bkkone-My former neighbors at the last city I lived in had a bunch of dark, fuzzy, undecipherable pictures. Their house needed work, but they made the place look like a dungeon. It was on the market for 9 months or a year, they took it off the market for a couple of months, put it back on at a reduced price, and hired the same realtor who used the same pictures. That time it sold, but they really got ripped off on the price. Great pictures get people in the door, but bad pictures make me not even bother with looking.
This is so true.
We are also looking into a new home in Pa and I am searching the websites daily. Once you get used to the idea of staging a home and taking steps to make it marketable, you do get very picky about the next house! I am now turned off by cluttered closets, which is ironic considering how messy ours were!
Our realtor did a walk through to point out what else we need to work on. I’m kinda bummed we need to re paint the accent wall in the master BR, but I know he is right.
There is also an upside to taking down all pictures and moving furniture and unneeded items. The spackling and touch ups that would need to be done before the move are already completed projects.
We are now getting ready to move anything not needed into a storage rental unit.
It is amazing how much easier the house is to clean without all the extras!
mk-unfortunately, you also need to hide or remove the financial files, everything personal, medications of any type, computer password files (I use a rolodex, so I really have to put them in the car), anything portable (a friend lost a bunch of glass paperweights and figurines years ago), framed pictures (some people take those also), and anything else that you would hate to see disappear. Included are iPods, chargers, and anything else that is portable, and precious.
[QUOTE=PeteyPie;7393513]
And when you have a high-end KitchenAid mixer and a beautiful toaster and a new microwave which matches your stove and the latest-greatest espresso machine and a coffeepot and a breadmaker and a few canisters and a beautiful jar of pickled lemons and a row of gourmet cookbooks on your counter, IT IS CLUTTER! Calling it clutter doesn’t mean you have to throw it away! Just clear off your counters like the nice realtor tells you.[/QUOTE]
I’m so glad you added this in! My hubby thought I was nuts when I told him we had to have the counters 100% cleared for a showing. We put everything in the bed of the truck outta site.
You reminded me that I need to do another round in the closets.
I might have gone overboard with the horse stalls in the barn though…I scrubbed off all the poops so the walls look amazing. Plus I got all the cobwebs down+scrubbed the centre aisle. It’s too clean for horses now…haha!
JanM-- I bought a dungeon townhouse in a university town along time ago. It was on the market forever when everything else was selling. The only reason I bought it was I got it much cheaper and knew the fixes were pretty easy (carpet, painting, fixtures updated). Was the best thing I ever did as it went up in value 3x in 5 yrs…pre 2005 though.
Good reminder about putting the valuables away!
As I’ve said before, my townhouse in Colorado took nine months to sell, and later my realtor found out that many new builds in the same complex, with worse locations, sold first for higher prices. It turns out the builder was giving 7% commissions on new build sales, while standard there was 6%. I will never buy a second house before selling and going to closing on the first house again.
However, I do know people who had two mortgages, sold the first quickly, and were just fine, but I don’t have the courage for that again, and if I move again will either stay here until it sells, and house shop on the other end then, or get an apartment, move in the boxes for the rest of the house into a bedroom, and then shop when everything is in line financially. Since my next house will be my retirement house, I will choose very carefully.
I think a good way to stage a house is to imagine you are going on a three- or four-week vacation. Select all the clothes and toiletries you would need. Then, pack up everything else and put it in storage.
As for photos, it’s awful what some realtors do, right? I’ve seen photos online with dirty dishes in the sink and garbage cans overflowing. I don’t care what kind of slobs the owners are, it is just horrible that the realtor doesn’t take five minutes to stage the photo. He/she doesn’t have to wash the dishes, just stack them up three feet away out of the picture; same with the garbage can.
The flip side of that coin is to be sure, when you are shopping for a place, to give a hard look at some of those places with horrible photos, especially if they meet all your criteria. I found a deal because of that; the photo was so bad I didn’t even consider it for months, but one day I decided to actually see the place in person and it was amazing.
