Flip, Rent, or Hold: What’s the Best Path to Real Estate Riches?
Andi • October 5, 2017
Maybe you’re addicted to those home-flipping shows on HGTV where glam couples buy grim shacks, spend 22 minutes smashing down walls and adding funky kitchen backsplashes, and then make tens of thousands selling the refurbished places on the open market. Or perhaps you’re jonesing for a steady stream of extra income and feel certain you’ve got what it takes to be a landlord.
Or just maybe you’re on the prowl for a hands-off way to make serious real estate money with financial investments that don’t require laying down new flooring or screening prospective tenants.
Whichever option floats your boat, you’ve got plenty of company. After the epic boom-and-bust of the speculative home-flipping market in the aughts, everyone again seems to be looking to make a quick buck by becoming a real estate investor. But these days, there are a dizzying variety of different takes on the once-simple idea of property investing—all requiring varying levels of blood, sweat, tears—and risks. Which one might be right for you?
That’s where we come in. The realtor.com® data team looked at the five big real estate investments that everyday Joes and Janes may want to consider. Then we broke down the typical returns (aka profits) investors have received over the past few years, along with the pros and cons of each.
(Rampant flipping, spurred by overbuilding and easy, subprime mortgage-fueled credit, was a prime contributor to the real estate crash and recent financial crisis. But today, thanks to much tighter credit and inventory levels, home flipping is no longer the American economy’s red, flashing “danger” sign.)
“Over the generations, real estate has proven itself to be a pretty good, time-tested investment,” says Eric Tyson
, who co-authored “Real Estate Investing for Dummies.” “Like investing in the stock market, people who follow some basic principles and buy and hold over long periods of time should do fairly well.But, of course, there’s no guarantee.”
And that’s why the thrill-a-minute world of real estate investing isn’t for everyone—especially when life savings are involved.
“Real estate is very unpredictable,” says certified financial planner Jenna Rogers
of Mission Wealth in Santa Barbara, CA. “A lot of people feel like you can’t lose money in homes, but that’s not really the case. “If there’s any kind of turmoil in the market, real estate usually gets hit really hard.”
OK, now that we’ve gotten that
out of the way, let’s go shopping.
1. Home flipping: Not
exactly
like reality TV
First half of 2017 gross returns:
48.6%* 2014 gross returns:
45.8% 2012 gross returns:
44.8%
If the Property Brothers or Chip ’n’ Joanna can do it, why can’t you? Real estate reality TV has made the “fixer-upper” flipping market seem fun, very sexy—and mostly foolproof. But becoming a successful home flipper is a lot
harder than it looks on television. And it isn’t always as wildly profitable as you might think.
The returns appear deceptively high, as they don’t account for hefty renovation costs, closing costs, property taxes and insurance. Flippers should figure that about 20% to 30% of their profits will go straight toward such expenses, say experts. The median returns above only reflect sale price gains—not net profits.
Newbie investors need to make sure they’re thoroughly familiar with a neighborhood before they consider buying a potential flip in it, says Charles Tassell
, chief operating officer at the National Real Estate Investors Association, a Cincinnati-based investors group. This means looking at what kinds of homes are located nearby, what sort of shape they’re in, and how much they’ve sold for. Wannabe flippers should pay attention to the quality of local schools, transportation, and the job market—just as they would for their own home. Those are the things that can make or break a sale. And an investment.
A market where homes are still affordable but appreciating rapidly is ideal.
Like Pennsylvania! The highest flipping returns in the second quarter of the year were in Pittsburgh
, at 146.6%; Baton Rouge, LA
, at 120.3%; Philadelphia
, at 114%; Harrisburg, PA
, at 103.3%; and Cleveland
, at 101.8%, according to the real estate data firm ATTOM Data Solutions. Those Rust Belt cities topped the list because they have plenty of cheaper, older homes that can be easily updated, and
because housing prices there are rising as economies (slowly) improve.
Once they’ve settled on an area, flippers need to focus on the basic structure of prospective homes. Special attention should be paid to a home’s heating and cooling systems, foundation, and roof—the things that are most expensive to fix.
Then they need to create a realistic budget. Experts recommend setting aside 10% to 20% to cover any unknowns—like what’s inside the walls. Costly surprises are par for the course.
