Selling a vacant homes is enough of a challenge in a healthy market, let alone in this strong buyers' market. Add to this, selling in the winter just adds insult to injury.
Many home sellers will either winterize the home to avoid the risk of pipes freezing or breaking when no one is home to keep an eye on the home. Even with a property manager, days could go by before anyone notices, and the risk of causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage is a pretty great risk. Even if the home is not winterized, most sellers will turn the heat down to 50-60 degrees, which is not very inviting to a potential home buyer, nor their agent. If a buyer is physically cold in your home, they won't linger, soak things in and as a result, won't oftentimes see the qualities and amenities that your home has to offer if they are being constantly reminded how cold their hands or feet are.
If this isn't bad enough, now consider a vacant home without furniture. I know, you are probably wondering: isn't a vacant home empty by definition? For the most part yes, but sometimes sellers will leave some or most of their belongings behind to try and add some warmth, no pun intended. While this helps, it certainly isn't the answer to try and have a buyer emotionally connect with your home.
Staging key rooms in a home can make the difference between a buyer connecting or not connecting with your home, but only if it is well done, focal points are highlighted, distractions are minimized or eliminated, and a host of other things are done. Moreover, a vacant home is by definition, much harder to sell, so taking a much harder look at dated features in the home, and updating these old features, takes on a higher priority. In a strong sellers market, this can mean the difference between a good offer, and multiple offers over list price. In a strong buyers market, it can mean the difference betwen an offer and no offer, or the difference between no offer and a good offer. Either way (strong seller or buyers market), it protects your financial bottom line.
After all, isn't that your mail goal?
So, you are a buyer, and you have just acheived a valid purchase agreement on a home. Should you or should you not obtain a radon inspection?
The short answer is: YES. You should, period.
Why? Because the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) states that radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, behind smoking.
The EPA has said that any value of 4.0 pico curies per liter or higher is considered too high and it should be mitigated by installing a radon mitigation system. Radon is a breakdown of uranium in the soil, and as a radioactive gas, it is a heavy gas, and finds its way into a home through cracks, crevices, etc. The solution is simple and usually costs about $800 - $1,200 to remedy. The solution is actually quite simple, a hole is punched through the concrete floor and a sealed exhaust system (usually by a PVC pipe) via a quiet exhaust motor/fan is installed and the pipe routes any gas picked up beneath the slab and routes it outside.
Most home sellers agree to install a system in order to keep the sale intact. The typical cost to a home buyer is $100-$175 for the test. If the test comes back at < 4 pCi/L, then this means your new home is fine AT THE TIME OF THE TEST. Do NOT be lulled into a false sense of security. Your home could have elevated and unacceptable levels of radon a month later. There is only one way to know, either keep on testing it periodically or install a mitigation system.
Be wise, be safe, be informed, be well....and
Read my next post in how to find a good radon inspector...
While my previous blog post discussed selling your greater Cleveland home in the dead of winter, the flip side is: should a buyer purchase a home in the dead of winter, or perhaps wait until more homes come on the market in the Spring?
The answer also lies in the individual buyer's motiviation to buy? Is the buyer primarily interested in getting a better financial deal by a lower sales price? Or is the buyer more interested in a certain location, style of home, condition of the home, etc.? The answers to these questions will determine the answer.
In the winter, there are less buyers shopping for homes, so many sellers are more receptive to negotiating more in price and terms than they a home that may just come on the market in a stronger spring market.
Since the inventory levels in the Greater Cleveland Ohio area remain a record highs, if a buyer cannot find a home in this current market, even in the winter, when some homes to disappear off the market temporarily, then perhaps waiting until the spring market opens up more opportunities, isn't a bad idea as well. That said, a buyer would be astute to recognize their negotating position, for a property that newly comes on the market in spring, will not be a strong as negotiating on a home that may have been on the market for quite some time in the the winter months.
Should a home seller sell their home in the dead of winter? Keep their home on the market over the holidays? Wait until the spring market in March or April?
The answer lies in an individual seller's motivation to sell. Ask yourself a question: How badly do I want to sell my home? If the answer is anything less than a burning desire to sell your home, then feel free to take your home off the market. On the other hand, if you really, really want to sell, you should leave your home on the market. Why? Because any buyer out there traipsing through snow, slosh, cold and inclement weather, is a motivated buyer. In this current market that consists of too few buyers, too many homes on the market, tight credit and the list goes on, why would you want to miss that one potential buyer who may be the one to actually purchase your home?
We just sold a home to an incoming, out-of-state, relocation buyer. While we extensively renovated this seller's dated home, staged it, and priced it to sell, this buyer just closed before Thanksgiving, if it wasn't on the market, it can't sell.
From an insiders point of view, there is a long-time slogan or saying: "The 4 Ps" when it comes to selling a home:
In my opinion, the industry and the overwhelming majority of real estate agents really hasn't progressed beyond this, or only marginally at best.
By nature, I am a skeptical consumer. After taking a college course long ago (offered by a University of Chicago trained economics professor) in "Critical Thinking", it opened my eyes to spin, hype, exaggeration, etc., that gets pounded into consumers head to obtain "mind share" in a consumer's brain. This is something that should be taught to children so we all end up being better informed and more savvy consumers.
Apart from propagating your home across the Internet, what factual, quantifable differences does an individual real estate company and/or agent actually do beyond the 4 P's? The short answer is, not much. Sure, you can find a long-bulleted list of things one claims to offer or that benefits a home seller. But ask yourself, how does this directly impact the sale of my home? Do you have independent research and independent statistics to show how this benefits me? The answers, if you were to ask the questions, would most likely be no.
While some real estate companies and individual agents DO actually offer a QUANTIFIABLE difference, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.
You should always ask yourself: WIIFM - What's in it for me. If you do, and realize that price and condition, coupled with location, ultimately decide on how quickly your home sells and what it sells for, not the individual real estate company's or agent's marketing or spin on things.
Ignore the hype...be an informed consumer...make educated decisions...compare offerings...evaluate expenses...evaluate service offerings...ask for obtain references (you shouldn't even have to ask)...ask for testimonials...
Choose your real estate agent and company wisely!
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Broker/Owner of Olsen Ziegler Realty. Expert home staging. Technology expert (B.S. Computer Science). Innovative, progressive, transparent. Professional designations: CRS, CLHMS, ABR, ASP, e-PRO, GSA.
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