Podcast - 10/6/23

I'm Tom.

And Christina Day.

Christina Day with our weekly real estate podcast. It's so nice to see you here, Christina.

Nice to see you too.

Well, Jay and I just beat each other up for years. We've done this for years and now here I have this bright light, Christina's in here.

So Christina, clear this up for us. If you're selling a home, you can hurt yourself, you can help yourself, give us some advice.

So it is really important for sellers to think about a little bit more than what the agent is doing and to really focus on the things that they can do, right? Because we can't control the interest rates, we can't control how many buyers are out there, but what we can control is our part in it. So a couple things that we suggest very strongly is first of all, have everything in your house in working order. So if somebody comes into your house, and now that we're coming into cooler weather, let's say it's 50 degrees outside or 60 degrees outside, it should be a nice temperature controlled 70 inside. Make sure you're heating and air conditioning are working for the weather.

That might be the first thing somebody notices.

Oh, it is. I actually was talking to one of our agents the other day and he was saying in the summer he had showed a house and it was 85 degrees in there. Well, that's not a good sign when you go into a house in the summer and the AC isn't working.

No, you don't want to live in a sweat box.

Nope. The other thing is simple things like lights and ceiling fans and when you walk into a room that you're not immediately seeing things that are going to need attention. Second thing, clean your house. Clean it beyond the standard that you normally clean your house. Because one of the things that will turn a buyer off is dirt, smells. If they see that things like the beds aren't properly made, they know the beds don't stay, but it's creating a feeling. So you want to clean your house and have it looking right when they walk in the door.

Good advice.

Next thing is follow the stager's advice. So if your agent like we do is having a stager come in, we're paying good money to have that stager come in there and we're having them give you good advice on how to make your house show the best that it possibly can. Do as much as you possibly can within your physical capacity and your financial capacity to do those things so that your house shows better than the next guy.

It's not personal. Whatever the stager says to you, they're not judging your taste. They're not judging where that furniture is.

Nope. They're creating a product. Right.

Exactly.

You've got to detach from your house. It's no longer your house. It's a product. Now, if you want to keep treating it like your house, it might be your house a lot longer than you want it to be.

Well then don't sell it if you can't let it go.

Yes, that's right. So a couple things. Price it right? So when your agent gives you good advice on pricing and you think, well, I want to push the envelope, take your agent's advice on the pricing because if you overprice in this market, you might be sitting around a lot longer than you think, and buyers aren't apt to come in and make lower offers as much. Now, if you've sat on the market for a little while, they might, but who wants to sit on the market to take less than what they were hoping to get to begin with? Whereas if you price it right, you create more demand. And Tom, do you know how much the interest rates have gone up over the last month?

Yes, I do know. I do know because it's kind

Of crazy.

Yes, it's kind of crazy. Absolutely.

They've gone up about 1% guys. So if you're listening, think about how that affects a buyer's ability to afford what you have. And it also affects then buyer demand and it also affects their expectation. Right?

Well, that is why we're giving advice on what you can do,

Exactly what you can do. The other thing is allow showings. Do not turn down showings. If you have somebody who wants to come see your house, I know it's inconvenient, we know this, but the quicker you get it sold, the sooner you don't have to keep showing it. So let people in to see it. Do not turn down showings. Don't have crazy blocks where you can't allow showings because if they can't see it, they can't buy it.

Do people turn down showings?

We do see that sometimes.

Okay. That's not very productive.

No, it's not. No, it's not.

I understand. No, I understand.

You got to get them in. They got to come in. And then the last thing, and this might seem obvious, but don't be home during showings unless you, your agent, the buyer's agent have discussed this and there would be a good reason. So sometimes, for example, if I have people who have a farmette or a farm or they have a really unique historical type house, I can say, well, my seller would like to be available in case there's any questions about the property. They'll stay out of the way. But 99.9% of the time, it is super awkward to have the seller sitting on the couch, hiding in the kitchen, walking around, listening to what you have to say. You want that buyer to be able to come in with their agent and really just get comfortable in the house and get a sense as to will this house work for them? If you're looming in the background, it's just awkward and weird.

Do they want to loom? Sometimes?

They do want to loom sometimes,

Because it's their house.

That's right.

They don't want some stranger coming in poking around their house.

Right, but if you've staged it right, guess what? None of your good stuff is sitting out. You don't have to worry.

All good advice, dear.

That'll help.

Do we have a home of the week?

We do have a home of the week. This one is a really nice condo in a 55+ community in Sykesville. 55+ communities are really geared towards folks who are of a certain age who are looking for a certain low maintenance lifestyle. And this is going to be priced at 255. It's a two bedroom, two bath. It's been updated really nicely. It has LVP floors, new tile in the bathrooms, new showers surround. It looks over the common area, which is nice. You're not staring in a parking lot. I love that about this. And it also has an elevator in the building. So if you should find yourself in a situation where you don't want to do steps anymore, you can just take the elevator.

Find yourself over 55. You may want to move there.

That's right. So if you'd like to take a look, just go to dayteam.com. You can check it out on our featured listings.

I'm Tom.

And Christina.

With our Weekly Real Estate podcast. Thank you so much for listening and tell your friends all about it.