Marketing
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How Long To Prep Your Home Before Listing It For Sale |
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 Sometimes sellers want to wait until their home is absolutely 100% prepared to go on the market for sale -- or even 102% ready! It's hard to disagree with that in principle -- yes -- let's make sure you get your house 100% ready to go on the market before we put it on the market. But... If it takes (for example) six weeks to get your house 95% ready to go and another eight weeks to get it to 100% ready -- is it worth waiting those two extra months to list your home? Probably not -- unless those two months you are waiting are in the middle of winter when buyer activity would be low and when your home might not show its best based on dead grass, leafless trees, gray skies, etc. A few other points to consider in this regard...
Again, the main point of my ramblings today are...
Finally, a few examples of a 95% complete house...
OK, maybe those got to be somewhat extreme. :-) You get the point. Let's meet sooner rather than later and your house doesn't have to be 100% perfect to be listed for sale and to sell in a timeframe and for a price that is pleasing to you. | |
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Is All Showing Feedback Really About Price? |
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 Is All Showing Feedback Really About Price? Often, yes. My house is needs many cosmetic updates, but all of the potential buyers (who did not make an offer on my house) didn't complain about price, they complained about the need for cosmetic updates. My house is next to the railroad tracks, but all of the potential buyers (who did not make an offer on my house) didn't complain about price, they complained about the railroad tracks. My house has an unbelievably steep driveway, but all of the potential buyers (who did not make an offer on my house) didn't complain about price, they complained about the steep driveway. Guess what --- unless you're going to flatten the driveway, move the railroad tracks (or the house), or make all of the cosmetic updates -- it really probably is an issue of price! If you're getting consistent feedback about your house that is unrelated to price, in almost all cases, you need to adjust the price to accommodate for that specific issue. If the price is lower then buyers might actually buy despite the specific issue that they were complaining about. | |
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If You Are Not Getting Offers On Your House, Will You Wait, Or Lower Your Price? |
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 If you are selling your home and it is prepared well and marketed well, you will likely have a decision to make related to time and price... TIME - Are you willing to continue to wait for the right buyer to come along, eventually, hopefully - that will come to a different conclusion about your house than previous buyers who did not make an on your house? PRICE - Are you willing to adjust the list price of your house to try to make it more attractive to potential buyers and to expand the pool of potential buyers who can afford to buy your house? If your home has been on the market for 60 days without an offer -- or if it has been 60 days since your last price reduction -- you should reflect on whether you choose to value time or money more over the forthcoming 60 days. You can always continue to wait for new buyers to enter the market that hopefully will find your house to be just the right fit for them - or you can adjust the price to try to make your house more attractive to buyers who have and who have not yet seen your house. What will you choose if 60 days have passed without an offer on your house? | |
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There Are Not Necessarily Always Buyers For All Homes Ready To Buy At All Times |
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 If you are preparing your house well for the market - and pricing it appropriately, according to what other buyers have recently paid for similar houses - and the house is marketed fully and professionally...it should be under contract relatively quickly, and certainly within the first 30 days, right? Well... maybe... Sometimes, it just takes time. In the end, if the right buyer is not in the market right now, then it might not sell until the right buyer is ready to buy - and we shouldn't necessarily expect that the wrong buyer will buy your house just because it is prepared well, priced well and marketed well. Understanding how these dynamics will affect you and your listing is highly related to how many buyers are in your price range -- and in that pool of buyers in your price range, is your house likely to meet the needs of only a few, many or most of the buyers. So, if your home has been on the market for 30 days, or 60 or 90 or 120 or more days -- we should be thinking about...
If the answer is yes, yes and yes -- then we'll be left with two options...
