Eight Tips for Selling Your Home in a Changing Market, Part 2

*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 back everyone, to answers for alders radio network. In we are talking to the wonderful Rebecca Bowman, the CEO and founder of Sash senior homesale services, and Sash is an organization that I am so crazy about and every senior should know that they exist, because they help do all the work for you. And I know that when you get older it’s harder to think about how are you going to downsize your home, how are you going to figure out what you’re gonna take to your next destination and how do you just make all this transition work, and it can be overwhelming and to have a partner like Rebecca got in your life is the best thing that you could ever do and I am so excited that we’re we finally have her back. She’s been very busy, Um you know, selling a lot of houses, getting them ready, helping seniors throughout the summer in a very busy changing market and we went over the first tip in segment onece. So for those of you that are have not gone there, you might want to start with number one. But we’re now in segment number two and we’re going to go over more tips and having a successful home sale. So, Rebecca, welcome back. Thank you, Suzanne, and I’m so excited to be here today with your listeners talking about how folks can still enjoy a successful sale in a changing market. And so our next tip is it’s really important to study your competition. So when you’re about to put your home on the market, you’re not thinking about what your neighbors sold it for last year or what your folks down the street sold it for seven months ago. You want to look at WHO’s listing their home right now in your neighborhood. How does their home look, how well presented? How are they priced? Look at your competition because you want to know what else to buyers have to choose from when they’re shopping in your neighborhood and how do those homes compared to yours? And so you’re broker, if you have a good real estate broker, they will bring this data to you when you’re sitting down with them and making the plan and a strategy for pricing your home and selling it. So here’s a couple of suggestions. You don’t ever want to pick your price a month or six weeks in advance. I picked my listing price a day or two before I put the House on the market. Bit what is happening right now in your neighborhood? Did five new homes just come on or did five homes just sell? Do we have a lot of competition or a little competition? And want to see how long have these other homes been sitting on the market? Are they flying off in a couple of days, or are they taking twenty or thirty days? And then gather that data and then give buyers a reason to look at yours, taking all of it into consideration. All this data is available, it’s free and your broker has it at their fingertips, so they can come and help you understand what’s your competition so you can come out ahead. You will, and I you know I’ve watched HDTV and stuff like that, and a lot of times they’ll take you into a home yes see what else is on the market, and I think that’s important if you’re if you’re really interested in you know how your home should look and how this is. I mean, I’m sure that’s available to you as well. To go to our other homes. Absolutely, go to open houses in your neighborhood when they’re having them, or even from the comfort of your own living room, you can open a real estate APP like realtor dot com or all the real state APPS and swipe through those, those photos and see how nicely they’re presented. And no buyers are gonna look at yours compared to that. So it’s really good to study your competition so you can come out ahead. Next tip. Next tip is price your home in the sweet spot. This is what we call the sweet spot. Not So high that nobody comes to see it, not so low that you feel like you left money on the table, right in that sweet spot where buyers are gonna come look. Now here’s the thing about buyers these days. They are so well educated. Thirty years ago, buyers didn’t have access to all the real estate data that they have today in their phone just by swiping through these APPs. That means that buyers no comps. They know values, they know neighborhoods, they know when something is priced high or low, and they also know how long it’s been on the market. Yes, and how many price drops and what did you drop your price from? So I have heard people say, well, you know, this is a myth. Let’s just start high so we have some negotiating room. No, no, start high. Nobody will come see your home and then it will be stale. And, especially in the changing market, people are tempted to want to list at what their neighbor got six months ago. You’ve got to base it on the current competition, the current market data. Pick that sweet spot folks will know. You’ll know that your priced right if you get a lot of activity the first week. That’s how you know your priced right. But if you don’t get any offers after two to three weeks, it means that it’s time to think about a price adjustment because buyers are voting with their feet not to come and see the home. Yeah, well, and I’m sure there’s also approval rates. So if you you’re only approved to you know, five hundred thousand and you live for five twelve, guess what, you’re not even gonna be in the picture. So you know, going in at four you can have the opportunity to grab that buyer that has, you know, has the ability to maybe your you know, have something on the table. So I’m sure there’s a factor into that too. Exactly. One of the things that I always say is the market never lies. If you are under priced, buyers will come