Tag Archives: home selling

Should You Sell BEFORE You List?

21 Tuesday Feb 2017

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Should You Sell BEFORE You List?

By Mary Anne Walser, Realtor & Attorney, 404-277-3527, maryannesellshomes@gmail.com

It’s a hot seller’s market in Atlanta right now. We don’t have enough inventory for the buyers who are ready to purchase. So many times recently I have received offers on a home that I am getting ready to list BEFORE it was listed. This can occur when I am working with a buyer who is looking for exactly what I have coming up – or when another agent and/or buyer asks me “what do you have coming up?” and what I have coming up suits their needs and an offer is made.

So, from the seller’s perspective, is it a good idea to sell your property without ever listing it? Here are some considerations if you are lucky enough to have this dilemma.

From an agent’s perspective, I would typically prefer that a seller LIST the home with me before we agree on the contract. This way the home is exposed to fair market forces and we are sure that everyone who might make an offer on the home has the chance to see it and bid on it. Exposed to market forces, we might even get an offer above the list price or a buyer who is willing to pay above appraised value. So why would a seller EVER agree to sell a property prior to listing? Here is an examination of some of the reasons:

  • The most common seller who sells prior to listing is the seller for whom showings are a real hassle. My clients Vivian and Mike have four young children under the age of ten, two rambunctious dogs, and had trouble keeping their home clean, much less straightened up and staged for showings. They needed a bigger home as soon as possible, and needed to sell their home in order to buy their next home. So when I brought them a buyer (and an offer) that was more than they thought they would get if they had listed their property, they were ecstatic and chose to accept. This allowed them to get under contract for their next, bigger home and concentrate on the move rather than on the logistics of showing their current home and the fear that it would not sell fast.
  • Another seller who might agree to a contract prior to listing is the seller who has time on their hands and for whom this is a low risk proposition. Let me explain. If a seller gets under contract prior to officially listing the property on the MLS, and the buyer terminates, the seller can always then list on the MLS with no ill effect. Typically if one contract falls through, the world knows about it because it’s noted when a property goes under contract on the MLS. With a prelisting contract, however, if it falls through, the only parties who are informed are the seller, the buyer and the agents, not the world at large. If the contract doesn’t fall through, then the seller has saved the hassle of listing the property.
  • Some sellers want to sell before they list because they don’t want to pay agent commissions (or don’t want to pay two sides of an agent’s commissions). Agent commissions are negotiable no matter what, of course. But sellers will sometimes sell without involving agents and/or using only one agent to represent both parties, hoping that will save them money. Of course, a great agent will always maximize your return even with the payment of commissions, so I feel this logic is faulty. If you’re cutting out agent commissions, you’re also cutting out the marketing, advocacy, and market exposure that full agent representation provides.
  • Sometimes a buyer who makes an offer prior to listing is willing to pay more than they would otherwise for the opportunity to snag a great property before it is exposed to the market. While this sounds counterintuitive, we never know for sure what will happen when a property hits the MLS. While we can often predict, we are sometimes wrong. A property that we think will be hot gets few showings and no offers. If you hold that buyer off telling them you want to list and test the market first, if you do NOT get better offers then guess what? Often that buyer has cooled and is no longer willing to pay what they were willing to pay prior to you listing the property.

So as you see, there are many considerations involved, and every seller’s situation is unique and must be examined in light of your specific wants, needs, and goals. I hope that you too are lucky enough to have offers before listing! But whether or not you want to accept them is a separate determination. If you are ready to sell, please call the Walser Team today! We will strategize the right way to get the most money for your property.

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential & commercial real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

 

Are You READY to Sell?

23 Monday Jan 2017

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Are You READY to Sell?

By Mary Anne Walser, Realtor & Attorney, 404-277-3527, maryannesellshomes@gmail.com

How do you know when it is time to sell and move to your next home? For some of my clients, it is easy. They are outgrowing their current home and have more children than bedrooms. Or on the opposite end of the spectrum, the children have left and the home is much too big without them. Other clients just like to move every five to seven years or so. And sometimes it is a major life event – a marriage, a job change, a death – that creates the need to sell. But one of my first steps as a Realtor is to gauge your motivation to move. (Or, if you are an investor wanting to sell property, to gauge your motivations in selling so that we can target your goals.)

One client, Martine, seemed eager to put her home on the market. We staged, photographed, listed, marketed, and soon she got a full list price offer on her home – but then would not sign it. She panicked – all of a sudden, she decided that moving might not be the best idea after all. She was not finding a home to purchase that she liked better (within her price range) and she was second guessing whether she wanted to move at all.  She asked me if she HAD to sell just because she received an offer at list price for her property.

If she refuses to sell, is Martine in breach of contract? Stated another way, if a buyer offers exactly what the seller asks for the property, is the seller legally obligated to sell? The answer is NO.

When we put your home in the multiple listing service and offer it for sale to the general public, in legal parlance the listing is not an “offer” – it’s an “invitation to offer.” This means that even if a buyer offers your exact list price and doesn’t ask you to pay any of their closing costs, you are not obligated to accept the offer. And this is because the listing itself does not contain all of the elements necessary to create a binding contract. For instance, the listing doesn’t state exactly when the deal will close, where it will close, how the deal must be financed, or any of the conditions of sale.

So as a seller, you can refuse even an offer that is above list price. You aren’t required to sell just because you listed your home. Of course, it’s advisable not to list your home unless you are certain you want to sell your home. And depending upon the listing agreement, you may be responsible for paying a commission if you receive a full price offer but refuse to sell. But thinking through things before it gets to that point can save a lot of heartache.