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Floor Plans Can Help You Understand How Photos Tie Together |
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 Most home shoppers have had this experience when looking at homes online -- they see beautiful photos of many wonderful rooms in a house -- but can't quite figure out how the different photos and rooms tie together. Photos also often lack a sense of scale, especially when taken with a wide angle lens. The best cure for this? Floor plans. Floor plans for a house can show you how all of the different rooms connect (or don't) and can provide a sense of scale with room dimensions. The 3D camera and imaging system that I use can create a floor plan of your home - click on the image at the top of this post (or here) to view a larger version of this floor plan. When you're getting ready to list your home this spring or summer, let's plan to create a 3D walk through and floor plans for your home! Read about all of the other ways we can market your home by visiting.... SellingAHomeInHarrisonburg.com | |
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Taking A Winter Photo To Prepare For Listing Your Home In The Spring |
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 Many sellers list their homes in the Spring or Summer, which is often ideal for the timing of their move, and aligns well with when most buyers are in the market. However -- some houses are very difficult to be seen (and photographed) in the Spring and Summer because of large trees in the front yard. So -- if you're thinking of selling this Spring or Summer, and you have trees (especially large house-obscuring trees) we should discuss taking some exterior photos SOON rather than waiting until later when we can't see your house at all. Certainly, the grass isn't as green as it could be right now, and the flowers aren't blooming -- but it could be nice to see your house in the main view of your future real estate listing -- rather than just a tree. I'm happy to come by to shoot a few photos of the front of your house this month to give us better options for marketing your home a few months from now. Just drop me a line (scott@hhtdy.com) so that we can coordinate the details. | |
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Should You Round Your Bedroom Count Up Or Down? |
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 I tend to come at this from the "under promise, over delivery" perspective... I have been in three houses this past week where the number of bedrooms is a bit nebulous...
There are, of course, pros and cons of rounding down or up... If you round down, it is likely that every buyer that views your home will find that it has enough bedrooms -- and they'll likely be pleasantly surprised at the additional sort-of bedroom -- but you might miss out on buyers who really need that other bedroom and thus don't even consider your house based on the bedroom count. If you round up, it is likely that many buyers that view your home will be disappointed to conclude that it does not have enough functional bedrooms -- though you will likely have more buyers looking at the house in general, because of the higher bedroom count. So -- there is no perfect rule for determining whether to round up or round down when counting the bedrooms in your house -- but will likely do you well to thin about how many functional bedrooms most buyers would consider your house to have... | |
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There Are Not Necessarily Always Buyers For All Homes Ready To Buy At All Times |
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 If you are preparing your house well for the market - and pricing it appropriately, according to what other buyers have recently paid for similar houses - and the house is marketed fully and professionally...it should be under contract relatively quickly, and certainly within the first 30 days, right? Well... maybe... Sometimes, it just takes time. In the end, if the right buyer is not in the market right now, then it might not sell until the right buyer is ready to buy - and we shouldn't necessarily expect that the wrong buyer will buy your house just because it is prepared well, priced well and marketed well. Understanding how these dynamics will affect you and your listing is highly related to how many buyers are in your price range -- and in that pool of buyers in your price range, is your house likely to meet the needs of only a few, many or most of the buyers. So, if your home has been on the market for 30 days, or 60 or 90 or 120 or more days -- we should be thinking about...
If the answer is yes, yes and yes -- then we'll be left with two options...
Again - proper preparation, pricing and marketing alone won't sell your house - we also need the right buyer for your home to be in the market to buy at the time when your house is listed for sale! | |
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All Home Buyers Are Special, and Some Are Spatial |
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 Do I spend hours and hours fine tuning the 600 characters of text that can be used to describe your home in the MLS and on public websites? No, probably not hours and hours. After all, when a buyer finds your home online they don't start by reading my eloquent description - they start by going: click, click, click, click, click, click -- or swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe -- quickly blasting their way through the photos. But beyond photos, some buyers best understand a house by studying the floor plan. The 3D camera and imaging system that I use can create a floor plan of your home to satisfy the desires of this group of buyers, who are spatial (and special) home buyers. Read about all of the other ways we can market your home by visiting.... SellingAHomeInHarrisonburg.com | |
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Local Home Sales Slow, As Inventory Declines, But Prices Are Rising! |
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 Find out more about this Mountaintop Retreat on 46 acres with a cabin, hiking trails, canyon and river here. I just published my most recent monthly market report, and as usual, you can read on for an overview, download the full report as a PDF, read the entire report with commentary online, or tune in to my monthly video overview of our local housing market...  Now, let's take a closer look at some of this month's data....  As can be seen above....
