It can be hard as a For Sale By Owner to know whether there is any activity happening for anyone trying to sell their home. Real Estate agents can tell by looking at homes within the Multiple Listing Service that have the status ‘Pending’. That means the seller has accepted an offer and escrow is in process (period when inspections, appraisal, title and loan finalization happens). It is so accurate that if the seller is doing a short sale the property does not become ‘Pending’ until the lender has approved the sale in writing.

Right now, in the Portland Metropolitan area there are just under 3,000 residential homes in ‘Pending’ status. That says there is activity. However, how can you know if there are Pending Sales in your area, or for homes like yours?

There is a source, and it is free. I provide it, with no obligation as long as your home is not listed (unless with me, of course). I will update you every week, and not just with Pending Sales, but I’ll save that for a different post. Just contact me at Chip@OregonFSBOCoach.com and I will set you right up!

In today’s highly competitive real estate market, pricing your home RIGHT is critical. Price it too high and your home will frighten away potential buyers and languish on the market. Price it too low and you forfeit hard-earned equity. Also, with the changing conditions, you need to stay up to date! When you request the Property Investment Profile you benefit from receiving a market analysis automatically at regular intervals based on comparable homes currently on the market, pending sales and those sold with similar features and conditions in your area. It even shows you homes that failed to sell! Our Property Investment Profile delivers superior results – Results you can count on!
The Property Investment Profile is an auto-generated market analysis sent to you as often as once a week. This valuable report is based both on current information from the regional Multiple Listing Service (not the outdated tax records most other services provide) and particulars of your home! Any information you provide to assist me with setting it up for you will be kept strictly confidential.

Almost everyone selling a home has a For Sale sign (believe it or not, a few do not), and some people also have a Lender’s sign, but how many times have you seen a ‘This Home Qualifies for the $8000 Tax Credit!’ sign. Real estate article after real estate article points out how the tax credit is bringing out the buyers, and any principal residence is eligible. However, buyers are confused and do not know who to trust. Make it easy for them by putting up a simple sign (You can have a sign made for under $20) and providing one of the government documents to anyone who asks. Here’s two good links with information easy to understand: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204672,00.html and http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204671,00.html

Oh, by the way, you should be able to get those buyers inside your home while getting copies of the handouts for them. Make sure to give them a flyer on your home at the same time.

If you have a home priced under $300,000 and you are not getting good activity, something is wrong.  Yes there are a lot of homes on the market, a many month supply, but there are plenty of motivated buyers.  They have three big incentives to buy now:  Prices are down, interest rates are down, and for 1st time homebuyers (those who have not owned in the past 3 years) the $8,000 tax credit.  That tax credit is set to expire December 1 which may signal the end of the current ‘boom’.  Get your home sold today!   Let’s check a few things that could be affecting your home.

1.  Is the initial impression good, and I am speaking of the part of your home seen from the street?  Over my years in real estate, when working with buyers, it is not unusual for a client to say, ‘Let’s not even go inside.  There is  no way I am going to consider this’.  Unless the immediate neighborhood itself is rundown, the specific home we were looking at gives that impression when driving up.  Sometimes just a couple of hours of work out front would take care of that objection.

2. Are you priced right?  The vast majority of homes for sale are overpriced right now.  The sellers are still thinking 2006, and the price isn’t where it was then.  If you have your home priced correctly to today’s market, make sure everyone knows it; even put the price on the sign.  I recently helped a couple who decided to ‘trade-up’ by taking advantage of the larger price reductions of more expensive homes right now and were also willing to adjust their price (By the way, when everything was done, I believe they gained at least $50,000 of instant equity through the two transactions).  We priced their home right where it should be priced today, which meant it was priced lower than the surrounding competition (and there were several homes on the market in the immediate area), and we received two formal offers within six days, selling the home for full price.  You do not have to wait if you are priced correctly.

3.  Do buyers know about your home?  For a FSBO homeowner, this is the hardest part of getting traffic.  It takes several days when a home is first put on the market for prospective buyers to even know about your property.  If the home is listed, it can take up to ten days to reach the current buyer pool.  With a FSBO situation, you will never reach all the buyers, you probably will never even reach 50%.  There is no way for you to get the penetration a professional agent is able to achieve, so be sure to use every method available: signs, flyers, newspaper, Craigslist, etc.  Once you have reached the current market you are waiting for new buyers to enter the market and consider your home, but if there are current buyers, you shouldn’t have to wait for those new buyers; you should have already received an acceptable offer.

When you are marketing your home, you need to stop thinking of it as ‘home’; you need to change your perspective to considering it a ‘product’.  You need to present that product in its best light, and it should be prepared anytime a potential buyer comes by.  Now, a lot more potential buyers drive by your place than come in, and the reason they just keep going is nothing about your exterior ‘grabs them’.

Think about it.  Most homeowners have hundreds of people pass by their home every day, and a lot of them are potential buyers.  Just having a sign our front gets you an extra look.  Make sure it engages the looker.  It’s called curb appeal, and it is not that hard to create.  Stand out front and critically examine the exterior of the building and the yard.  A fresh coat of paint on just the trim will make that building ‘pop’, and it is a fraction of the cost of painting the whole house.  Simple edging of the grass along the sidewalk, driveway, and around trees and shrubs provides a crisp, well cared for impression and only takes an hour or two every few weeks to maintain.

These are just two things you can do; check out www.OregonFSBOCoach.com for lots of other free ideas.

Frankly, not much, but there are definitely buyers making decisions now.  Plenty of homes are going to Sale Pending status, so if you are not getting inquiries, you need to adjust your price.

