What’s a seller to do?
April 10th, 2007 by Mark FlandersOur local Kitsap County Real Estate Market has been thriving for the last 7 years. We have been coming out of a seller’s market since August of 2006 and now the market is correcting itself. Compared to other parts of the country we still have a very healthy market. What we are experiencing now is more of a balanced market.
Washington is ranked 5th in the nation for the highest increase in appreciation in the last year and is still one of the most active markets. Due to the shift in the market there is now more inventory for a buyer to look at and the days-on-market has increased from a county average of approximately 35 days to 85 days. Sellers now have to really look closely at how their homes show and most importantly, how it is priced to position the house to sell. In the last few years, with the inventory down and more buyers than homes, a home would sell quickly no matter how it showed. My recent experience with showing homes to potential buyers has motivated me to write this article.
We have all heard this many times but it is so important I feel obligated to repeat it. First impressions are very important. Some of the simplest and most inexpensive things will make a good first impression. None of this is new information. Because of the recent changes and the hesitancy of some realtors (especially newer realtors in the business) to tell a seller the truth, or resistance to the idea that they have work to do, I have shown some homes that are going to be on the market a while.
Curb appeal
Put a fresh coat of paint on the front door, put flowers on the front porch or stairs and always put down fresh beauty bark. None of this is expensive but it goes a long way to making a buyer feel the home is cared for.
If you can smell it you can’t sell it!
This is so very true, get an objective opinion, especially if you have pets. We may not notice an odor if we live with it every day. I have shown homes that smell so bad my clients try to beat me to the door to get out. I showed a home the other day that had a strange odor and we spent the first 10 minutes trying to figure it out instead of looking at the home. We finally decided it was the green algae growing up the side of the fish tank in the living room. I don’t even want to talk about the home that had 2 ferrets in residence!
A professional housekeeper ?
It is often very worthwhile to have a professional housekeeper to do a one-time cleaning. Often it can be only $100 to $150, money well worth spent even if you pride yourself on your housecleaning skills. They see things we don’t see and they pay attention to detail, like the polishing the molding, dusting the lamps and window sills, making the kitchen cupboards shine and so on. Always get a referral from your realtor for a good housekeeper they have worked with.
When buyers are on the way to your home!
Often now you will get advance notice of a showing, take the time to run some of the fresh scented cleaning wipes over all your countertops before the showing, light candles and put soft music on the stereo.
Oh, the inconvenience….
Last and most important, you must be willing to show the home. I had two sellers tell me it wasn’t convenient for them for me to show their house even when I was giving 2 days notice and had explained my clients were only going to be in town for 2 days. We did not go see those homes.
Pricing your home
The best advice I can give is, go look at the homes in your area and price range. At a minimum do a drive-by so you can see your competition. You want to position yourself both in price and “showability” to be the best home in your price range. This is especially important if you have plans and goals. Recently I walked away from listing a previous client’s home, as he wanted to price it fifty thousand over what I thought the market would bear. His comment was “Anyone can sell a home in this market”. I explained all the reasons that was not true. He did find an agent to list it at his price and, as expected, the home did not sell and the listing expired. I found this tragic, as I knew he had an offer on a home in another state where he was going to move to be closer to his family after having lost his wife to cancer in the last year. Don’t let this happen to you, if you think your home is worth more than your agent is telling you, go take a look at their comparable properties and hopefully they will have also.
Guest Author–
Marie Flanders is a Silverdale WA Realtor® serving all of Kitsap County. Marie is becoming a regular contributor to the site with articles pertaining to the purchase and sale of Real Estate in Kitsap County. If you have any questions about Real Estate, you can contact Marie here, or you can leave a comment on the article, and she will respond online.
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Tags: bremerton home seller tips, kitsap home seller tips, port orchard home seller tips, silverdale home seller tips
Washington also ranks 5th in the nation for exotic loans.
Coincidence?
Our market (Kitsap X-BI) is driven by:
Speculators
Toxic loan products/easy money
X-Cals
King County Commuters (Poulsbo and SE Kitsap)
Have incomes in Kitsap since ’02 gone up by 60-100%?
How can we be building on just about every available lot, but close down schools due to lack of enrollment?
How much of the Kitsap economy is the Real Estate Industrial Complex?
How will the KC commuters hold up when King County real estate comes back to normal?
California foreclosures are up 30% month/month and 350% year/year. How much longer will X-Cals have equity? They already lead the nation in wildly exotic mortgage financing (and the subsquent bust).
The past month has witnessed the steepest interest rate rise on US Treasuries in almost a decade. Rates hit 5.25% on the 10 Year this afternoon, and after the market closed, they ticked up another 5bp.
IS ANYONE PAYING ATTENTION TO THIS? DOES THIS MATTER? ARE WE ABOVE INTEREST RATE CONCERNS?
If you can smell it you can’t sell it… I love that..
Is that you, Marie? Excellent article with some really great insights into our market here. I hope you continue to contribute regularly. I received a sign call the other day and drove out to show one of my lisings. The unrepresented Buyers were so appreciative and thankful that I would take time from my day to show them the house. We ended up writing a contract and signed around yesterday. Being a successful Listing Agent in our market today requires hard work and some creative marketing efforts!