The Importance of Preparation In Your Home Sale


Having a well-prepared listing is essential to your success as a seller. With this message, I’ll delve deeper into what it means to get your property ready for the market.

I regularly speak to homeowners who’ve left the market after an unsuccessful attempt to sell their home.

Too often, they inform me that all the feedback they received related to price. After seeing it for myself, I discover that the home was actually priced fairly, and the real problem was with how the home was presented in its pictures.

Along with price and exposure, preparation is an all-important component for selling your home for a record price. A surefire way to sabotage your own sale is to present the home as is in its listing photos—especially if it’s in a cluttered and untidy state. Nevertheless, I see so many would-be sellers commit this major misstep, which results in their home going unsold. 

With hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, it’s important to make buyers feel as though your home will be a worthwhile investment. Once it’s on the market, you can’t think of it as your home anymore. At that point, it becomes a product that must be shown its best light.

With hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, it’s important to make buyers feel as though your home will be a worthwhile investment.

I hope you found value in today’s message. If you know anyone who’s been trying to sell their home and they’ve experienced some setbacks, send today’s message their way.

If your home was previously on the market and you’ve been led to believe that it didn’t sell due to price, please let me know. I’d love to do some independent research and make a determination as to whether or not that’s the case. Not only that, I can fill you in on what my team and I will do to get your home re-branded, relisted, and sold.

If you have any suggestions for future video topics I can cover, please reach out to me as well. In the meantime, happy selling!
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Location: Irvine, CA, USA

A Simple Equation That Makes All the Difference in Your Home Sale


The perfect recipe for making a handsome profit on your home sale is made up of three key ingredients: price, prep, and exposure. We’ll talk about that more today.

Price + prep + exposure = record price. This equation is the focus of today’s topic.

Before we unpack each element, let’s consider some alarming market statistics that illustrate the dilemma a lot of sellers are finding themselves in:
  • Two out of five homes sold in our market sell below their true potential. 
  • Another two out of five homes fail to even sell.   
  • Only one in five homes sells at or above market value.  

For our part, the last seven homes my team and I have sold have gone for a record price—even in the face of the current market slowdown. How did we get this done? For one thing, we recognize that the buyer will always have the last word when it comes to your home’s value—not you or me. As your listing agent, it’s my job to demonstrate to the buyer that your home is worth more than its market value.

For most homebuyers, the decision of whether or not to make a purchase is rooted in emotion. It only makes sense that the more emotional a buyer becomes, the higher their offer will be.

That leads me right into the first element of the previously mentioned equation: price. At the outset, you have to do your homework and work closely with your agent to set a fair asking price for your home. That includes looking at past sale prices and present competition, market trends, and interest rates. Then, you’ll need to compare those findings to your home’s location and condition.

Price + prep + exposure = record price.

Taking all of that into account, arrive at a price that’s fair not through your own lens, but through a buyer’s. Pricing high in hopes that there’ll be room for negotiation might seem like a strong strategy, but in reality, it won’t attract buyers to your home. The best way to entice buyers and increase your property’s exposure is to stay within the bounds of what buyers think your home is worth.  

Next, let’s talk about prep. I can’t tell you how many listing pictures I’ve seen online that didn’t light a fire under me at all, nor would they with prospective buyers. As a seller, understand that how your home is displayed online carries a lot of weight. That’s where 92% of buyers start their search nowadays, so if your home’s photos are unattractive, buyers won’t take notice or want to view it in person.

No matter what price range you fall into, you have to make buyers feel like your home is an investment that’s well worth it for them. For as significant as this stage is, as many as 85% of sellers neglect it almost entirely.
 
The final element in our equation is exposure. The exposure your home receives is only going to be as good as the agent you hire and their marketing. A great agent is going to maximize your home’s exposure, both on and offline, and, as a result, widen your buyer pool.

I hope you found value in today’s message. If you know anyone who’s thinking about selling their home, send it their way. If you’re thinking about doing the same and you’d like to talk about the selling process, I’d love to have a conversation with you on the phone or in person. I hope to hear from you soon. In the meantime, happy selling!
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Location: Irvine, CA, USA

What Do a Drill Bit and Your Home Search Have in Common?


Buying a drill bit and buying a home have more in common than you think. Let me explain why.

Recently, a Harvard researcher studied consumers who were in the market to buy a drill bit. Ultimately, the study led to a curious discovery: In large part, it wasn’t the drill bit that drew these people to the market; it was the drill bit’s utility.

They simply needed something to make a hole in the wall, and the purpose of that hole was to hang a shelf. The study went on to say that it was about much more than the shelf for these consumers.

This researcher concluded that the installation of a shelf brought about a greater sense of accomplishment, pride, and general tidiness in their living space.

