Contact MargaretArchive for the 'Crofton Real Estate' Category
Crofton Real Estate - The Buyer’s Market Challenge
May 26th, 2008 Categories: Crofton Real Estate
Selling your Crofton home in 2008 is a lot different than it was in 2005 and 2006. You can read my suggestions for these challenging times in this 8–part series for Crofton home sellers, The Buyer’s Market Challenge. Click on the link to read each article:
1. A SOLD Sign in Your Crofton Front Yard – April 1, 2008
An introduction to this series written especially for home sellers in Crofton, Anne Arundel County, and nearby Howard/Prince George’s Counties
2. Factors That Impact the Sale of Real Estate – April 7, 2008
Some factors are within your control, and some are not. Do you know the difference?
3. Pricing Your Crofton Home for Sale – April 14, 2008
A little bit “art” and a little bit “science” and more important than ever in a Buyer’s Market
4. Five Things Crofton Home Sellers Must Do – April 21, 2008
In a Buyer’s Market, the condition of your property is critical
5. Crofton Home Buyers Want to See Your Home – April 28, 2008
Is your home available for buyers to see at THEIR convenience?
6. One Big Secret for Effectively Marketing Your Crofton Home – May 5, 2008
Find out why most real estate marketing doesn’t work.
7. Negotiating Skills Are Essential for Crofton Home Sellers – May 12, 2008
Negotiations don’t begin and end when you think they do!
8. How Important Is Your Real Estate Agent? – May 19, 2008
You will rely upon your agent to advise and advocate for you at each step of the home-sale process. So why would you want to skimp on – or skip altogether – the most important decision you will face?
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How Important Is Your Real Estate Agent?
May 19th, 2008 Categories: Crofton Real Estate
Seriously, your choice of real estate broker and agent may be the most important decision you make, when it comes to factors you CAN and CANNOT control in selling your Crofton home.
In fact, it could mean the difference between SOLD and REDUCED AGAIN because you will rely upon your agent for advice at each and every step of the home sale transaction – and that’s just the factors that you can control.
The level of experience, skill, and training that your agent has for addressing, or even overcoming, the factors you cannot control is more important. It’s the reason most people choose a full-service experienced real estate professional instead of an agent or broker who simply throws your home up on the MLS and provides you with standard forms for a discount fee.
A good analogy
It’s kinda like the difference between treatment by your physician or an over-the-counter remedy at Walmart when you have heart palpitations or even severe allergy symptoms. And, while I’m on the subject, you pay the physician more than you do Walmart because you get what you pay for. The same is true in real estate – and the results speak for themselves.
Just ask Ty and Mel, whose Bowie home I listed and sold within hours – for $6,000 more than they expected, on a holiday weekend. Or Dan and Charlotte, who pocketed an extra $35,000 because I sold their Severna Park home and side yard separately. Or Dan and Sue, whose credit was saved when I sold their Crofton townhome with a program that two previous agents didn’t know anything about.
Just for the record
Statistics indicate that about 1/3 of all real estate licensees have been in the business two years or less, and another 1/3 for five years or less. That means only 1/3 of all licensed real estate agents have been in the business for more than five years. Think about it… Relatively few of today’s real estate agents have previous experience in a buyers’ market like we have today. (Not to mention all the new real estate brokers that came onto the scene in the easy days of the real estate bubble.)
It’s never been more important to choose an experienced real estate professional. It’s one of the best investments you could make for maximizing your profits and minimizing your home-selling hassles. In fact, I think it’s fair to say that choosing the right agent is the single greatest factor affecting your home sale in 2008.
Choosing your real estate agent
Six Things to Look for In Your Real Estate Agent may help you choose the right real estate agent. It will, at least, give you some food for thought.
If you’re thinking of selling your home in the Crofton area or ANYWHERE in Anne Arundel County and nearby Prince Georges or Howard Counties, give me a call. In the meantime, here are the earlier blog posts in this Monday series of posts for home sellers:
A SOLD Sign in Your Crofton Front Yard
Factors That Impact the Sale of Real Estate
Pricing Your Crofton Home for Sale
Five Things Crofton Home Sellers Must Do
Crofton Home Buyers Want to See Your Home
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Crofton Real Estate Agent Talks About FSBO’s
May 16th, 2008 Categories: Crofton Real Estate
It’s not often you’ll find a Crofton real estate agent defending homeowners who choose to sell “by owner” – but that’s what I found myself doing yesterday on ActiveRain, a real estate blog network in which I participate. In fact, my Maryland Real Estate Blog on ActiveRain is ranked #43 out of 88,158 members, for most subscribers.
The FSBO conversation all started when I was visiting my daughter Susan in Texas for Mother’s Day weekend, and I posted a blog titled My Daughter Made an Offer on a FSBO this Weekend…. Then I followed up the next day with a second post, FSBO Foot-In-Mouth Syndrome.