What I recommend for clients who are not entirely sure about a move is that we test their motivation by going out to see just a few properties currently on the market that they might wish to purchase. If we find properties that they can live with and live in, it makes it easier for them to agree to a sale when an offer comes in. Sometimes the “water testing” can take place entirely online; the seller does not feel as if they need to go look at properties in person in order to determine that the right property for them is out there. But one way or another, having a plan and knowing the purpose of the move makes for a smoother transaction all around – and no frustrated buyers threatening to sue.

There are also sometimes alternatives to selling that make more sense. If what you need is more space, you may want to add on or renovate your existing home. One thing that makes that very attractive is the deductibility of home mortgage interest.  If you take out a normal consumer loan – to buy a car, say, or to pay for a wedding – the interest is not tax deductible. But for a loan that is secured by your primary residence, all interest IS tax deductible (at least currently. Things could change as national fiscal policy changes). This is a bigger deal than most people realize.

The best time to meet with a Realtor is early in the process. We can help you evaluate your options and determine whether selling your home and moving or staying and renovating is best.

So KNOW BEFORE YOU GO. Know why you are moving and have a plan for where you are going to move; and keep your purpose in mind as you move forward. Knowing what you want is the only way to get what you want, so let’s figure that out before you put your home on the market.

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential & commercial real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

 

How is the Atlanta Real Estate Market? “FANTASTIC” (Always)

10 Tuesday Jan 2017

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How is the Atlanta Real Estate Market? “FANTASTIC” (Always)

By Mary Anne Walser, Realtor & Attorney, 404-277-3527, maryannesellshomes@gmail.com

EVERYONE, it seems, is interested in real estate, and the most common question I get is “how’s the real estate market?” I always say, “IT’S FANTASTIC.” Because when you think about it, the market IS always fantastic for SOMEONE. Sometimes it’s fantastic for buyers. Sometimes for sellers. Sometimes it is a fantastically BALANCED market. Right now, as you are likely aware, we are in a strong seller’s market in most locations (since real estate is very local, the “market” varies widely from one location to the next, even within Atlanta, but generally speaking we are in a recovery phase where prices continue to rise).

So given the fact that any real estate market can be “fantastic” in some respect, at a cocktail party if I say the real estate market is “fantastic” I also have got to go beyond the “fantastic” and explain. Right now we’re in an expansion phase in Atlanta. Generally, we are in a fantastic market for Sellers. But eventually and inevitably we will again be in a fantastic market for Buyers.

But our human tendency is to think that when things are good, they will stay good, and when things are bad, they will stay bad. That explains those clients in the years from 2008 to 2012 who would say “I don’t want to buy now – the market is bad.” In that time frame, prices were extremely low and inventory was high. Those buyers were correct that the market was bad…for SELLERS. It was great for buyers. The market has steadily improved since, and those who did buy in that time frame are now reaping the benefits if they are selling, since right now we are in a seller’s market – the market now is great for SELLING a home.

Psychologists have documented many logical fallacies and biases to which humans are prone – one of which is the “status quo bias.” The potential buyers in that time frame often fell into this bias. Making great real estate decisions depends upon recognizing any potential bias you may have, looking at the current market objectively, examining trends, and realizing that things will not always be as they are now.

If you look at real estate pricing over the years, starting when the US starting selling land in 1800, real estate prices peak about every 18 years, and the worst downturns are preceded by high prices and great demand. Here are the two most recent 18 year cycle examples. In 1990, we experienced a downturn after the broad expansion of the Reagan years (when tax incentives helped fuel housing increases). 18 years later – in 2008 – another downturn, this time a huge one. It really needn’t have taken us by surprise; the depth of the disaster was due to banks giving away money far too freely, but most experts would argue that some sort of slump was inevitable. The real estate cycle is somewhat predictable.

So the next downturn? If you follow the 18 year formula, should be in about 2026. But of course it’s never entirely predictable, and it depends upon many factors. Interest rates, for instance. If they go up (they have risen a little, and will likely rise again this year), then buying power is greatly reduced. When the real estate market is improving and expanding and prices are increasing, there is pressure on the Fed to increase interest rates. This makes many new developments financially unfeasible and lessens the buying power of the homebuyer. So interest rates are an easy indicator that we watch weekly and sometimes daily. Right now there’s a huge uptick in activity because interest rates went up and homebuyers became nervous that they will continue to rise.

So for now, in Atlanta, the housing recovery continues. Interest rates rising will restrict that recovery, but there are other factors that will come into play in the next few years, both on the national and local levels. Our President Elect is a real estate developer, so while on the one hand, he will likely do what is good for real estate and loosening regulation might mean real estate financing flows more freely, on the other hand, immigration restrictions will likely increase construction costs and trade limitations could stem the foreign dollars for real estate that has helped bolster pricing.

Here in Atlanta, we are blessed with the fact that more and more companies want to move to Atlanta or expand their Atlanta based operations. This population influx gives us a buffer – even when prices go down again (as they inevitably will) as long as we have net population growth our real estate prices will remain strong.

So when asked “how’s the real estate market” – say FANTASTIC. But then dig a little deeper.

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne serves on the Committee that drafts and reviews the contracts utilized by all REALTORS in the State of Georgia. In addition, she is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

 

THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT from you and me…

02 Wednesday Nov 2016

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THE RICH ARE DIFFERENT from you and me….