“The biggest hurdle of flipping is: The costs are never what they seem to be on HGTV,” says flipper and landlord April Crossley
, co-owner of Crossley Properties in Reading, PA. She owns the business with her real estate agent husband, and they do 8 to 10 flips a year. “In fact, they’re always way more.”
Flippers are gambling that the housing market stays strong in their target area—at least long enough to resell their investment home.
“You’re constantly anticipating what the market will be doing 6 to 12 months in the future,” says Daren Blomquist
, senior vice president at ATTOM. So if you miscalculate, and it drops, you could lose a lot of money.
2. Investment (rental) properties: You, too, could be a landlord
First half of 2017 returns:
13%* Three-year returns:
9.9% Five-year returns:
11.67%
Renting out a property provides a more predictable income stream.
Perhaps flipping homes, and all the varied costs and stressors associated with it, isn’t for you. But you’d still like to be a hands-on real estate investor. Why not consider buying investment (rental) properties?
One big advantage is the tax deduction folks get for their rental properties. They can write off their mortgage interest, property taxes, and operating expenses, as well as repairs.
Like home flippers, landlords-to-be should look at growing areas with new jobs moving in, says Steve Hovland
, director of research at HomeUnion, an Irvine, CA–based company that helps smaller investors buy and manage properties.
“I’m very bullish on high-growth markets, like Texas, the Southeast, Arizona. You’re always going to have new renter demand,” he says. But coastal cities can be tough for aspiring property owners because they’re just too expensive.
The best markets for investors were Cleveland
, which fetched a 11.5% yearly return; Cincinnati
, at 9.8%; Columbia, SC
, at 8.6%; Memphis, TN
, at 8.5%; and Richmond, VA
, at 8.2% in the first quarter of the year, according to HomeUnion. The worst were San Francisco
, at 2.8%, and Silicon Valley’s San Jose
, at 2.8%.
First-time investors may want to target middle-class neighborhoods near top-rated schools, where stability rules and tenants are more likely to hold steady jobs. These homes often require less maintenance—a boon to landlords who don’t live nearby.
“You’re always able to replace renters in nicer neighborhoods with good schools,” says Hovland.
Landlords who aren’t local or don’t want to deal with 3 a.m. calls about an overflowing toilet will want to consider hiring a property manager who will find tenants and coordinate (but not perform) maintenance. But that eats into profits, costing about 7% to 12% of the monthly rent.
And the payoff you get, as compared with flipping a home, isn’t in one lump sum, and isn’t always steady. For example, landlord and flipper Crossley rents out multiple single-family homes, duplexes, and apartments in the Reading, PA, area, and once had a couple stop paying their rent for six months after they went through a divorce. She had to eat those losses, as well as attorney fees, while she went through eviction court to get them out.
Landlords also need to have insurance on their properties and set up their rental companies to protect their personal assets, in case they get sued.
And like other investors, owners also run the risk that home prices—along with the rents they were counting on—could plunge.
“You have to be prepared for the worst. When something goes wrong in a tenant’s life, you’re the last person to get paid,” Crossley says.
3. U.S. REITs: Buying shares in real estate instead of companies
Those who’d like to own apartment and office buildings like a legit mogul but don’t have the bank balance to do so may want to turn to Real Estate Investment Trusts. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of REITs. You don’t need a fancy finance degree to understand how they work.
Most REITs are publicly traded corporations that investors buy and sell shares in—just like stocks. Only instead of buying shares in Apple, you’re buying shares in real estate. Shares can range in price from just a few dollars to hundreds of bucks. Investors can buy into them on certain exchanges.
As with stocks, investors can make money by buying shares at a low price and selling them at a higher one, and
by collecting quarterly dividends (payouts are made every three months).
There are two main kinds of publicly traded REITS. Equity REITs own rental properties ranging from homes to business space, and make money collecting income on them. Residential and commercial mortgage REITs allow investors to buy mortgage debt where investors profit from the interest.
Of all of the real estate investment trusts, data center REITs—where companies rent out space to store their network servers—had the highest one-year returns, at 29.79%, according to the National Association of Real Investment Trusts, a Washington, D.C.-based REIT trade group. It was followed by home financing mortgage REITs, which invest in bundles of home loans, at 25.57%.
The biggest losses were in the retail sector, as more shoppers make their purchases online. (Thanks, Amazon!) Big shopping malls, usually anchored by department stores, took the biggest one-year hits, at -26.78%, according to the association.
