Selling

Trouble Selling Your Home? Try Sweetening the Deal

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:31:13 EST

Trouble Selling Your Home? Try Sweetening the Deal If you're having trouble landing a buyer for your home, maybe you need better bait.

A soft real estate market is a lot like the breakfast cereal aisle at the supermarket. Suppose you have two virtually identical boxes of corn flakes. They both offer the same nutritional value, similar taste and can be had for the same price, but, if you had to choose, chances are your hand would gravitate towards the box that that has the Secret Decoder Ring inside.

Crafty home sellers know incentives are the prize at the bottom of the box. By offering buyers something a little different, they can improve their chances of selling their homes quickly and for the price they want.

Here are just a few of the ways home sellers can sweeten the deal with extras.

Cover the buyer's closing costs
Many buyers, preoccupied with saving enough cash for their down payment, overlook their closing costs which, at between 3 and 6 percent of the sale price, can amount to several thousand dollars extra. Offering to pay them on behalf of potential buyers may be just the push they need to close the deal.

Help the buyer get a better mortgage rate
Another potential deal sweetener is to offer to purchase discount points on the seller's mortgage. Discount points are purchased up front in order to secure a lower interest rate on a mortgage -- the more that are purchased, the lower the rate. In most cases, one point is equivalent to one percent of the loan amount and will reduce the interest rate by .25 percent.

Discount points may make your home more attractive to buyers in that their monthly payments over the life of the mortgage will be lower. Plus, it enables you to advertise your home with the offer of "below market financing," which may draw in more potential buyers.

Throw in some freebies
If you're planning to purchase new furniture, appliances, curtains or light fixtures for your new place and the ones at your current home are in good condition, try including them as value-adds in your purchase agreement. This works particularly well with first-time homebuyers who may not have much furniture of their own. Plus, leaving some things behind may even reduce the overall cost of your move.

If you don't want to part with any of your possessions or fixtures, another low-cost incentive is to include a home warranty. Offered through insurance companies for around $400 (depending on the extent of coverage), home warranties are contracts that cover the cost of replacing or repairing major appliances that break during the first year after the sale of the home. Plumbing, electrical and heating systems may also be included under the home warranty.

Other attractive incentives that may lure buyers in are gift certificates, golf club memberships, airline tickets and even cars. These types of incentives do cost money, but they can go a long way in helping to get your home listing noticed. You may also consider offering them to your real estate agent as an added incentive to finding a buyer.

Overcome objections or problems
A less glamorous but often equally effective tactic to help close a sale is to offer to rectify any concerns a potential buyer may have with your property. Something as simple as offering to repaint the front steps, re-sod the lawn or adjust the move-in date might push a potential buyer off the fence. You can either offer to make the improvements yourself or to include a renovation allowance in your purchase agreement.

Real Estate Listing Photos: Where to Draw the Line

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:30:35 EST

Real Estate Listing Photos: Where to Draw the Line A good listing photo can go a long way in helping you sell your home. Just don't make it too good to be true.

The Internet is rapidly becoming the preferred tool for homebuyers searching for the perfect house. In a recent survey conducted by the National Association of REALTORS®, over 80 percent of home buyers polled said they'd hunted for a home online, and 25 percent said they found the home they eventually purchased via the Web.

Since the Internet is primarily a visual medium, listing photos have become more important than ever. A poorly lit photo or an unflattering angle can sometimes mean the difference between a click-through and a scroll-past. So, in an effort to make their homes look as visually appealing as possible, some sellers and real estate agents have taken to digitally altering their listing photos.

Ethical considerations
There is some debate in the real estate industry as to how just how much retouching of listing photos is too much, or even if the process is ethical at all. Currently, there are no hard-and-fast rules governing the manipulation of real estate photos. However, there's a general acceptance of some alteration so long as the physical attributes of the house and property are not distorted.

It could even be argued that a little photo retouching has become accepted as part of the marketing process. But while we may consider it OK for a model in a magazine ad to be air brushed to remove certain imperfections, we expect the products the model is promoting to be portrayed accurately.

Minor touch-ups
Photo editing can be extremely helpful if the seller's photography skills are limited or if the photos were taken at a time of day or year that isn't particularly flattering. With a few clicks, you can adjust the lighting, change the contrast, eliminate shadows and crop the frame (this is especially handy if you've accidentally shot too much of the sky or the ceiling). These sorts of adjustments don't misrepresent what the house actually looks like.

More advanced photo manipulations involve changing the sky from overcast to sunny, tinting brown grass a more appealing shade of green or removing power lines or distant treetops from the background. In most cases, this is considered acceptable; the house itself remains untouched and will look pretty much the same in real life as it does on-screen.

Intentional misrepresentation
Photo retouching could negatively impact a sale if a potential buyer feels that they've been intentionally misled. A heavily altered photo may make the buyer wonder if there's anything else that's been misrepresented about the home.

