Socks the Cat is back!
Socks sez
“OK all you pepuls. It’s time to buy howses now.”
Just thought I’d toss that out there. It can’t hurt.
See more LolCats at I Can Has Cheezburger
Bad MLS Photos, The Flip Side
December 9, 2008
I post every once in a while about the truly horrible MLS photos that are out there. Today’s post is the opposite. This is a stunning photo series of remodeled kitchen.
$435,000; 3bed, 2bath, pool, Awhatukee
15201 S Foxtail, Phx 85048
New cabs, counters, fixtures throughout
Gorgeous!
This series is a showstopper. I look at MLS photos for hours at a time, every day. By the time I finished this 4-series of just the kitchen in this home, I was compelled to go back and look at them all over again. No wonder my clients loved it when they saw it online, and called me to make an appointment to see it.
That last photo looks like a magazine cover! Whoever took these should get a commission from the sale.
Goes to show ya, MLS photos can really make a difference.
By the way, this home is still actively for sale. It’s like this throughout and shows like a Pottery Barn catalogue. The sellers are not my client but if you’re looking for a 3/2 house in Ahwatukee with a pool and a great lot (and you’re not already commited to a Realtor) I’m happy to show it to you. Call!
Related Posts
Why Phoenix is Known for Sunsets
December 8, 2008
Just stepped out on the back patio of a client’s new home and snapped this with my dinky little 4 year old digital camera. It’s December 8 and I was out there in my t-shirt and jeans.
Ahhhh. Life is good in Phoenix.
Fixing Bad MLS Photos
December 7, 2008
Remember yesterday’s post about staging the entryway of your home? (OK, so it wasn’t yesterday. I got a little busy.)
A few subtle photo fixing tips can make all the difference in the photos that go in the MLS.
First of all, if your home is priced above about $225,000 or so, your Realtor should hire a professional photographer. A pro’s photos won’t need any of this fixing.
If you’re doing the FSBO thing (for sale by owner, aka Fizzbo) or your Realtor doesn’t hire a professional photographer, at least make sure you or your Realtor do a little minor photo-fixing. I’m not talking about photoshopping in a lush green lawn where it doesn’t exist, or deleting a telephone pole in the middle of your yard, mind you.
Nothing deceptive, just make the photos look as good as the house. See the before and after below. It’s a really minor change. Photo fixing won’t overcome the fact that the seller didn’t spend a couple hundred dollars to fancy up the front entryway, but it helps.
Before
After
More Before and After photos. I used Google’s freeware photo editing software, Picasa. I highly recommend their “Straighten” feature.
Before
After
Before
After
In each case above, the “After” photo has been cropped, straightened and “Sharpened” using Picasa. For the living room shot I also used Picasa’s “Warmify” tool to take out the bluish tinge to the white walls. It all took about 90 seconds.
Will that 90 seconds sell these homes? No, of course not. But in a market that’s as tough as the one we’re in, sellers need every advantage they can get. The “After” photos might get a couple more people to come look in person. A couple more people looking in person might equal 1 offer. And one person making an offer is all you need.
Related Post – Good MLS Photos
Seller’s Stress
December 6, 2008
If you’re trying to sell your house in the current extreme buyers’ market, sometimes your days feel like this:
Buyers are bargain shopping in the extreme. They know sellers are at a disadvantage in this market.
Here’s some advice for handling those nail-biting weeks (months?) that you’re on the market for sale. It’s by no means a complete list; checkout the Related Posts for more.
A Few Ideas for Handling Seller’s Stress
- Take up yoga, tai-chi or meditation
- If your Realtor isn’t giving you a weekly or every-other-week update, ask for one
- Ignore your neighbors’ asking prices; concentrate on nearby sold prices
- Enlist the entire family in keeping the house clean for showings
- Foster your pets out with family, friends and/or neighbors (pets are one of the quickest ways to decrease the value of your home)
- Invest $20 in a new, cushy outside door mat
- Slap a fresh coat of paint on everything, especially baseboards and door frames
- To present the appearance of a clean house in under 5 minutes: wipe down counters, appliance fronts and mirrors with diluted Pine Sol or Windex
- Remove 1/3 of everything in every closet in the house
- Do the same with every bookcase
- Take everything off the kitchen fridge. Buyers aren’t considering buying your five year old’s macaroni craft project so they don’t need to see it.
