Market update Video & why homes don't sell
good rainy morning here in the
tri-cities Todd Watkins here with
powerhouse Realty so I'm going through
went through looking at the hot sheets
for the day which basically if you're
not a real estate agent basically what
that means is just tells us what's
happening in the market as far as what
how many homes have sold gone under
contract or have actually I guess
withdrawn price changes and whatnot that
that's out there really gives kind of a
bird eyes to you as to what's happening
in the market so and and I guess as I
was looking at it kind of slapped me in
the face and really led me to believe
I shouldn't say let me believe it
prompted me to want to share information
with you guys is the public cuz I get
that real estate is not your everyday
thing yeah it's fun to look at homes
check out the photos and do all that
stuff and didn't dream about buying
bigger better nicer downsize whatever
there is that you do with that but
that's what we do I mean crud this is my
full-time job every day come in look at
the market look at the homes that are
sold we view probably three four hundred
homes every month that's out there and
one of the stats that I wanted to share
with you for the month of August is that
we have had what is it eight hundred
nine new listings have hit the market
just in the month of August here we are
my favorite day of the of August the
29th actually my birthday ooh
happy birthday me but we have actually
had out of the eight hundred nine
listings that have hit the market 521 of
them have sold so far but that's not
really what's the the crazy thing to me
what's crazy to me is the number of
price changes that have happened out of
the eight hundred nine listings that
have been listed on the market this
month there was five hundred and one of
them had to have some type of a price
change and that's what slapped me in the
face is because I'm realizing that
we are with where our market is I
realized that all everybody thinks this
is a seller's market but we are at the
tip of the iceberg and and I guess what
I see is I'm seeing more and more price
changes every day 500 one out of eight
hundred nine sellers had to lower the
price of their home because they in
accurately priced their home and did not
cause it to sell so if you are on the
fence thinking about selling your home
it is imperative that you find a good
real estate agent that's competent
understands the market and can interpret
this data this information for you out
there now in my humble opinion I think
I'm probably the best person to apply
for the position but seriously if you
don't want to use me I've got other
realtor friends that I know that I could
refer you out to that I think would do
an amazing job as well but you are the
the reasons that homes do not sell is
because of what I like to call one of
the four p's that are out there you've
got your pictures your price
presentation of the home and poor
representation whether that be that you
sell the home on your own or if you're
actually selling it with a real estate
agent out there now with that and so any
night and I guess what I mean by that is
number one if you have bad pictures
online you're out of the game I'm sure
you probably everybody goes through you
look at homes and if you see a house
that has really bad pictures we just
click Next and we move on to the next
one so if your real estate agent is
taking pictures with their cell phone
you deserve better you should demand
better from your real estate agent
the days of getting away with using an
iPad or a cell phone even though they
are amazing and my personal opinion is
the certainly the Samsung Note it has
the best pictures out there don't drink
the Apple kool-aid everybody but alright
I digress you demand better if you're
taking pictures on your own and think
that's good enough I Got News for you
you are not in the 1% that can make that
happen we need to have better pictures
to to showcase your home and if the
photos are not screaming come check me
out don't use them use those that are
good put yourself in a buyers shoes
would you want to buy a home that with
crappy photos probably not
you wouldn't be motivated to go look at
it next thing is pricing pricing is
imperative and how that's done is your
agent that you choose to go from use
they should bring you comparables they
like to use what's called the five five
five or basically we come in and we find
five foot five sold comps of homes
comparable to yours that means if you
have a two-story you better be looking
at two stories not single stories or
manufactured homes those are completely
those are apples and oranges you should
be looking at homes that are exactly
like yours preferably within a mile
radius if possible of your house from
there and what you do is you look at
five sold properties five active
properties which is your active
competition and then also five
properties that are currently under
contract or what I mean is they've
actually accepted an offer to sell their
home but we're just waiting on the
financing package to give to get put
through on their with that and so but
out of the out of all of those
