When it comes to selling your home in Florida’s current housing market and given the economic conditions here in the Tamp Bay Area, potential sellers should realize that these are tough Times and they will need to set realistic expectations in order to ensure their home does not sit on the market too long.

Just like Doctors have to de-sensitize their feelings for patients, you need to start thinking of your home as a house. What looks good to you may not look good to that potential buyer. Don’t get offensive if your Agent suggest making changes to décor.

Their goal is to sell your house. This may mean cleaning up and moving things around to get the attention of a buyer.

It is even more important than ever today to ensure that you have hired the right person for the job. In this case you don’t want a YES person. You want an experienced Real Estate Professional that will provide you with all the tools necessary to help you sell your house.

This also means taking a realistic look at the value of your home in your neighborhood right now! Get a current Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) completed ASAP.

Take the advice of your Real Estate professional after a CMA has been completed for other homes in your area, if it’s available. Your agent should take into account any Bank Owned Sales recently that would affect your current house value.

So here’s a quick overview of the 10 Tips to help prepare you for the Sell.

1. Grit your teeth and set a realistic asking price from the very beginning.
2. Opt for a round number. You will get better visibility. (Example: 200,000 vs. 199,000)
3 Don’t break the bank on remodeling projects.
Home upgrades that tend to give sellers the greatest returns on investment are new energy-efficient additions.
4. Consider your options. Talk to your Agent about an “exclusive rights-to-sell listing”
5. Shop around for an effective agent. Nail down specifics about how he or she intends to market your home?
6.  Break ties if necessary. If you can tell your agent isn’t working hard enough in your behalf or following the agreed-upon marketing plan, it’s time for a frank discussion. While you shouldn’t expect miracles from this person – the market is bleak, after all – your best bet in certain cases may be to switch agents altogether.
7. The commission is negotiable. Ask your agent pointedly, what will they do for you? If you have to give up money to make a deal with a buyer will your agent and the buyer’s agent be willing to give up a portion of their commission to make the deal?
8. Hire a pro to stage your home. Did you know that you can write off a stager’s fees, just as you can with legal fees and your agent’s commission?
9. Try staging your home yourself. Get advice from your Agent as they have experience working with home stagers. Be sure your home is adequately prepared by:  eliminating all clutter and piles of stuff; helping rooms look more spacious by removing heavy drapes and excess pieces of furniture; arranging the remaining furniture so it draws attention to attractive focal points in each room; and opting for neutral tones when and where possible. Remember, a clutter-free, furnished home will be more pleasing to the eye than a completely empty home.
10. Clean, clean, and clean some more. Absolutely everything in your home – from dated appliances to scuffed wood floors – will look better if they’re cleaned and polished to a high gloss.

In today’s housing market, there is one major over riding factor to consider above all else when you decide to sell your house.

Why are you selling it and how are you determining the price to sell point? Because when it comes to setting the selling price: If you have a bottom level price in mind because of what you owe, what you paid or what value you perceive your home is worth, then it’s probably not the time to sell your house.

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We would like to say Congratulations and Thank You to the Proud New Owners of 2924 Eagle Estates Circle. Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate wants to Wish you many Happy and Memorable Years to come in your New Home.

ENJOY

This has been a long haul. We finally sold a home that we have worked so very hard to market for the former owner.

In any market there is always that one house that no matter what you do, short of dropping the price to a ridiculous level it does not sell. In this case the home is in a beautiful location and the home is no ugly duckling either. What is interesting is that when the former owner purchased the home in the early 90?s it had been on the market for over a year.

We gave up on counting exactly how many open house events, broker events and listing tours we provided on this home. We had received several offers over the course of the listing, but they were not serious and considered low ball offers when compared to the other homes selling in and around the neighborhood.

The new owners are ecstatic, and the seller is very happy to have sold the house. So persistence can make the sale when both parties come to together and realize they can make a deal that works for both.

I can tell you that it is interesting, that we have had listings where the owner did not head our advice and subsequently re-listed the home with another agent only to find that their home is still unsold many months later. So jumping ship is not always the best thing to do, you really have to look at what your agent is doing for you. If they are doing everything humanly possible and the home is still not selling, then the price may have to be lowered to compete in the current market. I can tell you that the owner still made a good profit over what they had originally purchased the home for.

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A new report from Zillow.com shows home values dropped nationwide by 3%. Chief Financial Officer Spencer Rascoff discusses which cities saw the largest declines.
Time for little cold water on the face for those that have obviously been asleep for oh..the last year. Hey times are tough, I don?t need to rehash all the media hype of the last several months however, todays news has continued with fact that Mortgage Applications volumes decreased this last week in large part because the interest rates started creeping back up again. The Wall Street Journal reported on Zillows market data from Monday, that outlines the Bubble Areas of California and Florida. Basically, they reported that prices are still falling and may continue to fall more.