By Mary Anne Walser, Realtor & Attorney, 404-277-3527, maryannesellshomes@gmail.com

“The Rich are different from you and me,” said F. Scott Fitzgerald. “Yes, they are – they have more money,” replied Hemingway (or so goes the legend). The rich often are different in other ways, too. Let’s look at what is it that they expect and want, and how are the homes they buy different from our typical Atlanta homes. (Even if you are NOT a luxury home buyer or seller, these insights can help you when considering how to add value to your home in any price range.)

This isn’t a scientific study, but I took a look at luxury homes on the market and those that have currently sold in Atlanta. The first interesting fact is that there are more than 1300 homes in the Metro Atlanta area that are currently listed above $1M. 1368, to be exact. More than half of those, however, are between 1 and 1.5M. More than 3/4ths of them are between 1 and 2M. The pickings get slimmer and slimmer as the price is increased, with only 26 homes over $6M. When we take a look at the luxury homes above $2,000,000 (since with those numbers, 1 to 2 million is barely “luxury”), many of the homes are largely alike in ways you would expect. Most of them:

  • Are 6,000 square feet at a minimum
  • Have a lot of land – generally speaking, the more expensive the home, the more land associated with it
  • Most of them have swimming pools; infinity edge pools are particularly popular
  • A disproportionate number of them are on the following Buckhead streets:
    • West Paces Ferry
    • Blackland
    • Tuxedo
    • Valley
  • Most of them are in Buckhead or in the northeastern Metro Area, especially Milton
  • There is a lot of statuary (statues) on the grounds
  • Movie theaters with movie seats and popcorn machines are popular
  • Forget guest ROOMS – luxury estates have guest HOUSES on the property
  • Privacy is important – the homes are often gated and far from the street

There are further trends that could apply to ANY price range – so let’s take a look at those:

  • CHEF’S KITCHEN with commercial style appliances (to make it look as if you cook, even if you don’t)
  • SPA BATHROOMS – two shower heads and body jets, heated flooring, towel warmers
  • OUTDOOR KITCHEN – grill, fridge, sink, beer tap
  • TECHNOLOGY – control your entire home from your smart phone. Now that most everything is wireless, this can be the case even in lower priced homes

Even if your home is NOT luxury and worth two million or more, the more you can incorporate luxury elements the more you will be able to get from you home when you go to sell.

The most expensive home in Atlanta right now? A $48,000,000 home on Riverview, inside the Perimeter east of 75 and south of I-285. It has more than 18 private acres, 17,000 square feet and comes fully furnished. It’s an English Manor style home with… you guessed it – a four-bedroom guest house. And, of course, statuary. If that doesn’t appeal to you, there is always the “Urban Island” of Old 4th Ward, which you have definitely seen if you drive down Freedom Parkway. Right in the middle of it all with amazing views of downtown, it’s listed for $5,000,000. Or the “Zombie Fortress” at an undisclosed Georgia location, a bunker built underground with room for 15 people in the event of catastrophe – yours for $15,000,000.

If you want to buy or sell a home or just need advice, for million dollar service in any price range, call us!

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne s a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

Invitations to Offer & Reverse Offers – How Atlanta Home Sellers Make Offers to Buyers (instead of the other way around)

28 Thursday Jul 2016

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INVITATIONS TO OFFER & REVERSE OFFERS – how Atlanta Home Sellers make offers to Buyers (instead of the other way around)

By Mary Anne Walser, Realtor & Attorney, 404-277-3527, maryannesellshomes@gmail.com

 

When you LIST YOUR HOME for sale, is this an OFFER that a buyer can accept by agreeing to the terms you present? What does it take for a buyer to have a binding contract to buy a home? This surprises some people – but legally, even if you as a buyer offer list price or more for a home, it doesn’t mean the seller has to sell it to you.

By way of example, let’s say you see a home on the market for $500,000. You offer $500,000 and do not ask the seller for anything specifically, other than the property itself – it’s just a clean, straightforward offer for exactly what the seller is asking for the property. You even offer CASH and you don’t have to sell something in order to buy, so there’s no financing contingency. Do you have a contract at that point? NO. Although a lot of buyers think that it should work that way. Why is there no contract?

A binding contract requires agreement on all basic terms. A property listing – in this example, the listing that offered the property for $500,000 – is not an “offer” that can be accepted, because there are many key terms that are not present. What DATE will you close, for instance? Will there be earnest money and if so, in what amount? Is there a right to inspect? What fixtures are included with the property?

Because there is so much that must be determined between the parties other than the price, the property listing is not an “offer” that can be accepted – it is what is called an “invitation to offer.” It’s asking for buyers to make offers, but it’s not guaranteeing that the property will be sold even if the seller receives a full price offer. Indeed, many sellers purposefully price the listing at LESS than they would take because they want to start a bidding war on the property. They hope the low list price will get a buyer feeding frenzy going and that therefore the property will sell for MORE than list price.

The listing as invitation to offer isn’t the only “invitation” the seller can extend the buyer. Many sellers overlook a very powerful tool for selling their home – the reverse offer.

Here is how a reverse offer works. Say you are eager to sell your home, and a buyer has been to your home multiple times and is obviously interested, but is hesitant to make an offer. Have your agent call that buyer’s agent and find out WHY the buyer hasn’t made an offer. If there are reasons you can do something about, make an offer TO THE BUYER and get them off the fence.

Recently I had an adorable listing and one of the buyer’s agents who showed it told me that her client LOVED the home, but was about to make an offer on another home in the same neighborhood instead. “Why the other home?” I asked. There were multiple reasons. “Why NOT my listing?” I then asked, and gathered even more information.