In the same way, we as real estate professionals have to probe a little deeper sometimes when our buyers give us a laundry list of amenities and details that are must-haves in their future home purchase. Perhaps they want the home to come with three bedrooms, a garage, and a lot of a certain size.

On a deeper level, a buyer wants the home’s features to collectively generate a feeling of accomplishment and pride.

For us, though, it begs the question: Why do you want all of that? And more importantly, why do you want a home?

After some digging, we learn that, much like the consumer in search of a drill bit, it’s about much more than the reasons that particular buyer gives. We discover that it’s less about the individual features themselves and more about what those features will provide for them.

On a deeper level, a buyer wants the home’s features to collectively generate a feeling of accomplishment and pride. All in all, a major part of the home search process is to enter it with the "bigger picture" in mind.

If you’re thinking about buying a home and you want to get the process in motion, please reach out to me and my team. I’d also love to hear your suggestions for future video topics I should cover. In the meantime, happy selling!
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Location: Irvine, CA, USA

Buyers: Don’t Fixate on the Price—Fixate on the Monthly Payment


Buyers: You’re not buying a home. You’re buying a monthly payment.

For those thinking about purchasing a property in the near future, let’s take a moment to look at what’s happening in our local real estate market.

Right now, inventory is growing, which is good for buyers, because having more choices means two things:
  1. You’ll have 20% to 30% more properties to choose from than you did just six months to a year ago. 
  2. The increase in available home options equals increased competition between sellers, which means the overall demand for properties falls.

As a buyer, you’ll also need to be aware of the fact that interest rates are at a 15-month low, meaning that you’re sitting pretty at the moment. If you speak with a lender and you feel comfortable with the monthly payment, my recommendation is to pull the trigger. Make it happen; based on prices and interest rates, there’s no better time to get into the marketplace than right now.

If the monthly payment doesn’t make sense, then buying that home doesn’t make sense.

But the main point of my post today is to reframe the discussion around homebuying: You’re not actually buying a home, but rather a monthly payment. Very early in my career, one of my mentors told me that the price of a home is a one-time thing, but your monthly payment is an every-month thing. Many buyers become fixated on the price of a home, but what if you could get the same property with a better loan and save money each month you make a house payment?

Even though buying a home right now presents a great opportunity, you still need to speak with a lender first so that you understand what type of loan you’ll be getting, how much you’ll need to put down on a home, what your closing costs will be, and most importantly, what your total monthly payment will be. Knowing these things ahead of time will allow you assess how comfortable you are proceeding with that transaction. As a buyer, don’t become fixated on price. Price is a guideline for us to show you homes that fall in the range of your ideal monthly payment. At the end of the day, if the monthly payment doesn’t make sense, then buying that home doesn’t make sense.

If you’re thinking about buying a property and would like us to help you find the best one money can buy, feel free to give me a call or send an email. I love to educate people on how to find the exact kind of home they’re looking for.
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Location: Irvine, CA, USA

How Sellers Can Take Advantage of Our Current Market


In our market, home sellers only have one chance to make an impact on buyers.

Today I want to address something about our real estate market: The spring market is here in full force, and sellers need to act accordingly.

We have seen inventory increase dramatically over the last three to four weeks. Looking at historical trends, I expect that we’ll continue to see a rise in inventory through May, June, July, and August. That means the deeper we get into the summertime, the more competition you’ll have as a seller.

The great news is that homes are selling pretty quickly and for great prices. However, the ones that are selling the quickest and for the best prices are the ones that come onto the market strong. By ‘strong,’ I mean that sellers are working alongside great agents with effective marketing campaigns, and the home itself is a high-quality product with a fair price.

Buyers in the market are excited to purchase because interest rates are historically low. Right now, they’re at a 14- or 15-month low, hovering in the low 4s. If you’re getting a jumbo loan, those rates are even lower.

If you’re a home seller, you only have one chance to truly make an impact in the market.

However, even though buyers are excited, that doesn’t mean that they’re going to overpay for a property. That means if you’re a home seller, you only have one chance to truly make an impact in the market.

Those who have been following my blog know that there are three key aspects to selling a home:
  1. Preparing the home to show like a model 
  2. Pricing the home aggressively to maximize exposure 
  3. Working with an agent who has both a strong offline and online marketing campaign to make sure that the most buyers possible see your home

If one of those three components is missing, you run the risk of either having your home sit idly on the market for longer than you want, selling for less than you want, or worse—not selling at all. Keep these three key components at the forefront of your mind and be sure to hire an agent who’ll get the job done.

If you’re interested in learning more about how my team and I maximize exposure for the properties we list, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m an open book, and I’d love to learn more about your situation so we can find a way to help you accomplish your goals.
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Location: Irvine, CA, USA
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