home selling tips: The 4 Factors of Selling A House - 07/18/11 03:30 AM
The 4 Factors of Selling A House
No matter how you choose to try to get your home sold, whether you go the For Sale By Owner route or you decide to hire a REALTOR® to help you market and sell your property, there are always four factors that will determine whether or not you have a successful sale.  If one factor is lacking, the other factors must "make up" for it or you likely won't have a sale at all.
PRICE MARKETING TIME THE SELLER  
PRICE - Pricing is key, especially in today's buyers' market, to selling your home.  … (4 comments)

home selling tips: Yes I Want to Sell My House, Would You Like to See it 3 Weeks from Thursday? - 11/30/10 12:43 PM
Yes I Want to Sell My House, Would You Like to See it 3 Weeks from Thursday?As a REALTOR® in the Hickory NC market, I do something that a lot of other agents may not do on a regular basis.  I call For Sale By Owner (FSBO) listings in my farm area (my specialty area, if you will).  Yes, I'd really like to list their home for them, but that's not the reason for my call.  I call because I want to know about every home for sale in my area.  That way, I'll know if something is out there that … (6 comments)

home selling tips: Need A Quickie? Quick Tips to Staging Your House to Sell - 11/15/10 11:09 AM
Need A Quickie?  Quick Tips to Staging Your House to Sell If you've even considered selling your house in today's market, you've probably already heard about staging.  Want a great example of a perfectly staged home?  Visit a few builder open houses, or better yet, take a tour through a few model homes on a manufactured home lot!  Those mobile home people can really stage a house! Still, many people who or trying to sell, or considering selling, don't know a good staging professional or simply don't want to, or feel they can't,  afford to hire a stager to make their … (12 comments)

home selling tips: The True Costs of FSBO vs Hiring a REALTOR® - 11/08/10 11:26 AM
The True Costs of FSBO vs Hiring a REALTOR® Most FSBOs (For Sale By Owners) begin marketing their homes themselves in an attempt to "save the commission."  Unfortunately, very few of them ever really compare the true costs of selling FSBO to the costs of hiring a REALTOR®. Assuming that you've correctly priced your property for the current market (let's say $200,000 is the 'right' price) what is the true cost of selling one vs. the other. If sold at full price, and the REALTOR® and you agreed to a six percent commission, the cost of selling would be $12,000. By … (8 comments)

home selling tips: Please Remove Shoes Before Entering the Home For Sale - 11/01/10 09:54 AM
Please Remove Shoes Before Entering the Home For Sale I'm wondering if this is just a trend in the Hickory NC real estate market or if it's something that's hitting other places, too.  It seems that the newest thing in listings around here is the new added phrase in the agent only remarks section that goes something like, "please remove your shoes before entering home. Booties are provided just inside the door." Really?  I mean, REALLY? This one really gets me, I gotta admit.  As a seller, you generally want to make showings on your property as easy as they can … (14 comments)

home selling tips: Experience Doesn't Always Guarantee Knowledge in Real Estate - 10/20/10 10:59 AM
Experience Doesn't Always Guarantee Knowledge in Real Estate When someone is considering hiring an agent to work with them on the purchase or sell of a property, they often here phrases like, "you need to hire an experienced agent," "make sure that the agent has experience" "does the agent have any experience?" Even agents promote Experience.  How many times have we seen written in blog posts, "Make sure you hire an experienced agent like me"  "Experience Matters" and so forth.  Heck, look at my tag on my header.  Yep, experience is there, too. However, simply having experience in the real estate … (6 comments)

home selling tips: Is Your Home For Sale Invisible to The Market? - 10/19/10 12:23 PM
 Is Your Home For Sale Invisible to The Market?