swarming and push your price up. Yeah, they will. If you’re overpriced, your house will sit and the market is telling you. It’s not lying, it’s telling you you’re over priced. So listen to what’s happening in the market and what kind of activity you’re getting, and that’s how you know if you’ve priced it right. Go for that sweet spot. Uh, and if you don’t have any offers after three weeks, I would suggest a three to five percent price adjustment down and then you’ll see that activity start up again. Next tip. Are we ready? Let’s go for it. We have now in a changing market, when there’s a lot more homes for buyers to choose from, you’ve got to have a multifaceted marketing plan. You can’t just throw it on the market and wait for the big flood of offers to come in the first week. Good Point. That means you’re broker needs to earn their commission as they should. They should work hard for you, and maybe nine months ago they didn’t have to do an open house, they didn’t have to do a lot of extra things to get buyers to come to your home. Now they do need to, and it’s okay for you to ask this question of your broker. What are you gonna do to market my home? Awesome. They should have a confident answer of all the ways they’re going to get your home out there. So let’s talk about a couple examples of different things that brokers can do if they’re working hard. Number one, gorgeous flyers. Now we do have the Internet, but beautiful full Color Flyer on nice paper with really nice descriptions. It’s impressive out on the street and in in the house. When it adds value, it shows. It shows Um somebody has paid attention, and that’s the part that’s like, well, there’s there’s been attention to this place, yes, and they care enough about how their home looks to to put this beautiful flyer together and to present it the pride of ownership. Uh, it used to be that open houses were kind of optional. We’re going back to having open houses. I’ve been seeing that, YEP, and I recommend two or three in the first week. So not just a weekend one, but what we call twilight open houses, which are in the evenings when people get off work, between five and eight PM, especially if there’s a sunset for you from the House. A twilight open house with refreshments in Michael T O. Yeah, that’s right. It’s like since it’s absolutely and so a couple open houses. I still sell homes by people coming through open houses. A video tour or virtual tour of the home gives buyers an opportunity to get a sense of the space and the layout from the comfort of their home. Um, some of the video tours are gorgeous that they’re doing of homes right now. That’s the broker doing their job. That’s the broker marketing the home. Yeah, there’s a lot of online marketing like facebook, social media, doing ads on facebook to drive people to it. On one particular home, Suzanne, I had seventeen thousand people look at my virtual tour on one single home because I wanted to drive traffic to it. And you can do that online and that’s the broker working hard for you. The broker can go up and down the neighborhood looking at handing out flyers to all the neighbors and saying you want to out your neighbor and get someone come into the neighborhood that you know here, tell them we’re listing and make sure your home is showing up on those real estate APPS. Zillo, Redfinn realtor. Make sure that we’re there and they’re getting highlighted. So the broker should have a comprehensive marketing plan that shows you that they’re going at every angle to get your home out in front of buyers and drive traffic to it. Yes, yes, well, you know this is so valuable and certainly um in a changing market, there’s so many things to think about, but I’m just thinking about how many Um real estate brokers are really now going the extra mile. And again, the cream is going to rise to the top. So research who you’re going with. Make sure that you see there are other listenings. How if they showcased other homes, and I’m sure you’re you’re recognizing that as well. Yeah, I think that’s a really good point, Suzanne, that you don’t just pick your nephew because he has a real estate license. Is he going to do the best job for you? Interview Him. have him showing flyers he’s done of other homes right, ask them to show you the photography that he does on his listings. How quickly are his home selling? There’s so much at stake with the sale of a home, especially if you’re a senior and those net proceeds are going to pay for your care for the rest of your life. You don’t even want to leave twenty dollars on the table. So, Rebecca, obviously when you work with a family Um, you lay out expectations that if you hire us, this is what we’re gonna do for you. I’m sure that that’s part of your breasts. I say, I’m going to sell the hell out of your house. That’s what I love. That alright, girlfriend. But you know what, Rebecca and I are gonna go over more tips. In the meantime, Rebecca, how do we reach you? You can find us at sash services dot com or sash realty dot com anytime and triple eight four hundred, sash at seven to seven four. Yes, and for those of you, I’ve had several people to say, you know, I hear the Rebecca. You know do all these interviews and are they really for real? And I always say yes, they’re really for real, and so we’re gonna talk a little bit more about getting a successful home sale and Rebecca’s tips. Right after this we at answers for elders. Thank you for listening. Did you know that you can discover hundreds of podcasts in our library on senior care? So visit our website and discover our decision guides that will help you also navigate decision making. Find US AT ANSWERS FOR ELDERS DOT COM.