It's never advisable to alter a photo in a way that would give an incorrect impression of the house that is for sale. Changing the exterior color, adding or removing elements such as TV antennas or shrubbery, or altering the position of neighbors' houses to make them appear further away, could come off as direct misrepresentation to potential buyers. Also, if a photo is edited to, say, delete a dead tree from the yard, a potential buyer may expect the tree to be removed before agreeing to the sale.

Professional help
The best way to make your house look great in photographs is to hire a professional photographer to take your real estate snapshots for you. Most real estate agents will offer to either take photos of your house themselves or arrange to have a photographer who specializes in home listing photos do it for you. A real pro will take many shots from multiple angles, both inside and out, to ensure you get images that make your home look its best.

Will a Home Warranty Help Your House Sell?

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:30:14 EST

Will a Home Warranty Help Your House Sell? Give yourself a marketplace edge by offering buyers peace of mind.

Which home would you rather buy? One that offers you no protection if the furnace, air conditioner, dishwasher, plumbing or garage door opener go kaput, or one with a home warranty that gets the problem fixed for less than $100?

Most buyers would select door No. 2, so it's easy to see why many sellers are making a home warranty part of the deal. It's almost standard in some markets, according to industry experts.

Offering buyers guaranteed, low-cost repairs is especially valuable in a slow housing market. In some cases the warranty will give you an edge over other properties; in other cases home warranties are expected, and not offering one might cause buyers to reject your home outright.

"It's one more benefit that the seller can offer," said Kathy Aymard, manager of the Annapolis, Md., office of Prudential Carruthers REALTORS®, which is affiliated with RealEstate.com. Home warranty coverage costs a few hundred dollars, but what you're offering buyers is peace of mind for their first year in the home.

"Most buyers don't have a whole lot of extra cash when they get in the house" after coming up with a down payment and paying for a move, Aymard said. Under a home warranty, repairs are covered, with the new owner paying a small deductible - generally $30 to $75, depending on the policy.

A good listing agent should suggest offering a warranty, Aymard said. Her office considers it so important that its listing services include providing a warranty.

She cautioned that home warranties won't cover pre-existing conditions. In other words, a seller who knows he has a plumbing leak and buys a warranty with the intention of having it fixed under the policy, she said. Likewise, a problem caught during the pre-sale inspection should be repaired before closing.

Indeed, the offer of a home warranty does not mean that a buyer should forego a home inspection. Although the buyer bears the cost of the inspection, it's critical to have a qualified home-inspection specialist give the home a thorough once over before you sign on the dotted line at closing.

Keep in mind that purchasing a home warranty for the buyer doesn't get you off the hook for making repairs before putting your home on the market. You'll still need to patch and clean and paint and do whatever you can to get your home in showcase condition.

However, sellers can purchase a home warranty while the home is on the market to protect themselves against unexpected repair costs, then transfer the warranty to the buyer. Several companies offer home warranties. Ask your real estate professional for recommendations if he or she doesn't suggest the warranty as part of their services.

"I don't know that a warranty by itself sells a house, but a warranty is a benefit" to the buyer, Aymard said, noting, "If the seller's not offering it, the buyer ought to get it anyway."

Pros and Cons of Open Houses

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 09:30:14 EST

Pros and Cons of Open Houses Internet tours are great, but an old-fashioned open house can still get your house noticed.

Open houses once were the preferred way to get as many possible buyers' eyes as possible on your home. You'd frantically clean, mow and trim ahead of the big event, then leave the house for the day as your real estate agent stayed behind to show people through the home in hopes of bagging a sale.

But the open house is losing favor among many real estate professionals, who argue it's a time-wasting exercise that rarely results in an offer on the house.

Virtual whole-house tours on the Internet now serve the same purpose as an open house by giving potential buyers a first look at the property, they argue - and no one has to sit in the house all day waiting for viewers who might or might not be serious buyers.

Even some sellers have jumped on the anti-open house bandwagon, saying most of the people coming through are just nosy neighbors curious about the home's interior.

Other real estate professionals say they still see benefits to open houses.

"I always think it's worth having an open house, especially now with the market softer than it was," said Coral May, vice president for business development at Prudential Carruthers REALTORS®, a RealEstate.com-affiliated brokerage in the Washington-Baltimore metropolitan area.

"Open houses create activity," added May, whose office is in Fairfax, Va. "Builders are still building models, furnishing them and selling them, so people do go to open houses. Some of the old standbys still apply."

Kathy Aymard, manager of Prudential Carruthers' Annapolis, Md., office, says the effectiveness of an open house depends in part on location. It's difficult to get people to an open house in a rural area, but one on a popular street might have a lot of visitors, she said.

Open houses are more successful when they are well marketed, Aymard added. Targeted e-mail "blasts" to other agents working in the area and invitations to neighbors can generate traffic, she said. Neighbors sometimes know someone interested in buying in the neighborhood. "It's also a nice way to say 'This home is on the market' and letting other agents know about it."

