QUAD CITIES REAL ESTATE WITH RE/MAX

SERVING THE ENTIRE IOWA AND ILLINOIS QUAD CITIES ............................................................

DAVENPORT - BETTENDORF - ROCK ISLAND - MOLINE AND SURROUNDING COMMUNITIES

TOM & CYNDEE BROWNER - CRS, ABR, GRI

BROKER OWNERS OF RE/MAX BI-STATE - SERVING IOWA & ILLINOIS

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We know you want to sell your home for the most money, in the shortest time and with with least inconvenience. If you want serious advertising and effort from your agent, call or contact us for a FREE MARKET ANALYSIS of your present home. We are both Certified Residential Specialist by the Residential Sales Council. No obligation, of course. Call us on our private line at 570-7629 at RE/MAX BI-STATE or Contact us at tom&cyndee@quadcitiesrealestate.com - LOOKING TO BUY? Check out the services an Accredited Buyers Representative can mean to you.

WHY IS MY HOME NOT SELLING?

This question is asked by many home sellers. For Sale by Owners ask it and so do sellers listed with every company and every agent. There is not a simple, universal answer. To help, I will go over some of the causes. This may help you remedy some problems prohibiting you from getting an offer or may at least allow you to view your home in the eyes of prospective buyers. Sellers love to blame the Real Estate company, the agent, or other factors. The truth is, it is usually something to do with the home. If listed, the property is available to every agent from every company. If they all chose not to show your home, it may not be your listing agent. This is followed by the time of year, weather, economy and other factors. Often the seller wants to set the price, direct the advertising and micro manage the whole process. Agents are too often reluctant to broach the real problem out of fear of offending the client. Sometimes this is because the agent actually likes the client and does not want to hurt their feelings by being blunt. In the end, the seller gets mad and goes to another company and repeats the problems until someone tells them the truth. Usually, the seller already knew the truth, but was hoping for a miracle. Unfortunately, Realtors are not in the miracle business, although there have been a few times I have wondered? Overall, the home sells for what the market will bear. If it is not selling, first look at the home, price and location.

Buyers may also benefit from this article and choose to avoid homes with limited future resale potential. All flaws have a compensating lower price. This can result in unusual profit down the line if the buyer or seller will repair the problems.

FATAL FLAWS

Realtors do not walk on water! If you have a seventies home in a seventies neighborhood, guess what, it will probably not bring $105,000. That also goes for the $300,000 home that wants $375,000. The key to getting the most for your home is to price it properly. If you have a solid $200,000 home, you will probably never get more than $206,000, no matter how cute the curtains are. To ask over $210,000 is suicide, even in an up market. As your asking price goes up, you must compete with larger homes with more amenities in better neighborhoods. They at $216,000 will look like a bargain when compared to your home and effectively, you will sell your competition. In fact, if you are too overpriced, you will get lots of showings as realtors use your home to sell their listings.

Extremely poor condition can be from two causes. Either the home is extremely dated, shag carpet in orange, old kitchen cabinets, obsolete bathrooms etc. They may still be usable, but are obsolete to today's taste. The other front is more physical. Holes in the carpet, holes in doors, counter tops with burns and cuts, bathrooms with leaking faucets, separating tiles, or curling floors, light fixtures that do not work, pealing paint, faded woodwork, windows that don't close, leak or show signs of rotting. The first is functional the second is conditional. Both may prevent you from selling your home. If your home has one of these problems, you should resolve it if possible. A door or some paint are cheap if you get your price. Not to face the problem may prevent your home from selling or may cause your home to sell for much less than the market. Usually, a buyer perceived dollar for repair will cost you four in their offer. Your choice is to drop the price thousands for condition or make the necessary repairs. You want your home to seem like a real home. Not too cluttered or too stark. If you have lots of pictures on the walls and all the table tops full of memorabilia, you may want to de-clutter and store them until after you move. If you are too stark, you may want to put up some nice pictures or add some plants to give color and life to the home.

Busy Streets affect price. The elderly do not like the noise, young mothers are afraid for their children, everyone worries about driving in and worse, driving out with the traffic. If you have a market analysis showing similar homes to yours selling in the neighborhood, but not on the busy street, the value of your home will be $5,000 to $8,000 less if every thing else is comparable. If you are a lot nicer, you may only be a few thousand less. If you are worse, then the discount for condition and the busy street could be over $10,000. Hopefully, the home was cheaper for these same reasons when you bought it. The price may have been why you bought it. Now when it is time to sell, you must usually offer the same price concession to sell.

Corner lots are another sale reducing problem. There is a lot more snow to remove, concrete to edge, etc... Often, the back yards are very small. The home usually backs into the neighbor behind you. This may give you a large front yard or side yard, but back yard is often very limited. People with pets, small children or who like to entertain or play volley ball; may be turned off by this limitation. The end result is you are looking for a buyer that this does not affect. Trust me, this buyer is a very small segment of the market buyers.

