Monthly Archives: December 2016

Are you planning to sell your home next year?

If so, here’s a little secret: You don’t have to wait until spring is in the air to get your home ready for prime time. Gain an edge on the competition with these steps.

As soon as possible start interviewing agents. Finding the right agent is not an easy task. We all have friends that are part time agents and maybe sell a family member’s home once a year. Please don’t waste your time on an agent that only sells a few homes a year. You need a PRO who inspires you with confidence and has a proven track record. Look for high octane agent who can close your home. Look for experience.

Make a Plan: Before you roll up your sleeves and get to work, I suggest making a list of all your to-dos. This enables you to break the process down into bite-sized chunks so you don’t feel overwhelmed. Work with your agent to set priorities, then focus on knocking out one task at a time.

Start Packing: This is where the going gets tough. It’s time to part with your stuff—but only for a little while. Take a look around and decide what you can live without until your home sells. Rent a storage unit if you have to. Just pack it up and get it out so you can make room for buyers. Here’s an added bonus: The rest of the work will be much easier with less stuff clogging your corners!

Uncover Issues: Want to beat buyers to the punch list? Get a pre-sale home inspection. Of course, your buyer’s home inspector will still find things that need to be done. But being proactive enables you to identify potential deal breakers so you can adjust your timeline and budget accordingly. “If you need to deal with something really profound, it may change some of the other things you’ve got to do,”.

Tackle Repairs: With your home inspection report in hand, work with your real estate agent to prioritize the findings. Just keep these wise words in mind: “It’s always less expensive to repair or replace something up front than to wait for the buyer to ask for that in inspection requests,”. This is especially true for major fixes like a new roof or HVAC unit. “That’s the kind of stuff that scares people to death. They’ll ask $12,000 for a roof that would cost $4,500. It’s a vast difference!”

1 Month Before Listing- Spruce It Up: First impressions count—a lot! Breathe new life into your home with a fresh coat of paint, and pay close attention to curb appeal. Ask your real estate agent to refer a reputable home stager to help you incorporate today’s trends. “Remember, you’re not going to live here anymore,”. “It really doesn’t matter what colors you like. What matters is what buyers are looking for right now.”

1–2 Weeks Before Listing – Deep Clean: Save this step until it’s almost time to plant the For Sale sign in your yard. You don’t want a month of muddy paw prints traipsing through your home after spending your hard-earned cash to clean the carpets. Once every surface sparkles, I suggest giving each family member a special job—maybe even run drills—to ensure your home stays that way. Got pets? Keep fur balls and stinky smells at bay by sending Rover to Grandma’s house for an extended stay until you sell your home.

Call Candie Worsham for Expert Representation and 22 years Experience.

Selling a luxury home involves quite a bit of preparation in order to make sure you are presenting the best possible product.  When it comes time to sell the home you will need to think of it as a product since ultimately that is what it is in the buyer’s minds until they buy it and make it their home.  Taking it one step further a luxury home is also a product, but one that needs to be elevated much more since buyers for luxury homes are looking for specifics in a home and want something that will justify the price.  The following strategies are designed to help luxury home owners elevate their home so that when buyers feel like they are seeing a true luxury home.

Marketing

Luxury Home Photography and Video

I have been asked about what differences are there in marketing a luxury home versus marketing a non-luxury home.  The differences can be minor such as having more pictures of a luxury home versus a non-luxury home.  One of the main reason a luxury home has more pictures is usually because luxury have more features and amenities to show off compared to non-luxury homes.  Buyers looking for those luxury features and amenities will first want to see them in pictures before they decide a home is worth visiting in person.  If the pictures can’t keep the buyers attention then the luxury real estate agent may not doing their job.

Photography of a luxury home must be top notch and your typical point and shoot cameras or low light cell phone camera pictures will not deliver that quality.  High definition videos of luxury homes is also one of those things that come to be expected to help better market the home.  By using high quality cameras and good video editing techniques you elevate the presentation of a luxury home and as a result impress viewers who now want to see your home in person.  Think of a video of your home as a movie trailer which is designed to show you the interesting parts and get you interested in seeing the whole movie.  A video of the nice features and designs of your home is made to do the same thing, impress viewers and make them want to see more.

Offline Marketing For Your Luxury Home

Marketing does not stop with great pictures for a luxury home.  The places the home are advertised do make a difference.  While the traditional online sources of real estate advertising should be covered the offline marketing aspects also need to be addressed.  Offline advertising for luxury homes needs to be done in places where luxury home buyers will be looking.  Local luxury home magazines, the Wall Street Journal (usually best for higher value luxury homes), and other magazines and newspapers associated with the market who would be interested in buying a luxury home are ideal places to advertise.

The presentation of the luxury in the home through the use of high quality brochures with detailed description and pictures of the home should be available for any buyer who walks through the home.  Many buyers who view a number of homes in a day will have a difficult time remembering the differences between them.  A brochure with color pictures and detailed description will help them remember your home which will make them more likely want to revisit and make an offer.

Luxury Home Lifestyle Depiction

Is your luxury home on a golf course?  Or does your luxury home have access to water front and boating privileges?  Whatever the case may be with regards to your luxury home you should emphasize some of these lifestyle features in your marketing materials.  Whether you take pictures of the golf course greens, or show pictures of the boat dock, by emphasizing the lifestyle associated with your luxury home you will be attracting the right kind of buyers to your home.

