Do you ever wonder what all those initials are about? You know that long list of three and four letter abbreviations after Realtor’s names? If you were to look at mine, you would see Kathy Sperl-Bell, Broker, ABR, CRS, SRES. Most consumers do know what a Broker is, but don’t know and probably don’t really care about the others.

As a Broker, I do care because it tells me a lot about the REALTOR® that I may be thinking of hiring or to whom I may be sending a Referral. (more…)

There are certain truths in every business, things you just know to be true. After 10 years in Real Estate, I have learned that some things never change. These truths are undeniable:

1. Your first offer is usually your best buyer
2. On a resale, no one wants the middle unit
3. No one searches the Internet for a 2 bedroom home
4. Pricing your home at $299,999 misses all the people searching for homes $300,000 – $350,000
5. Empty homes look smaller
6. It takes both sides – buyer and seller – to make a good deal
7. If it seems to be good to be true, it probably is
8. All Real Estate is Local – What happens in Lewes is different than what happens in Las Vegas
9. Staging works – Typically a staged home sells in 50% less time for 5% more
10. Homes listed with a REALTOR sell for more money than a For Sale By Owner!

Can I prove all of these? Maybe not, but I can share 10 years worth of stories that illustrate these Realities.

What a great question Bob –

“How do you price a home a few years old in a community that is still selling brand new homes?”

First, think about SELLING when you BUY!

None of us knows what tomorrow will bring so when you are buying in a new home community, here are a few tips:

Do not scrimp on upgrades.

Buyers will not consider your home if you do not have (more…)

I am not an Appraiser, but I just completed 99 hours of Broker training and we spent days studying the methods an Appraiser will use to verify the market value of your home.  In today’s market Buyers are buying the way Appraisers are appraising and very few are willing to pay more than appraised value for your home.

How do you price your home to sell in this market?

First, you sit down with your Listing Agent and review recent sales of comparable homes. Then, you have to be willing to listen and price your home properly. What is your choice? Either price your home to sell or decide to stay where you are for now.
In a slow market, what do you do when there have been no comparable sales in your neighborhood or surrounding area? That’s the challenge facing many sellers and their listing agents today. Learning more about how Appraisers do their job can be useful. (more…)

“As of September 1, 2011 appraisals will change drastically. We now must complete appraisals in what is defined as UAD or Uniform Appraisal Dataset format. This is a GSE Fannie, Freddie requirement.”  I saw this blog just this morning posted by Bobbie Smith, a Realtor up in the Poconos. An appraiser in her area, Mary Thompson, was giving her a “heads up” about new appraisal rules coming this September that will make all our lives even more challenging. As a result of the difficult housing market of the past few years, appraisals are the most difficult part of every real estate transaction.

“What does this mean for you? The new reports will look foreign to you and your clients with all the codes we have to use in the reports, so you will have to be versed on what the codes mean. Instead of the old days where we described a property as being Good in condition or Good in Quality of Construction, we will now be using codes such as Q=3 and C-2, etc. It will be far less user friendly to read and more automated system friendly. Fannie and Freddie want consistency across the board for all appraisals nationwide and the codes are the way they are trying to get this accomplished. They have clearly defined what Fair, Poor, Average, Good, Very Good and Excellent Quality and Condition should entail. No more leeway in how appraisers determine this on their own. Lenders are also gearing up for uniform delivery of their loan packages and the UAD is part of this whole process.” READ MORE

Gail Alm

Houses are selling.

National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) annualized numbers from the Existing Sales Report says 14,000 homes sell every day in this country.  That means 14,000 yesterday, 14,000 today and 14,000 tomorrow!
Most of the country is still showing sales below last year.  This year’s sales are compared against the expiring home buyer tax credit last year which pulled sales from later in the year into the first quarter. But guess what?  Here in Sussex County Delaware for the 1st Quarter of 2011 we are up 8% in units against last year in the sales of single family homes. And that too is up against numbers where people were buying early in the year to take advantage of the tax credit. (more…)

Who knows your home is for sale? Your neighbors? The people down the street or around town? Where are the prospective buyers? Not next door.

Your buyers are on the Internet

Do you know who they are and where they live now? Ask yourself, who is relocating to Lewes, Delaware, and the surrounding areas like Rehoboth Beach, Milton, Milford, Georgetown and the rest of Sussex County? The majority of our buyers do not currently live in Delaware; they live in New Jersey or New York, Connecticut or Pennsylvania, Maryland or Virginia. Most are over the age of 50 and they intend this to be their last move. They may not be moving here full time quite yet, but the idea is to relocate to Coastal Delaware to retire. (more…)

Meet Real Estate’s ‘Interventionist’

HARD TRUTH: Mike Aubrey discusses pricing and market conditions with sellers during an episode of HGTV’s “Real Estate Intervention.” The show airs Tuesdays beginning June 29 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

By Deborah Ball Kearns, RE/MAX Times Online Associate Editor

Interventionist

Many of today’s sellers need a reality check on pricing. Mike Aubrey provides one each week on HGTV’s “Real Estate Intervention.”

