For Sellers

What are 3 Reasons a Home Doesn’t Sell?

No one wants to be on the market and not sell. No one wants to deal with the pain of preparing the home to have guests, the agony of scrambling to clean and race out of the house when you have a showing, and most of all, being uncertain of whether someone will ever buy your home so you can finally move on to the next stage of your life. So what are 3 major factors for actually getting your home sold?

1.    Presentation – Cleaning, Staging, General Home Preparation
The bottom line is buyers are more picky and more busy than ever. They want the perfect home without having to do much work on it. Most people these days have more responsibilities than hours in the day so the majority of buyers will want something move-in condition or something close. So…Condition matters!

Before you even put your home on the market, you should review the condition of your home. The easiest things you can do to make your home more appealing to today’s buyers are also some of the cheapest: de-cluttering (free), new paint (you can do it yourself), and new carpet (try to get remnant pieces if possible). Other things you can possibly do are landscaping, staging, new fixtures, etc.

It’s impossible to write a comprehensive guide to preparing a home for sale but my general suggestion is to make the worst things better before making the acceptable things even better.

Bottom line: If your home requires your buyer to use any imagination at all, you are leaving money on the table.

2.    Availability to Show
One huge mistake I see sellers make is making their property difficult to show. On some listings, I see agent comments like “Please show between 9am-1pm on Saturday and Sunday”. Limiting your showing availability lowers your visibility and may ultimately cost you a sale or limit the amount you sell for.

Every single buyer has a different schedule and a preferred time of showing. By limiting times of showings you’ve reduced the number of possible buyers for your home. I have worked with buyers who were not able to view certain homes that were otherwise perfect for them because of showing restrictions. Guess what? They eventually bought something else.

Bottom Line: Think of putting a limit on showings as the same as putting a limit your selling price.

3.    Pricing
Pricing your home incorrectly can limit your chances of a sale or limit your ability to achieve a good price. Pricing your home too high will do four things:

1. Limit your momentum coming onto the market.
2. Limit the number of buyers who even visit your property.
3. Limit your number of offers.
4. Prolong Your Days on Market.

Some of these negatives can’t be avoided even if you decide to do a price reduction later on so make sure you price your home carefully right from the start to capture the first two week rush of buyers. If you want more details on pricing your home correctly, see my upcoming blog post Pricing Your Home to Sell for the Most.

Bottom Line: Get professional help evaluating and pricing your home. Zillow is a fun tool, not a substitute for a real estate professional, just like WebMD is a good source of information, just not a substitute for a doctor.

The truth is, if you obey the rules above and you have the right strategy, your home should sell in weeks, not months. If you’re not selling or haven’t sold in that time frame, it may be time to re-examine your strategy. If you need help with your strategy, I am always willing to help and present some of my ideas and my comprehensive marketing plan.

For Sellers

Obama’s Plan Offers Exciting Refinance Options

Making Home Affordable is a new plan to help keep homeowners in their homes. One really great part of the plan includes a new refinance option for homeowners who are trying and keep their homes.

A lot of ideas surround helping homeowners who are in default or already close to foreclosure. Some loan modifications and short sales even require that homeowners be delinquent on their mortgage payments before being eligible and by this time it can be already too late to keep an owner in their home.

The difference in this plan is that it targets responsible homeowners who have paid their mortgages on time for the past 12 months. By doing that, it targets homeowners who aren’t yet in trouble, making it more likely for a home to be saved. It also gives homeowners who bought in the past few years to upgrade to a fixed rate and a lower rate.

Another huge benefit of this refinance program is it allows up to 105% financing. Most people couldn’t refinance because they purchased their home 0% down or little money down or their home value dropped too much.

This plan is brand new (our lender just released the guidelines April 7th) so some of the information may change or vary but here are some of the main guidelines:

1. No Cash Out. If you’re looking to refinance cash out of your property, this won’t be allowed under this.
2. Moderately Good Credit, Past Payment History. This means your credit score must be over 620, no late mortgage payments for the past 12 months, no bankruptcy history within 48 months, and no foreclosure in the past 7 years.
3. Documentation. The documentation requirements are pretty lenient requiring only 1 month pay stub, a verbal verification of employment or a year’s worth of tax returns.

There are more rules and guidelines but if you meet the above qualifications and are interested in refinancing, contact me and I’ll personally walk you through the process.