So where does this leave the home owner that really wants to sell their home ? Well first off you have to be really motivated to sell. Yes it is difficult the house you are selling was to bank role your retirement plan and so you have a certain number that you feel you have to sell at. Sound familiar ? If this is you then you had better get your head out of the sand. Either take your home of the market and forgo that retirement plan for a year or two or reduce your house to what your realtor says it should sell at. And even then you need to be prepared to lower the price even more again.

That is if you want to really sell your home ? Now maybe you don?t have retirement in mind, but you wanted to profit from your sale. Who doesn?t ? However, if you have had your home for some time, you have a lot of room to work with. It is unfortunate that homes are over valued. And yes that means the very one you are trying to sell now.

You can read more of this article by the WSJ concerning your R.O.I. here:

As I am writing this, I am also reminded of an article I read in January?s issue of Realtor Magazine discussing this issue of Realtors trying to get Sellers to Get Real. They did cover both ends of the spectrum and covered unrealistic buyers expectations too. The larger issue that we face here in Florida is the fact that our homes are over valued. It is not personal, believe me, we bought into a new home at near the top of the market. If we had to sell today we would loose a lot, but that?s just what the market bares right now and being realistic is the only way to keep moving forward.

If you are a Realtor and have ?clients who won?t budge from unreasonable thinking,? then you may have to try an alternative approach to the one you are currently using. One of those items that I find no one has mentioned is the use of BLOGS. Yep, give them the web site address here or email them the link to this article. They can get mad as hell at me, but I have included the links to the statistics within this article.

I can?t say it any better than this ?When you have clients or prospects that are being unreasonable, it?s your job to help them revise their expectations based on the market reality.? I have to give credit where it?s due. This quote is from Kelle Sparta?s article that I mentioned above. (Kelly is the author of The Consultative Real Estate Agent).

In closing, it appears that the signs of denial for Sellers are still all over the map here in Florida and California. . Inman news covers it fairly well in their article entitled Denial: Didn?t we do this stage already ?

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Many home owners may have heard about the My Safe Florida Home imitative for Free Wind Inspections on their homes, but as I have recently discovered, just as many do not know that this service is available to them for Free.

Here?s the story, I was in Home Depot recently here in New Port Richey, and noticed a table set up in the front with information about the Free Wind Inspection. Since we live in a new development and our home was one of the first to be built with the new 2007 standards I thought this was of little value to me and was about ready to just walk on by. However the gentlemen running the booth was very nice and we struck up conversation and the result was my education in exactly what this process is and how it can potentially save you money on your home owners insurance.

I am hoping that this gets wide spread dissemination here amongst Florida Real Estate bloggers and anyone that reads this site, as it is very apparent that there are many in the industry besides myself that have no idea about the process or who can use this ? Testament to that was a recent call that we received from an Insurance Broker. We were researching options for Home Owners Insurance for a client who is looking to purchase a home that was built in 1998. The Agent suggested that we hire a local inspector to perform the inspection and obtain a Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form (OIR-B1-1802) to present to the insurance company. The cost of this inspection is typically around $150.00 This was a few days after I had talked to the Inspector at Home Depot. I asked the agent if he was aware of the Free Wind Inspection that could be obtained via the My Florida Safe Home program. While he was aware of the program he did not know the specifics and was quite surprised when I informed him of the facts and that we could save the client a $150.00.

So even thought this program has been out a while , it is still relatively unknown by many in Florida. So if you know about this that?s great, however, I would encourage you to check out the site and the details to gain an updated perspective on who this applies to?

On the site there is also a list of State Approved Inspection firms based upon your locale in Florida. For example there are 4 Regions and associated contract firms with those regions. I have included a copy of the hand out I received from the Inspection firm called SkyTech (see below).

Should you have questions you can call them or call one of the numbers listed on the My Safe Florida Home Web site.

I hope this as helpful for you and your clients as it has been to us.

The synopsis for the year:

That’s for single family homes. If you look at the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area, there were 1,644 existing homes sold this last November, down from the 2,362 sold the previous year. The Tampa Bay Business Journal does a pretty good summary on this as well.
One of the key issues we have observed over and over again by sellers though is that they resist the advice to price accordingly the first time. It is a Buyers market and and if you really, really want to sell your home, you have to un-attache yourself from it and set the right price.

With that, I am including a You-Tube clip that says it all in BLACK & WHITE, check it out below.

I am often researching what it is going in other areas of the country, as well as keeping an eye on technology related issues. This is from the one of the guys who is a key note speaker at the Bloggers Connect Forum that will take place next week in NY. I expect some good information to come out of it and look forward to sharing the information.

