Archive for the 'Sellers' Category
Selling Your House in a Slow Market
June 19th, 2008 categories: Sellers
The Pittsburgh real estate market is in better shape than many other cities, but all of you home sellers out there may still want to read U.S. News & World Report’s 5 Tips for Selling a House in a Slow Market.
Here’s a quick summary of the five tips. Read the full article for more details.
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Make repairs
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Price appropriately
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Use an experienced agent
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Make your home available for showing
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Counter “low ball” offers
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Alternative Storage Solution for Homeowners
June 9th, 2008 categories: Around the House, Sellers
Have you seen these boxes popping up in neighborhoods? In case you’re wondering what they’re all about, the myway Mobile Storage website says:
“Forget renting a truck, paying for gas, and hauling your stuff to a stationary storage place. That means extra time and extra money! myway has a better mobile storage solution. We will bring our SafeBox storage containers to you. SafeBoxes are mobile storage units that you fill up at your own pace. We pick them up whenever you are ready. We will store your items in our state-of-the-art Security Hub storage facility. This climate controlled storage building will keep your items safe and secure. Whenever you want them back, let us know! You can schedule a redelivery at anytime.”
If you’re selling your house and want to get some of the clutter out of view from potential buyers (which is always a good idea!), maybe this is something you should consider. If anyone has used this service, let us know what you think of it.
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5 Things to Check Out after Listing Your House
June 4th, 2008 categories: Sellers
#1 - Pictures: Find your house on the Internet using your agent’s website and see how it looks to the rest of the world. Most realtors are not professional photographers but can take pictures that honestly portray your home, attracting buyers. It’s important to avoid:
- photos that are too dark
- rainy day photos
- people in the pictures
- lots of personal things
- pictures taken from inside the agent’s car with a camera phone
- photo trickery, it can be a real disappointment to the potential buyer
Check out some pretty bad photos featured on our blog.
#2 - Map: The listing should have a map. Check it out; you don’t want agents or customers to skip looking at your house because the map is missing or pointing to the wrong location.
#3 - Multiple Listing Details: These details are what can make someone dismiss or desire to look at your home. Have your agent give you a printout and check it closely, to be sure all the details are correct.
#4 - Directions: Somewhere on the listing should be directions on how to get to your house originating from a major, well-known point. Just check it out and make sure buyers are being directed correctly.
#5 - The Internet: Try various different ways to find your house on the Internet. More people start looking for homes on the Internet than any other media. If you can’t find it, then buyers probably can’t either.
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Little Pink Houses for You and Me…
June 2nd, 2008 categories: Around the House, Sellers, South Side
This house on the South Side has been beautifully renovated on the inside, but would the exterior paint color keep you from seeing it?
There are many factors involved in marketing and selling your home, and you can’t control most of them. But the curb appeal of your home plays a big role, and it’s one of the things you can have direct control over.
You’ll never get another chance to make a first impression of how your home looks from the street. If your home exterior needs new paint, or you made a poor color choice, potential buyers might not even get out of their car to come in and look.
Color can certainly make your house stand out in a crowd, but neutral colors appeal more to the masses and can give you better resale value. If you need a dramatic touch to make your house memorable, try being creative when painting the front door. That’s easy for a buyer to repaint if he or she doesn’t share your love of bright colors.
So does color really matter? When there’s a lot of inventory, buyers can afford to be extra picky and then pink could be a negative factor after all. What do you think?
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Increase Your Home’s Value for under $100
May 28th, 2008 categories: Around the House, Sellers
Here are HGTV’s tips for adding value to your home without spending a lot of money:
Tip 1: Spend an hour with a pro.
Invite a realtor or interior designer over to check out your home. Many realtors will do this as a courtesy, but you’ll probably have to pay a consultation fee to a designer. A standard hourly fee is normally less than $100, and in an hour they can give you lots of ideas. Even small suggested improvements, such as paint colors or furniture placement, can go a long way toward improving the look and feel of your home.
Tip 2: Inspect it!
Not every home improvement is cosmetic. Deteriorating roofs, termite infestation or outdated electrical systems — you can’t fix it if you don’t know it’s broken. Hire an inspector to check out the areas of your home that you don’t normally see. They may discover hidden problems that could negatively impact your home’s value.
Tip 3: Paint, paint, paint.
