Presenting Your Home for the Market

When selling your home, you need to view it as a product. It's part of my job to present your home as the best available product on the market. This presentation surely helps!

Quick Guide for Today's Real Estate Market

We’re experiencing half of the typical housing inventory which means competition for buyers can be very tough.  Entering the market with even the slightest edge could mean you will be moving into your new home this summer instead of the next person.  I have a few tips that will help anyone looking to buy a new home this year.

"I'm new to the Real Estate Market"

1.       You will need cash reserves to purchase your next home.  Be prepared to pay for inspections, appraisals, repairs, earnest money deposit, mortgage insurance, home insurance, real estate tax, liens, short sale fees and/or closing costs. 

2.       Unless you are planning on paying for your next home with cash, you will need to be pre-approved by a mortgage lender.  The lender will make sure your credit score is high enough to obtain a loan and they will make sure you earn enough to pay the loan back.  A simple loan pre-approval will take 30 minutes to an hour and can be done over the phone or online.  

3.       Get in touch with your local Realtor!  If you know a real estate broker then let them know you are planning on purchasing a home soon.  They will steer you in the right direction and help you reach your goals.  Consider your Realtor the one-stop-shop for all your real estate needs.  They will set you up with a lender, help you search for homes, fill out contracts and make sure deadlines are met.  In today’s market, you need someone on your side who is working full time to achieve your wants and needs.

"How do I choose a Mortgage Lender?"

Now you know how to get started in the real estate market -- You have an adequate amount of money saved up and are interviewing mortgage lenders to find out how much home you can afford.  When trying to find the right mortgage lender, it comes down to who can get you the loan you need with the best terms.  Mortgage brokers (do not have money to lend) will shop around to achieve your needs whereas going directly to a lender (has money to lend) may limit your mortgage options.  You should always shop around to find the best mortgage package for your needs.  If you know what type of loan you will be applying for (Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA) then you should consider a lender who is very familiar with that type of loan.  Each loan will carry its own set of requirements.

"How do I choose a Realtor?"

At this point, you should either know which Realtor you are working with or you should be meeting with a few different ones to find out who will work best with you. 

Some general requirements for your Realtor should be:

1.       Your Realtor will streamline the search process to help you find exactly what you want.  Your search criteria could turn up hundreds of homes.  Don’t waste your time filtering through each one.  Let your Realtor work for you!

2.       Your Realtor needs to understand the contracts that will legally bind you to a property.  There are a number of different contracts that your Realtor must be familiar with to ensure you don’t miss out on your next home.

There are Realtors out there who will fill out the wrong contract, disregard important aspects in the contract, miss deadlines and ultimately cost you your new home. 

3.       Make sure your Realtor communicates well with you.  If you have a lot of questions then find a Realtor who takes the time to help you understand each step for purchasing a new home. 

4.       You should feel comfortable with your Realtor enough that you can trust them to help you achieve your goals.

The market is becoming more and more competitive as home values are slowly rising.  Use these tips to help you gain an edge in the market!

Seller's Market vs. Buyer's Market

In real estate, there are a couple different markets -- A Buyer's Market and a Seller's Market.  There are a whole bunch of variables to determine what kind of market we're in but it basically comes down to how many homes are currently available for purchase.

2013 has been a Seller's Market.  A Seller's Market generally means that if no more homes were to go up for sale right now then all the available homes would sell out in about 6 months or less.  Currently, Snohomish County has about a 3 month supply of available homes.  A short supply of homes means that sellers have the market advantage.  The advantage is that a seller will entertain multiple offers for their home and can choose the highest and best offer.  Buyers in this market need to know how to make their offers competitive in order to get the home they want.  Generally, a competitive offer will meet most of the Seller's requests -- The offer will meet or exceed the asking price and will come with few or no contingencies.  Also, buyers need to know that cash offers are better than a financed offer.  Banks have a lot of requirements that can slow down or even prevent the purchase of a home.

Here's a quick list of things to consider while we are in a Seller's Market:

-Sellers have the advantage

-There is a short supply of available homes

-Sellers will most likely have more than one person put an offer on their home

-Buyers need to have a competitive offer if they want to purchase a home

-Cash offers are better than offers with financing

Let's talk about a Buyer's Market.  In order for a buyer to have an advantage in the real estate market there needs to be a large supply of homes available.  This generally means having more than a 6 month supply of available homes.  Sellers need to be aware that their requests may not be met.  Sellers need to make sure their home is competitive with similar homes for sale in the area -- It needs to be clean, de-cluttered, priced according to the market and easily available for buyers to come in and look around. 

