The Skinny on Real Estate

A blog about Broomfield real estate

I can assure you that this one does www.1169w102ave.info.

I hope you enjoy the video I made of the property 1169 W. 102nd Ave., located in Northglenn, CO, priced at $160,000. This great home measures 1,650 square feet total, features BRAND NEW carpeting and paint throughout the main floor, boasts of a large, finished family room area in the basement, has a covered patio out back, as well as RV/boat parking, sits on nearly 1/4 acre of land and comes with all appliances including the refrigerator, washer/dryer and a separate freezer.

If you have further questions or would like to view this home please call Beth at 303.887.1883.

Take a step back.

What I mean by taking a step back is that when selling your home it is extremely helpful if you can disengage yourself from the emotions attached to your home.

This is very difficult because you have a lot of personal stories attached to your home and how can you just put those aside and make your home a mere product, right?

It’s so important to keep in mind though that buyers don’t have any of those memories and while to you it’s home sweet home, to buyers it’s simply a house they may or may not want to purchase.

I find that when sellers insist on clinging to the emotional aspect of selling their home they also tend to want to overlook the little flaws. After all, it doesn’t bother them that the porch light has never worked properly, why should it bother anyone else? OR I hear the all too common lazy home selling method of “if the buyer wants a working porch light they can fix it themselves.” Either way the answer is NO! You the seller need to take care of it before the buyers ever set foot in your home.

When you’re able to step back you start to notice the things that need to be corrected because you’re able to see your home as just a house - like a buyer would - and take the appropriate action.

I had one seller who handmade all the stepping stones in the backyard and he was so proud of that. And yet, the remainder of the backyard was nothing more than a dirt patch and aside from that, the roof was badly in need of repair. But he kept going back to those handmade stepping stones, sure that the efforts to which he was so emotionally tied, would be enough to sell the house. Not surprisingly it wasn’t.

It’s not that I (as a Realtor) don’t care about the efforts you’ve made to improve your home, it’s just that it’s my job to make sure you actually sell your home as quick as possible and for the best price possible, so if your home has obvious problems that are going to inhibit its sale I’m going to tell you about it. You should demand that of any real estate agent! Otherwise why bother spending that kind of money to get help selling your home?

photo credit: katia79

I don’t know about your Broomfield neighborhood, but mine was replete with Open House events, especially on Sunday, last weekend. If you are selling your own home, or if your house is on the market and you just want to conduct your own Open House, here are 5 tips on conducting the best Open House event possible.

1. Advertise! Advertise! Advertise! Post it in any way possible. DON’T leave out Craigslist whatever you do! I personally get all sorts of traffic from Craigslist. It’s pretty easy to add your own listing, it’s free and you can upload pictures from your house if you’d like. If you know a little HTML you can make a pretty ad but it’s not necessary. Craigslist is so successful sometimes I get calls MONTHS later about a listing. It’s a little annoying, but in this market that’s okay.

Also list your event on Zillow and Trulia.

In fact, email me at beth@bethskinner.com and I’ll post your Open House on this blog!

Make up a nice invitation advertising the Open House and deliver one to all your neighbors. (C’mon, it’s great exercise!) I know a lot of folks look down their nose at what they think are looky loo neighbors. Let me tell you something about looky loo neighbors: they buy houses too! And they have friends and relatives who are interested in your neighborhood. I have lost count of the number of times someone has come to an Open House clutching an invitation saying, “A guy I work with brought me a flyer…” or “My sister lives up the street…”

A word of caution with flyers: do NOT paper someone’s parking lot. I had a “rogue” seller do this once (actually he sent his kids out) - did I get a really fired up store owner calling me! Yikes! And I had no idea the seller was going to do this. Not only did I get yelled at, I think it’s a waste of paper and time. You want to target folks in your neighborhood! ALSO, use caution when leaving flyers on a “no soliciting” door. I have been yelled at by these folks too.

Put out tons of signs advertising your Open House. I am told that rule of thumb dictates that if buyers have to make more than 4 turns to get to your house it won’t be a successful event. I kind of have to agree with this. My best Open House events are in homes that are easily found off a main road.

2. Feed people! I always have food at an Open House. And I don’t mean some icky generic Oreo cookies on a paper plate. Do it like you mean it! I have had excellent luck with the cinnamon rolls from Costco and I always make coffee or iced tea. I also provide small bottles of water. On Independence Day last year I had a decorated cake. You know where else I get the good stuff? From the bakery clearance racks at the grocery store! You can get some really fancy looking things for low prices! And put it on a pretty platter while you’re at it!

3. Clean and clean and clean! EVERYTHING should be spotless. It should be spotless anyway since your home is on the market but let’s get it even more spotless for the Open House.

4. Even though this ended up at number 4, safety should be your first concern. Have someone there with you. I frequently ask the sellers to stick around if they want (despite popular theory, the potential buyers tend to appreciate that because they like to question them, I just ask the sellers to kind of hang out quietly in the background, plus the sellers like the fact they don’t have to go anywhere), and sometimes I have a mortgage broker there to do on-site financing. Also, anything of serious value that can be easily pocketed should be locked away in a home safe or in a safety deposit box or with a trusted relative.

