March Madness

Alright so this post doesn’t really have anything to do with college basketballJ. The March Madness refers to this most wonderful time of year, the Spring Real Estate Market.  Notoriously spring has been known as the best time of the year to list your home for sale. The madness also surronds the buyer pool as there are more homes available to choose from and the interest rates continue to be historically low. For me, this is the most exciting time I’ve seen in my Real Estate career.

This post is dedicated to the future sellers and takes a look at inexpensive ways to help your home stand out from the healthy amount of competition.  So aside from doing a walk though of your specific home, I can take you through some common thoughts and observations.

Curb Appeal: It’s so common for a buyer to see a home on the internet and do a little “drive by” before scheduling an appointment to see the inside. It’s always a good practice to keep your property well groomed and clean.  So get in there… pull those weeds, spray the weed killer, trim the shrubs and hedges, and keep that grass groomed. You want to entice buyers enough to want to see the inside. Once the warm weather finally gets here a little color with simple flowers can also go a long way!

Spring Cleaning: Being that you are planning to move, now is an excellent time to do your spring cleaning. I always recommend going room to room and really getting your home as clean and organized as possible. Another thought is to do a smell check, yes a smell check. It’s easy to become immune to the odors in your home so a friendly “outsider” can come in handy here. Lot of light is helpful, so pull back those shades, and try to fill your home with as much natural sunlight as possible. We are aiming for “bright and cheerful”. As the warm weather approaches it’s also nice to open the windows and get some fresh air moving through your space.

The Double D’s: Minds out of the gutter people! This is, in my opinion the 2 most important steps in preparing your home for sale. De-clutter and de-personalize. When a potential buyer walks through your home the last things you want is to distract them with your personal items because then they are not focused on the potential your home has for them. Also, if you have kids or pets (and I know how difficult this can be) try your best to keep the toys organized and contained for showings. If you have an abundance of personal photos through your home, consider minimizing them to a small tasteful amount.  This is also an excellent time to start packing away stuff you don’t often use. Your moving anyway right? Good. So go ahead and get rid of the clutter!

Small fixes: I sometimes recommend sellers to try and see their home witha very critical eye. Little fixes can really go a long way, i.e. touching up paint, repairing any holes, cleaning carpets, etc. In my experience with buyers, some common cosmetic complaints I hear concern wall paper, paint, and flooring. To try and appeal to the largest amount of buyers as you can… neutral colors are best. Go for warm beige, not white. Paint is an inexpensive way to update a space, so if you have a unique or funky color on the wall, a fresh coat of neutral colored paint will go a long way. Wallpaper turns a lot of buyers off as well. Buyers can be very picky and might not want to or have the time to remove it, not to mention it can date your home. So again, a little time here to remove it beforehand can remove these objections.

Here’s a helpful link from realtor.org that I love with more ideas on getting your home ready for sale:

http://www.realtor.org/library/library/fg303

If you are thinking about listing your home for sale in the Bucks, Montgomery or NE Philadelphia area, please feel free to drop me a note. I would be happy to provide a more personalized and comprehensive plan. I realize that in the world of decorating and staging some people are more talented than others so if you need a little help, an aesthetically gifted friend or Realtor can be most helpful.

Happy Selling, here’s to a great Spring Market!

Move In or Move On

This post is inspired by what I call: The Slam Dunk Buyer. These fascinating phenoms are the determined and decisive buyers who see a property they like, write an offer and move forward with the purchase of their dream home. This is All in their first time out looking.

The large majority of buyers, in my experience, will exhaust themselves in the pursuit of the perfect house.  Looking at hundreds of homes in person and online and carefully calculating budgets, statistics, square footage and anything else you can crunch.  Not to say that they haven’t considered what’s important i.e. price, location and otherwise, they just now what they want and come prepared. As a slightly indecisive individual, I am so fascinated by the Slam Dunk Buyers.

So the question is how far are you willing to go to get what you want? If you’re not in the business and you never bought a home you might be surprised to realize how exhaustive the process can be.  An offer consists of far more than just an offer price. There are all types of negotiable terms like settlement dates, good faith deposits and the inclusion or exclusion of personal property. Then there are contingencies on mortgages, inspections, appraisals and home sale contingencies. I am probably missing a few but after this week, I could probably write a few chapters on the home sale contingencies alone. In a nutshell there are basically 3 different types of home sale contingencies and they are as follows:

1.       Sale and Settlement contingency: This means you have to sell your current home before you can settle on the next. Here, you are basically asking the sellers to kindly take their home off the market while you try and sell yours. Rarely is this acceptable in today’s market.

2.       Sale and Settlement Contingency with the Right to Continue Marketing: much as it sounds, you can get the home under agreement but basically someone else can come along and “steal” the property from under you while you are still trying to sell your current home. Sometimes it works out but it can be risky.

3.       Settlement Contingency: the most commonly accepted of the bunch. Your home is sold and you’re ready to buy. Your offer is contingent on just the settlement of your property. What happens when the seller doesn’t accept this?

Unless you can remove this contingency, your options are offer more, beg, write them a letter (send them an email after doing a comprehensive search online for their email address)?  Okay OK I don't necessarily recommend that last one but the question you need to ask yourself is if it is worth pursuing, figure out how much you are willing to pay and even then the sellers may still say no.  Inspired by my clients this week, I learned that you either can try to move in or move on. If your best offer was not accepted and you did absolutely everything you could, then... as the saying goes…it just wasn’t meant to be.