Home Seller Information

Should you take your home off the market during the Holidays?

November 30th, 2008 categories: Home Seller Information

Every year around Thanksgiving, I will be asked by one of my sellers if they should take their home off the Spring Texas real estate market during the Holidays.

My answer is “It depends”. If your reason for selling is because of lifestyle, your time frame is flexible, and you do not want to be inconvenienced with showings during the holidays, then my answer is “go ahead and take your home off the market”.

If you have your home on the real estate market for ANY OTHER reason, then my answer is “keep it on the market”.

Yes, it is true there are less buyers viewing homes during the holidays. But the buyers are more motivated and less “lookers”.

So before you decide to take your home off the Spring Texas real estate market for the Holidays, consider these reasons for keeping it on:

Not all buyers celebrate the same Holidays. It may be the Holidays for you but not for the buyers of your home.
Your Holiday decorations increases your home’s curb appeal.
Employers relocate their employees during all months of the year. Not just the Spring and Summer months.
The Spring Texas weather during November and December is still very pleasant. Rarely and I do mean rarely do we have snow. Its a great time for buyers to be out viewing homes.
Buyers have a little more time during the Holidays to view homes because they have vacation days that have to be used before the end of the year.
There are fewer homes on the real estate market. Translating into less competition and increasing your home’s probabilities of selling.

Now I wish I could tell you with 100% certainty that if you keep your Spring Texas home on the market during the Holidays, you will be given the gift of a buyer. But unfortunately I can not.

What I can tell you with 100% certainty is if your home is NOT on the market it WILL NOT SELL. This I know.

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: 1 Comment »

Where are buyers searching for Spring Texas homes?

November 18th, 2008 categories: Home Seller Information

According to the recently released 2008 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, 87% of buyers used the Internet in searching for homes which is no small number.

The survey also revealed where buyers first learned about the home they purchased. With 34% of the buyers saying real estate agent, 32% the Internet, 15% yard signs, 7% saying from friend, relative, or neighbor, 7% from home builders, 3% from a print or newspaper ad, 2% directly from the seller, and 1% saying a home book or magazine.

No real surprise in the survey as to where buyers are searching for homes. Buyers are on the Internet. And due to the large number of real estate websites, buyers are searching for homes not on one but several real estate websites.

A strong online marketing presence is crucial to exposing your home to potential buyers. Because the days of placing a sign in the yard, taking a few photos, and sticking the listing in the local MLS are gone. They are antiquated methods and NOT effective in selling homes.

If you are interested in having your Spring Texas home’s listing where the buyers are, give me a call at 281.804.8626. I will be happy to share with you my marketing strategy which includes having your home’s listing on a smorgasbord of real estate websites.

Including the real estate sites of Realtor.com, Yahoo.com, MSN.com, AOL.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Homes.com, Move.com, HAR.com, Homescapes.com, Google Base, Frontdoor.com, Roost.com, Activerain.com, Localism.com, Hotpads.com, Vast.com, Geebo.com, OLX.com, Craigslist.com, Oodle.com, Frontdoor.com, Houston.org, Homestore.com, Prudentialproperties.com, Prudential.com, Garygreene.com and other real estate sites.

You probably have not heard of the majority of these websites, but the buyers have. And when you are selling your home you need to be where the buyers are.

Read also:

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: No Comments »

Is your home inviting?

October 31st, 2008 categories: Home Seller Information

Or does your home scare away more buyers than a haunted house does trick or treaters on Halloween?

If you have your home on the real estate market, you need for it to look inviting and cheerful. But you could be scaring away buyers without even knowing it.

How ??? By your home’s photos. Buyers make decisions upon which homes to view based upon its photos.

Do the photos of your home’s listing look inviting? Or were they taken on a dark dreary overcast day that makes your house look like its possessed? Is your house subliminally sending a message of STAY AWAY because all of its blinds are closed and the window treatments are drawn.

What about the interior photos? Can you identify which rooms the photos are taken of? Or do the photos make you wonder what’s lurking in the dark?

What about the subject matter of the photos? Do the photos showcase the animals you bagged on your latest hunting expedition or your prized sword collection or your son’s collection of Freddy Kruger posters?