There were some objections the buyer had that we could do nothing about. We were a smaller home than the other one they were considering. But there were some pluses we had that the other listing did not. For one thing, my listing is right across the street from the awesome neighborhood park! For a buyer with a child (as this one was) it just doesn’t get better than that. We were also better priced than the other listing. One thing the buyer did NOT like was that our floors were scratched up and well worn.

But my seller was motivated to sell and I WANTED THIS BUYER. There was a great buyer about to purchase in the very neighborhood where my listing was located. My sellers were moving out of state and really wanted to be able to go ahead and make an offer on a home in their new state – but couldn’t do so until their current home was under contract.

SO, we made a reverse offer. We offered a lower price and refinished floors PLUS my sellers wrote perhaps the best reverse offer letter in the history of reverse offers, we came down from list price a bit, and we offered to finish the floors after closing, but before the buyer moved in. Here is a revised and edited bit of my seller’s reverse offer letter, just to give you an idea of what a seller might write in this situation:

We are so thrilled that you are considering our neighborhood for your new home. It truly is a special neighborhood. Our neighbor and friend next door (to the left as you face the house) is the best neighbor you could ever ask for. He’s quiet, hosts fantastic happy hours, and is always willing to lend a hand. I’m not sure you could borrow a cup of sugar from him, but I can speak from experience that we have borrowed a bottle of wine on occasion! And I hope you took a look at the great park across the street. I understand that you have a dog – the field is an unofficial dog park where neighbors take their dogs to run and play after work and on weekends. Having the park across the street has been like an extension of our yard and we have made much use of it over the years – and I hope that you will, too.

We’d like to offer you a reduced price on the home as well as the promise to refinish the floors to a stain of your choice. We are relocating and your timeline works extremely well with our proposed summer move date. We really feel that our home would be a wonderful fit for you!

Who WOULDN’T want to buy this Seller’s home after reading that letter? And in this instance, THE REVERSE OFFER WORKED. The Buyer purchased my Seller’s home rather than the other one she was eyeing in the neighborhood.

Real estate is an art as well as a science. The key whether you are buying OR selling is to be flexible, open, and creative!

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

 

Channeling Don Draper – Positioning Your Atlanta Home in the Homebuying Marketplace

08 Wednesday Jun 2016

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If you are a Mad Men fan, then you know Don Draper went in for the product pitch fully prepared. He learned as much as he could about the product he was being interviewed to market, and he researched how to best appeal to the most likely buyers. Don’t forget that your home is also a product. You need to identify the strength of the market, the target buyer, and the best way to approach and appeal to that buyer. Much can be learned by utilizing some simple tools Mad Men style to position your home correctly in the marketplace. So here we go!

Like bringing any other product to the market, first we do a market analysis. We price your home right by looking at the comparables that have sold recently in a close radius – that’s looking at what has already SOLD. We also determine how much inventory is currently in your price range, how long it may take to sell, and what our competition looks like. We must keep in mind, of course, that there are many buyers who will look beyond a “close radius” of your home. For instance, a buyer may be looking in Decatur AND in Dunwoody – in Inman Park AND in Sandy Springs. While a prequalified buyer will know what they can afford, they may NOT have decided exactly where they want to live. But we do not let that overwhelm us. We start with what’s closest, since that is most immediately relevant. And we keep in mind that pricing and marketing homes is as much an ART as it is a SCIENCE.

One of the key indicators we look at is the ABSORPTION RATE in your particular market. Many sellers make the mistake of pricing their home relative to other homes that are CURRENTLY presented for sale. The problem with that is that the other homes currently on the market HAVE NOT SOLD (by definition). So if you price relative to current listings, and those homes aren’t moving, you may be overpricing, even IF you are priced less than the others.

So the absorption rate is one tool that allows us to look back at the homes that HAVE sold and how quickly they have sold. Here is what you need in order to calculate absorption rate:

  1. The market you wish to analyze. This can be one specific neighborhood or a larger area.
  2. The time period you want to analyze (typically we’ll take six months, sometimes longer).
  3. The number of homes SOLD within that time frame.
  4. The number of homes currently under contract or PENDING sale.
  5. The number of homes currently on the market.

So, by way of example, let’s take Chastain Park as of June 2016. First, know that to truly get an accurate absorption rate you sometimes need to do a specific map search. There are several reasons for this. For instance, Chastain Park is a prestigious area so some listings may claim to be in Chastain Park when they really are not. Also, there are neighborhoods within Chastain Park that are named differently – so the neighborhood name might be used in the listing instead of “Chastain Park.” So using a map search will give us the most accurate information.  And using a map search, we find that 134 homes have sold in Chastain Park in the last year. There are 27 homes that are “pending sale” or “under contract.” And there are 99 current active listings.  So what does this tell us?  Here are the calculations:

  • What is the rate of home sales in Chastain Park? We take the number of sold homes and pending homes added together, (134 plus 27 = 161), divided by the number of months in our chosen past time frame (here we will use a year, or 12 months). This calculation results in 13.41 (161 divided by 12), meaning that 13 (and almost a half) homes are sold every month in Chastain Park.
  • We can figure out the absorption rate by taking the active listings and dividing that by the average number of listings which sell per month. Thus, we get active listings = 99, divided by the average home sales per month (13.41), which equals 7.38 months. That means that if no other homes came on the market, it would take 7.38 months to sell the inventory that we have.

