Spring Texas Real Estate » Home Seller Information

My House, My Rules

Jill Wente — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:49:32 +0000

I remember my parents saying “My House, My Rules” a lot when I was a kid. It was their common response to my questions of “why can’t I eat in the living room?” and “why can’t I put my feet on the coffee table?” and “why do I have to take off my boots by the back door?”

The other day when I was out with clients showing homes in Spring Texas, I felt as if I had been transported back to my childhood. But this time instead of my parents it was the sellers saying “My House, My Rules”. The sellers didn’t say exactly that but it was pretty darn close. As they said “Take off your shoes at the front door.” My clients responded like a couple of rebellious teenagers and refused to take off their shoes.

What the sellers had forgotten was their house is on the real estate market. And when your house is on the market, your house is no longer your house. It is a product. A product that you are wanting to sell. And if you want to sell that product you need be able to make buyers see themselves as owners of that product. The best way to do this is to make them feel comfortable viewing it. These sellers did the exact opposite. As my buyers immediately felt uncomfortable viewing the house.

Maybe its the sellers customs to take off your shoes upon entering a home or maybe they just had the carpets cleaned. Both are good and understandable reasons as to why the sellers wanted us take of our shoes.

But I am sorry Mr. and Mrs. Seller, when your house is on the Spring Texas real estate market it is NOT about you. Its about my buyers and about making them feel comfortable in your home. When my buyers are uncomfortable, we head to the next house on our list to view. Buyers have plenty of houses to choose from. Don’t eliminate your house from their list by saying “My House, My Rules”.

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Do you know if your house is for sale?

Jill Wente — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:29:22 +0000

About 10 years ago it was easy to know if your house was for sale. And if you weren’t 100% sure all you had to do was take a quick look oute the window. If you saw a real estate “for sale” sign in your yard, your house was for sale. But fast forward to today and it’s possible that your Spring Texas house could be listed for sale on numerous websites without you knowing.

The reason it is listed for sale may be because you have been a victim of a real estate scam. But the more likely reason is because the status of the listing was not changed when either you purchased the home or you took the home off the Spring Texas real estate market.

Your house could be listed for sale on YouTube , Google, Craigslist.org, OLX, Facebook, Realtor.com, Trulia, Zillow, your real estate agent’s site, or numerous other real estate sites. The reason your house could be wrongly listed as for sale on a site when it’s NOT for sale is due to the site’s source of data for its listings.

If the real estate site uses our local Houston MLS (multiple listing service) as their date source, then the information is fairly accurate. I won’t say 100% accurate because a house could be sold but still be showing as for sale because the listing agent has not updated the listing in the Houston MLS.

Numerous Internet sites and real estate sites receive their listing data NOT from the Houston MLS but directly from individual real estate agents and from syndication sites. When a house is sold or taken off the Spring Texas real estate market, these sites are dependent upon their data source to update the data. The problem is the real estate agents and the syndication sites do not update the data. Resulting in houses being represented as for sale that are NOT for sale. The solution is for these sites to work out an agreement with the Houston MLS to receive a feed of its listing data. But that won’t happen because the feed agreements cost money.

If you want to find out if your Spring Texas house is listed for sale, google your address. If you discover its listed for sale and its NOT for sale, contact the listing agent and ask them to remove the listing.

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Home size declines; buyers demand for 1 story homes increase

Jill Wente — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:56:18 +0000

The National Association of Home Builders announced that builders are listening to buyers preferences and constructing smaller homes. After nearly 30 years of increases, the size of new single-family homes built experiences its first decrease.

The nationwide average of 2,438 sqft for homes built in 2009 is about a 100 feet smaller than the homes built in 2007. The homes built in 2008 were about the same square footage as 2007.

Several years ago, Spring Texas home buyers wanted the biggest house they could afford. This was especially true if the buyers were relocating to Spring Texasfrom out of state. It was around the time Hurricane Rita came through in 2005 and caused utility prices to increase that buyers became more concerned about the heating and cooling costs of the 4,000+ sqft McMansions. Buyers began to question whether they really needed a 4,000+ sqft home. The demand for the larger Spring Texas homes started to decrease while the demand for smaller homes began to increase.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s data, for years the percentage of 2-story homes being built has continually increased while the percentage of 1-story homes has decreased. But starting in 2006, the trend has been reversed as more buyers are demanding 1-story homes. We are experiencing the same trend of increase demand for 1-story homes in the Spring Texas real estate market. With the baby boomer population continuing to age, the demand for 1-story homes will continue to increase.

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What buyers want in Spring Texas homes

Lack of Communication

Jill Wente — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 12:23:31 +0000

When I sit down with prospective sellers, one of the things I want to find out about are their prior home selling experiences. Were their experiences good or bad and what made them good or bad? Sometimes the sellers have had great experiences and were very satisfied with their listing agent’s performance. Other times the seller’s listing agent failed miserably and came nowhere near meeting their expectations.

