For Sale By Owner

Real Estate Catch Phrases….EXPOSED!

by John Rice

Ever hear folks say things that just make total sense when they say them…..but then you get to looking at it beyond face value and realize that it doesn’t always apply 100% of the time?  Back when I was a kid, people around here would put bags of sand in their trunks for the winter.  The logic was that it would add weight to the back of your car and help with traction in the snow.  That is very true…..if you have a rear wheel drive car.  I remember in the 80’s when front wheel drive was starting to become common.  In the late fall you’d hear people with front wheel drive cars say it was time to get their sand bags.

Same thing happens with real estate.  We’ve all heard some of the following thoughts that in general are true, but don’t really apply to all situations all of the time.

1)  Location Location Location:  While generally true, I’d like to see this one replaced with “Location, Price, Condition.”  Why?  I’ve seen too too many houses in a prime location sit on the market because the price and/or condition weren’t right.  You just can’t price your house in a prime spot equal to others in your neighborhood if it isn’t an equal house.

2)  You can get a good deal with a For Sale By Owner:  I hope I am not offending anybody here, but in all the FSBO houses I have ever seen, all of them have been grossly over priced.  Let’s face it, people go the FSBO route because they want to save themselves some money.  For somebody who thinks they can pocket the commission savings, it is easy for them to think a buyer should also pay what they feel their house is worth…….But it is the buyer who always gets to determine the value of a house.  You’d think seeing houses in some parts of the country go for 30% of their previous value would testify to that fact.   That is why sellers usually end up listing with a realtor.  The day sellers figure this out is the day you’ll start seeing a lot of realtors lined up to give plasma.

3)  Go Neutral:  I must admit, I generally tell people to paint bold rooms beige, and when they remodel, go neutral.  The reason is that if 10 people come to your house when it is for sale, 10 people won’t be offended.  However, 10 people probably won’t fall in love with it either.  If you have something with some character and 10 people come in, 9 won’t like it at all, but that 1 that does will probably buy your house and give you top dollar.  I have cherry floors and slate in the bathrooms.  I polled my Facebook friends to see how they reacted to slate.  About half loooooved it and half didn’t.  Same thing with my friends.  Some see it and want to touch it and keep looking at it.  Then some give me a look like they are trying hard to not ask why I picked slate!

4)  It’s better to have the cheapest house in an expensive neighborhood than get a nicer house in a cheaper neighborhood:  This one can bite you on the bum.  The problem is that the buyers who will be looking in the nicer area will probably expect more than the house has to offer.  Also, buyers who will be looking in that price range may elect to get more house and skimp on the location.  Going this route is best for somebody that plans on improving the house to the standard of the neighborhood since it gives them a better chance to recoup their money.

5)  You’ll get your money back out of an improvement when you sell:  I don’t hear this as much since the market slowed.  Even when the market was super dooper hot, you never got 100% of what you spent back, and you certainly don’t today.  Another thing to remember is anything you do to your house has a life span.  The more of its useful life span you pass on to the buyer, the more you get back.  A good example?  Carpet.  It only really adds value if it is new.  Imagine if you saw a house for sale and it said “New Carpet in 2005!!!!  Not gonna get your blood boiling is it?

6)  You need wiggle room in your pricing so buyers can think they got a good deal:  I just blogged about this one, so I won’t spend much time here.  Think about this though…..Do you think pricing your house without wiggle room will get you more showings than the sellers who have their house overpriced?  Buyers are online looking at houses they want to see in person.  A realistic price makes your house stand out in comparison to the others and they come out to see it.  You need showings to get an offer.  I have never had a buyer tell me to make an offer on a house they haven’t been in. 

That’s it for today and my “Deep Real Estate thoughts by John Rice.”

What advice do I give my friends??

by John Rice

I had a friend contact me on Facebook about the possibility of finding a new agent to sell their house.  Seems they haven’t had a lot of showings, and obviously no offers yet.  I’ve crossed out the name of the town that the house is in (and corrected some of my spelling), but I though this would make a good blog post.   I always say that I need to be as good to those I don’t know as I am to friends and family……so here is what I said for anybody with the internet to see:

“Sorry to take so long to get back to you. I don’t know if it is just me, but this isn’t an easy one to answer so I wanted to have time to write you a book.

When you listed your house, it should have had a beginning and an ending time for the listing period. After the contract expires, either of you are free to move on. If that time hasn’t come yet, the agent may let you out of the contract.

I do have a few questions. Is there a board of realtors in XXXXXXXXXX (meaning a local “chapter” for the MLS.) In Lexington, we have the Lexington-Bluegrass Association of Realtors. That is the site that all the local agents use. If there is one specifically for XXXXXXX, you definitely want an agent that is a member of it. If it isn’t on whatever association’s website that XXXXXXX agents use, you may as well have listed it with an agent from another planet. In your case, I would imagine that (major nearby city’s) association probably covers XXXXXXX too. Also, the odds of your agent actually being the one who finds a buyer are very slim. It happens, but odds are another agent is going to see it online and bring their client to your house. That is why online presentation is the most important thing right now.

Question 2. Is your current agent presenting it well online? Go to whatever site the agents use and take a looksie at it. If the pictures and marketing remarks wouldn’t make you want to see it, odds are everybody else feels the same way. While you are there, double check that everything is accurate.

Question 3. Is it priced realistically? Now this is where you will unfriend me, but if you have had XX showings in less than 6 months, it may be priced high. I don’t know the XXXXXXX market, but to have XX people look and not make an offer could mean that the price is too high or………Question #4!

