When and when not to allow showings on your home

A lot of people are watching the Superbowl tomorrow! But that should not preclude you from showing your home if it is on the market.  I have a client who needs to move immediately, and I was trying to make appointments for tomorrow. Believe it or not, two homeowners declined appointments because of the game. I'm not singling out sports fans, I like to watch, too, BUT, if your home is on the market,  please don't disallow buyers access during a televised sporting event, or a particular television show. They may very well be just as big as fans as you are, and are even more sorry to miss the game or the show  to go look at houses,  but not allowing  buyer access for a few minutes is just not a prudent business decision on any sellers part without good reason. In tomorrow's case, my particular buyer-client  may very well purchase something tomorrow, and those two houses are out of the running because... of a game.

Generally speaking, if a buyer would like to see your home at a reasonable time, let the buyer see it.  I've called to make appointments and I have gotten every excuse in the book- Like, "I have to pick up the house first", (by the way, when I get the seller to agree to the showing, and I usually do, the house tends to be one of the cleanest of the day- and it's not just because they had an extra half hour to clean the house. It was clean already. Here's another one- "We are doing work in the house, and you can show it next week".  Please remember that if you are doing work to sell your home while it is listed, it's an especially good idea to let buyers in during the project for two reasons,.. no let's  make that three.

1. They can see that you are doing quality work 2. If the buyers like the house, and want to make a minor change to your project, you can stop right there! and 3. I guarantee you the buyer won't buy your home if he/she can't look at it.

Reasons to put off a showing- Illness or personal event.

In the case of the above two properties, I think it's akin to  shirking your duty as an agent to forward buyer appointment  calls to the seller. That's what sellers hire agents for- Although the many of  agents in my area direct appointment calls directly to the seller, I  choose to personally  take all appointment calls, and I all my client for confirmation. It's much better all the way around.   If you'reone of the millions  watching the game tomorrow, I hope your team wins!

Punxsatawny Phil Predicted an Early Spring, and I do, too!

Good ol' Punxsatawnty Phil. I'm right there  with him, predicting an early spring .. early spring market, that is.  A couple of posts ago, I blogged about what exactly  the Spring Market is, and when it comes, and it's here already. Maybe that groundhog has a future in predicting the real estate market, too!

If you look at the month of January sales figures, and what's happening right now, it has DEFINITELY started. It is my goal to keep you in the inner-circle loop- that's why the week to week information is so important, as well as historical sales.  It's the beginning of February and if your new year's resolution was to buy a home, or upgrade your current one,  now is the time to get moving- literally and figuratively.

The first step is deciding that it's time. The next step is to call a Realtor (ahem, ME!). I will consult with you either at your home, or my office and I will guide you through the next logical steps for your situation, and we'll put together a timeline specifically for you.

So let's get moving! Call, email or text me- let me know that you found me on the ctrealtyblog and we'll go at your pace.

It's time to de-clutter!

I don't know know about you, but I have seen some of the worst cases of home clutter known to man during my career. I can be conservative and  estimate that I have been in more than 30,000 houses and I've seen more than you are probably interested in hearing about!  Even if you are not planning to put your home on the market for another week, another month, or sometime in the near future, take advantage of the nasty weather we're having right now and do something for you that will actually make you money when you sell.

DE-CLUTTER.

In a kitchen that means, take off all the magnets and pictures from the refrigerator , keep the counters clean (so you and prospective buyers can see that you have a lot of counter-space) and get rid of the extra stuff  that seems to accumulate in the kitchen.

Your living room is another place to get the extra "stuff" out. Unfortunately, that means getting rid of all, or almost all of the family photos on the wall besides getting rid of extra furniture to make the room look bigger.. You may ask why  remove personal photos?...Because it does not allow the buyer to imagine the home as his/her own when they see it. That's a subliminal message, but a VERY important one.

I'm happy to come out to your home,  give you the staging advice that you need, and assist you in the process. (Okay, another shameless plug! ) As always, feel free to call, text or email me, as well as post a comment on the blog if you like. All are welcome!

What exactly is the Spring Market and when does it happen?

Now that's an interesting  term,  "the Spring Market".  Here are three misconceptions about what is called  the Spring market-  

•  The Spring Market the best time to sell your home,
•  The Spring Market is starts in March, or April
•  You get a better price for your home in The Spring Market.

Okay, let's talk about the best time to sell your home.   You know, everybody says they will put their home on the market in the Springtime. Did you ever think that if this is so, that all of these homes are competing with one another in the marketplace?  There are only so many buyers. Let me put it this way- if there are 10 buyers looking at an area, and there are 200 homes available in that area, the odds are that -homeowner has a 20% chance to sell their home, right? Let's take the same scenario in the Fall -6 buyers looking at 120 homes on the market. same stats, right?  In fact, the Fall market has always been just as strong for me as the Spring Market. There is one extremely important fact that the Spring or Fall Market leaves out. That is, the best time to sell your home is when you are ready.

The Spring Market (can we say the Spring Home Season, please)  actually starts in mid-January, and by March 1, its already half over. So get off your duff if you want to sell your home, and call me. :)

And what exactly is a better price?   I could write a book on that subject alone. (And I have written a book, it's called "The Art of Buying or Selling a Home" . Shameless plug, I know.  Let's talk about the relativity of price. Let me put this into a scenario for you. Let's say your home is listed at 600,000, you know you would take 590,000 right now, and your mortgage is 3,000 per month.  Your home has been listed for 30 days and you get an offer of 575,000. (that's after going back and forth and back and forth) Well, that deal doesn't go together, so your home sits on the market, and you finally get another offer 5 months down the road.  These people are willing to pay you $585,000 and so you take it. But did you really get more for your house? What do the net numbers say?

For the 575,000 sale we can subtract  3 months of home expenses. (one month being on the market and two months to close), so the final net is 566,000.

For the 585,000 sale we  subtract 7 months  expenses 564,000.

Yes, they are close but "time value of money" prevails,  in this case the 575,000 sale nets you more money in the end. The  additional 2,000 in this scenario is not money to be thrown away. Besides that, You might also consider that if interest rates fluctuate  just 1/2 of 1 percent, the difference in money invested over the life of the loan can be very dramatic.

I said it before and I will say it again. THE BEST TIME TO SELL YOUR HOME IS WHEN YOU ARE READY.

Make sure you check all of the fees for your loan!

I usually do a rate check on Monday and Friday mornings, but I decided to check them today and  give you an update. Generally, you see interest rates that range from bank to bank, and from credit score to property, etc., but one very important item  remains wherever and whenever you look. By the way, today's rates can vary anywhere from about 3.75% for a 15 year loan  to 4.75% for a 30 year fixed rate  loan. Another  variable to that  is the fees, and all the fees produce your APR (Annual Percentage Rate) That's why you can look at an annual interest rate and see that the APR is  higher. That means that the rate actually ends up being more with all the fees associated with that loan. The bank will take points, for example, (and other up front fees) , which in effect reduce the amount of the actual loan, although the payment stays the same. When that is done, the new rate reflects the same payment spread out over the term of the loan, which is why the APR can be higher.

Here is a link to an online banking resource for your own overview of the rates.