Wow, the second half of summer certainly did fly by; I haven’t posted in weeks! It’s been busy. In spite of the lending industry going nuts and the media seemingly not finding anything else to talk about but the doom and gloom of the market, people are still buying AND selling houses. Amazing, I know. It’s not all that bad, you just have to be smart. This is what to keep in mind when selling in today’s market.
Of course the old saying of Location is everything is indeed truer than ever. Being in Ahwatukee alone is a positive but there are parts of our community that fare better than others. Obviously the proposed 202 leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Homes are going for less and taking (a lot) longer to sell. If you’re in a more interior part of the community you may fare better but then it comes down to the second rule of thumb,
Supply and Demand. If there are a significant number of other houses for sale in your direct neighborhood, you can sit on the market forever, it doesn’t matter where you are. As an example, look at zip code 85045, there are 164 active listings as of this moment. Then as you break it down to neighborhoods, some are more saturated with listings than others. If you’re in this situation, proper Pricing is everything if you’re going to sell it.
You need to be objective when you look at pricing your house. Better yet, have a Real Estate agent see your house and what you have (and haven’t) done as far as updating goes and have s/he run the numbers for you. A good one will evaluate the condition of your house, local inventory (remember supply & demand), location & what’s actually sold recently. Truly comparable properties will fall within a one mile radius of your house, be within a couple hundered square feet (up or down) of your house size and will have actually SOLD in the past six months. What’s on the market is only your competition, the SOLDS tell you what you can actually expect to get if you’re comparing the right way.
Keeping those things in mind, a nicely remodeled home in a sea of bland homes that haven’t had a thing done will stand out and, if priced right, sell way faster. You really do get hammered on price right now if you don’t update. If you do the right updating, (kitchens, baths, good curb appeal) you can typically get back what you spent and then some, sometimes up to 40% more than what you spent to do the updates. Again, you have to be smart and cost-conscious about how much you spend and what you choose to update. But do it nicely. Buyers can tell when you just throw in cheap carpet and tile.
Next Blog I’ll talk about items that decrease the value of your house. Some are fixable and others aren’t (small garage for example) but it’s good to know what to be paying attention to and taking care of along the way.
Tukee Talk 