The 2 Things All Buyers Want in a Home

To maximize your home’s sale price, you need to offer the two things all buyers want: a great deal and an emotional connection.

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In my 12 years of selling real estate, I’ve come to learn that every buyer wants two things. One is something they know about, but the other is something they don’t.  

The first thing every buyer wants is a great deal. We’re in a hot market, so any home that looks great will sell. How can you squeeze out as much money as possible from the buyers who are looking, though? That’s easy—you have to maximize your home’s exposure. When every buyer in your area looks for homes online before actually seeing them in person, you need to make sure that when they see your property, it makes them want to check it out immediately. 

A lot of times, when I talk to sellers, they’ll say something like “Robert, what if we price our home aggressively and price it low and we only get one offer?” If you do the research up front, you know what your home is worth on paper, and you price it aggressively, you’ll more than likely attract multiple offers. 

When you price your home as a great deal, buyers will naturally want to see it because they’re looking for a great deal. The best part of this strategy is the paradigm shift that happens to the buyer the minute they walk into your property and fall in love with it. Not only will you get multiple offers, but the sale price will exceed the list price.

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Buyers want a great deal for your home and to be able to feel emotionally connected to it.

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However, none of that matters unless you also offer the thing that buyers don’t know they want—something that makes them feel good. Most buyers don’t search for homes to find something that makes them feel good. Instead, they usually have a more logical mindset that’s focused on bedroom counts, bathroom counts, square footage, etc. In my experience though, buyers will pay more for a home if it gives them the right emotional connection. 

To make an emotional connection with buyers, you need to take time to prepare your property for sale. If a buyer is going to spend as much as $1 million on a home, they’re going to want to move into something that makes them feel good. This means you might have to spend money to make some minor repairs or upgrades. 

Most importantly, though, never overlook the option of home staging. Whether you live in the property or not, you should strongly consider hiring a designer who will put together a complete package so that the buyer instantaneously feels emotionally connected. 

If you have any questions or you’re thinking about selling a property and you want to learn more about how my team and I help your clients sell for top dollar, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to speak with you.

What’s the Best Way to Combat Buyer Fatigue?

Buyer fatigue is a common problem for homebuyers in our market, but there are couple things you can do to get past it.

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If you’re a homebuyer in the Orange County area, I’m sure at some point you’ve felt what’s known as “buyer fatigue.” 

In a nutshell, buyer fatigue happens when buyers try so hard to buy a home, but for some reason they continuously miss out on opportunities. Over time, these buyers can get stressed out and question whether they should even be looking for a home. 

If you’re currently suffering from buyer fatigue, I have some advice that will help you get through it. There is so much opportunity in our current marketplace. Both homes prices and interest rates are expected to continue to rise for the next 12 to 18 months, if not longer, so the sooner you buy a property, the better the deal you’ll likely get—especially if you’re buying a home to actually live in it. 

In the Irvine area, there are 345 active listings. You might think that’s a lot of properties for sale, but if you consider how large of an area Irvine is, all the different types of properties available here, the unique characteristics of those properties, the different price ranges involved, and each buyer’s specific tastes, you find that buyers themselves only have three to five realistic buying options. 

If you’ve been watching the news, reading the newspaper, or browsing social media lately and you’ve heard about low inventory, that’s what they’re really talking about. We’re finding that every one of our buyers is lucky to find three to five homes available in their price range that fit their needs. 

If you consider that the average price point in the Irvine area is roughly $700,000 and above, many buyers we work with want to see more than just three to five homes. Unfortunately, though, there’s just not a lot out there. We have had clients find a home they love, submit an offer for it, and win that home, but that’s not very common. Most other buyers are waiting patiently and eagerly for new inventory to come on the market. As we know, once new inventory comes on the market, everybody gets excited about it. 

To put things into perspective, there are more buyers out looking for homes than there are homes available. If a property comes on the market and it’s priced right and shows well, it will likely attract multiple offers. We even listed a property recently that got 24 offers. 

