Archive for the ‘For Sale By Owner (FSBO)’ Category
Boeing 727 Oceanfront Hotel Suite
If you fantasize about living like the Swiss Family Robinson or Tom Hanks in Cast Away, then check out this hotel suite, perched in a rainforest, overlooking a beautiful beach.
The 1965 Boeing 727 airplane, was converted into a two bedroom, two bath hotel retreat at Costa Verde Resort, located in Quepos, Costa Rica. The views must be spectacular, as the plane is perched 50 feet above the beach, on the edge of the Manuel Antonio National Park.
In its former life the plane served passengers at South Africa Air and Avianca Airlines.
One of two master suites with separate baths. Hand carved teak paneling and furnishings throughout.
Do you want more? They’ve got it. The suite has a full kitchenette, flat screen TV’s, terrace with breathtaking ocean views, indoor and outdoor, eating and gathering area’s.
Did we mention the views and gorgeous beach? Awe…a little slice of recycled heaven.
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Unique Silo Home Offers Smart Design & Great Living.
Kudo’s and and a tip of the hat to Gigaplex Architects for their design for a unique, green home in Woodland, UT. The home is comprised of two corrugated metal grain silo’s, providing luxury and good looks for a fraction of the cost of traditional constuction.
The home features 1800 square feet of living space with a sexy, circular interior. The home was sited with a southern exposure to provide natural lighting and solar gains in winter.
The floors are covered with rubber tiles, finished with a shiny finish. Simply, damp mop and go. Rubber tile also allows solar gain into the slab, which assists the radiant heat floor mats in warming the room.
Cool bedroom for the kids or guests.
Kitchen and circular stair case.
Master Bath
Other Green Features and Benefits:
- Design fits in rural or urban settings perfectly, offering an edgy, new technology feel with a touch of the familiar.
- Exterior metal body and rubber floor tiles are made from recycled materials.
- Radiant in-floor heat mats are used to effectively heat the home, along with a propane stove for back up heat.
- The rear second story deck provides shade from the summer sun.
- The house is heated by solar power. The builder pre-wired for extra solar panels, for possible additions to the home in the future.
InfoTube.net loves the creative design and green features of this home. The home is innovative, sexy and smart. In addition, it looks like something peaceful and rural while also being very modern and cutting edge. If you want to learn more about this home, click here to visit the owner’s site. Thank you for stopping by InfoTube.net, a homes for sale and lease FREE website!
Tips for Taking Good Pictures of Your Home
Pictures are crucial in motivating buyers and showcasing your property. In fact, homes advertised with great pictures attract 50 percent more interest and sell much faster than other homes that are poorly marketed.
Taking great pictures of your home is easy for the most novice do-it-yourselfer, if they follow these tips from the pro’s.
- Staging the Shot is Critical: No People and no pets in the picture help the buyer imagine themselves in the room. Flowers always help. Remove all clutter and evidence of anything personal. Move furniture to look good in the picture, even if you don’t live that way.
- Lighting: Turn on all the lights, but leave the fluorescents off because they distort colors. Light candles in the fireplace (shown top left) to punch up ambience. Shoot one exterior shot at twilight (shown below) with all the interior and exterior lights on.
3. Camera Angle: Stand in Corners of the room and aim the shot toward the other corners. The room looks bigger, if there are no more than 2 walls in the picture. Crouch down and take the shot from a kids height (may explain why houses get smaller as we get older) to make any space appear larger. Try to keep the back of the camera parallel to walls or doorways to make the room feel taller.
Thank you for visiting InfoTube.net homes for sale or rent website. If you are serious about selling a home, remember that a picture paints a thousand words and each one should motivate buyer to take a look inside for themselves. If you aren’t using 20 good photo’s in your InfoTube.net home ad, please do yourself a favor, grab your camera and upload some new ones. You will be very glad you did!
Priced Reduced. Who Cares? No One!
PRICE REDUCED. JUST REDUCED. PRICE DROP. PRICE SLASHED. These are the Signs of the Times, but why? Who cares, really?
