sellers market

Selling In A Hot Real Estate Market – 3 Things You Should NEVER Overlook

September 22, 2015 By Deborah Ward

It’s a sellers’ market so you don’t have to do anything to your home to prepare it for sale, right? Wrong! Seller’s’ market or not there are things that you should never overlook.

Clean and declutter your home

No matter the market, making your home look roomy, clean, tidy and impersonal is incredibly important. Not only do buyers have difficulty looking past dirt and clutter to see what could be, they also can’t picture themselves in your home if it still looks like you live in it. Even in a seller’s’ market you need to make your home more than just presentable. Consider staging it as well, or at least take your Realtor’s advice on how to stage each room in your home.

Make your home stand out

Make your home stand out in the neighborhood, but don’t over improve it. The same cleaning and decluttering you did inside needs to be done outside as well. First impressions make or break for buyers. If your home is a showplace inside, but a wreck outside, no one will come see the inside. Spruce up landscaping, powerwash driveways and walkways, consider painting or residing if the exterior is really in need of the pick me up. One caveat, don’t overdo it. If your home is improved over what your neighborhood can support, it won’t sell.

Price your home correctly

Pricing your home correctly in a sellers’ market is even more important. If you think you can over price it because you have the advantage in the market, think again. In fact, having a well-priced, or even slightly underpriced home will get more attention to your listing than if you try to get too much. A slightly lower than market will actually attract more buyers and give you a better chance of multiple offers. That could mean getting market or over market, all because you priced the home appropriately.

Why Are Home Prices So High In Tampa Bay

June 16, 2015 By Deborah Ward

If you hadn’t noticed, home prices in Tampa Bay have risen… a lot! The median sales price has risen 14% in the last year and closed sales from November 2013 to November 2014 increased 18.4%! In a real estate market that just 5 or 6 years ago was crashed and dismal, that is huge. Buying now is a good idea. Prices aren’t going to drop any time soon.

Seller’s market

So if you’re wondering why prices have risen it might be for a few reasons. The improvements in the market are the biggest. The market, now a seller’s market, have improved over the last year or so for a few reasons as well. Mortgage rates are, and have been, low. That means that it’s less expensive for people to buy a home. It’s also great for first time home buyers. New mortgage programs help them as well. There’s a new 3-percent-down conventional mortgage available for first-time homebuyers. That means less expense up front for them, meaning the difference between homeownership or not.

More homes are selling

That 14% rise in median price means that more homes are selling. More transactions mean that prices go up. Especially prices for condos and townhomes. Condos and townhomes median price has risen a bit more than 19% over the last year. Even with those price increases, listings are becoming fewer and far between. That also pushes price up. With more competition for existing listings, bidding wars happen and prices rise.

Buy now

So what does that mean for you if you are looking in Tampa Bay? Buy now! Prices will continue to rise and interest rates are slated to rise this year. Now is the time to become a Tampa Bay home owner.

Staging Your Home Is Important, Even In A Sellers Market

June 17, 2014 By Deborah Ward

Staging your home is as important in a sellers’ market as it is in a buyers’ market. The same reasoning applies when selling real estate at any time or in any market. So let’s look at those reasons.

First, staging makes you declutter and organize your home. Cleaning and decluttering is the biggest part of staging. Depersonalizing the space is important so that buyers can imagine their things in the space. The easier you make it for them to see your home as theirs, the more likely you will be to get offers. You will be moving anyway, so packing up much of the daily clutter and personal items now will make moving later easier. Forces you to organize and get rid of clutter.

Staging increases the probability of a sale. Even in a sellers’ market, you home isn’t guaranteed to sell. Increase your chances by setting yourself and your home up to succeed. Staging not only increases that likelihood, but it decreases the time it will be on the market. Less time on the market means less aggravation in the showing process and a bigger probability you will get asking price or better as well.

Speaking of price, staging will justify that asking price. Clutter and dirt = turned off buyers who see a project home = lower offers. Staged home that looks clean, uncluttered and move in ready = happy buyers who want to pay your asking price to move in. In a sellers’ market it can equal a bidding war that boosts your profits.

You may be thinking that since the market has shifted in your favor as a seller that the amount of work you have to do to sell has disappeared. It really hasn’t. Being lazy won’t benefit you in the end. Go watch one of those HGTV® shows like Property Brothers to see the difference. Watch the buyers when they walk through the professionally staged “everything we want” homes, then their faces as they walk through the unstaged, cluttered or dirty ones. Listen to the reasoning on offers (“it needs work” and “its been on the market for X amount of time”) and see how it affects price. Don’t make those mistakes. Stage your home and walk away a winner.