Why Marketing Matters When Listing Your Home

If you’ve had an expired listing before, not all hope is lost. It was probably the marketing and the exposure your home didn’t get that prevented it from selling, but there are ways to fix that.

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If you’ve tried to sell your home in the past but were unsuccessful, today’s message is for you. How you market your home matters when you list it for sale. Let me share a quick story to show you what I mean.

In late 2016, I spoke with a homeowner who had listed his home on the market for four months at a price of $485,000. After his listing expired, I introduced myself, told him I’d done my research on his home, and said I thought $485,000 was a very fair price for the property. I offered to meet with him and strategize how we could still sell his home for a great price, but we went back and forth for about three or four months because he wasn’t quite ready to put his home back on the market.

Finally, in the beginning of 2017, we listed his home for the same exact price as it had been listed before. The only difference was that we actually put forth the time and effort into getting it ready for the market. We had it professionally cleaned, we enlisted a handyman to make some minor repairs to it, and had an interior designer stage it to give buyers that emotional connection they crave when they walk into a property. We also had professional photos taken and used heavy online and offline marketing.

After receiving multiple offers, we sold the property in two days for $498,000, which was $13,000 more than what he listed it at the first time with his first agent.

If you’ve had an expired listing before, it was probably the marketing that did you in.

If you’ve tried to sell your property in the past and failed, it’s not necessarily the price you were trying to achieve that prevented your home from getting sold. Many times, it’s the marketing and the exposure that your home didn’t get that caused it to become an expired listing.

If you experienced an expired listing before and are thinking you might want to give selling your home another shot, I’d love to sit down with you and put together a strategy to help you sell your property for a great price.

If you have any questions about this topic or have any topics you’d like to see me discuss in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to help!

Why You Need to Price Your Home to Sell in Our Market

If you plan on putting your home on the market soon, you must price it to sell. Here’s why this is so important.

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If you’re a homeowner, are you pricing your home to sell?

If you’ve been watching my videos lately, you’ve heard me say inventory is low and demand is high. We’re seeing a lot of homes sell for more than what they’re worth because buyers don’t have a lot of options. The market is beginning to shift just a little bit, and inventory is rising. In fact, inventory has increased 10% month over month since the last time I checked.

Inventory always rises in April, May, and June. It’s one of the highest selling seasons of the year, and buyers are usually out in full force looking for properties. What’s different about this year, though, is that we should see more inventory than normal. Why?

We recently sold a home for the highest price it’s ever been sold. Not long after that, I got a call from a neighbor of the person whose house sold for that record price telling me if I could get them a similar sale price, they would consider selling their home too. That tells me we’re starting to see a lot of sellers who weren’t planning on selling their homes deciding to do so anyway because of the prices.

Many of these sellers are working with agents who are pretty optimistic, and we’re starting to see list prices get very high. Just because inventory is low and demand is high doesn’t mean that buyers will pay ridiculous prices for a property.

Now more than ever, it’s important to price your home right. Look at the data, be mindful of what’s going on in your neighborhood, consider the market and the location and condition of your property, and factor in your competition. Your competition is growing, which means buyers have more choices.

If you’re truly motivated to sell, you’ll have to price your home right.

If you’re truly motivated to sell, you’ll have to price your home right. If you do, you’ll get a great price for it.

If you’re thinking about selling your home or seeing what it’s worth in our current market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. If you have a topic you’d like to see me discuss in a future video, feel free to send me your ideas. Until then, happy selling!

How Confusion Is Keeping You From Your New Home

Are you confused? I’ll go over how to ditch the confusion for a new set of keys if you’re looking to buy a home.

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Are you confused?

I’m talking to you, homebuyers. There’s a lot of information online and buyers don’t know where to start. When our clients are confused, they don’t take action. When they have a strategy and know what they want, they do take action.

The market right now in Orange County is moving very fast. Home prices are on the rise, demand is high, interest rates are predicted to rise, and people want to buy a property while a home is still within their reach.

This isn’t the market to be confused in because if you are, you won’t take action and you won’t achieve your real estate goals.

So what’s the solution?

Work with a Realtor to come up with a strategy so you can be in a position to say yes to a home.

You want to find a Realtor and lender team that you feel comfortable working with. A lot of buyers work on their own, calling listing agents, checking listing websites, and before they know it, months have gone by and prices and interest rates have risen. So, the best thing you can do is find a Realtor that you know, trust, and can be vulnerable with. Let them know what you want, why you want it, when you want it by, and work with that Realtor to come up with a strategy so you can be in a position to say yes to a home.

If have any questions about this topic or any other real estate questions, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I’m more than happy to help. Also, if you’d like to see a real estate topic covered in one of my videos, feel free to reach out.

How Is Rising Inventory Affecting Our Orange County Market?

Rising inventory has caused our market to shift. What can buyers and sellers do about this shift?

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This is one of the busiest times of the year for home sellers. More homes will be sold in the next two or three months than any other time of year. How is rising inventory in our market affecting what buyers and sellers should do?

Inventory always grows in March and significantly rises in April and May, which is why it’s always a great time for buyers to buy property in the spring and summer months. As inventory rises and buyers have more options, the demand for property falls, homes take longer to sell, and buyers have more options.

Currently, there are two types of sellers on the market—those who’ve already decided to list their home and those who previously had no intention to sell but are being tempted to do so by favorable prices.

For example, I recently sold a home in a neighborhood in Irvine which was probably worth somewhere between $515,000 and $520,000 for $551,000. That was a record price for that neighborhood, and a couple days later, I got a call from the next-door neighbor of that seller. They told me they hadn’t planned on selling their home, but if I could get the same price for their property, they’d be interested in putting it on the market.

The emergence of both of these types of sellers is what’s causing the rise in inventory. If you’re a buyer, get pre-approved and understand what you can afford so there’s no confusion about what your monthly payment will be and what price point you should focus on.

It’s a great time to be a buyer in our market.

The good news is it’s a great time to be a buyer. Buyers were getting bullied around in winter, but we should see that trend shift. You should have more properties to look through and more time to make a decision.

If you’re a seller, make sure you price your home the right way. Your initial list price should be in line with what the market is telling us. Have you and your Realtor done your research? What have homes in your area sold for in the past? What does your current competition look like? Without knowing what’s going in your local market, you won’t be able to price your home to sell.

The market is shifting a little bit, but the mindset of most sellers and their agents hasn’t shifted. These people are still pricing their homes optimistically as if we were still in January, February, or March. That market changes on a monthly basis, though, and we’re entering a whole new one.

If you have any questions for me or you’re looking to buy or sell a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help. Until then, happy selling!