4. Crowdfunded real estate: Like Kickstarter for property
Crowdfunded real estate
is like the younger, cooler cousin of REITs. Simply put, it allows ordinary folks to pool their money to invest in things like apartment complexes, office buildings, and shopping centers. It’s like a Kickstarter for buying real estate—instead of funding your college roommate’s feature-length documentary about Furries.
Previously available only to uber-wealthy accredited investors, crowdfunding only became open to the general public in March 2015. That’s when the government enacted new rules opening up the investments to folks without ginormous bank balances. So there isn’t much data available yet on how these investments perform over the long term.
While REITs can hold tens of thousands of properties and be worth billions of dollars, crowdfunding companies are often significantly smaller, holding just one or a handful of properties. And they often require a long-term commitment from investors.
As with REITs, the two main options in crowdfunded real estate investing are equity or debt.
Equity, the riskier of the two, involves investing in a fund connected to commercial or residential development. It makes money from the income the property generates and the increase in the value over time. The investment is usually tied up for about five to seven years. Debt is the loan used to get the project off the ground and continue to finance it through the life of the project.
Over time, accredited investors—the wealthier ones who have been in the investments the longest—typically receive anywhere from 11% to 45% annual returns on their equity crowdfunding investments, says Ian Ippolito
, a retired investor who founded the website The Real Estate Crowdfunding Review. Since these types of investments have only recently been opened up to the masses, the annual returns for regular investors are about 8.2%. That’s expected to rise if all goes well when the property is sold five to seven years down the line.
But if
the development doesn’t get fully built or doesn’t make any money, then investors may get nothing—and even lose their investment.
“These are long-term investments, so if you pull your money out early, there’s usually a financial penalty,” Ippolito says. That’s a big difference from REITs, which can be sold at any time. “Retirees who need the money soon probably should look elsewhere.”
Debt is a bit safer, but the payouts may not be as high.
5. Home appreciation: The investment you can live in
Folks don’t need to flip homes or pour money into crowdfunded projects to make money as a real estate investor. Instead, they can search hard for the perfect home, get their finances in order, negotiate smartly, and close the deal for the best possible price.
And then live in it.
Real estate typically appreciates over time. That means that buyers who buy a home in a decent area and keep it in good shape should make money when they decide to sell. Depending on the market and the home, sometimes a lot
of money. But they should plan on being in that home for at least five or so years, so they can build up enough equity in the home to net a profit once real estate agent fees and closing costs are accounted for.
“In general, buying a home is a good investment and a way to build wealth and equity over a lifetime,” says Joseph Kirchner
, senior economist at realtor.com®. “[But] even if you’re buying it to live in the house for the next 30 years, it is always better to buy when prices are low.”
And as folks build equity in their home, through appreciation and paying down their mortgage debt, they can take out home equity loans or home equity lines of credit against their property.
But of course, just as with the other investments on this list, there are risks. The country could enter into a new recession, or there could be a local housing market crash if a big employer leaves the area. Or homes in your area could simply be overvalued.
However, when home prices fall, they do generally rebound—eventually.
“Good markets aren’t going to last forever,” says real estate investment author Tyson. “Even the best real estate markets go through slow periods.”
* ATTOM Data Solution supplied the median gross home-flipping returns. HomeUnion provided the median returns of investment properties. The National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts provided REIT performance data as of Sept. 21. The Real Estate Crowdfunding Review supplied the average crowdfunded real estate returns for nonaccredited investors. The review’s year-to-date data are through Aug. 1, while the two-year data are from October 2015 through Aug. 1, 2017. Median home appreciation is as of Aug. 1 and comes from realtor.com.