Although, Realtors love the phrase and evidentally believe it to be a powerful message, PRICE REDUCED, means only one thing…the listing was overpriced. It doesn’t mean it still isn’t.
So, why do Realtors hang banners advertising that a price has been dropped? Do they believe that buyers care that an asking price was reduced from $250,000 to $200,000, if comparable homes in the neighborhood are priced at $175,000?
Maybe, the hoopla is all about the agents themselves. Maybe, it is a secret way of gloating to one another that they finally got their unrealistic seller to drop their price. Woo Hoo, We Were Right.
In any case, I find signs with swinging distress messages very unmotivating, somewhat negative and kind of sad. They are the antithesis of salesmanship. And, when I see these type of signs, my mind immediately conjures images of a stale listing, a probably dated interior, repair issues and a difficult seller.
In my opinion, a good salesperson, who works on behalf of the seller, would post signs that gave buyers important, exciting news about the property. “Seller Financing”, “Zero Down”, “Lowest Price in Area”, ”Free Appliances” or “Special Financing. Positive messages, such as these, are informative and helpful to buyer and seller, alike.
Before Realtor’s spends any more of their hard earned money on negative messages, or homeowner’s allow another one to be posted, I hope they stop and ask themselves, “Why are we doing this and Who really cares???
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Facts about the 2009 Housing Crisis
With all the housing and finance related news these days, it is hard to stay focused on where the real problems are and what specific issues affect the real estate market.
Today, we outline the issues and target in on facts about the specific problems in housing and real estate in the U.S.
- Real estate markets are Local: The University of Virginia studied foreclosures in all 50 states; 35 metro area’s and 236 counties. They found that 85 percent of the lost value in homes occured in only 4 states – Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada.
- Nevada, California, Arizona and Florida rank 1,2,3 and 4 in all foreclosure activity. Combined together, these 4 states account for 55 percent of all foreclosures in the U.S.
- The 4 sunbelt states, representing 55 percent of all foreclosed property, were also the playing grounds of investors, second home buyer’s and “flippers” who rode the out the bubble in search of riches.
- 19 million homes are now vacant in the United States.
- Lenders forecast another 2.5 million home foreclosures before the end of the year.
- The average value of a home today has fallen to less than $170,000, which is now well within the budget of the majority of workers in the country. At the top of the bubble, the average home price in the US was $220,000, and hit $300,000 in California.
- Uptrends: Home sales have increased dramatically in California and Nevada in recent months. Discounts of 50 percent or more are bringing the inventory of unsold homes to their lowest levels since the crash began.
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Warren Buffett Says Inflation is Coming.
In the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting, Warren Buffett, the oracle of Omaha, predicted that inflation will hit the US economy due to the financial crisis. Buffett told shareholders, “I haven’t had my taxes raised. My guess is the ultimate price will be paid by a shrinkage of the value of the dollar”.
If Warren is right, and he usually is, the average person can use his wisdom to profit with a smart real estate investment.
- To invest safely, a home buyer should put 20 percent down and take out a 30 year fixed rate mortgage, locking in an interest rate around 4.5 percent. If you haven’t owned a home over the past 3 years, you can cash in immediately with the $8000 tax credit. When inflation hits, your mortgage costs will remain the same, as your salary increases. This means that you have even more money to save and invest later on.
- If you are currently renting, there is another compelling reason to invest. During periods of inflation, rents will rise. If you don’t own a home, your monthly rent obiligations will soar.
- Another reason to invest in real estate is that during times of inflation, home prices appreciate, if even at a slower pace. History shows that during inflationary periods, real estate appreciation tends to beat inflation by 2-3 percentage points.
- Leveraged assets, such as real estate, outperform other asset classes. Leverage magnifies gains because as your income rises, your debt payments will not. You’ll be able to pay off the mortgage with money that is worth less than it was when you borrowed it.
- With home prices and interest rates hovering at historic lows, now may be the perfect time for investor’s to withdraw the cash they have sitting in savings accounts that is paying only a 2-3percent and buy a piece of property. If you buy a property where the tenant covers the expenses and costs of ownership, then the investor can relax and wait for inflation to move up rents and home prices.
