Posts from — May 2008

Its Monday morning and I am working at home today, I have emails to catch up on, and a jillion work related projects to get started on. But first, I had to clean out my refrigerator, YIKES!!!! (it is garbage truck day, those guys are heroes in my book, you should see what I gave them).   If there was a market for outdated fuzzy food, no doubt I could retire shortly.  My husband has an aunt that jokes (I wonder) about using her refrigerator as a penicillin incubator (we don’t eat at her house), I think that mine rivaled hers this morning.  I should definitely get a star at my weight watcher meeting this week, there is nothing left to temp me  in that fridge.  On to the deep freeze now.

Boy, what a nightmare that was.  I found my missing Thanksgiving turkey that I couldn’t find back then, which forced my husband to don his apron and cook steaks out.  My good deed to myself was to throw out the half empty 2 (OK, 3) gallons of Blue Bell Cookies and Crèam that no doubt I will miss in the middle of an upcoming night. Hallelujah Weight Watchers! And if anyone knows what I can do with a giant baggie of frozen marshmallows please let me know.  I guess I could make a crock pot stew out of all the odds and ends and un-identified, but I really don’t want to visit the ER this week so watch out garbage men, here it comes.  Um, I wonder how many points I get at Weight Watchers for carrying all this stuff to the curb.

This reminds me, all you sellers out there, CLEAN OUT YOUR CLOSETS.  When I show buyers they always want to check out the storage, closets are big on the “want” list, if your closet or pantry looks like my fridge and freezer, you are overdue for a good cleaning. It really impresses a buyer when they can open a hall closet and not have to dodge falling debris.  This week I saw some very creative collages of family trips to Disneyworld and the beach but I don’t think my buyers ever looked at the room, they got so focused on the pictures.  You are going to move anyway so pack it up and stack the boxes neatly out of the way.   Visit my website for additional info on getting your house ready to sell.

Now, on to my pantry.

Recently, I discussed the importance of staging your home, decluttering and depersonalizing. We call this the 5 P’s. PROPER PREPARATION PREVENTS POOR PRESENTATION.  However, no matter how wonderful your home looks, if you are not on target with your price, then all your preparation has been wasted.  It is extremely important that an agent is able to provide  an accurate Market Analysis. Please understand that the market dictates the current values. What was sold 6 months ago is yesterdays values. The homes on the market today are your competition. Here’s the big concern. Agents are not created equal.  If they do not provide accurate figures, then you will not be able to make an educated decision on proper pricing of your home. If you overprice your home, then you have  effectively helped your competition build value in their homes.

So, here’s how the process should work. Your agent should do a detailed market analysis of your area. There should be an inspection of your property, suggestions made as to the 5P’s, previews of similar homes which will be competing with yours(preferably with you so you see what the agent sees), and then a suggested price range for you to determine a list price.  Understand that the you must make a decision based on “TIME or MONEY”. If money is the most important factor, then price at the high end of the market, but be prepared to keep your home on the  market longer. If time is the key issue, then price towards the lower end in order to facilitate a quicker sale.  Or choose a price somewhere in the midde that you can live with.

In order to make  the best decision, please try to distance yourself. Remember, this is a business decision. While it is your HOME,  to a potential buyer, it is simply another house. You CANNOT  allow emotion to factor in to your pricing (or any other aspect of the process) FSBOs’  are notorious for uneducated decisions. They overprice the property because they have nothing to base their decision, they have no marketing to speak of, they  are not familiar with real estate documents, and do not understand the closing procedures. The rsult is that 67% of FSBOs’ end up listing with an agent.

BOTTOM LINE, choose yor agent carefully; make good decisions based on accurate information; FSBOs’ do your homework and don’t base your choices on emotion. PRICE will be a major factor on days on market or whether it will eventually sell or not.  As always, we are available if you have any questions.