Archive for the 'Hot Local Topics' Category
Pimp Your House Out and Increase Your ROI.
June 5th, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
Thinking about pulling your home off the market for a while? The inventory of homes on the market in Haywood County, NC, while giving Buyers many choices and options (and bargaining power), also means that Sellers need to price their homes aggressively if they really want/need to sell. Along with aggressive pricing, setting your home apart with enhanced amenities, staging, and curb appeal are of utmost importance in the present market.
Return on Investment.
If enhancing the value of your home while the market is overrun with inventory is intriguing to you, the trend for larger, more luxurious bathrooms should be a consideration. “Pimp Your Bathroom” and consider this… if you have to hang on to your home for a while, spending time in a luxurious, zenned-out bathroom might be just what the doctor ordered, and good for our local economy by keeping our construction industry busy. Not to mention [possibly] an excellent ROI! Read: “2007 ROI for Home Improvements” here.
Watch a video about Staging Your Home.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
Broker/(REALTOR®)
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A Seldom Publicized MLS Tip for Sellers.
June 1st, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
Sellers, it is important to know that when buyers’ agents are looking through the MLS listings, or the buyers themselves are perusing the available listings, the ‘featured’ photo that appears when a listing sheet is opened on-line, or printed out, is what will, or will not, grab the viewer.
Good photos, as well as plentiful (at least 12 should be posted on the MLS) photos, are ESSENTIAL to marketing your property, on-line or the old-fashioned way… on paper. TIP: Look at your MLS listing on the internet and make sure there are 12 good, professional photos posted to market your property on the MLS.
Do not tolerate:
- Snow covered yards for summer listings.
- Pictures with toilets featured.
- Exterior only photos for a residential listing.
- Pictures of beds.
- Less than 12 good photos on the MLS.
- Using the same picture(s) twice to fill the 12 photo slots available.
- Pictures of the resident dog should not be one of the 12 listing photos.
The bad MLS photos here were picked from expired listings. There was plenty of time to get good photos taken and posted to market the properties.
See my videos and slideshows.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
Follow me on Twitter!
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Wondering Why Your Home Is Not Selling?
May 24th, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
If you need to sell your house, first let me dispel some rumors about the present value of your home.
- Your home is not worth what your appraiser said it was worth 12 months ago… or even 6 months ago.
- Your home is not worth what the tax assessor indicates as the ‘value.’
- Your home is not worth more just because you upgraded the bathroom.
- Your home is not valued based upon what your neighbor’s home sold for last year, or even last fall.
- Owing $275,000 on a home does not mean it is worth $275,000 in the present market.
- Your home is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.
The Wall Street Journal reported today on falling home sales, falling selling prices, and increasing inventories:
“Existing-home sales fell a second month in a row during April, while inventories surged and prices dropped sharply from a year earlier.”
Read the entire WSJ article.
Why Aren’t I Getting Any Offers on My House?
Today’s market, reflected in the article referenced above, requires an astute and/or informed seller, and agent, to illicit the best possible results in the shortest time. If your home is on the market and not selling, here are a few reasons why your home may not be selling, in no particular order:
- Location, Zoning. Not everyone wants to live next door to a llama ‘ranch’ or a dairy, or Bubba’s Junkyard Auto Parts, regardless of the views. Many do not even want to drive by such surroundings on their way home.
- Junk and/or Clutter. Put your junk in the trunk and take it away.
- Condition. Ripped screens, chipped paint, tile and grout, dirty floors, old carpet, Fluffy’s catbox. Do not make potential buyers visualize what the place could look like if it was cleaned up and in good condition. What might cost you $3,000 to fix and spruce up, could end up costing you $10,000 off the selling price if you chose not to fix/spruce up.
- You insist on being present when potential buyers are looking at your home. Leave!
- You insist on being present for Brokers Open Houses. Get out!
- Staging. People need to picture themselves in your house; they don’t need to see your family photographs and ceramic rooster collection. Clean the yard. Get the tarantula terrarium out of your son’s bedroom.
- You make it difficult to schedule showings.
- Pricing. You think your house is the only house that is special enough to be overpriced.
- You have chosen a bad agent.
Watch a Staging Your Home video here.
See my Haywood County, NC Archive of Market Reports.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
Broker/Realtor
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Haywood Regional Medical Center is Back in Compliance.
May 23rd, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
Good news for Haywood County, NC. Haywood Regional Medical Center passed the full inspection which began Tuesday, restoring Medicaid and Medicare funding which was pulled back in February.