InfoTube.net and Warren Buffett agree that inflation, over the next 5 years, is a sure bet. And, when we get rampant inflation, real estate is the perfect hedge. Throw in low prices, cheap money, ridiculously low returns on cash investments and thousands of dollars in tax savings, and you have a powerful case for buying a home now.
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Zillow Real Estate Application Not Ready for Prime Time
Zillow, a real estate website famous for creating media fanfare and buzz, just made a big announcement about its real estate application for iPhone user’s. From what we hear on the street, home shoppers shouldn’t buy into the hype. User’s in even tech laden San Francisco report that the application is buggy, frustrating, and is so slow, it would test the patience of Job, (or should we say Jobs) himself.
What we’ve Heard on the Street about Using the Zillow App for Real Estate.
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Hours of tinkering with your smart phone are required to get the application to work at all.
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Even in area’s with full cell phone reception, 3G networks are unreliable. After data is finally loaded, users find themselves staring at blank screens, forcing them to start all over.
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Loading a basic map takes over a minute. So, user’s must have a lot of time to waste while househunting.
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No matter what area the user was in, the prices for homes appeared and disappeared at random. Sometimes they would reappear after a while, sometimes they never did.
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A lot of the Property information is outdated or does not display at all.
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Zillow estimates of home value, which they call “zestimates” are unreliable, outdated and data is unavailable for a lot of regions in the country, making this feature nearly worthless for determining sales data.
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There is no feature that allows “bookmarking” of the homes you look up or see. So, tech users will have to write down addresses on a piece of paper or pull an information sheet from an InfoTube or InfoBox, anyway.
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Only properties listed on the MLS by real estate agents appear in searches of Zillow home listings. iPhone user’s won’t see thousands of great properties that are listed for sale by owner, builder or investor, or lender.
While the new Zillow iPhone app maybe a great concept, it is far from being a killer software application for real estate. Unreliable and missing data, coupled with the lack of 3G reception, make using an iPhone to access real estate data a frustrating, hair pulling experience, even for the most diehard tech fan.
Our Conclusion: If you are seriously in the real estate market, forget about using an iPhone or any phone to learn about homes for sale. For true, instant wireless communication, jump out of the car and pull an information sheet from an InfoTube or InfoBox. If you are serious about real estate, sometimes, Low Tech is the Best Tech.
Inspect Home Before the Sale
In yesterday’s InfoTube blog post, we discussed surprises that can arise from a problematic inspection report and ways to negotiate with the buyer to keep the deal alive. Today, we look at pre-home inspections from an offensive position, in hopes seller’s can avoid a “repair request” crisis, after the home is finally under contract.
Reasons to have a Home Inspection before the Sale.
- 1. Pre-Inspections are a Great Selling Point. Providing a Pre-inspection report puts the buyer at ease and gives them confidence that the seller has nothing to hide about the home or its condition. By being upfront, sellers put the Buyer at ease so they can better vizualize themselves living in the home, versus searching for problems at every turn.
- Pre-Inspections Give the Seller a Head’s Up. A home inspection gives sellers the opportunity to fix any necessary repairs and put the house in better condition before the sale. By pre-inspecting, the seller can also address unknown problems with the property that might have resulted in a canceled sale, if a timid or scared buyer discovered them first.
- An Good Offense Beats a Good Defense. When the buyer sends in their inspection team, they may be looking to save money. Often, a bargain shopper will use the inspection report to get a better deal on the house by inflating the costs of repairs or threatening to cancel the contract, if they don’t get their way. By providing a licensed inspection report upfront, sellers deter ‘would be’ re-negotiator’s and increase the chances of a smooth transaction.
- Show and Tell. Ask your home inspector for several copies of your inspection report. Hand the reports out to prospective buyer’s, when they tour the home. The report reflects pride of ownership and handing the report to the buyer keeps your home in the buyer’s mind for a much longer period of time. (The inspector shouldn’t mind the request because it is good for the inspector, too. His name and contact number on is on the report. Even if the buyer doesn’t buy your house, they might call him for their own inspection.)
