selling Archives - The Phoenix Real Estate Guy

What Homeowners in Phoenix can do to help sell their home

April 4, 2013 By Dean Ouellette

So you listed your home with an agent to sell. Now, what can you do now to help ensure your home sells?

Well of course there are a few basics such as keep your home neat, decluttered, and maybe professionally staged. You also should make sure you make the buyer feel comfortable by leaving during showings, but those are not what I want you to take away from this post.

What I am going to recommend in this article, is something else that you may not think of, but may be even more important.

Spy on yourself.

So what do I mean by spy on yourself?

Once your agent lists your property you assume the marketing on the Internet is going to bring in showings. But will it really? Spy on your own listing and see for yourself.

When you look at your listing on the MLS how does it look? Is the information complete? Is the write up accurate and enticing?

Look at your pictures next and see if they are clear pictures with proper lighting. Are they all facing the same way? (see above) Are the pictures for your home as good or better than pictures for houses you are competing against in your area in the same price range?

How is the video? Is there a video? If not do other houses in your area have videos?

After you have looked at the MLS head on over to Google.

Type in your address and see what comes up. Check out third party sites like Realtor.com and Zillow. How does your listing appear there? Did you know third party sites will often only take the first six pictures from the MLS? So not all of you pictures may show up. Now that you know this, make sure if a third party site is only taking the first six pictures that the first six are the best ones. Yea, your agent can control that.

Now you have your homework. Go spy on yourself. See how your house looks in numerous sites and see if there is anything you can do to make sure your home is displaying as well or better than the competition.

Phoenix sellers, don’t take it personally

March 26, 2013 By Dean Ouellette

A little advice for Phoenix area sellers looking to sell their home. When you get a low offer, don’t take it personally.

I am currently working with a buyer in Chandler and they wanted to place an offer on a house. The house was listed at 310,000 and based on my comps I thought the house was worth 295-300k.

I discussed offer strategies with my buyer and they decided they would be willing to pay around 300,000, but wanted the best deal possible. I discussed putting in an offer of 292,000 and including some comparable a to help support our offer.

After I wrote the offer my clients called me back and decided after talking to his father, they wanted to offer 275,000 to start. We had a conversation about why I thought this was a bad idea, but this is what they wanted to try.

I have a personal philosophy of allowing a new buyer to make this mistake up to two times, after that if they were not willing to listen to my advice then we are probably not a good fit.

I discussed with the buyers their top line and they were still wanting to buy it for up to 300k, they just wanted “more room to negotiate.”

We submitted the offer and I had a conversation with the agent. When the agent said it was a little low I told him to let me know if his sellers wanted to accept it or to counter.

At the end of the next day I called the agent for a status update and was told the seller was insulted and would not be replying. If we wanted to submit a more reasonable offer the sellers would consider it.

My clients decided to keep looking to see if there was anything else out there. They were put off that the sellers would not even counter offer their offer.

Fast forward three weeks. And that house my clients were willing to pay 300k for has just had a price drop and my clients are now under contract on another house.

If the sellers had just counter offered instead of taking it personally I’m fairly certain they would be about a week out from closing instead of still looking for a buyer.

Image credit: creatista / 123RF Stock Photo

Sellers – Ask to see an MLS Portfolio

September 12, 2012 By Chris Butterworth

So you’re thinking about selling your house, and you need to find a highly qualified Realtor to help.

On one hand, you want to work with somebody who’s going to give your house as much attention as you do. After all, this is your home – the place you’ve shared thousands of memories with your family and personalized with your own style. Your Realtor should love your home, show off its highlights, talk it up, and make everyone else love it as much as you do, right?

On the other hand, aren’t all Realtors mostly the same? Yeah, yeah – they put the house in the MLS, wait for an offer to come in, and show you where to sign the paperwork. It doesn’t matter whether you call the girl who used to work in your office, the guy you saw in a magazine, you sister-in-law’s best friend, or the guy who sold the house down the street, right?