When the listing agents failed miserably, the main reason was due to lack of communication. The sellers said “after we signed the listing agreement, we did not hear from our real estate agent until it was either time to renew the agreement or we had an offer on the house”.

Technology has made the ability to communicate easier by providing us with more ways to communicate. But none of this technology does us any good if we do not use it. If you asked the listing agent why she didn’t communicate with her sellers, she would probably say “Until I get an offer on their house, I have nothing to tell them”.

As a Spring Texas Realtor, I believe communication is extremely important which is why I email my sellers a weekly update. The update covers the areas of 1) Marketing - in this section, I report on the marketing activities that were performed during the week. 2) Showings – in this section, I discuss the last week’s showing activity and the showing feedback. 3) Competition – in this section, I discuss the Spring Texas real estate market identifying the new homes their listing is competing against for buyers and homes that have gone under contract. I also report on anything else that could potentially impact the sale of the sellers of home.

In addition to the weekly update I provide, my sellers also receive the Prudential Gary Greene Online Sellers Advantage (OSA) report. The OSA report provides sellers with online buyer activity and is further explained in this YouTube video.

Does communication take time? Absolutely. Is it worth? I believe so. Because I have not had a seller yet tell me to stop sending the reports.

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REDUCED tag – value or NO value?

Jill Wente — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 12:28:44 +0000

Recently the HAR.com real estate website made modifications to their listing price reduction feature. The modification allows buyers to search for homes with any price reduction instead of just homes that have been reduced in price by 5% or more. Now, any listing that has been reduced in price will have a reduced tag and will show the percentage of the reduction. With a click of the “VIEW DETAILS” button, you will be able to see the original list price, the amount the home has been reduced, and the date of the last reduction. Below is an example:

HAR.com has joined the ranks of numerous other real estate websites including Zillow.com, Trulia.com, and Realtor.com to offer a price reduction feature.

The question I pose to Spring Texas home buyers and home sellers is “Is the REDUCED tag of any value?“

As a Spring Texas Realtor, I see NO value in the reduced tag. In real estate, reduced means the home was OVER-PRICED and now ….. well, its reduced. It doesn’t mean it’s now priced right nor does it mean it’s priced below market and is a deal. Reduced doesn’t create the same consumer behavior as a retail store receives when it advertises a “50% OFF SALE”.

If you really want to sell your Spring Texas home, the best advice I can give you is price it right to begin with. Don’t price it high and then reduce it so you can get a pretty reduced tag on your home’s listing. Buyers are smart. They know which houses are priced aggressively and are a deal and which ones aren’t.

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How to increase your list price and attract more buyers

When are you in contract?

Jill Wente — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:26:30 +0000

Our Spring Texas real estate contracts have many dates listed in them with the most important date of them all being the date of the contract itself. The contract date (a.k.a. effective date) is the starting point for all the other actions in the contract that are specified to be done in X days. The contract date is also the date the real estate contract becomes binding upon both buyers and sellers.

We have this saying when its comes to Spring Texas real estate transactions “verbal means nothing and written means everything”. What this means is when your agent says the sellers have accepted your proposed terms it doesn’t mean you are in contract on the house. Why? because verbal means nothing. I know you are probably thinking the sellers gave you their word and that should be worth something. In the days of horse trading, a person’s word was worth something. But in real estate it is worth nothing.

The written word is what rules in real estate contracts. So when does the real estate contract become binding upon you and the sellers? The date of final acceptance occurs when

the contract is in writing
both buyers and sellers have signed and initialed the final contract including any handwritten changes
acceptance must be unequivocal
the last party to accept must communicate acceptance back to the other party or the other party’s agent. What this mean’s is it is not enough for both parties to sign the contract and for the agent of the last party (buyer or seller) to date the contract. The effective date of the contract is not until communication of acceptance occurs.

Until all of the items above have occurred, you are not and I emphasize the word “NOT” in contract. The seller can accept another buyer’s offer because verbal means nothing and written means everything in Spring Texas real estate contracts.

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Automatic email notifications and missed opportunities

Jill Wente — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:59:29 +0000

Over 90% of home buyers are searching for Spring Texas homes for sale on the Internet. Ninety percent of home buyers is a powerful number. But home buyers are doing much more than just searching for homes on the Internet. They are also looking at photos, mapping locations, viewing virtual tours, viewing YouTube videos, and setting up automatic email notifications for homes matching their desires.

Automatic email notifications are a great way for buyers to be alerted when a new home matching their desires is added to the Spring Texas real estate market. These buyers are what is called “pent-up demand”. Buyers who are currently in the market and are waiting for the right house to come on to the market.

As a Spring Texas home seller you have one only opportunity to take advantage of this pent-up demand. Get it right and your house will get sold quicker. Get it wrong and its a missed opportunity that you are not able to get back.

