And The Winner Is.....??

Good job with the carpet. Now just lose the guns, please.

Well, we are making an offer on a house! It will be official on Monday, but we're "All Systems Go," so there you have it. Let me talk to you a minute about how we arrived at our offer price. First, I looked at the 5 neighborhood comps and what they sold for versus what the asking price was. In Realtor-speak, this is the SP/LP% (sale price/list price %). I took the average of the 5 and got one price based on that number. Then, I looked at the sale price per square feet (sp/sf) and took an average of the five. I based another price on that number. Then, I averaged the two together, and arrived at our magic number.

Now, we would like the seller to pay closing, so I added x thousand dollars to our magic number to cover closing. And there you have it. I shot this adjusted magical number to our Realtor and our loan person (of course). Our Realtor recommended offering a bit lower than the magic number so that we could negotiate up to it, if need be. Our loan person said that it was right in line with the other homes that had recently sold. Of course it was; I have a calculator!

Okay, so there you have it. We will hear in a few days whether the sellers will accept or counter our offer. So, I will let you know what happens. Until then, I want to talk to you as a recent seller/current buyer: make sure you have priced your house so that it is in line with your neighborhood. If your price is either much higher or much lower than an average range for the area, buyers will say "I don't think so!" in the former case and "What's wrong with that house? Are they desperate?" in the latter case. Work with your Realtor on coming up with a number that you are, if not over the moon about, at least satisfied with. Know that you will most likely have to come down in price, at least a bit, so build that cushion in to your asking price.

I'll leave you with a couple of more observations about some houses that we recently saw: personalized door knocker (Our thought: Oh, great, they'll take that with them, and we'll have stupid screw holes in our door). Broken, cheap, builder-issue doorbell (Seriously? Spend $15 and get an upgraded ringer at the home improvement store). Dirty--really dirty--white carpet (Again--seriously?)

I've Been Searching, and It Hasn't Been Pretty

Welcome?

We looked at ten houses yesterday. Some were staged very nicely. Some others? Not so much. As sellers, you absolutely have to remember that no part of "you" should be visible in the house. Of course, I don't mean you can't have a microwave, clothes in the closet or a cross stitched pillow on the couch. You need to live as comfortably as possible while you are engaged in the selling process. What I should NOT see and what you should NOT have in your house is anything that points to who you are as a person. Yesterday, we learned that one home owner has a mouse pad business, another is a Physician's Assistant and yet another is a big fan of huge, gas-powered model airplanes.

This third person actually carved a room out of half of the 2-car garage so that he could keep all his airplane stuff. Guess what? It's no longer a two-car garage, and any owner who wants to use it as such is looking at some serious demolition. Ridiculous.

Here are some other things we noted during our tours. First, the good:

• Clean, uncluttered counter tops
• Staged dining room tables
• Freshly cleaned carpets
• Mowed lawns
• Open blinds; lights on
• Beds were all made with extra pillows
• Toys contained in "kid areas."
  

Now, the not-so-good:

• Air freshener that was so potent we could barely breathe.
• Liberal display of religious iconography
• Odd paint color choices--mind-bending fuschia comes to mind
• Over-staging: a child's tea party setup in the corner of a loft that could have been more effectively staged as a small reading area.
  

And last, the downright awful:

• Dogs left inside in a downstairs room with a note saying not to go in there. There went 100sf we couldn't see.
• Closets crammed with all kinds of stuff that needed to be in storage
• Obviously dirty underwear on a shelf in a walk-in closet
• Half-finished bottle of Sunny D on the front porch

Sometimes, it's better left alone. This tiny TV looks
silly in the large cabinet.

There are no words. Wait! There are four: Buy a laundry
bag.

If you see yourselves in anything in this post, please take the time to depersonalize your space. It truly could be the difference between selling and not selling. With the glut of houses on the market, you have to find a way to stand out from the crowd. The good news is, there are still plenty of folks who are doing it wrong, as we found out yesterday. Narrow the field and increase your odds by doing it right.

For more information, or to order a copy of my ebook I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers' Market, please visit. I CAN Sell This House.

A New Perspective

So, my husband and I are now in the market for a house! It's very cool, because it's definitely a buyers' market, as it was when we sold. Being on the other side of the equation gives me a whole new perspective, of course, and I've been trying to look critically at the houses that we have been seeing so I can pass on my observations to you all, as you are staging and selling your houses. I know that you have lost a bit of leverage, since there are so many houses on the market right now, but there are still things that you can do to help your house stand out. And frankly, I've been a little amazed at how some of the sellers whose houses we've seen haven't done those things.

First and foremost, and this may sound like a little thing (but it's not): Keep your infotubes full! I cannot stress this enough. When we are driving around and see a house that's for sale, we immediately stop to look for "words." If the tube is empty, our immediate reaction, fair or not, is "They don't really want to sell this house." A neglected infotube could be just an oversight, or it could be a sign of greater neglect. Either way, we don't even consider those houses. So, if you are still in the house you are selling, for goodness sake, keep that tube full! And if you're not in the house, make sure that your agent keeps the tube full. It makes a difference. Remember, I am now your potential buyer, and you've already lost me!

Depersonalize, please! I consider myself to be a fairly sophisticated buyer--one who is able to look beyond the stage at the bones of the space, but many potential buyers just see what they see. They see the pictures, not the walls behind them. They see the carpet, not the floor underneath. Make sure that what these buyers are seeing is the most tastefully generic stage you can possibly set. We went into a lovely home last weekend--2300sf, soaring ceilings, lovely staircase, immaculately kept. It truly was a lovely home. We didn't like the layout; it wouldn't work for us, so we passed. But the people who live there and are trying to sell have written off a large portion of their potential market. There were family photos all around the house and a lot of art--everywhere--that was very personal to them, because it was all religious art. Whether the art was Christian, Islamic, Hindu or Zoroastrian, it makes no difference. Many people will walk into that house and walk back out because they can't see beyond the stage. I'm not saying you have to be Peter and deny your religion, but you do have to be sensitive to the fact that not all buyers will believe the same things you believe, and many might actually be put off.

As we continue our search, I will continue to bring reports of what I'm seeing out there. I hope that this new phase in our lives will help to focus your resolve as sellers as you get your house sold!

For more information, or to order a copy of I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers' Market, please visit I CAN Sell This House.