Aymard acknowledged that open houses were more important selling tools before the Internet and other technology-based marketing. It remains a way to get people in the house, though.

"Most houses don't get a contract because of an open house, but it can be a nice way of introducing the home to the market and getting some chatter," she said.

Not all open houses are for buyers. Agents also host open houses for other real estate professionals, providing some incentive like a catered lunch. "It's very effective. They're not expected to bring buyers, so you have time to sit down and talk about the house," Aymard said.

Showing the home to other agents increases its exposure exponentially, because each agent now knows about the house and can show it later to their own clients.

Added Aymard: "The most important thing for sellers to do is to have a really strong, good listing agent and trust they know how to sell the house."

Finding a REALTOR® to List Your Home

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 09:01:32 EST

Finding a REALTOR® to List Your Home Asking the right questions can help you choose the right REALTOR® to sell your home.

Finding a REALTOR® to look out for your best interests can make the difference between getting a good offer and a great offer. The questions below can set you on the right path for finding your REALTOR®.

1. Are you a disclosed dual agent?

This term means the REALTOR® is allowed to act on behalf of both the person selling the home and the buyer. This can be a conflict of interest in that the price and deal may be good for one party but not the other. Hire a REALTOR® who will represent only you. That way, you may avoid some lowball offers.

2. Can you provide me with references?

Ask for at least three references from satisfied customers who have sold homes in a similar price range in your area. And don't just get the list -- be sure to call all the names for a chat.

3. What are your professional qualifications?

Look for someone who works as a full-time REALTOR® and is a licensed real estate agent. REALTORS® are real estate professionals who belong to the National Association of REALTORS®. They subscribe to a strict code of ethics and are committed to ongoing education in the real estate industry.

4. Are repeat or referral clients a large part of your business?

A list of satisfied customers is a sign of success.

5. What's the average length of time the homes you've listed have been on the market?

If it takes too long to sell, a house may be overpriced. A reasonable time frame is 90 to 120 days. Beware of agents who might deliberately give high listing prices just to sign new clients.

6. What's the average difference between the asking and the selling price of the homes you list?

If the prices are close, the agent did a good job of setting the listing price.

7. How many properties have you listed over the past six months?

Look for a REALTOR® who typically lists one or two homes a month.

8. How many of these homes have sold?

It's a good idea to choose a REALTOR® that sells all or most of the homes he or she lists.

9. In what areas of my city do you normally work?

If you are interested in a particular area, look for someone who knows it well. Such REALTORs® will have expertise in finding just what you want -- they will also have good contacts with other REALTORs® and will be familiar with prices in your region.

10. How much will this cost?

Most REALTORs® are paid by commission, often 4 to 6 percent of the selling price and, in most parts of the country, they are paid by the seller. However, there may be other fees and administrative costs, so ask.

11. How will you arrive at a listing price?

The REALTOR® will recommend a listing price based on an up-to-date market analysis of your area. This will focus on recently sold homes that are similar in size, style and features to yours. The accuracy of the listing price is important because you can discourage those potential buyers who have higher or lower budgets from seeing it. It's also a good idea to specify in the listing agreement that offers will only be accepted from buyers who have been pre-approved for a loan.

12. Are you my only contact?

A team effort may help sell your home because REALTORs® often have more than one client. A REALTOR® with many listings may hire people to handle some of the administrative work, for instance. Nevertheless, your REALTOR® should be the only one to show your home, negotiate the sale and handle the transaction. If your REALTOR® is planning to be away in the near future, make sure you meet and are happy with the REALTOR® who will be filling in during that time.

13. How often will I hear from you?

A daily telephone call, fax or e-mail is not unreasonable. Some offices have software that automatically notifies you whenever someone tours your home. Your REALTOR® should let you know about every tour of your home and give you feedback from potential buyers or their agents.

14. What are your sales tactics?

There are many strategies for attracting buyers both from your area and from far away. Your REALTOR® should write up a listing of your home, perhaps with a picture, to put on the local and national Multiple Listing Service. The Internet has become very important in marketing real estate. As well, he or she will hold an open house for REALTORs®, a few public open houses on weekends, plus by-appointment tours of your home for prospective buyers. A detailed property fact sheet with specific information about your home and any improvements should also be available.

15. What will the listing agreement cover?

Most contracts name the beginning and end dates, and these should be negotiable. Giving a REALTOR® three to six months to sell your home is reasonable. REALTORs® cannot guarantee they will sell your house within a given period of time because the real estate market is often affected by factors outside his or her control.

16. What can I do to boost my selling price?

Your REALTOR® should offer advice on what you can do to make your home more attractive to potential buyers. For example, this could mean painting your bright red foyer a more subdued neutral shade, making some minor repairs or clearing out your clutter. Fresh flowers in the living room are also a nice touch, as is the smell of fresh baking in the kitchen.

Remember, the quicker you get your asking price, the sooner you can move on to your new life in your new home.