High quality photos will bring buyers through your doors while bad photos will scare buyers away. If no buyers are knocking on your home’s doors, review the listing photos of your home. And ask yourself if your home says “COME ON IN” or “STAY AWAY”.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN from Jill and Rick - Spring Texas Realtors

Read also:

MORE PHOTOS = MORE MONEY when selling your home

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: No Comments »

Spring Texas home sellers missed opportunities

September 11th, 2008 categories: Home Buyer Information, Home Seller Information

The topic for this post “Spring Texas home sellers missed opportunities” is courtesy of my husband, working partner, and fellow Prudential Gary Greene, Realtor, Rick Ratchford. Rick is an exclusive Buyers Agent meaning he only represents buyers and not sellers. I on the other hand represent both buyers and sellers but that’s a topic for a different post.

In his role as a buyer’s agent, Rick has in length discussions with buyers about their desires and needs in a home. He sets up an automatic email notification based upon specified home criteria for his buyers. So his buyers will be notified when a new home matching their criteria is added to the real estate market.

How does all this automatic email notification of new listings to potential buyers translate into missed opportunities for Spring Texas home sellers?

Its in the photos or in this case should I say lack of photos. Far too many times to count, Rick has seen email notification of new listings contain ZERO, ZILCH, NADA photos. Buyers purchase with their eyes. They do not write down the MLS number of the new listing and go search for it every day just to see if the listing agent has finally added photos.

Spring Texas home sellers you only have ONE opportunity to capitialize on pent up demand. If your listing agent is not on top of her / his game its gone. NO PHOTO AVAILABLE = NO SALE

If you are interested in purchasing a Spring Texas home, contact Rick at 281.300.3141 and he will set up an automatic email notification for you. You will then be one of the first to know when a new home is added to the market that matches exactly what you are looking for.

Read also:

If you are interested in selling a Spring Texas home, contact Jill at 281.804.8626. She will make sure that you do not miss out on pent up demand.

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Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: No Comments »

Will St. Joseph help sell your Spring Texas Home?

September 7th, 2008 categories: Home Seller Information

Yesterday I was at a closing with my buyers who were purchasing a Spring Texas home when a discussion arose about a St. Joseph statue that the sellers had buried in the front yard. The sellers believed that if you want to sell your home, you bury a St. Joseph statue in the yard, say a prayer, and before you know it the house will be SOLD.

Now for a little background on the sellers home, it had been on the market for 270 days which is 3X longer than the average days on market for Spring Texas homes. Its initial list price was $233,000. During the 270 days it was on the market it had been reduced three times. When my buyers and I viewed the home it was on the market for $194,500 or 16.5% less than its original list price.

The home was built in 1984 and although it had some recent updates of flooring in a couple of rooms and new kitchen counter tops and backsplash its window treatments and wallpaper dated the house. The house showed dark because of the heavy window treatments and the upstairs carpet was severely in need of stretching. I almost forgot to mention the blue carpeting on the stairs and in the upstairs gameroom.

After viewing the home, I knew exactly why it had been on the market so long. It showed dark, was in need of updating, and was not a significant bargain in comparison to the rest of the Spring Texas real estate market for buyers to be willing to take on the work. My buyers had vision and could see the potential in the home which is why it was the right home for them.

Did the powers of the St. Joseph statue help the sellers sell their home? Who knows? But what I do know is that I am not about to say anything negative about the husband of the mother of Jesus. I will say, that sometimes even St. Joseph can not do it by himself and he needs a little help from the sellers. Next time you need to sell your Spring Texas home, give St. Joseph a hand and price your home correctly and get it in good showing condition.

Read also:

Top 30 things to do before putting your home on the market or maybe it should be 31 and burying a St. Joseph statue in the yard is added to the list
Selling your Spring Texas home - 9 mistakes to avoid

If you have questions about buying or selling Spring Texas homes, give us a call at 281.804.8626 or 281.300.3141 as we are happy to help.

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: No Comments »

Dangers of Overpricing your home

June 17th, 2008 categories: Home Seller Information

WARNING …. WARNING …. Overpricing your Spring Texas homes is a bad strategy. I use the word overpricing but home sellers use the phrase “Testing the Market”. No matter what you call “it” the end result for you sellers is less money for your home.