One of the simplest, most cost-effective improvements of all is paint! Freshly painted rooms look clean and updated — and that spells value. When selecting paint colors, keep in mind that neutrals appeal to the greatest number of people. On average, a gallon of paint costs around $25, leaving you plenty of money to buy rollers, painter’s tape, drop cloths and brushes.
Tip 4: Find inspiration.
An alternative to hiring a designer is to search for remodeling and decorating inspiration in design-oriented magazines, books, TV shows and websites. Simply tear out or print off the ideas you want to try and start your to-do list. Keep it simple — when remodeling on a tight budget, do-it-yourself projects are best.
Tip 5: Cut energy costs.
Many local utility companies provide free energy audits of their customers’ homes. They can show you how to maximize the energy efficiency of your home. An energy-efficient home will save you money now, which can be applied to other updates, and is a more valuable and marketable asset in the long run.
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On-line Shopping for Real Estate
May 16th, 2008 categories: Buyers, Sellers
We all do it with clothing and electronics; some people even purchase vehicles on-line, but real estate?
It’s a great age we live in - the age of technology. Ebay and other on-line retailers have made shopping on a computer virtually effortless. So you purchase a $50 shirt on-line, maybe even a $700 computer, but a $150,000 home? Understand, I realize you are not purchasing homes on-line (although it does happen on eBay), but you ARE eliminating good homes based on pictures and descriptions you are viewing on-line. It’s a bad idea, and here’s why:
Back in the day, homes for sale weren’t available for viewing on-line. Agents will tell you they used to get books weekly with interior specs and black and white exterior photos of homes for sale - black and white, I know, can you believe it? In turn, buyers would do a drive by of the home and be forced to look at the number of rooms and room sizes on the sheet they were provided by their agent - nice color interior pictures weren’t an option. Agents will be the first to admit that on-line home shopping has made their lives easier and it definitely has. What I’m not sure of is the true impact it’s had on the buyer.
Let’s face it, some real estate agents are horrible photographers (just check out my worst MLS photos). Unfortunately for sellers, once a potential buyer views a not-so-good picture of their home it’s immediately thrown on the chopping block. At the same time, many agents are excellent photographers and can make a crappy little house look like a palace. How many times have you seen, let’s say, a sweater on eBay that looked beautiful and you just had to have it. You know where I’m going with this right? Your package comes and the sweater is something you wouldn’t let your dog sleep on! The same goes for real estate. Not that you would see a house on-line and make an offer sight unseen, but I can’t tell you how many clients call me and say ‘I just saw this house on-line I have to have, it’s perfect’. To be let down when we get there, as it isn’t nearly as perfect as it appeared in the photos. At the same time, a lot of times buyers immediately rule out properties due to really bad photos.
Not only are some agents bad photographers, some are also bad at selling a property. By ’selling’ I mean describing the positive features of a home. The one thing they do get right? Room dimensions. When looking at homes on-line, don’t just check out the photos, check out the room sizes. If you’re not good at visualizing room sizes, measure out the size of the rooms compared to room sizes where you are currently living.
One of my recent buyers was adamant about not looking at a house I thought would be perfect for her and her family. She told me she saw it on-line and didn’t like it (it was also on the market for a while because it was overpriced to start out - check out my article “Selling Your Home in Today’s Real Estate Market“). I literally forced her to see this house. We walked in and she instantly fell in love! She began raving about the room sizes and number of bathrooms. I asked her if she even read the info sheet I emailed to her - no, she just looked at the pictures.
Do yourself a favor and look at ALL of the information you’re given. In addition to seeing some ugly pictures, you may be pleasantly surprised with what you will find.
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Improve the Odds of Selling Your Home
May 5th, 2008 categories: Sellers
Whether your home is in Mt. Lebanon, Peters Township or the South Side, what can you do to improve your chances of selling? Here’s a short list of the most common seller mistakes, things you should NOT do:
#1 - Hiring an agent based on the list price he or she suggests. A better practice: interview agents, hire someone, and then together work to establish the value of the home and work out a pricing strategy from there. It’s fine to discuss pricing with the agents you interview, but do not choose your agent based on pricing, but rather on references, marketing, negotiation ability, experience, and other criteria.
