When selling your Knoxville home, starting with the correct pricing and staging are like getting to start a marathon with a 5 mile head start. No it won’t necessarily make the race easy, but it will definitely get you ahead of the competition, and even the very best Knoxville houses comparable to yours will have to work really hard to catch up and beat you. So often agents are afraid to tell home owners the truth about what the market is saying their home is worth, or what improvements need to be made to help the home show the best it possibly can. The typical agent may be worried that they might not get the listing because they are not telling the seller what they want to hear. The truth is that by not telling the seller the cold hard facts, they are doing both the seller and themselves a disservice. Overpricing leads to extended listing times and ultimately a lower sales price as homes languish on the market. The same holds true for staging and home improvements. These items should be brought to the attention of sellers as the improvements will ultimately help the home sell faster and eliminate objections from potential buyers. Simple fixes such as de-cluttering, painting, removing of wallpaper, or trimming the bushes and planting flowers can make a huge difference in the perception of the potential buyer, turning a negative into a positive. However if the issues are never brought up, they can only stay negatives. Honesty will bring results. Within the past 12 months, because of sellers heeding this advice, I’ve had three listings go under contract within 10 days of listing. The old saying holds true in real estate, honesty is the best policy.
Selling a home in Knoxville? Get an edge on the competition with home staging!
Selling your Knoxville home or thinking about it? Time to learn about home staging! Home staging is not decorating. HOME STAGING is about the house and the Knoxville marketplace (NOT interior design or decorating which is about YOU and YOUR personal style). Staging is a short term marketing tool used to make your Knoxville home more desirable to buyers, where the end goal is not your personal enjoyment but SELLING YOUR KNOXVILLE HOME at the best price.
Because home showings don’t last very long, we have a short time to catch the Knoxville home buyer’s attention.
STAGING ESSENTIALS:
1. CLEAN
2. DECLUTTER
3. DEPERSONALIZE
Anything that can be seen is taking up visual space and ultimately shrinking your room. If you wouldn’t find an item in a fancy hotel or resort, get rid of it (not for good, just while you are selling your home). This includes family photos and all of the stuff on the refrigerator. Paperwork and boxes have got to be out of sight as well.
Remove big bulky furniture. Less is more in a buyer’s mind except when it comes to nicks and dings in walls and other places. Those will ultimately add up to dollars off your sale price, so fix them now.
Take a look at the color and style of your home. The best way to give a home or room a fresh look is a new coat of paint. Remember to keep the focus on the room, not the paint color. Furniture should complement your home’s style and be uniform throughout.
Every space matters! Don’t throw your stuff in the basement or cram it into a closet. The buyers will look in those places and when they looked stuffed or cramped they may perceive that as the home lacking storage space.
If you are stuck or can’t see past your own personal taste, hire a professional home stager.
Home staging can definitely give your home an edge over other comparable homes in the Knoxville home market. Now get to work! 🙂
Thinking about buying a Knoxville home? Nervous? Ask yourself WHY to both.
Are you in the market to buy a home in Knoxville or beyond? Are you worried about whether you are buying at the right time and scared that prices may continue on a downward trend? If you are thinking about buying, the number one question you have to ask yourself is WHY?
The question of WHY, seems like it should be easy enough to answer but make sure you think about the real reasons. Many experts are predicting that, in many markets across the country, home prices will continue to decline. This news, which is so prevalent in the national media, has caused many buyers to stay on the fence of indecision hoping to find that perfect time to buy. If you are planning on purchasing a home to flip or sell quickly as an investment, waiting makes perfect sense.
However, what if your reason for buying a Knoxville home isn’t necessarily about making money? Does it still make sense to wait? Ultimately that depends on WHY you are buying. Perhaps the real reason you are buying a new home is to improve the quality of life for your family. Maybe you are moving across town into a school district where you feel your child could be better served. You could be trying to get closer to friends and family. Delaying these moves may end up costing you more than money.
Sure, no matter why we are moving we want to be sure we are making a good financial decision, but delaying and hoping to ‘time’ the market might not make sense. A recent article by John E. Girouard on Forbes.com last week addressed this issue:
“Trying to time the housing bottom is as much folly as trying to time stocks or any other investment vehicle. In fact, it’s greater folly because if housing prices do fall further, it’s likely to be because mortgage rates are rising, which would mean that over the long term that slightly lower price you may have paid could end up costing more in carrying costs than you saved.”
He went on to say:
“My answer to those who ask whether now’s the time to buy a house is that the American Dream is and always was alive and well. It has nothing to do with the direction of housing prices but everything to do with your financial situation, income stability, ability to shoulder the costs, and if the home you have your eye on is your version of the American Dream—a home you love that you hope to live in for an extended period.”
What does all this mean? It means that you shouldn’t base your decision on buying a home solely on finances. Look at the real reason you want a new Knoxville home and let that weigh at least equally in the decision. Oftentimes getting in that new school district, or closer to family and friends, and improving your quality of life can make a POSSIBLE financial loss seem inconsequential. Ask yourself what is really important.
What are the long term benefits of buying a home vs. renting a home in Knoxville?
This infographic from Forbes.com explains pretty clearly the long term benefit of buying a home in Knoxville versus renting. The American dream is alive an well and as this shows can in turn help you save for retirement. Renting may be a good option if you are planning to stay in a location for a short term, but if you plan to live in your home for an extended period, buying is the right move.
Why waiting and getting a lower price on a Knoxville home may end up costing you more!
Couple today’s ultra-low interest rates and the low home prices being offered by the Knoxville housing market and you get “perhaps the best deals of a generation,” notes a recent article by Bloomberg Businessweek.