A BALANCED absorption rate is generally between 5 and 7 months. By balanced, we mean a market that’s balanced between buyers and sellers; neither holds a particular advantage in a “balanced market.” Less than five months is a seller’s market (meaning better for sellers), more than seven is a buyer’s market. So we’re in a little bit of a buyer’s market in Chastain Park at this particular moment in time. This is an important piece of information which tells us in part that it’s important to price competitively.

Once we have figured out the absorption rate and how quickly homes are moving, we ask: who is the likely buyer for your home? First time homebuyer? Move up executive who is now making a lot more money and ready for a showcase home to entertain clients? A downsizing widow? A couple planning to have children? You get the idea. To figure this out, we look at the types of buyers who have purchased homes like yours in the same general area. While we want to have as broad an appeal as possible (at least as to those homebuyers who can afford homes in your price range), it doesn’t hurt to also have a good idea of who the “most likely” buyer might be, and to develop a plan to target them in our marketing efforts.

Keeping the likely buyer in mind, we stage carefully. Many of our staging rules apply no matter who the audience, but we also tailor our staging to the likely buyer, the style of the house, the neighborhood and the season. The marketing plan extends to photography as well. If our target buyer is one likely to enjoy the outdoors, we play that up in photographs. If our buyer is likely to entertain in the evenings, we may take some of our photographs at night. Nowadays we often also use drone photography to showcase a particularly large lot or extensive home, a pool, or outdoor area.

After years in the business, I have become expert in marketing homes, but I always also get the input of other agents. We invite other agents into your home to get feedback on our planned approach to appeal to buyers. We often make adjustments based on that feedback.  These agent previews provide a sort of “focus group” intelligence that helps us make your home most appealing to the buyers who come through.

Once we are in the marketplace as a live listing, the adjustments never stop until your home is sold. If buyers aren’t seeing the home, we want to know why. If buyers see the home and aren’t making an offer, we also want to know why. It’s important to have continual and honest feedback until your home is sold. As a seller, you must have a tough skin and take all feedback in stride. As your agent, I will gather the feedback and let you know what I believe is valid and what is not. It’s difficult to have strangers “critiquing” your home. But know the critique is really a critique of the marketing of the home, and not of the way you live. Put on your Don Draper hat and think of it as simply more market intelligence. Together we can determine the best marketing plan and get your home sold!

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

 

Hey, Atlanta Homeseller: How to Ace the Home Listing Interview!

03 Friday Jun 2016

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What, you say?  When you sell your home, YOU are interviewing the Realtor, not the other way around.  But we don’t accept every listing that is offered to us.  If you are determined to overprice, and can’t/won’t do the work needed to get your home ready to sell, a great agent may just pass on your listing.  And you WANT a great agent – that’s how you’re going to get the most money for your home.  The key to a successful listing relationship starts at the listing appointment – or even before.  SO – here’s how to ace the home listing interview.

What do you need to know?  FIRST, it is okay to call an agent even if you are only “thinking” about selling.  Making an appointment does not obligate you to list or to sell anytime in the near or far future.  Of course, if you are in a hurry to sell then you will be top priority.  So let us know your urgency when you make the appointment, and it is totally fine to consult with us even months prior to the time you actually plan to list.   Realtors are in the business of connection.  Even if you decide never to list, if you are impressed with us we trust that you will tell your friends about us.  If you are planning to list, but have some time, we can help you get your home positioned to maximize your return when you DO sell.

In fact, it is crucial that you call if you are thinking now about making home improvements in order to sell your home in the future.  Consult us first!  What you think is going to make you a lot of money may NOT be what buyers are looking for.  We agents are in the market every day with buyers in our car.  So we know what impresses buyers – what is worth spending money on and what is not worth spending money on.  We can help you choose your upgrades carefully with the future buyer in mind.  After all, if you are renovating TO sell, that is key.  If you are renovating for yourself and plan to stay, that’s a whole different ballgame.

When you call, we will ask you a series of questions over the phone to gauge your motivation and urgency, and to find out what we can about your home prior to our appointment.  We will pull your tax record and then pull comparable homes that have sold around you over the past 3-6 months.  We will send you our Seller’s Guide prior to meeting with you so you will know what to expect and can ask any questions that arise from it – but don’t feel as if you HAVE to read the Seller’s Guide prior to our appointment.  We are always available to answer questions and I will talk you through the process when we meet.

Our meeting will last between half an hour to an hour and a half, depending upon how large your home is and how many questions we have for one another.   Here is a typical itinerary:

  • I will give you disclosure forms to review while I tour your home. The disclosure forms ask you questions about your house – the age of systems, that sort of thing – and you will likely have questions about how to answer.
  • While you review those forms, I like to tour the home by myself rather than have you take me through the home. Here is the reasoning:
    • I want to view the home objectively, as a home buyer would. The best way to do that is if I simply walk through the home the way I typically walk through a home with a buyer.
    • I will take notes and take pictures. The pictures I take are NOT the ones we will use in listing your home – we use a professional photographer for the listing pictures.  The pictures I take are only for my review in advising you on staging and marketing.
  • After I walk through your home, I will sit with you and talk through the process – our marketing plan and what we do to sell your home.
  • Then we will look at the homes that are comparable to yours that I have pulled from our phone discussion. The ones that are most pertinent are the homes that have SOLD, but we will also review the homes that are pending sales and those that are active listings.
  • Together we will discuss what needs to be done to your house to get it ready to sell, the “right” list price, and the timing of the sale.
  • Most of my sellers sign a listing agreement during the appointment and we list right away (after a weekend for clearing out and staging the home).  Or I can send you the listing agreement and disclosures electronically.
  • After the appointment I will send you a recap email setting forth the repairs and staging notes we discussed during our visit.

