The Tampa Florida Broker’s Corner

It’s a buyer’s market! That’s old news. Great deals are everywhere for buyers with money to put down and decent credit. Further, buyers are out there looking and even buying today. They aren’t sitting on the fence. Granted, there are fewer buyers than there were two years ago but that doesn’t mean things aren’t selling. To the contrary, things are selling….. and there are many sellers getting multiple offers within only a couple of weeks. So, how do you sell in this market and sell quickly? You may be surprised that it isn’t by the fancy gadgets or dog and pony shows that Realtors are pushing these days. You know…. I am sure you have heard them all from bragging of full color print ads in the newspaper, international websites, weekly open houses, “talking houses”, 24 hour recorded messages, balloons, craigslist, auctions…. the list goes on and on. There is no mystery or no magic potion….. it all comes down to product and price.

First of all, the buyers that are shopping in today’s market are savvy. They aren’t the “make a quick buck” speculators that gave the market such a run up over the last several years. These buyers are the buyers that saved for a down payment and have patiently waited for the market to turn. These buyers are looking for a long term investment that is going to give them long tern results. They are looking for the house of their dreams at a price of their dreams. You can’t buffalo these folks with smoke and mirrors, balloons and gadgets. Further, they aren’t looking for you to pay their closing costs or give them a trip to Hawaii. They want the lowest price and best interest rates available and they don’t want to have to do work to a house. They are looking for move in ready.

So, if you want to sell your house quickly you are going to have to price it to sell. You are also going to have to put the property in top condition. Make repairs, freshen up the landscaping, power wash, replace worn carpet and CLEAN. Yeah, I know everyone has heard all of this before. And Realtors are out there begging sellers to make even the smallest improvements. But it is amazing that sellers still are in disbelief that these things need done or that it really makes a difference. Well, I can tell you from personal experience that it does. I am not only one of the Realtors out there pushing sellers to make improvements but I am currently a seller in today’s market. And as a seller, I took my own advice (even though my husband was reluctant to push more money into the house but he trusted me. And here is how we got MULTIPLE offers in only a few short weeks:

First, we didn’t put the house on the market until AFTER all the improvements and repairs were done. We went room to room and made a “to do” list. We replaced worn carpet, we painted the exterior and mulched the flower beds, power washed, boxed up all the “unused or unneeded items” and got them out of the house. We rearranged furniture, organized closets and repainted some of the bolder colors in the house to neutral tones. We made the house look like a model home.

Then I went room to room and took pictures, rarely happy with the first take….. I took pictures at different angles and used A LOT of light. We took pictures of the outside, front and back. We even took pictures of the house in the evening with all the lights on….. talk about dramatic. We took upwards of fifty pictures. After I had pictures that really highlighted the homes best features, I made high gloss brochures with pictures on both front and back. I gave a very detailed description of the features, new additions or repairs, etc. and included the price. Now, many Realtors argue that you shouldn’t put the price…. I beg to differ. And the more pictures the better.

As for price, well the husband and I differed on opinion on what we could actually get for the house and at what price we would actually get people to look. I always tell clients, everything has a price…. and your motivation will determine your price. You could say we were fairly motivated. My husband accepted a job out of state and was expected to start August 27th. We put the house on the market August 8th. We priced our home “in the middle” of the competition only because we felt we had time and we knew our house showed far better than the competition. Two years ago I would have priced at the top no questions asked. And, we knew time was of the essence….. we knew we would come down in price within two to three weeks if we weren’t getting any activity.

Being in the business, I told my husband that I would be satisfied with a couple of showings a week and a contract within 90 days. Well to our surprise we started to get calls the first day on the market. Further, we had two offers in the second week. Now, granted they were offers eight to ten percent off the asking price but still not bad for the first two weeks. Call it a bold move or just plain crazy; we didn’t accept the first two offers. Let me tell you why….. the activity we were getting told me that there were plenty of qualified buyers for our house and we still had time on our side. So we kept showing the house until something changed our motivation. This change occurred when we realized we would be better off trekking across country with two kids before snow hit. So we dropped our price $10k and received another two bona fid offers with a third very interested party working on finalizing their financing. We did negotiate a deal that suited both the buyer and ourselves and it was more than the first two offers.

And here is what I learned from my own experience trying to sell in a buyers market. Make it shine, DEMAND professional pictures and LOOK AT THEM, put a sign in the yard with a brochure box and keep it FULL, put the listing in the MLS and INSIST on “showcasing and more pictures” on REALTOR.COM, offer a competitive commission to cooperating agents and most importantly….. PRICE IT CORRECTLY IMMEDIATELY. Don’t chase the competition or chase prices down. We had buyers literally come up and knocking on the door wanting to see the house, we got calls from folks that were “just driving by”. There is no magic news paper ad or no amount of website listings that will sell your house…. period. Bottom line, price it right, make it look good and then get the pictures out there. We went under contract in 30 days and expected closing in less than sixty days from date first listed for sale.

Luck…. hardly. We took just under $40k less than our last appraisal. Were we willing to take less than our last appraisal?….. absolutely. Check your motivation as everything has a price.