The holiday season is upon us. Whatever you celebrate, we hope you’re able to spend some quality time with those you love. As you do, we also hope you take time to reflect on the year behind us—including all of the accomplishments and memories you made during it.
As for our team, it’s been a great year. We’ve achieved a lot—but we couldn’t have done it without you. We are so grateful for your business, referrals, and continued support. The opportunity to serve you is so special to us. We love making your real estate dreams come true, and we hope to be able to serve even more clients like you in 2019.
Happy Holidays!
With that in mind, please think of us if you or anyone you know needs to buy or sell in the new year. We are happy to be your real estate resource.
As always, if you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Happy Holidays!
If you’re a homebuyer, now is your chance to take advantage of our market.
Depending on which area you live in our marketplace, inventory is up anywhere from 25% to 40%. Not only that, but homes are also taking a lot longer to sell—sometimes 40 or 50 days longer than they did earlier in the year. This means you have more homes to choose from and more time to make sure you’re making the best decision possible. On top of everything else, fewer homes are selling, which means there’s less demand.
Another important factor you need to be aware of is rising interest rates. I’ve been talking about this for the past few months, but interest rates hit a seven-year high recently and they’re predicted to continue climbing. For every 1% that rates climb, buyers’ purchasing power decreases by 10%.
Despite all this, a lot of my clients are still saying, “Robert, if the market is flattening and prices are dropping, why not just wait a little bit and get a home for a better deal down the road?”
If rates rise by another 1% and homes values drop by 5% (which is a very likely scenario), you’ll actually be spending more money per month for a home that, on paper, you’ll seemingly be getting for a better deal.
I’m here to tell you that doing nothing is a really bad idea.
To be clear, I’m not saying every potential homebuyer should buy right now. I’m simply saying that if you can afford to buy and you actually want to buy, you should consider doing so right now. During the last six years, a lot of buyers I worked with wished they had more time to make a decision and that they weren’t getting caught up in bidding wars as soon as they found a property they liked. Well, now they’ve got their wish.
However, since our market is changing, it’s also creating doubt. That doubt is creating fear, and that’s causing buyer paralysis. Since they’re not sure where the market is going, they’re thinking they might be better off taking a step back and seeing how everything plays out. I’m here to tell you that doing nothing is a really bad idea.
Lastly, keep in mind that just because you meet with a Realtor (or at least someone on our team) it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re buying. When we meet with a buyer and determine their needs, we may decide that they’re ready to buy now, but we also might decide they’re better off waiting a year. That’s why, if you’re considering buying, the best advice I can give you is to get in touch with a local Realtor. If you call us up, we’d love to talk more about your goals and see what your options are.
If you have any other questions about our Orange County market or you’re thinking about selling a home, feel free to reach out to us as well. We look forward to speaking with you.
If you’re a home seller, there are two things that you need to keep your focus on: timing and strategy. The market has shifted and it should come as no surprise. I’ve been talking about this shift for the last few months and now it is finally here.
Here’s what we’re seeing right now. Home inventory is up, demand for properties is down, interest rates are rising, fewer homes are selling, and homes are taking longer to sell. In fact, 40% of the homes that are listed on the market right now will be canceled or expire. This is why timing is so essential when selling. Every day, every week, and every month that you wait to list, you’re risking a lower net profit on the sale of your property.
Now that we’ve talked about timing, let’s discuss strategy. In the last six-and-a-half years when the market was aggressively appreciating, you could use the wrong strategy and still sell your home. Even if the photos online weren’t great or the home didn’t show great, it didn’t really matter. Inventory was so low that buyers would buy anything. If your home was overpriced to start, the market would eventually catch up.
The market is very unforgiving right now.
That’s not happening anymore. The market is very unforgiving right now, which is why I want to talk about three things that could negatively affect you if you use the wrong home-selling strategy:
1. Your home is going to take much longer to sell than normal, if it even sells at all. 2. You could be potentially leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table by overpricing from the start and reducing your price over time. 3. Your home will ultimately sell for less money.
