Does Your Home Attract Potential Buyers?

Most of today’s buyers are looking for homes they can take pride in from the onset. They want to move in and be comfortable and make it their own immediately. Although we have some distressed properties and other properties offered “as is,” most buyers are not looking for fixer uppers or renovation projects. “They don’t want to spend their limited leisure time repairing or waiting for contractors,” according to Ginger Foust with Dream Interior Redesign & Staging.

“Buyers are becoming more and more particular with what they will accept and pay for. They do not want your house with your style choices. This is why professional stagers recommend updating and neutralizing your house,” said Foust.
A key factor in selling your home is the buyer’s first impression. Thus, it should be presented at its best. The majority of buyers are budget, time, and style conscious. “Only a drastic price reduction might attract today’s buyers if they see 1980s and 1990s choices in style, design, and décor. Even then, they will probably present a low-ball offer,” says Foust.

Offering allowances at closing such as new flooring and counter tops is not very effective today. “Buyers do not look that far into the future and many cannot visualize what a house could be,” she added.

What do buyers want? Foust recommends updating features such as light fixtures, appliances, flooring, cabinet finishes, plumbing fixtures/faucets, and countertops and backsplashes. Colors are also sometimes in need of updating. There are mixed suggestions when it comes to color. Although, it generally ranges from white to soft, earth-tone colors, which can bring the outside in.

Lighting is absolutely crucial as it warms rooms and creates ambience. Foust cautions though that lighting which is old, outdated, and in need of repair, can be a negative distraction, and that the message this projects is, “I’m a low-dollar house.” The results could mean a sales price that is lower than what is desired.
She recommends updating lighting fixtures. “This is a relatively small financial investment that can reap big rewards and measurably improve the wow factor in any house. It is worth the money and effort of installation,” Foust said.

Foust also offers some lighting guidelines for sellers. Fixtures need to shine, (no rust, no tarnish, no dust, and no cobwebs). All light bulbs must be working and need to be dust free. Consider clear bulbs in fixtures where there is down light. Add up lights in dark corners and below silk plants for drama. Add a timer to important fixtures if you will not be home to turn on the lights or ask REALTORS® to turn on the lights before potential buyers come into the house. Foust says, “Two minutes of preparation can make a lasting impression.”

In many of our older homes and some of our newer homes we are seeing sculpted, two tone carpet. This type of carpet is outdated! In fact, many buyers are moving away from carpeting or using it sparingly.

Most buyers will just say no to shag carpeting, avocado-colored appliances (or golden, olive, or bronze), walnut cabinets and baseboards, Formica counters, and items trimmed in gold. Some outdated items according to Foust include shiny brass lights and plumbing fixtures, laminate counter tops, tile countertops with dark grout, wallpaper and borders, themed rooms, bold paint, and golden oak, honey oak, or whitewashed oak.

“If you cannot provide the upgrades in your house, then potential buyers will move on. Buyers want it all and they want it now or they move on to the next listing to find it,” said Foust. To learn more about redesign and staging, you can visit Foust’s website at www.dreamredesigns.com or call her at 559-877-2442.

Beverly Scott, Agent/Manager
Oakhurst Real Estate

2009 Board Members Begin Their Term and Association Establishes Strategic Plan

The following is an article I wrote for our local newspaper, The Sierra Star, regarding our local association.

Our current governing board began their term in November immediately after our installation.

This year, our installation was held November 21, 2008. Our leadership team includes Beverly Scott, president; Ron Skinner, president-elect; John Bortz, treasurer/secretary; Melanie Barker, immediate past president; Beth Carver, executive committee member; and our directors, Melissa Buller, Dee Dryer, Rick Jackson, Jacque Hohweiler, Dorothy Miller, and Scott Runtzel. Laurie Humphries, our 2007 past president, has been asked to serve in an ex-officio position. We will be working throughout the year in conjunction with our committees and volunteers to meet the needs of all our members.

In addition, the 2008 and 2009 board members and staff of the Yosemite Gateway Association of REALTORS® contributed to a new strategic plan which was recently approved by the board. We met several times both off- and on-line working on the strategic plan. This plan provides us with a guideline for defining our strategy, making decisions, and allocating our resources.

Our updated mission statement is: The Yosemite Gateway Association of REALTORS® is committed to professional excellence for the success of its members in all aspects of the real estate industry.

Our new vision statement is: The Yosemite Gateway Association of REALTORS® is dedicated to providing trusted leadership, transparent practices, and open communication, while supporting our mission and ensuring the public trust of the real estate profession.

Our values are:
• Membership Driven
• Professional Excellence
• Community Involvement.

Our four main goals are:
• Advocacy: To advocate for, protect, and advance the real estate profession of REALTORS® and Affiliates.
• Communications: To convey information clearly and effectively, allowing for transparent operations and the exchange of information.
• Education: Offer quality education, delivered in a variety of formats.
• Organizational Excellence: Maintain a highly effective governing board, professional staff, and organizational structure.