In today’s market, Low appraisals can kill a sale. So it behooves a potential buyer to know what a CMA is and the differences between what a Realtor will provide versus what the Lender provides.

So what exactly is the difference between the Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) done by your Realtor and the one done by a lender and why should you care ?

Most Realtors offer a CMA service including Greater Tampa Bay Real Estate. If you check out the tab on our site you will see that we have an area where a potential buyer or a seller can request from us a Free Comparative Market Analysis.When that is done we go back and research the county records for the sales in the neighborhood you are interested in. We look at what has sold as far back as six months to be able to present you with a good estimate. This amounts to an informal estimate of market value based on comparable sales in that area. This gives you a good ball park figure to work with. However, with the current market trends a home that sold for more money six months ago may not provide a good comparative analysis for what the current market will bear. So at this point in time it is even more important to talk with us early so that we can help you get a lenders CMA. Lenders typically will use the appraised value to determine the correct mortgage amount. You do however need to be aware that some appraisers may not take into account all the upgrades you may have made and may look only at the local market. So how do you ensure against this ? We have provided a few key points to be aware of and where we can assist.

How can we help you to avoid low appraisals ?

• We can assist you in hiring a reputable appraiser before the sale. Then we will ask your buyer’s or lenders appraiser to review your appraisal.
• Retain the option to approve your buyer’s mortgage lender. We will make sure that the buyer doesn’t use a lender with a history of deliberately underestimating property values. We generally know through our experience in the Tampa Bay Area which lenders routinely under value homes and will help you steer clear of them.
• Keep records of repairs and upgrades, including costs. Take “before” and “after” photographs. Create an organized journal with a listing of expenses and include pictures to show to the appraiser during the appraisal appointment. We can then assist you with stage your home for the appraiser like you do for buyers.
• We can help secure your property comparable’s to make sure the appraiser uses complete information. We will call agents with homes in escrow and get the current sales prices. We will then make a list of these properties with the agent’s phone numbers and give it to the appraiser.

What can we do when your selling appraisal comes in too low ?

• We will ask for another appraisal.
• We will protest the appraisal with documentation of your upgraded expenses.
• We will work to have the buyers make a larger down payment.

Tags: CMA, appraisal, mortgage, lenders, Tampa+Florida+Realtors

Well there are some hard and fast facts that are time tested and they amount to 4 steps. Note: I did not say they would be easy.

1. Price your property below the comparable sales in your neighborhood.

You have to be realistic here. So your neighbor sold his house 6 months ago at $400K and now you want to sell yours at 380K thinking that you are loosing money. Your neighbor who paid 200K for his home two year ago and made a whopping 50% profit really gets you steamed. What you have to remember is that home valuations were considered by many experts as excessive.? As long as you are making some profit…why all the fuss ? If you need the money and really have to sell at a specific price point, then take your home off the market now or continue with the following steps .

2. Don’t try to test the market.

Yep it has finally happened, the Greater Tampa Bay Florida Real Estate market has switched from a sellers market to a buyers market. You need to face the reality that if you enter your house on the market and expect to get a ton of traffic to see the new addition in your neck of the woods, and you don’t follow all (4) of these steps…then be prepared to have you home on the market for a long time, possibly a year or longer. Oh you can change Real Estate Agents as many times as you want but the results will be the same unless…. are you catching on now ? Follow the (4) steps.

3. Reduce the price of your house …..you will need a chain saw, not a pair of nail clippers.

Since the property values are in a declining state here in Florida, starting out at a reduced price that is equal to today’s current market wont’ work. You need to anticipate that the market is continuously declining and price slightly below market value to sell the property. Again you need to have a reality check here ! Do an analysis of your cash flow going out vs, in. How long can you hold onto the property; continue to pay the mortgage, insurance , principle and interest on the loan, up keep and maintenance on the property (if your lawn if 5 feet tall – prospective buyers may think the property is abandoned and and you can expect no agent will show the property) , plus continuing depreciation ? The longer your house is on the market the more out of pocket this will cause until you reach the pain threshold , your pockets are empty and now it’s time to join the rank of Florida Foreclosures ?

4. Be motivated to do what ever your agent suggests to sell.

This is an area where time and time again we see both agents and sellers failing to do what they need to do. Agents sometimes do not want to tell the sellers that they need to perform some maintenance or change the look of a room to really sell that home. Some of this is based upon fear the seller won’t like the news or may be resistant and this will reflect badly on the agents reputation. Often times it is the seller who is hung up on their home and need to make the distinction that when they put it on the market it is now a house and they need to understand that the next buyer is not necessary going to fall in-love with the murals that they hand painted on their living room walls. It doesn’t matter if it was a replica of the Sistine Chapel.
Over all you need to understand the psychology of the changing market and be willing to follow the advice of your Real-Estate professional.

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