Kate Elim, Lake Anna Real Estate Specialist

This is a great post for sellers or potential sellers to read.  It provides a very thoughtful explanation of the difference between the value of a home and its saleability.  There definitely is a difference and it is important for sellers to understand this as they try to determine, along with their listing agent, the proper list price for their property.  

This is certainly a time when many Lake Anna home owners are grappeling with this issue and, hopefully, by reading this post they will better recognize the need to get it right.

I would certainly be one of those people.  IF, and that's a big if, I had any intentions of doing the work myself somebody please stop me.  The kindest thing I can do for my house is to call in the pros and I'm not even thinking of selling my home.

Sellers and potential sellers, unless you really, really do have what it takes to do an excellent job...please heed the advice below.  What dollars you think you may be saving could be lost with a lower sale price.

Does this sound expensive?  Well it is so be careful you are not the one picking up the tap. 

Selling your home is not easy.  It can be down right annoying at times.  We realize that and try to make it as painless as possible but we cannot remove all the inconveniences.  Showing your home is not always opportune for you but if it is for the buyer the right choice might be to go ahead and let it be shown.  That's an inconvenience that might bring you a sold home.

Sellers be careful...If you list too high, you may end up with too little.  Yes, that can happen and often does.  Why?  That's a question I will address but you should talk with your agent to see if this is true in your market area.  It certainly holds true for many.

By pricing too high you discourage a number of buyers from even looking.  That's for starters.  When folks start looking for property they are usually hoping to find what they want at the lowest possible price.  Often they will begin by looking at homes that are less than they will eventually pay.  If your listing is well above their range it will be eliminated.

Eventually they may well move up in price but your home may still be out of reach.  Once again it is bypassed.  Meanwhile your home has been on the market with few if any lookers.  You now have begun considering a price reduction.  Even with that reduction you are still above the list price your agent recommended.  Or, perhaps the agent you hired did not recommend a lower price, the other agents did.  No, the one you chose priced it where you wanted it.

As the listing times grows longer the price reductions you authorize escalate.  But are they big enough? 

Buyers are still in the driver's seat.  As long as that is the case, they will be looking for bargains and finding them.   Over priced properties are not on their list of places to see let alone purchase.

Are you really interested in selling?  If so, price it to get it sold!

I really do like helping other agents but................not so much when I believe they are not acting in the best interest of their client.

Recently I received a call from an agent several counties away from Lake Anna.  She asked for my help in sending her the listing on a small log cabin that I had listed which sold last summer.  

She is not a member of our MLS system and was not able to access this information, nor any other information on homes at the lake.  

I told her I would send it to her and asked her why she needed it.  She did not respond other than to say she needed comps for a log house and she mentioned the address here at the lake.   She thanked me and said she would look forward to receiving the information by e-mail.

It only took a couple of minutes to send the listing information to her along with a note saying I would be more than happy to give her a referral if she was interested in having someone who actually knew the area list this house.  

The reason I knew it was probably for a listing is because the last time this house sold was back in the late 1990's.  It is not on the market now.

Perhaps I should not have assumed but I did anyway.  It made sense to me that the owners of the house at the address she mentioned are now thinking of selling.  Perhaps they are relocating to her area.

Why she may think it is fine for her to list a house in an area where she has never been, does not have access to the MLS (where is she going to list it?), and which she cannot service easily if she receives calls to show it.

According to Mapquest (yes, I went so far as to check) the agent's office is 81.79 miles from the property with a driving time of 1 hour 37 minutes.

What a difference in the experience I had yesterday.  I received a phone call from an agent with RE/MAX Allegiance.  He said he might have clients for me.  A couple was interested in looking at homes at Lake Anna and, as he did not really know the area, he wanted to refer them to an agent that did.  

This agent has been to Lake Anna, has friends that have homes here, but this is not his market and he realized it.  His intent was to do the best thing for his clients.  I appreciate that and when I spoke with his clients they were very aware of what he had done in their best interests and I let them know I was impressed also.

What a difference a day can make.

The market has been slow for many agents and I understand their reluctance to pass up a chance for a listing or a sale but it must be secondary to their client's best interest.

SELLERS and BUYERS too...Work with a REALTOR® who is very familiar with the area.  Buying or selling your home can be a complex undertaking.  Make sure you are assisted by someone that is knowledgable about the local market. 

______________________________________________________________

If it's about real estate, ask KATE

540-226-1964 cell

lakeanna.kate@gmail.com

lakeannacountry.com

lakeanna-realestate.com (Blog)

I really do like helping other agents but................not so much when I believe they are not acting in the best interest of their client.