Uh, wrong.

If you interview more than one Realtor, you’re doing better than most people out there. Even then, though, most Realtors sound very similar. They’ll all tell you they provide excellent customer service, post your home all over the internet, know how to get you the highest price, and have a buyer already in mind.

Ask to see a MLS Portfolio

Anyone can TELL you all the great things they do, but their actual MLS listings may say otherwise.

Photos

The single most important part of your listing. Potential buyers are out there, sitting at their computer (or smart phone), devouring pictures of homes. They’ll decide they like a house, or dismiss it out of hand, within seconds of seeing a couple pictures. And yet, a large percentage of MLS listings have less than stellar pictures.

dirty or cluttered kitchens
messy bedrooms
terrible lighting – too dark, too bright, or a flash bouncing off a mirror or window
multiple pictures of a small closet or narrow hallway
people or pets in the pictures
and worse!

Why would you trust your home to someone who has publicized bad pictures in the past?

Description

If a potential buyer gets through your pictures and hasn’t dismissed your home out of hand, then next thing they’ll do is read your description. You want your home’s description to be compelling and honest, and to highlight the great things a buyer will love about your house. You don’t want:

misspellings and typos
ALL CAPITALS
boring copy
over-the-top exaggerations

Maybe the Realtor isn’t a very good speller; maybe the Realtor just doesn’t pay attention to details. Either way, if their past listings have descriptions that turn you off, what makes you think yours will be any different?

Details

OK – the photos were great, and the description copy was compelling. Now the buyer is looking at the details – the final cut. This is where accuracy and attention to detail can make the difference between “we really want to see that one” and “it’s not right for us because of xyz”:

number and state of bathroom so you might want to consider some bathroom renovations with bathroomexperts.ie
square footage (of home and of lot)
school district, and local school
HOA information

Bottom Line

Statistically, it’s impossible for everyone to be better than average – half of all the Realtors out there fall below the median! Every Realtor you talk with is going to tell you all the great things they’ll do to sell your home. But take a few minutes to look at their prior work and you’ll see that actions speak louder than words.

It’s your home; it’s your choice. Ask to see an MLS portfolio.

Getting your Phoenix house sold

July 6, 2012 By Jonathan Dalton

Years ago, long before I became a real estate agent, I had my home on the market.

To this day I remember the stress of trying to make the home viewing-worthy, of sublimating my own nature and living habits to the greater good of attracting a buyer.

Every waking moment was spent wondering whether I’d get my price, how long it might take to see an offer, whether we’d get an offer at all, whether anyone ever would even walk in to look at the house.

I’m telling you ”¦ it was the longest five days of my life.

Selling a house is stressful; trying to see a house without success is stressful by an order of magnitude. Yet determining why a house didn’t sell usually is a fairly easy exercise.

Cynical readers will think, “he’s going to say it’s always the price.” It isn’t always the price ”“ only about 90 percent of the time.

About two weeks ago, I launched a new website that is unique to the Phoenix real estate market ”“ ExpiredtoSoldAZ.com. This website, unlike nearly every other real estate site out there, is dedicated solely to sellers and getting homes sold.

While the name itself references that frustrating situation where a listing expired without a sale, the scope of the site isn’t limited to these unfortunate souls. It’s a place where sellers can get helpful tips about selling, staging and marketing ”¦ and, oh by the way, my entire listing marketing plan also is there for the whole world wide web to see.

If you’ve had your home on the market without success, or if you’re thinking of putting your home on the market, it’s well worth the click to see what’s going on at ExpiredtoSoldAZ.com.

It could just mean the difference between listing your home and getting it sold.

I’m a home seller, can I cancel the contract on my home?

March 13, 2012 By Jay Thompson

It doesn’t happen very often, but occasionally a home seller will decide that they don’t really want to sell their home after all.

What can they do?

If your home is only listed for sale and there isn’t a pending offer, then you can cancel your listing agreement. Maybe. It depends on the brokerage you have listed your home with and how your listing agreement is written.

