buy

#1 biggest mistake a seller can make

by John Rice

Often, when talking about pricing a house with a seller, they say something like “Couldn’t we price it at this number and won’t people just make an offer if they like the house?” Makes a lot of sense to the seller, but doesn’t when you look at it through the buyer’s eyes.

Why? Let’s say a buyer is shopping for a $400k house. You have a house that is worth $350k, but are asking $400k because somebody will make an offer if they like it, right? The buyers are viewing every house that is priced at $400k, most of which are really worth about $400k. To buyers your house will seem like the worst house they have seen with a $400k list price. Why? They are comparing it in THEIR mind to the better houses they viewed that are worth $400k. The buyer is either going to get a better location, a bigger house, or one in better condition……They are never going to like your house enough to make an offer. On the flip side, the person who is going to spend $350k is never going to see your house because they aren’t looking out of their price range. So, you have a situation where the people looking at your house aren’t going to buy it and the person who would buy it isn’t going to see it!

Here are some tips to keep this from happening:

1) If you must price on the high side, never go more than about 5% over the recent sales of similar homes in your area. Sometimes an over-priced house will get a lot of showing, which makes the seller think they are priced right. You can still get a lot of showing on a slightly over-priced house, but no offers. When you get showings and no negative feedback, it means you have a price issue. I say if you have a $350k house, it needs to priced around that number.

2)  Avoid the temptation to have a high price and have your agent tell people you are motivated. When I see a steep asking price and the agent says the seller is motivated, what comes to my mind is that they are motivated to get their price. A truly motivated seller will price their house at or less than what it is worth. In 2025, the days of testing the market are a thing for history books.

3)  Realize how the market works. You have so many buyers and so many houses. The buyer gets to pick whichever house they want and they always pick the best one. Even in a sloooooow market, I have been in multiple offers. It is human nature to want the best. The buyer is comparing all the houses available. Make your house the best one by pricing it right.

Trust me on this…There is no magic in real estate.

“How long will it take to sell my House?”

by John Rice

I get asked this on every listing appointment. It is hard to believe that a couple of years ago, it was rare for any house in any condition to make it past the first day on the market. I usually don’t reply with an amount of time, but with a sequence of events that need to happen to attract a buyer. The honest to goodness truth is that any house should sell pretty quickly if the seller will do some prep work. Granted, there are exceptions…..Two million dollar house? Will take time since there aren’t many buyers in that price range. A unique house? May need a unique buyer. An overpriced house? Will usually only sell to an idiot with a realtor who thinks we are still in the 2022 market.

I’ve been doing this a long time. This is how it usually goes in this changing market. I see the house. I ask the sellers if they are able to do any work that needs done to attract buyers. Buyers want as move in ready as possible and for the best price right now…..well, I guess they always have but now they have more listings to chose from and sellers can no longer just put their house on the market without a little prep work. Sometimes the seller can’t/won’t do anything. If they can’t/won’t, I tell them the price I think their house will sell for just like it is. Usually though, the seller picks a few items from the list. We put it on the market. They get positive feedback for the things they have done. They get negative feedback for the remaining items on the list.  After awhile, the seller starts to realize that they are going to have to do more items on that list or reduce the price. Often, buyers subtract about 5 times the cost for the remaining items on the list. I’ve been on the buyer side of this. They almost always say something like “If I have to paint this whole house I’m not paying a penny more than $XXX,XXX!!”  or “I would need to replace all the carpet and I like hardwood, so let’s just subtract the cost of hardwood from the asking price and go from there.” Can’t blame them. After all, it is turning into their market these days.

Eventually, the seller plugs away at the list until it sells. See, there is the sequence of events I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Now that the house is ready, it is going to sell because it is competitive and will almost always fall on the short list of a buyer.

But what happens to the people who do everything on the list from the beginning and price it correctly? Their house usually sells very quickly. Why? Because buyers want the best house for their money. Make your house THAT house, and start packing.

NEVER sell your house “As-Is”

by John Rice

Why? It can keep people from wanting to see your house. Plus, nobody knows what it really means!

Let’s clear the air first about what it means. Did you know that ALL houses are sold “As-Is”? The contracts all the realtors use in my area say on line 202 that the buyer is purchasing the property “As-Is.” That means just as they see it and where they see it. The house is going to stay there and no warranties, no promises of something happening differently in the future are expressed or implied……So reason #1 to NEVER sell “As-Is” is because you already ARE selling “As-Is.”

I have had several buyers in the past tell me that they were interested in a house but saw the seller was selling “As-Is” and didn’t know why. A lot of buyers think that means there is some big issue the seller knows about and wants to pass their problem on to the buyer…..So reason #2 to NEVER sell “As-Is” is because it scares off buyers from even coming to see your house. It is hard to sell a house to somebody that won’t come see it.

Somehow, “As-Is” has come to mean that the seller prefers to not negotiate any repairs after a home inspection. Wise realtors say something like “Seller welcomes inspections but prefers to not do any repairs.” Still, I say there is no need to even do this. Just as the price is negotiable, the inspection terms are negotiable as well. The contracts in my area say that if the buyer elects to do a home inspection, they have the option to ask for repairs. It also says the seller has no obligation to do any of them…..So reason #3 to NEVER sell “As-Is” is because you as the seller do not have to do any repairs. There is no need to state this to a buyer before they even see your house and know if they want it. This is something that can come up during the contract negotiations. If you were on a dating app, would you put on your profile that you’re lactose intolerant and have bad breath? Of course not. The goal of presenting the listing is to get a buyer to schedule a showing. Nothing else.

How much value do improvements add? Depends on the rest of the house

by John Rice

I often get asked what improvements can be made that give the biggest return. I think a lot of folks are hoping I will say new flooring, new counter tops, stuff like that. I say do those if they are common for your neighborhood and/or price range, and only if your house does not have big negatives that future buyers will have a hard time overlooking. Not all improvements add more value than they cost. Keep in mind that you are focusing on that one new improvement. Sure, it is exciting. You are removing one negative from your house. When you go to sell, the buyers are looking at your whole house. They are weighing the positives against the negatives.

Many years ago, I had two older home listings that both had fabulous features. One of them had a reaaaaally narrow staircase to what had been the attic. It had a new kitchen, great deck, and 2 fantastic bathrooms. Another listing had the smallest living room I have ever seen, but the whole upstairs was brand new. I mean the seller took the roof off and had it rebuilt all new by a very reputable remodeler. It had a walk-in closet and master bath like a new high end house. It was totally superior to any other house in the neighborhood and its price range. Both of them took a while to sell. I would call the agents that showed them for feedback and they would go on and on about how much the buyer loved certain features and what a nice job the sellers had done with their improvements. I was always tempted to interrupt them and remind them that the house was for sale. I let them finish and they always started their last sentence with the word “But”. It was like this: “Buuuuuuuut that living room was too small.” Or “Buuuuuuut they just couldn’t handle those stairs.”

(Since I brought up the whole adding value verses cost of the improvement thing, would you like to know what is the highest return when getting your house ready to sell? Paint. Nobody ever gets excited when I tell them this, but it is true. Fresh paint always make any house feel better.)

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.