Real Estate: Selling a traditional home in today’s market
If you are selling your home as a traditional resale be prepared. The competition is stronger than ever before, especially for a traditional home sale. The competition is made up of “short-sales” and foreclosures. Although, the inventory of these distressed properties are diminishing at a steady rate they are still in competition with traditional home sales and will be for at least the next year.
So you need to sell your home or you want to sell and are not able to wait. A comprehensive marketing plan is the key to successfully selling a home during the current buyers market. There are two things that sell a home in today’s real estate market place. The first is price and the second is value.
A home that is priced right means the property is priced at the current market. Home owners always want to get the most out of the property; however you need to understand that in order to actually sell a property in 79 percent of the transactions it must appraise for the contract amount. If it does not appraise for the contract amount, the seller or buyer must come out of pocket for the difference. If that does not happen the sale of that property won’t close because the bank will not loan more than the appraised value amount and in some cases only 75 to 80 percent of the home appraised value.
The second element is obtaining value to potential buyers. To attract potential buyers you need a robust marketing strategy. This strategy needs to include at minimum a virtual tour and property website. The virtual tour allows potential home buyers to see the property in greater detail in a 2 3 minute tour. My virtual tours are syndicated with ten of the top Real Estate sales websites (Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, etc.) and get a an average of 400 views per week, which is forty times more views than they get on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Additionally property websites allows potential buyers to see up to 70 pictures, versus the 10 the MLS allows and get a more detailed description because MLS only allows 1000 characters. The MLS system is excellent and was originally designed, back when they were a printed paper book, as a listing book for Real Estate Professionals. Even today, to have access to a MLS you need a Real Estate professional license, so they serve their purpose and the local one is very good, but obviously limited because there are thousands of listings on it. The personal property websites are getting nearly 60 views per day, or 450 per week. With these two tools my listings get 850 views per week nationally and internationally. Additionally there are another 200 500 views of the properties through the many different websites used.
Finally the unique value comes from the home being prepared for sale. Small maintenance issues should be addressed and corrected. The home should be “staged” for sale. I provide all of my listing clients with a great video called “123 Get it Sold” which is a DVD with a Realtor and Designer together and gives great ideas and tips to get your home staged. Simple things we look past every day make a difference when showing a property. If a home is “turn key” that is added value for potential buyers.
There are two properties with the same floor plan in the same neighborhood, one is a foreclosure and one a traditional resale home. The foreclosure is $100,000 but needs about $20,000 to make the dwelling livable and to repair some maintenance issues. The resale home is $135,000 but is “turn key” with fresh paint, totally staged, and move in ready which one will the client pick? The Real Estate professional will leverage the value of the home being “turn key”. One thing I always warn clients on when looking at distressed properties is the potential for “other unseen issues”. What I mean is air conditioning, roof, etc. Ironically enough the same is true for a resale home that is not kept up and shows poorly. Potential buyers will question the “unseen” issues like the AC and roof.
Remember that resale homes are selling right now so if you really want to or have to sell it is possible. With a robust marketing plan, priced at the market and a great looking home that will show well, these homes are selling as fast as the distressed properties.
(ITALICS) Jason M. Jakus is a licensed realtor for Leisure American Realty, a full service Real Estate and Property Management company serving the beaches and surrounding areas of Lee County. Their office is located at 2450 Estero Blvd., Fort Myers Beach FL 33931. For more information on this or any other real estate or property management subject contact Jason at 239-463-3178 or email RealtyInfo@LeisureAmerican.com.