High banks are another problem. Immediately, anyone with poor health is eliminated as a buyer. As a practical matter, many others will not choose to mow and take care of steep banks. Around here there are many neighborhoods built into the bluffs, ravines or with steep inclines. Although they may be beautiful homes with picturesque views, there is a down side. They are always harder to sell and they always sell for less than similar homes with flat yards.

Steep Driveways are another fatal flaw. If the buyer's car drags bottom, he will not buy. It is easier to find another home than repair the car weekly. In ice storms, such driveways can find your car sliding down the hill or out of control. Careful maintenance can reduce the risk, but fear is greater than reality. Buyers already know they are going to make a mistake, it is human nature to expect Murphy's Laws. Seeing a potential problem only feeds these fears. The result is the home will be harder to sell.

Bad odors will prevent your home from ever selling at any price. It is the one thing that will decrease the value of your home by up to half. If you allowed this condition to be created or continue to exist, you will be the one to pay. No one will move in to a smelly house. No one wants to invest hard earned money and then live in a kennel or a cat box. Many will turn away just as fast from a home with smoke smell or yellowed walls and ceilings from cigarettes. To cure the problem, you might try deep cleaning all concrete and carpet. It often does not work at all. The other choice is to pull up all carpet and padding and throw it away. Then scrub the subfloor with detergent and bleach. Let dry and seal with paint or commercial sealers. Make sure the corners and all used surfaces are completely sealed. Concrete may have to be painted with basement sealers. Then repad and carpet. It may cost you $5,000 or more, but if you do not want to give away the home, it may have to be done.

Wet basements in old homes is expected. No one ever planned to use the basement in these homes as living space. Often the ceilings are too low to stand up. Every rain, there are a few trickles and if the foundations are solid, do nothing. That said, if you do have a wet basement that is wet all the time, creates mold and odor, could be expanded into living space or is causing foundation problems, it may be time to solve the problem. Begin by walking around the home. If the dirt against the foundation has settled, depressions may catch water and hold it against your foundation. You may want to buy some dirt and build up the grade so water flows away from the home. Gutter extensions may also be a cheap remedy for some problems. A good waterproof sealer paint may solve minor or occasional seepage problems. To use the basement, you may have to spend about $2,000 to drain tile the interior walls and put in a sump pump. If there are foundation problems, you may have to build a wall within the current basement or to anchor the wall to the yard and then pull the wall back out into original position. Water destroys and only destroys. It may take a hundred years, but unattended, it will eventually have to be taken care of. If water is a major problem, you may have to take care of it to sell your home.

If you are aware that your furnace, wiring, plumbing, well, septic system, etc... is defective - YOU NEED TO FIX IT! Legally you have to disclose these defects or get sued. If you disclose, no one will buy your home. There are other homes with good furnaces, etc. Unknown cost will again make the buyer go elsewhere. Bluntly, it is in your best interest to remedy the problem. Hiding a defect opens you up to a law suit even six years after the sale. This could bankrupt you for the rest of your life if someone is injured. It is just not worth the risk, so fix the problem. With the problem fixed, you may be able to get a little more for the property. Perhaps you will not recoup the entire expense, but at least you will have sold the home and mitigated any future legal problems.

If your siding is all puckered, the paint pealing, the roof sagging or has four layers and obvious curling, you are in trouble. No one wants to invest their hard earned money into your deferred maintenance. Again, you can take a super hit on price or fix the problems. Buyers will ignore your home unless you are perceived to be a multiple of the anticipated repair expenses under the market. In my experience the multiple is 4. Four dollars off for every dollar of expected repair. So save yourself money, time on the market and grief. Fix the problem.

Garbage and clutter are a real turn off. If you basement, garage or yard are full of garbage, smells or makes a buyer think of a junkyard. Your home will not sell. You must clean up or not sell. Haulers are cheap and they can clean out a garage, yard or basement for you. Often the cost is under a hundred dollars.

Finally there is vermin. Any home can get a mouse. We live in Iowa and Illinois; lots of woods, parks and fields. We all love flower beds, gardens, and create habitats for mice. Pets can bring in fleas, and roaches can come in with grocery boxes, kids toys, etc... Water bugs can come up storm drains in some neighborhoods. If your buyer has even a suspicion of such problems, they will not buy your home. If you have been infected, you must eliminate the problem, Get professional help if you must. What ever the cost, it must be spent if you are to sell your home.

OTHER PROBLEMS

Buyers buy with their eyes. 80% of all buyers have made up their mind about your home before they enter the front door. No matter what you have inside, it is almost impossible to change that opinion. Therefore, if your front door is dirty, discolored, the glass dirty etc... You may have just sold the home down the street. So be smart, clean the glass, paint the door and woodwork, garage door and trim. It is cheap, fast and will sell your home.