properties that are for sale or the
comparables that you're looking at the
most important is really what the
appraiser is gonna tell us and every
appraiser is gonna go in they're gonna
do the same thing they're gonna look at
all the home sales that have sold over
the last six months and they're gonna
see those properties and say okay these
six homes they're here these three to
five homes have sold in the last six
months and these are the ones that are
comparable so they're gonna look at
bedrooms bathrooms square footage
garages lot square foot size home square
foot size whether you have a pool well
either whether you don't fireplace with
some of those things whether the home is
fenced or not now a lot of these things
some of these options or these up
additional
upgrades they look into it may or may
not cause your home to be worth more
money a good example is windows a lot of
times you know people think hey I'm
gonna go through and I'm gonna spend ten
thousand dollars and replace all the
windows and I'm gonna shed then I'm
gonna increase the value of my home
guess what appraisers think that's just
an upgrade banks look at windows as as
long as they function there is no value
given to them with that or very little I
should say there are some cases that
they do but for the most part if you've
gotten aluminum windows versus vinyl
windows you're not really gonna get much
more money of spending it so if you're
thinking of selling your home it may not
be worth it to do that $10,000 upgrade
to replace every single window if you
were to hire it out now if you can do it
yourself you're gonna save a ton of
money and of course would maybe be more
beneficial with that so so far we got to
make sure that you've got good pictures
in your home you got to make sure that
you price the home accurately you got a
price it so it causes it to sell and the
best way to do that is to judge how many
showings you're having on your listing
now if within this market that we're at
right now we are getting I'd say if
you're not getting eight to ten showings
within the first week of your home on
the market and when I say that I mean
homes under probably three hundred fifty
thousand four hundred thousand dollars I
mean that is just the hottest part of
the market right now the homes that are
priced above that market are still
selling but you're showing rate is a
little less frequent than than what you
would see if the lower one's obviously
because there's more buyers ready
willing and able to buy at the lower
price ranges then there is the hybrid
price ranges with that so but if you're
not getting eight to ten showings you
need to drastically reduce your home and
what I mean by that is you need to have
a price improvement or price correction
of probably five to ten percent to get
get more activity going if you're
getting activity and just don't know no
offers that means you're probably three
to five percent over
overvalue where things are you know with
technology buyers are super smart put
yourself in the buyers shoes I in this
one as well if you're searching for your
future home and you know that the home
is worth 10 grand and less than what
they're asking
you're not as motivated to try to go
take a look at that home it makes people
believe that the seller is not willing
to negotiate or they're just
unreasonable and they don't want to work
with unreasonable people buyers in this
market are more than happy to pay full
retail price for a home however we've
got a price at right to cause them to
feel to feel that they have the
confidence to move forward with that on
their next next step that you've got to
do is you've got to make sure the
presentation of your home is amazing and
what I mean by that is you got to make
sure that it looks good looks clean
killer curb appeal and smells amazing as
well if you've got pets you get it you
need to do what you can to eliminate the
odors eliminate the signs of having pets
in your home pet lovers don't hear me as
telling you that you have to get rid of
your pets what I'm telling you is that
if you know if showings coming get the
DA to get the food bowl get the water
bowl the kitty litter box and put them
away you know put them inside the tub
hide them so they're just out of sight
while you're while you know with
showings happening and for heaven's
sakes please I know this is my pet peeve
and I know and I know I've got I'm very
opinionated so forgive me but if I see
any more listings when you take pictures
and your toilet lid is open I'm gonna
scream no one wants to see the inside of
your toilet when they're looking at a
home I actually went to a high-end home
showing some people houses where the
homeowners this home was proper was
priced at like $600,000 in South
Richland and the homeowner left a little
present in the master toilet force they
did not flush and
and I tried to flush it as quickly
liquid but the buyers had already seen
it and so they refer to that home as the
poop house
don't be the poop house okay
please whatever you do don't be the poop
house okay because you will ever forever
be known as the poop house and that's
not what you want that's part of the