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You might not get the first property you submit an offer for in our market.

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So picture this: If there are, for example, 10 offers on a property, that means nine buyers are going to miss out on it. Some may be missing out for the first time; some may be missing out for the fourth, fifth, or sixth time. Those buyers have to then wait for another property. If they don’t get the next one, they have to wait again. And again. And again. 

A lot of these buyers aren’t seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. They’ve done everything they need to do, but they’re still not getting the properties they want. 

The best advice I can give you as a homebuyer is to focus on why you want to buy a certain home. There are a couple other things you need to understand going into the home buying process. First, you will be paying a premium for any property because inventory is so low. Second, you might not get the first property you submit an offer for—it might have to be the fourth, fifth, or sixth.

Every time I’ve worked with a client who previously missed out on three or four homes and then finally got an offer accepted, they tell me they’re glad those three or four other homes didn’t work out because they finally found the home they love. 

If you or anyone you know is looking for a home in our market or you have any other questions or real estate needs, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to speak with you.

How Supply and Demand Will Impact the Spring & Summer Selling Season

As more properties come on the market this spring and summer, buyers will have more options, and sellers will have less demand for their properties.

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I’m sure you’ve heard the term “supply and demand,” but how does that affect buyers and sellers as we approach the spring and summer selling season here in Orange County?

In a nutshell, supply and demand means the less of something there is, the more valuable it becomes. Let’s say you’re dealing with wine. When a new wine is released, there’s a lot of it, but as the vintage gets older and older, there’s less of it to go around. Once you get down to the last case, it becomes extremely expensive.

If you’ve been following this video blog, you know that inventory usually drops in November as we approach the holiday season and stays low through early February. Generally, it will start rising after Super Bowl Sunday, rise again in March, continue to grow in April, and then significantly rise in May and June. June, of course, is the summer selling season and the time everyone assumes is the best opportunity to sell a house. The reality is, this is actually the best time to buy a house because there are more homes on the market.

If you’re a seller, you want to sell when there’s not a lot of competition. If you live on a block with five other homes for sale, buyers will leverage those homes and yours against each other when they make an offer. If your house is the only one on that block for sale, however, it’s worth potentially more to buyers because it’s their only option.

I talk to a lot of people who tell me they’re interested in selling but want to wait until spring or summer, and this always raises some concerns with me. If there’s a specific reason they need to wait, then perhaps there’s no way around that. If they’re just planning on listing in the spring or summer because they think that’s a better time to sell though, then that’s an incorrect strategy.

If you’re just waiting for the spring or summer market to come before you list your home, you may want to talk with a Realtor and understand what’s happening in your micro-market. Every pocket in Orange County has different trends, so you don’t want to wait to sell only to find out that there are three or four other properties listed right alongside yours. That will devalue your property. List when there is low inventory and less competition so there’s more demand for your property and a greater chance to sell for top dollar.

We should see inventory increase over the next few months.

If you’re a buyer and you’d rather wait until April, May, or June when inventory has grown to make your move, there’s nothing wrong with that approach. I do encourage you, though, to stay on top of what’s happening with interest rates. If you have a preferred lender you like working with and have already been pre-approved through, they should be sending you weekly updates on interest rates. Why? If interest rates go up too high, even if you get a smoking-hot deal on a property, you still might end up paying more money per month for it.

Overall, we should see inventory increase over the next few months. As more properties come on the market, buyers will have more options, and sellers will have less demand for their properties.

Another scenario we’ve been dealing with lately is clients wanting to sell their current home and buy something bigger or smaller. If you intend to do the same thing, meet with a Realtor now so you can sell before inventory grows and buy when you have more options. The savvier sellers we work with usually list their homes in February, March, or early April so they can catch the market before it gets too active.

If you have any more questions about how supply and demand will impact our market in the coming months or you’re thinking of buying, selling, or investing in real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you. Until then, happy selling!