Read the Hospital’s announcement here.
Read local media coverage here.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
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Should You Build Some Apartments or Remodel Your Home?
May 16th, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
This morning the New York Times reported some good news in the housing sector, especially if you are building apartments.
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new homes posted the biggest increase in more than two years in April, a rare spot of good news amid the worst downturn in housing in more than two decades.
The Commerce Department reported Friday that housing construction rose by 8.2 percent in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.03 million units. Building of single-family homes continued to weaken, however. The growth came from a big jump in apartment construction.”
Read the entire article here.
The Wall Street Journal published another interesting article on May 6, The Housing Crisis is Over, which provides an interesting and informative opinion about the real estate market and where it [could be] heading.
Also from the Wall Street Journal, Will Upgrading Your Home Help You Sell It, provides some excellent information and advice pertinent to today’s market.
Wondering about our local market? Review some of my Market Reports.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
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Hoarding MLS Data May [Will] Soon Be A Thing of the Past.
May 12th, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
Loving transparent (i.e., bare naked) real estate as I do, the link that arrived early this morning (via my Twitter) to a New York Times article about ‘real estate lists growing comfortable with the web’ was like a big swirl of freshly whipped cream on my strong, hot… coffee.
“The trend revolves around the nation’s roughly 900 multiple listing services, or M.L.S.’s, where local brokers post information about homes they are selling. In years past, these services were highly restrictive about where and how that information could be distributed — for instance, frequently not permitting Web sites to display M.L.S. listings alongside for-sale-by-owner homes, bank foreclosures or other properties not represented by real estate agents.”
Read the entire article here.
Read my previous comment about this controversial subject: Let Loose of the Real Estate Data.
Given my passion for transparency in real estate, and maybe an ‘outside the box’ sense of humor, this is the perfect opportunity to post this photo of one of the funniest ‘real estate signs’ I have ever seen. “For Sale By Owners” (or ‘fizbos’ behind-the-scenes) in many instances end up being our biggest fans.
In the meantime, give the public what they want. All pertinent data, including ALL days on market!
What do you think?
Got questions? I’ll answer them.
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BUY HAYWOOD… The Whole Bloomin’ Thing!
May 11th, 2008 Categories: Community, Hot Local Topics, Videos and Slideshows
Yesterday I stopped by the sixth annual Whole Bloomin’ Thing Festival before they even opened for business and took a few photos (see slide show below). The Festival, held in Frog Level in Waynesville, NC, promotes local agriculture, local farmers, local artisans and craftspeople, and serves as the official kick-off of Buy Local Week which runs through May 17th, all in conjunction with the BUY HAYWOOD Market Development Project, which you can read more about here. Find local Farmers’ Markets here.
Watch the Stellar Media BUY HAYWOOD Video which won the Best of the Mountains Multi-media Communication Award. Just click the Tomato Head button!
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
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Liquor-by-the-Drink No Longer Bottled Up in Waynesville, NC.
May 8th, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
The results of the first liquor-by-the-drink referendum in Waynesville since 1989 are in (9,155 for; 6,992 against), and Waynesville restaurants can now apply to sell and serve hard liquor. Read local referendum coverage here.
Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse… please call back!
Will this dilute demand for that now hard-to-find moonshine? Has anyone told Popcorn Sutton the news? He may be hard to reach… story ‘locked up’ here.
Popcorn Sutton on Flickr Photostream.
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Hot Off the Press!
May 2nd, 2008 Categories: Hot Local Topics
Bucking the Real Estate Trend made the newspaper today! Our local newspaper, The Mountaineer, printed an article about my real estate blogging website in today’s paper, of which I am very proud.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
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Caffeine and Calculations… your Haywood County buzz for the day.
April 24th, 2008 Categories: Haywood County Market Reports, Hot Local Topics
Starbucks will soon (April 28th) be open in Waynesville (hey, it is our first Starbucks in Haywood County!) and the caffe-aholics are swarming to Ingles to keep an eye on the progress. Practice your ordering - - “I want a triple venti mocha latte with only about half double the chocolate syrup you normally use, with whipped cream, please.”
Real Estate Buzz for the day.
So far this month we have had 38 closings, 17 homes have gone into escrow, and there are 1,073 active listings in the Haywood County MLS.
Source: MLS. Data deemed reliable but, not guaranteed.
See YTD Comparison Report as of 04/22/08.
See First Quarter 2008 Statistics for Haywood County, NC.
See Haywood County, NC Real Estate Market Archive.
Search the Haywood County, NC MLS.
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