UNDERSTANDING SELLERS PRICING; TOO HIGH TOO LOW OR JUST RIGHT!!!

4 Ways to Help Sellers Understand the Right Price

 

When it comes to selling a home, one of the most difficult pieces of the puzzle is pricing. And for real estate agents, it can be one of the most difficult conversations to have with clients.

Sellers don’t want to come in too low and leave money on the table, but they also know that they don’t want to price themselves out of the market, either. For sellers, this difficult situation can cause them to ignore the sound advice of their seasoned agent. It’s our job to help clients find that happy medium between the right price that will get them the biggest payoff, be competitive in the current market, and leave them without seller’s remorse for parting with a home they love.

Here are four smart ways we help sellers understand what the right price is for their home and get them on their way to a successful sale.

1. Start with the Data

Real estate is a game of trust. Agents need to trust clients and clients need to trust their agent. These days, real estate consumers have access to more data than ever before. It’s a blessing and a curse. In many cases, this can be helpful and clients can be proactive about educating themselves about the home selling process. But it can also be confusing—and a potential source of conflict—when sellers see one thing online and are then told another by their agent. And that’s understandable.

Sellers need to remember (and be reminded) that real estate is a local game and can be highly nuanced. These factors can impact the price of a home and are often not captured in more general real estate data.

To combat this hiccup, smart agents will share the logic and data behind their thought process and be explicit as to how they arrived at their suggested listing price. Seasoned agents will be open and willing to address questions from their sellers and work through the math with them. And, in turn, smart sellers will be open to hearing the why behind the pricing. A great sale depends on agents being confident that the home is listed at the right price and sellers being confident that they are getting the most money possible for their home.

 

2. Take a Walk through the Pricing Criteria

While data and education can help alleviate some confusion over comps and a home’s list price, sometimes showing can be far more effective than telling. Set up a time to walk through other on-market homes listed at the price the seller thinks their home should be listed for. Together, look at the specific features or elements that push that home to the higher price point.

Then, set up a time to walk through the seller’s home with them. You’ll be able to examine the home’s nuances and unique features and talk about how it will impact the home’s price in relation to the bigger market. You can also discuss how things like upgrades and renovations, access to various schools, and family-friendly areas might affect the home value.

3. Build a Bidding War

Every seller has dreams of multiple buyers all competing for their home. Unfortunately, many times the biggest drivers of bidding wars—like school districts and market inventory—may be out of the seller’s (and agent’s) control.

But seller’s who are set on giving themselves the best chance at building a bidding war would be smart to remember that there are two ways to make sure their home’s listing and showing has the highest potential to drive multiple offers.

·         Staging the Home. Spending the money to clear out clutter and have the property professionally staged can boost both curb and walk-through appeal. When buyers see a well-appointed home, the intrinsic value goes up compared to homes that haven’t been given this boost of visual TLC.

·         Mention key selling points. Agents at the top of their game are already well-versed in how to highlight key offer-drivers.  However, sellers should be proactive in sharing the little things that only someone who has lived in the home can really appreciate. Things like closets with smart organizational systems or specialty energy efficiencies can be surprisingly big selling features.

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4. Setting Aside Emotional Attachment

For sellers who have poured love into their home (along with some serious sweat equity), it’s easy to have those acts blind them when it comes to pricing their home. Homeowners put in the work, time, and love, and they want their selling price to reflect those!

But the truth is, buyers seldom care that the old owners lovingly carved that bannister by hand (they just care what it looks like and whether it’s their taste). Remember, smart pricing will help the right buyer see themselves in the seller’s home. The goal of setting the right price is to bring in as many viable, healthy offers as possible. Assigning value based on emotional attachment can be the biggest selling sabotage of all. Sellers should love the home for what it was, hold tight to the memories and, ultimately, embrace the potential joy and life possibilities that can come from a successful sale.

WRITTEN BY Trulia Staff

Condo, Townhome or Single Family Home, 6 Staging Pitfalls Sellers Should Avoid

6 Staging Pitfalls Sellers Should Avoid

In many cases, staging will determine how easily a home will sell, but luckily, it’s one of the few factors that you have control over. With a little guidance from their great agent (read: me!) any smart homeowner can get their home picture perfect and buyer ready.

Of course, we’re not talking about major renovations here—just deep-cleaning, uncluttering, and maybe a fresh coat of paint. As agents know, the point of staging is to remove anything that will distract a buyer from all the great things the home has to offer. But for some sellers, it’s easy to go overboard if they’re not careful.
Here are a few of the biggest pitfalls we’ve seen when sellers over-stage a home and how we can help them avoid these missteps.

