realtor

The happiest 2 days of homeownership

by John Rice

Two of the best days of owning a house are these:

1.  The day I call you to tell you that the seller has accepted your offer.

2.  The day I call you to tell you that we just got a really good offer.

When you hire me to be your realtor, I am thinking about both days.  You may not be, and that is okay.  That is what I am here to do for you.

We are currently in a market where everything sells.  You can have two identical houses across the street from each other.  Both exactly the same.  One backs to green space.  The other backs to the loading dock of a strip mall.  Both sell fast and for the same price.  Why?  Because there are three buyers for those two properties.  It was like this too back in the early 2000s.

But what do you think will happen when the market slows down.  Maybe there is only one buyer and both of those identical houses are for sale again?

The seller backing to the green space sells their house for top dollar in record time because even in a bad market, the best houses still sell.

The seller backing to the loading dock watches the SOLD sign go up across the street.  Then they watch the new neighbors move in.  Their house is still on the market, even after reducing the price several times.  They really need to sell because one of them starts their new out of state job next month and they can’t afford two mortgages.   Then they wake up listening to an idling diesel truck at that loading dock.  They remember how lucky they felt to get their house.  How they beat out that other buyer in multiple offers by bidding as much as the green space house cost.

It is only now they realize that they made a bad decision all those years ago.  That is how real estate works.  You never know whether you made a mistake or not until you go to sell your house.

When you look at houses with me, I will always point out the negatives so you know what you are getting into.  I’ve been doing this for a long time.  I know what things buyers like and don’t like.  I don’t want anything to be a surprise to you when you go to sell your home.  What you do with that info is totally up to you, but I will always let you know because one day, you will be the seller and not the buyer.

 

Imagine if Mr. Roarke was a realtor

by John Rice

fantasy-island

A friend and I were talking this morning about what we would do with our time if we were independently wealthy.

I’m showing my Gen X roots here, but I said that Mr. Roarke from Fantasy Island had the best job ever.  My decade younger friend who is still a Gen Xer but considers himself to be a millennial had not seen the show.

I described it has this:  People come to Fantasy Island to live out one of their fantasies.  Mr.  Roarke is the gracious host who makes those dreams happen.  Sometimes those dreams can bring harm to people and he has to intervene to protect them.  He is always working even when the island guests don’t see him.  He predicts what is about to happen and always warns his guests of the outcome, so they have time to adjust their decisions.

My friend replies with “Isn’t that a lot like being a realtor?”

Hahahaha.  I guess it really is.

This has given me some ideas for my 2018 Christmas Card.

Reading the tea leaves when your house isn’t selling

by John Rice

House not selling? Wondering how to interpret what is going on? Here are a few of my thoughts on some common situations. The following assumes your house is being presented well online with plenty of good pictures and marketing remarks that describe it with more than trendy generic AI generated verbiage.

The house that gets lots of showings but no offers

Assuming that you don’t have some negative that wasn’t obvious like backing to a highway, apartments, or having an Eiffel Tower looking electrical thing in your yard, this situation simply means that the house doesn’t live up to what buyers expected. The good news with this one is that buyers think the price for what they thought the house would be is okay or else they wouldn’t come at all. The solution here is to either lower the price or improve the house so that it meets the expectations buyers have. Whichever is easiest.

I once had a condo that got tons of showings. I kept encouraging the seller to paint. Once we did, it sold. I recently had another listing that was getting tons of showings. It was a nice place, but just felt like a 15 year old house that needed a fresh vibe. The seller did some painting and replaced the flooring in all the bathrooms. As soon as it was done, it sold. Both of these places looked great online, and just needed to match what buyers thought they were getting. Both were improved for far less than the price reduction we would have needed, so both sellers actually came out better by going that route.

The house that gets no showings

This one is easy, but hard for sellers to accept. The price is too high. If a house is presented well on the MLS, and still nobody comes to see it, all you can do is lower the price. Real estate is all about price, location, and condition. You can’t change the location, but the other two you have some control over.

Also something to think about is this: If you have a $400k house and you’re asking $475k for it, buyers are comparing it to other houses that are really worth the asking price. The buyers who are going to spend what your house is really worth aren’t even going to see it since the list price is over their budget.

The house that gets the same bad feedback over and over

This is the least fun thing that can happen to a seller. I mean, they get kicked out of their house for showing after showing with no offers AND get to hear what people hate about their house.

Several years ago I had this really cool older house that had been mostly remodeled. It had the smallest living room I have ever seen……must have been the smallest anybody had ever seen since that is all I kept hearing after the showings. I’d ask for feedback and the buyer’s realtor would go on and on about how beautiful the place was, how unexpected it was to have walk-in closets in such an old house….then they would say their client wasn’t going to buy it since the living room was so small.

We tried putting in smaller scale furniture, but that didn’t help. After that, all we could do was drop the price. A price reduction opens the house up to a larger pool of buyers as well as enticing them to overlook a shortcoming if they are getting a better deal. We got that one sold too.

If you have a situation that doesn’t fit into these scenarios, give me a shout and I’ll let you know what to do.