I remember several years ago when marketing a beautiful 6000 square foot home, the market analysis was very clear:  $ 1,250,000  The only problem was no one seemed interested in buying it.  I tried everything I knew before finally going to the owner of our company for guidance.  After listening for about two minutes he interrupted me with the question, ‘Would it sell for $300,000′.  ‘Well, of course!’, I replied in exasperation.  “Then it’s price’ he responded, and stopped me instantly.

If there are buyers in the market, and your property isn’t selling, the bottom issue is price…and there are definitely buyers in our market.  If you want some free assistance, send me an email; can’t hurt, might help…

Did you know that most potential buyers won’t even bother stopping by a home if it doesn’t have an information sheet (or flyer) detailing what the home includes, selling price and pictures of the home? To have these flyers be most productive, be sure you have them printed in color with good resolution pictures on a good stock of paper. Be sure to provide as much information as possible such as square footage, number of rooms (with dimensions, if possible), age, price, school district, special features, lot size, location, taxes and a well written description. Then make at least 50-100 copies to place outside your home in a weather-protected box for passers-by to take with them. And keep a supply on-hand to replace when empty. Stop by www.OregonFSBOCoach.com for more suggestions for what you can do to get the buyer’s foot inside your door.

Let’s face it. Selling a home outside the traditional method using an agent is hard work, especially in this market. Heck, right now selling a home using a real estate agent is hard work. The vast number of buyers are working with agents, and there are so many homes available within the Multiple Listing Service that agents tend to look at, or even be aware of FSBO properties last.

What can you do? Make sure your home stands out to anyone who sees it! Start with the 1st impression…how does your home look from the street. There isn’t a lot you can do on a short term for the neighborhood, but you can ensure your home’s exterior is neat, tidy and inviting. Next, what happens when the prospect comes through the door; place yourself in a buyer’s shoes and critically analyze what you see. Does it make sense, and think staging as you evaluate. Usually dramatic changes can be made to a visitor’s impression just by getting rid of things within view. Some ’stuff’ we may really like handy may actually be seen by a buyer as a negative, so if necessary, rent a storage unit and thin out what is presently in the rooms of your home.

Check the Internet. There are plenty of websites available with helps. Even try mine: www.OregonFSBOCoach.com There are lots of resource tools and links and there is no obligation. I don’t even know who uses it unless the visitor decides to register for advanced information, such as a weekly review of comparable properties (Actives, Sale Pendings, and Solds), or automatic updates of the competition. To send those I need an email address…

Are you a For Sale By Owner that is not in a short sale situation? If so, you have a unique opportunity to ‘jump to the head of the line’ past the bulk of sellers and agents. Here’s the current situation: the controlling faction of the real estate market is currently the 1st mortgage holder, but that faction is completely overwhelmed and not well organized to deal with what they face, explosive numbers of property owners facing foreclosure.

Here is what currently happens when a buyer wants to purchase the short sale. They submit an offer to a seller who will either accept the offer or maybe just submit it directly to his lender, because the lender has to be willing to take less money than is owed. The seller can’t make that decision unless he has deep pockets , and most don’t.

However, the lender isn’t prepared for a fast decision; it typically takes two months or more to get an acceptance (or counteroffer) and that means buyers who should be considering other homes are now on the sidelines. That impacts sales in a big way, and I promise you it frustrates the qualified buyers who wonder if they are just being led on by sellers, lenders and agents.

Here is your opportunity. If you are not in the same short sale situation as most other sellers seem to be, SHOUT the fact you have the authority to make the seller decision. It will be a true breath of fresh air to the buyer, and a special reason for them to consider making an offer on your property!

Today’s housing situation creates a moving target for the homeowner who wants to sell, and it is especially difficult for the For Sale By Owner.  One of my key rules for selling is ‘Don’t chase the price down’!  Unfortunately, this is what most sellers (both those using an agent and the FSBO) are doing.  Agents today say $5,000 and even $10,000 price reductions are not affecting the showings for properties.  The reductions need to be $20,000 or more, and much more if the property is upper end.

What does this mean?  The price was too high to begin with.  Last month over 1300 homes sold in the greater Portland/Vancouver Metropolitan areas.  Buyers are out there, in all segments of the residential market, and they are not stupid.  They have plenty of homes to choose from, so the seller who is able to make sure the buyer knows about his home and ‘proves’ his home is the best value is going to get the sale. 

So, how do you price the home correctly?  Here’s some ideas:

1.  Check the tax records for recent sales.  Most counties now have tax records available online.  Make sure you look at the actual ’sold’ dates and take into account the seller probably accepted that price one to three months prior to the closing dates.  The older the data, the less accurate it is.  Also, some tax records are notoriously inaccurate regarding size, bedrooms, baths, etc., so if you see something that ‘doesn’t look right’, don’t put too much weight on that one.

2.  Hire an appraiser.  They aren’t cheap (figure around $400), but they should give you a definite figure ‘at an exact point of time’.  They will take into account most of the specifics of your home.

3.  Call a Real Estate Agent for a CMA.  A lot of agents will probably do it, just on the hope he/she might get a listing.  Your top agents will probably not do it; they are busy enough with listed clients.

4.  Request my Property Investment Profile.  I do these for hundreds of home owners.  They are automated and do not take much time on my part to set up.  I provide them monthly to my sphere who really have no intention of selling right now, but want to stay informed about what the market says about homes like theirs, and I provide them weekly to actual sellers.  I don’t mind setting one up for you, just visit my website at www.OregonFSBOCoach.com to request it.

Here’s the  bottom line.  Whatever price you set, with the amount of buyers available right now you can know pretty quickly whether or not you have priced correctly (as long as you are sure plenty of people know your home is available – that’s what marketing is about).  If you set a price and a week to ten days goes by without activity, your price is too high.  If you get several showings, but no ’second showings’ or offers, your price is too high.