This a common question these days and there are a lot of variables that go into answering this question. Certain markets are cruising right along, and others are not. In both cases there are homes that are not selling and there are certain things to look at. First of all is your home on the local MLS? Having your home on the MLS is a must. Realtors working with buyers use the MLS as the backbone to placing buyers in homes. All of our research is done on the MLS, are commissions set and we need the MLS. Secondly how is your home being marketed? The days of print advertising are dwindling away and the internet is helping 90% of buyers finding their homes. What websites is your house on? The three most important ones are zillow, trulia, and realtors.com. It is essential that your home is on these websites and hopefully many more. How does your house show? Meaning if an agent calls to make an appointment to view the home are you opening the blinds and turning on the lights? Have you moved out as much clutter as possible? Do you keep the lawns mowed, and the beds made? You have to make your home a presentable as possible. Sometime staging is necessary or in other case you might need to store some of your belongings in storage. Finally how is your home priced? Over the past couple of years values have come down and pricing is the most important factor. Your realtor should have a comprehensive market analysis for your property to be sure your home is priced well to start with. So if all of these aspects have been covered and it still has not sold then what? Well you gauge how your home is doing based on what the buyers are saying. It is the realtor’s job to contact each agent and find out the positives and negatives of your home, and ask as many questions to get back to you. Based on what buyers are saying is the direction you can take to help sell your home. Open houses are a good tool to expose your home but really agent showings are the best way to get honest feedback. Now if you are not getting agent showings then you have a problem. If all the aspect have been covered that were just explained then you have to dig a little deeper. Are any other homes selling? What do they have that I don’t? Is my selling commission the same as the others? At this point you need to gather answers to these questions and then try some different things to jump start your home. You can take it off the market and place it on again as a new listing. You can increase your selling commission to selling agents. You can maybe make some cosmetic changes if needed such as carpet or paint. Finally you can reduce the price to make it even more competitive. Remember your home is only worth what a buyer will pay for it! Good Luck!
Pleasanton Market Update
On the weekend of Oct 10th Pleasanton had 5 properties go pending. Val Vista’s Inglewood Dr. went pending after being on the market for 44 days. This property was listed at $629k. Olympic Ct. in Valley Trails went pending after 110 days on the market. The list price was $639k. Meadowlark Dr. in Windsor went pending after 24 days on the market. Winged Foot is located in lower Golden Eagle and this was a short sale that is pending after 62 days on the market. Finally 1515 Germano Way in Ruby Hills is finally pending after 211 days on the market. This custom home has 12,740 sq ft of living space and it was built in 2007. The list price was 7,499,000! Overall this was a good weekend and congratulations to the buyers and sellers of these homes.
New Pleasanton Listings
The week of Oct 3-10 introduced several nice properties to the market. 4246 Katie Ln. is nice house in a good location in Sycamore Place. This home is well price at $595k with 3 beds 2.5 bathrooms. 647 Bonita Ave is a beautiful home in Pleasanton Heights. This home is a “pottery barn special” with every detail looking perfect. 5080 Black Ave is a Country model in Pleasanton Valley. This is an original Country model what has an add-on off the back two bedrooms. The add-on is a little too deep which created some wasted space. The finest home of the week is 5881 Stonecliff Vista Ln in Canyon Oaks! This beautiful home is 4 bedrooms 4 bathrooms with a 2 car garage with 3365 sq ft of living space. This home has great views of the valley and Mt Diablo. The home was built in 2004 and it still looks brand new!
What to do when you are facing multiple offers?
If you have been looking to purchase a home for awhile and you finally find one that you love and you are so excited to make it yours. Your agent contacts the listing agent only to find out that there is another offer coming in on the property. What do you do? To start you need to do you research and find out what the comparable sales are. Compare those sales to this house, evaluate price per square foot, upgrades, and locations. Contact your lender and discuss your options, based on different purchase prices. Make sure you are comfortable and qualified at different price points. Finally ask yourself how much do you want this house? Ask yourself will you be comfortable paying what you offer? Ask yourself will you be okay if you do not get this house? This is where emotions become involved and you can make decisions with without taking everything into account.
Making an offer over the list price is a common practice in most areas. Sometimes people make it out to be a big deal but a lot of times it is not. It just depends on how you view it. For example if a home is listed for $475k and there is multiple offers and you feel $480k might get it. If you are hung up on paying more then the list price, just ask yourself if the sellers had originally listed the home for $480k instead of $475k would I think anything of it. You see a listing agent typically recommends a list price to the seller and a lot of time the seller agrees. The agent recommends a price that will get the house sold in a timely manner while getting the seller the most amount of money. Although fair market value is not what the agent or seller thinks or suggests, it is what a buyer will pay for it! You are the buyer and you most likely are familiar with the market so ask yourself what is this home worth to me? Obviously this home is priced well because another buyer also wants to buy it. Finally ask yourself will I find a comparable home if this one sells to someone else? Every situation is different but do not get hung up with offering above the list price! Just evaluate everything and make a sound decision that you will be comfortable with regardless of the outcome!
New Pleasanton Listings
There were 17 new listings put on the market in Pleasanton this week. Downtown Pleasanton has a new listing on 408 Amaral Cir that is 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms with 1555 sq ft of living space. This home is listed for $705 which is a little on the high side for this home. It was really nice but it is on the corner of Kottinger Dr. and was not completely finished. There were gaps from the hardwood flooring to the bathroom flooring. Items that are simple but you would expect to be completed prior to placing the home on the market. Del Prado has two new listings on Via San Blas, both homes are 2469 sq ft of living space and one is $759k and the other is $769k. Each of these homes are in need of updating and are overpriced. Good size homes in a great area although they need a lot to make them more modern. Pleasanton Valley has a sharp new listing at 5271 Crestline Way. This Monterey model has a lot of nice upgrades and is well priced. The listing of the week is 675 Romeo Ct! This is a custom home in Heather Hill subdivision, that is 4 bedrooms 3 full bathrooms with a half bath. The total square footage is 3450 on almost 1 acres of land. This home has a perfect 180 degree view of the South Pleasanton hills. This is a custom home location that rarely comes up for sale and is perfect for a family! Be sure to click here to search for other listings in the Tri-Valley!
How important is putting your home on the MLS?
If you are serious about selling your home then it is a MUST! In all real estate economies you should put your home on the MLS. Approximately 70% of the buyers are working with agents, in which the agent can access the MLS to view your home. The remaining 30% of buyers looking for a home without an agent use the internet. The beauty of the MLS is you can reach both the buyers with agents and without. Most MLS’s syndicate to various websites so you can reach the buyers without agents as well. Sellers that try and sell their own home usually end up costing themselves much more then what they think they are saving on commissions. Over 90% of buyers end up finding their home they end up buying on the internet. So if you are selling your own home you will have a very difficult time reaching your target audience. What will happen if you do not put your home on the market is it will not sell or you will not get a fair or reasonable offer. Especially in today’s market, buyers are sharks! If a buyer sees a home for sale that has been on the market for a while you can expect a ridiculous low offers. So if you’re a selling your home yourself a buyer is going to do the same thing. To sum it up if you want to sell your home putting it on the MLS is a must!
