Blog of Craig's Arizona

Preparing for an Open House or Showing

Craig — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:29:04 +0000

Many Seller’s don’t give much thought to an Open House, clean up a little bit and figure out what to do while the agent hosts the open house. Unfortunately there are those that take advantage of open houses for other reasons than to see your home. To help protect you, just think of these items:

Jewelry. This is an easy target for thieves, because it’s small and easy to walk out with. Fortunately, the answer here is simple: get a safe-deposit box and put every piece of jewelry that you don’t wear every day in it. It will cost you maybe $50 a month during the time your house is being marketed, and the peace of mind is invaluable.
Prescription drugs. Again, an easy target for thieves or any open house visitor who just asks “to use the bathroom.” Some people keep their meds in the refrigerator, where they’re in pretty easy reach too. Take them with you before you leave the open house in the agent’s hands instead.
Small electronics. Cameras, iPods … these are the kinds of things that are small enough to hide in a handbag or coat, and can therefore turn up missing. Lock them away in a filing cabinet.
Personally identifiable information. This means stuff that has your bank account or social security number on it; mortgage bills, bank statements, credit card statements, cell phone bills. Most identity thieves aren’t going to go to the trouble of attending an open house, but before you let your agent host an open house, make sure these things aren’t lying on your desk (or in an open top drawer where they could be quickly snatched.) Or as in a recent open house that I attended, on the dry board in the office.

Some quick tips to keep you and your valuables safe during an open house. Can you think of anything else?

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How to tell if you are over-priced

Craig — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:01:31 +0000

I believe that when a home owner calls me to sell their home, that is in fact the goal, sell their home. I do a lot of work before meeting with them and during the life of the listing and I don’t want to waist time or money for me or the home owner. Part of the work is figuring out what their property is worth in today’s market and making a plan to adjust the evaluation once we are in the market. I explain this to the sellers and part of the plan is what has become known as the Rule of Tens.

If the house is on the market for 10 days with no calls or showings…it’s over-priced
If the house has 10 showings and no offers…it’s over-priced

If either of these events are triggered, than it’s time to talk about a price adjustment. I have this discussion on front so that the sellers have an opportunity to give it thought and be prepared for the discussion when I call to meet. This is part of what makes me a successful agent.

How about you, can you think of any other indications that a property is over-priced?

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Getting your listing in the “Cloud”

Craig — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:49:32 +0000

Marketing your home for sale is so much more than putting a sign in the yard and entering the details into a local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Especially in Phoenix where many of the buyers for the local real estate are out of town. Either they are second home buyers or people relocating to Phoenix. It’s important to post your home on the Internet where 92% of buyers start their search, according to a recent NAR report.

One of the benefits of the Arizona Multiple Listing Service is that most brokers have opt-ed to allow their listings to be agregated to other sites, contributing to more exposure of your property on other sites like Realtor.com and Yahoo Real Estate. As your agent, I also use additional strategies to exposure your home to as many potential buyers as possible.

Utilizing photos to provide the best exposure for your home
Keyword rich description to help buyers find your property
Consulting with a Professional Stager on how best to present your home
Dedicated website, a URL that points to your listing only
Posting on Craig’s List
Regular announcements on Twitter and Facebook
Listing Post on my Blog
Listing Announcement in my e-Newsletter

Those are just a few of the first steps. In addition to the marketing is the monitoring to make sure we’re effective in marketing your home:

Traffic counts on dedicated website
Click-through and Viral count on Twitter, Facebook, Craig’s List and Blog
Report of contact questions and showing requests
Feedback from showings

I do all of these things not only to make sure your home gets as much exposure, but to make sure we’re doing our job to sell your home for the highest possible amount as quickly as possible.

Can you think of anything that I missed, if so please post a comment.

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Arizona Earnest Money

Craig — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 20:57:24 +0000

Earnest money is the amount of money a buyer submits with an offer to purchase a house. You actually write a check and send a copy with the purchase offer. Typically it’s a personal check.

Earnest money proves the buyer is ‘in earnest’, or serious about buying that house. If the seller accepts the offer, the earnest money is immediately deposited with the escrow/title office. Contributing to the funds needed to purchase the house.

HOW MUCH IS RIGHT?

A really common question I’m asked by buyers (especially first time buyers) is: How much earnest money is the right amount?

It’s really up to you, typically you will see it in the range of 1% to 2% of the purchase price and not less than $500.

RULE OF THUMB

One rule of thumb about earnest money is, put up as much earnest money as you can afford to lose if you change your mind. According to the contract Earnest money is forfeitable if the buyer is in breach. This means that if the buyer backs out of the purchase after the Due Diligence period, the seller has the right to keep the earnest money as compensation for the lost time on the market.