While most sellers list right away, many consult me six months before they are really ready, and then of course there are sellers in every time frame in between.  My goal in meeting with you is to develop a relationship with you and determine how to best serve your needs.

There is no preparation required on your part prior to our meeting, however, if you are able and willing to do the following it will help streamline the process:

  • Pull your most recent mortgage statement with balance information. If you have a second mortgage (home equity line of credit) pull that statement also.  The tax records I have pulled show the mortgage amount when you purchased the home, but you have likely paid some of that off.  These statements will help us determine your anticipated net from the sale.
  • Have a survey of your property handy if you have one.
  • Similarly, if you have ever had architectural plans prepared (either for a renovation or addition that was finished, or one that was considered but not done) have those ready for us.
  • Have an extra key ready.
  • Have a list of key features of your home; details of any renovations and upgrades are very helpful.
  • Put together a list of what you love about your home, your neighbors, and your neighborhood. Be as specific and inclusive as possible.
  • Have any neighborhood newsletters, invitations, or flyers ready.
  • If you know of any property boundary disputes or potential liens (by contractors or creditors) let’s discuss at our meeting. We can have a pre-emptive title search done to be sure your title will be clear when we offer your home for sale.

So gather information, but remember to meet with us before you take action on anything.   Let’s get your home ready, price it right – and get ready to SELL!

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

Selling is Showtime

18 Wednesday May 2016

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It’s SHOWTIME, folks!  Grab up the toys, wipe down the counter, turn up the lights, and send in the clowns… oops.  Send in the BUYERS.  Buyers, not clowns (guess they could be clowns, but we don’t know that yet).  And their agents.  (No more clown comments.)

When you have your home on the market, here is how a showing works from curtain up to curtain call.  The audition is the listing appointment in which you engage me as your agent.  The rehearsals are the staging work we do prior to taking pictures.  Unless we have sold your home before putting it on the market, we put those beautiful professional pictures up on the MLS (multiple listing service) and at that point you are ready to welcome the audience.  You want exposure to as large an audience as possible.  In the Atlanta area, that means advertising in both multiple listing services: Georgia MLS and First MLS and syndicating your listing to all websites that provide the public access to listings.

Once in the MLS and across the web, buyers and agents are able to see your home.  When a buyer and/or agent has identified your home as one they want to see in person, they will ask for a showing.  An unrepresented buyer may call me directly to arrange a showing.  The represented buyer will have their agent call me to set up the showing.  Or, depending upon how you, the seller, and I decide to handle showings, the agent may call you directly.  In any event, you will (hopefully) have 24 hours or more notice to have your home show ready.  BUT YOU CANNOT COUNT ON THAT.  Here’s why an agent might tell you between 2 and 3pm but actually show up at 1:30 or 3:30 (or anytime in between).

A buyer’s agent is typically showing their buyer more than just YOUR home on that day.  They may be showing anywhere between four homes and fourteen homes (or maybe more).  It’s difficult to tell in advance if a buyer is going to breeze through some or all of the homes before yours, or if they are going to want to take extra time and sit a spell at a prior listing.  Traffic may be particularly bad.  For any number of reasons, a buyer and agent may not show up at your home at the time that they say that they will.

So when they show up thirty minutes early or thirty minutes late or even are off by an hour, the key is to be friendly and understanding.  How you react greatly effects how the buyer is going to feel about the home.

Recently, I went with my buyers to see a home and when I knocked on the door, it was clear the frazzled Dad had no clue that we were coming.  But he put a big smile on his face and explained (you guessed it) “I had no clue that you were coming, but it’s totally fine!  Give us just a minute and we’ll be out for your showing.”  Dad and the two kids cleaned fast and headed to the driveway to play basketball.  My buyers had a great feeling about the house.  It’s like the home has good “mojo” because nice people live there.

Contrast that with the time I knocked on the door and was regaled by the person answering the door who practically screamed “YOU ARE EARLY.  You *(#() agents are always early!”  I apologized profusely, but then looked at my watch: I had said we would be there between 2 and 3pm and it was 1:59!  My clients didn’t even want to go inside after being yelled at.  Turns out the person answering the door was a home manager (more on that in a future blog post).  The home manager did not keep that position for long (no surprise).

So the moral of the story is to be the first seller, not the home manager.  Be ready and be courteous if the agent shows up early or late.  It’s totally fine if they are outside their time window to politely excuse yourself to sit on the front porch or to take a short walk.  Don’t act exasperated.  Just smile.  How a buyer feels about YOU really does affect the way they feel about the HOUSE.

While it’s okay to leave when an agent gets there if they are off their appointed time, as a seller, you always want to leave for a showing before the buyer and agent get there if at all possible.  Trust me on this.  The buyer needs time to LOOK at your house – experience it – and talk with their agent freely about their feelings, thoughts, and questions.  A seller in the house is distracting whether that seller is trying to engage the buyer or not – either way it’s bad.  A seller who is just hanging out in the home doing their thing makes a buyer feel that they are intruders and should get out quickly (not to mention the buyer feels that they can’t reveal their true feelings about the home or talk about it with their agent).  A seller who tries to give a tour of the home is even more disruptive.  If the buyer is looking at and listening to you, they aren’t experiencing the house.  And believe me, they don’t care about your hand painted kitchen backsplash tiles or the age of the windows if they haven’t even had a chance to decide if they like the house.