With mortgage rates that have been hovering at record lows for the past few weeks (4 percent range or even lower on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, according to Freddie Mac’s mortgage market survey) and Knoxville home prices that are down double digit percentages since the boom in the market. “It’s hard to see the possibility of losing on a home purchase right now, with these mortgage rates,” says economist Dean Baker. “Prices may go lower, but not by much.”
The article notes the following scenario: Buying a $300,000 Knoxville home with a 4 percent mortgage rate and a 20 percent down payment would mean a $1,145 monthly payment. The Mortgage Bankers Association recently predicted that home prices may fall another 3.5 percent by mid-2012 but mortgage rates will INCREASE by a half-point. So for that same loan under that scenario, a Knoxville home would sell for $289,000 while the monthly mortgage bill would be $1,171–only a $26 difference.. HIGHER.
Actually waiting for the lower sales price would cost you $18,037.50 more in interest payments and $9,237.50 more in total payments over the life of the loan. Couple these numbers with the price of lost time in enjoying a Knoxville home that may offer you and your family a better standard of living or a better school district and the cost increases exponentially.
Run the numbers yourself and you will see that now is the time to buy. BEST TIME EVEEEEERRRR! 🙂
How to avoid pricing incorrectly when selling a home in Knoxville
When you are selling your home in Knoxville, your strategy for pricing will be the #1 determining factor for getting a quick sale. Listing your home at the correct price can almost guarantee that a buyer will scoop up your property. On the flip side listing at the wrong price can cause your home to languish on the market for months and months with little to no showings.
Pricing is not a simple process, and Knoxville home sellers are likely to make mistakes that waste both time and money.
Don’t let this happen to you! Read below and avoid these common pricing errors to give yourself the best shot at a fast sale:
ERROR #1: Not doing your research
Often times sellers will base the price of their home on the listing price of the house down the street or something they have heard regarding pricing in the neighborhood. While knowing the prices of your competition is important, in many markets, listing prices are not a good indicator of what your home will actually sell for.
“Currently in Knoxville you will find that homes typically sell for 7% to 9% less than they’re listed for,” says Leslie Sellers, president elect of the Appraisal Institute. “So sellers who list their homes based on other listing prices are already almost 10 percent too high about what they expect to get out of their house.”
TO DO: Price your home based on a “comparative market analysis”. This is a report prepared by a Knoxville real estate professional that looks at the recent sales of similar homes in your area. For a fee, you can also get an estimate of your home’s value with a professional home appraisal.
ERROR #2: Hiring the Knoxville real estate agent who tells you highest list price for your home
It never fails. You talk with several Knoxville listing agents about how much they think they can get for your home, and one gives you a significantly higher listing price than the others. WARNING: the agent may be trying to “buy” your listing by suggesting an unrealistically high asking price. This practice is unethical and will cost you time and money. You will ultimately end up having to reduce your price significantly after your home has sat, without interest for many months.
TO DO: Always interview at least three agents and choose one who backs their suggested listing price with comparable sales data.
ERROR #3: Getting Emotional
You have probably spend significant time, money, and energy turning your house into your home, so it is only natural to be invested emotionally in it’s sale. Here is the bad news, buyers won’t have the same feelings for your home as you do. So regardless of what you “think” your home is worth, this should not be a factor in determining your listing price.
TO DO: You must stay objective during the pricing process by focusing on data spelled out in the Comparative Market Analysis. Do not take personal offense to low offers. Think of them as the starting point of a negotiation that could ultimately result in the sale of your home and transition into your new home.
ERROR #4: Pricing High Early
You only have one chance at a first impression when selling your home in Knoxville and those first impressions are crucial to a fast sale. Research shows that the first 10 days of a listing generate the most activity. If your home enters the market overpriced, it will often be overlooked by many buyers because it will not fall into their price range. Then when you ultimately reduce the price to fair market value, those potential buyers will have already made an offer on another home. The buyers who may be interested in your new lower price will also see that your home has been sitting on the market for a while, which could lead them to perceive that there is something wrong with the home.
TO DO: Price your home correctly the outset to get the attention of serious buyers and sell faster. Keep in mind the additional costs of ownership that you will be paying if your home sits on the market for multiple months at an unrealistic asking price.
ERROR #5: We have “time to sell” so we can price it higher and see what happens
Sellers who are not pressed to sell often choose to test the market by listing their homes at a higher price and waiting to see where the market goes. Unfortunately in most markets, where home prices are dropping, waiting may actually cause you to lose money.
“It’s key to price properly right away because you have a greater chance of selling if you’re just on the market,” says Wendy Sarasohn, senior vice president of The Corcoran Group in New York ” Everybody wants something that’s brand new, not been shopped around, and not on sale.”
TO DO: Price your Knoxville home based on current home values and you will ultimately sell if faster and for more money.
ERROR #6: Market Chasing
If you overprice your home early, you could find yourself making incremental price drops but never quite catching up with the market.
Here is an example: Sellers insisted on putting their Knoxville home on the market for $250,000, despite the fact that comparable homes in the neighborhood were selling for around $225,000. Four months and no showings later, the sellers finally decided to drop the price to $225,000. However, by this time home values had declined significantly in those months, so the reduced price was still four months behind the market. Since then, the sellers have been reducing the price on the home about every three months, but never catching up with their competition.
In a potential buyer’s eyes multiple price reductions not only make a home appear stale, but that there may also be something wrong with it.
TO DO: Price your home competitively to begin with. If you don’t get any activity, don’t hesitate to lower your price quickly. Work with your Knoxville real estate agent to reevaluate market conditions and determine the fair market value of your home.
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you are thinking about selling and would like me to put together a Comparative Market Analysis on your home. I look forward to helping you price it right and get it sold FAST!