Archive for the 'For Sellers' Category
Get Your House Showing Ready: Clean-Up the Clutter
December 17th, 2008 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, FSBO's, For Homeowners, For Sellers
I’m sure we REALTORS® sometimes sound like broken records to our clients. But there are some things that bear repeating, no matter how many times you have to say them. “Make sure your home is ready for every showing,” is one of those things.
In today’s slower housing market, your home will not get nearly as many showings as it did just two or three years ago. Even in Chicago’s top neighborhoods, places like Lakeview, Lincoln Square, Bucktown, the Gold Coast and Lincoln Park, the number of potential buyers is down from the years of the housing boom. This means that sellers must always present their residences in the best possible light. There just aren’t as many people interested in buying any home right now. You need to give your residence every chance to shine.
Getting a home ready for a showing involves some fairly simple steps. I know no one enjoys housework. And after several showings, rushing around your home to get it into prime viewing condition can be a pain. But you never know when that right buyer will be touring your home. You want to make sure that your home looks its best when that buyer does show up.
The first step should happen before you even put your home on the market: Remove as much furniture, toys, televisions, knick-knacks and electronics as possible. The more clutter you have, the less attractive and the smaller your residence seems.
Secondly, there should be no personal photos of adults in the house and only limited memorabilia. Also, there should be no photos or memorabilia of your former college, nothing that clearly states your political views, no religious items and nothing that celebrates your sexual orientation. It may sound silly, but a buyer may see your University of Illinois banner and immediately get a negative feeling about your home because she attended Northwestern University. If you have a wedding shrine dedicated to photos of the big day, make sure to remove that, too. Buyers want to envision themselves in your home. It’s hard to do that if all they can see are photos of you and your spouse.
Next, never leave a mess behind before a showing. Make your beds. Wash your dishes. Clean the bathrooms and the kitchen floors. Vacuum the rugs. Again, I know this is a pain, but selling your house is a huge step. Do everything you can to make the sale happen.
Pets are tricky. Buyers don’t appreciate listening to a barking dog in the basement. And the sight of a litter box doesn’t generate happy feelings about a home. Before a showing, take your pets out, and don’t bring them back until the showing is over. Remove all evidence of them, too. Don’t leave chew toys on the couches or bags of dog food in the kitchen corner.
Finally, don’t forget your home’s exterior. Your home’s outside will make the first impression on buyers. You don’t want them to see an overgrown lawn or a front walk that hasn’t been shoveled. Keep everything on the outside neat and tidy. Buyers will then have a positive feeling as they open your front door.
Remember, the housing boom is long over. Gone are the days when even homes in less-than-sparkling condition would attract multiple offers. Take the extra time to prepare your home for every showing. It will pay off in the long run.
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A House is a Place to Live, Not Just an Investment
December 9th, 2008 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market
There’s a big difference between buying into the stock market and purchasing residential real estate: Not only is a house a good long-term investment, it’s a place to live. This is something that many people seem to have forgotten as they worry about whether or not they will “lose money” by purchasing a home today.
If you buy a home today in Chicago – even in some of the city’s top neighborhoods – you’ll be paying a price for your home that’s near 2005 levels. That’s a great bargain. And as long as you don’t expect to sell your home immediately, the odds are high that you’ll make a solid return when you do sell.
Back before the real estate boom, people viewed their homes as more than just a way to make quick money. The run-up in housing prices that we saw in 2001 through 2006 changed that. But there are signs that people are again realizing that buying a home isn’t like purchasing stocks.
The latest evidence of this came from the National Association of REALTORS®, which reported that most buyers now plan to live in their homes more than enough years to ensure that their property will appreciate. According to the National Association of REALTORS®’ 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, today’s homebuyers say they plan on staying in their homes for at least 10 years. That’s the proper approach to take when looking for a new residence. Homes are places to live, not piggy banks designed for a quick cash infusion.
While homes are appreciating, they’re also providing their buyers a place to live. Remember, your home is the place where you watch your children grow, where you celebrate holidays and anniversaries, where you escape from the stresses of long workweeks.
