Austin Real Estate 
Sell Your Home Reports
Some homes sell before they even hit the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), while others just sit there for months without any action.
You've had your house on the market and right now, the market is hot. Why isn't your home selling? There could be several reasons that a house doesn't sell quickly. Here are some considerations:
If at any time you are not happy with the way things are progressing, sit down and talk with your agent to explain your concerns. A good agent will listen and make the appropriate adjustments.
Realizing the time has come to sell your home can create mass confusion. Timing is important in real estate; however, some also believe one season is better than another to sell your home.
If you ask a real estate professional when you should sell your home, most will say, "Now is the best time to sell your home."
Real estate today is a year-round business, and good agents will agree that they do nearly as much business in December as in June.
If that is the case, then how do you decide which is the best time of year to list your home? Each season has its own characteristic. Let's review each one.
According to most real estate professionals, spring is the busiest time of the year for buyers and sellers — spring offers the opportunity to showcase their home at its best. There's always something nice about listing your home when it's not too hot or too cold out and the air is fresh.
Summer is a busy home selling season because many families want to move while school is out. In addition, if you have a green thumb, summer might prove to be the best time to show off your garden. This is also a great time to boast about any access to summer recreational activities such as a beach, a lake, or community tennis courts or swimming pools.
A possible downside to showing a house in the summer is that most kids are home, and you'll have to work harder to ensure their rooms are maintained clean enough for buyers to get through them.
Even though falling leaves could make for extra work in the fall, with children back at school, daytime showings may be easier to accommodate. The tax benefits of homeownership can be a push for homebuyers to get into a new home by December 31.
Fall is historically a shorter selling season. A home that doesn't sell in the fall can be stigmatized as being held over on the market until the new year. A home that has been on the market for a long time signals to many that the seller may be willing to accept a lower offer.
Many real estate professionals agree that only the most motivated buyers and sellers are active in the market during the winter season.
If you decide to sell your home in the winter, expect the unexpected. You will come across buyers who want showings at odd hours, or during your family holiday parties.
How do you decide which is the best season to sell? As discussed, every season offer some plusses and minuses. If you want to list your home in the spring, you might want to list in mid-January, rather than waiting for February or March. On the other hand, you might get even more attention if you wait until mid-March, when many of the spring homes have already come on the market and buyers are hungry for something new.
Real estate is an industry of immediacy. It's always a good time to sell your home if the price is right, no matter what the season. Work closely with your real estate agent to price and stage your home correctly to sell in any season.
At any given time, three general factors affect the sale of your house: the current real estate market, the location of your property, and the competition — other houses like yours competing for the same buyers.
These three factors are always in flux. For example, interest rates rise and fall; neighborhoods lose or gain cachet; similar houses suddenly arrive on the market; and the pool of active buyers changes.
No one can control these factors, and you cannot wait until all the conditions are absolutely perfect to sell your home. Smart sellers don't put themselves at the mercy of these factors; they maximize conditions to their advantage.
Let's review the three factors mentioned above: market, location, and competition.
Packaging will make your property stand out from the competition, whether the market is booming or not. In a buyer's market (where there are more homes than buyers), preparing your home is the best way to make it memorable and easy for buyers to recall at the end of a long day of house-hunting.
We've all heard it before: "location, location, location" is important. If your house is in a less-than-ideal location, you can't move it. If that's the case, make the most of it. Turn your house into the most appealing home in the area. Remember that if your house doesn't stand out, another will, and it will sell more quickly and command top dollar.
When a number of homes with similar features are on the market, yours needs to shine. If two houses are similar in structure or layout, buyers will choose the one that feels as if it could be their home.
Now that you have considered the above factors, how do you decide how to price your house?
Well, there isn't an exact formula to arrive to a magic number, only a price range. Why? Because houses are a commodity subject to the laws of supply and demand, and market conditions keep changing. Prices rise when there are more buyers than sellers; they decline when there are more houses for sale than buyers.
The availability of mortgage money also affects sales, but ultimately what a buyer feels about a house is what determines the price they will pay. While the buyer determines the selling price, you establish the listing price of your home.
If your house has been for sale for a while, you may need to adjust the price. The key is knowing when to lower the price and by how much. Keep in mind that timing is everything. A last-minute effort decide to lower the price may not do you much good.
Your home will get the most traffic during the first two weeks.
This is when the home is fresh on the market and in its peak sale time. If you wait too long to bring down the price, the current buyers will have already seen the house and won't necessarily show new interest.
