Prep Your House To Sell Well

If you’ve brought or are thinking of bringing your house to the market you know it is a very demanding thing to do.  Lots of time, energy, and emotions are baked in this process.  You have to get your house ready for the market, and hire a realtor who will strategically position the property in the market that showcases its value and maximizes its exposure.  Also, and not to be taken lightly, the realtor has to be sensitive and responsive to the emotions you may experience in this process of letting go.  No two properties are the same, same goes for listing agents.  Listing agents worth their salt should have a minimum of an 8 point listing strategy unique to your home.  I tend to err closer to a 12 point listing and marketing strategy, just because modern technologies have diversified and grown my multi pronged approach.  Besides, thoroughness is just good business in this profession and personally it does wonders in the client-agent relationship.  I’ve read quite a few published articles on “Prepping Your House To Sell” from the past couple years.  I’ve distilled the most valuable points, and offered anecdotes where I could.

Decluttering

You want buyers to get a sense of what their life could be like in the house, not a sense of what your life is like.  The more you remove your personal belongings from the home, the  easier more and more buyers will be able to see their belongings and themselves living in the house, and that is strategic for a seller.  This is why the majority of articles published about preparing to sell your house site "decluttering" as the number one thing to do (Opendoor Blog 2017). This makes sense for a couple of very important reasons, it is free to do (assuming you would be doing the work), it is the most effective means sellers have in “letting go”, and if more and more buyers can see themselves living in the property (because you’ve taken yourself out of it) it stands to follow that you’ll receive more offers.  More offers drive value in a direction that makes sellers happy.

Some Decluttering examples:

Box a lot of your family photos.  Not all of them, the thought is, to depersonalize the house, but don’t emotionally sterilize it.

Box a lot of your library

Box/Hide all your personal hygiene products and toiletries

Make your office look like an OfficeMax show room, not where you have been a hustling busybody

*also worth noting, Pinterest has some great posts on this*

Cleaning

Whether you or the company you hired does this for you, the cleaning has to be thorough and throughout.  If it isn't a rug, a lamp, or furniture, get it off the floors. After picking up and vacuuming, you need to wipe the baseboards clear of any dust.  Carpets shampooed, grout cleaned.  Toilets and tubs spotless.  Windows and mirrors without scuff or smear.  Put away your kitchen counter appliances. Hide your hamper until you have enough dirty clothes to do laundry, then make sure you do laundry! Straighten and tidy your pantry and closet's.  Remember how important storage space was to you when you purchased the home? Of course you do, so don't let your storage spaces go untouched in your cleaning process!  Ever hear of Jude's Miracle Cloth?  I learned about that and more from this article in VOGUE.

Decluttering and cleaning is not without trash bags 99% of the time.  Get your old magazines on your living room coffee table, tchotchke that has lost its novelty, and clothes you no longer wear in a big trash bag on the curb ready for pick up, or donated.  If you have belongings that you've held onto for years but haven't done anything with in years, you need to think about letting it go, or put it in storage somewhere that isn’t taking space inside the house.  Garages work as a storage space while your house is on the market.  This BuzzFeed article's 23 Cheap Upgrades is chalk full of good DIY fixes and spruce ups, except for #21, don't be "gun ho" on #21, but for #23, I couldn't agree more. 

Realtor

You need to hire a realtor.  All realtors are not created equal and the "best" realtor might not be the best realtor for you.  Easily the most important decision you have to make is in selecting your realtor.  You are prepping your house to sell and the prep work is the most important step.  No property gets a second chance at a first impression, and thorough preparation ensures a great first impression, a good realtor knows this.  It is the first step, and thus set a precedent and expectation for the sequential steps of marketing, showings, offers, negotiations, escrow, and closing.  Thorough preparation guarantees strong market showing, and this signals to buyers and buyers’ agents how we do business and expect business to be carried out.  Unless you have a family member or close friend you trust who is a realtor, its silly to not interview multiple agents.  My focus on the Linda Vista neighborhood has revealed data trends and insight that certainly continue to advise me on the matters of repairs, inspections, painting, landscaping, staging, and pricing.

Additional Reads:

Selling Your House? Better Prepare for the Home Inspection

Ten Tips For Preparing Your Home For Sale

10 Tips to Prepare Your Home for an Open House

Home Improvement & ROI (Return On Investment)

There is always something, some homeowner, wants to do to their house.  Paint the walls, change the carpet, tear down a wall, new kitchen appliances, outdoor patio area and new landscaping, a full kitchen remodel, add a bathroom, and the list goes on.  Are you doing things to your house that will make it more marketable in the real estate market, or that will make it more enjoyable for you and your family?  Though there is more freedom in doing work for your usage and enjoyment, be smart about both motivations.  It is inadvisable to not consider ROI, or return on investment.

Home-improvement can easily be a "two for one."  You can have work done to your property that you will personally enjoy, AND serve as a return on your investment when it is time to sell.  There is an impressive amount of insightful data out there.  Though our tastes and trends change with time, a large part of the code on "home-improvement return on investment" has been cracked.  So let's check it out.