My advice is simple: If you’re not planning to sell your home any time soon, don’t worry about what it’s worth right now. Enjoy your house as a home. Yes, it is an investment, a big one. But it’s also the place where you live your life. Don’t forget that.
And if you’re thinking about buying, don’t hesitate. Buyers today can get more home in Chicago for their dollars. The time is right for buyers in the city. Don’t miss this opportunity.
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Your Home or Your Health: Can There be a Tougher Choice?
December 3rd, 2008 categories: For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market, Real Estate News
It’s easy for all of us to get wrapped up in our own problems. With today’s struggling economy and slumping housing market, it seems that there is little to be cheerful about this holiday season. But then you read the papers and you understand that it could be far worse. For instance, I found this story last week in the Wall Street Journal: A growing number of U.S. homeowners are facing the impossible choice of either paying their medical bills or making their mortgage payments.
How would you like to face that decision?
According to the story, many homeowners have long relied on borrowing against their homes to pay their medical bills when they suffer a serious accident or a prolonged illness. Today, though, home values are dropping. At the same time, many homeowners took out adjustable-rate mortgages that either have or are on the verge of resetting, meaning that their mortgage payments will be even more difficult to make.
The country’s high unemployment rate is making this situation worse. The Journal story mentions that more than 1.2 million jobs have been eliminated this year as of late November. When people lose their jobs, or are laid off, they often lose their health insurance coverage, and have to pay for their own coverage.
These factors have combined to force many homeowners to decide between taking care of themselves or paying their mortgage lenders. Many homeowners have already fallen behind on their mortgage loans. The Mortgage Bankers Association reports that more than 9 percent of mortgages on single-family homes were a month or more overdue, or had fallen into foreclosure in the second quarter of this year. That’s the highest that figure has been since the bankers association starting measuring it nearly four decades ago.
If you’re facing the terrible choice between paying your lender or your medical bills, my advice is to immediately call your mortgage company. It may be a hard call to make, but lenders are often able to work out compromises involving anything from temporarily suspending mortgage payments to refinancing a loan so that the monthly payments are lower.
Make sure to seek help quickly. The longer you wait, the more difficult your financial problems will become.
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The Art of Negotiation
November 14th, 2008 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, FSBO's, For Buyers, For Sellers
A top REALTOR® can help you with all phases of the home-buying and –selling process. But the best REALTORS® truly shine during the negotiation process.
Negotiations may be the most important part of the real estate transaction. But it’s the one part of the process that few people think about or plan for.
This is astounding to me. Think about it: If you negotiate successfully, you can save thousands of dollars on the purchase of your home. You can work with sellers to get roofs repaired, electrical lines moved or plumbing updated before you move into the home. You can even work out the closing dates that are most advantageous to you.
But too many buyers give little to no thought to the negotiation process until they actually make a formal offer. If you’re working with a skilled REALTOR®, though, that agent will help you plan for negotiations. The REALTOR® will work out with you beforehand what is most important: Are you most interested in lowering the price of the house? Or are you more interested in getting specific repairs done before you take ownership? Do you want credits to pay for foundation repairs? Or do you want a delayed closing date?
Armed with the knowledge of your priorities, your REALTOR® can then work with the sellers and their agent to work out compromises that make everyone happy.
The negotiation process is especially important in Chicago’s top neighborhoods. Home values are holding steady or increasing in places like Lincoln Square, Lincoln Park, River North and Lakeview. The sellers of homes here are not desperate. They are not unloading properties. They are looking for the best offers, the ones that are fair and reasonable. A good REALTOR® will help you present that fair offer, and then handle the negotiations that follow until everyone is satisfied.
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A Blueprint For Surviving A Turbulent Real Estate Market
October 24th, 2008 categories: Chicago Real Estate News, For Buyers, For Homeowners, For Sellers, Housing Market, Real Estate News
It’s no surprise that the last four tumultuous weeks on Wall Street have changed the entire landscape of the residential real estate market. Unfortunately, the hysteria surrounding the plummeting stock market has spread to and infected the Chicago housing market.
