Conversation With A Home Buyer

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This video features my chat with a buyer recently who called me and asked about “shadow inventory“.

Warning: This video may help you move past analyzing the market and actually get you motivated and moving in the direction of buying a home.

Enjoy!

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Jun

18

5 Ways To Improve Your Listing

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So you’re trying to sell your home and you want to learn how to improve your listing? I will provide you with 10 ways here in this article. I know the title says “5″ but I’m combining the first 6 (and most important) ways to improve the listing of your home.

Drop the price.
Drop the price.
Drop the price.
Drop the price.
Drop the price.
Drop the price.

When we talk about the market, undoubtedly, price will be the most critical aspects of improving the sale-ability of your home. From personal experience, this market has got many buyers on the sideline, including highly motivated buyers who are focused on buying…but aren’t pulling the trigger.

More times than not, even working with serious and pre-approved buyers, as I encourage them to make an offer on homes they see (and I mean any offer no matter how low), they don’t bother. So if your home is overpriced (if it’s not selling, then it is), the first six ways to improve your home is drop the price.

Visit www.HomeValuesNY.com to get a better idea of what your home’s asking price should be.

Call a real estate agent or your listing agent (if you’re listed) and ask for a full analysis of homes that have sold and are under contract within the last 90 days. Get the averages for the type of home you own.

Find out the average days on market and compare your home’s time on the market vs. home sales in the area.

Go to open houses and view other homes. This will help you get a better understanding of how your home is showing.

De-clutter & leave the lights on.

This is a solid strategy. By eliminating clutter, you open the home up to potential buyers. They don’t see your home, they see their potential home. Remove a portion of your personal photos but leave some to showcase how they might display their photos one day.

You don’t have to recreate the wheel and drive yourself nuts. Just put things away that don’t need to be around in plain sight.

And of course, turn the lights on in every room of the home. A well-lit room invites the buyers eye. A dark and dingy room may turn out their curiosity light. Leaving the lights on for them is a must.

Allow the buyers to relax in your home.

This starts and ends with giving them space. When they come to the front door, greet them and their agent with a smile. You can highlight some of the items (your real estate agent should review these with you) in the home that may spark buyer interest. Then leave them alone. It’s best to go outside or just keep a low profile while you’re home. And of course, big or loud dogs should absolutely be removed from the showing area.

Make it accessible.

Make sure the buyers and their agent have full access to your home. You can let the agent know if there is a specific area you want to show them or let them into but make it possible for the buyers to see your entire home, including crawl spaces and attics.

Make your viral marketing count.

If you’ve got a run-of-the-mill standard marketing approach in place for your home, it’s hurting you. Viral marketing (marketing through social networks), is becoming a major engine of how homes are found online. Friends of friends viewing and sharing your home for sale with other their friends on social networks like facebook and twitter.

However, being average or having marketing that is out-dated will still not help your efforts. A cutting-edge approach with “trailers” or “teasers” that include music and images of your home is what people look for online. Indeed, today’s buyer doesn’t want to be bored to death with slow elevator music while slow panoramic views are displayed, making your home boring.

This video followed by a complete property website that includes more information and photos is what people will share with other friends on social networks, thus improving the reach of your marketing efforts.

Bottom Line

You’ve got to start with a price that’s accurate, compelling and suitable to you. If you can’t or don’t want to sell at the price a professional like myself gives you, then do not list it for sale. You’re wasting your time and hurting the market by weighing it down with a price that will not procure a buyer.

Stay in your home and ride it out, but first, take into all consideration, the holding time and your true reasons for wanting to sell in the first place. Serious reflection on the reasons for wanting to sell, may lead you to accept a lower list and sale price than you originally expected.

Quoted In Newsday

Long Island Real Estate Market | Promote Your Page Too

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