Pricing

Pricing your luxury home is one of those critical things that if done wrong will result in everything else being wasted.  After all no one really wants to pay more for something that they can get at a lower price from someplace else.  That applies for homes as well, the pricing of a home is based on the neighborhood it is in, the features that it has and the condition of the home itself.  In a neighborhood that has nice luxury homes priced between $600,000 and $700,000 dollars, trying to price your home at $800,000 is a non-starter and will hurt you in the end.

First off as noted above no one wants to spend $800,000 on a home where the highest price in the neighborhood is $700,000.  No buyer would be able to recover the $100,000 difference unless they waited a long amount of time.  Even if the buyer were able to get the money back after homes in the neighborhood appreciate to the $800,000 range it still does not make sense financially as if they would have bought a $700,000 dollar home they would have seen a gain of $100,000 whereas in the other situation there would be no gain if a buyer bought the $800,000 home.

So make sure you get the pricing right of your home.  The best way to get accurate pricing is to work with a Realtor who knows how to price luxury homes.  Homes can be unique so getting proper pricing for a home involves looking over the amenities and features of the home and comparing that with past sales of similar homes.  An improperly priced home will mean you either leave money on the table by underpricing or you will have a longer time on the market by overpricing.  In general luxury homes do have a longer time on the market since the amount of buyers for that price level of home are fewer, but that does not mean you want to make that time even longer by overpricing your home.

Staging

Home staging is one of those things that is often paid less attention to but can have dramatic impact on the sale of your home.  Whether a home is vacant because you have already moved or because your own furnishings are more about comfort and less about presentation, home staging can elevate the look and feel of your home as well as make rooms look more open and free flowing than with the current configuration of your furniture.  To realize the value of home staging you will need to have a home stager look over your home.  The home stager can offer suggestions as to how to better position and utilize your own furnishings or can proved furnishings and decorations to take your home up to the next level.

Keep in mind that not every home will need staging.  If your home is already setup to shine then the services of a professional stager might not be needed.  You should discuss your home’s current setup with a Realtor who works with sellers of luxury homes.  An expert Realtor will be able to tell if your home looks great as it is or you could benefit from staging advice.

Home Inspection For Your Luxury Home Prior To Listing For Sale

What better way to showcase your quality luxury product (i.e. your home) than by having it inspected and having any issues repaired before the buyer even walks in the door.  Before your list your home for sale you can have a home inspector perform an inspection just as would a buyer’s home inspector, but in this you take the results of the home inspection and make your home better.  By having a pre-inspection done you are reducing the chances that your home sale falls apart due to concerns with the condition of your home or due to a negotiation break down over the repair of certain items in your home.

You also can share your inspection report with prospective buyers and share the details of any repairs you made as a result of the inspection.  In a fast moving market this may even speed things up where buyers really want your home and opt to skip their own inspection since one was already performed.  For the relatively low cost of a home inspection you can make sure your home is in tip top condition and worthy of the luxury standard.

Bottom Line

A luxury home requires extra attention in order to elevate the marketing and presentation of the home so buyers come to the home and want to make an offer.  By making sure you have great photography and both online as well as offline marketing you set yourself up for success.  Combine that with a properly priced home and you will be able to sell your home in good time.

For Expert Representation call Candie Worsham Broker/Owner 615.400.5230

Nashville Area Homes

I had an interesting visitor this week. I answered a knock at the door to find my neighbor from across the street with a stack of papers in his hand. He asked me if I could help him figure out his property inspection! Seems he had sold his house himself to a friend.

The buyer did not have representation either. The seller and buyer decided they would discount the commissions off the sale price and save everyone money. Really? Well maybe that sounds like a good idea in theory but that really is not a very smart move. Especially for the seller. If you are going to net the same amount of money with or without representation then what is the point? Think about it. The seller should have pocketed the commissions!

The seller discounts the price, has no representation and then can’t figure out how to work out the property inspection. It was strange karma that his inspector is one of the worst inspectors out there today. I don’t  know how the seller has managed on the appraisal and closing process. He has moved but no one has moved in yet. It doesn’t look like it has closed  because the seller stops in every so often.

I have watched mold mitigation trucks, HVAC Companies, a structural company, an electrician and of course the Property Inspector over the last couple weeks. I even watched the seller climb a ladder and do roof/gutter repairs. I bet the buyer has this seller doing all kind of upgrades too. I know the seller told me he wanted to give about $25,000 credit in lieu of repairs. Seems like a lot for a 2000sqft house that is only about 15 yrs old. Sounds like the buyer got the better end of the deal but you know… the seller saved all that money by not paying any  commissions.

Oh by the way I told him I couldn’t help him as I was not a party to the transaction.

Sometimes I get a call from a buyer that says “I want to work directly with the listing agent”.  Read between the lines….”because I think I will get a better deal”.

Guess what- long before you showed interest in this house I promised the seller to get them Top Dollar and to give up the least amount of incentives like helping you with closing costs and/or repairs. As the listing agent I am getting paid to negotiate the best deal for my seller. Plus anything you tell me, I will turn around and let the seller know.

As a buyer you have the greatest leverage if you have your own representation. Your own representation will pledge loyalty to you and is not trying to work both sides. Your own agent will negotiate the best price, closing costs, repairs or whatever you need. Plus your Buyer’s Agent is paid by the seller and doesn’t cost you a dime.

Working with the listing agent is like getting a divorce and telling your ex you will use their lawyer and thinking they will be fair to you too. Do you see what I mean?

Give me a call for Expert Representation when you are thinking about Buying or Selling. 615.400.5230 Candie Worsham Broker/Owner Nashville Area Homes

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