The "Market" is your local real estate
market.  It's the buyers looking for homes to buy.  Have you made your home invisible to those buyers? Let me explain. I went driving around my farm area today, looking for FSBO's (for sale by owners).  I do this once or twice a month because I like to know of EVERY listing that is for sale in my area.  As I'm driving, I'll notice a pointer sign, "house for sale" this way, and down the road I go.
What I noticed today … (5 comments)

home selling tips: Why You Can Go Terribly Wrong using Price Per Square Footage to Determine a House Value - 10/13/10 10:59 AM
Why You Can Go Terribly Wrong using Price Per Square Footage to Determine a House Value Recently, I've gotten several people ask me what I thought their home was worth.  Usually I here something like this, "Bob just sold his home for X and he only has 2000 square feet.  I've got 2500, so mine should sell for Y, right?" Sorry, but home values don't work quite that way.  If you're trying to determine your house's value by comparing the square footage of others that have sold in your area, then you could be off by a lot! First thing about … (10 comments)

home selling tips: Low Ball Offers are a Part of Selling in Today's Market - 10/04/10 08:53 AM
If you're selling a home in today's market, then you know that it is taking longer to get your property sold.  Pricing your property correctly from the start is probably one of the most important factors in making sure that your home doesn't sit on the market longer than it should.Even when you are priced correctly and marketed well, another factor in today's real estate market, even here in the Greater Hickory, NC area, is the low-ball offer.Yes, even homes that are priced well, or even a little under market value, many times will get the low-ball offer thrown out at … (5 comments)

home selling tips: Pricing Strategy for Today's Real Estate Market - 05/23/10 10:04 AM
Pricing, especially in today's general real estate market, is important.  Agents tell sellers (correctly) that pricing it too high means that there will be NO offers on the home, not just that it will take longer.  Sellers are usually fearful of pricing "too low."  There's no such thing really, but that's another blog post.
Yes, in today's market, correctly pricing a home is very, very important.  Yet, I've seen over and over again so many agents who got the price in the right ballpark yet they're still not getting any offers and very little showings.
Well, if it's priced right and … (1 comments)

home selling tips: 50 Inexpensive Tips to Dramatically Increase the Value of Your Properties - 02/27/10 02:00 AM
 
This article is by Tai DeSa and offers some great tips to get your property into tip-top selling shape.  While this list was aimed at real estate investors, it works for any seller.  If you're in the Hickory NC real estate market area, review this list and see how many you have done, or can do, in order to better prepare your house for sale.
Tai uses in his title "increase the value" of your property.  Truthfully, most of these won't actually increase the dollar value of your home for sale.  What they will do, however, is dramatically increase the … (3 comments)

home selling tips: Pricing is Key When Selling a Property - 05/12/09 01:20 PM
In my post, 3 Secrets to Getting Your Property SOLD!, I mentioned that the age-old adage of "location, location, location" is NOT the 3 secrets to home selling, but rather, it's Price, Marketing, and Time that ultimately affect the sale of the property.  In that article, price seemed to get the most attention, so I thought I'd focus this post on it exclusively.
Pricing is an important key to selling for many reasons.  Sure, the property needs to be priced within the correct value range or it will never sell (See: Time in SOLD!).  But the price of the house can … (11 comments)

home selling tips: 3 Secrets to Getting Your Property SOLD! - 04/29/09 04:27 AM
I'm sure that you've heard the old saying that there are three things that sell a home, "Location, Location, Location."  I'm going to let you in on another little secret.  It AIN'T SO!  Sure, location is a prime factor in the sellability of your house, but even a bad location can be overcome.  The following 3 things are the Real secrets to getting your property sold.
PRICE The price of the property is the single most important aspect of getting your home sold.  If the home is priced correctly for the area, the market and it's condition, then it will sell.  … (10 comments)

home selling tips: Virtual Staging: Great Concept or Bad Idea? - 04/21/09 01:44 AM
I just popped on AR to read a few posts and make a comment or two and noticed a new ad in the top right corner for a 'Virtual Staging Solution' to vacant homes (Hey AR guys!  You can tell them it works.  I clicked on it!).  If you're interested in the concept, just click on the ad in the top right corner.
I've thought about this before but have never done it or seen a company offering it.  My question is do you think it's a great concept or a bad idea that will ultimately turn off potential buyers?
Most … (10 comments)

home selling tips: How Sellers can prepare for a Buyer's property inspection - 01/27/09 02:33 PM
Russel Ray, a San Diego Home Inspector and Property Consultant wrote this article that I think is simply one of the best things a seller can read (and do) to get their property on the right track to selling in a timely manner.
You can check out more of Russel's articles/posts on his blogsite.
Thanks, Russel, for the fine writing.  Keep it up.

The perfect home simply doesn't exist. Why? Well, in a brand new home, the contractor often is not aware of everything his subcontractors do, and government building and code inspectors do not have the time or the … (0 comments)