- Hide your personal papers, bills, and so forth from the office/desk area (it’s nobody else’s business)
- Take down family photos from every wall and dresser top
- Remove the prescriptions from the medicine cabinet and the “marital aides” from the bedroom (people WILL look)
- Counter every offer you receive, even the ones that make you want to scream profanities at the buyer (and see below about Handling Low Ball Offers)
Related Posts:
Friday Fun
December 5, 2008
Uber blogger Theresa Boardman does a Fridays are for Fun series. Since I’m totally exhausted this week, I’m shamelessly copying her style.
Henceforth (or at least until I forget I made this mini-resolution), Fridays are for Fun here at the North Phoenix Agent blog.
As a Realtor, I drive a lot. I mean A LOT. This? Warmed the cockles of my heart.
Woot Woot!
I filled the tank of my Jeep Wrangle for just over $31. I can’t remember the last time I did that. When gas prices peaked at near $4 a gallon, I was plunking down a cool $80 to fill the tank. It’s not like I could put clients into a gas-efficient subcompact either. So I grin and bear it. But when I filled up this afternoon I did a little jig of joy.
Have a great weekend y’all!
Real Estate Glossary – Earnest Money
December 4, 2008
WHAT IT IS
Earnest money is the amount of money a buyer submits with an offer to purchase a house. You actually write a check (or a copy of the check) and send it with the purchase offer.
Earnest money proves the buyer is ‘in earnest’, or serious about buying that house. If the seller accepts the offer, the earnest money is immediately deposited with the escrow/title office. It becomes part of the purchase price of the house.
A personal check is usually acceptable for earnest money.
Working with a lot of Canadian investors lately has taught me that many Canadians call it the “Deposit”.
HOW MUCH IS RIGHT?
A really common question I’m asked by buyer clients (especially first time buyers) is, “How much earnest money is the right amount?”
Technically, I’m not supposed to tell you. At least that’s what I remember from my rookie training classes. If I’m remembering correctly, I think this was a rule dreamed up by the legal eagles in our profession. They worry that if Realtors simply tell clients what to offer, how much to put down, how much earnest money to offer and so forth. . . . well, we’re essentially price fixing and could be sued later by disgruntled buyers who are having buyer’s remorse.
I used to be a paralegal and have lawyers in the family, so I’m pretty ultra-sensitive to the myriad of ways agents get themselves sued. Since I like to keep on the right side of my company’s legal department, and since I haven’t got a brass farthing worth suing me over, I won’t state a ‘proper’ earnest money amount here.
But it’s typical to put 1% to 2% of the purchase price up as earnest money.
HOW MARKET CONDITIONS CHANGE EARNEST MONEY
2005 and early 2006 were boom-boom years in the metro Phoenix real estate market. Sellers received multiple offers after only days or hours on the market. Sale prices were frequently above list price, and buyers often waived many of their usual inspections and contingencies just to secure the house. This is an extreme seller’s market.
In a seller’s market earnest money often amounts go up. Buyers are competing against each other to buy the few properties available and increase their earnest money and/or down payments to make their offer look better than others’ offers. I commonly saw earnest money amounts in the tens of thousands. It wasn’t unusual to see earnest money amounts that were 4% or 5% of the purchase price, or more.
Today we’re in an extreme buyer’s market. In many cases earnest money amounts have dropped as a result. I’ve recently seen purchase offers for average priced homes ($200,000 to $300,000-ish) with earnest money of only $1,000 (that’s less than 1%).
Properties that first time buyers typically buy (condos, any property under $125,000-ish) often bring earnest money amounts at $500 and under. Some cash-strapped first time buyers using FHA loans even ask that earnest money be refundable at close. They often apply that money to the closing costs. (see more about buying with little or no money down here.)
EARNEST MONEY EXAMPLE
For example: Buyer looks at a house with an asking price of $299,900. Buyer makes an offer of $280,000. That $280,000 is made up of – (1) $3,000 earnest money, (2) $40,000 cash down payment, and (3) a promise to get a home loan for the remaining $237,000.
RULE OF THUMB
One rule of thumb about earnest money is, “put up as much earnest money as you can afford to risk.” The risk bit is important. Earnest money is forfeitable if the buyer breaches the contract. In plain English this means that if you, the buyer, back out of the purchase after your Due Diligence period, the seller has the right to keep your earnest money as compensation for the lost time on the market.
Related Posts -
The Low Ball Offer
December 2, 2008
Reposting an oldie but a goodie. And given the current market, this advice is even more topical than when I originally posted it.