We also established strategies to ensure we meet our goals. These strategies have been provided to our members and are available to our members with the rest of our governing documents. Our members include REALTOR® and affiliate members. Affiliate members have an interest in real estate-related services that benefit our REALTOR® members and/or our clients/customers. For more information about our affiliate membership program, call our office at 559-683-2650.

Beverly Scott, Agent/Manager
Oakhurst Real Estate

Real Estate Agents are Busy Keeping Up with Changes

There has been a paradigm shift with the way we have been spending our time and preparing to best assist our clients. We are learning new ways to provide services in our advancing technological world—from better ways to capturing statistics, making better use of our smart phones and cameras, increasing usage of virtual and video tours, blogging, to being greener by sending documents for digital signatures via email and the Internet without the need for printing, faxing, or sending documents in the mail. Webinars, podcasting, and online classes are also becoming more popular. In addition, we regularly take continuing education courses.

Many agents are taking the time to sharpen their skills not only on the fundamentals but also to increase their technological skills. Others are taking the time to specialize in specific areas of interest to include listing foreclosure properties, working with seniors or first-time home buyers, or getting up to speed with the various communication methods that their clients prefer, for example, texting, email, or telephone.

Other ways agents are staying busy is by spending more time learning about our various real estate forms. For example, in November, we had four new forms added to our REALTOR library as well as others forms that were modified that we need to keep abreast of to better serve our clients. Our association routinely schedules classes to help our members with our multiple listing software and other technology-related items and educational classes of which we always have quite a few of our members in attendance.

A number of our local real estate offices hold weekly meetings where they have expanded the focus beyond the standard sales meeting to include more training and educational sessions about marketing, the economy, distressed properties, mortgage programs such as loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), which have picked up dramatically due to low down-payment requirements, and more.

Several of our real estate offices are busy either currently using or setting up a secure online transaction management program for tracking their files and managing their clients’ paperwork. This also has a green component to it in a field where paper can be rather overwhelming. Ask any real estate agent, buyer, or seller in a real estate transaction about the paperwork involved and you can see how having the ability to upload and download the documentation online could be an enormous benefit.

We recognize that the real estate market has changed, and we are changing with it. Real estate is not stagnant and neither are we.

Beverly Scott, Agent/Manager
Oakhurst Real Estate

Changing World of Real Estate

Real estate is an always evolving world whether one is discussing the cyclical nature of the real estate market, wondering how the changes in the stock market will influence real estate, to trying to understand why in a buyer’s market sellers become stickier and why buyers become more wary or play the waiting game trying to guess when the market will hit the low before purchasing. Regardless of the reasons why, there is no getting around it though; real estate is indeed in a flux and we as agents must change too!

I strongly believe that in today’s market there are certain things that a listing agent and a buyer’s agent can do to increase their effectiveness and help their clients. (I’m focusing on only a few things below but will expand on this in future blogs.) Listing agents, for example, can do so much more for their clients than just put a property in a multiple listing service (MLS) whether it is one or more that they belong to. With that said, the information they put in should include as many photos that the MLS will allow or at the very least 16 photos or more if the number is unlimited. Optimally, the photos will be taken with a good wide angle (one that does not distort)—many digital cameras today can be purchased with a wide angle lens as standard. Before I purchased my new camera, I used a magnetic lens that provided a wide angle. It worked great for non-flash images, but provided a shadow that was difficult to edit out in Photoshop.

In today’s market an agent should be doing all they can do to get a property marketed, and print advertising is no longer the place to do that. With about 80% of people searching for properties online, our “marketing” focus as agents should be to get as much an online presence as we can for our clients. At minimum, a website that features your listings, a virtual and/or video tour, and a method of distributing those tours to other areas on the web such as YouTube, Trulia, Zillow, Blinkx, Google, Craig’s List, and others. Truly, the best print advertising I’ve seen that works is the use of quality flyers in flyer boxes at the property (in a weatherproof box; so, I’ve found out the hard way—I have some on order right now!).

When working with buyers, knowing the community and areas you sell property is essential. There appears to be more and more agents representing clients outside of their normal area of business. If you are a buyer, please use a local agent in the market you are considering buying a home. If you’d like to show your real estate agent how much you value them and at the same time benefit from a local agent that knows the area and its particular quarks, ask your agent to refer you to another agent in an area that is outside your agent’s market territory. You’ll both benefit that way!

It takes a dedicated individual to work in real estate in these changing times. According to the National Association of REALTORS, we are seeing a stabilization of the housing market; we are definitely seeing a pickup in activity in our area. I’m grateful to be able to help those who are ready to sell or looking to buy. I’ve made the best of friends from those I’ve been blessed to assist with their real estate transactions.