Simply put, it’s been a whole new (mental) ball game since Sept. 15.
I think it’s important for sellers to understand how the turmoil on Wall Street has affected the Chicago real estate market. In a word, the uncertainty has caused a paralysis in our local market. The traditional three – or, depending on how you look at it, four — groups of buyers still exist today, as they always have. The first group is made up of those buyers who have the cash or credit to buy, but are scared to make a move. The members of this group are sitting on their hands, much like the banks are. The second group is made up of buyers who were on the fence either in desire or ability and are not buying now. They, instead, are waiting to see what happens before they make any move. The third group includes those buyers who couldn’t or didn’t want to buy. Well, they’re still on the sidelines, either by force or by choice. Even the fourth group, the vultures, can’t buy because banks aren’t lending money for most deals, let alone those that are risky. As a result, deals are slow to materialize and those that already have been struck are being renegotiated or killed over minor details.
I don’t know what this week or the next few months hold for the psyche of the Chicago buyer. But what I do know is that until the fear and resultant paralysis mitigates — either thanks to real positive data or buyers realizing that if they can get a mortgage they shouldn’t think twice about buying because this is the best buyer’s market many have seen or will ever see — sellers need to weigh their options and be careful to navigate this storm in the way that best suits their individual needs.
So… The options as I see them are as follows:
1) If you do not need to sell and can wait three to six months, you should think seriously about taking your property off the market and re-listing it when the psyche of the buyers has improved. Again, it’s not that the factors aren’t there for people who can buy to purchase, but most of them are scared and don’t want to jump into choppy waters. Only those who have to buy are buying at this point, and I don’t see that changing until spring of 2009. The pros of this approach are that you will save market time, resetting it completely if you take your home off the MLS for 91 days; return to living a normal (non-showing-ready) life; and not have to leave the house when it’s cold/snowy (it’s coming), etc.
The cons include the fact that you will probably be getting back into the market when it will have more competing inventory, you may have to sell for a lower price if the market continues to deteriorate. Also, you won’t be able to move into that new place you’ve been thinking about for the past X months now.
2) If you really want to or have to sell in the next 90 days, you must make sure that your list price is at or just below the ACTIVE COMPETITION. You then must be ready to sell for a price at or just below the most recent COMPARABLE CLOSED SALE. “Hope” and “want” (as in “I was ‘hoping’ for this price/return” or “I want X price”) do not apply to this market in light of the global financial mess that has tainted even a stable Chicago real estate market. Sellers, with the help of their REALTORS®, need to come up with a price at which they can AFFORD to sell (not want to sell), and then price their homes accordingly.
The pros of this approach are that the chances of a sale are dramatically increased because property is still selling when priced well, sometimes with multiple offers for close to list price even in this market. Also, you get to move onto the next chapter of your life, take advantage of this mess on the buy side by extracting a much better deal on what you’re buying (usually more expensive so it theoretically makes up for the “loss” you might take on the sale of your present place) and avoid foreclosure.
The cons include a sale price that is lower than anticipated, hoped for or necessary to pay off your mortgage, thereby necessitating a short sale.
3) If you are in the above category of “have to/really want to sell,” another real option is renting your present place out for six to 12 months. The pros of this is that you will stop the bleeding (if your home is vacant) and re-enter a possibly better market
The cons are that this move will cost about a half month’s rent (rule of thumb) to get your place back into showing shape when its lease is up. Also, showing a leased place can be difficult as tenants tend to begin to feel like they own a place by the time their lease is up. Finally, you will more likely than not re-enter a more saturated market because you will not be the only one going this route.
In sum, this is a very turbulent time in the financial markets - of which real estate is on. Your REALTOR® needs to make sure that he or she presents as many ideas and possibilities to meet all of your specific needs. If REALTORS® and their clients work together, we’ll all get through these troubling times relatively unscathed.
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