presentation so is you got to make sure
that it's clean and when you know you're
gonna have a showing turn on all the
lights
open the window blinds to make it like
bright and airy buyers just feel the
brighter the home is that makes it feel
warmer and buyers buy on feelings they
want to know that the home they they
want to feel like this is home for them
I mean that's basically what it is I'm I
will admit that I've never sold a home
in my life as far as real estate goes I
am not I'm not gonna negotiate I I'm not
gonna be able to force people to buy a
home or overcome objections to get them
to buy a home as their personal
residence it is the feeling that when
they walk into the home that feeling
invokes to them or speaks to them saying
this is my house
I can see my family here I can see all
of us standing around the kitchen island
eating Christmas treats eating
Thanksgiving chewing down on mom's
famous stove top or stuffing recipe I
should say so top right but your famous
recipe sorry mom cats out of the bag
hahaha but so pictures price
presentation in the home right for
heaven's sakes if you know that your
home stinks or that has a pet odor get
some of those sensi things or get some
candle you know just some some aromatics
to help with things if you know you know
put baked some cookies right before
people come through and leave a little
treat that is I know it's something
that's common sense but no one ever does
that anymore there's never a plate of
cookies there's never anything out for
the people that are there and that may
be that's the inner fat kid in me coming
out sellers bit
d'arnot I want I need more treats okay
when I go show your home but that is one
of the things where it's just it's super
simple to do and it just invokes those
those feelings that emotion homebuyers
buy homes off of emotion with that and
then the last thing is they love the
fourth reason why homes don't sell is
poor representation now that could be if
you're selling the home on your own
you're poorly representing that
represented or market it out there or
you may have a realtor that is just
honestly not doing much most Realtors I
see in this market they do what I like
to refer to as the post and pray method
where they're posting a sign in the yard
and they're praying that somebody else
will bring them a buyer weird this is
not an industry where things are
reactionary we need to be proactive
right now and with as many price
reductions that I'm seeing right now in
the tre cities this is telling me that
our market is softening now don't hear
me is telling you that the sky is
falling that we're in the middle of a
recession that's not what I'm saying
what I'm saying is that what are where
I'm seeing things as we've crested the
mountain okay and we are going to the
market is going to see us start to come
back down the mountain a little bit and
that's what we're seeing with a lot of
these price reductions that are out
there it is my professional opinion that
we should sell our home right as we
start to peak versus as the peak because
we're coming back down the peak don't
sell your home in the valley sell your
home while you're still cresting the
mountain if you were on the fence
thinking of selling your home I don't
know how much more to tell you then it
is imperative I believe if you are
thinking of selling your home and are
half kin halfway committed wanting to do
it do it now don't wait
I just don't wait do it you will be
happy you know what you might if you
hold out maybe wait in it and get a
couple thousand dollars more you hate
fantastic but if you wait and you lose
five or ten thousand dollars are you
gonna be in the oh this shoulda coulda
what a group probably so remember
pictures
nice presentation and poor
representation are the reasons that your
homes not selling and in the other part
that I think that I see with that is
that you need to get your home out there
everywhere you can't put it on Facebook
Craigslist Instagram YouTube there are
so many different places so many
different mediums for social media that
we can put our homes on for sale that
are out there in addition to just the
Multiple Listing Service now that
certainly the Multiple Listing Service
is huge with things but if you're trying
to do it on your own you need some help
or if you'd like some free consultation
just to know what you can do to get your
home better curb appeal I'll have a link
in the video down below so that you can
download that free information on your
own and use it or if you'd like for me
to come out walk through your home and
give you my professional opinion on a
lot I believe your home could sell for
in the next thirty days or what I
believe you need to do to get your home
show ready or even what upgrades you can
do that will help increase the value of
your home give me a call let me know
call text email whatever works for you
is how I'll respond back to you we're
always here to help and really my my
philosophies just are me with the
knowledge and allow you to make the
decision to do what you want to do so I
hope you guys have a great day and enjoy
the fun rainy weather all right
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