If you are considering selling your home in today’s market, I recommend that you interview at least two to three agents and really understand what each of them will do for you. You should choose the one who is going to put together the best strategy for you to sell your property in a reasonable amount of time for the maximum price.
If you have any questions for me or would like to know what our team can do to help your home sell quickly and for top dollar with minimal hassle, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Every single seller I know wants to earn top dollar, but very few sellers are willing to do what it takes to put out a product that’s worthy of that goal.
This disconnect is one of the main reasons a property might sit on the market. To avoid this, there’s one simple rule sellers must follow: Presentation is everything.
Your property shouldn’t look “lived in” when a buyer comes by for a showing. Instead, it should look like a model home. Anything less will make it very hard for you to generate the kinds of offers you want or any offers at all.
Every single room should be neat, well staged, and have a clear purpose. If you have a four-bedroom home you’re looking to sell, then you need to present it as just that: a four-bedroom home. That means if one of these bedrooms is currently acting as a storage closet while you’re preparing for your move, then it’s time to clear it out. Don’t show your home at anything less than its full potential.
It doesn’t matter how much (or how little) you’re selling your listing for; you need to showcase your home in its best light.
I recently toured a property that had an amazing loft. It would’ve been a perfect space for a living room or game room, but instead of utilizing it in an appealing way, the seller had filled it with boxes. This is a perfect example how the quality of a listing can be dragged down by a lack of presentation.
It doesn’t matter how much (or how little) you’re selling your listing for; you need to showcase your home in its best light. A low price doesn’t mean you can get away with offering low quality. The person buying your home is likely scraping together everything they’ve got. Therefore, you’ve got to do your part to make the experience worth their time—and their money.
To earn top dollar for your home, whatever that may be, you and your agent will need to develop a “vision” for your property.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
If you’re a homebuyer, there are a few important points you need understand about how rising rates may impact your goals. Here’s what you need to know.
You’ve probably heard by now that interest rates are at a seven-year high, but what does this actually mean for your real estate goals?
Interest rates have been held artificially low to stimulate the housing market for some time now, but this is no longer the case. Buyers have been complaining for six years now about how difficult it is to find a house. What they might not realize is that this lack of supply has largely been a result of the interest rates we were seeing during that time.
Now that rates have begun to steadily creep up, though, it’s no longer a matter of buyers being unable to find a home—instead, buyers are simply choosing not to look. Despite the fact that inventory has risen and overall conditions have leveled out, many buyers are letting a fear of the unknown prevent them from taking advantage of these favorable conditions.
If you’re on the fence about purchasing a property, yourself, now is the time to get in touch with a lender and become educated on your options.
Instead of focusing on list price alone, buyers must start considering where affordability is headed. Interest rates are still historically low, so locking in a rate today is a far better choice than waiting things out and hoping for the best in the future.
The last thing my team and I want is for a buyer to miss the opportunity to secure a home at a rate that works for their budget. If you wait too long to buy, you may have a much harder time affording a home at all.
We recently worked with a client who told our team that if they had put off their move any longer, they would’ve been unable to make it happen at all. These buyers went under contract a month ago, and if they would’ve waited until today to do so, their payment would’ve been an extra $181 per month.
So if you’re on the fence about purchasing a property, yourself, now is the time to get in touch with a lender and become educated on your options.
And, as always, if you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Around this time of year, many home sellers may decide to remove their home from the market until the new year because they’re under the impression that the holidays are a bad time to sell.
However, as a professional Realtor, I can confidently say that this isn’t really the case for our local market right now. Waiting until the new year may traditionally earn you more money, but we’re currently in an appreciating market where the inverse may be true.
Listing during the holidays gives sellers the perfect chance to make their home stand out.
I’ve written in the past on this subject before, when I compiled a list of the top nine reasons to list during the holidays, and I’d like to return to this topic today. If you’d like a copy of my past article on the subject, I’d be happy to send one to you, but for now I’ll be sharing just three main points:
1. Buyers are more motivated during the holidays. It may be true that fewer buyers are on the market during this time of year, but the ones who are out and looking will be much more driven. After all, people choosing to spend their holidays searching for a new home are obviously doing so for a good reason.