1. Don’t be dull

Are you selling a hotel room? No? Then a home shouldn’t look like a hotel! The purpose of staging is not to make the home boring and bland. The goal of staging is to get the potential buyer to feel that the home looks nice all the time, so it should feel like real—but incredibly neat!—people live there. As agents, we typically prefer boring over cluttered and crazy, but remember, a few spots of color photograph well and will stand out in listing photos. Simple touches add subtle interest, like a red throw pillow or a turquoise fruit bowl—just don’t go too wild.

2. Selling with smell

When you’re listing a home where sellers are living, sometimes it can be tough to keep a listing in tip-top shape for spur of the moment showings. Of course, no one wants a home to smell like last night’s beef stroganoff when a potential buyer arrives. But many sellers overcompensate with potpourri and air fresheners. Beware of overwhelming a serious buyer with seriously strong scents. A home should smell fresh and clean, but not heavily perfumed. A seller’s best bet is to invest in a deep clean to remove lingering smells and avoid cooking anything too potent during the list time.

3. The sound of music

Ditch the tunes. Mood music backfires more often than not. Sellers won’t be able to guess the buyer’s musical tastes, and it can make some buyers feel like they’re being manipulated.

4. The elephant graveyard

Sometimes it’s necessary for the homeowners to move out before the house sells. But too many sellers take their best furniture and possessions with them to their new home, leaving only the most run-down furniture behind. In a sparsely furnished house, it’s even more important that the pieces left behind are tasteful and add to the ambiance of the home. The old sectional sofa sitting forlornly in an empty living room will just make the house feel abandoned. The house should be well furnished or completely empty. Not somewhere in between.

5. Wasting money on the wrong renovations

Many sellers undertake huge projects right before they sell. Perhaps the bathroom is outdated, and they’ve always wanted to fix it up. But it’s hard for sellers to guess which renovations will provide the greatest return on the investment. Small touches like new cabinet hardware or new light fixtures might go a long way toward making the home feel up to date, without doing a major renovation costing tens of thousands of dollars. Sellers should depend on their savvy agent to help figure out how much updating is needed so the home will sell easily in the current market.

6. Remove clutter, don’t just move it around

Agents say this to virtually every client: When it comes to selling a home, less is more. An uncluttered home makes listing photos more attractive, which translates to more showings, and it makes the house feel open and airy. But it rarely works to try to hide the clutter. A serious buyer will want to look under the hood, kick the tires a little. That means they’ll explore the basement, open up your closets, and even look under your sink. So it’s important to that agents stress the importance of getting rid of or storing extra belongings. It might seem like a lot of work, but it will make it easier to move out once the seller gets the offer they’ve been waiting for.

These tips were originally written by Trulia contributor Virgina Mcquire

9 Things Buyers Should Ignore While House Hunting in Palm Beach and South florida

9 Things Buyers Should Ignore While House Hunting

For many buyers, looking for a new home can be a challenge. As agents, we see homes daily and are well-trained on how to see past the superficial problems and see a home for its potential. But when buyers are looking for the home in which they plan on building their lives, it can be hard to envision how a home could truly be ‘mine.’ Many people choose to remodel and stage their homes prior to putting it on the market, but then there are the vast majority of people who choose to sell their beloved home “as-is.”

While a turn-key home is ideal for people who want to move right in and make no changes, there are those “time warp” homes that are actually incredible gems that just need a little polishing.

As you walk  through your house hunt, here are 9 things about a for-sale home that we like to  remind you to ignore in order to keep from passing on a what could be the perfect home.

An “Older” Home

Old isn’t always synonymous with bad. Some homes built decades ago have stood the test of time because they were built with solid, quality materials and have a classic style. Don’t always assume that new = nicer, either. Some newer homes are “affordable” because they were built cheaply. Buyers should remember that there are many simple fixes for dated homes, and the plus side of an older home is charm and character you can’t find in a brand new build.

Paint Colors

Things that may not be a huge deterrent in the long run can distract buyers. Buyers should ignore the existing paint choices and focus on the structure of the room, the placement of the windows, and other more permanent features. Paint is an incredibly easy and a cheap fix in a home and something that can be changed in just a couple hours.

Wacky Wallpaper

Like paint, wallpaper is easily replaced or covered over. So no matter how designed challenged the walls seem to look—it’s an easy fix.

