things that make your house look the best and cost the least.

    The market is changing

    by John Rice

    No doubt, there has been a shift this year.

    Few sellers have to move. Most just want to. None of them are excited about being a buyer if they need to finance their next home. They don’t want to give up their very low interest rate they got during COVID. They are upset that they can no longer expect to sell their house the first day on the market, get above list price, and the buyer waive a home inspection.

    Buyers are only buying if they really need to move. They don’t like the combination of high prices and high interest rates. They have more choices and power in the transaction than ever, but they can’t see the forest for the trees.

    First time buyers account for the lowest percentage of buyers in forever. Most first time buyers seem to want to skip the small, boring most affordable houses and rent until they can afford what we used to call the “Move up” house. This is leaving most houses under $250k to investors. Almost every super affordable house I have sold this year has been purchased by an investor. Even in multiple offers, they are easier to work with and will often pay the most for a house.

    Basically nobody is happy.

    This is the first time in my 20 year career of seeing such pessimism from both sellers and buyers in a fairly good market. The only other time I have seen both parties this discouraged is during the Great Recession. It was an extreme Buyer’s Market so sellers were unhappy. Buyers were worried their house would be worth less than they paid for it after the closing. Nobody was happy.

    I think we are stuck here for a while. I don’t see prices going up much in the near future and I don’t see them going down either. I don’t see interest rates going down enough to make much of a difference. I think this is just the new normal.