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Who will buy your house when you are done with it?

by John Rice

You know, I think too often realtors and the public operate out of “one size fits all” generalities. Case in point is resale value. If asked which is better, a house with a first floor primary bedroom or one with all the bedrooms upstairs, most people and realtors would agree that the one with the first floor primary has broader appeal, and broader appeal is what resale value is all about. True…..but what if both houses are in a neighborhood that many people pick because of a good elementary school? That means that the target buyer has young kids. Very few parents I have shown houses to with young ones feel okay about sleeping on a different level from them. So, I think in this case, the one with all the bedrooms upstairs is a safer bet.

I used to live near a house that has 4 bedrooms and is about 2500 square feet. Being in a good school district, who do you think will be attracted to that house? Right, a family with kids. But, this place has zero back yard. The deck is about a foot from the property line. So now this poor house will always need to  find a family that doesn’t care about the yard or a couple/single person who wants a big house. A smaller house would have been better suited to that lot, and would probably have taken up less space too.

Many years ago I listed a 3rd floor condo in a complex that was mainly retirees. Did I mention there was no elevator? That was a hard sale. The typical resident didn’t want all the steps and it wasn’t the type of place to be on the radar of most people who weren’t retired.

I had a townhouse listed a long time ago whose target buyer would be a person downsizing.  The place sat right between a pharmacy and an elementary school on the same road. Which one did I emphasize in the marketing remarks? That it was close to a pharmacy.

So, when you’re buying a place, always think about the whole picture. Will the floor plan work for the most likely buyer? Is the yard too big or too small for the most likely buyer? Is that buyer going to even care about the school district? I always find when you start asking yourself a bunch of questions, you can always make a better decision.

Did you pick the right house?

by John Rice

How do you know if you’ve picked THE right house? What IF a better ones comes on the market after you make a decision? How do you know you WON’T regret your decision?

There is no way that you or I can really answer those questions, so I am not going to try. What I can offer are some tips based on my experience that might prevent you from feeling this way. 

How do you know if it is THE house? I think any house you are afraid somebody else will buy out from under you shows it is pretty high on your list. If you can just totally see yourself  living in the house, it may be the one. Same thing with comparing other houses to it. If you are doing that, it means that one is at the top of your list.

How can you prevent regretting your decision? I think the best thing you can do is to take your time in reaching your decision. Granted, sometimes when everybody else wants the house too, you don’t have that luxury. I like it when people get to see a house for the second time. You always notice more of the bad stuff on the second visit. It is even better if you come back at a different time of day. Rooms will look different with the sun on the opposite side of the house. Something that I’ve always told buyers to do, and not many actually have done it, is to drive around the neighborhood on a nice warm Friday or Saturday night. That will bring out anybody that will be annoying, so you won’t have any surprises later. Tough luck if it is winter.

There are a couple other things that bring on regret: Having a tight timeline and getting so tired of looking that you just want it over with. If you have a tight timeline, preparation is the key. I have done a lot of work for people moving form out of town. They’ll only be in town for a few days and have to pick a house. I try to work with them as soon as I know they will be coming here. It all usually happens by e-mail or text, but we chat about neighborhoods, parts of town I think they’ll like, etc. Then I’ll start previewing houses for them. At this point it is all about eliminating houses. You’re not really looking for the right one, you’re trying to whittle down the list to a manageable amount for them to see when they get here. 

Now, about getting tired of looking. If you find yourself here and can do it, just take a break. It is a really scary place to be. It sneaks up on you like a sunburn. Ignore your Zillow app. Maybe have your agent preview houses. By the time you get to this point, your agent should really know what will work for you and what won’t. 

Okay. One more question left?  How will you know a better house won’t come on the market as soon as you sign a contract? Simple answer. You won’t. I tell people to quit looking at houses online once you get past the inspections. If you don’t look, you’ll never know. And if you are the type that won’t take this advice, remember that sometimes houses look better online than they do in person. You are comparing your house in reality to the select pictures that the listing agents wants you to see……So that other house probably isn’t as good in reality as you are picturing it in your head. You got a good house, now just enjoy it.

