An informational source for people who are relocating, with a particular focus on moving to the Carlsbad area of North County San Diego, with advice, guidance and true stories to help you on your way and make it a great journey, from a REALTOR� with plenty of personal (4 major moves, most recently from Boston to Carlsbad, California) and professional relocation experience. Are you running into problems selling your home? Need to find a new one quickly? Never moved before and haven't a clue? You'll find some great tips on how to solve your relocation issues here. Or ask me a question any time and I'll share some solutions or tell you where to get more information.
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If you have been through it you probably already know this. But maybe not.
Or you have forgotten if you bought a long time ago (and things have changed).
Buying a home, whether you are doing this for the first time or are experienced at it, really IS like having a second job, at least a part-time one. Especially if you take your house hunting seriously and want to do as good a job as you can.
The market is complicated, as are the state laws that govern how real estate transactions must occur. And if you are relocating and must both sell and buy, I would say this really becomes a full time endeavor, as least for the time it takes to get both sides of the transaction completed.
First Time Home Sellers - Are You Worried About Security and Your Possessions?
A common concern of sellers when they list their home, especially if it is for the first time, is security.
Sellers worry that something may get taken, or damaged, during an open house. Or when the home is being shown by another agent. This is a normal concern and is to be expected.
Buyers will not see your home on their own (except during an open house, but your agent will be there) and will need to be accompanied by a licensed agent who can access the lockbox. So this adds some measure of security. While I do not believe it happens often, there are times when a homeowner has had an item taken or damaged.
The best way around this is to make sure that any items that are valuable, precious, easily broken, personally meaningful, or irreplaceable are packed away.
Since you should de-clutter or de-personalize your home in order to have it show its best (even if it makes it feel that it is NOT your home anymore), putting away those things that are important to you will give you the best measure of security.
First Time Home Sellers - What IS a Lockbox For and How Does it Work?
Once you have hired an agent, made the big decisions about pricing, got your home de-cluttered and neatened up, you are ready the big time - showings.
We talked about showings in a previous article (see Article 5 below). But what ARE lockboxes for and how do they work?
Lock boxes are very common in some parts of the country, but not in others, so this may not be relevant to your market.
Here in my area of California we use electronic lock boxes provided by Sentrilock. The boxes hold a key to the house and are attached to the front door, the hose bib or some other place where they are easily accessible. The advantage is that the keys are kept safe and can only be accessed by a license agent who possesses a key card (with their personal pin). The card is inserted in the box, the agent's code must be entered, and the lock box opens so the key can be accessed.
The advantage is that maximum flexibility for showings is allowed since the key is available to a licensed agent. You can, of course, request that agents call ahead and/or make appointments, but you do not need to be home for them to show the property.
The other advantage is that the lock box electronically records who has accessed the property and when, so your agent can keep track of who has shown the property.
Sellers - Here's What Your Listing Agent Ought To Do For You
Selling your Carlsbad home is a challenge. And you want to know that the REALTOR you hire will get the job done. Of course I am assuming that you have priced the home to sell, since we know that no matter how much marketing you do, an overpriced home will not sell.
There are many strategies a listing agent can employ in order to help you find the right buyer for your home. The operative word here is CAN: some agents take the easy (or lazy) way and do the minimal work needed to get a home sold, or don't have a clue about Internet marketing where most of today's buyers are.
Gaining the maximum exposure in today market is critical since there is so much competition. Buyers are being picky and are not willing to pay more than what they perceive market value to be. So, to reiterate…PRICING is the most important thing you can do to sell your home. And of course your home will be free of clutter and personal items (i.e., staged), and repairs will have been taken care of. Assuming that is on target, then, what sorts of things might you expect the agent you are considering hiring to provide you with regarding to marketing and advertising?
Standard offerings
listing in the MLS – accurate information, no typos hopefully, and lots of high quality photos
signage in the yard
attractive feature sheet in the house and in a brochure box (there is some debate about the brochure box)
An ad in the local newspaper, an open house or two (or perhaps one every weekend – hmm, is that what you really want, given we know few homes sell this way?) and broker caravan
Other offerings
Single site webpage or blog (see 6547 Calle Valperizo for an example of a blog I am using for my newest listing)
Unique URL for YOUR home (see above)
Virtual tours – these are easy to do and pretty common, yet lots of agents DON’T use them…and buyers say they WANT to see them. Here’s an example.
Written marketing plan – many agents do not have one and look at you like a deer in the headlights if you ask to see one. How do you know what they plan to do to target market YOUR home?
Lots of photos – buyers tell us they WANT to see photos, lots of them. Some buyers will not even look at a listing that has no photos…and many don’t. Here is an example of a slide show of a recent listing of mine.
On-line flyers and postings on multiple websites – here is a Vflyer for my latest listing. This gets posted on multiple sites. And there are dozens and dozens of real estate website where your listing should be (Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow are just a few of the big name ones that get the most Internet traffic).
There’s more, but you get the idea. Don’t short change yourself. Selling your home is TOO important, if you are really serious about it.
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If I can provide more information about Carlsbad or surrounding communities, and the housing market in general, or otherwise assist you in your home search, please contact me by phone or text at (760) 840-1360 or email me at JDowler@remax.net.
Whew, it has really gotten busy. That's good news, which is why I bring it up.
I have been talking with friends of mine in the business, as well as home inspectors, mortgage folks, and escrow companies, and they all say the same thing. It HAS gotten busier. Not sure that is true everywhere but here in Southern California there is a noticeable difference.
And I have to apologize that I have not been able to keep up the same pace with blogging here about relocation. I just have not been able to keep up with it all. Ironically most of the business that has kept me so busy with working with folks who are relocating here, or investigating the possibilities.
I am working on a few other articles to be posted soon that should be of interest. So stay tuned.
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Sellers worry that something may get taken, or damaged, during an open house. Or when the home is being shown by another agent. This is a normal concern and is to be expected.
I have been talking with friends of mine in the business, as well as home inspectors, mortgage folks, and escrow companies, and they all say the same thing. It HAS gotten busier. Not sure that is true everywhere but here in Southern California there is a noticeable difference.