Inland Empire Home Advice

Mr. and Mrs. Seller Make Sure Your Agent Puts Inviting Information in The Multiple Listing Service

Mr. and Mrs. Seller may I be honest with you? Your home is not being shown because the instructions in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) stink! Remember, you said I could be honest. Yes, I am pulling real live examples that I have encountered and continue to encounter.

1. Please do not call for status, MLS updated daily. This would be fine, if the agent did in fact update the listing daily. This is one of the homes that I personally sold. It showed as active during the first 60 days that our offer was accepted and even now three days after a closed sale, it shows pending. Updated daily? Uh, I think not.

2. Agents call for appointment. Send offers subject to interior inspection. Hmm, so let me see if I get this…we need to call for an appointment but in case we can’t get an appointment we should make an offer and make it subject to interior inspection? You are killin’ me here!

3. Call 951-xxx-xxxx for appointments from Tuesday to Fridays 2:00 TO 6:00 PM. This is a wee- bit ambiguous. Should we call the agent only during these days and hours or is the is the time that appointments are arranged? I’m hoping neither. If this agent only accepts phone calls for appointments in this time slot that’s probably an issue. If the home is only available for viewing during the week, four days a week, for four hours smack dab in the middle of most people’s work hours…probably presents an issue with getting people to look at it.

4. Showing time Saturdays and Sundays from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Monday to Friday from 5:00 to 6:00. Call before showing 24 hours in advance. Here we go again. The tighter the time frames for showing and more restrictive, the less showings you will have. If you know that you are only allowing people to view the home for two hours a day on the weekends and one hour a day during the week, is it really necessary to also have to call 24 hours in advance? Just make it available! Otherwise, loosen up the time frames.

5. Drive By Only. This kind of showing is particularly hard when the buyer will be occupying the home and the only picture displayed on the MLS is of the exterior. At least take a few pictures of the inside to post on the MLS so buyers can get some sense of the inside before being expected to write an offer that is subject to interior inspection.

So what is the MLS saying about your home? Does it have instructions that translate into “Do Not Enter”? Or is there a set of welcoming instructions? The best way to get your home sold fast and for the highest dollar is to put yourself in the buyers shoes. Think about what kinds of things make it easier for a buyer to view your home quickly. The homes that get shown are the homes that get sold. Let the buyer experience your home through all of their senses. Make it appealing in the internet with lots of pictures, a great video tour, easy showing instructions along with a great, clean scent when they view it. Do these things and you will be on your way to a sold home. Additionally, make sure you know what your home looks like in the MLS. Your sale could depend on it!

Seller Beware! You Like The Realtor You Interviewed But Do Other Realtors Like Them?

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Seller Beware! You Like The Realtor You Interviewed But Do Other Realtors Like Them?

Caution Mr Seller, you just interviewed an agent and think that you really liked them. But before you hire them for the job, consider this. You like the Realtor you interviewed, but do other Realtors? Do other professionals within the industry, such as Escrow Agents, Attorneys, Pest Control, Home Inspectors, Appraisers, Lenders? You may ask yourself why this even matters. As a home seller, most of the time you are simply thinking about who you believe wold be able to sell your home the quickest and for the most money. While this is obviously a good place to begin your search, it should go deeper. Selling a home is truly a group collaboration. It becomes a collaboration because so many people must play an integral part it moving the transaction along successfully.

For instance, when the appraiser needs to ask your Realtor a few questions about the home, can the appraiser get a hold of your Realtor? Is Your Realtor good about returning phone calls and communication with other industry professionals? If your Realtors overall bedside manners with other industry professionals is sub par, word spreads like gangbusters amongst the Real Estate community. You as the consumer may never hear about it but rest assured, I have a list of Realtors who I try to steer clear of in every way. This is due to the fact that they are lacking in skills when it comes to working amongst their peers. Don’t get me wrong, if my buyer really wants the home that is listed by one of these Realtors, I will write up an offer for my buyer. However, that offer is written up and they are forewarned that my experience with this Realtor has shown that we could be in for a bumpy ride.