The comments took on a life of their own for both posts – over 60 comments on each! I was out of town, so I didn’t pay much attention at the time, but I was almost embarrassed at the tone of some comments when I got home and started reading them. That led to a third post, In Defense of FSBO’s, written yesterday afternoon – and there have already been over 35 comments for that in less than 24 hours.
Click through to all three posts in this series and the other links within them, and take the time to view the comments from across the nation. Anyone thinking about selling your own home in this tough market may find both the posts and comments to be interesting reading.
NOTE: If you experience a formatting issue when you visit ActiveRain – i.e., the blog post does not stay within the frame, simply click “refresh” one time in your Internet browser and it will correct itself. The problem arises if you’ve ever visited ActiveRain before the new formatting, and you have a cached version of the old format on your computer.
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Crofton Real Estate Update - April 2008
May 14th, 2008 Categories: Crofton Real Estate
The most accurate source of information about what’s happening in Crofton real estate is probably the monthly statistics released by MRIS. I usually review and report them for you between the 10th and 15th of each month, since regional and national real estate news doesn’t always reflect what’s happening in Crofton real estate.
Crofton home sellers are listing for higher prices, in spite of the fact that average and median sold prices are down slightly. That contributes to the fact that the average sale price as a percentage of average list price is down to 92.92%, from 97.07% just a year ago. In other words, if your $240,000 Crofton condo sold last month, it’s likely the actual selling price was about $223,000, compared to a year ago when it probably would have been close to $233,000. What a difference a year makes!
But a comparison of April 2008 with the three previous years shows the Average and Median Sold Prices of homes in Crofton is still higher than it was in 2005. Crofton real estate values are doing a much better job of holding their own than other communities across the country. This may be due, in part, to the incoming personnel associated with the BRAC realignment to our area.
The greatest disappointment for Crofton home sellers has to be the increase of days on market before a home sells. The following graph provides a comparison of this year, so far, with the three previous years. As you can see, it’s not pretty – although the 121 days of March and April are more favorable than the 134 days in February 2008.
My prediction regarding any improvement of this trend is guarded, since 78 new listings came on the market in Crofton during April and only 23 were marked “Under Contract.” With the inventory growing at this rate, I’m afraid the length of time to sell will continue to be longer than homesellers like. The only way to fight this is to price list your Crofton home conservatively and make sure it’s in top condition, including staging.
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Negotiating Skills Are Essential for Crofton Home Sellers
May 12th, 2008 Categories: Crofton Real Estate
CROFTON HOME SELLERS – In a Buyer’s Market like we have today, home buyers don’t just hope you will compromise your home-selling goals – they EXPECT you to accept a lower price, offer more incentives, and meet their timing demands.
By definition, a Home Buyer’s Market is one in which economic and psychological conditions favor buyers rather than sellers.
A buyer has many options in this scenario, because there is a large inventory of homes available – and several sellers are seriously competing to attract a very small number of qualified buyers. Today’s sellers offer closing help, free condo fee for a year, buyer’s choice of new carpet, a discounted price and other incentives that say “please choose me!”. Even though buyers may love your home, they do have many attractive alternatives if you don’t accept their offer.
Negotiations actually begin when you put your home on the market, because that’s when you make YOUR offer to prospective buyers. That’s why Pricing Your Crofton Home for Sale is so important, including your offer of incentives to the buyer.
Crofton home sellers, you should take any offer seriously, even if it is not attractive to you initially. In this 2008 buyers’ market, in fact, you can probably count on a low offer. If you say “no”, the buyer can say “adios” and move on to another home without further negotiations. Unlike 2004, buyers now have many homes to choose from, and this is what gives them so much power!
My suggestion is this: Find something you like in the offer, focus on it, and make a counter-offer on any terms that are unacceptable. ‘Truth is, the buyer is probably expecting a counter-offer – it is likely they will be happy to get some of their offer accepted as written.
When I am your listing agent, I will present any offer to you, discuss it with you, help you evaluate your options, and together we will craft a counter-offer that acknowledges the acceptable terms and addresses the unacceptable ones. You will have a ratified contract only after both parties come to agreement in writing and all contingencies are satisfied.
That last phrase is the “kicker” – there are other moments of reckoning between contract and settlement that sometimes trigger renegotiation, including appraisal, home inspection, and pre-settlement walk-through. That’s why it’s more important than ever to be represented in negotiations by a tireless and effective advisor and advocate.
If you’re thinking of selling your home in the Crofton area or ANYWHERE in Anne Arundel County and nearby Prince Georges or Howard Counties, give me a call. We can talk more about negotiating strategies and other factors impacting your home sale. In the meantime, here are the earlier blog posts in this Monday series of posts for home sellers:
A SOLD Sign in Your Crofton Front Yard
Factors That Impact the Sale of Real Estate
Pricing Your Crofton Home for Sale
Five Things Crofton Home Sellers Must Do
Coming Monday, May 19: The single greatest factor affecting your home sale
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