2. There’s less competition. Along with there being fewer buyers on the market over the holidays, there are also fewer listings. This gives you the perfect chance to make your home stand out.
3. Inventory dramatically rises after the holidays. All of the sellers who waited until after the holidays to list will be flooding the market at the beginning of the new year. Listing before this happens, therefore, is a surefire way to capture the interest of motivated buyers while competition is low.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Is now a good time for you to sell? There are four factors to consider when asking that question.
The first is your mindset. This has been one of the most challenging aspects of our market shift. When I say “market shift,” I mean we’ve been in an aggressive seller’s market for the past six years, but we’ve reached the peak of the market and now we’re transitioning into more of a normalized market. With this, sellers are struggling with the idea that their home won’t attract multiple offers and sell for $10,000, $20,000, or $30,000 more than the last sale. They’re also getting frustrated that their homes are taking longer to sell.
All of this is to say that you need to have the appropriate mindset and appropriate expectations when selling, and you need to figure out what the market is like in your area.
The next factor to consider is inventory, which has generally increased. In some areas, it has spiked by as much as 40%. What’s the demand like in your area, though? Do buyers have a lot of choices or fewer choices? Supply and demand is a basic economic principle—the more of something there is, the less it’s worth. If you live in an area where your home is the only property for sale, you might be able to be a bit more aggressive with your sale, especially if you live in a very attractive area. If you live in an area that features several other listings, though, you’ll need to price your home accordingly or you’ll have a tough time selling it.
Who you work with is crucial in getting your home sold for the best price.
The third factor to consider is interest rates. Interest rates matter to sellers just as much as they do to buyers. You can’t sell your home unless you sell it to a buyer, and most of the time, a buyer can’t buy your home unless they get a loan, and what’s associated with that loan is the interest rate. A home’s price is a one-time fee; what really matters is the interest rate. As rates go up, buyers can afford less, and the buyer pool for your home gets smaller and smaller.
Finally, consider pending sales, or how many homes are selling per month. Across the county, pending sales are down 25%. Not only are fewer homes selling, but in many cases, they’re taking longer to sell.
So, is it a good time for you to sell? Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Now that you have this information, your next step should be to talk to a local Realtor. I’d be happy to share my expertise with you, give you a free consultation, and come up with a detailed plan of attack if you decide that selling is in your best interest.
Selling a home requires two things: price and exposure. You have to make sure buyers in your area are attracted to the price you set and that the agent you’re working with exposes your home to all the buyers who are out and about. Like I said, the market is shifting, so who you work with is crucial in getting your home sold for the best price.
As always, if you have any other questions about our market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you.
For the past six years, we went through an aggressive seller’s market, and prices appreciated significantly during that time. Now, though, the market is stabilizing, and that’s good news for buyers.
If you’re thinking of buying a home, there are four points you need to remember when it comes to the state of our current market.
First, inventory is rising. In some areas, it’s increased by as much as 40%, which means you have more options to choose from. As inventory rises, demand falls. You’ll have more time to look at properties, more time to make a decision, and you won’t be competing against as many other buyers either.
Second, interest rates are slowly rising. What’s important to understand when taking out a mortgage loan to buy a home is that the home’s price is a one-time purchase, and what you’re actually buying is the interest rate. If you’d rather wait until next year to buy a home because the market is stabilizing and you think you’ll get a better price then, you may very well be able to do so. However, if rates jump from 5% to 5.5% in that time, you’ll end up spending more money per month for a home you bought for less. This is why it’s so important to talk to a lender during the home buying process so you can better understand how interest rates affect you.
There are more homes available, they’re taking longer to sell, and better deals are out there.
Third, pending sale activity, or how many homes are selling in a monthly basis, is down 20% to 25%. Since inventory is rising, this means homes are taking longer to sell and fewer of them are selling. Again, this drop in demand means you’ll have longer to make a decision and a better chance of getting a good deal.