The moral here is do your homework and then possibly delve a little deeper. Ask for a few references not just from clients but from other industry professionals. It just could make the difference in a successful, hassle free transaction for you!

You Can Get The Home That You Want But You Have To Be Wise In Your Approach

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What every agent and home buyer must realize is that when we look at homes, there are three homes. There is the fantasy home for the buyer. This is the home that they REALLY want but cannot afford. Next, there is the home that the home buyer thinks they would be willing to settle on. This is the home that may still be somewhat out of reach but with a few tweaks could lie within reality. Lastly, there is the home that the buyer is truly qualified to buy.

One of the very first things that must be dealt with is the fact that most of the time the buyers wants do not match the buyers economic position currently. There is nothing wrong with this. In fact it is just basic human nature. But if we look at home buying as a process, then we know that we must walk before we can run.

Once a buyer has been pre-qualified then they know what price range of homes that they can buy. But it is also in this revelation that buyers often come to realize that the type of home they ultimately envision is not in their price range.

Many buyers believe that the remedy to this is to look at the homes they want and then hope that a seller will take thousands of dollars less than the list price. Quite typically this approach only leads to discontentment and frustration. You can get the home that you want but you must be wise in your approach.

This means that if a buyer really only wants a certain home but that home is out of their price range then the first option may be to wait and save more money for a home. The next option would be to attempt to place offers on the homes that you want but understand that looking at homes that are significantly beyond your price range is likely not going to be productive for you.

We can put in a lower offers and ask for other items but the truth is that you would have to be willing to put in offers on LOTS of homes and then see if any of them would be accepted. While this method tends to serve investors well, it is not generally the way the average homeowner wants to look for the home that they will want to live in.

The next method would be to figure out your five “must haves” and concentrate on attaining your “must have” features within your price range. Sometimes finding out that if we concentrate our efforts on the truly attainable items, we are likely to meet with success.

Selling Your Home: It Really Boils Down To Supply and Demand. Do You Have An In Demand Product or is the Market Over-Saturated?

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Selling Your Home: It Really Boils Down To Supply and Demand. Do You Have An In Demand Product or is the Market Over-Saturated?

Selling your home really boils down to supply and demand as the first element. Do you have an In demand product or is the market over-saturated? The typical home seller has an amount in their head that they believe their home is worth. This is all too common. There are generally improvements that a home seller has made over time that are considered of value and then there are the emotional ties.

One of the biggest driving forces that predicates where a home seller can price their home effectively to get it sold is supply and demand. It is this same driving force that determines basically how much we pay for everything. Anything from the price we are willing to pay for toothpaste on up to or latest Nintendo Wii. Why? Because when the supply of an item is low and many people want it, this generally drives the price of that item up. This makes perfectly logical sense. You can charge more for it because people who want the item will engage in competitive bidding, stand in long lines, participate in lotteries…whatever it takes. We’ve seen this happen in the housing market.

This simple phenomenon seems to have always existed and will most likely continue to exist. What home sellers and home buyers alike must always analyze is plain and simple “supply and demand.” When selling or buying a home, one must ask and understand two crucial questions:
How many homes are currently offered for sale?
How many homes for sale have closed in the last six months?

With a bit more calculation, the probability of your home selling can be garnered. But to keep it simple, the first question tells us what the supply currently is and the the second question will tell us more or less what the demand is. The rule of supply and demand is the fundamental principle of value. The value of your home in a competitive market is determined by the levels of supply and demand. It is worth more when demand exceeds supply and worth less when supply exceeds demand.

Keisha Hosea is a local Market Expert and Realtor in Chino Hills, California with Keller Williams Realty, She is the Team Director and CEO of KASI Homes. Keisha Hosea and the KASI Homes team offer help to home buyers and home sellers throughout the Inland Empire. She has been a local resident of Chino Hills and the Inland Empire for over 25 years and enjoys volunteering with the City of Chino Hills in her spare time. For more information on foreclosure, short sales and real estate you may call her direct at (909) 261-6377. Visit the website at http://KASIHomes.com