How do you get it right and take advantage of “pent-up demand’? It’s really pretty easy. Just make sure your home’s listing is entered into our MLS system with photos. Buyers want photos!

If your listing is not entered with photos, the automatic email notification home buyers receive will be like the one below.

If you think buyers will just wait for photos to be added to your listing, you are wrong. They won’t. Buyers don’t need to. Tomorrow morning sitting in their email inbox will be a listing alert of new Spring Texas homes and these listings will have photos. While your house, they have forgotten all about it. Too bad your house didn’t have photos to view because it may have been the right house for them.

You have only one opportunity to capitalize on pent-up buyer demand. Don’t blow it with no picture available.

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Is your home’s listing on page 1 or page 200 of Google?

Jill Wente — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:04:25 +0000

How do buyers find Spring Texas real estate? They Google. When it comes to search there is none more powerful.

When home buyers are googling moving to Spring Texas, Spring Texas subdivisions, blogs on Spring Texas real estate or a home’s pysical address what will they find? Will it be your home they find or a home you are competing with?

Choose a Spring Texas Realtor who puts your home on page 1 of Google.

Realtor.com iPhone APP and your listing

Jill Wente — Mon, 24 May 2010 12:51:19 +0000

Did you know that since its launch in 2007 over 42 million iPhones have been sold? Did you know 24 million 4G iPhones are projected to be sold in 2010? These are huge numbers with my husband, Rick Ratchford and I accounting for 2 of the 42 million in iPhone sales. But what does the millions of iPhone users have to do with the listing of your Spring Texas house? A lot.

The percentage of home buyers using the Internet to search for Spring Texas homes for sale has been steadily increasing over the years. According to the latest NAR survey over 90% of home buyers are using the Internet to search for homes. 90% is huge which is why it’s important your Realtor’s marketing plan has a heavy emphasis on Internet marketing. But what does the Internet have to do with iPhones?

The # 1 most frequented Internet website for real estate is Realtor.com. Realtor.com has developed an application or APP for the iPhone that allows home buyers to search for real estate listings on their phone. Realtor.com displays the real estate listings on the iPhone APP similar to the way they display them on their website. If your Realtor does not pay for what is called “Showcase Listings”, your home’s listing will only have 4 photos. But if your Realtor does pay for additional marketing exposure on Realtor.com, your listing will have 16+ photos.

To the right are a couple of screen shots of the Realtor.com iPhone APP . The circled listing is one of the homes I am currently marketing. It along with all of my other listings are “Showcase Listings”.

Click on the photo for a larger view of the Realtor.com iPhone APP for real estate listings.

The bottom line is home buyers are using their iPhones to search for Spring Texas homes for sale. If you want your home to capture their attention, your listing needs to be a “Showcase Listing”.

UPDATE - As of MAY 31, 2010, the Realtor.com iPhone APP reached the 1,000,000 download. A short five months after its introduction.

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Real Estate negotiations – business or personal?

Jill Wente — Wed, 19 May 2010 12:33:12 +0000

Negotiating the sell or purchase of Spring Texas real estate is vastly different than other business negotiations. Yes, there are some similarities between real estate and business negotiations as they both involve people, a contract, and require give and take between the parties but that’s where the similarity ends.

Business negotiations are just that business. It’s nothing personal just business. Real estate negotiations are almost the exact opposite. Yes, it’s still business but there is an awful lot of personal involved too.

In business negotiations, unless you have ownership in the company, it is not your money involved in the transaction. In real estate negotiations, it is your money and the fact that it is YOUR money changes everything. The sales price, the cost of the repairs, and the closing costs all directly impact your personal finances.

In business negotiations, you may be negotiating a price for 1,000 whatchamacallits. If the manufacturer doesn’t have 1,000 whatchamacallits on hand, he will produce additional ones and all of the whatchamacallits will be exactly alike. In real estate negotiations, you are negotiating for a one of a kind product. Sure, there are other Spring Texas houses with the same floor plan. They may even be in the same subdivision and have similar amenities. But there is no other house with the same floor plan, the same amenities, in the same subdivision, and in the exact same location as the house you are wanting to purchase.

In business negotiations, the parties to the transaction have no personal attachment to the product. It is only a product. In real estate negotiations, the house is much more than a product to the sellers. The house holds memories of fun cookouts with friends, it is where their child took his first steps, and where holiday gatherings with family were held.

In business negotiations, logic will usually win out. The parties negotiate the terms and a deal will be struck. In real estate negotiations, egos and personal feelings can cause negotiations to break down and prevent buyers and sellers from negotiating a deal.

The first step in real estate negotiations is to recognized and understand that there are differences between business negotiations and real estate negotiations. The next step is to remain logical and stay calm. Just remember it is not necessary for you to like who’s buying your Spring Texas house. You should only care that someone is BUYING your house.

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How to negotiate a low ball offer on your house