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Step 1 Many homeowners start the selling process by looking at sites such as Realtor.com, Zillow, or Redfin to see what similar properties have recently sold for in their neighborhood to determine the current value of their home. That’s fine and understandable, but keep in mind: The sites aren’t 100% accurate as listings that were never listed in the NWMLS, or For Sale By Owners, will be missing. The information on the online sites is often out of date or not accurate as NWMLS. Therefore, a property might show that it’s still Active on Zillow, even though it sold 9 months prior. When professional appraisers conduct an appraisal, they only take into account homes that have sold in a particular neighborhood within the last 90 days. It’s not possible to sort the data by date on the online sites so it’s difficult to only look for properties that have sold within the last 90 days. Therefore, Step 1 to buying a home should be to interview REALTORS ® to represent you and ask them to provide you with a CMA (Comparable Market Analysis). Find a Realtor® How do you find a really good REALTOR®? Hopefully, you’ll contact us at 360-734-6479 or andi@andidyer.com so we can see if we would be a good fit. Remember, not all REALTORS® are right for all people. It would be best if you found someone who is not only great at his or her job, but someone you like and trust as you’re putting a big piece of your financial future in their hands. Ask friends and family for referrals. Contact those Realtors® and set up initial phone screenings with them. Notice how quickly each REALTOR® responds to your initial phone call or email. The REALTOR® should get back to you within 24 hours; if not, that’s a bad sign. This business moves fast, and deals can be lost if your REALTOR® doesn’t respond quickly on your behalf to showing requests, offers, inspection negotiations, etc. Initial Phone Screening During the initial phone screening, find out if the REALTOR® knows your neighborhood and if they’ve ever helped a client buy or sell property in your neighborhood. Ask about their experience. If your gut reaction says this person might be a good fit, ask them to do a CMA on your home and set up a time to meet with them in person. Be prepared for the REALTOR® to ask questions about your home, how much you owe on your mortgage and if any repairs are needed as they need this information to do an accurate CMA. Meet In Person and Review the CMA When you meet with the REALTOR® in person, ask them our Interview questions for hiring a REALTOR (see the next article we send). You will go over the CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) together and evaluate your competition. Ask them not only what they think your home is worth, but what the average days on market (i.e. the number of days from when your home goes on the market until you have an accepted contract) are in your area. If the REALTOR® doesn’t know this, move on. Ask them what they charge, how much the closing costs will be, and what approximately you’ll net if you sell your home for X price. Most importantly, be honest with each REALTOR®. If you need to sell your home for a certain amount of money or in a certain time frame, tell them. Only when REALTORS® have a complete picture can they come up with the best strategy to fit your situation. Lastly, trust your gut. Sign the paperwork Once you’ve picked a REALTOR®, expect to sign a Listing Agreement authorizing that REALTOR® to represent you. That starts the ball rolling to get your home on the market. Questions? Contact us at andi@andidyer(dot)com or 360-734-6479.
Step 4 What I Do For You Not all real estate practitioners are REALTOR®. The term REALTOR® is a registered trademark that identifies a real estate professional who is a member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of REALTOR® and subscribes to its strict Code of Ethics. When looking at all the factors that an Agent influences, it’s easy to see how important it is to choose the right one for you. Navigate a complicated process Buying or selling a home usually requires disclosure forms, reports, mortgage documents, insurance policies, deeds, and multipage settlement statements. A knowledgeable expert will help you prepare the best deal and avoid delays or costly mistakes. Information and opinions REALTORS® can provide objective information on utilities, zoning, schools, and more. They’ll also be able to provide objective information about each property. A professional will be able to help you answer these two important questions: Will the property provide the environment I want for a home or investment? Second, will the property most likely have a good resale value when I am ready to sell? Negotiating skills There are many negotiating factors, including but not limited to price, financing, terms, date of possession, and including or exclusion of repairs, furnishings, or equipment. In addition, the purchase agreement should provide a period of time for you to complete appropriate inspections, and investigations of the property before you are bound to complete the purchase. Your Agent can advise you as to which investigations and inspections are recommended or required. Property marketing power Real estate doesn’t sell due to advertising alone. In fact, a large share of real estate sales comes as the result of a practitioner’s contacts through previous clients, referrals, friends, and family. When a property is marketed with the help of a REALTOR®, you do not have to allow strangers into your home. Your REALTOR® will generally prescreen and accompany qualified prospects through your property. Someone who speaks the language If you don’t know a CMA from a PUD, you can understand why it’s important to work with a professional who is immersed in the industry and knows the real estate language. Experience Most people buy and sell only a few homes in a lifetime, usually with quite a few years in between each purchase. Even if you have done it before, laws and regulations change. REALTORS®, on the other hand, handles hundreds of estate transactions over the course of their career. Having an expert on your side is critical. Objective voice A home often symbolizes the future, rest, and security – it’s not just four walls and a roof. Because of this, home buying and selling can be an emotional undertaking. And for most people, a home is the largest purchase they’ll ever make. Having a concerned, but objective, third party helps you stay focused on both the emotional and financial issues most important to you. Questions? Contact us at andi@andidyer(dot)com or 360-734-6479.
