The Camera Phone House
October 20, 2008
I showed a home the other day that has been on the market - continuously - for 899 days. Which begs the question: why hasn’t this home sold?
Two big reasons.
1) It’s overpriced for the condition of the home. It’s a partial remodel, with a bad paint job, missing baseboards, some original vinyl, with a brand new kitchen, new carpet, and some badly laid new tile. Please note: a new kitchen does not a ’stunning complete remodel’ make. The seller’s last price adjustment was in June 2008. So that house has been sitting there, at the same price, for 139 days. You know what happens when you do the same thing that isn’t working, over and over, and expect a different result? But that’s not the only problem.
2) The seller hired an agent - their second agent for this home, the first was a relative - who took 6 pictures with what appears to be a camera phone, wrote a 2 line description, and plopped it onto the MLS. This is the one that is so frustrating to me. Why, as a home seller, would you settle for someone who does a bare minimum - and doesn’t even do the minimum well? The pictures and description in the MLS are so very important. With around 80% of home buyers starting their search online, the representation of the home online has to be spectacular to stand out from the crowd.
Needless to say, we weren’t impressed. Next.
Negotiating and Real Estate
October 7, 2008
Question from the audience: What’s your negotiating style?
Answer: Whichever way you’re most comfortable with.
I like to discuss negotiating styles with my clients before we get too far along in either the home buying or home selling process. Some folks are very aggressive, and aren’t happy with the result unless each party has gone back and forth several times with counter offers. Some folks want to make one offer and be done with it.
For you to be happy with the outcome of your home negotiations, I need to make sure that I know how you want me to negotiate on your behalf. You want to be hard-line aggressive? We can do that. Is this the one you have to have and you’re prepared to step up and take it? We can do that too. It’s all your choice.
You’ll still get my advice and my take on the situation, of course. Over the past years as a real estate agent here in Tucson, I’ve gotten pretty good at reading the situation, and usually have some kind of idea as to what will or will not work. But I think it is important that you’re happy with the process, regardless of the outcome. Just another thing you ought to be discussing with your agent.
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