Five Tips to Getting a Home Sold in a Buyer’s Market (5 of 5)

Tip #5: Upgrade the condition of your home.

It was just a couple of years ago that buyers would have only a handful of homes to look at in their price range. “Repainting? Re-carpeting? No problem! I have to knock down a wall? Piece of cake! I’m just glad to have a home after losing out on bidding on the last three!”

With a 10-month-plus supply of homes on the market, that’s thousands of homes in this area, buyers now are slow to decide, and picky, picky, picky. Most don’t want to do any work on the home, because they’ve already looked at five they like that are in move-in condition. When I say most don’t want to do anything, I mean ANYTHING. I’ve seen buyers rule out great homes based on the smallest things.

Do all you can to make your home as attractive as possible, inside and out.  Holding off on repainting and replacing the carpet because the buyers might prefer to choose their own colors? Big mistake. That’s too much trouble for most buyers these days. Go ahead and make the cosmetic upgrades, using neutral colors.

Will you get your money back? Probably … not! Yes, I said probably not. But it WILL mean your home has a chance of selling in this competitive market. Don’t do it, and your chances to stay in the 90 percent of homes that don’t sell every month increase dramatically.

I also work with design experts who can “stage” a home prior to sale for a reasonable fee. This can help with upscale homes, homes that are difficult to sell, and vacant homes.

Don’t do extensive remodeling, but do all you can to make the home look good, smell good, and to feel like home for the buyer.

Food for Thought on Seller Pricing

If you still need to sell and are having trouble getting over the “But my home was worth … ” syndrome, think of this:

We tend to think our situation here in the Navarre area is unique. It’s not. Most markets in the United States have switched over to being a buyer’s market.

If you’re planning on buying a home after selling your home here, look at it this way: anything that you feel that you have “lost” by not selling in the past will often times be made up … and then some … when you purchase another home in the same market, or another market. You might not have lost at all … in fact, you might even come out ahead on the deal!

Was a Flood Claim Processed in 2004?

A South Florida newspaper has set up a website that links to all of the addresses that filed flood insurance claims in 2004, the year of Hurricane Ivan. This can be useful to research a home that you are considering buying in the Navarre, Pensacola, and Gulf Breeze areas, as well as other towns in Northwest Florida.

Here is the link to the database.

Five Tips to Getting a Home Sold in a Buyer’s Market (4 of 5)

Tip #4: An agent’s training and track record … this year. 

What training does an agent you are considering have about how to get homes sold in a declining market? I can tell you that some agents have no training on how to get a home sold in this market. Ask your agent that you are considering hiring what specific training on getting homes sold in this market he or she has taken in the last year. Ask the agent what, exactly, the step-by-step plan is to get the home sold, and what results the agent has had selling homes this year. How many homes agents sold in 2005 doesn’t really matter. What matters is, how have those agents adapted to today’s market, and what results are they getting?

Five Tips to Getting Homes Sold in a Buyer’s Market (3 of 5)

Tip #3: Active vs. passive selling

Your real-estate agent needs to take an active and aggressive role in getting your home sold. Every qualified buyer lead MUST be pursued to get your home sold. No stone can go unturned. A lead that falls through the cracks can make the difference between your home going under contract today and not selling at all! Your agent also cannot sit back and wait for the phone to ring. He or she must follow up with all buyer leads … and follow up with all agents who show your home … to gain valuable feedback that can help sell the home, as well as to further encourage the agent and customers to bring an offer.

Five Tips to Getting Homes Sold in a Buyer’s Market (2 of 5)

Tip #2: Exposure to the public.

A few years ago, an agent could list your property, stick a sign in the yard, put the property in the MLS, and chances were great it would sell in anywhere from a day, to a week, to a couple of months. Well, those days are gone!

Your property needs to be exposed to the public in the most effective ways. The traditional efforts of real-estate agents (and by people trying to sell the home themselves) do not work effectively in most cases in a declining real-estate market.

Your property needs exposure to the public through the methods people REALLY use to search for homes today.

Holley by the Sea Sales in August

There were 18 homes sold in Holley by the Sea in August, according to statistics from the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors, which includes data from the Navarre Area Board of Realtors.That tally is down one home from the number of homes that sold in Holley by the Sea in July.

The average sales price was $223,053, the average price per square foot was $116, and the average days on the market was 178 among the sold properties.