Why you shouldn’t care about average days on market

by John Rice

I met with a cool family a few weeks ago. They were going to interview a handful of realtors. I’m always a little freaked out at listing presentations. See, there are agents that come with power point presentations full of market wide data available to every realtor in town, and then blurt out something like “After looking at the statistics for this neighborhood, your house will sell at 5:46 P.M. next Tuesday.” That impresses some people I guess. I’m not one of those that throws out a bunch of statistics. I kind of like to look at the house, assess the positives and negatives that I think buyers will see, then do a market analysis to find what I think the house is worth. I usually do all this wearing a pair of shorts and sandals, often forgetting to give the people my business card. I ordered 5000 back in 2016 and still have about 4983.

Why don’t I worry much about DOM and other statistics? It is because I am only dealing with one house. Yep. That’s right. The only numbers I care about are the ones for your house. We never really know when your Buyer will arrive. All we can do is price it realistically, make it look as great as possible, and present it well online.  When I get such a seller, their house usually sells quickly.

So, back to the listing appointment. I’m on the tour of the house and the husband asked me the average DOM question. I told him that I didn’t even look at that because I don’t care how long it took other houses to sell in the recent past, I only care about how long it is going to take his house to sell right now. As soon as I said that, I knew I either had this listing or I had just totally blown it.

Fortunately this cool couple saw my point and went with me.

Is your yard fenced?

by John Rice

If your yard is fenced, do you know who owns it? Like 100% sure? If you are like most people with a fenced in yard, there was fencing on 3 side when you bought your house. Maybe you were told from the previous owner that all or part of it was your’s. But is it?

As a realtor, I advise my sellers NOT to make claim to a fence unless they are the ones who installed it or have some sort of documentation that they own it. I do not claim the fence as part of the property that conveys when listing a home. I simply state in the marketing remarks whether it is fenced or not. Absolutely zero claim of ownership, just that fencing exists.

WHY?

I bought my first house directly from a seller long before I became The LEXpert. I was a 20 something first time buyer who knew nothing. I was told by the seller, Will was his name, that the fencing belonged to him and would be mine with the sale of the home. I never thought about that statement from him again until I came home one day to find not only my dog missing but a large section of white picket fencing gone between my yard and the neighbor on the right. The owner of the home next door was a sweet little old lady who had lived there for 50+ years. When I asked why she removed my fence, she nicely told me that her deceased husband had put that fence up many years ago and she didn’t want it any more. (BTW, we soon found our little mutt named Edwina……which is not used anywhere as a password so no need for hackers to harvest this info.)

If I had any type of documentation that Will had told me the fencing was mine, I could have taken him to court to fill in the fencing void left when the rightful owner removed the fencing.

While I have never again had a similar issue in my 20 year career, I do not want my sellers to possibly be on the hook for buying the next owner a fence. Often being a good realtor is as much about what you prevent from happening as it is about what you make happen.

What to look for in your next Realtor

by John Rice

I had a friend contact me on Facebook about the possibility of finding a new agent to sell their house that is outside of my market. They were not asking me about listing it for them, just advice on what to do. Seems they have had a lot of showings, and obviously no offers yet. I though this would make a good blog post.  

“Sorry to take so long to get back to you. This isn’t an easy one to answer so I wanted to have time to give a thorough response.

I’ve got a few questions.

Question 1: Is your current agent presenting it well online? Go online and take a look at the listing. 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 2: Is it priced realistically? If you have had that many showings, it may be priced high. I don’t know the market where you live, but to have that many buyers look and not make an offer could mean that the price is too high or………Question #3!

Question 3: Is the feedback you are getting from showings that there is some fatal negative that buyers 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.

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 prefer to list. Agents that mostly only list houses don’t see as many houses. An agent that works with a lot of buyers has probably been in a lot of the houses 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 also look for somebody that deals mostly in your price range. It always kills me when I see an affordable house listed by agents that deal almost exclusively in high end houses. What does an agent really know about a $250k house and $250k buyers when 98% of their work is over a million?

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. 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.)”