EXAMPLE

For example: Buyer looks at a house with an asking price of $399,900. Buyer makes an offer of $360,000. That $360,000 is made up of:

$4,000 earnest money
$32,000 cash down payment
$324,000 to be financed by a mortgage

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Phoenix Crime Stats

Craig — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:25:31 +0000

While showing Real Estate in Phoenix, one question that I am asked quite a bit: Is this a safe neighborhood? And it’s one of those questions on the forbidden list of Realtors, we can’t answer it for several reasons. Namely because, how do you define safe?

I am however able and very willing to point you to two websites that will tell you abou the crime in Phoenix. From there, any buyer can make an informed decision on the crime around a potential home. Spotcrime is a pretty cool, interactive map tool.

An authoritative site is the Phoenix Police Department website, they too use a map based system to show crime for an area. Just look for the link that says Interactive Crime Statistics. It can be a bit hard to find on their site.

Are there any other sites you can think of that would help you decide if a neighborhood is safe? Post in the comments.

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Importance of Photos

Craig — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:09:53 +0000

This is one of my favorite topics, it comes from me being visual and from looking at tons of listing for my clients. From experience, I know that a picture is not necessarily the home. I’ve seen plenty of homes were the pictures look great and the home is terrible and I’ve been on the other side as well. I know that, my buyers don’t. They often choose the homes to look at that have the best pictures. So having great pictures is important.

Remember: The photographs are your calling card. So if the photos aren’t representative of your home’s appeal than the buyer will never get to your front door

Make sure you ask your agent (or me) how your pictures will be taken and proof those pictures before they are used. You want to draw as many people to the home as possible to find the one person that will buy your home.

Additional Reading: Staged to Sell

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Arizona Spring Training Schedule 2010

Craig — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:55:01 +0000

It’s Spring Training Time, the Cactus League kicks off next week. The Giants take on the Mariners at 1:05 at the Peoria Sports Complex for the first game and then a very full first weekend schedule follows. This is the time of the year when thoughts turn to afternoons at the ballpark with friends sitting on the grass of the bleachers section. Check out the rest of the schedule.

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What’s important when selling your Home

Craig — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:39:45 +0000

As a successful real estate agent, I’m always looking at factors that contribute to a successful sale of a home. I’ve identified 6 factors that contribute to the success, listed in order of importance:

Pricing – Pretty straight forward, if the price is lower than the competition, it will sell quickly, if it is higher than the competition, than it will take a while (if at all) to sell.
Home Condition and Presentation – this is why staging is so important in so many markets now. Staging costs are typically 1% of the list price, your first price reduction is often 5%. I say keep the 5% in the list price and spend 1% to stage it.
MLS Presentation – I’ve seen MLS listings with little description and blurry photos (if any), they really don’t sell the home, that’s why it’s important to make sure this is not only accurate but looks good, especially since the MLS feeds so many other websites now.
Your Agent – well, actually this is misleading since your agent should be taking care of the other 5 factors, but I’ve seen listings sell faster when the agent knows the property that they are selling.
Dedicated property website- a web site dedicated to just marketing your home for sale. Quite a few buyers find these sights when doing more in depth research. Having video, more photos and community information can seal the deal.
Yard Sign and Flyer’s- The yard sign helps passer-bys know the home is for sale and able to locate it quickly when in a new neighborhood. The flyer gives them something to hold and remember the property with.

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Stetson Valley Community

Craig — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:11:28 +0000

Phoenix offers a lot of great places to call home and as a father, I’m particularly impressed with Stetson Valley. This place has family in mind when the development started and finished. From all the little places to have a pick-up game of football to baseball, places for the kids to go to cool off in the summer and lots of paths/trails to get some fresh air. Not to mention The views of the Stetson Hills. Pulte and Lemar are the two builders and eventually there will be a City Park and Elementry school in the central part of the development. This is a great place to call home!

Great place to live and raise a family

- Little Rock Climbers

Rock Wall Park

- Water Parks

Just one of three water parks

- General Parks

One of many Development Playgrounds

Search for Homes in Stetson Valley

Stetson Valley Owners Association

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What to leave for the new Owners?

Craig — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:22:23 +0000

Congratulations on selling your home! Now you want to know what you should leave for the new owners, well, here are my suggestions:

Owner’s manuals and warranties for appliances left in the house.
Garage door opener.
Extra sets of house keys.
A list of local service providers — the best dry cleaner, yard service, plumber, etc.
Code to the security alarm and phone number of the monitoring service if not discontinued.
If it’s in a Home Owner’s Association, leave information on how to contact the association.

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