Lastly, think of your mindset. A lot of buyers out there are suffering from a sort of paralysis because they’re uncertain of what’s happening in the market. The previous five years, though, buyers were complaining about how there was no inventory, and how every time they found a beautiful home, there were 10 other buyers who wanted it too. Well, now they’ve got their wish—there are more homes available, they’re taking longer to sell, and better deals are out there.
In other words, look at this as an opportunity. Is it a good time to buy for everybody? Probably, not, but if you are thinking about buying, get in touch with a lender and a Realtor and analyze your situation, because you can potentially buy a great property at a great price while still securing a low interest rate.
As always, if you have any other questions about our market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you.
Homeowners who decide to list their property don’t always succeed.
Whether the listing expired or the homeowner cancelled it themselves, some sellers decide against putting their property back on the market. On the other hand, 35% of unsuccessful sellers will relist their property within a two- to three-month period.
As a Realtor, one of the things I do on a daily basis is to reach out to the sellers who decide against relisting. It’s part of my job to seek feedback from these people about where their sale went wrong and what’s preventing them from trying again.
There are many reasons why a listing may fail, but a majority of the sellers I speak to cite the same thing when asked about why their sale fell flat. These sellers tell me that the agent they worked with did an inadequate job.
The only way to be successful is to work with someone who knows what they’re doing and who cares about your goals.
I’m blown away by the number of sellers I hear from who hired the first agent they spoke to. This is a recipe for disaster, and one that no seller should ever repeat.
So if you’ve ever been through the disappointment of an unsuccessful listing experience, don’t make the same mistake twice. When it comes time to re-list, interview multiple agents.
Not all Realtors are the same. In fact, the majority of agents just wing it. They don’t treat our business like a business. As a seller, you deserve better. The only way to be successful is to work with someone who knows what they’re doing and who cares about your goals.
The right agent will have the experience, knowledge, systems, and tools necessary to get your property sold quickly and for top dollar. Don’t settle for less.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Buyers: Don’t let fear keep you from pulling the trigger when the right home comes along. Today I’ll share a message on how to overcome paralysis and earn a great deal on the perfect property.
A couple of months ago, my mentor said something to me that really reflects what’s happening in our market: Change creates uncertainty, uncertainty creates doubt, doubt creates fear, and fear creates paralysis.
And with as much as our market has evolved recently, many buyers have definitely found themselves in a state of paralysis.
It is the buyers who have partnered with an experienced Realtor who are in the best position to find success. While a large portion of today’s buyers are afraid to pull the trigger, those who have professional guidance are sure to find and secure a fair deal.
Educated and well-prepared buyers who are working with the right agent will find that success is well within reach in today’s market.
The old adage is true: Knowledge is power. Buyers today must understand what they can qualify for, what kind of monthly payment they’re comfortable with, and what’s motivating them to buy in the first place.
Thankfully, the recent changes in our market actually pose a great benefit to buyers. We’re now seeing higher levels of inventory, with fewer multiple offer situations as a result. Beyond that, homes are also spending longer on the market. This gives buyers more time to think through their purchase before making a move.
Nevertheless, it’s still important for buyers to be prepared to pull the trigger when the time is right. Educated and well-prepared buyers who are working with the right agent will find that success is well within reach in today’s market.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
If you’re thinking of listing your home, realize that the initial price you set for it will be one of the most important factors in selling quickly and for top dollar.
Any agent you work with should place a high level of emphasis on this aspect of your selling strategy. Having someone by your side who is able to examine market trends and predict where conditions are heading will be crucial to your success. And this mindset applies to more than just real estate. Take the words of famed hockey player Wayne Gretzky, who once said: “Skate to where the puck is going, not where it has been.”
The point of this quote is to realize that in hockey, life, and real estate alike, the secret to success is to stay one step ahead.
As the market shifts and becomes more normalized, this proactive mindset is exactly what sellers must apply to their listing strategy. Don’t chase the market.
If you price correctly from the start, you will be far more likely to sell quickly and earn top dollar.
