Andy Raffle, Yardley, PA Real Estate

Sell Your Home Quickly - Or Not At All

In most of the markets that I serve, we've seen "Sell Quickly or Not At All" become the rule rather than the exception. The chart below shows homes sold in days 1-30, homes sold in days 31-60 and homes sold overall this year. You'll see that a disproportionally large percentage of homes selling in the first 30 day window and that a clear majority are selling in the first 60 days. This is true in all six markets shown on the chart in even for the entirety of Bucks County where over 56% of homes are selling within that 60 day window. Now that we know the goal, how do we get there?

My home selling philosophy is comprised of three basic principles to sell your home in the shortest period of time possible:

If it's ugly make it pretty; if it's dirty, make it clean; if it's dull, make it shine. Your home must be ready to be bought from day one. No longer do we suggest that you can "offer a credit" for whatever repairs might be necessary. It is also not advisable to advertise that you will allow the buyers to pick the new color in that purple bedroom upstairs. Fix it, dress it up, make it perfect. I've said it before but when you are selling a home you need to prepare it as if for a first date. Buyers need to be drawn in and want to come back so save the tattered dress for a family occasion and bring out your best!

You can't sell penny candy for two cents. My views on this subject may be very different from what you think or from what you've heard elsewhere but, pricing is critically important to getting a home sold. If you know what you want to sell your home for and that price is in line with the homes market value, PRICE IT THERE! I am not a proponent of pricing your home "with room for negotiation" or of setting a price with the idea that you can "always reduce the price later". Remember, the homes that are selling and selling quickly and you want your home to be one of them - particularly as the alternative is "not at all". Let's think about a scenario; you price your home with a very sharp edge at the price at which it makes sense in the market and also to you financially. A buyer comes in and decides to offer you 10% below that price. You ALWAYS have the offer to say "no". With a great agent like myself representing you and explaining our methods for reaching that price we are now in NEGOTIATIONS - and that's a good thing. Now, let's look at an alternative, you price the home 10% HIGHER than what we know (and everybody else knows) is the market value and we hope to get an offer. Agents look at homes to show their Buyers and they see your overpriced listing. The Agent has two hours with the Buyer and many homes to show, one of them being your overpriced house. What would you assume they will do? We then lower the price of your home to a more realistic level, Agents still assume that we've got an unrealistic Seller who may be difficult to work with - as opposed to one who priced their home accurately and seems motivated to sell. We can always send a Flier to all of the local Agents but, Agents receive hundreds of fliers a week. They go unread. There are two places you can list your home for sale; you can list it where it sits or you can list it where it SELLS!

Sell it like you really need to. Strike while the iron is hot, make hay while the sun shines and get your homes sold QUICKLY! Aggressive, active marketing gets homes sold in this market. Things like advertising in the newspaper, holding open houses and sending out fliers can all work to sell homes but, they are all very PASSIVE and unpredictable. Selling Real Estate is like selling any other product, it requires personal contact and a lot of it. That is why, as part of my marketing plan, I "touch" a minimum of 50-100 people EVERY DAY! I ask each of those people if they would like to BUY YOUR HOME, if they know someone who would like to or if they or someone they know would like to sell their home. I am always talking about Real Estate and, as an extension, talking about YOUR HOME. This is what gets homes sold today. I am also touching the active Agents in the area and letting them know about your property. After all, as I said above, Agents have a limited amount of time with their Buyer clients and they can't sell your home unless they see it. I spend my time and effort getting those homesellers to show your home and to sell your home. I also actively follow up with them afterwards to get any feedback they or their clients may have and I communicate that back to you. This is what I call aggressive, active marketing and it has been an integral part of my home selling plans for many years.

I invite you to contact me to discuss how my active marketing plans can help you to sell your home quickly. I have similar resources that I use for Buyers in this market to ensure that they are able to buy the home they want at the best price possible.

Thanks for reading today. I look forward to hearing from you.

Andy

Andy Raffle

View my fully interactive Real Estate Website

www.askAndyRaffle.com

Coldwell Banker Hearthside, Realtors

Yardley, PA 19067

215.493.9080 x130

The first half of Giants/Bengals did not go quite as I might have liked but, now it's halftime and my thoughts have turned to dinner. The girls stuck with me through the first half (maybe just until the pepperoni and white pizza from Vinces was gone) but, now they're off to the dance studio.

I'm a wine guy, not a "collector" because I don't see my gathering, cellaring and drinking of wine as having anything to do with "collection". Maybe it's semantics but, it's a differentiation that suits me well.

At any rate, I bring up the wine thing because unlike a lot of you, it is not unusual for me to first select a wine before choosing what I will have for dinner. I then look for something to pair with the wine. Backwards for most but, it's how I often "roll". Last night, I was down in the cellar and I happened to spy a bottle of 1990 Pichon Baron - Château Pichon Longueville Baron to some of you. Pichon Baron is one of my favorite Bordeaux estates and the 1990 is my favorite vintage (1996 a close second).

The choice was made and I've already retrieved the bottle from the cellar, pulled the cork and it's breathing for the next few hours. Of course, I sampled about half an ounce, just to make sure all was well and it certainly is.

There is really only one thing to eat with 1990 Pichon Baron. Steak. Or lamb chops. Or Prime rib is good, too. Duck would work. More than one, maybe but, tonight it will be steak. Chris agreed to pick up some nice NY Strips from McCaffrey's Market on the way home with the girls. I'll bake some potatoes, make some creamed spinach and slice up some beautiful tomatoes that I got at the farm stand down the road. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

So, I'll watch the last 30 minutes of football and root for the Giants to win. If they win, I'll have a great celebratory meal. If, on the other hand, the unthinkable should happen, I'll have something to cheer me up. I think they call that a "win-win".

