Terkel Sorensen

Ok, as you may have noticed - the market has shifted!

And I mean, SHIFTED, we are no longer in a buyers market, we are in a pretty hot sellers market with multiple offers etc.

So, if you are a buyer, what do you do about it? Here are a couple of ideas:
First off, make sure you get an angent to help you who has some experience, local knowledge is a benefit too - oh - and dare I say it, a good relationship with the lising agents who are putting properties out there.

Now, with multiple offers, some interesting things happen. The sellers start looking for the most likely offer to close and preferably at the best price, a low cash offer, is still very likely to close and can beat our higher financed offers.
On financed offers, those with larger downpayments will beat out ones with less down. This especially hurts those who have served us with price and are trying to use their VA loans with little down.

What can be done? For one thing, you can try to get to the listings before the go on the market, this is fairly effective as you can put in a full price offer right away and hopefully be the first one, if the offer conforms, there is a chance the decision maker will just accept it.

For more informaiton on how to get pre-list info, do call me directly. I cover the areas of Temecula, Murrieta, French Valley, Lake Elsinore, La Cresta, De Luz, Redhawk, Crowne Hiill, Morgan Hill, Paseo del sol among many others. If you are looking for Real estate here, visit my web site to look for more info.

Terkel

OK, so I know most of my clients give me the "Get real and do it soon" look when I tell them where the market is at...

After all, they primarily read the newspaper and watch gore news about how bad it is. Here are some realities we live with today:

This pertains to the market place around Temecula, Murrieta, Winchester, Menifee, Canyon Lake and Lake Elsinore to some extent.

Most properties are sold with multiple offers. In many cases the banks will ask for best and final offers, and you better be ready.

Now I just heard 17 Realtors roll their eyes - how could that be? Well, we have managed to sell through a lot of inventory, we are down almost 50% since last year. A few weeks back, I was looking at Paseo del Sol in Temecula, and found all of 7 short sales... Naturally, that changes fast, but it gives you an idea, that we don't have this glut of property sitting here anymore.

So - this begs a new question. If we are done with the buyers market (And I'll tell you, when we can go $20,000 over price and not get the house, I'll say we are), then what do we do next?

I am interested in hearing about your experience in the new hot market, what are you doing to win bidding wars and how come CA does not have an escalator clause?

Terkel

Are you facing foreclosure?
You have other options for you!

One is called a Short Sale.
The shortsale is technically known as a "Short Pay" this means that the property in question, is sold for less than what is owed on it. In Temecula several a number of agents such as Terkel Sorensen; Tatyana Mitchiner; Barbara Baker; Larry Falkand many others, are working very hard to sell property through short sales in Temecula, Murrieta and Winchester as well as Lake Elsinore and Wildomar.
By selling the homes in Short sale, the lender receives more money for it than they would from a typical bank owned or REO property.

How do you qualify?
The most important qualifier is that you have a hardship, this hardship prevents you from being able to pay your mortgage. Hardships comes in many forms, some of the more common are medical and financial hardships, let's say you get sick or loose your job, this will prevent you from making your payments. Another hardship is if you had a low teaser rate on your loan, and that is resetting to a point where you will not be able to pay.

What is the process?
To sell your home as a short sale, you will need a Realtor who knows how to handle this type of transaction, Terkel Sorensen has one numerous sales.
The Realtor will list your home at current market value, when an offer is obtained, the offer along with a short sale package is submitted to the lender.

What do you need to do?
You have to produce the documentation for your short sale package, this will include bank statements, pay stubs, sometimes tax returns and a financial statement showing what your bills are and how much you bring in every month, the idea is to show the lender that you truly have no way of paying your mortgage.

Who do you talk to?
Call Terkel Sorensen today, time is of essence, if you want to avoid the foreclosure, you have to get things moving as soon as you can. Terkel covers short sale and REO business in Temecula, Murrieta, Winchester, Wildomar and Lake Elsinore, and he is an expert marketer who will get a contract on your property quickly.

So you got a short sale listing...
Great.

Now what? I have noticed that a lot of people seem to keep running with the good old listing strategy they always used, and by that I mean roughly nothing.

In general, marketing a listing is a good idea, in this market, it is a really good idea.

Here is your typical marketing:

Take pictures.
Write a blurb for the MLS.
Maybe post it somewhere...
Oh, yeah, put a sign up.
And, let's not forget, ad it to your $$$ ad in the listingbook.

Sound about right? Ok, why am I not happy here? Because the person who does this is loosing piles of opportunity to: A) Get the property sold. B) Generate additional business.

What else can you do?
Here is what I do...

1. Learn to take pictures. Don't gimme that thing about a point and shoot being as good as a real camera. If you are too lazy (yes, I call it that, it is what it is) to learn, hire a pro - and QUIT whining about it alright.

2. Put FLYERS out. No black and white - although it works too, but color is preferred.

3. Use an 800# on all your signs. Most 800 systems will allow you to assign different extensions to different marketing mediums. Alas, I can tell if you are calling on my sign, or the flyer, or the listingbook.

4. Get the enhanced listings on Realtor.com - anyone doing it will tell you they get calls or have sold houses that way.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and I think should be a minimum if you want to succeed. Sure you can do less, but if you already spent all the time and effort getting the listing, why not optimize your return by selling it fast?

I would like to hear what others do.
Sometmes I add Video to the list as well, but don't have a good template system yet, so that takes more time than I like.

Good luck.

Ah yes, I am at it again.

You all heard the notion that a picture is worth a thousand words... Really, when it comes to real estate, the more the merrier.
So, considering that I take lots of pictures, why am I bringing this up? Well, fall is coming around here (this may be different in other places, Hume did make a little sense, but I digress), and with fall comes the CAR convention...

When I thought about that, I started looking at my notes to see what really valuable information I took with me from the convention last year, and the fact that listings with 21 or more images sell faster and for more money (Ok, don't ask me how they figure that out, I just write it down), should make anyone pay attention.

Alas, GOOD pictures... Not shaky images shot with a cell phone (Hint, if your agent is taking pictures with a cell phone - ahem - think very hard about that), and yes, I have seen those and worse.

Question from the front row: what is a good seller to do? First off, make sure your agent owns a digital camera, second, it would be great if he/she knows how to use it. Obviously, not all of us has the time to take pictures, so some people will be more than happy to hire a pro to "shoot" you home, and that is a more than adequate solution. Hey, maybe even get a copy of it all, just to have for memories.

Taking pictures is not hard work, sometimes making them look good is though, so ask for samples of past work, also ask for samples of flyer's and other marketing materials, and don't just say accept that black and white is an art form - it is an art form, but not in a flyer box!

Are there more real estate marketing must do's out there? Especially in this slow market - you betcha. But I will have to report on that another day - maybe from the convention...

Terkel