Eight Tips for Selling Your Home in a Changing Market, Part 1

*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

Welcome to the answers for elders radio show. meet the trusted experts who will give you straight answers and I will help guide you on the path of later life care. Now here’s your host, founder, caregiver and CEO, Susanne Newman, and welcome everyone to answers for elders radio network. The great news is is that we have our wonderful Rebecca Bowman, the CEO of Sash Realty, sash senior home sale services. And Rebecca, I am so glad you’re back to answers for elders. Thank you, Suzanne. Thank you for having me. It’s been a very busy summer of real estate and so I’m catching my breath and I’m really excited to be here with you today. Well, I’m excited you’re back and I have to say, my friend, I have missed you. I have missed all of your you know, yes, your wisdom, yes, your knowledge, but most importantly, I missed your heart and you are such a joy to have um with us as we talk about all the things that are going on. Was Seniors are looking to downsize. They’ve been kind of some things, you know, going on and thinking about, you know, maybe it’s time to, you know, let go and move forward. And obviously, Um, there’s been some changes in the real estate market, Um, and I’m glad you have um come on today and we’re gonna talk a little bit about what’s going on with the market. How’s it changing? Um, this summer and you know, what’s been going on, and I’ve I’ve been hearing a lot of clients talk about just how they’re worried, and that’s what we want to allay today. Are Any fears and help people know that everything is good in the real estate market. There’s headlines Out, their statistics coming out, there’s, you know, real estate companies are putting out press releases and reports and they’re saying, wow, there’s been a giant shift since May and and I’ve heard a lot of clients. I sit in living rooms, I sit in dining rooms, I sit, you know, across from families and they say, you know, is the market crashing? Is it falling? Did we miss the market? What’s happening? And so, Suzanne, you know, being here with you gives us an opportunity to talk about this and really, Um, provide guidance and knowledge and understanding so that folks know that. Nope, everything is good and you can still enjoy a successful sale of your home, except there’s a little perspective change. There’s a little bit of change and expectation of what folks need to do to enjoy a successful home sale. And you know, that’s the interesting thing. and Um, so why don’t we start? Obviously, Um, could you mind just giving for those of us that are not in touch with the with the real estate market? Um, what’s been going on? Well, so since the beginning of the pandemic, so about March, April, two thwenty, it’s been a crazy seller’s market. And when I say crazy seller’s market, people have heard stories from their neighbors, from their friends, from their coworkers, of putting a house on the market and selling it for a hundred and fifty thousand over the asking price or receiving nineteen offers or thirty offers or nine offers, and that’s been going on for a couple of years now. The whole time that we were in this crazy seller’s market, I was telling my team and my clients the thing that you can always count on in real estate is it never stays the same. It’s not a matter of if this is going to continue. It’s when is it going to change? When is the market going to shift? I’m in my twentieth year in real estate and I can tell you I’ve been through lots of different economic cycle. Buyer’s market, seller’s market, buyer interest rates, lower interest rates, the market is always changing. So we’ve been in a frenzied seller’s market and now it’s shifting back to more of a balanced market between sellers and buyers, which is very good, it’s very healthy. But unfortunately the way that some of these headlines are written in the ure really causes people to be sensationalistic. Um, you know things that are happening out there. So so, obviously, when you’re saying it’s evening out, I know that. For example, when the market started going crazy, it’s like, like you said, it was a seller’s market and so, basically, so many people couldn’t buy homes, they couldn’t get into homes and if you had to rent, you’re paying three times what, you know, rent in what they were paying before. So you know, there’s been this really I mean I guess the thing is that the yeah, it’s the division of you know, how do people get ahead in the world? Because they can’t get a mortgage, they can’t move in, they can’t if they bid on a house, it takes how many times to bid and how many houses to bid on until and sometimes people never get that home. So I’m sure that’s a part of it. Isn’t not? And everything you’re describing, Suzanne, was unsustainable. Having eighteen percent interest, eighteen percent appreciation, I mean year over year, is unsustainable. We can’t do that for ten years. Having twenty people bid on a home or having to make offers on nine homes before you get one. It’s not sustainable. Having so little inventory that there’s nothing for buyers to choose from when they go looking. That’s not sustainable. So yes, it was really fun for sellers for a couple of years, a little crazy, a lot of fun. We didn’t want to continue in that lopsided market. We want to come back to a balanced market where buyers