- Beat the Competition. Buyer’s have heard horror stories about victims who have purchased a money pit and found themselves living in a nightmare of endless bills, contractor’s and life interupting problems. Set your home apart from the foreclosures, short sales and poorly maintained homes on the market and reassure the buyer that your home is a hassel-free home they can be proud to call their own.
In conclusion, while it’s sometimes tempting to cut corners to save money, a home inspection is a worthwhile investment. A pre-inspection lessens the chance of buyer’s remorse, reduces the chance of a surprise or scare, and frequently keeps a deal from falling apart altogether. In today’s buyer’s market, the best defense is a great offense.
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Negotiate a Bad Home Inspection Report.
You thought your home was in good condition, but surprise… the home inspector says otherwise. You have already reduced the house to a rock bottom price to get a sale. This is the first offer you’ve had in months or ever. What can you do to save the deal or should you???
Stay Calm. Don’t Freak Out.
In slow markets, seller’s have every reason to panic when they learn about inspection problems. First, they have no idea how the buyer will react to the report. If the report is really bad, they know it is likely that the buyer will back out of the deal. In the best case scenario, they know that more rounds of negotiations and repair requests lists are back in play. Uncertainity, helplessness and frustration make it easy to freak out, but it is crucial that seller’s stay focused and remain calm.
The first thing the seller must do when they hear about a problem is to keep quiet. They should resist the natural urge to curse the inspector and they should say absolutely nothing, until the buyer presents a request for repairs. Some buyer’s aren’t surprised at all that a home might need some repairs. Also, they may not view the repairs as negatively as the seller does. Best advise is to not borrow trouble. Wait for the report, before jumping to conclusions.
Keep Your Head. Negotiate.
The good news is that if you receive a repair request list, the buyer didn’t walk and they are still interested in the purchase. Plan to review and discuss the list with an open mind. Chat with your Realtor, if you are using one. Talk the situation over with a repair professional. Get bids on big ticket items, before you go back to the buyer, or you agree/disagree to anything on the list.
Many times, seller’s find that they can get repairs done for less than they think. Or, sometimes, the seller can make the repair themselves. If cash flow is a problem, many contractors will agree to wait until the closing to be paid. The goal is to create a win-win atmosphere and don’t hate the messenger, no matter how bad the news is initially.
Reassure the Buyer. Stay Focused on Closing the Deal.
Reassure the buyer that you want to fix any major issues with the house. Get multiple bids from legitimate contractor’s for major repairs. Multiple bids are powerful because many times the buyer (especially the first time buyer) is scared about the costs of future problems, so they increase the numbers a bit. Sometimes, after the see that the repair isn’t urgent or may not be as expensive as they thought, the buyer will relax a bit, setting the stage for better negotiations.
Remember that everything about repair requests is negotiable and the options are endless. The seller can fix all the items on the list, they can agree to fix any real problems and ignore cosmetic issues, they can offer the buyer a cash credit at closing, reduce the sales price, or do absolutely nothing at all, depending on the value of the contract and what they can afford to do.
In Conclusion.
If you receive a bad home inspection, please remain calm and cool headed. Focus on a win-win compromise with the buyer. And, gather all the facts and figures before commenting, if you want to keep the deal alive. In the long run, honest communication is always key and addressing the problems eliminates the likelihood of lawsuits later.
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For Sale By Agent, Owner or Auction. Pro’s and Con’s
The real estate market is currently in a downward state of flux. In 2007, the bottom dropped out, the free fall began and we started rethinking everything we thought we knew about real estate.
Home prices are 40 percent or more off peak in some area’s of the country, so “Real Estate doesn’t always go up.” Selling by Agent or Owner?? Actually, the Banks sold more property last year than either. Dinner conversations now focus on “How can we get rid of this house??” Instead of “Flip this House”. Our worries aren’t about capital gains. Now, we worry that we owe so much, that we can’t afford to sell the house or live in it.
In today’s market, one thing is certain. There is little money to make and every dollar counts. So, if you need to sell, you have 3 options. By Agent; By Owner; By Auction. Should you Pick Door 1, 2, or 3????
