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. Read the rest of this entry

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.” Read the rest of this entry

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.

If you have a property for sale right now in Coastal Delaware, your stiffest competition is all the new construction, the housing of choice for buyers coming to Sussex County today.

Why is new construction such tough competition? It’s not just the designs and long list of upgrades and options. If you have a home for sale with no basement, no garage and no first floor Master Suite, you are competing with similarly priced new homes that do offer full basements, large garages, elegant master baths, and pricing incentives or perhaps no mortgage payments for the first year.

The new buyer coming to Sussex County is likely to be a couple over 50 from New Jersey who never considered Delaware until the latest tax hike. Many have never vacationed here and have no family or friends that live here. They are attracted by low taxes and cost of living, our central location in the heart of the Mid-Atlantic Region and lots of new housing options at relatively reasonable prices. Proximity to the beach is important but not to the same degree as historical buyers who have been coming here for years.

One of the most compelling reasons buyers may want a new home in a new community came from a couple that had relocated many times in their careers. They found that moving to an existing neighborhood always made them feel like outsiders. When they moved to a new community, however, they found that everyone was in the same boat. Everyone was new and it was easier to find common ground and make friends quickly. That made so much sense to me because I was moved many times during my previous career and I remember that feeling.

So, how do you sell your home in this Buyer’s Market? You have to look critically at your home and your neighborhood through Buyer’s eyes.  Would you buy your home today? Have you gone to look at the competition? How does your home compare to new homes in the same price range? Do you need to update or remodel your kitchen or bath? Does it make sense to add a first floor master suite or sunroom?

Find a good contractor and ask for advice. Get a copy of the 2009 Cost vs. Value Report published annually by Remodeling Magazine. You might not recoup the full cost of a remodeling project but it might just sell your home.

You may not need a contractor but you will need to prepare your home for sale and make it more attractive to a buyer’s eye. If you need help, ask your Realtor to refer you to a local professional home stager and give those new homes some real competition.