Here are the sales.

Five Tips to Getting Homes Sold in a Buyer’s Market (1 of 5)

Here’s the first of the five tips for getting homes sold in a buyer’s market, as promised.

1. Competitive Pricing.

“I absolutely have to sell my home, and I know I’m priced high, but, I’ll look at offers.”

This is one of those ideas that sounds harmless but is doing sellers in, left and right. Why? Because a home has almost no chance of selling using that approach.

Back in 2004 and 2005 (oh, no, now I’M doing it now!), if a customer were looking for a home up to $200,000, I’d sit down at the MLS and expand my search to $225,000 just to give the buyer enough options to look at. Today, when I have a buyer preapproved to $200,000 and I run a search, there are 104 homes in Navarre between $175,000 and $200,000.

What are the odds that I’d ever get to those priced at $205,000?

The buyers, and their agents, are overwhelmed with choices, and often will not expand their home searches to include those above range … and the home may rarely, if ever, get shown as a result. You need to be THE best option, or at least one of the best options, among similar homes in your subdivision and neighborhood for your home to sell in a reasonable amount of time.

If you have to sell, let the price help you, because in a declining market, the odds are your home will be worth less in the next 6 to 12 months or more. Protect your equity and price your home competitively from Day 1 (or at least today) forward.

“But I want to leave room to negotiate.”

You will need to leave SOME room to negotiate price and/or closing costs, but a smart buyer and agent will know a good buy. Leaving a 5- or 10-percent cushion on the price in hopes that someone might come along and pay it is likely to hurt any chances you have of getting the home sold.

But My Home Was Worth More in 2005!!!!!!!!!!

My real-estate trainer tells me all the time that there’s fantasyland, and then there’s reality. Then he asks me an important question … where are you going to spend your time each day in your business?

Some people are shocked when I say this, but homes are selling EVERY DAY in Navarre. Yes, even in this market.  Yes, in 2007! If you look at the numbers, more than two homes are selling every day in Navarre throughout the year so far.

The question is, is yours going to be one of them? Less than 10 percent of the single-family home inventory is selling each month. That means, 90 percent of homeowners who have their properties listed end up disappointed, discouraged, and downright ticked off. Given that there are usually more properties coming on the market than sell each month, I’ve met sellers who have been feeling that way for years! As my real-estate trainer says, some sellers have set up permanent shop in fantasyland.

There are five keys to a successful home sale in this market, and I’ll post one key per day for the next five days. Take any one of those out of the equation, and the chances of residing in the “90 percent” for a long time to come increase dramatically.

I’m shocked when I don’t hear one or both of the following statements when talking with a seller:

1. “I’m not going to give it away.”

2. But my home was worth $XXX,XXX in 2005!!!!!!

I always have to go back to the same question … do you absolutely have to sell your home? If the answer is yes, then the five steps that we’re going to discuss are vital. If the answer is no, then the seller has to realize that he or she might have to own or rent the property for years to come, and the property probably shouldn’t even be on the market in the first place. Yes, I said YEARS. That’s what the experts are predicting, and the statistics aren’t showing me anything otherwise.

I know … it hurts when money that you felt you had at one time, even if just on paper, is gone. I can appreciate that … I own property here, too! On the flip side, I’ve never once had a seller point out what her home was worth in 1998, and ask to price it accordingly. Seems that door only swings one way!

The reality is, your home is worth what a buyer is willing to pay. We can look at the statistics and tell what that amount is. The professional agents know that “sweet spot.”

I know … I gave away the first key to a successful sale. More on pricing in the next post.

Fight Against Navarre Beach Taxes Continues

First, Santa Rosa County taxed the improvements on the leasehold property on Navarre Beach. In 2006, the county also levied taxes against those who own vacant land. Now, we’re getting reports from land owners that assessed valuations are jumping dramatically while the market continues to decline.

The Navarre Beach Against Illegal Taxation Committee, a committee of the Navarre Beach Residents and Leaseholders Association, has filed suit against the county property appraiser and tax collector regarding the issue. Here is the website for the full details. The window of opportunity is closed for 2006, but there is still time to join in the lawsuit for 2007.

Here is a list of the frequently asked questions regarding the issue.

What are your thoughts? Is the fight worth fighting, after the leaseholders lost the extensive court battle regarding taxing the improvements on leasehold property the first time around?