Competing for Buyer's?

Ask anyone in the real estate industry in Dripping Springs what's happening locally and they'll tell you that our real estate market has changed significantly in the past 2 years.  Once, you could pad your list price by 10% and still sell your home.  Once, you could do a marginal job preparing the home to be listed for sale and still get multiple offers in a week or two.  Those days are gone. 

                Now sellers are competing for buyers by being aggressive on price and by staging the home and property to sell.  Buyers are in short supply and showings have reduced significantly. The only way to compete in this type of a market is to do your homework before listing so that your property is at the top of everyone's list.

                Most sellers overestimate the value of their home.  You cannot afford to be off by even 5% in this type of market.  A good agent will get your pricing right by taking many factors into consideration.  Those factors can include acreage, condition of home and property, availability of similarly priced homes on the market, amenities, upgrades and property improvements.  In Dripping Springs getting the price right is much harder than an Austin subdivision with many similar homes.  Dripping Springs agents must be able to determine the value of property features like barns, pools, gates, fencing, trees and landscaping, location of the home and more. 

                A good agent will also tell you how to stage the home to sell.  It may hurt to hear that the lime green paint you love in the living area has to go, but if the agent thinks it needs repainting, it probably does. 

                Another thing sellers can do is basic landscaping to the property to freshen it and give it more curb appeal.  Some landscape companies have even started to offer "Landscape Staging".  A crew will come over and mulch, trim trees, plant some plants, and just generally spruce up the property.  Its money well spent and can raise your sales price by thousands of dollars. 

                Choose an agent that is selling properties, not just listing them.  Once you hire that agent follow his or her advice.  They know what you need to do to compete for the few buyers that are out there.