Smart Reminders for Your Home Sellers

Smart Reminders for Your Home Sellers

Besides staging, sellers also should take a few more steps to ease the stress of their sale. Realtor.com® offers up some of the following often-overlooked tips:

1. Highlight improvements and any issues.

“If you’ve owned your home for a while, make a list of all the problems you’ve solved for a while, make a list of all the problems you’ve solved while you’ve lived there,” suggests Avery Boyce, a real estate pro with Compass Real Estate in Washington, D.C. For example, be ready to disclose any potential past issues like chimney fires, water damage, or a flood in the basement. Disclose “invisible improvements,” such as a French drain system, too, says Boyce.

2. Google your address.

Nearly all buyers now search online for homes, and sellers need to be aware of how their listing looks on the Internet too. For example, Google Maps’ street view may not show your recent home improvements, so you’ll want to flag those updates in your listing. Also, “is the site’s estimated value very different from your asking price? It might be because tax records have the wrong information about the number of bedrooms or bathrooms your house has, and this is easily fixed,” says Boyce.

3. Test out the doorbell.

A lack of cosmetic repairs, even seemingly minor, can cost you a sale. “First impressions make all the difference,” says Marianne Leonard Cashman, a real estate professional with William Raveis Real Estate in Andover, Mass. “A well-kept home, starting with the view from the curb, gives the perception that the seller has great pride in the home and has taken good care of it—which translates into less energy and costs for the buyer as they prepare to move in.”

4. Clean everything.

Buyers are going to snoop everywhere, from inside drawers and cabinets to even the dishwasher. They are going to judge how clean everything is, too. “Spending the money on a service to deep-clean your home will come back to you at least 10 times in your sales price,” says Boyce.

5. Designate which items aren’t included in the sale.

If the custom window treatments aren’t included, sellers need to be sure to let their agent know. “The law says that anything bolted to the wall or ceiling goes to the buyer unless specifically excluded in the contract,” says Boyce. “If you want to take your flat-screen TV, chandelier, or custom pot rack, be sure to label it as soon as the house goes on the market, so that buyers don’t bank on owning that item and wind up disappointed.” Read more: Fixture Feuds

Source: “7 Important Things Home Sellers Often Forget to Do,” realtor.com® (March 21, 2017)

Bidding Wars to Heat Up This Spring

Bidding Wars to Heat Up This Spring

Likely to be a hallmark of this year’s spring home selling season: Bidding wars. As home listings are scarcer and buyer demand remains high, home shoppers are finding a lot more competition this spring, particularly in hot markets like the San Francisco Bay area, Denver, and Boston.

“Home buyers are going to find this spring that, in a lot of markets, the inventory of homes priced and sized at price levels they were hoping for will be very limited,” Thomas Lawler, a former Fannie Mae economist who’s now a housing consultant in Leesburg, Va., told Bloomberg. Even “unlikely places are getting significantly tighter.”

An improving job market, growing consumer confidence, and the threat of rising mortgage rates have Americans flocking to housing. But many markets remain tight for listings. Housing starts remain well below levels prior to the recession and are geared more toward the higher end of the market. Homeowners also are reluctant to sell their existing home because they’re unsure of where they’d move to with the dearth of listings.

Homes are selling at a rapid clip in places like Denver; Seattle; Oakland, Calif.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Boise, Idaho; Madison, Wis.; and Omaha, Neb., according to the real estate brokerage Redfin.

Grand Rapids has seen a 27 percent decrease in the number of homes for sale over the past year. One listing alone reportedly attracted 40 bids.

“People need to get their houses on the market, but they’re gun-shy,” Tanya Craig, an associate broker with the Katie K team at Keller Williams, told Bloomberg. “Unless they know where they want to go, everyone is hesitant.”

Home buyers certainly aren’t being hesitant, if they can find a home they want. They’re in a rush for financing too. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has risen by more than half a percentage point since November 2016. The Federal Reserve last week voted to increase its benchmark interest rate by a quarter point and strongly hinted it would do so two more times this year.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is expected to increase to 4.7 percent by the end of 2017 and could reach 5.5 percent next year, according to Lawrence Yun, the chief economist for the National Association of REALTORS®.

“In today’s market, many buyers think the trough in rates is over,” says Sam Khater, deputy chief economist at CoreLogic. “If you don’t get in now, it’s just going to be worse later. Rates will be higher, prices will be higher, and maybe inventory selection will be lower.”

Source: “Homebuyers Face Bidding Wars on Scarcer-Than-Ever U.S. Listings,” Bloomberg (March 17, 2017)

3 Sources of Odors That Offend Buyers

3 Sources of Odors That Offend Buyers

Your sellers may have “nose blindness.” The term refers to the process of adapting to the smells around you and becoming so desensitized to them that you learn to ignore them or become less sensitive to them, says Dr. Richard Doty, director of the Smell and Taste Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

But, of course, buyers will probably notice the stench as soon as they walk through the door. HouseLogic flags the following scents as common offenders in a home and how to get rid of them.

Pet Odor

If the sellers have a pet, they will likely need to neutralize the trail of odors it leaves behind. Ask your clients to bathe and groom the pet regularly. Sprinkle some baking soda on the carpet and vacuum frequently. Remove pet hair, paying special attention to tight spaces where it most often accumulates, such as the border between the carpet and the wall or on the edges of steps.