So if you have left prior to the showing as I am suggesting is best, how are agents and buyers going to get into your home?  As your listing agent, I will leave you a SUPRA ibox.  It’s a very secure blue box that can be attached to an exterior door or simply left out behind a planter when it is buyer showtime.  Buyer’s agents have SUPRA “keys” (or an app on their phone) that can open the lockbox through an infrared signal.  The lockbox even signals me, the listing agent, who is accessing the lockbox and when.  A great advance from the days when Realtors would have to pick up keys from the office for every listing they wanted to show.  The ibox is a good security measure since it identifies the person opening the box.  Always have the agent use the ibox for entry even IF you are there when they arrive.

When you are getting ready for the showing, here are your ground rules:

  • Leave ALL lights on. Every home looks better with the lights on.  In our staging consult, we’ve made sure that the light is of the right “quality”; make sure that all lightbulbs are operational and all lights on.
  • Leave all window shades open (unless there is a strategic reason for keeping one closed, or half closed – say if a view isn’t ideal).
  • Be cognizant of SMELL. No strange cooking smells, no locker room smells, no pet smells.  If you suspect any of these, the best counter-smells are citrus or pine (cleaning products).  Don’t use those plug-ins.  They are heavy scents, give many buyers headaches, and make it appear you are trying to cover up some particularly problematic odor.
  • In appealing to all senses, don’t forget TASTE. Leave cookies, chocolate (or both) with a sign that says “help yourself”.  Guess who it really helps?  A buyer with higher blood sugar will stay around longer and like your home more.  Leave water too – hydration improves perception as well!
  • While we’re appealing to all senses, sometimes leaving music on just feels creepy. Buyers think that there must be someone home so they are a bit on edge.  Silence is best.

You’ve set the stage and put your best foot forward for your buyers.  Afterwards come the reviews.  The best review of all?  AN OFFER.   Here’s to you being showered with offers like the star performer is showered with roses…..

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne s a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

Backup Homebuyers

13 Friday May 2016

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Wanna be a backup?  It’s a common question among Realtors these days.  So what are we talking about?  We have a shortage of inventory right now – not enough homes to sell for the buyers who are out there.  That means that there are often multiple offers when a hot property goes on the market.  It can be tough on the average homebuyer.  Say you have a loan, but one of the OTHER offers is all cash.  All other things being equal, cash is king and tough to beat.  Now, there are other ways to win in a multiple offer situation; perhaps money is not the only thing important to the seller.  The thing to do is to have your agent quiz the seller’s agent about what other terms would make the seller happy.  Perhaps they need a quick close – or perhaps they haven’t found a home to move to yet and need a longer close.  Maybe they need to “rent back” for some period of time.

In other instances, perhaps what is important to the Seller is bringing a great neighbor to a neighborhood they’ve known and loved.  In that instance, a letter from the buyer can make all the difference.  In fact, I recently had a client, a single mom looking for her first home purchase all on her own.  She fell in love with the “perfect” house and wrote a letter to the seller detailing all the reasons that she loved the home.  There were seven total offers on the house, and after we won the bid the listing agent told me that there were two other offers that were stronger and higher in price than ours was, but that the LETTER made the difference.  The letter touched the seller and convinced the seller that my buyer was the best buyer for the house.

But say you’ve tried the multiple offer strategies and you still lose out to another offer.  Perhaps the price went way over list and you offered less.   Maybe another buyer took out the appraisal contingency and you weren’t willing to that.  But you still loved the house.

THIS is where the backup offer comes in.   When another buyer wins the property you want, you can offer to “be the backup.” What that means is that you make an offer to the seller that if the first contract falls through, you are waiting in the wings and fall into the first position without the property ever coming back onto the market.  The backup offer, of course, has no legal effect until the seller signs it – at that point, it becomes the backup contract and is basically a right of first refusal for the backup buyer.

How it works is this – if the first contract falls through, the backup comes into effect when the seller notifies the second buyer that the first contract has fallen through.

So what’s in it for the seller?  Well, if a property comes BACK on the market after being under contract, others wonder “what’s wrong with it?”  There’s a certain stigma attached to a property that’s been under contract and that contract is terminated.  This is why you will see an agent write into such a listing something like “BUYER’S FINANCING FELL THROUGH” – the idea is to signal to future buyers that the contract termination has nothing to do with anything wrong with the house.  With a backup offer, the seller doesn’t have to risk any stigma attached to coming back ON the market.

For the buyer, of course, it’s a risk free proposition if there’s a due diligence period in the contract.  Most contracts in Georgia have a seven to ten day due diligence period during which the buyer can terminate for any reason or no reason at all.  So submitting such an offer as a backup is risk free.  Even if the contract becomes primary, the buyer can decide to terminate and get earnest money returned.

So how is it effectuated?  There’s a backup agreement exhibit in the Georgia Forms that’s used.  With the exhibit, the seller can sign because they are *not* selling the same property to two different buyers – they are granting an option to the second buyer should the first contract fall through.

With the due diligence period, the second buyer is able to terminate at any time, even before the backup contract moves into first position.  Thus, the backup buyer can continue to shop for a home and if they find the perfect place, simply terminate the backup contract.

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne serves on the Committee that drafts and reviews the contracts utilized by all REALTORS in the State of Georgia. In addition, she is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.

Staging to Stay

15 Friday Jan 2016

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Staging

As a Realtor, I help people sell and buy homes… but today I’m going to talk about staying IN your home.  Since most of you will sell or buy sometime in the next 5 to 7 years, today most of you are probably planning to stay where you are for the time being.  If you’re not, call me immediately and let’s sell your home!  But if you’re not planning to move in the very near future, what I’m telling you today will help you regardless.