You love your house. But you must sell. You primp it, paint it, stage it, hire a brilliant Realtor and list it for sale at a price you think is fair. And then IT happens.
You receive an offer that’s SO LOW that you can’t remember the last time you felt so INSULTED! (#$&*^%#!!!
Stop. The most important thing to remember in a strong buyer’s market like the Valley’s in right now is this — you MUST counter every offer received (if you can’t accept it outright.) Do NOT reject that insultingly lowball offer out of hand.
The second most important thing to remember is that your Realtor is bound by law to present every offer s/he receives on your behalf. Even the insulting ones. Do not shoot the messenger.
Whatever you need to do to get over being insulted, hurt and angry, go do it. Please! I’m begging you! Go beat up a tree. Scream into your pillow until your throat resembles roadkill. Run a marathon. Take Michael Flatley Lord of the Dance dancing lessons until you finally lose those last pesky 10 pounds. If you must scream at your Realtor, do it.
Whatever it takes, get over your anger. Then, sleep on it, and do what one of my teachers Michael Valenti calls “the head on the pillow” moment. When you lay down that night with your head on the pillow, and it’s just you and your conscience (or possibly a spouse or beloved pet) think about what number will actually give you peace of mind. The lowest number which you could look back on and feel good about 5 or 10 years from now. Imagine the number that will allow you to move on with your life, happily decamping to your new home. Because quality of life is infinitely more important than holding out for the last few dollars on your sale. And 10 or 20 years from now, you will not remember exactly how many dollars you held out for. You’ll only remember the miserable extra months you had to stay in a home which you no longer wanted.
One more important point while your head is on the pillow. STOP thinking about what your neighbor sold for. STOP thinking about what the other neighbor is now asking. STOP thinking about the advice well meaning friends and colleagues have given. STOP thinking about anybody but you and your family and what sale price would allow you to move on with your life and future plans. What your neighbors did or might do, and what your extended family, friends and coworkers think you should do are actually quite immaterial here. This is a moment for you and you alone. Relish the you-ness of it.
The next morning, call your Realtor and apologize for those names you called him/her. Then calmly take pen to paper and write out a counteroffer with the number you imagined last night.
This won’t work every time. Investors look at houses differently than most of us. They have zero emotion tied up in a purchase. Your counter will meet the investor’s bottom line or it won’t. Best case scenario – you’ve got a deal and can go begin the serene new life you imagined last night. Worst case scenario – well, it’s still OK. You’ve imagined the worst that could happen – accepting the lowest offer you can afford, and you still emerged on the other side with a happy image of moving on.
If there’s no deal — I suggest calling your Realtor again. Ask him/her to readjust your list price to a whole lot closer to your newly imagined bottom line. You’ll be calling the movers before you can say “negotiation”.
Happy Thanksgiving
November 27, 2008
To my American readers, Happy Thanksgiving!
(To my Canadian readers, happy belated Thanksgiving. I celebrated with you last month when my very dear Vancouver-ite clients reminded me that y’all celebrate before we Yanks do.)
Some Thanksgiving quotes:
Daniel Webster, Second Speech on Foot’s Revolution, Jan 26, 1830:
I thank God, that if I am gifted with little of the spirit which is able to raise mortals to the skies, I have yet none – as I trust – of that other spirit which would draw angels down.
Frank Pittman, U.S. psychiatrist and family therapist. “How to Manage Mom and Dad,” Psychology Today (November/December 1994)
A family without a storyteller or two has no way to make sense out of their past and no way to get a sense of themselves.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845), Recipe for Salad, p. 383
Thank God for tea! What would the world do without tea?—how did it exist? I am glad I was not born before tea.
The best way to keep children home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant — and let the air out of the tires.
Help for Homeowners
November 25, 2008
Today’s Fed announcement marks another step towards getting the housing market un-slumped. Finally, Hank and Ben seem to be getting it: the world’s financial meltdown started in the US housing market and the solution should begin by focusing on housing.
Recently, mortgage industry heavyweights Countrywide (now Bank of America), JP Morgan and Citigroup announced a foreclosure moratorium to help struggling homeowners stay in their homes. Citi especially said their efforts would be aimed not only at homeowners behind in their payments, but those who’s credit profile reveals they might get behind.