Dank Basements

Basement mustiness caused by mildew and mold is a common culprit in nose blindness, HouseLogic notes. Inspect the basement carefully, including every cardboard box, to try to find evidence of any gray or white splotches or mold. Take precaution when removing mold and mildew if using bleach. A trick to deodorize rooms: Set out a bowl of vinegar, cat litter, baking soda, or even an onion (the onion smell goes away in a few hours), HouseLogic suggests. Also, consider running a dehumidifier to improve the air circulation and ensure the smells don’t return.

Mattresses

Yes, mattresses can stink too and can make the entire room smell. Sprinkle baking soda on them and let it remain there for an hour or more. Then, vacuum up the baking soda. You also might try adding a few drops of essential oil (like lavender) to the baking soda.

Source: “You Can’t Detect These 4 Odors, But Your Guests Can,” HouseLogic (March 2017)

What to Watch for in Home Renovations

What to Watch for in Home Renovations

Home renovations can help boost the resale value of a property, but they also can expose homeowners to costly repairs or even make them physically sick, if they don’t take some precautions.

Help your renovating clients be on the lookout for some of these dangers that could surface in a home renovation:

Flooding and electrical issues.

Urge do-it-yourselfers to call 811 before they start digging. That is the service line that will inform them where underground utility lines are, such as for water, gas, or electrical lines. This is critical for to avoid, for example, a small water pipe during the renovation, which could lead to flooding. Also, if flooding in a home does ever occur and the water submerges appliances or electric tools, turn off the home’s power before wading through the water.

Mold.

In a home renovation, always consider proper ventilation. “Most bathrooms have so little ventilation that they unintentionally become labs to grow mold and mildew,” says David Schneider, an interior designer in Chesterfield, Mo. Kitchen and bathroom remodels need fans that can exhaust all of that moisture-ridden air (many experts recommend one 100 cubic feet per minute fan per appliance).

Asbestos and lead.

If the home was built prior to 1978, some extra precautions will need to be taken if the home is at risk for lead or asbestos. “Inhaling or swallowing even small amounts of lead or asbestos is extremely dangerous,” says Dan Barr, property restoration expert with 1-800 Water Damage. “Any time you remove walls or ceilings or do major work on floors, you run the risk of encountering both.” Always wear a mask. Also, contact an indoor environmental expert to take samples before knocking down a wall, to be certain.

High-VOC materials exposure.

Wearing a face mask is smart to help avoid inhaling fumes when painting. Volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, are chemical-emitting gases found in several renovation materials, including many paints, carpeting, or upholstering. Many VOCs are also known as carcinogens and can cause headaches and asthma. Low-VOC paint and carpeting are available. Also, keep windows and doors open to help ventilate the home.

Source: “7 Terrifying Things That Can Happen During Home Renovations,” realtor.com® (March 16, 2017)

Owners Overestimating Home Values

Owners Overestimating Home Values

The gap continues to widen between what homeowners say their home is worth and appraisers’ valuations. Homeowners’ estimates of values were, on average, 1.69 percent higher than appraisers’ home value opinions in February, according to Quicken Loans’ National Home Price Perception Index. The gap has been detected every month since February 2015.

A few metros are running counter to national trends with appraiser opinions actually higher than what homeowners expected. Many of these metros are located in western cities that are seeing rapid price appreciation, such as in Denver, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

Source: Quicken Loans

What’s the House Size? No One Is Really Sure

What’s the House Size? No One Is Really Sure

Just how large a house really is may depend on whom you ask, The Wall Street Journal reports. That’s because appraisers, developers, builders, real estate professionals, tax assessors, and architects all measure spaces differently. No universal standard exists for calculating a home’s square footage. Further, it can also vary regionally.

For example, some calculate space on only the interior dimensions of finished living spaces. Some industry insiders may count the garage or finished basement in the square footage; others may not. Whether to count the square footage of balconies, basements, garages, or even wall thickness can vary too.

Fifty-eight percent of 400 consumers recently surveyed by Houzz.com said estimates of their home’s square footage varied among real estate professionals.

Square footage is an important number when it comes to buying real estate, however. Buyers may even narrow their home search online and compare homes based on price per square foot.

“People want more space and have become very sensitive to that number,” says Robert Edelstein, a real estate and business professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

Real estate professionals, however, are not required to verify the square footage cited in the listings database, says Quincy Virgilio, chairman of the board of directors at MLS Listings. Real estate pros often draw from several sources, such as county records, developer floor plans, and previous sale listings.

Buyers who want to know more about the home’s true size need to ask more about how the size was computed. For example, they should ask the source of the measurements and what is included in that number, such as private outdoor terraces, the garage, basement, utility closets, or even staircases.

“Developers tend to say, ‘We are selling you this much square footage.’ But is it really living area?” says Chip Wagner, a real estate appraiser based in Naperville, Ill. Wagner told The Wall Street Journal that he spots size discrepancies of more than 50 square feet about 20 percent of the time in the homes he appraises.

Encourage your buyers to look past the “big number” and instead focus on the dimensions of individual rooms, suggests home builder Brian Hoffman, a principal with Red Seal Homes, based in Northbrook, Ill.

Source: “How Big Is Your House? That Depends,” The Wall Street Journal (March 10, 2017) [Log-in required.]