Question 4) Is the feedback you are getting from the showings that there is some fatal negative that buyer’s just can’t look past? If you keep hearing the same thing over and over again, you might have a big negative. Most big negatives can only be conquered with a price reduction. I have a teeny-tiny backyard. I know when I go to sell, that is what buyer’s will be telling me. Most people wanting a decent sized 4 bedroom house in a great school district have kids and want a bigger yard. I’ll have to price it at the low end of the comps unless we have another crazy seller’s market.

So, if you do part ways with this agent, here is what I would look for next. Ideally, an agent that works with at least as many buyers as they do sellers. Most agents just want to list. Listing houses just means you see the one house. An agent that works with a lot of buyers has probably been in a lot of the house that you will be competing against. That agent will be better able to tell you what your house offers to buyers that are out there right NOW! I’d look for somebody that deals in your price range a lot. It always kills me when I see a cheaper house listed by one agent in Lex that deals almost exclusively in high end houses. What does this agent really know about a $100k house when 98% of their work is over $500k? And how much time are they going to put into that listing that will pay $3k verses the ones that will pay $15k. It takes a really etical person to work as hard for both sellers!

I’d also look for somebody that has a plan. Don’t go for the agent that spits out their average days on market unless they can specifically tell you what they did to acheive it. Lots of agents can get lucky. You want somebody that will do a market analysis and will show you how they came up with what they think your house is worth. Even if you don’t like the number. Some agents will list a house for whatever price it takes to get the listing. Then they start hitting you up for price reductions. I kind of think it is better to deal with reality now, since you’ll have to at some point down the road.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions…..I may turn this into a blog post. (No names of people, places, things though.)”

Random Houses Don’t Sell as Well

by John Rice

I woke up at 3:44 this morning thinking about the differences between how a buyer and a seller view a house, what a buyer needs to know when looking at a seller’s house, and the other way around.

A buyer is going to come in a house, stay for 20-30 minutes if they like it, and wander around all the rooms.  They view the house as a whole at this point.  They are trying to decide if they like the whole thing since they can’t cut and paste features.  This is the main difference.  When a buyer goes from room to room and all colors are different, that just seems random to them.  A seller sits in each room for longer periods of time and tends to view the house as different spaces.  Same thing for finishes.  When a buyer sees brass door knobs, a nickel light fixture, and maybe bronze cabinet hardware, it throws them off.  It has a confusing vibe for them, just as it would for you if I spent the next few paragraphs talking about the Olympics and how much more I like coffee from South America than I do from Kenya.

If you are a seller, the best thing you can do is to give your house that cohesive vibe.  Paint all the walls the same color.  Makes things match.  It sounds silly, but those things have a calming effect on people.  People want to feel calm/relaxed in their home and this is one way to make  a buyer feel that way.  If two houses are side by side and identical, the one with the cohesive vibe is going to sell before the one with every room a different color.

Now I don’t want to make this about updates.  I think with HGTV we all believe  Stainless appliances and granite will make ANY house sell.  I’ve been in  houses that are totally random, but have these upgrades.  You know what happens if the house has the random vibe?  All a buy does is want to cut and paste those features to another house.  They say they really like that feature, but don’t buy it.  Often, real estate is more about minimizing negatives than accentuating positives.

If you’re a buyer, what you need to realize is that you can create that calming, cohesive vibe pretty easy.  You were probably going to paint anyway, right?  Another thing to remember is that you don’t want to over pay for a house just because all the rooms match.

4 Things that will get your house sold…Fast!

by John Rice

Here we are at that time of year when people are about to put their house on the market.  Selling is all about online presentation and making your house look good.  No magic.  No light show.  No fireworks.  Since anybody who has ever watched HGTV knows to declutter and do some fresh neutral paint, I’ll just skip all that.

1.  Pricing your house correctly is the best thing you can do.  You house is worth what it is worth.  There is no need to leave “wiggle room.”  I often just round up to the nearest $5000 mark since most people search in those increments.  The strategy is that your house will appear to be a better value than the house that is worth the same amount but priced higher for that wiggle room.  When sellers let me do this it has always worked and they have always got about 99% of their asking price.

2.  The internet.  Something like 80% of buyers and 100% of realtors use the internet these days for their search. A lot of people (and realtors) think getting the most exposure is the goal, but the quality of the exposure is what counts.  Way back in the day, you had to make exposure happen.   Now, just about every place online that let’s you search for houses is fed from the MLS.  Zillow, yahoo, even brokerage sites like Re/Max.com, are all fed from the MLS.  About the only places it won’t be is on for sale by owner sites.  Just for fun, try googling an address of a house that recently sold.  Quality is what matters.  If it doesn’t look good online, people assume it doesn’t look good in person either.  Gone are the days when people would take the time to see a house just in case.

3.  The pictures have to be right.  First, make your house look as good as possible.  Then get somebody that knows how to take good pictures, rather than somebody who just owns a camera.  If a picture looks shady and dark, buyer’s will think the house is shady and dark.  The pictures are to make somebody want to see the house.  The pictures really sell the showing.

4.  Buyers need to know what makes your house special.  Every house is special.  There is more to your house than just the square footage and bedroom count.  Got a great shady spot in the backyard?  Is it on a peaceful street?  Does it have any storage space?  Buyers need to  know about things like that.  Here is a hint, it is almost always the same reason that you picked it when you were faced with a decision.

There you have it 🙂