That doesn't mean that another group of buyers won't come along, but buyers are bunched in price ranges. Therefore, in order to grab the attention of the next price range of buyers, you would probably have to make a significant reduction.
To arrive at a realistic listing price, research your competitor's pricing. Find out what similar houses have sold for recently, as well as which similar properties have NOT sold, to give you a good idea of the price buyers are and are not willing to pay for houses similar to yours. Remember, a buyer will be looking at a number of houses with similar features and amenities.
Specific features in your house may determine its price range. For example, a four-bedroom, two-bath house in a certain neighborhood will sell for less than a four-bedroom, three-bath house in the same neighborhood because buyers are willing to pay more for an extra bathroom.
Don't overprice your house — that usually backfires.
As mentioned above, the first two weeks a house is on the market is when the most serious pool of buyers arrive ready to buy. They've done their homework. They won't buy a house that is overpriced.
If a buyer is interested in your home, they still have to secure a mortgage. In order to obtain that mortgage, your home must be appraised at the asking price. If the appraisal comes back significantly lower than the asking price, the deal may fall through or you may have to lower the asking price to match the appraisal.
Finally, remember that it is your responsibility to price your home so that it will sell quickly and profitably.
The majority of people looking at your home will have to cook. Therefore, the one room they will look at with the most scrutiny is your kitchen.
Not only is the kitchen the one room that is the hub of activity in preparing meals, eating, and even sorting mail, the kitchen has long been a place for people to just "hang out." More and more people say that the kitchen is the heart of their home.
A recent study shows that as many as 85 percent of buyers consider the kitchen to be a huge deciding factor in their buying decision.
Even if you don't have the time or finances to do a complete kitchen overhaul with custom cabinets and granite countertops, you can still spruce up the kitchen without spending bundle of money. These changes will greatly add value to your kitchen and to the sale of your home.
Before you put your home on the market, look around the kitchen and make sure it's what you would look for in a home. If not, make appropriate changes.
A hot item in kitchens today is stainless steel. The gourmet look of stainless steel stoves, refrigerators, and sinks is appealing to many home buyers. Although you probably can't go out and buy all new appliances, try to make sure they at least match. (For example, a stainless steel range with a white microwave will draw unwanted attention.)
Consider changing out your hardware with stainless steel, or even use stainless steel accessories.
To make your kitchen more functional, you might consider adding a center island to provide more counter space, have shelves built on the wall.
Finally, one huge selling point in any kitchen is good lighting. If you have little to no natural lighting in your kitchen, you can add in good fluorescent or recessed lighting. Also, don’t overlook the possibility of installing under-cabinet lighting for a warm, sophisticated, upscale look.
Once you have located your new home, now comes the fun part: moving. Whether you are moving two streets over from your current home, across town, or clear across the country, you have two options for moving. Either employ professional movers or do it yourself.
There are pros and cons of both choices, so first sit down and decide how much you can afford to spend, and what option you feel works best for you. Let's look at what those differences are:
Most moving companies provide sturdy, reinforced boxes. The cost of these boxes is included in the amount quoted for the move. Professional movers protect your furniture using padded blankets secured with rope or bungee cords to ensure no damage occurs. If you are doing the packing, make sure you carefully mark each box, specifically pointing out to the movers the boxes that contain fragile items. In most cases, when using professional movers, you don't have to worry about the weight of the boxes, because they know how much to pack and use dollies.
If working with professional movers, one semi-truck may contain several households of furniture, so your belongings may not be the first on their route. Talk to the movers and determine when they are targeting arrival at your new home. Keep in mind that traffic, construction, weather, can all be factors in delay. For this reason, it's important to have phone numbers and e-mail addresses for not only the movers but also the main office should your belongings not arrive on time. In addition, make sure the movers have phone numbers where you can be reached as well. If the schedule shows arrival for 5 p.m., have someone at the house from 4 p.m. until the truck arrives.
By visiting your local grocery or business dumpster, you can find all the boxes you need. Many businesses throw out boxes in all sizes, which are also industrial strength. Cost: nothing. You can use old blankets, pillows, or towels, or, some rental companies will rent padded blankets for a very small fee. Just be sure that you wrap breakable items carefully and don't stack boxes of breakables on top of each other.
Mark all boxes carefully. Separate your fragile items, and consider moving those in your car instead of loading them into trucks with your other items.
When packing your boxes, keep the weight of the box reasonable. If you can't pick it up, it's too heavy.
Austin Real Estate | about | view listings | buyers | sellers | about austin | contact us | service providers | disclaimer | privacy | sitemap