Trees and shrubs should be trimmed. Flowers and plants inside and outside (in season) are always great touches. Make sure the sidewalk to the front door is not overgrown with limbs or shrubs. Create curb appeal.

Inside, cracks are always a warning sign to buyers. Cracks are a natural result of the house breathing. Heat and cold cause the walls and ceiling to expand and contract. Even kids running around playing can cause vibrations that can cause minor cracking to appear. Spackle these areas and touch paint.

Remember when the tub overflowed when you answered the phone? Well that ceiling stain needs to be repaired. Maybe the gutter backed up in the ice storm or your roof leaked and you had to replace it. The ceilings may still show the problem ten years later. Spray on CLR to remove the stain, then touch paint. Do not try to cover up a current defect. If you have a problem it must be disclosed or repaired and the repair disclosed. Never hide any substantial defect that can later get you sued by an irate buyer. In my experience, the buyer always wins. So fix the problem, disclose the repair and sell the home. You do not have leave a huge warning sign that a problem once occurred, so repair the cosmetic damage as well. Your home will look better and sell faster for more.

Water destroys grout over time. If the grout is discolored, rotten or badly cracked, remove it and re-grout. Premixed grout is cheap and available at any hardware or lumber store. If you have a mold problem, the easiest way to fix it is to put pure bleach in a spray bottle and spray the area. The bleach will kill the mold and will take away the discolor.

Carpet stains from weather, pets and kids should be removed. Perhaps a spot remover will work, but you may want to have all the carpets cleaned by a professional with a guarantee. The cost can be $75 to $200. Shop around and make your home shine.

If you have pealing paint, scrape it, prime it and paint. If you have a dark purple room or bright pink woodwork or something else; you may want to carefully tape off the trim and windows and paint off white or neutral beige.

If you have a lot of paint splattered on doors, windows and trim, talk to your paint store for directions on how to clean up. Many buyers will not purchase homes with botched repairs. They feel that if you did not care to do the job correctly, that you may have just done it to hide defects. In any case, it decreases value and interest.

TIME OF YEAR, WEATHER, THE AGENT

There are better times of the year to sell than others. Transferee's, the elderly, singles and others may shop much of the year. Usually, this market is slow between Thanksgiving and New Years. Everyone is very busy over the holidays and not one is much interested in moving during this time. Families with children will begin to shop the end of March and will peak their interest in May and early June. The kids are out of school, so they make the move and then go on vacation. Over the summer, the kids meet the neighbors and go back to school with their new neighborhood friends.

Weather in Iowa and Illinois can be very wet, full of snow, hot or very cold. Interest in moving is seasonal. If we have a mild winter, there are more buyers, but if it is 80 below chill factor, of three feet of snow, there will be few if any buyers in most price ranges. There are also fewer homes on the market at these times, so you may have less competition for those fewer buyers. So plan to look your best and expect a longer listing period, but be prepared for a quicker sale if the right buyer is out there and you have the best home. During the peak periods, there is a lot more competition, you have to be sharper to attract the buyers to compete in this market.

The Agent is rarely the problem, but it can happen. If your agent bought you listing by promising you $10,000 more money than the other three agents, and then comes to you and says the market has changed and you need to drop your price by $10,000, you may have been had. Your desire for more money (and you probably knew it at the time) overcame your good judgement. Meanwhile your home has become old and stale in the market. If you are in great condition, priced right, but your agent never runs an add, has an open house or provides you with flyers etc, you may need a new agent. If you have a personality conflict, catch your agent in a substantial lie or can not get your questions answered, you may want a new agent or company. The way you do this is to call up your agent, ask them to bring by an addendum to your listing contract. When they get there, change the expiration date to that day, and sign it. After your listing is expired, you may call up any Realtor of your choice and sign a new listing with them. As a new listing you will appear in the front of the book and look like you are new on the market to the majority of Realtors. The new listing cancels all previous showings and the addendum stops all liabilities to your former broker and his agent.

If you are a home with fatal flaws or other problems, this may not help you much. If you were being ignored and not getting service, then a new agent or company may help you. However, always look at your home first, in my experience, the reason why homes do not sell are price, condition, neighborhood and appeal; not the Realtor. I will be the first to agree that experienced Realtor's do make a major difference. Their experience, training and ability to provide systems that work can not be disputed. Realtor's not their company can make a real difference in the amount of time the home stays on the market and how much money you realize. There are differences in education, negotiating skills and ability to solve problems. Experience is a great teacher. Even after a 1000 closed transactions, there are new problems that do come up. The difference is that an experienced agent has dealt with similar problems before and may have solutions for you.

At the time a listing is taken, the agent should be able to prove the value of your home to you and tell you the things you will need to do to realize that value. You should also be aware of system the agent uses to market their listings. Then it is your decision as to whom you wish to work with. Just remember, the agent that tells you what you want to hear, may not be working in your best interest. You may know better. Selling a home is a three legged stool. You the seller, the agent and the market. All have to cooperate and work together to get the job done.

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