The moral of the story is Expectations are real

What kind of experience is your client expecting you to deliver? Are they expecting you to find them a home in a matter of day, weeks or months? Is your client expecting you to sell their home for over market value in a matter of a week? These are all things that the client is likely expecting whether or not you bother to find out. So do yourself a favor and find out the clients expectations from the start so you can manage them effectively. Ask yourself, what kind of experience is the client looking for me to deliver? Failing to know the answer to that question could cost you in a big way. I will share my personal experience of how I personally failed to manage my own expectations and paid the price.

• My wife and I are in the process of buying a home. We knew going into it that it was an active market but we thought our situation would be different since I was our realtor. As you can imagine we did not manage our expectations going into the house hunt. I had failed to manage the expectations of my client (my wife) and it led to unnecessary anxiety and stress. 

• Managing expectations is important with buyers but it is equally if not more important to do when working with sellers as well. I have clients in this market that regularly feel they can price their house high because there is shortage of houses out there. This is not the case, houses that are overpriced tend to sit for a while and only after dropping the price do they get serious interest. 

• At the end of the day all you can do is advise your clients what the best route to go is. What route they choose to take is up to them, but it is important to manage expectations from the get go regardless. Failing to do so could result in it negatively impacting you and your clients relationship. A seller that overprices their house with the expectation that it will sell quickly is not going to take kindly to the reality that it hasn’t sold after a month or more on the market. If you don’t clearly define the expectation the seller is likely to blame you for less than desirable result. 

The moral of the story is that you can’t control what people will or will not do. You can to some degree control how they will or will not react to a given situation. Managing expectations ensure that you and the client are on the same page. A good rule of thumb is under promise and over deliver. No one is going to get mad at you because you delivered exactly what they expected. People will quickly get upset if you under deliver though. This goes back to managing expectations, what kind if experience is your client expecting you to deliver? Answer that clearly from the outset and you will be much better of for it.  

Avoid the post holiday blues and sell your house now

Home sellers listing their home in between the months of Nov to Feb are placed in a unique situation. The holidays are around the corner and the housing market slows way down. If you find yourself in that situation consider the following three points listed below. 

Consider taking it off the market

•  Every day that your house is on the market is added to the cumulative total "days on market". Many buyers consider houses that have been on the market more than 90 days to be undesirable. 
• This naturally leads to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with it. Right or wrong this conclusion will lead most buyer to skip your house and keep looking. If you can’t afford to wait then you should price it to stand out from the crowd. If it sits through the holidays it will likely end up south of 90 days on the market. This will lead most people looking to skip right over your home in search of a newer listing. 

Be flexible with your showing times you may only get one chance 

• You typically only get one shot at most home buyers. This means that if you decline their showing request they are not likely to come back a second time. 
• During the holiday season sellers are notorious for declining showings because they have family in town or want to "enjoy the holidays". 
• While that is completely understandable, the buyer doesn't care what you have going on. They are looking to buy a house and if they cant see yours than there are plenty more out there that they can. This is not to say that you should accommodate unreasonable requests. Just make your home as available as you possible can.  Most people don't house hunt during the holidays out of enjoyment if they are searching they are probably pretty serious. Declined showings make it seem like you're not serious.

If your not going to do that then my first point is probably one you should strongly consider. 

Take it easy on the decorations

• Not everyone shares your taste in decorations so consider keeping the decorations to a minimum this year. You want to keep things as neutral as you can and holiday decorations are no exception.
•  If you are selling your home you want it to stay true to the pictures. If buyers are coming to see your home it is because they liked what they saw in the pictures so keep it true. If the buyers have to struggle to picture the house they saw in the pictures they will likely just move on. Buyers have short attention spans and judge the house on first impressions. So before you do any decorating think about what the first impression of the buyer will be when they see it. If it is going to hide any features that would be a selling point than it is probably best avoided. 

How to avoid the real estate dead zone

The real estate market in San Antonio (and much of the country) is very active and move in ready homes are selling extremely fast. It is critical to a successful sale that you and your realtor know what the market is doing. Failure could land you in the “dead zone”.

The dead zone

The dead zone is that area where homes sit for months and months with no serious offers. To avoid the dead zone you need to make sure that your home will appeal to one of the two most common types of buyers in today's market, Investors or those looking for a primary residence.

The buyers looking for a primary residence want move in ready, while investors don't want to pay more than 70% of market value. If your home is not move in ready or priced around 70% of the market value, than you may be in for a long wait. 

Houses are flying of the market right now

I hear this a lot, but this does not mean that your house will sell quickly irregardless of condition or price. Some people assume that because the market is so active they can overprice their home or cut corners on the listing. This is simply not the case and will cost you big if you make that mistake. 

Move in ready is not the end all be all but if your home is not move in ready you will need to take the cost of updates/repairs and then some off. Todays buyers are busy and don't want to mess with repairs or updates. To make it worth the buyers time you will have to reduce the price substantially to cover the cost of repairs and the buyers time. 

Factor in the cost of repairs and subtract it from the current market value of the home. Then subtract another 10-15% off the market value (before repairs) and you will have a list price that should get peoples attention. Anything short of that and it is just not worth peoples time. They will keep looking for something that is move in ready.  

What is move in ready?  

Move in ready means just what it sounds like, someone can move in and not have to do repairs. People not only don't want to do repairs they don't want to do updates either. People want the wood floors, granite counter tops and bathrooms that are functional and current. Neutral paint color is a key as well, you are trying to appeal to the broadest group of people so keep it neutral. 

Closing

Closing is the goal of any real estate deal. In closing this post keep in mind that investors are business people and are looking at the bottom line. The most common formula most investors use calls for them to get the house at 70% of market value. They don’t need the home and aren’t going to overpay. 

The up side is that investors can pay cash and they don’t care about condition so you won’t have to make repairs. People looking for a primary residence may be willing to do some work but your going to have to make it worth their while. Take the cost of repairs/updates subtract that plus another 10% and you may catch their attention. If that is too much than I would suggest getting your home move in ready and not risking it.