Here's a quick list of things to consider while in a Buyer's Market:

-Buyers have the advantage

-There is a large supply of available homes

-Sellers need to make sure their home is competitive in order to sell

-Sellers need to be prepared to receive offers that don't meet all of their requirements

Labeling the market as either Buyer's or Seller's is just a guideline for Real Estate Brokers and the public.  There are no definitive rules for what a buyer or seller can and should do in any given market.  These are only general patterns that can help us when we want to purchase or sell real property.

Agent Horror Stories

Since I've started my own business I've had plenty of opportunities to listen to stories from other agents.  I haven't experienced this one myself but I would definitely consider it a nightmare to be a part of.  One real estate agent I know started working with a buyer by showing her homes.  She was a single lady looking for a home.  Nothing out of the ordinary about this lady except that the home search dragged on for about three months.  The agent spent 3 months of finding homes, previewing them and showing them to this lady.  After 12 weeks of driving this lady around, buying her dinner and showing her homes, she decided not to buy a house.  She wanted to go on vacation instead.

Typically, an agent will only work with a handful of buyers at a time simply because of the amount of time each one demands.  Agents don't have an unlimited number of buyers they work with.  We work with a few who are ready to buy right now and give them our full attention while we maintain contact with other buyers who are waiting to make a purchase.  To provide our full service to a client over a 3 month span requires a lot of time and effort which in this case was lost.  When you are your own business as a real estate agent things like this can really take a toll - especially for a new agent.

It seems there is a lack of knowledge that mostly all residential real estate agents, whether they work for Century 21, Re/Max, or any other agency, are their own business.  I've talked to agents who have been in the business a while and one of the reasons new agents drop out of the business is because something like this has happened.  When you, the buyer, are working with an agent it is hard to picture them as a business but that's exactly what you're dealing with.  For instance, imagine calling in a special order item from a company that takes weeks and months to build and cancelling it at the last minute.  You could see how this can be a negative thing for the business.  I'm not saying once you start talking to a real estate agent you have to buy a house.  Just let them know from the beginning what your intentions are so they don't take a critical hit in the end.

Buyer Relationship

Having never been in a related industry before, I'm not sure what to think about some buyers I'm working with.  They don't listen to anything I say and insist on going about things their way.  I've been talking to them for the past 3 months or so and they just recently took one piece of advice from me, which was to speak to a bank and find out how much they can afford.  Now, they won't tell me what they heard from the bank.  I think there are two reasons for this result.  1- They think of me as an untrustworthy salesman who is simply here to sell them a house.  2- Their culture is different from Americans in that they withhold 'private' information and don't like to take direction from someone they're not sure they can trust.  

It's hard to tell because they haven't taken any of the steps to get to know me and how I work.  I have no idea what their experience with other Realtors is but I can imagine it wasn't good if anything.  The first thing I do with my buyers is sit down and meet with them to let them know how I work and how Real Estate professionals are supposed to work.  I hand out some legal pamphlets, which are required by law, and let my buyers know what kind of relationship we are required to have.  Then I go on and let them know how I'm personally going to work for them.  Since we never had that meeting I really have no idea what they think my responsibilities are.  Over the past 3 months, it seems they think of me as any other salesman trying to get them into a house and get my paycheck.  I wouldn't be surprised if they thought that they have to pay me in the end.  One of the benefits of working with a buyer is that they don't have to pay me!  The seller pays me!  Sure, I want to get my buyers into a house quickly but I'm not the one who has to feel comfortable with living there for the next decade.  My job is to show them homes that I think they might like.  When they find a home they can mentally move into is when I ask them how much they want to pay for it.  But, as I said earlier I have no idea what they expect from me because I haven't had the chance to sit down and explain exactly what I do.

I  can see #2 as being the reason behind their actions simply because I don't understand how their culture acts in business situations.  There's an agent in my office who had a chance to work with a Spanish couple by finding them a home to move.  However, that couple refused to work with a non-Spanish speaking agent even though communication in English would not have been a problem.  That may be the case here where I don't speak my clients 1st language so they automatically feel like we're some type of enemies or that we can't have the same business relationship if we were able to speak the same language.

As it is now, I'm going make a few attempts to try and explain my position as a Realtor.  It's definitely not the way I prefer to work, but I'm not going to give up on a client because there may be a few misunderstandings.