Last year certainly was interesting!?! Or odd!?! Last August, September and November were OFF THE CHARTS as far as a record number of home sales for those months -- which then makes this year's sales trajectory seem as slow as mud in August, September and November. This November's sales were a good bit higher than in 2014 and 2015 -- but were solidly below November 2016.
So -- despite the fact that 2017 is hiding in the shadows of a towering year of sales in 2016 -- it is interesting to note that the 11 months of home sales thus far in 2017 (all 1,149 of them) has already surpassed the full 12 months of sales seen in 2013 (1067 sales), 2014 (1085 sales) and 2015 (1125 sales). As such -- while total home sales will likely be 5% to 6% lower this year than last -- that will still mark a solid improvement as compared to any other recent year.
After quite a few years of steady increases in buyer activity -- we are starting to see a decline. Over the past six months we have seen buyer activity taper off and start to decline. I believe this is a direct result of the drastic reductions in the availability of homes for those buyers to buy. As the number of sellers in the market at any given time has declined, eventually that also resulted in a reduction in the pace of buying activity.
Yeah, so, about those inventory levels. They are low and getting lower!?! And, realistically, when and how do we think that would or could change? In theory, inventory levels will rise this coming Spring -- except they didn't during 2017. Looking back, the end of last November was the highest inventory level we saw for the following 12 months!?! So -- hmmm -- absent any outside factors (new home construction, anyone?) it is possible that the current inventory level (322 homes for sale) could be the highest inventory level we will see for the next 12 months!?! Stop and think about that for a moment....
Somewhat interestingly, as shown above, there has been a larger (proportional) decline in inventory levels for attached properties (townhouses, duplexes, condos) than for single family detached properties. There are now only 56 townhouse/duplex/condo properties available for sale in all of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County! And finally -- one last look at some interesting trends....
As shown above, nearly half (46%) of homes that are selling (not of all that are listed) are selling (going under contract) within 30 days of hitting the market. So -- yes -- the market is moving pretty quickly in many locations and price ranges! OK -- I'll stop there for now. There is plenty more in my full market report, so feel free to download it as a PDF, read the entire report online, or watch/listen to a video overview of this month's report. And, my reminders for buyers and sellers last month still apply.... SELLERS -- even though it is a seller's market in many price ranges right now, you must still focus on price, condition and marketing. For further reading on buying or selling in this area, check out.... | |
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1 Pool, 2 Acres, 4 Bedrooms, 3184 SF, Infinite Views |
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 view a larger image by clicking here Have I mentioned that I enjoy flying my drone? For business purposes, of course -- definitely just a business tool.... Anyhow -- the drone does (in my opinion) well capture the property shown above -- which offers privacy (2.12 acres), space (3,184 finished square feet) a pool (20x46) and mountain views in nearly every direction! Find out more about the house by visiting the property website. Do you want a photo of your property by drone? All you have to do is sell it! :) Just kidding -- I'm always looking for an excuse to fly my drone.... As a bonus, here is another shot taken above (or somewhere near) the property referenced above....  view a larger image by clicking here | |
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Where Buyers Found The Home They Purchased |
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 Updated numbers above! Does anything surprise you? It doesn't surprise me. Marketing your home should follow the lead of where buyers are looking for homes -- but even more importantly, where they are finding their homes. | |
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Planning ahead with exterior photos of your home |
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 Many sellers list their homes in the Spring or Summer, which is often ideal for the timing of their move, and aligns well with when most buyers are in the market. However -- some houses are very difficult to be seen (and photographed) in the Spring and Summer because of large trees in the front yard. So -- if you're thinking of selling this Spring or Summer, and you have trees (especially large house-obscuring trees) we should discuss taking some exterior photos SOON rather than waiting until later when we can't see your house at all. Certainly, the grass isn't as green as it could be right now, and the flowers aren't blooming -- but it could be nice to see your house in the main view of your future real estate listing -- rather than just a tree. | |