#2 - Pressuring your agent to tell you what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. One key job a real estate agent has is to provide you with objective input on your home, both at the time the listing is signed and as the feedback comes in and the market conditions possibly change. Ultimately, only you can assign the list price on your home. Allow your agent to provide you with objective input so that you can make a good decision.
#3 - Believing the market data doesn’t apply to your home. If all the other homes in the area have gone down in sales price, it’s also true that your home has gone down in value in the buyers’ eyes. Holding on to what the home “used to be worth” is not going to assist you in getting your home into the minority pool of homes that are selling now.
#4 - Not utilizing your agent’s skills. This applies to pricing, of course, but also to staging, garnering feedback, analyzing the market, etc. For example, if your agent tells you there’s a problem with the way buyers view your home, take it seriously. You will improve your odds by taking the feedback as useful input and not as an insult.
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How Was Mt. Lebanon’s Spring Selling Season?
May 2nd, 2008 categories: Buyers, Mt. Lebanon, Sellers, Sold Property Statistics
We have been pretty fortunate in Mt. Lebanon to not have been affected by the housing market downturn like most of the other real estate markets in the nation.
This mostly has to do with the world class school district, the neighborhood’s proximity to downtown Pittsburgh, and the strong sense of pride in the community.
Side note - I am originally from Toledo, OH and moved to Pittsburgh for college. After graduating, I took a job at PNC and have lived in Pittsburgh ever since - but have been a Lebo resident for the last 6 years.
I still find it amazing the number of people who grew up in Mt. Lebanon, moved away for college and/or their first job, but move back once they start having kids. It’s a great testimony to the ”livability” of the area.
Anyways - you always hear that the spring market is the best time of year to sell your home. Well now that summer is just around the corner, it would be a good time to look at this year’s Spring real estate statistics compared to the last few years.
From January 1st through May 1st in Mt. Lebanon, there were 102 single family homes that sold. The average sale price was $215,700. The most expensive home that sold was for $840,000 (a beautiful home in Mission Hills) and the least expensive was $52,288 (a 3 Bedroom, 1 Bath bank foreclosure on Martin - what a deal!).
But how does that compare to the same time period in years past? Well here you go…..
2007 - 114 Sold, $230,250 average purchase price, $871k was the most expensive, & $89k was the least expensive
2006 - 133 Sold, $215,500 average purchase price, $960k was the most expensive, & $71,250 was the least expensive
2005 - 113 Sold, $208,600 average purchase price, $625k was the most expensive, & $88.5k was the least expensive
So we have fallen back a little in units sold and the average sold price to 2006 levels - but still not bad compared to most of the national major metropolitan markets.
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Which Mt. Lebanon Houses Sold in April?
May 1st, 2008 categories: Buyers, Mt. Lebanon, Sellers, Sold Property Statistics
In Mt. Lebanon, 31 houses sold during the month of April:
| Address | List Price | Sold Price |
|---|---|---|
| 136 Jefferson Drive | $899,900 | $840,000 |
| 951 Osage Road | 649,900 | 615,000 |
| 1400 Terrace Drive | 459,900 | 453,000 |
| 650 Ridgeview Drive | 490,000 | 435,000 |
| 184 Longuevue Drive | 389,900 | 376,625 |
| 217 Valley Park Drive | 298,800 | 285,000 |
| 216 Vee Lynn Drive | 309,900 | 276,640 |
| 1321 Washington Road | 279,900 | 276,000 |
| 34 Brucewood Drive | 289,900 | 270,000 |
| 849 Eisenhower Drive | 249,900 | 247,400 |
| 116 Seminole Drive | 259,900 | 245,000 |
| 853 Macarthur Drive | 235,000 | 227,000 |
| 1325 Washington Road | 229,900 | 225,000 |
| 923 Ruth Street | 224,900 | 221,000 |
| 386 Tampa Avenue | 189,900 | 188,000 |
| 389 Orchard Drive | 179,900 | 169,000 |
| 340 Jonquil Place | 168,900 | 158,000 |
| 915 Margaretta Avenue | 149,900 | 151,900 |
| 1340 Sylvandell Drive | 139,900 | 143,170 |
| 731 Vermont Avenue | 144,900 | 139,900 |
| 412 Fruithurst Drive | 138,500 | 138,200 |
| 456 Broadmoor Avenue | 145,000 | 130,000 |
| 261 Broadmoor Avenue | 128,900 | 125,000 |
| 376 Tampa Avenue | 124,900 | 120,000 |
| 212 Adeline Avenue | 125,000 | 118,500 |
| 683 Oxford Boulevard | 119,000 | 114,400 |
| 210 Martin Avenue | 119,900 | 112,500 |
| 834 Vallevista Avenue | 109,900 | 107,900 |
| 407 Duquesne Drive | 84,000 | 85,051 |
| 110 Cedar Boulevard | 94,900 | 77,500 |
| 325 Tampa Avenue | 67,900 | 75,500 |
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Selling Your Home in Today’s Real Estate Market