Recently I received a call from an agent several counties away from Lake Anna. She asked for my help in sending her the listing on a small log cabin that I had listed which sold last summer.

She is not a member of our MLS system and was not able to access this information, nor any other information on homes at the lake.

I told her I would send it to her and asked her why she needed it. She did not respond other than to say she needed comps for a log house and she mentioned the address here at the lake. She thanked me and said she would look forward to receiving the information by e-mail.

It only took a couple of minutes to send the listing information to her along with a note saying I would be more than happy to give her a referral if she was interested in having someone who actually knew the area list this house.

The reason I knew it was probably for a listing is because the last time this house sold was back in the late 1990's. It is not on the market now.

Perhaps I should not have assumed but I did anyway. It made sense to me that the owners of the house at the address she mentioned are now thinking of selling. Perhaps they are relocating to her area.

Why she may think it is fine for her to list a house in an area where she has never been, does not have access to the MLS (where is she going to list it?), and cannot service easily if she receives calls to show it.

According to Mapquest (yes, I went so far as to check) the agent's office is 81.79 miles from the property with a driving time of 1 hour 37 minutes.

What a difference in the experience I had yesterday. I received a phone call from an agent with RE/MAX Allegiance. He said he might have clients for me. A couple was interested in looking at homes at Lake Anna and, as he did not really know the area, he wanted to refer them to an agent that did.

This agent has been to Lake Anna, has friends that have homes here, but this is not his market and he realized it. His intent was to do the best thing for his clients. I appreciate that and when I spoke with his clients they were very aware of what he had done in their best interests and I let them know I was impressed also.

What a difference a day can make.

The market has been slow for many agents and I understand their reluctance to pass up a chance for a listing or a sale but it must be secondary to their client's best interest.

SELLERS and BUYERS too...Work with a REALTOR® who is very familiar with the area. Buying or selling your home can be a complex undertaking. Make sure you are assisted by someone that is knowledgable about the local market.

______________________________________________________________

If it's about real estate, ask KATE

540-226-1964 cell

lakeanna.kate@gmail.com

lakeannacountry.com

lakeanna-realestate.com (Blog)

Do you really know the market you are attempting to work?  Did you just receive a phone call from someone many miles away wanting to look at property way outside your customary area? 

Are you selling a home to someone that has a house to sell several counties away?  Are you thinking that county happens to be in your mls system so what's the difference if you take the listing?  What the heck it sounds like an easy sale and some quick money so why not.

Earlier this evening I read a very important post by Jennifer Allen on mastering your market.  Jennifer spells out the importance of knowing the market you are or want to work in and how to go about doing that.

It makes you wonder how someone can even think about working way outside their area of expertise when they do not know much if anything about that area.  Knowing what we bring to our clients when we are dealing with them on our home turf should make us also aware of how little advice we can really share with our clients when we are unfamiliar with a particular place.

I often wonder about REALTORS that list properties at Lake Anna that have never even been here.  Yes, that happens.  What are they thinking? 

Others bring buyers from as far away as Maryland, an hour and a half to two hours away.  Yes, I picked up a business card just the other day in a house at Lake Anna from an agent from Bethesday, MD. 

Granted we have a few agents with second homes here.  They know the area and are prepared to answer the many questions that can come up and to provide the information clients may not even know to ask about.  That is very important.

I have had three listings outside of my area.  Twice it was up in Northern Virginia where I used to work.  One was of a home that I had sold to the owners.  The other listing was to a couple that lived in an upscale townhouse community and they were very aware of what their home would sell for and actually discouraged me from doing an open house or to do any advertising because they knew priced right it would sell quickly.  It did and according to the comps we did very well.

Have I had other opportunities?  Yes.  However, the best thing for me to do is the same thing you should be doing when you are not the expert, referring it out to a qualified, knowledgable REALTOR in that area.  That is where Active Rain comes in to play.  You do not have to be a member very long before you realize how many agents from all over the country know their stuff.  You also get a sense of their personalities from their posts.  You know which one will be a good fit for your client.  It's as easy as that.

Lenn Harley is a prime example of a REALTOR understanding how to best serve those that contact her.  If they are within her market area she takes care of them.  If they need real estate assistance elsewhere Lenn refers them to others that know the local area.

Between heeding Jennifer's advice to know our market and Lenn's example to refer when the business is out of our area we will do well.