If the going rate in your neighborhood for homes like yours is somewhere between $700,000 and $720,000, the last thing you want to do is price your home at $740,000 to leave room for negotiation. This may have worked in the recent past, but our market has changed.
As inventory increases and homes begin taking longer to sell, some of the pressure buyers previously felt is being relieved. Now, instead of buyers chasing properties, sellers are chasing buyers. And there have been a lot more price reductions lately as a result.
To avoid this fate for your own listing, you need to take the direction of our market into account when developing your pricing strategy. If you price correctly from the start, you will be far more likely to sell quickly and earn top dollar.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
It’s not always a great time to buy for everyone depending on their situation. Before you make the decision to buy for yourself, it’s a good idea to speak with an agent and/or a lender to get an idea about what you can afford and why you want to buy. However, with the market shifting, a lot of people are capable of buying, but are uncertain about whether now is the right time or if they should continue to wait. Here are five reason why it’s a great time to buy for many buyers right now: 1. We have a lot more new inventory. In the last six years, home prices have been going up because of our low inventory. Buyers have been looking at properties and making offers, but are continually getting outbid. After six long years, we are seeing more homes hit the market and buyers have plenty of options.
Buyers have more options to choose from these days.
2. Rates are still historically low. If you’re a younger buyer who isn’t used to seeing high interest rates, you probably think our current rates are pretty high. However, if you take a look back a few decades and see what we were dealing with at that time, a 5% interest rate is a steal. 3. You can get on with your life. If you’ve always thought about buying but are stuck in a rental property situation, you owe it to yourself to figure it out. Talk to a lender or a Realtor to see if you can qualify. It’s always free to talk. 4. You can create more certainty for yourself. There is a lot more certainty involved with owning a home. When you’re renting a property, you’re at the mercy of the landlord. When you own your own home, you make all the decisions. 5. Pride of ownership. My dad once told me, “When you own a home, life just changes. It becomes better.” It’s hard to explain, but it’s certainly true. It’s an indescribable feeling. If you have any questions for me or you're thinking about buying any time soon, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Deciding to sell a home comes down to a multitude of factors. It’s not always a great time to sell for every homeowner. However, if you have been on the fence about listing your home on the market, here are five reasons why now is a fantastic time to sell:
1. You can still sell your home for top dollar. The market is still in its early stages of transition from a seller’s market to a normalized market. That hasn’t happened quite yet, however, and you can still get your home sold for top dollar.
2. There are still plenty of motivated buyers. These buyers are eager and excited to buy now because of the increased inventory on market. Buyers are eager and hopeful to find a home right now.
Motivated buyers are coming to this market in bunches.
3. Motivated buyers are eager to secure lower interest rates. If you’ve been following the market, you know that interest rates are predicted to rise soon. Savvy buyers understand that when these rates rise, it will increase their cost of homeownership. Those buyers want to secure an interest rate now by buying a home in this market.
4. You can upgrade to a new home for a lower price. If you’re looking to sell your current home and buy something bigger and better, you can still sell for top dollar, then enter a home buying market with great rates, more inventory, and potentially lower prices. 5. You can get on with your life. If you’re thinking about making a move, you should seriously talk to an agent about what your options are. Whether you want to move to find a better space, better school district, or a new area for a better quality of life: You only live once, so reach out to someone like myself today to see if that’s a possibility for you.
If you have any questions for me or you’re interested in selling your home anytime in the near future, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Have you heard about the concept of an “instant offer?” If not, allow me to explain. The term “instant offer” refers to a scenario in which a company buys a seller’s home outright so that the seller can avoid the listing process.
These days, instant offers are becoming much more mainstream. But is this approach to selling worth it?
In an instant offer scenario, the company purchasing the home will close as quickly or slowly as the seller wants, and also help them transition into their next home. This sounds incredible, right?
After all, who wants to go through all the hard work of preparing a home, finding an agent, arranging showings, hosting open houses, haggling with negotiations, and everything else that goes into a traditional listing process?
While instant offers may be less of a hassle, they won’t earn you top dollar.