5. Pay attention to what the potential buyers are trying to tell you. I can usually tell early on in the visit whether or not someone is truly interested. I know that some will tell you just to leave the buyers alone, but I frequently have buyers who expect me to follow them around the house and answer their questions. Use your own judgment.

Good luck to you!

photo credit: jmenard48

Okay, so maybe that’s a bit harsh. But ask yourself honestly, “Is it true?” Because buyers will most certainly notice if it does. And it could mean the difference between selling your home or not. As I mentioned in a previous post, I don’t think that a few strategically placed personal photos will kill a sale but a sucky kitchen will, hands down.

Take a look at this article for some quick fixes on what to do with your severely outdated kitchen.

About a year ago I was in a kitchen that had the awful fluorescent lights the above article talks about, dark brown and very dated cabinets and then the worst part was a fiberglass cutting board that was permanently embedded in the countertop that came with tips on cutting meat and vegetables. It screamed circa 1980. There were several tiles on the floor that were cracked as well.

The sad part is the family room had brand new carpeting, and the dining room and living room had brand new hard wood flooring. There were some very nice aspects to this home. But the kitchen just stuck out like a giant sore thumb.

The even sadder part is that it’s now on the market again, as a lender owned property.

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photo credit: preciouskhyatt

Whether you’re putting your home on the market, or just been struck by a case of the spring cleaning bug, here are some tips for shedding the winter blues and getting your home fresh and springy feeling.

Play some of your favorite tunes. It helps make the job a little less boring and gets your brain, hands and feet going. Reward yourself for cleaning by picking up a brand new CD. Or download some songs from itunes. I like to do this because I can pick and choose the best songs and not have to purchase the entire CD, just the songs I like.

Unless you’re really disciplined about cleaning (I most certainly am not) it might help to break it down to more manageable tasks. I know there are some who can set aside an entire Saturday to clean and get it done but I’m not one of those. Make a goal to clean one room a day or even one room a weekend depending on your time constraints.

The stuff you didn’t think about cleaning

Wash those dog bed covers! Eegads I hate to think of what is in there. Wash them in hot water if you can. Mine are in the washing machine as I type this!

Wash any cotton curtains and dry clean the non-washable ones.

Dust off all picture frames. (I always forget those.)

Take your vacuum attachment and go around the baseboards and edge of all carpeting. The grit and grime seems to take up permanent residence along there.

Clean the windows! Use newspaper to dry them so they don’t streak.

Taken a look at your blinds lately? Talk about a dust magnet! Hose them down in your tub or front yard if possible to get the cleanest clean. If not get one of those special blind duster thingies.

Wipe down all your cupboards in the kitchen and in the bathrooms.

If you have central air conditioning clean out any dead leaves, dirt, and all that other junk off the unit. Have your HVAC guy come out and clean it up inside and tune it up. It will make it last longer and run more efficiently this summer.

Real Simple magazine claims that 87% of the dirt in your home comes in through the “front door.” Their advice is to remove your shoes each time you walk in. I’ve tried this but I just don’t think it’s very practical and I’m not convinced how well it works. They also recommend a vinyl door mat and I might try that. Unfortunately I don’t think the dog is going to play along.

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I am well aware of the popular belief that you should remove all personal photos from your home when it is on the market, so that buyers can picture themselves living in your home, instead of looking at your photos.

However, I am on the side that is bucking that trend and letting the personal photos stay when listing a home. If you’ve visited a model home lately you’ll notice that they often include several (fake) personal photos. Nate Berkus, Oprah’s designer, also recommends allowing the personal photos to stay. A handful of personal photos can make a home seem a little less sterile and give it a warmer feeling.

Of course as with anything else there is an optimal level of photos. A piano with dozens of photos sitting on top is cluttered (plus a lot of extra dusting). A piano with 3 photos is just about right.

By the way, the photos of you posing naked with a giant snake are not acceptable. (Don’t laugh, I’ve seen it.)

If you’re extremely concerned about your privacy you may not want to leave out your personal photos, it depends on your level of comfort.

I’ve had some sellers tell me that having at least a few personal photos out, where they can see them, is very comforting, during the stressful home selling time, and I figure leaving out a few photos is not going to kill any sale.

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photo credit: Dia™

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I’ve heard the following phrase more times than I care to admit:

“Well, after all, I LOVE this house. All we need to do is find someone just like me to buy it!”

Unfortunately it always applies to the sellers who are convinced that they’re not that bad off, after all, they bought the house, and love it, so all they need to do is find someone who loves it as much as they do. Case closed!

This is kind of a mixture of rose colored glasses, and a belief that there are a lot more of “them” out there than there really are.

I understand that for some sellers, no matter what they do, the house is not going to sell for the price they need. They’re $30,000, $50,000, $75,000, etc. upside down and they can stage and clean and declutter that bad boy all they want, it ain’t gonna sell!

This post isn’t for them, they’re pretty much stuck.