By Agent Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s:
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Real estate agents provide a comparative market analysis to justify price strategies and make recommendations about staging, showing and the condition of the property.
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Agents develop a comprehensive marketing program for your property that includes the MLS, photographs, virtual tours, internet website distribution and Open Houses.
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Agents handle the showings, contract negotiations, they offer legal-type advise and they are objective about the property and its condition.
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In a slow market with a lot of inventory, agents may possibly do a better job than a do-it-yourselfer. Many seller’s feel that penny pinching in this market may not be a smart move.
Con’s:
- Costs for brokerage services are extremely high. The typical fee is 6 percent of the sales price of the property. Many seller’s find that after they pay 6 percent of the gross price to the agent, then pay off the mortgage, they have no money left from their sale or worst case, they actually lose money on the home.
- The agent may have little experience. They may be difficult to reach or contact. They may not market your home as you want.
- Agent’s work for their own benefit and may have a conflict of interest with their seller’s. They may advise the seller to price their home for a quick sale, not the best price they can get. And, agents make double the money if they sell their own listing. This means if they have a buyer that is interested in their own listing, they work for the buyer, too, not just the seller paying their fee.
- Agents often give short notice or no notice of showings, which is a problem for busy seller’s. In addition, your listing agent is not the person who will typically show your home. This means that the best features and benefits of your property may not be pointed out.
For Sale By Owner Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s
- The biggest reason to sell your own home is the money. Agent’s fee’s are steep (6-7 percent off the top of the sale) wiping out thousands of dollars in profit from the bottom line. For the average homeowner, real estate commissions erase a huge chunk, if not all, of their entire equity in the home.
- By Owners control their sale. Many seller’s have bought and sold a lot of property in their lives. They know how to price their home, show their home and negotiate the sale better than a stranger could.
- Today, ‘For Sale by Owners’ have the marketing power that agent’s do. Gone are the days that “By Owner” marketing options were limited to throwing up a yard sign, hoping that a buyer stumbles upon it. Sellers now have access to all the tools that agents use to buy and sell property. Homeowners can purchase access to the MLS, Realtor.com, and other major real estate portals for a few hundred dollars, they can have an attorney draft the contract, leaving many to ask “Why pay 6 percent?”.
- FSBO’s have a Price Advantage. They don’t have a 6 percent tarriff to pay on their sale, which gives them an advantage when working with buyer’s or pricing their home below their “listed” competition.
- Many seller’s don’t trust real estate agents. They don’t want to place their most valuable asset in the hands of a commission sales person, who may or may not, be operating in their best interests.
Con’s:
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The biggest problem for ‘by owner’ seller’s is that people love their homes and it is hard to be objective. Emotional attachments make pricing, negotiating and showing the home difficult for a lot of people.
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Seller’s aren’t realistic about the need for a marketing program that will attract enough attention to draw buyers. Agent’s don’t spend money placing property on the MLS, Realtor.com and major websites because they enjoy it. They do it because those are the only methods that work to efficiently reach buyers and sell property. Throwing a sign in the yard or running a classified ad won’t work in this market. If you aren’t willing to use all the marketing tools that the agent’s use, your chances of succeeding are small.
- Showing the Property. If you live out of town, travel for your job or are unable to show the property with little notice, then selling by owner is not a viable option.
- The Work and the Time. When you list with an agent, all the work is done. The marketing, advertising, showing, negotiating, inspections and closing are handled by the agent. When you sell property yourself, you have to be prepared for the work and the time it takes.
For Sale at Auction Pro’s and Con’s
Pro’s:
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It’s Fast and Easy. Property auctions are quick and simple. The entire process only takes about 28-30 days from start to finish.
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Avoid Random Buyer Tours of your Property. When you sell by auction, there are usually one or two days for all buyer’s to tour the property at a set time and date. Seller’s do not have to endure months of random strangers calling to walk thru their home with little to no notice. Other than the posted showing times, seller’s can live normally in their home without having buyers constantly disrupt their lives.