However, as convenient as an instant offer may seem, it’s important to consider the more subtle aspects to this approach—because while instant offers may be less of a hassle, they won’t earn you top dollar. These companies are not in the business of holding real estate.
They want to buy your property for much less than it’s potentially worth in order to sell it for a profit later, all while making the seller feel as if they’re being done a huge favor.
By all means, pursue an instant offer sale if this arrangement fits well with your goals—but do your research. Find out what fees they’re charging and what price you might earn, and then speak to an experienced agent about the results you might see from a traditional listing process. You may find that the work involved with a conventional selling experience is worth it, after all.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
We’ve been experiencing a strong seller’s market for almost seven years now. As a facet of this, home prices have been aggressively appreciating all the while.
The best advice I can give anyone who is thinking of buying or selling is to let go of the past.
However,
our market is shifting gears. Homes are taking longer to sell and
appreciation has slowed down. And, beyond that, inventory and rates are
both on the rise.
The best advice I can give anyone who is thinking of buying or selling is to let go of the past. It’s important to base your goals and expectations on what’s happening right now, instead of what was going on a month ago.
Buyers and sellers who don’t move with the market are setting themselves up for failure. Sellers, in particular, should remember that less is more. Pricing your property slightly below where you may have in the recent past could help you sell sooner and for more money than you would earn by overpricing.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Being realistic about market conditions when planning a real estate transaction is key, even if it sometimes means changing your expectations and goals.
You’ve probably heard the saying “The customer is always right,” but is this saying true in real estate? Are buyers and sellers always “right?”
Oftentimes when I speak to buyers or sellers, it becomes apparent that they’re operating within an assumption of how their transaction “should” go, instead of basing their strategy on how the deal is actually playing out.
Especially with our market beginning to shift, it’s important that buyers and sellers do away with this mindset. People give too much thought to what they see on social media or in articles online. My team and I deal with many different clients on a daily basis, so our perspective is one you can trust.
I want my clients to not only win in the market, but to also understand what’s going on.
We are always honest with our clients, even it if means not always being on the same page. Our goal is to be realistic and to help our clients become successful in their real estate goals as a result.
If you’re working with a Realtor who only ever tells you “yes,” this is a major red flag. If a seller comes to us and wants to sell for $900,000 but market conditions don’t support that figure, I will guide them toward a more feasible price.
Of course I want my clients to earn the best deal possible; however, unlike certain sycophantic agents, I know that succeeding in this market will require a more pragmatic approach. I want my clients to not only win in the market, but to also understand what’s going on.
If you have any other questions or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
In my discussion of the market today, I want to reinforce the old adage “knowledge is power.”
When I say that phrase, what do I mean? Well, if you’ve been following my videos, you’ll know that I’ve brought up market shifts a number of times. With our own clients, we’ve noticed that with all the things going on in the market, there is an uncertainty about the future of the market that is causing a sort of paralysis. Is the market going up or down? Is it stabilizing? Is it a bad time to buy or sell? A lot of people have just stopped dead in their tracks and are wondering what they should do.
Knowledge is the key to curing that paralysis.
Interest rates and home prices have gone up, homes are taking longer to sell, and the demand for property is dropping. So what can you do to keep yourself from being paralyzed in the market? Here are some tips:
Knowledge is the key to curing market paralysis.
1. Stay educated. Work with a local professional who will help you understand what’s going on in your micro market. Every single market is different from the next, and the same is true of individual price points and clients. Just because it’s a great time to buy or sell for one person doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a great time to buy or sell for someone else.
2. Work with a knowledgeable agent. Now more than ever, it’s critical to work with a real estate agent who understands the area and the market you’re looking to buy in.
3. Talk to a great lender. Your agent should also know where to find a great lender who will help you understand what you qualify for, whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or a move-up buyer.
When you’re uncertain about a decision, you’re probably always going to say no to it. That’s why learning more about why you’re looking to make a move or why you’re looking to buy a home is going to help you gain the knowledge and power to make the best decisions for you and your family.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be glad to help you.
