Offering experience and a proven track record of success, David and Patricia orchestrate the Art, Science and Timing of real estate. Buyers and sellers of million dollar suburban homes, hi-rise condominiums and well located boat slips trust Wangsness Connections.
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Archive for the ‘Real Estate Articles’ Category
“Good fences make good neighbors” except when they don’t
“Good fences make good neighbors” is a saying that everyone has heard for many years and is mostly true, except when it isn’t. Within the last six months, we have had two clients that have had surprising problems with neighbors for houses that they are buying .
When we represent clients, both buyers and sellers, we have clients carefully review the Seller Disclosure Form, Form 17, and we stress the Neighborhood Review that is included in our Washington contract. For buyers, we recommend they review the neighborhood for sex offenders, criminal activity, commuting times and various other issues like parties, street lights or neighborhood covenants. With sellers, we recommend that they disclose any potential problems that a buyer might encounter that wouldn’t be readily obvious. Most of these issues are covered on the Form 17, the Seller Disclosure Statement, and it must be answered truthfully and completely by the seller. According to attorney Mark Schedler, withholding information about a home could be considered fraud and expose the seller to a law suit down the road.
There is an art to standing out and fitting in at the same time!
Everyone thinks that their home is special and IT IS.
What makes a house a home are the special things we surround ourselves with and the memories we create there. Your home is a great sources of pride and comfort, but what you do and how you live, can help determine the value of a home, either up or down, when the home is for sale. When we evaluate a home that is unique, we have the delicate conversation about standing out and fitting in at the same time. In higher-end homes, uniqueness is very common, and usually an asset, but when it crosses over the line to eccentricity, the target market gets much smaller. That translates to a longer market time and a very narrow buyer pool. In middle-to-lower priced homes, certain upgrades will make a home worth more, but don’t over improve. If you do that, you’ll likely want to recoup the costs and that will make you more expensive than other homes in the neighborhood. Your home will likely take longer to sell and it may not appraise.
We recently viewed a home that had a pool and a lot that was much larger than any other home in the neighborhood. While the pool was lovely and the grounds were fabulous, we explained that many buyers in this part of the country don’t expect pools, because of weather. While there are folks moving into our area that like pools, the $50,000 that it took to put it in would probably not generate a full $50,000 in the sale price.
When the buyer is ready, the home will appear – make sure it’s yours!
We have touched on selling issues before, but recent experiences demonstrate that they bear repeating.
It is always stressful to put your home on the market to sell and the journey is usually longer rather than shorter. We all live the way we want to live in our homes, because after all, our home is our castle, so to speak. In the spirit of my father, if we wanted to live differently in our homes, we would. Where the problem comes is when a seller has a “highly personalized style” that doesn’t appeal to the broader market or the seller is unwilling or unable to be flexible to the parade of buyer’s and their schedules.
As see in our recent video with Dennis Conner Getting your home ready for sale, strong statements in art or furniture can distract buyers from the real features of the house. If there is too much furniture, the home looks small. If there are strong colors on the walls in the kids room, the buyer calculates the inconvenience of painting, if the rug is an outrageous color or pattern, buyers calculate the cost of new carpet and if there are visible signs of wear and tear that aren’t address, buyers wonder about the maintenance items that they can’t see and if the house has been reasonably maintained.
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When is renting a better alternative to buying?
Last year, many people wanted to rent instead of buying a home because they thought that the bottom was still falling in the real estate market.
This year, people have too many choices and they are feeling too much pressure to purchase so we’ve recommended that some of them rent first.
Here are some reasons people rent:
1) Job transfer comes fast. We have clients that are moving here from Eastern Washington and they have dogs instead of children. They have accepted a job and are arriving in 3 weeks. When schools are not a requirement, it is often a good idea to rent in short-term corporate housing or a shorter lease so that the pressures of a new job can be lessened by not having the pressure of finding a home quickly in a higher priced market area.
Sale Price-To Be or Not To Be-Ask the Appraiser
When we speak to clients about listing their homes for sale, the list price is usually a number they have already decided on. Most people live in their homes comfortable and with a few minor changes, it will show beautifully. We always recommend taking away personal items, they can distract the buyer. We also recommend taking out any unnecessary furniture because it will make a room look bigger and that is usually better. Breakables should be packed away and valuables should be hidden from the view of strangers.
With those things done, the house goes on the market and if we price it right, we will get an offer quickly and with some negotiation, come to a mutually acceptable selling price. Then comes the appraisal. With some luck and a good appraiser, the story goes on well from here. What we are finding though is that the lenders are very cautious and can make things difficult for both the buyer and the seller.
The current lending environment, from our perspective, is difficult when we represent the seller as well as representing the buyer. We caution sellers that if we price it above the current market levels, we might lose in the long run. If the house doesn’t appraise, the seller will likely have to meet that price, or close to it because another appraiser will come to the same price. The seller has lost because the home is off the market, then it goes back on the market and unless there is another sale or two in the area, the appraised value won’t change
When a home doesn’t appraise, there are three paths of action:
- the buyer can put down more earnest money, to lessen the risk of the lender
- the seller can lower the selling price to meet the appraisal
- the deal can be terminated
So if you want more from your home than the market will bear, you can wait until the market catches up, find a cash buyer that doesn’t want an appraisal or you can sell it for what the market forces dictate it to be.
Wangsness Properties