Today’s new Fed housing stimulus package should make mortgages more affordable by pushing long-term mortgage interest rates down as much as a half-point. This should help new homebuyers jump into the market. (click the link for a breakdown of program details)
Some expect rates to fall to 5.50% soon. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimates that each 1-point drop in mortgage rates spurs 500,000 new home buyers into purchasing a home. NAR says it’ll keep pushing the Fed to enact programs and policies that will eventually get mortgage interest rates down to 4.50%, a rate not seen since well, not in my lifetime.
Here’s a chart of the history of mortgage rates, courtesy of my broker The Phoenix Real Estate Guy (see his post with many more charts here).
It’s interesting to compare the recent history to the truly historic data, based on a chart posted at The Financial Forecast Center. Seems like rates haven’t been at 5.50% since sometime in 2004, and haven’t been at 4.50% since about the late 1950′s.
Our housing problem is generally twofold – (1) too many homes for sale and more hitting the market daily due to swelling foreclosures, and (2) not enough buyer interest.
The Fed’s announcement today, combined with the foreclosure moratorium announced recently gives me real hope that the kinks might start working out soon.
Banks working to keep homeowners in their homes means less foreclosure homes going up for sale. The Fed making substantive moves to coax new homeowners into the marketplace means eating up some of the excess inventory of homes for sale.
This? Could be the beginning of real change.
Tune in tomorrow for a breakdown of the local Phoenix housing numbers, and how we’ll know we’ve begun to turn the corner towards recovery.
Staging Tips For Entryways
November 25, 2008
Staging is vital in making your home as appealing to potential buyers as possible. However, staging effectively can be a challenge in tract houses, which by nature are uninteresting square white boxes. Metro Phoenix is filled to bursting with tract housing, especially in the price ranges in reach of the average working family. Here’s a tip or two for making the entryway in an average house stand out.
Great Entryway!
Put up a really cushy, plush welcome mat. It should be thick enough and large enough that visitors to the house stop for a moment to notice the plushiness of the doormat. Slap a fresh coat of paint on your entryway door while you’re standing there admiring the new doormat.
If the front door has sidelight windows, clean them inside and out so they sparkle. The trick here is to make potential buyers stop for just a few seconds while they notice how lovely your exterior entryway is. If the outside is great, potential buyers will automatically think better of the inside.
Picture Number 1 is is an inviting outside entryway on a 1950′s brick ranch. Number 2? Not so much. The homes are the same size and about the same floorplan. Granted, someone in home number 1 spent a chunk of change to switch out the front room windows and add landscaping. But the entryway of home number 2 could have been made more appealing with a few simple steps.
Entry Needs Help
First, lose the mobile basketball hoop. It’s tacky. If your kids play with it every single day, you can leave it in the driveway. But at least take 3 minutes to move it out of the photo frame.
Second, go to Target, WallMart or Home Depot and spend $250 on a bench or some chairs for the front door. While there, grab a plastic planter pot and a fern. Better yet, grab a plant that’s flowering. It’ll provide extra punch in the photo. Reds and yellows show up extremely well in online photographs.
Finally, make sure your Realtor zooms in on the front door when taking the photo. Buyers aren’t buying your driveway, so it shouldn’t be the focus of the shot.
Tomorrow – how a little photo fixing can go a long way.
Pricing Houses is Like Buying a Used Car
November 24, 2008
Here’s a little piece of advice I give to sellers who are struggling to really hear and internalize the pricing advice I’ve given them. (Because in today’s market, it never fails that my advised listing price is less than the sellers hoped for.)
Think about buying a new car. Or a used car. Whatever. You go online, you do your research. You know that the car you really want to buy should cost about $30,000. Or whatever, use any number you like; I’m using $30k because it’s nice and round and easy and complicated math isn’t my bag.
So you’ve budgeted $30,000 for your new car. You’ve found out – online – that there are 2 dealerships nearby offering the exact car you want. One has listed the car at $35,000. The second dealer listed the same car at $50,000. Being the Age of Internet, you can see all this online, easily, without leaving your Barcalounger or changing out of your favorite plushy jammies.
Which dealer are you going to visit? No kidding Sherlock. You’re going to the dealer who’s offering the product at a mere $5,000 above the market value. You’ll make him an offer at $25,000, he’ll come back at $29,000 and you’ll ink the deal.
The hapless, helpless dealer who advertised his $30,000 product at $50,000? He doesn’t even get a look-see.