If you have tried multiple times to sell your home but you were unsuccessful, you shouldn’t rush into hiring your next agent if you’re thinking of listing again. Here is why.
If you are thinking about putting your home on the market or have already tried multiple times and couldn’t get it sold, I want to explain why you shouldn’t rush into hiring your next agent.
Once your home is taken off the market—whether it’s withdrawn, expired, or canceled—you’ll be inundated with dozens of calls from agents within the first couple days asking to schedule an appointment with you to explain what they will do differently to get your home sold.
The reality is 95% of those agents don’t have the skillset or the experience to get the job done. In fact, a lot of new agents get their start by calling expired or withdrawn listings because they have no other source of business. It’s an easy and cheap way to fill their pipeline with clients.
As you are getting bombarded with these calls, I recommend that you talk to a few of these agents and pick a few to interview. During the interview process, there are three things you need to keep in mind.
First, the market is changing. For the last five or six years, we have seen a huge uptick in prices and been in a strong seller’s market. Agents have been able to overprice properties and still get them sold. Now, though, you need to be hyper-aware of your local market in order to price your home properly. You need to know how many homes have sold, what they sold for, what their condition is, what the current level of inventory looks like, what your competition looks like, etc. You’ll need a great agent to help you come up with the right price.
Second,
your strategy has to change. You can’t just change agents and expect
different results. You also need to dramatically change your home’s
price or the way you market it.
Your next agent should be someone whose marketing and negotiating expertise will be able to net you more money from your home sale.
Third, do your due diligence. Don’t hire someone just because they give you a good feeling on the inside. You want to work with someone you feel like you could get to know, trust, and like, but don’t just make your decision based on that. And, don’t just base your decision on how much an agent charges. There are a lot of agents out there who will “buy” a listing by offering the seller a discount on their commission. The best agents never discount their commission. They’ll be able to net you more money from your home sale because their marketing and negotiating expertise is so strong.
As part of your due diligence, ask each agent the following questions:
Why should I hire you?
What are you going to do to sell my property?
What homes have you sold in my area?
How will you market my home to expose it to all the different buyers in my area?
How are you going to be able to justify the commission you charge?
How will I be able to walk away with more money by working with you instead of a discount broker?
Make sure you pick the right agent to sell your home. As our market changes, your home selling strategy needs to change, and you need to hire someone with experience.
If you are thinking of putting your home back on the market, I would love the opportunity to meet with you and talk about what my team and I can do to get your home sold. Of course, if you have any other questions about our market or any other real estate needs, feel free to call or email me anytime. I’d love to help you.
As a seller, how can you make a price reduction that counts?
Right now, our market is changing—homes are taking longer to sell, and we are seeing a lot more sellers making price reductions. In fact, last month I made my first price reduction on a home in six years.
Because the market is shifting, you need to shift your mindset along with it. If you’ve listed your home and it has sat on the market for two or three weeks without an offer, it is time to consider a price reduction. I want to help you make the right price adjustment so that when you do, your home sells right away. What you don’t want to do is chase the market down, which is what a lot of sellers are doing. For
example, if you list your home at $950,000 and it doesn’t sell after
three or four weeks, don’t drop the price down to just $949,000. A
$1,000 price reduction in a million-dollar price range won’t inspire any
buyers to say “Wow! Now I have got to see this home. That’s the price
I’ve been looking for.”
When you list your property, listen to the market and get what feedback you can from the buyers and their agents.
Instead, you should reduce your home’s price by 3% to 5%, depending on how much activity it has already generated. If you price your home at $989,000 and it has only gotten a few showings after two or three weeks, you’re better off dropping the price down into the neighborhood of $949,000.
A price reduction should be enough to inspire buyers and ensure that you still squeeze as much money as possible out of your sale. If you do it correctly, you should be able to attract multiple offers for your home and sell it for more than the price you originally reduced it to.
If you are getting ready to put your home on the market or would like to know what your home is worth, please feel free to reach give me a call or send me an email. I would love to speak with you.