This post is for you Mr. and Mrs. Seller who don’t want to bother to replace your front door, or fix the loose shingles on the roof, or replace the fence latch, or clean and declutter, or replace your turquoise shag carpeting, or vacuum the dead miller moths out of your soaking tub because you never use it anyway, or paint over that wall in your son’s bedroom that is adorned with a GIANT painting of the Georgia Bulldogs, or replace the cracked tiles in your kitchen, etc. etc. etc.

Ever hear the phrase, “He has a face that only a mother could love…?”

The excuse that you love it so much you just need to find that buyer (who’s just like you) who will instantly fall in love too, despite all its foibles, and beg you to let them write an offer on the spot won’t fly in this market. Your chances of this happening are very small and it makes you appear, to the buyer, as if you aren’t very serious about selling. After all, if you were serious you would have done what needed to be done. You would have put your home’s very best Easter Sunday outfit on.

Buyers don’t want to buy your problems. And believe me, that’s what they see your bedroom wall with the giant bulldog on it as - a problem - a problem they’re going to have to correct with a bunch of paint and an entire Sunday afternoon. It is HIGHLY unlikely they’re going to have a son (or daughter), who happens to cherish the Georgia Bulldogs AND who wants to devote one entire bedroom wall to proclaim that love.

They look at the cracked tile in your kitchen and they begin to calculate in their heads, how much will it cost to replace, can I do it myself, will I have to hire someone, how long will it take, will I have to move the kitchen table, and so on.

Don’t set your home up to fail from the get go! Replace what needs to be replaced, fix what needs to be fixed, clean what needs to be cleaned and potential buyers will walk into your home and think, “Wow! I could move in here immediately and not have to do a thing to it! I love it!”

photo credit: krispayne

photo credit: darkpatator

photo credit: Rose Wolf

You might be asking yourself, “Why would a real estate agent tell me to sell my own home?” Because I don’t really care if you decide to sell your own home.

I assume you have your reasons: perhaps you had a previous bad experience with a Realtor (trust me, I’ve had personal experience in this area, which is partly why I became one myself!), perhaps you don’t want to pay a commission to a listing agent (it’s definitely not the cheapest endeavor), or perhaps you just want to try it on your own. Whatever your reasons may be hopefully these tips will help make you more successful.

Put it on the Internet. It is said that 80% of home buyers begin their search on the Internet. One of the best ways to do this is buy your own domain name consisting of your home address. I personally like Go Daddy. It’s not always the most user friendly service, as far as I’m concerned, but you get used to it after a while and it’s the cheapest. You can get a .info address (www.123mainstreet.info) for $3. You can either use the free website they’ll give you (but they’ll run an ad bar on the top) or you can pay around $4 per month for hosting. You can go month to month and then cancel when your home sells.

In terms of featuring your home on the Internet I’m a huge fan of WordPress. With your own domain you can have your address as the main url, like I do with www.theskinnyonrealestate.com or www.bethskinner.com. You’ll need to go to www.wordpress.org (not .com!!) to set that up. You can also get really slick templates (themes) free of charge to make the site more eye-catching here: WordPress Theme Viewer, WordPress Themes, and Top WordPress Themes.

Take tons and tons of pictures and if you can take a video of the home. (To give you an idea, here is my video of the Broadlands Reserve.) People want to SEE the home first. They like to picture themselves living in your gorgeous home before they ever get in the car to go and check it out.

Your next charge is to get folks to visit the website. List your home on Craigslist (this is huge), Trulia, Zillow and anywhere else you can think of.

Also, put it on the flyers that you have in the box on your yard sign. Make up flyers that you pass out throughout your neighborhood (I get tons of people who call or show up at an open house who say, “My friend/coworker/mother lives in this neighborhood and gave me a flyer…”), post at work, the local dry cleaner, restaurant, liquor store, and so on.

Ultimately, if you decide this is more work than you want to take on yourself, contact me. My fees are fair, competitive and well-worth it. I’ll purchase, set up, and maintain a website for you, take all pictures, conduct a video walking tour of your home, market it extensively through multiple resources, produce a targeted direct mail campaign, conduct monthly open house events, including a “broker open,” manage all negotiations, list your home on the MLS, place a sign in your yard and keep flyers in your box at all times, etc. I’m also easily accessible via email, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, and/or phone at all times! (Okay, almost all times, 3 a.m. probably isn’t such a great time…)

Call me at 303.887.1883 or email me at beth@bethskinner.com.

photo credit: fugm10

photo credit: David Plotzki

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I love it when people ask questions because it often turns into a reason to blog, and I assume that others have similar questions as well. A listing client was concerned because she noticed on almost all the recent “sold” comps in her area, the sellers had paid for the buyer’s closing costs or offered them some other type of incentive.

She was worried because she didn’t have several thousand dollars in cash on hand, to pay someone’s closing costs if necessary.

I assured her that if that became necessary to close the deal, she could use money from the sale of the house to do just that, it did not necessitate a large cash infusion straight from her bank account.

Another thing that I always remind sellers is that you don’t have to take ANY deal. You can always say no if you’re not getting what you want out of the process.

Sure, offers aren’t as plentiful right now as they once were, but your right to say no certainly has not been taken away!

If you have any questions about buying or selling a home, please give me a shout at beth@bethskinner.com.

photo credit: masochismtango