Step 6 Signing Electronically Authentisign is a secure, online, document signing service that enables multiple parties to participate and sign real estate documents electronically. Electronic signatures have been approved for use since June 30, 2000, when Congress enacted the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act. In an electronic signing, the action of you approving the documents is your signature. Instead of actually signing your name, you are approving the documents by clicking on signature or initial blocks. When you click on each block, the document will replace the block with your name or initials. The entire signing process is tracked, including the IP (internet protocol) address of your computer and the date and time you signed. This electronic process is convenient, efficient, and reduces the amount of time and paper used in the transaction. Respond to Invitation You will receive an invitation email with a link to access the signing transaction. Click the blue icon (shown below) to open the Authentisign electronic signature service.
Step 8 You see a home on Zillow or the like (we’ll call them portals from here on out) and inquire about its availability with us…and it’s not for sale. You’re looking to sell your home and you LOVE the Zestimate (I don’t need to talk to anyone to find out how much my home is worth; squeeee! And even better my home magically increased in value by $50K in the last two weeks according to Zillow; double squeeee!), yet the number is completely wrong when you talk to a REALTOR®? Why? Let’s start with the availability of homes part. The dirty secret about online real estate is that it’s built upon you being a leader. The online real estate world is inaccurate and untrustworthy. Portals don’t care about their data being accurate; they are an advertising website, not a real estate website so there’s no incentive for them to make sure that a home that sold six months ago is changed from active to sold on their website. They just care about getting your contact information, they sell advertising. Now that you know that the baseline of portals is garbage, let’s move on to estimates of home value. First of all, Zillow itself calls it a “Zestimate,” as in estimate. Zillow has a helpful chart which can be seen below showing that in the Seattle area the Zestimates are off by 9.8% on average. That means on a $500,000 home the Zestimate could say it’s worth either $450,000 or $550,000. That’s a $100K swing in price. Instead, Zillow says it’s a starting point for a pricing discussion. If it’s not even close to accurate, why are you taking these estimates as gospel? Wouldn’t it be called a “Zaccurate” if it was accurate? So why they aren’t accurate and what are these Zestimates based on? In Whatcom County, most of their data come from public data derived from the county, city, and state. The problem with this data is that it is out of date, to begin with. Anyone who has lived in Whatcom County for any length of time knows that the data is often inaccurate and this, in part, is what Zestimates are based on. The portals do not have access to sold home prices – en masse – which adds another layer of inaccuracy to the mess. The portals then apply an algorithm – a computer program – to these disparate incorrect pieces of data to derive an estimate of value. How can an accurate price be determined for a home when the data it is based on is out of date and incorrect? It can’t. So how should the value of a home be determined if you want it to be accurate? Sold home data – hard dollars spent – in a recent time period on homes that compare to each other is the most important way to determine the current market value of your home. Appraisers only use comps that have sold within the last three months which have a similar number of bedrooms, baths, square footage, and features, and are located within a 1-mile radius of the subject property. This is the reason why the beautiful new construction 3-bedroom single-family home that sold a year ago on your street doesn’t help the value of your 100-year-old 2-bedroom four-flat condo. Only real estate professionals and appraisers have access to this sold data; portals do not. The condition of your home is a factor. All things being equal, an updated home will be of more value than an identical home in the bedroom, bath, and square footage count no matter how much you love your “charming!” 