We originally listed with a realtor, they got our ad wrong, twice. We called to report the false information (like listing it was a 5 bedroom with and indoor arena) and their fixes were even worse.
We e-mailed them great photos but they used the ones THEY had taken without us even home or knowing they were taking them. They had an upclose shot of our chainlink yard fence, yet a long distance shot of our centaur round pen.
After two weeks of trying to get it fixed we pulled the plug and did it all ourselves, and we got it sold.
Maybe I should have been a realtor. Ugh.
I had just had a bad experience with a lazy / unethical agent that was horrible so I am trying a FSBO. I have listed it on the MLS with a local service, about $300 for 6 months. I have done a Zillow listing, a HorseClicks listing, post it periodically on FB on local H/J associations page as well as pages for horse property, have sent out information to tack stores and local trainers. I have also contacted listing agents of other horse properties letting them know I will pay a 3% commission to the buyers agent. Did a YouTube slideshow, YouTube has a free tool to do that.
When you get it on the MLS it automatically goes on Realtor.com, Trulia, and all the local agency sites that have searching capabilities.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/12481-SW-Westfall-Rd-Sherwood-OR-97140/48271325_zpid/
pony alter-Did you post on Farm and Land also? I don’t know how much they charge, but they are national.
[QUOTE=JanM;7407576]
pony alter-Did you post on Farm and Land also? I don’t know how much they charge, but they are national.[/QUOTE]
Thanks I will look into it!
For those of you that had bad experiences with realtors, some companies (mine among them) have a seller services guarantee that spells out exactly what the agent needs to do as your listing agent. If they fail to do so, you call their manager and 1) get manager to act as your agent, or 2) get another agent, or 3) get out of the contract. Don’t tar ethical, hard-working realtors (of which I am one) with the same brush as someone who isn’t committed to working hard to get your home sold.
[QUOTE=JanWeber;7408911]
For those of you that had bad experiences with realtors, some companies (mine among them) have a seller services guarantee that spells out exactly what the agent needs to do as your listing agent. If they fail to do so, you call their manager and 1) get manager to act as your agent, or 2) get another agent, or 3) get out of the contract. Don’t tar ethical, hard-working realtors (of which I am one) with the same brush as someone who isn’t committed to working hard to get your home sold.[/QUOTE]
This is good to know as I need to look into this for my sister’s horse property. I want you as my agent down here
[QUOTE=crosscreeksh;7076505]
I’ve sold our last two - a 50 acre horse farm and a 100 acre race horse training center. Those were listed by an agent (and we paid the commission), but the present farm I’ve been doing everything myself. Local CL, EquineNow, HorseClicks, MyHorseForSale, and most valuable "Lands of America/“Your State”. We just signed with realtor for a flat rate MLS listing because I felt getting it on Realtor.com was valuable. I put my info on our horse web site and link to FB periodically, but just FB would do well, too. Provide every bit of info and details that horse people would appreciate (stall, pasture, tack room stuff and distance to horse functions, services) and LOTS of good pictures. I believe that you, the owner. has a lot more interest in selling YOUR place that a realtor!! (Sorry COTH realtors!!) If you can save big $$ and do it yourself, give it a try. You can see our web site/facility to see what I did.[/QUOTE]
Didn’t realize you could get a MLS No. with a flat fee. Do you mind me asking what the approximate price was?
Thank you.
I’ve seen the flat rate brokers charge from $150 and up, depending on what services you want. Some only do the MLS, some charge more for a more elaborate listing with lots of pictures, and some flat rate services charge according to the specific duties they perform for your sale.
New phenomena here in Central NJ - FSBO’s UNDER-pricing their properties because they don’t have a good idea of the market. Nearly everyone is willing to pay a 3-4% buyer-side commission - it’s the seller-side commission they want to save. To save 2-3% on the seller-side commission, they go it alone. I just saw one (a home, mind you, not farm) under-priced by at least 10%…to save 2%. I remind sellers that the MARKET determines what a buyer will be willing to pay: not how much the seller spent on improvements, the seller’s closing costs, etc.