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Introducing Virtual Reality for Real Estate in the Shenandoah Valley |
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 Read on for a bit of context for this exciting announcement.... PHOTOS ARE KING.... According to National Association of Realtors research, photos are the most valuable feature to buyers when viewing a property online. However, even with lots of beautiful photos, buyers are still left wondering "How do these photos fit together?" BUYERS PREFER INTERACTIVITY.... Until recently, a video tour was the best way to try to deliver this value - but many buyers don't like video tours because they are not interactive. But, what if . . . we could combine the value of all of these features and put the buyer in control of the experience? It is now possible, using Matterport 3D Showcase (TM) technology, and the results are stunning!  MATTERPORT -- NOT JUST IN THE BIG CITIES.... You may have heard about Matterport from your friends or relatives in large metro areas across the country where it is being used to market high end homes. But here's the exciting part -- just as you no longer have to drive to "the big city" to get your Krispy Kreme fix, you can now market your home in Harrisonburg with Matterport! HOW IT'S DONE.... Once we capture 3D imagery of your home with my Matterport camera, potential home buyers will be able to explore the home online to their heart's content -- by walking through the home, exploring a dollhouse view of the house, or by viewing the floor plan from the top down.  AND NOW, VIRTUAL REALITY.... Some of you know that I have been using this technology for over a year now, perhaps to market and sell your home -- but now there's even more fun news! Homes marketed with Matterport can now be viewed in Virtual Reality! This latest advance will TRULY give a potential buyer the experience of walking through your home -- whether from across town, across the country, or around the world. Feel free to explore this new technology yourself at WalkThroughThisHome.com, or let's set up a time to meet over coffee, and I'll let you walk through a home via my virtual reality headset! Warning -- it's pretty fun! | |
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Yes, location (location, location) but what else? |
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 What will it take to sell your house in today's real estate market? The age-old adage of "Location, Location, Location" still rings true – but since it is not cost effective to move your house, it may be helpful to focus on three areas that are under your control. These three areas are all essential to successfully selling your home. Price: Find Your Place In The Market. Before listing your home for sale it is essential to understand the dynamics of the current housing market – but don't stop there. Not only do you need to understand the general trends (sales pace, sales price, inventory, etc.) you also must dig deep to explore the specifics of the market that pertain to your particular home. How many houses have sold in your neighborhood in the past six months, and at what prices? What other neighborhoods will buyers be exploring? Are there 10 other houses on the market just like your house, or just two? For a thorough understanding of the local housing market, please refer to HarrisonburgHousingMarket.com. Condition: There's Old, Then There's Dilapidated. Even if your house is priced well compared to recently sold properties and currently available properties, we still need to position it to sell by optimizing its condition. Sometimes this is de-cluttering or simplifying. Sometimes a staging consultation will be helpful. Quite frequently, some minor repairs or cosmetic updates will help your property to sell. As we work to prepare your house to go on the market we will be focusing on improving the overall impression that buyers have of your house (old and dilapidated versus old but meticulously maintained) as well as eliminating potential objections that buyers might have that can easily be remedied before listing your home. Marketing: Put The Storyline On Display For Buyers. A well-priced home in excellent condition must be marketed well to attract potential buyers to come and view the property. These days, real estate marketing should start with excellent photography, and with special attention to lighting – a few photos from a smartphone aren't going to cut it. Beyond photography, it is important to focus on the storyline of the home – what are the selling points and the most attractive features? With photos and storyline in hand, we must then focus on widely exposing your home both online and in the real world. This likely means a brochure box next to your yard sign with color brochures, as well as an individual property web site, and broad syndication to a variety of online real estate web sites, and much more. Let's discuss how to best position YOUR home through the lenses of price, condition and marketing. | |