50-year-old kitchen and asbestos-filled basement. Whether a neighborhood is appreciating or depreciating in value will affect the price of your home. Often a Seller’s perceived value of their home and the actual market price are very different numbers. You might be willing to overlook that your home has no AC and that the third bedroom is the size of a storage closet because you think the home has a ton of character which makes it worth the same as a home with Central AC and three large bedrooms, but these issues affect the price whether a Seller wants to admit it or not. This is why determining the fair market value of a home is a mixture of art and NWMLS data. My job as a REALTOR® is to help you determine where the actual market price of your home is based on the accurate information we have at my disposal, not the perceived price based on your emotions. So, in lieu of talking to us or any other REALTORS®, where can you go for accurate information? We will send you a link, to my system that is accurate, and an app HomeSpotter which it is integrated with. See a house on Zillow, Trulia, etc. that you like? Look it up on my App or NWMLS to be sure it’s actually available. Our sites are updated constantly. Zillow’s website sometimes has information on it that is 6 months old. In a fast-moving market, this could make or break your buying experience – specifically how much time you waste online. You’ll need to find every home in your general area and neighborhood which matches your home’s bedroom, bath, square footage, parking, etc. which has sold in the last three months since that is the time frame appraisers use. Then you need to go inside of them (or find recent photos of the interior) to make sure they match your home in terms of quality, condition, and finishes to determine a somewhat accurate value. Or you can pay for an appraisal every year until you’re ready to sell. Or we can generate an NWMLS report of sold homes in your neighborhood for you whenever you’d like, which is free. One tip we do recommend for Sellers is to claim your home on Zillow so you can make the data as accurate as possible. The bottom line for these and other websites is this: They are nothing, but advertising sites meant to monetize your eyeballs. Next time you log on to a portal such as Zillow and Trulia, look for an ad for a bank, or three-plus Agents (who pay to make it look like it is their listing which it isn’t), or a mortgage person or any of the myriad of advertising partners these companies have. Every time you look up a home as a Buyer or try to ascertain the value of a home as a Seller you’re selling an ad for these people and companies to the tune of multiple millions of dollars every year. They aren’t in the business of accuracy, only your eyes on an ad. Want accuracy? Want to know the market value of your home? Tired of wasting your time online? Give us a shout. Questions? Contact us at andi@andidyer(dot)com or 360-734-6479.
Step 12 You’ve picked a REALTOR® (us!). Yeah! Now what? Now we need to get your home ready for the market. This involves: Change the privacy settings on all your social media pages so only friends can see your posts We don’t want potential Buyers Googling you learning that you just got a big promotion at work, are moving across the country or are buying a new house because you’re having a baby. All of these items can hurt my negotiation position, therefore, it’s imperative you change your security settings to make your posts and photos private to strangers. And while you can mention on your social media page that you’re selling your home, don’t say why. Top 10 List Write a top ten list of reasons you love living in your home. We don’t want these reasons to be things the Buyers can easily see for themselves such as your gorgeous kitchen. Rather, we want them to be intangibles that only you know such as the beautiful sunsets visible through your living room windows, that you have great neighbors, the Farmers Market down the street every Tuesday, see the next page for an example of a Top 10 List. We then use this list in our marketing of your home. The Top 10 Reasons You’ll Love Living Here 1. Location, location, location! Only 3 blocks to the shops and restaurants of Sehome Neighborhood. Plus, everyday conveniences like Haggen’s, Starbucks, Blue Fin Sushi, Walgreens and a gas station are just steps away. 2. Work downtown? Drive there in 5 minutes, walk there in 20 minutes. Take an Uber to enjoy the night for $8. 3. Want to take the scenic way Western Washington University? The trail is literally off the side yard and walk there in twenty minutes. Or take the off-leash dog trails to the tower for a scenic overview of Bellingham, the Bay & Mt. Baker. You will never get bored with the variety of trails in this 175-acre oasis. 4. Have a dog? Zip out back to the Arboretum trails, or it’s a quick drive to the Lake Padden Dog Park and off-leash trails, or Fairhaven Dog Park. 5. 2 ½ miles to Fairhaven , walking distance to Sehome High School. 6. FANTASIC alpenglow sunsets behind Mt. Baker. Watch the moon & stars from the warmth of your living room. 7. Enjoy wildlife? We have squirrels, deer, racoons and even Barred owls in the summer. 8. The privacy in the backyard makes coming homing home at the end of the day to our sanctuary absolutely restorative. Sunbathing in the afternoons, drinking coffee in the mornings and watching the hummingbirds, or having a movie night party on the back deck, we get 8 months of living out here. 9. We don’t have green thumbs and love the low maintenance yards. 10. We wanted a convenient location in town, but to feel like we were in the middle of nature. We’ve Loved Living Here and Know You Will Too Questions? Contact us at andi@andidyer(dot)com or 360-734-6479.