April 21st, 2008 categories: Mt. Lebanon, Sellers
When people find out I’m a real estate agent the first question they ask me is ‘What can I sell my house for?’ It’s so funny, since most of the time I don’t even know where they live! So naturally I ask were they live, they tell me, and then immediately want me to throw a price tag on their home. I feel so bad for my friend’s brother in law who’s a dermatologist……
Six years ago, my husband and I bought a major fixer-upper on a nice little street in Mt. Lebanon. The homes on the street were modest, but we knew this particular home had great potential. We completely over-invested in this house, which was fine, since we intended to live there for the next five to 10 years. A couple of years later we purchased another fixer-upper for the sole purpose of restoring it and selling it to make a quick profit. Little did we know our precious little puppy would fall in love with the enormous back yard and well, you know how the story goes. This was before we were licensed Realtors, although we knew the market inside and out (and probably better than some of the Realtors). We had an agent friend of ours come to our house to give us a price opinion. We told him the price we were thinking, he laughed and told us we were crazy. After he left, we agreed there was no way we could sell our house for the price he gave - we would absolutely lose our shirts. The visions of our puppy romping and running in the enormous yard were quickly fading. To our benefit, we were inexperienced and hard headed. We had been to an open house a few streets over a week or so prior to the agent’s visit. We believed the house to be very comparable to ours and it was listed (and actually went contingent almost immediately) at a price closer to what we thought ours was worth. We had another agent to our home, told her where we wanted to price it and BOOM two days later it was sold. The moral of the story? Sometimes you just get lucky…..
Anyone who is familiar with the Mt. Lebanon real estate market knows not only do home prices vary by neighborhood and street, they also vary from house to house. Just because your neighbor’s house sold for $450,000 does not make your house worth $450,000. A home’s value is not based solely on square footage or number of bedrooms/bathrooms. The level of finishes and overall decor are what truly entice buyers, even though the only part of the decor that remains is the paint on the walls. And for the love of everything that is holy, will everyone please stop trying to determine a home’s value from information on the county assessment site. Short of inviting the assessment company into your home (although I know some of you did), I promise you the building information is not correct. There is no way for them to determine how many bedrooms and bathrooms you have or the overall value of your home just by measuring the outside walls (you know that’s all they do). At least 96% of the time the listing price of a home will be significantly higher than the assessed value. Check out the assessed value of your home on the site - would you sell it at that price? So why do you expect someone else to sell their home for the assessed value? Don’t lie, you know you all do this!
But I digress, in this ever changing market, having your home priced correctly is critical now more than ever. So how do you price your home correctly? Contact a licensed Realtor. I know I’m contradicting my own story, but we really were the exception and we were VERY lucky. It only takes one buyer, but our home could have easily sat for months, and then it becomes known as ‘that house’. You know, the charming house that has been on the market forever - there must be something wrong with it, right? Not necessarily. Unfortunately, when a home starts out priced too high, a negative stigma becomes attached to it, and it ends up selling for less than what it’s worth. As realtors we tour homes week after week, year after year. We know the market, after all, it IS our job. Some agents I know who have been in the business forever (or so they say), claim to have seen almost every home in Mt. Lebanon - now that’s a lot of homes! Before you list your house for sale by owner and price it well over where it should be priced, contact a Realtor. It will cost you between six and seven percent of your selling price, but it’s well worth it. If you think that’s high, consider what your holding costs are every extra month you own your home. Let your agent deal with the phone calls, scheduling and confusing contracts and let them use their knowledge of the market to accurately price your home. Your Realtor will sell your home for a higher price and in less time than you could yourself. After all, time and money are two things we could all stand to have more of……
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