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No Negotiations. Once the gavel falls, the price is set and the deal is over. The frustration of and time wasted on lowball offers, counter offers, repair negotiations are eliminated.
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More Money. The true definition of market value is defined by what a buyer is willing to pay and a seller is willing to sell for. This is the beauty of the auction process. In good markets and good locations, buyer compete for their dream home in real time. Sometimes, the nature and urgency that is created in an auction environment will yield a higher sales price than a listing agent would recommended.
Cons:
- The biggest con is that your home might not sell. Although we picture auctions as busy places, with huge crowds frantically bidding and waving their paddles in the air, that isn’t always the case. In slow markets with a lot of inventory, there are times when few people show up and the auction day is a bust.
- The Final Sales Price: If your opening bid is low and only a few buyer’s show up, you might sell the home for a lot less than you hoped or thought. If you are considering an auction, you may want to set a Reserve Price, which dictates that no sale will occur below X amount of dollars.
- The Buyer may not Meet the Terms. Although auction buyers should be pre-approved, and will forfeit their deposit if they don’t close the deal, deals do fall through, just like in conventional sales. For people who chose auctions for a quick sale, it could be a big issue, if the buyer is unable to meet their closing date.
- The Cost: The cost of an auction is often as expensive as listing with an agent. Sometimes, the seller will owe fee’s to the auctioneer, even if the sale fails to happen or the reserve is not met.
Thank you for visiting InfoTube.net and for looking with us behind doors one, two and three. If you need to sell, the method is your choice. Just consider the pro’s and con’s of all three, considering your lifestyle, budget, time and expertise before you make a final decision.
Pricing Right in Today’s Housing Market
In spite of low interest rates, tax rebates and rock bottom real estate prices, buyer’s feel no great sense of urgency to buy now. Home sales activity has picked up with the onset of spring, but buyer’s are looking primarily for bargains and great deals.
In a slow housing market dominated by bargain shoppers, correct pricing determines which house sells and which one sits on the market. Pricing too high is the kiss of death. Or, price the home too low and risk leaving thousands of dollars on the table.
Home Pricing Strategies for Today’s Market
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3 Factors that Sell Houses: The condition and price of your home are critical factors in its saleablility. They are also factors that the seller can control. The homes that sell have 3 things in common. They are in good locations, they are in good condition and they are priced right for their market.
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Get the Highest Price by Listing for Less than Market Value: Some sellers believe that they can sell their home faster and for more money by listing low to sell higher. They bank on creating multiple offers and giving buyer’s a sense of urgency that the deal is too good to pass up. This strategy does work in hot markets, with limited inventory in ideal locations. It will not work if there isn’t much sales activity in your area or price range. The best strategy for most seller’s is to price the home competitively, but do not set a price below what you will accept, if you don’t receive multiple offers.
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How to Price Your Home Right: In order to sell a home in an unmotivated market, it has to be the best house at the best price. To determine the ideal price, seller’s need to do their homework. Look at new home prices in your area and price below them. If everything is equal, buyer’s will always chose a new home over a used one. Attend Open Houses every weekend to objectively look at your competition and scrutinize the home through the buyer’s eye’s. Access the data for recently sold homes through a real estate agent, online tax databases or your local courthouse. Home Sales data can also be found on websites such as Zillow. Know how much your home is priced per square foot. Price per square foot is the valuation method appraisers use. To determine the average asking price per square foot in your area, divide the asking prices by the amount of air conditioned square footage the home has. Take the average price per foot in your area and multiple it by the square footage in your home to see if you are priced “in the market”. Note: This formula only works in a simplistic way, if lot costs and sizes for comparable homes are similar.
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Marketing is Key in Making the Most Money: There is only one key to selling a home for the most money possible. Comprehensive marketing exposure. Must Do’s: Multiple Listing Service (MLS), Internet advertising with multiple photo’s and Open Houses for the public and real estate agents. The MLS is THE DATABASE of homes for sale. If your home isn’t on the MLS, you are missing millions of buyers, period. An MLS listing is also the only way to expose your home on dozens of high traffic websites. According to Hitwise, the traffic to MLS affiliated websites is around 12 million shoppers every month. Remember it doesn’t matter how great your house is or how low it is priced, if no one can find out that your home is For Sale.