Kitchen Appliances And Accessories

The kitchen is the heart of the home and often, the appliances aren’t going to live up to most buyers’ dreams. As long as you  leave some room in the budget, or have a timeline to replace the existing appliances, a seller’s yellow fridge shouldn’t be a deal breaker.

Ugly Carpet

Flooring options are getting more and more diverse and there are now so many low-cost options that look exactly like their higher-priced counterparts. Don’t walk away from a great house just because the floor is a bore—or a mess.

Funky Smells

Except for a serious mold problem, there’s nothing a deep cleaning can’t fix. Buyers  should remember to focus on the home’s bones and the potential it has when they give the home their own touch.

Curb Appeal

If you are not saying “wow” when you first drive up, that’s ok. Perhaps the  reward awaits inside. Close your eyes and envision a different colored front door and some new landscaping, and presto—it might just be your dream home!

Popcorn Ceilings

It’s great at the movies, but not at home. No worries! A ceiling specialist can come in and have it all that scrapped off. It can be a messy issue and can be pricey, but it’s not the end of the world.

No Privacy

If the house feels too exposed and lacks privacy from next door—there are ways to fix that. Remember “hedges make great neighbors” and  there are smart solutions as to how to remedy the issue.

This post was originally written by Michael Corbett, Trulia

 

The bad news: Tomorrow is the deadline for federal income taxes. The good news: Chance of getting an IRS audit the lowest in years

The bad news: Tomorrow is the deadline for federal income taxes. The good news: The number of IRS staff auditors is at its lowest point since at least the 1980s

 

Chance of getting an IRS audit the lowest in years

 

As millions of Americans race to meet Tuesday's tax deadline, their chances of getting audited are lower than they have been in years. Budget cuts and new responsibilities are straining the Internal Revenue Service's ability to police tax returns. This year, the IRS will have fewer agents auditing returns than at any time since at least the 1980s.

"We keep going after the people who look like the worst of the bad guys. "But there are going to be some people that we should catch, either in terms of collecting the revenue from them or prosecuting them, that we're not going to catch."

Last year, the IRS audited less than 1 percent of all returns from individuals, the lowest rate since 2005. This year The numbers will go down.

Your chances of getting audited vary greatly, based on your income. The more you make, the more likely you are to get a letter from the IRS.

Only 0.9 percent of people making less than $200,000 were audited last year. That's the lowest rate since the IRS began publishing the statistic in 2006.

By contrast, 10.9 percent of people making $1 million or more were audited. That's the lowest rate since 2010.

Only 0.6 percent of business returns were audited, but the rate varied greatly depending on the size of the business. About 16 percent of corporations with more than $10 million in assets were audited.

Should you sell? 5 Crucial Considerations

 

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’ve undoubtedly seen headlines stating that real estate prices are on the rise, and in most markets, housing has begun to bounce back.  In a selected few metros, like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City, the housing market isn’t just bouncing back – it’s booming!  So, if you’ve been on the fence, waffling about whether or not to sell, consider these 5 things:

Equity  Advantage

During the housing bust, a huge percentage of home owners saw their equity evaporate as home values dropped.  Many even owed more than their houses were worth. No one wants to sell when it requires writing a check to the bank or listing as a short sale. And owners with equity definitely didn’t want to list knowing that lower sale prices would have eaten it all away.  If you’ve been waiting to sell for this reason, chances are you now have a bit more positive equity in your home, thanks to recent market upswings.  Maybe now is the time to consider that long-awaited sale and hopefully walk away with some equity intact.

Too Big for Your Own Good

You’ve grossly outgrown your current home – the house you’re in is either way too small after that 2nd or 3rd child, or an elderly parent has moved in.  If you’re in a home that’s too small for your immediate – and future – needs, this is the time to consider the jump to something a bit larger. Sale prices are solid, the spring selling season is upon us, and you can take advantage of current interest rates before they start to climb.

Incredible Shrinking Family

What if you’ve recently joined empty nester club?  Maybe your oldest child has headed off college, and you’ve realized it’s time to pack up that extra bedroom and ditch all that square footage.  Selling now and downsizing has many perks – lower costs and less cleaning and maintence, to name a few – so go for it, and take advantage of a move that enhances your new lifestyle.

Interest Rates Could Light a Fire

Interest rates aren’t going anywhere but up, so if you’re wondering when it would be the best time to get a good mortgage for a new home once you’ve sold your old one, the answer is NOW.  Rates are at historic lows and aren’t likely to go anywhere but north in the foreseeable future. Sell now, buy, and get in on those low rates for the long term.

