Saturday, June 28, 2008 - Rising Interest Rates Mean Smaller Pool of Buyers

The Washington Post reported yesterday that mortgage interest rates are at a 9-month high. Recently I wrote about the fact that every time rates rise, buyers qualify for less house. In other words, they lose buying power.

(c) 2008 Susan Pruden

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - Your Hard Work and Selling Your House

Those who know me know that I love photography. I read a lot of photography (and real estate) blogs and I just saw a comment at The Online Photographer that really hit home as it relates to real estate and sellers who are trying to sell their homes.

The sentence (and the entry it came from) was: If someone doesn't like your photograph, they're not going to like it after they find out how hard you worked to make it. If they already like it, they're not going to like it better hearing of your pain.

One of the hardest things for sellers to learn is that, once the house has a For Sale sign in the front yard, it is no longer a home -- it is a commodity in the eyes of everyone who sees it. No one, except your family, cares about how much hard work went into getting it ready to sell. We only judge the results of the hard work.

Sellers, do the very best you can to present the house to the market. Make it look its very best, scrubbed and shining for the public to view. Just don't expect that your hard work will be a factor in the public's reaction. Buyers and their agents don't take any of your personal circumstances into consideration. They are only looking at what it looks like now and how it compares to the competition.

Truth is, the public expects you to make the effort to show the house off at its best. The public will really only take notice if you haven't.

(C) Susan Pruden.

Sunday, June 22, 2008 - Remodel or Sell?

I'm so-o-o far behind in my reading -- I'm trying to catch up on articles I bookmarked months ago. I came across this little gem from early May.

The Washington Post had an article in the Real Estate section called "If You Can't Sell the Home, Why Not Remodel?"  The gem came at the end of the article, in the form of a website called RemodelOrMove.com, with all kinds of calculators to play with. (I love playing with calculators like these.)

Another website that sort of goes hand-in-hand with this is CostVsValue.com from Remodeling Online. The Cost Vs. Value Report describes the average cost of a whole variety of remodeling projects, the amount that it may add to your resale value and the percentage of the cost that would be re-couped. Keep in mind that these numbers are averages over very large areas of the country, so your mileage may vary. However, it's a great place to start.

(C) Susan Pruden.

Thursday, June 5, 2008 - Storm Clean-up and Property Taxes

The huge storms yesterday may have brought down tree limbs, but my tax dollars are at work, with Cheverly's Public Works Department to the rescue!

ChvBlog mentions the power outages and floods, both of which our house managed to avoid - yea!

Between the first and second storms, the Public Works guys had cut down the hanging branches and cleared our neighbor's driveway. It was still raining and lightening was not far off.

This morning, the rest of the clean-up had begun...

(C) Susan Pruden.

Monday, June 2, 2008 - A Seller who Remembers Being a Buyer

What a difference there is between sellers who have recently been buyers and those who bought years and years ago.

The sellers who have recently been buyers have a much better appreciation for what attracts buyers in the marketing of their homes. They were in the market recently enough to remember the frustration of no photos, no virtual tours and skimpy descriptions. They remember dealing with sellers who were not savvy about how much the market had changed over the years.

Several years ago, a buyer mentioned to me that she just figured that a listing with no photo meant it was too ugly for a photo, when the reality is that the agent often hasn't gotten around to it. By the time the photo gets attached, the property is old news.  What has really surprised me is how wide-spread this notion is -- that a photo-less property is somehow less of a property. 

Sellers (and their agents) who don't realize what buyers want to see when they're shopping for a home will get left behind.

Drop me a line if you're curious to know what makes today's buyers sit up and take notice!

(C) Susan Pruden.