Great Info on the Selling Process...

http://theweeklybookscan.blogs.realtor.org/2014/05/29/selling-on-your-toes-2/#sf3141756

A Picture is STILL Worth a Thousand Words--No Matter How Good Those Words Are!!!

As everyone who's read my blog knows, I am a big advocate of selling visually.  We ALL buy with our eyes and that's never been more true than with the advent of the internet.  Below is a link to a great article detailing WORDS that will help listings get sold. 

I must say, as a homebuyer, I've seen hundreds of listings with these buzz words, as a matter of fact, one just yesterday.  But if all you have to offer me, or any prospective buyer, is a picture of the front facade, then I'm off to the next listing.  I don't care of Sidney Sheldon or Tom Clancy wrote the description!

Accompany a visual "story" of the property along with the verbiage in this article and I guarantee the number of showings will go through the roof!!!

Read on...

"Most Powerful Words In a Home for Sale Listing"

Are Optical Illusions Costing You Money?

What do you see in the image above?  A beautiful antique vase?  The profiles of two mature women facing each other?  Could be either one or the other...

It's all about perception!

Home sellers and real estate professionals have to understanding the concept of "buyer's perception."
As a seller, yes, you may have paid $250,000 for your home during the dreaded 2004 and yes, you may have refinanced, taking out $50,000 in PERCEIVED equity in 2006 to make improvements (that's another post in the making). But if your home is now on the market for $355,000, there is really no guarantee that you'll sell for that price. In fact, it's likely you won't get near that today.

Buyers today know properties are still trending downward; they know the longer a house sits on the market, the more room there will be for negotiation: translation--lower asking price. There are some listing agents that believe if there are no showings in 30 days, start dropping the price.  If there are no offers in 30 days, start dropping the price.

Some homes are actually worth the listed price, or at least really close to it.  The problem is they don't SHOW well so buyers PERCEIVE them as not being worth the asking price. Perception is everything and once a buyer perceives a house as not being worth the listed price, you've pretty much lost them.

I've seen homes that are spectacular, but with horrific decor.  Buyers are not looking for a house full of projects and the more projects they find in a home, the less valuable a home is to them.  Most are looking for move-in ready, turnkey properties.

I think as real estate professionals, it's our duty to get every penny we can for a property, especially if a seller is upside down.  Which is where staging or enhancing comes into play.

It not only will help build a lasting rapport with sellers (and hopefully referrals), but it helps our bottom line! 

This Debate is Still Raging On! Pre-sale Repairs, Are they Worth the Expense?



How much is ignoring that repair REALLY costing you?

I came across this article in the New York Times....http://nyti.ms/z7gECP

So, of course, it brought out the home stager/writer/ home buyer in me...

This market is unlike any in our lifetime. The pool of buyers has shrunk exponentially AND the pool of available properties has grown exponentially...translation: buyer's market!
.
Since mortgages are harder to come by, and the "buy-hold-long-enough-for-the-value-to-go-up-then-sell-and-buy-a-bigger-house" days are gone, buyers know they'll be in their homes a lot longer, possibly forever!

So what seems minor to a seller, i.e., chipped paint, old light fixtures, etc, will turn off a buyer.  In most cases, they're looking for move-in ready and if they see too many projects in a property, they will move on to the next...it's just that simple.

What sellers have to realize, and especially those that are upside down in their mortgages, is that ignoring problems is costing them money than they realize:

• Every month that house sits unsold, the mortgage payment is due, taxes are due and maintenance has to be paid for. 
• Buyers seeing numerous repairs and therefore making offers thousands below asking, will put sellers in a possible scenario of bringing money to the closing. 
• The longer a property sits on the market, the less likely it is that it will sell for the optimal asking price. Property values in many parts of the country are still trending downward.

This is why stagers are more important than ever.  We can come in with an objective (buyer's) eye and find a property's "offenses" and fix them; increasing the chances of not only a sale, but getting asking price or really close to it.

I love photography and so do buyers!

I guess I inherited my "shutterbug gene" from my dad. He takes pictures of EVERYTHING...lol.  So, one of my favorite aspects of my marketing career has been developing (pardon the pun) my photography skills.  People buy with their eyes and at no time in real estate history has the buyer's eye been more sharp.  So this week's post continues on my last post (before my annual Xmas Lindor Truffle binge) on the importance of photography when marketing your property.  Here goes:

Picture Taking Tips


What a buyer sees on a real estate web site will make the difference between being a saved listing or one that sends potential buyers to the next listing. So here are some tips when taking and selecting which pictures to use in your online listing.

1. Make sure each room is clean. Dirty dishes in the sink, full trash cans, unmade beds, all these make the house less appealing to buyers. When taking your pictures think of inviting guests into your home and put your best foot forward. Remember you're asking someone to BUY your home, not just visit for a few hours.

2. Balance your pictures. You have a beautiful lot, a stunning kitchen or an awesome master bedroom, which is great and you should show them off. But show off equally other areas of your home. Pictures focusing on one or two features of your home will leave buyers thinking there is nothing really special about other areas.

3. Curb appeal. Take pictures of your home's exterior in spring or summer, when trees, lawns and flowers are in full bloom. Pictures taken during winter make the property look depressing.

4. Let The Sunshine In. Buyers want a house that's bright and sunny. Take pictures on a sunny day when the sun is at its peak. Pull back window treatments and move large pieces of furniture away from windows.

5. The Full Monty. Get your mind out of the gutter! I mean full pictures of the rooms in your home. Taking pictures of only a window or the floor or the crown moulding doesn't add anything to the home's online "portfolio." Use these pictures to zero in on design features as a supplement to full scale pictures.

Did I leave out something? If you've got a tip, please share it!

Picture this!!!

I'm on the subway this morning, my Droid phone "ker-plunks" at me.  I check my email. My friend Tara, a realtor, sends me a new listing from her agency.

I quickly glance at the listing summary. I'm thinking, "great, right price, right location, right size lot, right interior specs."  I'm excited, "could this be our dream house?"  I click to the listing's page with baited breath and and behold--the dreaded "image not available" where at a minimum an exterior shot should be.

This is not acceptable, people!!!!  We live in the digital age!  Borrow a friend's camera, buy a single-use digital camera from Walgreens for $20.  Hell let your listing agent take pictures with his or her camera,if need be. But never, ever, ever, ever list your home on the internet without images.

Buyers are using the internet now more than ever when shopping for homes.  This isn't 1996 when everyone had one desktop PC and it was the only way to access the internet.

With the advent of laptops, tablets and smartphones, we literally carry the internet with us whereever we go. On any given day I'll have two out of the three with me.  So shopping either for a car, a pair of designer boots or a house will more likely than not involve the internet.

So, my colleagues, what reasons (read: excuses) have you heard from sellers for not being prepared for the selling process on what I think is the most rudimentary level? 

Sound off!!

Misnomer?

Ok....maybe "Sell It Like It Is" might be a misnomer, but my intentions are to get sellers to SELL their homes and I guess in the process, I will have to TELL it like it is...and no we don't want to sell the listing as it is...that's the problem!!

I have been shopping for a home for the last two years (well, off and on).  In doing so, I've run across so many mistakes sellers are making and will probably continue to make when selling their properties.

So during this search it hit me!  I could take my marketing background and my real estate background combine the two and turn it into a business...VOILA!  I think my (not so unique) perspective will allow me to help not only sellers, but sellers' agents get their listings to closing fast.

I look at a listing, not from the view of a designer, realtor, marketer or photographer--my primary view is that of a buyer.  What would make me want to buy this home or more importantly, what would make me NOT want to buy this home....

So, here goes....