Sell When You Need to, Don’t Chase the Market

When it comes to selling advice, the bottom line is: List when you need to. If you really need to sell your current home for a specific reason, including job changes, divorce, children, health issues, marriage, etc., don’t try and chase the market in either direction.  When you sell and subsequently buy another house, there’s good news: if you’re selling low, then you’ll be buying low.  And if you’re selling high, well, then you’ll be buying high. It’s a wash.  Come to terms with the current market, and sell your home for its current fair-market value.  And when you move on, be sure to buy a house you can afford, both now and in the future!

Michael Corbett

Michael Corbett is Trulia's real estate and lifestyle expert.

 

7 Financial Benefits of Home Ownership This Tax Season!

Freshen Up On The 7 Financial Benefits of Home Ownership This Tax Season

The financial benefits of homeownership are evident year round, but particularly around tax time – they seem to jump off the page. Let’s examine how homeownership makes “cents” –  from the tax benefits, to good old fashioned financial stability.

1. Homeownership Builds Wealth Over Time

We were always taught growing up that owning a home is a financially savvy move. Our parents knew it, and their parents knew it. But this past decade of real estate turbulence has shaken everyone’s confidence in homeownership. That is why it’s so important that we discuss this again now that we’re in a ‘new market.’ Homeownership can be a very savvy financial move – but only if people buy homes they can actually afford. In 2014, this idea of sticking to a home you can afford to gradually build wealth is a “rule” that just happens to be new and old at the same time.

2. You Build Equity Every Month

Your equity in your home is the amount of money you can sell it for minus what you still owe on it. Every month you make a mortgage payment, and every month a portion of what you pay reduces the amount you owe.  That reduction of your mortgage every month increases your equity. That is especially true now with the elimination of risky mortgages like negative amortized and interest-only loans – thanks to the new “Qualified Mortgage” rules. The way mortgages work is that the principal portion of your payment increases slightly every month year after year. It’s lowest on your first payment and highest on your last payment. Thus, as the months and years go by, your equity grows!

3. You Reap Mortgage Tax Deduction Benefits

• Mortgage deduction: The tax code allows homeowners to deduct the mortgage interest from their tax obligations. For many people this is a huge deduction, since interest payments can be the largest component of your mortgage payment in the early years of owning a home.
• Some closing cost deductions: The first year you buy your home, you are able to claim the points (also called origination fees) on your loan, no matter whether they are paid by you or the seller. And because origination fees of 1 percent or more are common, the savings are considerable.
• Property tax is deductible: Real estate property taxes paid on your primary residence and a vacation home are fully deductible for income tax purposes.

4. Tax Deductions on Home Equity Lines

In addition to your mortgage interest, you can deduct the interest you pay on a home equity loan (or line of credit). This allows you to shift your credit card debts to your home equity loan, pay a lower interest rate than the horrendously exorbitant credit card interest rates, and get a deduction on the interest as well.

5. You Get a Capital Gains Exclusion

If you buy a home to live in as your primary residence for more than two years then you will qualify. When you sell, you can keep profits up to $250,000 if you are single, or $500,000 if you are married, and not owe any capital gains taxes. Now, it may sound ridiculous that your house could be worth more than when you purchased it after these past several years of falling house prices. However, if you purchased your home anytime prior to 2003, chances are it has appreciated in value and this tax benefit will come in very handy.

6. A Mortgage Is Like a Forced Savings Plan

Paying that mortgage every month and reducing the amount of your principal is like a forced savings plan. Each month you are building up more valuable equity in your home. In a sense, you are being forced to save—and that’s a good thing.

7. Long Term, Buying Is Cheaper than Renting

In the first few years, it may be cheaper to rent. But over time, as the interest portion of your mortgage payment decreases, the interest that you pay will eventually be lower than the rent you would have been paying. But more importantly, you are not throwing away all that money on rent. You gotta live someplace, so instead of paying off your landlord’s home or building, pay off your own!

As always, you must look very hard at your personal situation before making the big decision to buy.

Michael Corbett

Michael Corbett is Trulia's real estate and lifestyle expert. He hosts NBC's EXTRA's Mansions and Millionaires. In additional to his regular segments on ABC's The View and Fox News, he is a national best selling author with three critically acclaimed real estate books: Find It, Fix It, FLIP IT!; Ready, Set, SOLD! and Before You BUY!