According to the cost versus value 2017 report, there was only one thing that was worth more than its cost for home owners in 2016, manufactured stone veneer.  You certainly see this a lot in Southern California.  It is retrieving 113 percent of its cost.  It isn't likely that it will drop below 100 percent of its recoupment value.  So this is a no brainer if you're thinking of selling within the next two years. (Below: manufactured stone veneer plates)

Interestingly enough, attic insulation almost recoups 100 percent of its cost in Los Angeles, but jumps to 123 percent when we expand the data to include all of the United States Pacific region.  You know why? Because it keeps the heat in. This does not apply necessarily to us in Southern California where our weather is the envy of the whole country, but there is something to glean from this data.  Buyers want a lower cost of living, and they will pay for it handsomely.  Smart home systems, the nest, drought tolerant landscaping, high-efficiency HVACs and water heater's.  It is in our cultures consciousness to be energy-efficient now, and nowadays with that technology being considerably more affordable, it boosts your properties value and  marketability well into the 21st-century.  Plus, these are things you can enjoy the benefits of as homeowners now.  The Cost vs. Value 2017 report.

Southern California is one of the United States premium real estate markets.  Unfortunately far too many Americans are priced out of the market.  So for homeowners not in the Los Angeles luxury market, but would be in the luxury market just about anywhere else in this country, the purpose of home-improvement is different.  Buyers want to assume the basic systems to be sound and working. Maintenance and repair work can chew up a lot of cash quickly. Defects in a property that can be readily be seen by buyers can sap the confidence that your property is a good investment. If there any structural issues, termite damage, leaking roof, etc, these are to be addressed if the resources are available.  For properties with more than one repair issue, consulting with both a realtor and a contractor is highly advisable.  As a realtor, I can better advise which repair job has more value in the market.

If you are planning to stay in your home for some time to come, any work you do will inherently be more geared toward your personal enjoyment.  In the luxury market it seems all new construction has plans for home theaters.  Wine cellars, massage and yoga rooms are also high demand in the luxury market.  So putting in one of these you can see a large recoupment when it comes time to sell.  What can be an equal cost of work but more practical and necessary may be something like adding an extra bathroom.  If you have a 3 bedroom home and 1 bathroom that can be inconvenient.  More than 3 bedrooms?  Forget about it, your money is best spent adding another bathroom.  Your home will offer a better quality of life for you and your family and the prospective buyers when you go to market to sell.  Everyone favorite homes and garden tv station talks about these upgrades also, here.

If you are looking to have some work done to your home, Linda Vista Life has a list of vetted, quality, yelp and home advisor reviewed, local contractors on our site, here.

If you have any questions or want follow up information, or a Home Improvement consultation, I can be contacted via phone, text, or email.

Don't Fall For Zillow Zestimates!

Zillow has certainly become as synonymous with Real Estate as Xerox has to Copying.   Its wide and devout audience of users certainly proves its value in the market, in particular, the Zillow Zestimate.  Buyers and sellers have stuck to the Zestimate amount when it suits them, to their detriment.  In truth, actual on the ground market knowledge is proving to my clients that they should take the Zestimate with a glacier sized grain of salt.

One can see for themselves, at any given time, the price a property recently sold for and Zillow’s Zestimate for the same property. The discrepancy between the two are considerable.  Recently on Inverness in Linda Vista an extraordinary remodel sold for $2,475,000. The Zillow’s Zestimate was $2,377,495.  Under valuing the property by almost $100k could’ve had horrible consequences for the seller.  How could Zillow have gotten this so wrong?  The answer is simple, Zillow derives its Zestimate from a bird’s eye view of the market.  No house is unique when you’re Zillow, nor could your house be.  Zillow can’t take into account the upgrades, repairs, functionality, charm, and quality of life your house offers.  Here’s a story from NBC on Zestimates.

Another recent example in Linda Vista had a Zillow Zestimate that over valued a sold property by $184,683.  I have also seen this have bad consequences for sellers.  Consumers shop for what we like and what we can afford.  If a buyer can afford the list price of a property but sees Zillow has valued the property much higher, the buyer might think the list price was bait to court multiple offers and a bidding war until the bidders themselves drive up the price to the inflated Zestimate value.  No matter how much this buyer loves your house, they won’t actively pursue what they don’t think they can afford. Coincidentally, the buyer who can comfortably afford the house can also see other property that looks much better to value.  Just look at this story on the Zestimate.

An undervalued property can leave money on the table for the seller, and an overvalued property can sit on the market longer, thus lose value in the publics eyes.  Zillow, and its Zestimate has caused more engagement in the market from more people.  As a REALTOR, I like that.  I don’t mind educating clients that though your offer, or a seller’s counter offer, is based off of the Zillow Zestimate, that doesn’t mean you are giving the buyer or seller “an offer they can’t refuse,” not in theory, not in practice.

Zillow’s Zestimate algorithm has narrowed the value of homes in the Linda Vista neighborhood of Pasadena to a $300,000 window.  A good Realtor has the understanding of the market and trends, the tools (like a CMA, or Comparative Market Analysis), the system and programs in place to effectively market your house, and pricing strategies to leverage the most value the market will bear.

Agents use a Comparative Market Analysis that takes in sold and public data to shed light on what the market will bear. A CMA can also be modified to include specific data on what has been done to the house or it’s overall condition.