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Q:
Michael, can you help me sell my house fast?
A: Yes! If you’re
willing to listen to me, take my advice, and make perhaps difficult
choices, I can absolutely make it happen.
Q: What
makes you different from other Realtors?
A: I listen—and
I pay attention! I really take to heart people’s unique
needs. Everyone’s situation is different, and the most important
thing I do is to listen to what you need, and show you properties
that fit your situation. I’m always available to speak with
you, and I’m a strong negotiator. I represent your interests
as if they were my own—because they are!
Q:
When is the right time to sell my home?
A: If you need to sell,
we can sell your home at any time. But the absolute best time
to sell is in the spring. In our market, that begins as early
as the beginning of March and goes through end of May. After the
winter, which is always a quiet time, people who need to move
are ready to sell and ready to buy. Buyers want to know where
they’re going to be for the coming school year, and they
want to be in place before they go off on summer vacation. So
the spring is absolutely the right time to put your house on the
market.
Q:
When is the right time to buy my home?
A: The best time to buy
is between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. If someone has a
house on the market over the holidays, that’s a person who’s
motivated to sell and willing to listen to offers. And because
market activity dies down in the winter, you might even see a
dip in mortgage rates during slowest time of year.
Q:
The market is so hot, I’m sure I could sell my own
home and save the
commission. What’s the benefit of using a Realtor?
A: Market exposure. If
you’re selling your home yourself, you’re marketing
to a limited audience. If you have a sign in front of your house,
you’re limited to reaching the people who drive by. Even
an ad in the local paper reaches a limited market. The way to
ensure the highest and best price for your property is to expose
it to every single person out there looking for a property—and
that’s done through direct mailings, print advertising,
Internet advertising, the Coldwell Banker network and agent networking
(marketing to agents). When you factor in what you save versus
what you might be losing, you’re better off using a real
estate agent.
Consider this question: Have you made more money in your life,
or saved more? It’s the same in real estate. The bottom
line is not whether you save the commission, but what you net
at the end of the transaction. I recently watched an owner sell
his own house. He was determined to save the commission, and he
did—but he sold his house for $65,000 under the market price!
In the end, he lost much more than he saved.
The National Association of Realtors found that agents can sell
houses for 27 percent more than people selling themselves. And
today in our California market, the disclosure laws have become
so burdensome that a person selling his or her home without full
knowledge of disclosure requirements could leave themselves exposed
to legal action. You’re far better protected if you have
a real estate agent who knows the ins and outs of the law and
can expose your home to the broadest possible market.
Q:
What’s the best way to ready my home for sale?
A: Number one: De-clutter.
We all have so much stuff (and I’m as guilty as anyone else!).
You want lots of open space so your home looks its best.
Number two: De-personalize. That means removing personal photos,
removing excess furniture—essentially, removing as many
items as possible that identify the house as yours. (You should
almost feel as if you’re living in a hotel!) This is because
you want the potential buyers to be able to visualize themselves
in the space.
Number three: Paint. Painting is the cheapest and best way to
spruce up a home, along with de-cluttering. It’s been proven
through research that a person can recoup 100 percent of the cost
of repainting in the sales price of the house
Q:
So would a vacant house be easier to sell?
A: Surprisingly, no. It’s
difficult for people to envision the potential of a home without
some furniture showing the possibilities. It’s actually
more difficult to sell a home that’s vacant.
Q:
What is “staging” a house?
A: Staging means hiring
a professional to come in and make your home look like a model
home. He or she may use your furniture or rented furniture or
a combination of both; paintings,; knick-knacks—whatever
it takes to create a model home environment. Trained to make look
great for selling. It’s a fact that homes that are staged
sell faster and for 5 percent more money than non-staged homes.
Q:
How do you determine the asking price of my house?
A: First of all, I don’t
determine the asking price—that’s something you need
to decide. I’ll give you my thoughts, I’ll suggest
parameters, I’ll provide recent sales information on your
area, I’ll tell you what’s on the market and help
you price your house accordingly, but ultimately it’s your
decision. The price will be based on a number of factors, including
how fast you want to sell. All of this is part of the marketing
plan I’ll devise for your home.
Every house has its selling point. Of course we always try to
sell a little high, but the market will tell us what the price
needs to be. More importantly, agents will tell us what the right
price is, through their ability to show property. We should know
in 30 days or less whether the property is priced appropriately,
and we’ll take action accordingly.
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Q:
What type of advertising is best?
A: Today
the Internet is the best place to advertise. A National Association
of Realtors study shows that 72 percent of home buyers start their
home search on Internet today. Coldwell Banker has two great sites
(www.coldwellbanker.com
and www.CaliforniaMoves.com).
And of course you can search all available homes in Orange County
right here on my site, www.newportbeachwaterfronthomes.com.