Please think about whether you are serving your best interests or the best interest of your client.  If you answer that question honestly you will be doing the right thing.

Good luck and happy selling.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you or someone you know is thinking of buying or selling property at or near Lake Anna, Virginia please contact Kathleen "Kate" Elim, REALTOR®.

Contact Kate at 540-226-1964 or by e-mail at lakeanna.kate@gmail.com.  Be sure to check Kate's Web site http://lakeannacountry.com/

My mom turned 92 last Friday, April 10.  She no longer lives in the home she and my dad bought in 1950.  It was the first and only home they ever owned.  Prior to that they were renters.

I was 13 in 1950 when the house was finished and we moved in.  Although I only lived there for a few years, it has remained home to me.  Moving around as I have, from state to state, country to country, it was always very reassuring to me that home was stationary.  It was always in the very same spot even though I was not.

Home was the place I took my three children to every summer of their lives as they were growing up.  We usually spent two to three weeks at my mom and dad's home.  Now that home is going to be sold.  With my mom living with one of my sisters and her husband, in a very nice addition they added to their home, my mother's house is empty.

Members of our family have been hard at work preparing a home that was lived in by our family for almost 59 years.  It was extremely hard for me to think of it not being ours any longer.  It was so bad that I was seriously contemplating buying it.  

This house was home.  Whenever I was going up there I told people I was going home.  It was the steady spot in my life, a life which sometimes seemed like an endless voyage from one place to another.  It gave me a feeling of permanence and stability.  It was a place to take my children to give them a sense of roots and family. 

As you can imagine many things needed to be done prior to putting the house on the market.  Hardwoods throughout had to be refinished but first the old wall to wall carpeting had to be removed.  Walls, ceilings, and all the trim needed painting in each and every room.   The changes were significant.

Last weekend one of my sons and his family took me up to party with my mom on her birthday.  I saw our home. 

It was the best thing that could have happened to me.  It did not feel the same.  Our furniture was gone, the colors we had picked out for the walls were now covered up by linen white, and no one is living there any longer.  Closets were emptied of all my mom's clothes, the linen closet no longer held our bed linens and towels, games and photographs have found other places to live, and the refrigerator was unplugged with doors flung wide open waiting for someone else to come along to fill it up.

As I walked through the empty rooms and saw the changes I finally realized that I now carry home around in my heart...it is no longer at 291 Island View Road.

I said good-bye.

As we age wouldn't you say that maintenance becomes more of an issue especially if we try to look younger than we are or at the very least our age.

It is highly likely that our homes and the homes of our clients are in the same boat.

Anytime a house has a few years on it, it begins to show some signs of wear and tear.  If the owners are not vigilant these can easily become eyesores.  However, it is not always apparent to the owners.  Unfortunately, just as we may not want to notice a loved ones flaws, sometimes we are not willing to acknowledge the less then perfect aspects of our homes.

Then comes the day of reckoning.  The house is to be sold.

All of a sudden there are so many things that must be addressed.  There are times the owners will realize the need to do repairs and sprucing up.

Other homeowners tend to ignore the reality of these flaws.  They insist that they are minor.  They have lived with them and why can't the new owners.  Meanwhile we, as agents, are thinking we are going to have a hard time enticing anyone to become the new owners.  Often, even when buyers claim to be looking for a "fixer upper" they shy away when confronted with one.

It is one of the most important responsibilities that an agent has, to tell the sellers what needs to be addressed in order to ready a house for sale.  It is often important to enlist the services of a home inspector to discover the items that need repair or replacement.   A stager may be helpful in improving the appearance of the home.

It is sometimes difficult for owners to admit that there are imperfections, sometimes even the things that have annoyed them about their home for years.  It takes patience and understanding mixed with firmness to deliver the news that sellers often know but do not want to admit.

Right now, with large inventories and few buyers, it is especially important for REALTORS to stress the importance of showing a home to its best advantage.

Preparing a home to hit the market looking the best it possibly can may well shorten the days it remains active.  First impressions still count.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you or someone you know is thinking of buying or selling property at or near Lake Anna, Virginia please contact Kathleen "Kate" Elim, REALTOR®.

Kate lives at Lake Anna, knows Lake Anna, loves Lake Anna, and specializes in Lake Anna area real estate. 

Call Kate at 540-226-1964 or by e-mail at lakeanna.kate@gmail.com. Be sure to check Kate's Web site http://lakeannacountry.com/.

Copyright © 2008 By Kathleen "Kate" Elim, All Rights Reserved. *Assessing Our Homes Honestly*.