have some leverage. I mean they were giving up all their rights to win a home wave, inspection wave, appraisal wave, that nonrefundable earnest money, offering their firstborn. I mean we had one broker offers tacos. She said take my buyer’s offer and I’ll buy you tacos and brokers were getting desperate that. But that, I know. It was just it was just, you know, insane and and and what’s what’s going to happen with something like this is is that there’s a lot of young people that are trying to get into buying property, which helps build the wealth of this country. It does, and they weren’t able to get in right and so what I want to do today I would love to give tips for still being successful in your home sale in this changing market. So, you know, it used to be that a seller could just throw their home on the market and then, you know, terrible photography and the house doesn’t look that great and they’re brokers lazy and they’d still get ten offers and it drove me crazy because it, you know, doesn’t encourage that excellence in their work. Well, we’ve got to change expectations now. But I’ve been in the field, I work in the field, I work in the trenches of real estate. So not only am I the owner of a firm and a designated broker, but I sit in living rooms, I list homes, I sell homes and I’ve sold a number of homes over the summer in three days, five days, six days, and you can still do it even after the shift in the market. But you’ve got to you’ve got to follow some guidelines that we’re going to talk about today. So we’re gonna go through some of these tips. Fabulous. So what’s tip number one? Well, we have to start with the foundation, which is that presentation matters, presentation of the home matters, and boy, I saw a lot of homes during the crazy seller’s market where they would leave the garbage can out in the front of the House and the brokers taking cell phone photos of the home with shadows and it’s dark and fuzzy, or there’s things thrown on the table or in the living room. You know, we want to go back to the basics, which is sellers still need to have a clean, uncluttered, well lit home. It’s gonna sell faster, it’s gonna be more successful. Go to the trouble of putting your home in its Sunday best. That’s what I like to say. Put your home and it’s Sunday best, and I always give my clients the guidance and say you’re gonna pack up anyway. You’re gonna Pack Your Home Anyway, do as much of it as you can before photography. Pack up all the clutter, pack up your book collection, pack up all the things that you can get them in the garage, because your home will look bigger and emptier and less cluttered. Presentation Matters. Another part of presentation matters is insist on professional photography from your real estate broker and they be able to cover that. If you have a listing agent, they you know, pay for that. Yeah, yeah, they pay for that. They should pay for beautiful, full color, high resolution photography. UH, aerial photography. We often do. You know where you’re looking at the neighborhood, especially if you’re looking at a block or a lot. Yes, view of the water um nearby. I sold a water view home just a couple of weeks ago and Suzanne, I did so much photography it was almost a thousand dollars just in photography. We did a sunset shoot, inside, shoot, outside, shoot, aerial shoot, uh, and my client had a successful sale. But I was making that investment and they’re broker should too. The people who are listening, they’re brokers should too. And so the other thing before we leave this topic is folks should not feel like they have to do all the work themselves to get that presentation looking good. Get Helpers, get friends or sell a few things that you don’t need, you know you’re not taking them to your next place, and then use that money to hire some helpers to come in and pressure wash, buy flowers, all of that. And you know with seniors downsizing, Um they are, they do need to sell stuff and and so you know, I know you guys help in many ways to do that and and that’s one of the great things that sashtas. So I know we’re on this tip, but you know this first tip. But how does sash play into that? That’s unique to what other realtors do. Thank you for asking. Well, most realtors go into the client’s home and give them a list and say do all these things and then homey and I’ll sell your home. What we do is we go in and say we’ll take care of that list for you. Go ahead and go on to your next place, wherever that is, if you’re moving out of state or into retirement living. We’ll take care of the hard work, the packing to selling, the downsizing and the sprucing up of a home for you. Yes, and that’s the important part of making it easy for seniors, because there can be so much to deal with and for us. We’re so glad that sash is with us and we’re going to have Um, seven more tips coming up. Are we not, Rebecca? Yes, we are, and so here’s the good news about it. In the meantime, to our listeners, how do we reach you? You can find us at sash services DOT COM and our toll free number triple e s a s h. thanks for this first tip and you know what, this is really important information to all of the that are listening, and Rebecca and I are going to tie a lot more about how to make your home sales successful right after this. We it answers for elders. Thank you for listening. 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