location

Winter really IS the best time to sell

by John Rice

There are two kinds of listing:

  1.  The listings that are so desirable based on price/condition/location that EVERY buyer currently in the market wants it.
  2. All the other listings.

If you have one of those houses that makes people hear angels sing as soon as they walk through the door, are in an extremely desirable neighborhood, have priced your house to sell, or any combination of all that, congrats, your house will sell quickly any time of the year.  You have nothing to be worried about.  Spring is good.  Summer is good.  Fall is good. And yes, winter is good too.

If your house isn’t one of those, then you need to tweak everything you can if you want the coveted “SOLD” sign in your front yard.  You have what I call the Bridesmaid house because you know that saying, right?

Every year, people ask whether they should wait to list, or take their house off the market until spring.  My answer has always been no.

Why?

Because if you have a Bridesmaid house, there is always going to be a better house on the market all other times of the year.  I see it happen all the time.  A listing that is always the buyer’s second or third choice stays a second or third choice as long as those better houses keep coming on the market in the spring, summer and fall.

In the winter, there are far fewer buyers but there are also far fewer great listings.  Winter buyers typically have to settle for what is left over from the fall.  Picture this…..you’re at a Chinese buffet for lunch.  It’s 12:55.  There is one greasy looking Crab Rangoon.  All the General Zhao’s Chicken left are those thin, hard looking pieces that you think are really cat meat.  You are the only one at the buffet and nothing looks good.  Then, somebody comes out from the kitchen with some fresh food.  Even if it is just Pork Lo Mein, you eat it because it is the best thing available.

That is how the winter market works.

So, if you are ready to sell your house now, there is no need to wait until spring.  If you have been on the market without an offer, now really is your best shot at selling.

 

What makes a good location?

by John Rice

This week, I’ve been listening to several different buyers tell me what part of town they want to be in.  It has had me thinking about the whole “Location Location Location” thing.  I think most of the time, we as people like to reduce things down to a yes/no, for/against, good/bad scenario……Like this is a good location and this is a bad one.  I just don’t think it is that simple and here is why.

Just this week I’ve had two people tell me they really want to be in a location that many people avoid.  This is a high density area, so the buyers are looking for townhouses and condos.  See, the people that think this is an area to be avoided don’t want to be in that kind of density and are single family home types.  Both buyers mentioned that they had lived in that area before and liked how easy it was to get any where in town and that they enjoyed the 30+ acre park in the middle of the area.  When my wife and I were newlyweds, we lived in this area too…..we thought the same thing back then.

I guess my point in all this is that what makes a good location is really a subjective thing that varies greatly.  Age, income, property type, etc, all greatly have an impact on what makes a location appealing.  There is one common thing that all people tell me they want in a location:  Proximity to work, businesses they shop at, restaurants they eat at, and things like parks/sports/ or places they frequently go.  People with kids like to be in a good performing school district too.

Lexington is big enough to support all these different opinions about what makes a location good.  It is all in the eye of the buyer, and if enough of them think it is a good location, then it must be.

Time is the enemy of Location

by John Rice

Location sure is a funny thing.

I showed a property in Gardenside this week.  It was on the street behind the shopping center on Alexandria Drive.  I was thinking, that when the house was new, it was probably a great bonus to be so close to one of the premier shopping centers in Lexington.  That was in the 50’s and 60’s.  Now, being so close to that shopping center is more of a negative than a positive.  It use to have businesses like Dawahare’s Department Store and Lexitalia Restaurant.  Now it has a strip club.

My family moved to Kenwick in the mid 80s.  There was a super neat house on North Hanover that we loved.  We didn’t buy it because it was just a few houses down from all the scuzzy commercial sites on National Avenue……which is now a trendy spot with cool restaurants and businesses.

Part of the whole “Location Location Location” mantra is what desirable commercial areas are close.  Schools are another big one too, but that is another post.  Can you imagine what would happen to Townley Park if that shopping center in the middle of it was half vacant, and the rest were the same businesses you see in every failing shopping center?  Nobody would want to live there.  On the flip side, look at the NoLi District on the north end of downtown.  Al’s Bar gets discovered by hipsters, then we get a lot of other cool businesses like North Lime Coffee & Donut and suddenly what use to be a scary part of town is now desirable.  I just sold a house on Rand Avenue.  Just a few years ago NOBDODY wanted to live on Rand Avenue.

It is kind of sad to see some locations lose their luster, but seeing other parts of town be transformed makes up for it.

Location is never static.  Time usually makes it better or worse.