sell

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.

 

What I want in 2018

by John Rice

I am about 8 weeks away from celebrating my 13th year in real estate.

When I got into this, a lot of agents thought I was crazy and that I would never make it in this industry.  Why?  I didn’t want to do all the tasks that we were told we had to do to attract business.  I didn’t want to mail out basketball schedules, calendars, packets of seed with a card that said “Help me grow my business.”  I wanted to be out and about doing things that kept me on top of the market.  Things that would benefit my clients.  I got into real estate because I love the market and houses, not because I loved mailing people stuff.

Other agents also thought I was crazy because I wore shorts and sandals all the time.  Ok, they may have been right about that one.

I was told that if I didn’t do all those things, people wouldn’t remember me.  I said that if somebody used me as their agent and forgot about me, I didn’t deserve to be remembered.

I was excited to view every house I could because the more houses I was in, the better I knew the market and neighborhoods.

As the market went sour, I gained momentum.  The agents who use to laugh at me began asking me what I was doing to get so much work.

It grew and grew until it peaked in 2014.  I was in the top 1.5% of all the agents in my area.  2015, 2016 and 2017 were all good years.  I did less work, but I enjoyed it much more and  had more time to focus on each client.

I’ve pretty much achieved all the goals I made 13 years ago.  It’s been a wild and fun ride.  Sort of like surfing and riding a bucking bronco at the same time.  What a rush.

So what do I want out of 2018?  I mean me personally…..sure my goal has always been to be the best realtor I can for my clients and always will be.  The fact that almost all my work is repeat clients and referrals from past clients shows that is happening.  But what do I want to say to myself on January 1st in 2019?

I want to look back and say “Man, that was fun.”

That is it.  No setting goals for how many houses I want to sell.  No setting goals for how much money I want to make.  No comparing myself to other agents.  I’m past all that.  I just want to be the best version of me I can so I can be the best realtor I can be…..and I want to enjoy every single day.

 

Why a price reduction is usually better

by John Rice

I practically wrote this post in my head last night.  I woke up just before 3 and never really went back to sleep.  Then riiiight when I was about to fall asleep, the dog barked at 5:AM and wanted to go out.

As I was lying there, hoping to fall asleep, I got to thinking about those houses that get the same negative feedback from showings and how sellers sometimes respond.

Let’s say a house is getting showings but no offers.  The feedback you get is something such as the buyer didn’t like the kitchen.  The kitchen is plain.

I often get asked by my sellers if they should do something like spend money getting granite.  I probably disappoint them because I usually say it isn’t a good idea.  It is better to reduce the price.

To a seller, this one thing is what appears to be holding back the sale so it only makes sense to remove the negative that has been a common thread in the feedback.

Having done this for a while, I know how it works.

See, the buyer walks in the house hoping it is THE one.  They look around until there is something they cannot live with.  Once they have made the decision that they will not be making an offer, they quit looking at the house.  Sure, they may walk around the rest of the house but they don’t really think about it any more because they know it isn’t the one.  They’ve checked out.

Then you get the feedback that they didn’t like that certain feature.

You spend a lot of time and money fixing that feature.  You turn that frown upside down.  You get a new batch of showings expecting it to sell because well, you’ve resolved the only problem previous buyers had with the house…..then you get feedback and there is a NEW problem.

See, what happened is that the buyers got past whatever problem you fixed.  You did a good job.  They kept looking at the house with serious buyer eyes.  They made it further into the showing this time before the next big negative became the issue.

IF that happens, then you’ve really wasted the money you spent because now your house isn’t selling for some other reason.  That is why I think it is safer to reduce the price verses spending a lot of money.

There has only been one time in the past 12 years where I was wrong on this.  I gave my client this same advice that you have read.  She insisted on getting granite.  LOL, the very next buyer bought the house……So if you’re reading this Tammy M, I hope I have made your day!

 

The hardest houses to sell

by John Rice

I’ve been at this for a long time.  I’ve sold a lot of houses.  In a good market.  In a bad market.  In Lexington.  Outside of Lexington.  In neighborhoods.  In the country.

Want to know the houses that are the absolute hardest to sell?

The ones that are partially updated.

Why?

You would think that a buyer would view a house that has some parts really nice to be a big bonus.  They don’t.  The nice part of the house just makes the rest of the house look worse to a buyer.  Too much contrast between the nice and the average bits of the house.

Who comes to see these houses?

  1.  The buyer who sees the nice new stuff in the pictures.  They get excited but almost always say that the rest of the house needs too much work.
  2. The buyer who see the part of the house that needs updated.  They get excited because they want to renovate the rest of the house, but not give any credit for the work that has been done……meaning they want it for free.
  3.  All the other buyers who come mainly because it meets some or all of their search criteria.  They don’t buy it because they say it needs too much work.

What you have to do with a house like this is try to make the non-updated bits look as good as possible.  You want to minimize that contrast.  You don’t want the buyer to walk in one room and be unhappy, then walk in the next and fall in love, then walk in the next and be unhappy.  The goal is to make them at least feel neutral, then love, then neutral as they walk through the house.  Less contrast is good.

You also have to really emphasis the other features of the house, hoping that the right buyer will see all the other pluses and feel like they can live with the house like it is or take on the updating.  If the house is the best bargain in the neighborhood, walking distance to trendy places, has a park nearby, a desirable school district, is the most square footage for the money…..whatever the house excels at, and all houses have something unique, that is what you want to emphasize.  Anybody looking for one or more of those unique features is usually the one who buys the house.  Why?  Because they don’t have as many choices

Shhhhh….Don’t tell anybody this

by John Rice

I’m going to let you in on a little secret.

The market has slowed down in much of the Bluegrass.  I don’t mean that it is dangerously slow or anything.  It is still a hot market with too few houses for sale.  It just isn’t the crazy frenzy it was earlier this year.  That is to be expected since it does slow down a little after school starts, then a little more the closer you get to Thanksgiving, then a little more the closer you get to Christmas.

How much?

In Fayette County, sales are down 6% when comparing August 2016 to August 2017.

I put two new listings on the market last week.  I try to put my listings on late Friday afternoon so we get lots of showings on Saturday.  That way everybody is off work and they can all see each other come and go from the house….it makes it feel more like an auction.

I knew it had slowed down some, so I was expecting only 4-5 showings at each house, and probably at least two offers on each.

House A did not get any showings the first day on the market and only one showing was scheduled for the second day on the market.

House B had only one showing scheduled the first day on the market.

Fortunately both sold to the first buyers who saw them, but I imagine they and their agents would be surprised to know this.

Both houses were priced right, presented well and in the most popular price range.

I sold another house this week too.  This time I was working with a buyer.  We saw a very affordable house the very first day it was on the market.  Throughout most of this year, I have shown a house and had another agent showing it before and/or after my showing.  Sometimes there has been a line, prompting me to consider a side hustle of selling snacks and drinks while I am there waiting.  I was at this house for an hour.  No agent was there before me.  No agent was waiting for me to leave.

I am noticing home inspectors have been able to get to jobs in fewer days too.

When I scroll through the pending sales every day, I am seeing fewer and fewer 1 day on the market sales.  Most are still selling in less than a couple weeks, but that is a big change from earlier this year when almost every house sold the first day.

All of this makes me think it is a great time to buy.  Probably the best time all year.