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How are buyers searching for homes these days? |
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 Buyers across the country have spoken -- the graph above shows the information sources that are used "frequently" during the home search process. As such, we need to align the marketing strategies for your home with how buyers are actually looking for homes. | |
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Walk Through 461 Queen Anne Court, Harrisonburg, VA |
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 Take a few minutes to walk through this beautifully updated four bedroom Colonial home on a full unfinished walkout basement in Kings Crossing is within walking distance of Hillandale Park and just a quick bike ride away from JMU Campus and downtown Harrisonburg. You will not want to leave the remodeled kitchen in this home with hardwood floors, soapstone counters, stainless steel appliances, built in built bookshelves and many other high class touches. Hardwood floors continue throughout the entire first floor, through the living room, dining room, family room and office. Upstairs, you will find four spacious bedrooms and three full bathrooms! Don't miss the full, unfinished, walkout basement with a workshop PLUS a large, fenced yard with mature trees! Click here to walk through this home, on your computer, phone or tablet. Or, visit this home's property website. Or, view high resolution photos of this home by clicking the collage below....  Find out more about this 3D Walk Through technology at WalkThroughThisHome.com....  | |
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Not finding success in selling your home? Focus on what you have control over. |
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 If you are having difficulty finding a buyer for your home, and you are receiving critical feedback regarding your home's location, neighborhood, floor plan or size, then I would encourage you to focus on what you have control over. You are unlikely to change your home's location, neighborhood, floor plan or size -- at least not in a cost effective manner. Thus, you can either wait (and wait, and wait) for the buyer who will purchase your home despite those factors -- or you can focus on the three main areas that you have the most control over as a home owner.... PRICE If your home is listed for $350K and buyers don't like the neighborhood, location, floor plan, etc., -- they very well might like those features more (or be willing to look past them) if your home were listed for $340K, $330K or $320K. We pick our competition based on your list price -- and maybe we've entered ourselves into too high of a weight class. If we adjust the pricing, we'll have new competitors, with whom we'll hopefully be able to better compete -- and buyers may then be willing to look past their prior objections given the new value proposition. CONDITION Are there areas of your home that could be freshened up to show your house in a more positive light to buyers -- or to not overwhelm them as much with the updates they will need to make? Perhaps some fresh paint, fresh mulch, landscaping tune-up, new light fixtures, replacement carpet in a few rooms, etc.? MARKETING Are we reaching every possible buyer in every possible way? Is your home being marketed as fully as possible both online and offline? Where do the potential buyers of your home live now? How can you reach them? Are they in town buyers? Out of town buyers? What aspects of your home will appeal most to them? Some home sellers (or would-be sellers, as it were) dwell on what they cannot change -- location, layout, neighborhood, etc. Let's chat about the three areas identified above that you do have some control over, and make sure you are positioned well for the Fall market. | |
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When selling your house, we can most easily affect these areas |
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 What will it take to sell your house in today's real estate market? The age-old adage of "Location, Location, Location" still rings true – but since it is not cost effective to move your house, it may be helpful to focus on three areas that are under your control. These three areas are all essential to successfully selling your home. Price: Find Your Place In The Market. Before listing your home for sale it is essential to understand the dynamics of the current housing market – but don't stop there. Not only do you need to understand the general trends (sales pace, sales price, inventory, etc.) you also must dig deep to explore the specifics of the market that pertain to your particular home. How many houses have sold in your neighborhood in the past six months, and at what prices? What other neighborhoods will buyers be exploring? Are there 10 other houses on the market just like your house, or just two? For a thorough understanding of the local housing