Why? ……….. What’s wrong with “Testing the Market“? ……

Less Showings: Buyers are beginning their shopping and we should say comparison shopping for homes online. They are comparing the value of your home to others based upon the photos and price. All of this even before they step inside. Bottom line if buyers think your home is overpriced they are not even going to make an appointment to view it.

Less Offers: Overpriced homes stand out like a sore thumb. They make the other homes on the Spring Texas real estate market stand out as being great buys. End result your home is the continuous bridesmaid and not the bride. And who wants to only be the bridesmaid?

Less MONEY: The longer your house sits on the market the less money you will net in its sale. Buyers consistently ask “How many days has the house been on the market?” The longer the days on the market the less buyers are willing to pay for the house. Because buyers believe that the longer the house has been on the market the more desperate to sell the sellers must be and in turn they should be willing to take less. Or they wonder what’s wrong with the house that it has not sold resulting into no offer at all.

One of my sellers previously put it this way “I don’t want to be a hog just a pig when it comes to the sales price of my home. The reason being because hogs get slaughtered while pigs do NOT”. I thought he summed it up quite well. Sometimes trying to be too greedy does not get you more money instead it only winds up netting you less.

Testing the Market only adds up to a whole lot of LESS and not a bit of MORE.

If you want to get top dollar for Spring Texas homes, price them correctly in the beginning. If you want to know what that price should be, contact us for a FREE home price evaluation.

Read also:

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: No Comments »

Spring Texas real estate abbreviations: What do they mean?

June 12th, 2008 categories: Home Buyer Information, Home Seller Information

The real estate industry like other industries has its fair share of abbreviations. And I would have to say that I am just as guilty as the next Spring Texas Realtor in using real estate abbreviations in my correspondence. I throw them around assuming that everyone knows exactly what they mean.

So what does MLS, CMA, LP, SP, DOM, A, OP, P, PS mean?

MLS - Multiple Listing Service: A database that contains information on property listings. In the listing agreement it will identify whether the broker will or will NOT file the listing with a MLS. The local MLS for an area typically has the most comprehensive database of listings.

CMA - Comparative Market Analysis: An impartial evaluation of market activity and is used to estimate the potential selling price of a Spring Texas home.

LP - List Price: The dollar figure at which the property is listed for sale.

SP - Sales Price: The dollar figure at which the parties to the transaction have agreed to sale the property.

DOM - Days On Market: The quantity of days the property has been listed for sale. The DOM stops at the time the property goes under contract.

A - Active: The property is currently for sale. It is NOT under contract. Its one of several classifications of status of a listing with some of the others being OP, P, PS, S, W, T and X. A property is still considering Active when negotiations for its sale are taking place.

OP - Option Pending: The property is under contract. It may or may NOT return to an Active status.

P - Pending: The property is under contract. It has progressed pass the OP status. The real estate transaction is in the process of being completed and closed.

PS - Pending continue to Show: The property is under contract. It has progressed pass the OP status. It is in the process of being completed but it has a contingency that needs to be removed before the property can close.

Read also:

Next time your Spring Texas Realtor throws an abbreviation around, just ask them to slow down and provide you with its full word and meaning.

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: No Comments »

Appraised VS Market Value

May 30th, 2008 categories: Home Buyer Information, Home Seller Information

In the Spring Texas real estate market, buyers and sellers alike are often confused about the differences between market value, appraised value, and tax appraised value.

So let’s first start by tackling market value. The market value of a home is how much a ready, willing, and able buyer is willing to pay for the home.

The appraised value of a home is the value determined by an appraiser. If you are a buyer financing the purchase of a home, your lender may require the property to be appraised by an appraiser. The appraiser works for the lender and his job is to determine if the value of the home is equal to or greater than the amount that you are financing.

The tax appraised value of Spring Texas homes are determined by either the Harris County Appraisal District or the Montgomery County Appraisal District dependent upon which county the home is located in. It is the county’s calculated market value of the property as of January 1st of the tax year. The majority of the time, the tax appraised value will be lower than the market value of the home.