When I go on a listing appointment with a potential seller, sometimes the house is perfect for selling.  Perfectly staged and ready to go.  You know the home – the one that looks like it belongs in House Beautiful or in the pages of Dwell.  But this is the exception rather than the rule.  If I can come in, get the listing agreement signed, have the pictures taken and get the listing in the system right away, that’s marvelous – but more often there’s work that needs to be done.  And often after the work is done, the seller will tell me that they wish they had done the work long before OR that they now don’t want to move!

SO let’s talk about the advice I’m going to give you when you go to SELL your home – if you do these things now you’ll be way ahead of the game and when you’re ready to really sell, you won’t have as much work to do; if you plan to stay, you’re going to LOVE your home all the more.

  1. CURB APPEAL. It’s everything when you go to sell – the first impression of your home is the most important.  So spend some money on landscaping and make sure you keep it up (this means an irrigation system if you don’t plan to water your plants yourself).  Don’t have too much “stuff” in the form of yard art and the like.  This will be a common theme as we move inside.  While we are out here, keep these in mind:
    1. A fresh coat of paint goes a long way in terms of curb appeal. A home’s exterior should be repainted every 7 years or so.
    2. A new welcome mat IS welcoming. And not that expensive.  Spring for a welcome mat you love.
    3. Consider adding seating somewhere in the front yard – some place welcoming, a place to rest, a place to enjoy the yard. You will meet a lot more neighbors if you hang out in your front yard!
    4. Along those same lines, if you have a front porch, use it! You’d be surprised how many people have awesome front porches and don’t use them.  For a small front porch, a small cafe table and chairs will do wonders.
  1. CLEAR THE CLUTTER. Moving inside, remember that most of us have way too many “things” for comfort.   Clearing your possessions also helps to clear your mind, as pointed out by that great NY Times bestseller “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up”.  Because so much of it is relevant to real estate, it’s worth mentioning here:
    1. Only keep things that are useful and which you love. If it’s in a box that you haven’t opened or unpacked in more than a year, chances are you never will and it needs to GO.  Same with clothes!  I recommend a rotation system.  When an item of clothing comes to the front of your closet, you either wear it or donate it.  After it’s worn, it goes to the back. This way you avoid the trap many fall into of wearing the same thing over and over and over and never wearing half of your closet.
    2. The general rule for closets is that they should be HALF full with NOTHING on the floor whatsoever and if there are shelves, nothing folded on the shelves. Instead, use baskets and put extra items in there.
    3. Visual clutter kills a sale, and it makes you feel unorganized and unfocused. The best thing to do is to CLEAR EVERYTHING off horizontal surfaces – that is, from shelves and bookcases and tabletops, then come back and put only a few items back.  Ideally, your home should feel a little sparse to you.  Believe me, you’ll get used to it and you’ll love it.
    4. Much of the psychological difficulty about getting rid of stuff, I find, is that people don’t want to WASTE things. But you don’t have to THROW THINGS AWAY.  Give them to Goodwill.  Make it a goal to go to Goodwill with a bag of items at least once every two weeks until you feel you have clutter under control.
    5. Clearing clutter includes FOOD. How many of the items in your pantry are EXPIRED?  I am guilty of this, and after my son-in-law pointed out a few expiration dates, I went to work clearing out pantry and fridge.  It feels marvelous!
  1. TAKE PICTURES. My stager, after she’s met with my sellers and given a list of things for them to do which includes enhancing curb appeal and clearing the clutter, recommends that they go around their home with a camera or their iPhone and take pictures of each room from multiple angles.  Do this!  Then go back and take a close look at the pictures you’ve taken.  There will be lots of things you don’t notice with your straight eyesight that will pop out in a picture.  There are many reasons for this, but among them that you are USED to seeing your own home.  Seeing your home through a camera lens gives you a new perspective and you’ll notice things you wouldn’t otherwise, like cords that add visual clutter.  Taking pictures will give you a whole new perspective.
  1. REPAIR LIST. This is less visible, but an important part of making your home wonderful for yourself!  Keep a list of all those “little” repairs that need to be done.  You know – the ones that you notice only at certain times but which always bother you when you notice them.  The door that sticks; the drawer that doesn’t close all the way; the dimmer switch that heats up too much; the wood rot on the exterior.  It’s well worth your investment to hire a handyman at least two times a year to take care of this stuff.  Most of them will charge you by the hour plus materials.  And while you’re at it you can have them change the lightbulbs you have trouble changing or install that new light fixture you’ve been eyeing at Home Depot.  If buyers see a stuck door or dripping faucet, they are going to wonder if the home is well cared for and will be looking for other “problems.”  You want them focused on what’s RIGHT with the house.  The same goes for you!

That’s just a start of things I suggest for “staging to stay”.  In a future blog post, I will cover renovations – how to plan renovations that will pay off when you go to sell, but will increase your enjoyment of your home in the interim.  And never hesitate to call me, your Realtor, for advice and counsel.

 

Mary Anne Walser is a licensed attorney and full-time REALTOR, serving buyers and sellers in all areas of Metro Atlanta. Her knowledge of residential real estate and her legal expertise allow her to offer great value to her clients. Mary Anne serves on the Committee that drafts and reviews the contracts utilized by all REALTORS in the State of Georgia. In addition, she is a member of the Atlanta Board of Realtors, the Georgia Association of Realtors, the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. Contact Mary Anne at 404-277-3527, or via email: maryannesellshomes@gmail.com.