Thank you for visiting InfoTube.net homes for sale website. Start increasing your marketing exposure by taking advantage of a FREE home listing on our heavily trafficked website. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Sellers and Realtors Disagree on Home Pricing
Results from a study just released by HomeGain revealed an ongoing ’tug of war’ between home sellers and real estate agents. According to the survey, 50 percent of homeowners said their houses should be priced 10-20 percent higher than agents have recommended. Conversely, 60 percent of real estate agents reported that prospective buyers are telling them that home asking prices are still too high.
One thing we can learn from this study is that one of these groups is certainly wrong. Either home owners are unrealistic about what their houses are worth or agents are too pessimistic about what the home will sell for.
On one hand, agent’s have more knowledge about the market than the average home seller does and they do talk with buyer’s every day. Yet, real estate agents have an incentive to push prices lower. The lower the price, the faster the sale, the quicker they can ring the cash register and move on to the next deal. So, what should a home seller do???
- Ask 3 real estate agents what they would list your home for. Ask questions and understand the reasoning behind their different price recommendations.
- Know your competition. Check out every house that is for sale in your area, price and size range. Visit Open Houses to verify the condition and ammenities being offered by the competition. Use InfoTubes and InfoBoxes on for sale signs to gain helpful insight about homes for sale in your neighborhood. Explore property MLS listings on Realtor.com.
- Visit New Home Subdivisions. All things being equal, most buyers would chose a new home over a pre-owned home, if everything was equal. Find out how builders are pricing new homes that are similar to yours. Keep in mind that builders also offer thousands of dollars in incentives or special financing, and they include these things in their asking prices. Try to learn everything you can from the builder and deduct the incentives and specials that you can’t match from their asking price to get a realistic look.
- Visit your county property tax database. Most counties provide sales and comparable home information online. Your local taxing department is the final authority about what homes actually sold for.
Remember that homes are selling every day, if they are priced right. While seller’s want to hold out for the best offer, agents want to make quick sales. The real truth about asking versus selling prices lies somewhere in between, so home seller’s need to check their facts, first.
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4 Mistakes Home Seller’s Make
As the spring home selling season approaches, many homeowner’s rush to put their houses on the market. Interest rates are low, tax rebates and sales incentives abound, and home prices are more affordable than they have been in a decade.
But, before you throw the ‘for sale’ sign in the yard, please educate yourself about the common mistakes you should avoid, if you want to sell your home. Decades of real estate experience have proven again and again, that making these mistakes, even once, will stop any sale in its tracks.
- Pricing: Setting an unrealistic price is the biggest mistake home seller’s make. The home MUST be initially priced at or under its competition, or you are simply wasting time and money. Some seller’s toy with the notion of “low balling” their asking price, hoping for bidding wars and a quick sale. While this strategy sometimes works on lower priced property, it doesn’t work in higher price ranges. Buyer’s in a higher price range simply think that the seller is desperate, which always results in even lower offers, not bidding wars. We won’t address overpricing, because there is nothing to say. The truth is no one will overpay for your home, it won’t appraise anyway, so please keep it off the market, until you are ready to be realistic.
- Property Condition: Know as much as you can about the condition of your property, fix everything that will stop a sale, and disclose everything you know about the property condition to the buyer. If you don’t, when the problematic inspection report is revealed, the buyer will cancel the contract and walk. Afterward, the seller will find themselves in a much worse position because they lost momentum, valuable time on the market, and the cancelation signals that something was wrong with the house. The seller will also be required by law to disclose everything found on the prior inspection report, so there is nothing to gain and a lot to lose by hiding the facts.
- Working with Today’s Buyer’s: It is a mistake to not entertain any offer, no matter how low the inital offer is. Buyer’s in this market make low ball offer’s first, to test the desperation of the seller. You will never know what price a buyer may be willing to pay for your home, if you don’t negotiate with them.
