It’s not news to anyone that the housing market continues to favor sellers. One of the questions I’ve been getting regularly from buyers is:
“Are houses selling for way over the list price everywhere in Northern New Jersey?”
In real estate parlance, this is what we call sale price to list price ratio and the short answer is: No.
These days, [...]
One of the main questions I get from sellers is do I have to stage my house in order to sell it? Or, as one client put it, “Will I have to paint my walls gray?”
The short answer is, no. In this market, a house need not be staged in order to sell. It will sell. The question is, for how much?
Two Parts of Staging
Staging can be fairly easy with the right plan. There are usually two parts to getting a house ready for [...]
In a recent post, I shared some reviews from sellers I worked with in the past year, all of whom were very pleased with the sale price they got on their home. As I mentioned, getting top dollar for a home often requires an upfront investment on the part of the seller. Meaning, you may need to spend some money to shine up a house you’re about to leave. Believe me, this is not something anyone is eager to do.
When I meet with you about marketing your house, I’ll explain all your options. I will tell you what could be done to your house before listing it, and what type of return you are likely to see from doing those things. Similarly, I will lay out what it will cost to not do certain things. For example, that $1,000 paint job the seller opts not to do often turns into a $2,000 deduction they need to give the buyer to seal the deal. It’s almost always better for you if you get the work done yourself!
Even if you bought your home five years ago and you moved into a house that was perfect and newly done, that pristine space is now “lived in.” Before going to market, it is worth it to take care of the fingerprints on the walls and the dings on the cabinets —things you might not bother doing if you were going to stay in the house.
Together, my clients and I strategize how to best use their resources. It’s not unusual for a family to take out a short-term loan for $10,000 of improvements and have that yield an extra $50,000 in the sale. In fact, I just read a statistic about one of the big real-estate portal companies that has gotten into the home-buying business. This company will buy a home for, say, $310,000 and spend $10K doing painting and minor repairs. They then turn around and immediately sell for $350K.
This practice is not considered “flipping.” They’re just jumping on an opportunity to buy houses in which the sellers failed to do some very basic maintenance before going to market; they make a nice, quick profit on easy fixes.
Most everyone has the same initial reaction: I want to save my money and spend it on fixing my new house. As far as I’m concerned, you should not feel pressured to do anything you don’t want to. But as your marketing partner, it is my job to present you options and educate you on how you can benefit from this tried-and-true equation. This gives you the information to make the best choice for you.
And it is a choice. Once upon a time, making small improvements may have made a difference between a house selling and not selling. Not these days. In this market, Your house will sell whether you fix it up or not. Instead, it has become a matter of how much more you can get for it.
If you'd like to talk about how to squeeze out all the equity your home has to offer, call or text!
973-809-5277
Sold: Single-Family home in West Orange, NJ - July 2020
“We began the process early in 2020, meeting and discussing how the process would go. We signed the contract and set a date the house would go on the market. Unfortunately, Covid 19 hit and all our plans had to be put on hold. Throughout this time, Lina stayed in touch and kept us in [...]
I talk a lot about the benefits of living in a walkable suburb – the ease of meeting neighbors and the way you can really engage with a community when you’re on foot.
Talking with clients this past year about what they’re looking for in a house – or a in a town – I’ve had more conversations about mental well-being than I think I’ve had in [...]
Many sellers are taking advantage of the increased interest in moving from city to suburbs, streamlining their belongings and trying to get their home into “move in condition.” This is really smart. When my colleagues and I discuss big picture issues in the market right now, we are all seeing an even stronger desire in buyers for turn-key experiences. The less work they have to take on, the more valuable the home is to them.
The other most valuable aspect of a home these days is “nice, private outdoor space.”
What I’ve been seeing is that you don’t need a grand or fancy yard to hold appeal for a buyer. Recently, there was a house listed that was the size of a 2-bedroom apartment, but it was on a nice enough piece of property and the owners had turned half the 2-car garage into home office space. The yard was not huge. It was big enough to eat outdoors, toss a ball, maybe grow a vegetable garden. They received 8 offers, which is more interest than a house like this would typically attract.
Right now, most any home with a little green space is a sought-after commodity. Even homes with pools, which are sometimes slightly more difficult to sell, now hold extra appeal.
This is the time to attend to your outdoor space, either for putting on the market now or for selling in the future. Patios and decks are a plus, but not a necessity. String some lights and buy a fire pit for a cozy evening vibe.
My biggest piece of advice: Plant some trees! Trees and shrubs are some of the few investments you can make in a home that actually get better with time.
If you’d like to take a tour of your yard together, I’m happy to offer my perspective on what exterior improvements will pay off. Talk or Text: 973-809-5277
As someone obsessed with houses, I turn on HGTV all the time. And many of my clients spend time watching various shows as well. It doesn’t take long after stepping into a kitchen – whether with a buyer or a seller -- for the conversation to turn to renovations. And for the misinformation to take [...]
“Should I appeal my tax assessment?”
As the April 1st tax appeal deadline approaches, that’s the question du jour.
Town-wide re-valuations are done every 5 to 10 years in an effort to fairly distribute the tax burden across all property owners according to the value of each property. However, sometimes the system fails. If your home was measured incorrectly or if an extra bathroom was inadvertently added into your assessment, you may be paying more than your fair share in real estate taxes.
Over-assessment can also be the result of a neighborhood that declines in value relative to other neighborhoods, or a shift in buyer preference for a certain style of house. If you believe you’ve been assessed unfairly, you have the opportunity to challenge your assessment, and this is especially important to do if you’re planning on listing your house soon.
According to Jeffrey Otteau, one of New Jersey’s most respected appraisers, there’s not only a direct relationship between an over-assessed house and its selling price, there’s even a rule-of-thumb calculation you can apply to determine how much it will affect your selling price.
Otteau says that when selling, a home’s value is reduced by 7.5 times the excess valuation. So, for example, if most of the 1,800 SF, 2-Bath houses in the area have yearly taxes of $16,000 and the taxes on your 1,800 SF, 2-Bath house are $18,000, all other things being equal, that additional $2,000 translates to a $15,000 reduction in value in the marketplace.
The key in evaluating your tax burden is understanding how your home – and assessed taxes – compare with similar homes/taxes. I’m always happy to meet with sellers a year (or more!) before they put their house on the market to determine whether it’s worthwhile to challenge their current tax assessment. Call or text: 973-809-5277
When you're pricing your home, it's always tempting to ask for a bit more than you expect - to leave a little room for negotiating. But this strategy actually doesn't work.
According to industry experts, houses priced 10% over their ultimate selling price typically receive no offers. In fact, even houses priced a mere 5% too high will [...]
Right now in Montclair, houses are selling for 103% of asking price. Meaning: on average, most sellers are getting 3 percent more than they list their home for. This is great for sellers! But how do buyers protect themselves from considerably overpaying for a [...]
