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How do we Price our House?

6/17/2014

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Naturally every seller wants to know “How much is my house worth?”

When I was in the financial field, people would ask me a question, then usually listen pretty carefully to my answer. Only a few ever said something like “I don’t think you’re right. My uncle, the dentist, said never to buy stocks.”

One of the challenges of real estate is sellers taking “non-expert” advice on what to do. The following are statements prospective sellers have made to me over the years:

 “$300,000? My brother said my home is worth at least $425,000.” “What does your brother do?” “He’s a truck driver in Florida.”

“No, no, you’re way low. My uncle said my home is worth at least $50,000 more than that.” “When did your uncle last see your home?” (It was quite run down) “He’s never been to Lake Gaston.”

The key thing, and almost the only thing, that matters in pricing real estate is what similar homes are currently selling for in the local market. The four key words are “similar”, “currently”, “selling”, and “local”.

Similar means if you’re selling your 2 bedroom, 1 bath home that’s on a steep lot and that needs a lot of tender loving care, it’s pretty irrelevant what the Smith’s 4 bedroom, 3 bath home that’s on a flat lot and in immaculate condition sold for. Currently means recently, roughly in the last 3 months. Markets change, and since we’re selling in the current market, we want to know what similar homes sold for recently.

Selling meaning what it actually sold for, not what its list price was. I can’t tell you how many times someone has said to me “Well, the Smith’s house sold for $480,000” but when I searched the records, it turned out it sold for $420,000. Local means in our case, of course, around Lake Gaston. There’s an old saying that’s true that all real estate is local. Thus it’s irrelevant what houses on Smith Mountain Lake (a higher priced lake) or Kerr Lake (a lower priced lake) sell for.

A good realtor will find 3 or so recent sales of similar house to help price yours. And keep in mind, there’s no perfect house. We recently listed a 4,900 square foot home for $990,000 that was immaculately maintained. Looking at it from the outside, I though “The perfect house!” But, it took 8 months to sell in a strong market. Why? It had a lot of small rooms rather than the fewer, but bigger rooms that Lake Gaston buyers prefer.

Your Good Realtor will candidly tell you the pluses (easy to do) and minuses (hard to do) of your house. Beware of the agent who only tells you what you want to hear, pleasant as it is in the short run.

She will then take the 3 or so comparable homes and adjust each one financially so it’s as similar to yours as possible. “This house sold for $380,000, but it doesn’t have a 2 car attached garage like yours. So we’ll add $29,000 to its selling price to get a financially comparable price of $409,000.”

Then, Good Realtor will summarize along the lines of, “I would suggest you list your house at $424,900 and take any price above $410,000. Right now, properly priced waterfront homes are selling on the average in around 4 months.”

Now that you know how to price your home, on to "We’ve Listed our House for Sale!"
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Getting Our House Ready to Sell

6/14/2014

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You’ve enjoyed it, but now it’s time to sell your home on Lake Gaston. Like everyone else, you want to sell it for the highest price in the least amount of time. Here’s how.

Unlike in some places, at Lake Gaston buyers are turned off by fixer uppers. Thus, you’re far better off fixing every defect and raising the price rather than selling “as is” at a lower price. So, step back and walk through your home as if you were a very critical, nitpicking buyer. Then have every item repaired in a professional manner. Thus, if you’re not a good carpenter, you should hire one.

Now you need to stage the house to make a good first impression. And it’s really true, you only get one chance to make a good first impression, so declutter, declutter, declutter. And for hardheads like me, decluttering means getting rid of, not moving around. For kitchen and bathroom counters, the ideal one is empty or only has one item on it. If necessary, rent an off site storage building and move your excess items there. It’ll be the best $45 a month you’ll spend.

There’s no bigger bang for the buck than presenting a slightly under furnished, under accessorized home to its next owner. You’ll be surprised how much bigger and better your rooms look with less in them.


Next add a few cute lake accessories - bedspreads with lake motifs, a few cute lake pictures on the wall, a carved blue heron on the hearth. When we sold our first lake house for several hundred thousand dollars, we spent about $400 on lake accessories. What did the buyers mention? “I just love the atmosphere of this lake house.” So spend the $400.

Then, spend $20 and buy all white plastic clothes hangers for your closets. At a maximum, your closets (yes, the buyers will look in them) should be no more than 80% full.

With your lakeside windows, consider taking the curtains down completely or just having a ruffle or a valance. Buyers want their Lake houses light and airy – the more the better.

Now, the hard part – depersonalize. Pictures of my family are everywhere, but when I get my home ready for sale, I thin down to one per room. Also, put away any extensive collections - plates, dolls, etc. It’s hard for a buyer to visualize your home as theirs if your highly personalized items are everywhere.

Now, clean beyond clean. You know how some homes are just shiny clean? This is the way you want yours. If, like me, that’s not within your capability, hire the best maid you can.

Then, leave the curtains wide open, the air conditioning/heat at the normal temperature, and the water on so the buyers can use the bathroom. The extra energy cost will be worth it to avoid the worst selling scenario - while the realtor’s opening the curtains in your hot, dark house, the buyer says, “I don’t know, this home just doesn’t hit me. Let’s go look at another one.”

Lastly, a final touch. Fresh flowers are unbeatable if you’re able to keep them changed. If not, a few potted plants that you can persuade your neighbor to water if you’re not able to come at least once a week.

Now, on to "How do We Price our House?"

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    Author

    Tom Waring is the owner of Lake Country Realty and has over 20 years experience selling and renting Lake Gaston vacation homes. 

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Lake Country Realty
1507 NC Highway 903
Littleton, NC  27850
252-586-5542