Just click on Find a Home.
Print advertising still works to a degree. And
believe it or not, a good old-fashioned sign in front of your
house generates a lot of phone calls.
Q:
Do you hold open houses? Why?
A:Yes,
because there are buyers out there who prefer to look at homes
on their own, without tying themselves into a real state agent.
These folks are limited to house-shopping on the days the homes
are “open,” when they can shop at their leisure without
feeling pressured by an agent. So this way, your home has an opportunity
to be seen by people who might not otherwise see it. In fact,
many homes are sold this way.
Q:How
do you protect my privacy when my home is on the market?
A: I always have real estate agents contact
me to make appointments to see the property, rather than having
the agents call the seller directly. Your home will generally
be on a lockbox, so the only people with access to it are agents.
Q:
I don’t want a lockbox. What’s the alternative?
A: I
don’t recommend not having a lockbox. Any barrier we put
up makes it more difficult for agents to show the property and
therefore makes it more difficult to sell. If the goal is to sell
the house, we need to take down as many barriers as possible.
That said, we can arrange to have your house shown by appointment
only.
Q:
What is a “strong offer”?
A: Everyone
wants to sell his or her house for as much money as possible.
But don’t forget the old expression, “a win-win situation.”
Both buyer and seller want to feel they’ve “won”
something. So sometimes a buyer will make an offer in which the
price may not be super high, but is strong in other ways: it’s
not contingent on selling another property; the buyer isn’t
requesting a long escrow; they’re not asking the seller
to do a lot of extra work; they’re coming in with a good
earnest-money deposit (say, 3 percent of the asking price); they
have a loan prequalification; they’re not trying to change
the inspection periods. That’s a strong offer.
Q:
Should I buy now or sell my current home first?
A: That
depends on your ability to take a risk. It’s a very individual
decision. But there are advantages to buying first. For one thing,
you know you won’t be sitting in a hotel room after you
sell your home—you’ll have a place to go! And if you
make on offer on a house that’s contingent on selling your
current house, that puts you in weaker bargaining position.
If you want to buy now and sell your current home later, you can
always look at getting an equity line on your property to use
as down payment for the new house. Then after you buy the new
house, you immediately put your old house on market to sell in
a timely fashion. And if you time it right—with both houses
closing concurrently—you make just one move just once, saving
time, money and stress.
Q:
How much down payment do I need?
A: The
mortgage business today is so competitive, that you could get
away with putting zero down if you needed to. The problem is,
you will then pay a higher interest rate. You also have to have
good credit and capital assets in order to put no money down.
To get a better interest rate, you’ll need to put down 20
percent or more—that’s the traditional way to go.
And to get the best rates, you’ll need to put 20 percent
down and have great credit and cash reserves.
Q:
I want to own my own home but I don’t know if I
can afford it—how can I find out?
A: Contact
a mortgage broker and become prequalified. We work with a fantastic
mortgage broker, Tim Sibley. Having a prequalification letter
is great for two reasons: 1) You know exactly what you can afford,
and you don’t waste time looking at homes that are out of
your range. 2) Have a prequalification letter makes your offer
stronger. Best of all, Tim works right here in our office, so
it’s easy to coordinate all aspects of your deal.
Q:
How do you find the best deal on a mortgage loan?
A: Again,
by utilizing the services of a mortgage broker. If you go to a
direct lender, you’re looking at just one lender and what
they can do for you. A mortgage broker will get you a variety
of quotes.
To compare apples to apples, look at the APR
(annual percentage rate) on each loan. Different brokers or lenders
will quote you all kinds of points, interest rates, terms, etc.
So look at APR of any loan to see which is best.
Q:
After I purchased my last home, I had problems with it
and the agent wouldn’t help me. What would you do? Do you
care?
A: Our
philosophy at Coldwell Banker is, We want clients for life. We’re
there for you now and in the future. When you purchase a home
through me, I will suggest our one-year home warranty program
(whether the seller provides or the buyer purchases it). That
will help greatly in resolving many home-related problems. Beyond
that, I encourage you to call me. I want to help. I do care.
Q:I
am a newlywed and I want to invest in real estate. I don’t
think I can afford a house in the area I would like to live in,
and I really don’t want a condo. What do you think about
buying a duplex?
A: I
think that buying a duplex is a great option for people just starting
out in their real estate investing life. You’ve basically
got someone else helping you with purchase of your real estate—because
taking into consideration the income you’ll receive from
the other half of the duplex helps you qualify for more of a loan
than you’d get if you were just buying a single-family home.
It’s a great way to start out. Assuming you’re going
to do well in your career so that you can later afford to buy
a home, that duplex can become your first rental property. You’ll
be starting off on a good path.
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