- Potentially Unqualified Buyer’s: NEVER get into a contract with a buyer who isn’t financially qualified for a loan. A letter of prequalification is not enough to take a home off the market. First, know who the lender is and require full underwriting approval within days of the acceptance of the offer. Be sure to write this loan approval (not prequalification) provision into your contract. Maintain your Active Listing Status and DO NOT indicate that your home is Contract Pending until the buyer has verifiable loan approval.
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Sales of Second Homes Drop, but Find Out Who Bought and Where
According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the number of people who purchased a vacation or investment home fell by 30 percent last year. And, more than 40 percent of those who did purchase a second home paid cash.
“We expected vacation home sales to fall given the impact of a declining economy”, said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the NAR. “A steady share of investment-home sales results from buyers taking advantage of deeply discounted prices in many areas, with a smaller portion of new homes in the sales mix”, state Yun.
Vacation and second home sales mirrored the sales for primary residences in terms of price declines. The median price of a vacation home dropped to $150,000 in 2008, down from $195,000 (or, 23 percent) from 2007 levels.
Other Findings from the March Survey are:
- Who was the “Average Buyer” of Vacation Property in 2008? The average age of a vacation home buyer was 46 years old. They purchased a property that was generally 316 miles from their primary residence. Their median household income was $97,200.
- Who was the “Average Investment Home Buyer in 2008? The average age of an investment buyer was 47. They earned a median income of about $85,000 and purchased investment property nearby their primary residence. The median distance for an investment purchase was 19 miles from their home.
- What type of Property was purchased for a Vacation Home? 70 percent were detached, single family residences; 18 percent were condo’s; 5 percent town or row houses; 7 percent other.
- Types of Property Purchased for Investment: 64 percent were detached single family homes; 22 percent condos; 8 percent town or row houses; 6 percent other.
- Where did Vacation Home Buyers Shop? 26 percent bought in small towns; 23 percent rural areas; 23 percent resorts; 20 percent suburbs; 8 percent cities or urban areas.
- Where did Investment Buyers Shop? 28 percent purchased in the suburbs; 20 percent in a city or urban area; 23 percent rural area; 8 percent in a small town; 6 percent in resort areas.
Hopefully, the survey results will help home sellers picture who the likely buyer of their vacation or investment property may be. Picturing who the customer is likely to be is important when target marketing to their needs.
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More Home Buyer’s Find Property via the Internet
According to a report by the National Association of Realtors, 32 percent (1/3 of all buyers) of home buyers first saw the home they purchased on the internet. Buyer’s who found their home through a real estate agent dropped 14 percentage points to 34 percent, during the same time period.
Despite the slowdown in the housing market, buyers and sellers have increased their use of the internet when buying or selling a home. “The internet is a very important tool in today’s real estate market”, said Tommi Crow, CEO of Crow Erickson, Inc., the company that manufactures the InfoTubes and InfoBoxes found on real estate signs from coast-to-coast. “Home sellers know that they can use the power of the internet to reach millions of home shoppers as effectively as a real estate agent would”, said Crow, and, they can save themselves thousands of dollars in the process”, said Ms Crow. “Americans are successfully buying and selling real estate without using agents, and that trend continues to grow”.
Home seller’s who want to maximize their online exposure use InfoTube.net, combined with the services of Why 6 Percent. The combination of the two marketing programs provide home seller’s with a home listing on their local MLS, Realtor.com, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Craigslist, Zillow, Trulia, Infotube, Homes for Sale Live and other major web portals, which attract millions of home buyers each month.
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Where a Home Buyer Found the Home Purchased* |
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2001 vs. 2008 |
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Source |
2001 | 2008 | ||
| Real Estate Agent | 48% | 34% | ||
| Internet | 8% | 32% | ||
| Yard Sign | 15% | 15% | ||
| Friend, Relative or Neighbor | 8% | 7% | ||
| Home Builder or their Agent | 3% | 7% | ||
| Print Newspaper Ad | 7% | 3% | ||
| Directly from Sellers / Knew the Sellers | 4% | 2% | ||
| Home Book or Magazine | 2% | 1% | ||
| Other | 3% | N/A | ||
* Source: National Association of Realtors
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