Life is good.

Andy Raffle

View my fully interactive Real Estate Website

www.askAndyRaffle.com

Coldwell Banker Hearthside, Realtors

Yardley, PA 19067

215.493.9080 x130

Election Day is November 4th. Polls in Pennsylvania will be open from 7AM until 8PM.

The last day to register to vote is October, 6. You can download this Voter Registration Form and mail it to the Board of Elections.

If you will be out of the area and unable to vote on Election Day, you can vote by Absentee Ballot. Download your Absentee Ballot Application, send it to the Board Of Elections and you will receive a ballot in the mail, which must be returned to the Board of Elections. Absentee Ballot Applications must be received by the Board oF Elections no later than the Tuesday before the election (October 28).

In case, you didn;t realize, I'm also in the Real Estate business. Check out my fully interactive website where you can search for properties, read my informative articles and learn more about the Bucks County Real Estate marketplace.

You can contact me at Coldwell Banker, Hearthside 215.493.9080 x130

Andy Raffle

No open houses today, no Buyer's to show homes to - I scheduled myself a free Sunday and I plan to enjoy it. Chris and I took the family to 9:30 Mass at St. Ignatius this morning, always a great way to start the week. This afternoon is a sort of football buffet for me as the Giants should be on TV at 1PM and the Eagles play the Steelers at 4. Don;t tell anybody but, as a transplanted New Yorker I am a diehard Giants fan, it's always been that way and it runs inthe family. In this area, we;re close enough to New York that the Giants are usually the highlighted game, UNLESS the Eagles are playing. Today should be a good day, as the games are staggered and I'll get to see both.

My girls will be watching the Giants with me. They're not exactly football fans but, they do like the Giants and it's time that we spend together, which is always a good thing. Maybe the pizza from Vince's has somethigin to do with it, too. Whatever it takes, in busy times it's important to find some common ground.

Go Giants and Go Steelers. Don't tell anybody, though.

August 2008 - Market Data

August 2008 data for our primary markets served (Lower Makefield, Upper Makefield and Newtown Townships in Bucks County Pennsylvania) showed a somewhat mixed bag with our area still outperforming the national market as portrayed by reports in the national news.

Taken as a whole, average sale price for the six months in the three markets are down just under 6% versus 2007 with Lower Makefield (plus 3.3%) still performing above the midline. Lower Makefield has consistently shown increased pricing this year over last. Upper Makefield (down 18.8%) and Newtown Township (down 4.2%) are in negative territory, largely due to the number of homes in upper price levels that are affected by tightened availability of Jumbo financing.

Units sold YTD are down 20% in the three markets with all three markets showing slower year to date sales. In six of the eight markets that I track on a regular basis the gap in year over year unit sales narrowed this month. In other words, more homes were sold this August than the previous August. While this may not signal anything as a stand alone number, it does merit close attention in the coming months.

Inventories of homes available for sale are up a minimal 4% or 20 units in the three markets combined. Newtown and Lower Makefield both show a drastic decrease in the number of homes available for sale with an 18.5% (24 unit) decrease in homes available for sale in Newtown and a 10.3% (also 24 units) decrease in Lower Makefield.

In other local markets that we serve, Doylestown Township is showing year over year price growth of 4.6% even in the face of a nearly 40% decline in unit sales and a close to flat 2.7% growth in inventory. Buckingham Township shows minimal reduction of average price at .6% with another large (25%) decline in unit sales and a 9% increase in active inventory. In Northampton Township, we're seeing a relatively flat year over year price change of -.5% even in the face of a 30% decline in units sold and a 21% increase in inventory. Interesting to note is that in all three of these markets, prices and units sold were higher in August, 2008 than in the same month in 2007.

For Bucks County, as a whole, prices were down 4.7% even in the face of a 21% decline in sales. Inventories are up 3% and list prices are up 1.4%. It is clear that, while the market has lost some of its steam from previous years, the gloom and doom presented in the national marketplace has not come to our area. Perhaps this has somethign to do with all there is to fdo in Bucks County

Sellers - now more than ever it is IMPERATIVE to price well, market aggressively and hire the finest, most qualified representation. We are seeing multiple offers on well priced homes in this market while other, less sharply priced homes, languish and stay on the market for months. In short, if you're not working with an experienced agent like me at a great agency like Coldwell Banker Hearthside, you're doing yourself a tremendous disservice. Again, well priced, well marketed homes are selling while others languish. The days of "Passive Real Estate" are behind us, Active, aggressive agents like myself are a must in this marketplace. If you have one, you become one of the beneficiaries of a changed market; if you don't you become a victim of those same changes.

I offer all home sellers the Coldwell Banker Seller Services Guarantee, a detailed ACTIVE marketing plan and a First American Home Warranty.
Let's discuss the ways that I can help YOU be a winner in this market!

Buyers - This market requires informed representation to help you determine the worth of any property you wish to explore. This not a market where you can simply knock 10% off the price and make an offer. We've got a mix of well priced homes being offered by sharp agents that will sell quickly at or close to asking price (In some cases more) and properties for which a 10% discount does not bring them to where the market needs them to be. This is not a market for casual or "lazy" buyers, or incompetent agents.

I offer all Buyers the highest level of representation as well as my respect and availability and also the Coildwell Banker Buyer Services Guarantee.
Let's discuss how I can help YOU be a winner in this market!

Be sure to check out my fully interactive website where you can search thousands of properties, read many real estate articles written by me and see many of the services that I offer.