The popular TV show follows sellers who are either thinking of listing their property or have had their homes on the market without a successful sale. Aubrey, a Hall of Fame and Chairman’s Club member with RE/MAX Metropolitan Realty in North Potomac, Md., takes sellers through two comparables – a home that recently sold and one that’s still on the market – to show them how their property stacks up to the competition. Then he sits them down for “the talk,” which entails a rundown of the numbers and his suggestion for pricing.

Most of the time, the truth hurts.

“Sellers can get extremely upset or offended when I tell them my opinion on what their house is worth given the market conditions,” says Aubrey, who remains remarkably patient with difficult sellers in several of the episodes. “Part of this business is telling people things they don’t want to hear, but you can’t get emotional about it. You have to control the situation and trust your work and the numbers. Having their best interest at heart means being honest.” (more…)

Buying or selling a home? How do you choose the right real estate agent? What qualities are important to you and how are you going to make that important decision?
Let’s talk today about choosing a Listing Agent to help sell your home. You don’t have to be a total news junkie to know that we have been through the worst housing market for sellers in a very long time. It started back in 2007 and prices declined through 2008 and 2009. Foreclosures in all price ranges and all neighborhoods have also had a negative impact on pricing and appraisals.
How do you choose? What questions might you ask?

• How long have you been in real estate?
• Is real estate your full time job?
• Will you work weekends?
• Do you answer your cell phone in the evening and on weekends?
• What is your Internet Marketing strategy? Do you have your own web site and blog site?
• How are you using Social Media to market your listings?
• Do you have a Facebook Business Page, a Twitter account?
• How do you use digital photography and video to promote your listings online?

In a challenging real estate market, will you choose a listing agent who tells you the truth or tells you what you want to hear? As I was writing this, I turned on HGTV and one of my favorite shows was on – Real Estate Intervention. Mike Aubrey consults with sellers whose homes have been on the market for a while without success. He takes them to see similar homes in an effort to find the right price. On this show, the seller is a woman who has lived in her DC home for many years but she has lost her job and has to sell. She feels her home is priced right even when Mike shows her others in the neighborhood that prove it is overpriced. His concern is that if she hangs on too long, she may not sell at all and could end up in default. Later in the show we learn that she did get a contract for the exact price that Mike told her it would sell for. Was she happy? She was certainly relieved and commented that she had “learned a lot from Mike”.  Even though she had a hard time accepting his expert opinion, she agreed that he was being straight with her. She decided to accept the lower price and move on with her life.
Mike Aubrey is the kind of agent sellers need to choose. He doesn’t tell them what they want to hear, but he does tell them the truth. He also does it in a way that is thoroughly researched.
The agent you choose needs to be current with today’s Internet technology.  According to research conducted by the National Association of Realtors:

• 87% of buyers used the Internet in 2008 to search for a home; a dramatic increase from only 2 percent in 1995. That means the largest number of buyers for your home in Coastal Delaware probably do not live here!
• 32% of recent buyers reported that they first found the home they purchased on the Internet.
• 89% of all Realtors® belong to firms that have a Web site, and 60 percent of Realtor® sales agents have a Web site for business use.
• 82% of all Realtors® now use a cell phone daily or nearly every day; 92 % use e-mail and 89 % use laptop or desktop computers to communicate with clients.
• 39% of Realtors® use Smartphones with wireless e-mail and Internet capabilities. A small but growing segment of Realtors® use newer forms of communication, such as blogs and podcasts (3 % or less).

How will you choose an agent to get your house sold? If you live in Sussex County, Delaware, and your home appeals to active adults, contact us today.

Want to sell your house in a buyers’ market? Rejuvenate it! Tune into HGTV any time of day or night and you’ll see shows about how to prepare your home for sale. Look at your house through the eyes of a buyer if you want to sell today.

Want an even better idea? Remodel your house for independent living, not just curb appeal. That will open up a whole new market of opportunity.

Pretend that you are handicapped or a retiree buying your last home and you are looking for a home that is accessible. You would prefer to buy one that you don’t have to immediately modify. Whether due to age, illness, or an accident, a family member, a spouse, or a close friend has limited mobility or may already be in a wheelchair. You need to buy a house that will be comfortable, accessible and visitable and you cannot find one.

A major problem at the moment is the widespread – and false – perception that making a house handicapped-accessible will diminish its value, especially in upscale homes. That makes the assumption that wealthy people never have accidents or get older. That also assumes that to make a house accessible will make it look like a hospital.

There are so many design options available that improve accessibility without sacrificing aesthetics. Several companies now offer bathtub and shower stall conversion products at an affordable price. But in a luxury home, an elegant ceramic tile, custom-built accessible shower could be the focal point of the Owner’s Suite.

One client of mine remarked “I don’t recall having seen any house in which 36″ bathroom doors would cause a noticeable decrease in usable space, yet houses continue to be built with 30 – 32″ bathroom doors, presumably because smaller doors are cheaper.” Simply widening at least one bathroom doorway will not diminish your home’s value; it may actually increase it. One option to create a wider doorway is to replace a standard door with a pocket door.

Continuing improvements in products for handicapped people will make more houses accessible. Eventually, even multi-story homes will be accessible with the installation of stair climbing robots, for instance.

While we wait for technology to improve the accessibility of our existing inventory of homes for sale, making your home accessible for disabled or older buyers – and making sure your Realtor lets the whole world know – will give you a leg up on the competition and expand your potential pool of buyers.