STEP 13 Once all of the paperwork is complete, we’ll walk through your home room by room with you to create a comprehensive list of items that need to be decluttered and furniture that needs to be moved or put in storage. Together we’ll determine whether we need to bring in a professional stager to stage either certain rooms or the entire property. Unless the property is vacant, we usually don’t need a stager. If your home is vacant and we determine a stager is right for your situation, we’ll provide several companies for you to interview. Once you’ve picked a stager, you would pay the staging company directly for their services. See our article “81+ Staging Tips that help Buyers Fall In Love.” Remember, we’ll create a personalized list just for your home. Once the staging/decluttering is done, let us know so we can schedule an appointment with our top-notch professional photographer for your home. Home Staging That Delivered Big Results Great design helped to bring about quicker sales that surged high above list prices. Home staging can show a home in its best light and attract more home buyers—and possibly bidding wars. Several of last month’s “Best of the Best” home staging winners showed what a difference staging can make. Each month, the Home Staging Resource recognizes top designs from its members. Check out some of the designs featured recently on the Styled, Staged & Sold blog as well as more of October’s honorees below. Budget-Friendly Updates Addie Ashworth, a sales associate at Coldwell Banker Realty in Columbus, Ohio, and owner of Ashworth Staging + Design took on a listing that her client inherited from his father. “Nothing had been updated in years, and everything was original,” Ashworth says. “The seller did not want to spend a lot of money on updates.” Ashworth suggested low-cost fixes with a big impact, such as removing the dated carpet to expose the original hardwood floors underneath. The entire house was painted in “Agreeable Grey” by Sherwin-Williams. Some of the kitchen cabinet doors were starting to fall off, so Ashworth recommended removing them and adding baskets. Everything in the kitchen was painted white, and the aging linoleum floor was swapped out for luxury vinyl planks. Ashworth also brought in modern furnishings, staging the home with a midcentury vibe to compliment the 1958 ranch-style home. The property had more than 270 showings and 43 offers—all above list price. The seller accepted a cash offer with no contingencies for $165,000 over the asking price. The home closed in five days. Before:
STEP 15 REPAIR TIME If together we have gone through the house and identified a list of items that need to be fixed. If your dishwasher hasn’t been working for years or your air conditioning unit has been making an unusually loud noise, we need to have those items repaired before your home goes on the market. It’s better to get items fixed now before they come up in an inspection report and potentially scare off a Buyer later. We have access to affordable repair people, electricians, handymen, etc. In general, we always recommend: Touching up the paint in your home. Installing new caulk around every shower and tub. Hiring a professional HVAC company to service and clean both your furnace and AC, if applicable. Hiring a professional to clean your carpets. Making sure all light bulbs are working and that every light fixture contains the highest wattage light bulbs it can bear. Having chimneys professionally swept. Changing outdated cabinet hardware in kitchens and bathrooms. Repairing any broken window screens. Testing all smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to make sure they are functioning properly. Making sure downspouts aren’t improperly sloped or damaged in single-family homes. If they are, have them repaired. Repairing any damaged, broken, or missing roof shingles. Email us to see our updated list of recommended service providers such as handyman, appliance repair people, etc. Questions? Contact us at andi@andidyer(dot)com or 360-734-6479.
STEP 18 Have us send you the ShowingTime App. The ShowingTime mobile app makes it easy for Sellers (you) to manage and take part in the home-selling process. By keeping up to date with your home’s showing activity, Sellers can: Confirm/decline showing requests See all upcoming appointments Review their home’s showing and feedback activity Easily contact your agent Adjust your notification preferences Lorri Briggs, who’s sold five houses in four states, said using the ShowingTime mobile app helped her take the inefficiencies out of the home-selling process . “I fell in love with ShowingTime immediately,” Lorri said. “I was amazed at how user-friendly the app was. It had everything I needed to know in one handy place … past showings, future showings, how many showings last week, and how many in the last 30 days. It was so awesome. “Not only did it help me keep organized and on top of prospective Buyer traffic, but it clearly showed anything that I still needed to respond to. Every morning I would review our showing times and plan accordingly.” Lorri’s not alone. Many of our customers continuously comment on how much their homeowners enjoy having access to their listing’s information via the app: “The feedback is an excellent way to communicate with Sellers!” — Ofe Polack, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage “This makes the homeowner very happy.” — Gail Smith, Brokers Guild “As a direct result of using ShowingTime, I have been able to service my clients right away and maintain showings and feedback in one place.” — Tommy Burdett, RE/MAX Coast and Country Click here to see the video tutorial.