If you are a buyer, the values you need to focus on are the market value and the appraised value. If the tax appraised value is higher than what you paid for the home, you need to protest it with the county appraisal district. If the tax appraised value is lower than what you paid for the home, keep that little secret to yourself and just enjoy the lower tax bill.

If you are a Spring Texas home seller wanting to estimate how much your home will sell for, then market value is what you want to focus on. Your Spring Texas Realtor can compare what similar homes to yours have sold for within the last six months and provide you with an estimated sales price.

If you are interested in learning about ways to reduce your real estate taxes, read the following:

If you have questions about the different values or want to know the market value of your home, please contact Jill Wente at 281.804.8626.

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: 1 Comment »

Selling your Spring Texas Homes: More Photos = More Money

May 26th, 2008 categories: Home Seller Information

Have you ever heard the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, nowhere is it more true than in the listing photos of Spring Texas homes. Simply put more photos and more quality photos will translate into you selling your home for more money.

Just how important are additional photos? According to a Realtor.com survey online listings with at least six photos are viewed 300% more than other listings. 300% …. NOT 10% but 300%. Now that’s pretty powerful.

With 84% of the buyers using the Internet to search for homes, 300% more exposure to these potential buyers translates into more interest, a faster sell, and more money.

But its NOT just quantity of photos that will drive buyers interest in your home but also the quality of the photos. Good quality photos will seduce buyers to fall in LOVE with your home even before they enter the door.

Over the years I have certainly seen my fair share of bad photos. Some of these photos are so terrible that I just have to Laugh Out Loud (LOL).

I have seen photos:

for a $1 million dollar listing that was taken through the windshield of the listing agent’s car.
of bathrooms that zoomed in on the commode with its seat lid up
dark photos - that you could not even make out which room of the house it was
fuzzy photos - that made it look like the photographer needs to cut back on his caffeine consumption
photos of only the exterior of the home - although the listing agent remark was that home was beautiful inside
photos that placed more emphasis on the cars in the driveway than the house itself

Just like we eat with our eyes, buyers make decisions on whether to view and consider to buy your Spring Texas home based upon its quality and quantity of photos.

Before deciding upon the Realtor to whom you should entrust the sale of your home, do your research. Go to the Realtor’s web site and view the quality of the photos of some of her listings. Search for her listings on other real estate web sites such as Realtor.com and see how many photos she uses to advertise the homes.

Lastly ask yourself based upon the quantity, quality, and advertising descriptions of the listings would you buy any of the Realtor’s listings. Because if the answer is NO how do you think other potential buyers feel.

Read also:

If you are thinking about selling your Spring Texas home and are interested in more details, call Jill Wente at 281.804.8626 for more information.

Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: 1 Comment »

Spring Texas home sellers - Are your homes secure?

May 21st, 2008 categories: Home Seller Information

Attention all Spring Texas home sellers: How secure are your homes? As a seller, you probably have reservations about letting buyers and their Realtors who you know NOTHING about view your home.

But buyers are NOT going to submit an offer till they actually view your home. So you have to provide them with easy access. And you can’t stay in the home during the showings because then the potential buyers don’t feel comfortable.

So what can you do to secure your home and its possessions while its on the market?

Prevention:

Secure the valuables - Remove temptation. Now is not the time to be displaying your priceless coin or baseball collections. Not only are they a temptation but they are also a distraction to potenial buyers.
Store the prescription drugs - I understand its much easier to leave your drugs on the counter to remind you to take them. But now your house is on the market and the pill bottles need to be stored. Do yourself a favor and remove the temptation.

Controlled Access:

DO NOT allow your Realtor to place a combo box on your home. They provide very little protection. The code can be given out and you have no tracking of when and who came into your home.
Insist that your Realtor places a Supra KeyBox on your Spring Texas home. The Supra KeyBox can only be opened by an individual who has a Supra DisplayKey and it logs all activity. Including the person’s name, phone number, and email along with the date and time the keybox was accessed. The Supra KeyBox costs about a $100, but if your Realtor does not believe that your house is worth it should she really be your Realtor.

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Written by Jill Wente | Discussion: No Comments »

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