Know Your Market
Right now in the Seattle, Washington metroplex there is a huge demand for houses and not enough housing available on the market. It is a seller's market in every since of the word. In particular, there is an acute shortage of single story houses (called ramblers here) and with the Baby Boomer generation reaching retirement age, and starting to downsize, we knew that our home was a "hot" item.
In this part of the country, land is a premium so all the new builds in the last 10 years or more are multi-story homes. They cram more square footage into a smaller footprint by building up, and offer tiny postage stamp yards. So our neighborhood which was built in the late 1980's is highly desirable because of the larger yards and single story homes. In addition, we have good schools in our county, a nice neighborhood with an active Homeowners Association that keeps the yards and commons spaces tidy, and we are accessible to several major employers in the area as well as shopping, medical care, and the Puget Sound.
You must be realistic and objective about the market where your home is located. Read the newspapers and business prospectus, talk with real estate people and mortgage lenders, and browse the internet for homes in your area to see what they are selling for, how long it is taking to sell them, and what kind of marketing is being used.
Selecting the Right Agency
We chose to use an agency but found a real estate company that has a 1% list fee. Rob and Carol Junglov (link) spent a number of years working with a large nationwide real estate company before they decided to branch out on their own. They felt that the "standard" 6% fee (split 3 and 3 by the seller's agent and buyer's agent) was not justifiable in today's world.
The fact is that most people do their pre-screening of homes available using internet tools which includes a full range of information about the property history, tax records, liens and permits, neighborhood, schools, ownership trail, as well as virtual tours through the property. No longer do agents have to take people around to see dozens of houses, or make trips to the court house to research records. With all this at our fingertips, Rob and Carol found they could not continue to justify charging a 3% fee, so they set up a new agency on their own, using a new business model.
They do everything that a 3% list agent does, and let the seller determine what percent they will offer the buyer's agent. We decided to offer 2% for the buyer's agent, bringing our total cost to 3% -- a savings of 3% over the "standard'. This saved us almost $15,000! I will tell you there are others in the Everett/Puget Sound area that are adopting the same business model with great success. It works for everyone! Of course, the large nationwide agencies that are still supporting huge overhead offices and staff still charge 6% and try to tell a potential client they won't get the same service. We did not find that to be true at all! Some people said buyer's agents wouldn't show our house because we only offered a 2% commission, but we found that also to be NOT TRUE!
The world is changing and the people out there that are becoming millionaires in the hot real estate market just don't want you to shop around.
Now I will tell you that there are situations where I could justify the full 6% commission. For example, if a client is totally computer illiterate and not doing any pre-screening or research on their own, or if the move is an interstate or international move for a client that has no time to look and will totally rely on their agent to find the perfect house. There could be other situations as well that warrant such a hefty fee.
Staging your House
There are lots of blogs written about what updates help sell a house as well as strategies for maximizing your dollar. Do your homework and look at your house through a stranger's eye. If you can't "see" your home because you are too used to what is around you every day, then go look at some other homes on the market. You will immediately notice other people's clutter and junk.
The biggest mistake I see people make is "too much stuff". Even if its clean and organized stuff, too much is too much. This de-cluttering I believe is one of the most important things to do to sell your house. People want to see the house and be able to imagine their stuff in it and they can't do that with your possessions dominating the eye.
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| My photo of Living room |
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| Professional photo |
- Take down all personal photos and memorabilia. This is hard but it is only for a season.
- Remove everything from counter tops, table tops, bathroom vanities, window sills, and cupboards. (People want to see gleaming clear spaces when they enter your home.) I found this especially hard in the kitchen where I like my most used appliances on the counter at hand. Arghhh!
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| Profession photo |
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| My photo |
- Give you home a scrub top to bottom, or better yet, hire cleaners to come in and clean ceilings, fans, windows inside and out, window sills, closets, behind doors, baseboards, tops of cabinets, everywhere! Launder or clean all blinds, shades and curtains. Nothing like looking behind drapes and finding years of dust bunnies lurking there!
- Get a professional to stage your home. You might just need to remove some furniture and place what you have to good advantage, but perhaps you also need a few updated pieces to show it to best advantage. This really makes a difference
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| Professional photo - after staging |
- Make sure your real estate agent uses a professional photographer. The cost for ours was included in the real estate contract. They have the right lenses, lighting and angles.
I am happy to report that our house sold after only four days on the market. In fact, we had a cash offer from the first open house that was above market price! Yippee! We had hoped that would be the case but you never know. The Lord blessed us richly and we accepted the offer without any quibbling. Now, off we go to the next chapter of our great adventure!