market, please refer to HarrisonburgHousingMarket.com. Condition: There's Old, Then There's Dilapidated. Even if your house is priced well compared to recently sold properties and currently available properties, we still need to position it to sell by optimizing its condition. Sometimes this is de-cluttering or simplifying. Sometimes a staging consultation will be helpful. Quite frequently, some minor repairs or cosmetic updates will help your property to sell. As we work to prepare your house to go on the market we will be focusing on improving the overall impression that buyers have of your house (old and dilapidated versus old but meticulously maintained) as well as eliminating potential objections that buyers might have that can easily be remedied before listing your home. Marketing: Put The Storyline On Display For Buyers. A well-priced home in excellent condition must be marketed well to attract potential buyers to come and view the property. These days, real estate marketing should start with excellent photography, and with special attention to lighting – a few photos from a smartphone aren't going to cut it. Beyond photography, it is important to focus on the storyline of the home – what are the selling points and the most attractive features? With photos and storyline in hand, we must then focus on widely exposing your home both online and in the real world. This likely means a brochure box next to your yard sign with color brochures, as well as an individual property web site, and broad syndication to a variety of online real estate web sites, and much more. Let's discuss how to best position YOUR home through the lenses of price, condition and marketing. | |
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Distractions and Objections |
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 (don't worry -- this is not really one of my client's homes) Preparing your home to go on the market can be challenging (and tiring), and often sellers-to-be need a second (or third) set of eyes to provide suggestions about where to focus their time and energy. There are many different theories about how to best prepare your home to be on the market and viewed by buyers --- and ways of expressing those theories.
Distractions are the things that keep a prospective buyer from focusing on your house. That might be knick knacks, or family photos, or refrigerator magnets, or an overflowing pantry, or fascinating artwork, or an abundance of indoor plants, or a strange odor, or brightly colored wall hangings. Whatever it is --- if a buyer is focusing on one (or more) of these items, they're not focusing on your house. They're reading all of the Far Side comics on the fridge instead of marveling at the granite countertops, tile backsplash, recessed lighting, and stainless steel appliances. They're amazed at how you fit 234 board games into the coat closet instead of taking in the quality workmanship of the trim detail in the foyer, and the mountain views out the picture window in the family room. As you prepare your home to go on the market, close your eyes for a few moments when standing at the entrance to each main living area. Then, open your eyes, and take note of where your eyes are immediately drawn. Or, walk slowly through the space (or ask a friend to help) seeing where your eyes (and your mind) linger. Objections are those correctable physical characteristics of your home that give a buyer a reason to mark your home off their list, or to move it down a notch in their preferences. Perhaps it is that the vinyl siding needs to be power washed, or that three bi-fold closet doors need to be adjusted, or that there is poor lighting in the kitchen, or that the deck needs staining. There are oftentimes small home maintenance items that should be attended to before putting your home on the market. There are two potential dangers of having these items unresolved --- first, a buyer might become too overwhelmed by the work that they need to do to the home once they move in, and second, a buyer might extrapolate from what they can see to imagine what they cannot. A classic example of this is the dirty furnace filter that makes a buyer assume that the HVAC system has never been serviced, is in a terrible state of disrepair, and will need to be replaced immediately. As you're preparing your house to go on the market, I'm happy to provide you with another set of eyes and to give you some new perspectives on how to best prepare your home to be shown to buyers. When you're ready, just give me a call (540-578-0102) or send me an e-mail (scott@HarrisonburgHousingToday.com). Also, don't fret about having your home in perfect "show condition" before you call me --- I'm happy to give you some guidance and feedback while you're still in the process of preparing your home to go on the market. | |
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Scott Rogers
Funkhouser Real
Estate Group
540-578-0102
scott@funkhousergroup.com
Licensed in the
Commonwealth of Virginia
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