Beverly Joins the Web 2.0 World

Welcome to my new and improved real estate website, which now includes awesome maps, chat capabilities, my blog, and virtual/video tours. My new website will have a blue/gray background versus burgundy. If you are not seeing this, then the transfer just isn’t complete yet, check back soon!

I’ve chosen/designed this website with care and have added items that I believe will help bring the site into the Web 2.0 age and provide a value-added service to you. Based on comments I’ve received from clients and research presented at the C.A.R. (California Association of REALTORS) conference in October 2007, I’ve included a chat section where my clients and customers can “chat” with me via the Internet without having to wait for me to check my email (while I’m online). There are also easy links to my featured properties where you can choose to view a virtual tour or video of my listings. There is also a blog summary that links to this blog.

You’ll also find that looking for a property is a much easier and pleasant experience. Generally, you’ll be able to look at the map and see where the home is located visually on a map. If you are looking for land listings though, they may not show on the map correctly as far as location if they have not been “geo-coded” when the listing agent submitted his or her listing.

A feature you will find soon on my site is a foreclosure/real estate owned (REO) properties search feature. This should be available before April 1, 2008.

I love feedback. Let me know what you think of this new site: www.oakhurstrealestate.net.

Disclosure, Thoroughness, and Broker Awareness

There has been a recent California case of interest* regarding the importance of full disclosure. Full disclosure not only by sellers but agents too. It also brings up the importance of the role of the broker in all office transactions. As a manager and agent of a real estate office, the implications of this case are of particular interest.

My disclaimer: Let me make it clear that I’m not an attorney nor am I a legal expert. I’m presenting my thoughts and observations only based on the presentation at a recent California Association of REALTORS conference.

In this case, a real estate agent had a friend who was the son of the owners of a property. The agent was asked by his friend to come take a look at the house and meet with the owners. The agent, during the course of meeting with the owners, completed a visual inspection and wrote down what he had noted. The owners did not list the home with the agent; however, an agent from his office (referred to now as the buyer’s agent) brought in the buyer. As fate would have it, the agent “friend” ended up being the transaction coordinator; his “original” written visual inspection never making into the hands of the buyers though. The buyers (and later the new owners of the property) later learn that there is approximately $500,000 in repairs (per a soil engineer) that need to be done in order for them to do some remodeling work. The buyer’s agent had noted several items down on a visual inspection form (but not everything the other agent had noted and not to the same level of detail). Needless to say, through some rather odd sequence of events, the buyers learn of the original visual inspection and get a copy of it from the first agent. The new owners sue stating that 1) their agent’s inspection was not thorough, 2) fraud, and 3) that the real estate broker should have seen the original agent’s inspection and provided it to the buyer prior to the transaction (negligent non-disclosure). Although, I’m not clear on all the details after that, we can learn several items from this case.

1. It is extremely important that agents (in fact, everyone involved in the transaction) be diligent in their visual inspection and agents need to write everything down—even if it appears minor. The new AVID (Agent Visual Inspection Disclosure) form is a wonderful addition to the TDS (Transfer Disclosure Statement)—I used to write pages and pages on a separate addendum until the AVID form was created. With that said, it surprises me that the original agent (friend) wrote down his findings without first having a listing, but having done so, that information should have been provided (this seems to be the recommendation). Not being a part of this transaction though, I would not dare to point fingers as each situation is different, and the agent may have done so in these unusual circumstances in an effort to help his friend’s parents. I believe the agent friend was indeed doing his best to meet the high ethical code that we REALTORS have—not knowing the outcome of how this would play out. There does appear though to have been a kink in the communication and presentation of the information. Regardless, I believe this is a wonderful opportunity to learn from (sadly, at the expense of others).
2. In addition, broker offices need to come up with a policy and/or tracking system in order to best serve their clients.

* Michel v. Palos Verdes Network Group

Staying Current in Real Estate

It has become even more vital in today's real estate market to become involved and stay current in all things related to real estate; not only at the state level, but also the national level, and, for most REALTORS, to become even more comfortable with technology so we can better serve our clients.

I have attended three real estate conferences since last October: two state conferences (C.A.R.) and one national (N.A.R.) and am amazed at the real estate-related information presented. Whether that information was about the state of the market, podcasting and other communication tools, mortgage and legislative happenings, it is even more important to be aware of what is happening in our industry.

In an effort to better serve my clients, I've changed my website and added this blog, podcasting (to be up and going soon!), and chat. There are also the wonderful maps and other information such as pictures, virtual tours, videos, and area statistics--all things that people in surveys said they want to see when trying to find a property. Other “technological” pluses I offer are digital signatures. This comes in handy for my out-of-area clients and my clients that have busy schedules and like that they can easily sign contracts with the click of a button from an email I send them.

I’ll be attending three more real estate conferences before the end of 2008 (two state and one national) and look forward to sharing with you more about these conferences and how that information could impact you.

More detailed information from my past conferences and other real estate and community information will be posted in this new blog. I look forward to hearing from you and providing requested information here.