Thompson’s Realty will let a home seller cancel their listing agreement with no strings attached. We realize that sometimes situations change. Be advised, not all brokerages will let you cancel a listing agreement. You should be able to at least take your home off the market. Check your listing agreement. Some brokerages may charge you for expenses they have incurred to market your home. Your options should be spelled out in your listing agreement. Read it carefully…

What if my home is under contract for purchase?

Well, you’ve got a problem. The purchase contract you signed is a legally binding agreement to sell your property under the terms of the contract. Breaking such a contract is generally considered a breach of contract:

Breach of contract n. failing to perform any term of a contract, written or oral, without a legitimate legal excuse … Breach of contract is one of the most common causes of law suits for damages and/or court-ordered “specific performance” of the contract.

Ugh. Law suits for damages. Court orders. Sounds expensive, and it is.

What is the home buyers recourse if you breach your contract and decide not to sell your home?

Typically the home buyer will seek court-ordered relief in the form of “specific performance”. In short, they take you to court and ask the judge to force you to uphold your end of the deal. And the vast majority of the time, they will get exactly that. Should you fail to sell the home after the judge tells you to, well now you are looking at contempt of court charges and all the fun and expense that entails. In this case, you might not need your home anyway as you may well have a new place to stay in The Big House.

What exactly is “Specific Performance”?

From the law.com dictionary:

Specific performance n. the right of a party to a contract to demand that the defendant (the party who it is claimed breached the contract) be ordered in the judgment to perform the contract. Specific performance may be ordered instead of (or in addition to) a judgment for money if the contract can still be performed and money cannot sufficiently reward the plaintiff.

Here is a great article, written by an attorney, with more information on specific performance.

The vast majority of the time, a seller being sued for specific performance is going to lose. After all, you entered into a contractual agreement to sell your home. The buyer has more than likely paid out of their own pocket for inspections, an appraisal, and possibly some mortgage fees. In addition, they may have sold their own home, or arranged to terminate their lease. Not to mention that they stopped looking for a home because you promised to sell them yours. Your real estate agent or the buyer’s agent might even be able to come after you for commissions due since they procured a willing, able and ready buyer for your home.

Occasionally a seller might win a specific cause complaint, but typically that only happens if the seller can’t sell the home. Not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t — as in they no longer can convey clear title.

Any other options?

You could always try asking the buyer if they would agree to a mutual cancellation of the purchase contract. It’s pretty unlikely that will fly because, as previously mentioned, the buyer already has significant monetary “skin in the game”. Maybe if you agree to reimburse them for their costs, and maybe if they are getting cold feet and/or are the nicest people on the planet then they might agree to a mutual cancellation. In the current Phoenix real estate market where many buyers have submitted offers on multiple homes, only to have their hopes and dreams dashed by being outbid, I think that it is pretty unlikely that a home buyer under contract is going to say, “No problem. I’ll just go back to the stress and pressure of finding another home”.

If you do manage to get a buyer to agree to a mutual cancellation, I would strongly suggest having an attorney draft the cancellation agreement so that you are ensured the buyer can’t come back later and sue for specific performance anyway.

In short…

If you are a seller looking for a way out of selling your home, you need to speak to an attorney. Breach of contract can have serious legal and financial implications. Don’t screw around with it. Your agent probably isn’t an attorney. Seek your agent’s advice (which should be, “speak to an attorney…”). If your agent says, “Eh, no big deal, happens all the time!” then… well, good luck. You’re going to need it (and a healthy checking account balance as well).

Disclosure: I am not an attorney, in any way shape form or fashion. And an attorney is exactly who you need to be speaking to if you’re considering breaching your home sale purchase agreement. The above is based on my professional experience. Laws and real estate purchase contracts vary by state and possibly city. Get off the Internet now and find an attorney if you are considering breaching a contract.

Photo Credit: By controlarms on Flickr. CC Licensed.