This is how it is when you’re pricing your home for sale. Don’t just “try it”. Don’t just “wait and see”. Price it right, from Day One, and you will see the rewards. You’ll be one of the 6% of homesellers who actually sell their homes in Metro Phoenix this year. Insist on overpricing? You might as well spend big bucks on one of those TV ads with the deep booming annoucer voice bellowing “Last Chance!” and “Won’t Last Long!” (because it will last long. And long is painful.)
Related Posts:
Sunday Stats
November 23, 2008
photo credit to MiamiAmia, via StockExchange.
Click here to see the entire Sunday Stats series, and for historical perspective.
Please Don’t Kill Your Realtor
November 22, 2008
On a break this weekend; reposting an oldie but goodie from September 2007. Picture credit to an unknown user at Stock.Exchange
Let’s say you’re a homeowner who needs to sell and you’ve invited several Realtors over to interview them. Many will Oooh and Aaaah, tell you how truly lovely your wall-to-wall orange shag carpeting is and assure you that you really can ask $15,000 more than the competition because you’ve got built-in cabinets in the garage.
Some gutsy Realtor might tell you that while your home has many thoughtful & useful upgrades, the market isn’t great just now. She’ll continue by suggesting that if you really must sell it’s important to price below the asking price of homes currently for sale, and also below the last sold comparable property. What that Realtor said was “price below sold comps.” What you’ll hear is “your home is worth less than your neighbors’ homes are.”
When you hear that, you’re going to experience an unpleasant mix of emotions. It’ll feel like someone just spat all over your hopes and dreams, told you that your home and your entire lifestlye isn’t worth as much as a tin shack on the beach in Guadalajara, called your children ugly and kicked the family dog while she did it.
You’re going to hate that Realtor. Instantly and irrationally, you’re going to wish bodily harm on that Realtor and imagine kicking her out your front door, action-movie style. How dare she imply that my house is worth less than the neighbor’s?!
If you are that home seller, I implore you to fight the urge to get all Dirty Harry on the Realtor who’s just told you the most truthful thing she can. Take a deep breath and remember the dynamics of a declining market.
In a declining market, housing prices fall. As a seller, time is not your friend. Homes that sell six months from now will sell for less than homes that sell this month. This has nothing whatsoever to do with your house, your lifestyle, your children, your intrinsic self-worth, your financial situation, or your need to net a certain amount on this sale so you can move on.
All things being equal, in a declining market houses priced below the most recent sold comps will sell quicker than those priced above the last sold comp. And because homes priced below the competition and the sold comps sell quicker, the sellers will net more money than sellers who overprice and sit on the market for months and months, taking incremental price drops while they chase their competition to the bottom.
Sellers, do yourselves a favor. As long as your gut tells you everything else about that Realtor is OK, hire the one who gathers up her courage and tells you to price beneath the last sold comps.
Donut Tour, Cave Creek Safeway
November 21, 2008
Only a few moments to post; I’ve been busy enough lately that I’m behind the 8 ball when it comes to posting.
To update the Donut Tour, I recently went to the Cave Creek Safeway. I was looking for a mid-day Starbucks pick-me-up when I spotted this:
Was I indulging my sweet tooth? Or was I doing double duty – creating a blog post while also helping a client by waiting for an appliance delivery? I’ll let readers judge me on that one.
Suffice it to say I grabbed 3 donuts and made for the exit. I chose a plain glazed, a choclate frosted and a cinnamon roll.
The cinnamon roll was the best, although it could have used a thicker glaze, and more of it. The cinnamon was just right, and there was spicy goodness in every layer. The glaze was too thin and not nearly enough of it was used. Overall though, a very good cinnamon roll.
The plain glazed was downright awful, I’m sorry to say. The donut itself was fine but the glaze had a plastick-y, fishy taste. Weird. I didn’t finish it. Glaze texture was just right and there was enough of it, but the flavor was just terrible.
The chocolate frosted mostly redeemed Safeway’s donut selection. The donut itself wasn’t quite as good as those at the Cave Creek Road Rainbow Donuts, but the chocolate frosting/glaze was perfection! I almost always want more chocolate on anything I eat, but this donut had enough to satisfy even my chocolate needs.
At at 69 cents per donut, they’re a great bargain. Just avoid those plain glazeds.
Next up: Rainbow Donuts on 7th Street. By invitation, no less. I was immensely flattered to receive a personal invitation to visit from the Manager of the store himself. He boasts about his coffee, so I’m going to check it out. Since I don’t move in the mornings without a good cuppa joe, I have high hopes!
