Top 10 Seller Showing Mistakes.

It's hard to believe that some sellers act like they don't want to sell. They hurt themselves over smallest things. And they wonder why in a market where buyers have an abundance of choice, their property does not sell.

Top 10 Seller Showing Mistakes

10) Take your pet. Whether Fido is a good dog or not. Take him with you. Buyer's get distracted. Buyers are allergic. Buyers don't like pets. Whatever the reason. Don't crate him. Board him.

9) Remove the pet smell. Maybe you don't notice. but the buyer will. clean up. change the litter box. spray. It should not smell like pet.

8) Remove the cooking smell. Don't cook an "aromatic" meal 15 minutes before a showing. It remains in the air.

7) Clean and Declutter. There are a million shows on staging. At the heart of staging is cleaning and declutter. The home should be ready for the Queen of England to visit. Just get used to it.

6) Be Flexible On Times. Give an hour window. Smaller windows mean fewer showings.

5) Leave. Never be home for a showing and if it simply can't be avoided, step out and wait down stairs. If you open your mouth you will cost yourself money.

4) Keep the blinds open. Buyers are going to open them anyway.

3) Do Not Ask Buyers To Remove Shoes. If you have a white Persian rug, think about putting it in storage. If it's raining and your worried about cleaning the hardwood floors, get a mop.

2) Lack of Temperature. If it's hot out, keep the AC on 66. If it's cold out, keep it on 76. Over compensate. Make it "feel good".

1) Lights... Camera.... Action. Leave Every Light on. It should be surface of the sun bright. If you want action, you need lights.

There they are. Some are common sense and some are dollars and cents. Use the common kind, don't skimp on the money kind.

Hoboken Real Estate Condos

New since Labor Day 99
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed

Updated Hoboken Real Estate Quarterly Report

Hoboken Real Estate Market
Summary Report Q3, 2009
UPDATED 9/1/2009

The first two months of the Third Quarter in 2009 has continued to present both opportunity and reality for Hoboken Condo buyers and sellers. In this constantly changing real estate landscape, realtors are playing a critical role in serving both buyers and sellers to get properties closed. The big picture paints a bleak picture for sellers not willing to accept the new world order. Sales on condos are down twenty three percent (23%) from the same period totals in 2008 and the average sales price is down over seven percent (7.2%), a decline of 1% from last quarter’s measurement.
Yet, the bright spot of the summer market seems to be that the market volume continues to rebound. One hundred twenty six condos sold in July and August, that’s only two fewer than the total for the second quarter. A look inside the number of sales shows a shift to more moderately priced homes. 61% of sales were under $500k and there were only ten sales greater than $700k with none over $900k.

Buyers
The operative word for Hoboken buyers in Q3 is Hurry . The total number of properties on the market has fallen to roughly 500 on a given day, down from a figure almost reached 600 in June. Buyers are benefiting from a decline in prices from a year ago, low interest rates, and tax incentives.

National media reports focusing on housing market gains have little to do with the local economy. Rather the lower than expected job losses in the region have helped stabilize prices. While there are deals to be found, sellers are not giving the property away at fire-sale prices. More likely, many sellers could not afford to discount because of the reduced equity levels in their properties and a short sale was not an option. This has led to some sellers taking a wait and see approach or renting their condos out. The rents often don’t cover the monthly costs but losing a little each month is a more appealing option than losing it all at one time. The first week after Labor Day will be a better indicator if sellers were waiting for the fall market to list or inventories are truly shrinking.

HOPING TO GET THE FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER CREDIT? CALL TODAY. YOU HAVE A LOT LESS TIME THAN YOU THINK.


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Do Not Call. Really.

A post labor day rant...

All of us have gotten those annoying telemarket calls. We hate them. They are a time waster. ...We've got caller ID, we have answering machines, we have blocked calls and we've lobbied government to create a DO NOT CALL List. We really hate them.

Imagine if you got them at work!!! Some of you probably do. Here's how mine go.... I am on a list and agents rotate taking calls from potential clients...So a caller calls in on an ad. they get some information and at the same time, I'm trying to understand what they are looking for....that's when sometimes I get the "oh my agent has sent me those" or "my agent has shown me those". Hello. You're calling to get information and you have an agent that sends it to you. (AND it is all automated these days.) Where is the disconnect. Is your agent lousy? Time for a new agent? Are you one of those "maybe there's some secret property that no one is telling me about" people? I don't know.

If you are working with an agent you're first second and last call should be to them. With your call, you've wasted your time because you've already received the info from your agent, my time, duh, and your agent's time because they have to continually inform you that you've already seen the info. I'm going to start a list. Please sign up for it. It's named DO NOT CALL.

Hoboken Real Estate Condos

Available condos 493
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed

Who Is To Blame?

Here is an ironic story. So I showed a condo last night. A nice condo, pretty well priced. It's got parking and is in a newer elevator building. Today I went to do some research on the comps for a client and this condo doesn't come up in my search. hmmmm......So I search by address and there it is. Lo and behold, the agent forgot to indicate that there's an elevator. Oooops. The seller is going to be pissed. Fewer search results=fewer showings=fewer offers=lower price. Now for those of you who saw the video that I posted on Timothy Geithner, you will appreciate this. (If you haven't seen it. STOP. watch the video in the August 25th post.)

The agent is the seller. AND the agent is using the Self Posted MLS listing. Now if you are going to go around your broker and list it yourself, do it right. The agent didn't double check the listing and now the seller is paying for it.

I'd like to be at that dinner table when the seller realizes the mistake and chews out the agent for costing him money. Maybe the seller should get a fulltime agent?



Hoboken Real Estate Condos
August Numbers
Sold 65
Avg. DOM 129
Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed

The Big Nickel

I play my part and you play your game..... You give realtors a bad name.

There are a lot of honest realtors and some doing parlor tricks. I received an email today about a price reduction on a $600k+ condo. hmm I thought. ...let me check what kind of a price reduction we are talking. ....And there it is a big fat $5,000 reduction You read right. I didn't leave off a zero. FIVE THOUSAND....Not much more than I can get for my Clunker in the driveway. Now if your overpriced (and i mean over priced because it is not selling.) condo is not selling,.... is a $5K (The Big Nickel.) price reduction going to move it? that's less than a 1% reduction in a land where the average sell to list price is 94%. White noise. a parlor trick really. a ploy to get more buyers to look but not buy your still overpriced condo. ugh.

Do meaningful reductions otherwise we are just killing trees with the extra paperwork it creates.