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We have posted an article on pricing, one on proper presentation, and now we will share some information about marketing.
Marketing, is the promotion of the product, your home. It involves advertising, but ads are a very small part of the process. In selling your own home the best place to start is having a nice looking professionally made yard sign. Remember that you have just gone to great lengths to make the outside of your property look inviting. It does not make sense to mess up the yards appearance with a cheap looking sign. The sign should have a contact phone number on it. Since you want people to be able to reach you, it is probably best to provide your cell phone as the number. It is also a good idea to say “Agents welcome” on the sign. You would not want to lose a qualified prospect because they are already working with a real estate agent. Qualified prospects are not easy to come by, and most agents will work with you to arrive at a mutually agreeable fee for their services.
Next you need to put together a description of the best features of your home with a flattering photo. Give enough information to get the interest of the people, but do not tell them too much. These flyers that you are creating can be placed inside a weatherproof box that attaches to the sign in the yard. Potential buyers can then pick them up and learn more about the house. In putting together your flyer, sit down and think about the reasons you like your house. What made you think it would be a good place to live? What are some of the special features that you have enjoyed? Does your house have extras to make folks more comfortable? Have you replaced any appliances recently? Have you replaced the roof? Write all these things down. Measure the rooms and include the approximate sizes. We stress the word approximate. You do not want to be too specific, because believe it or not there have been cases where people have purchased a home, moved in, measured it and found that the room sizes were wrong. We live in a world where people have been known to sue over discrepancies. Even when the rooms ended up being larger than represented, people have actually lost such law suits. Just remember the word “approximate” and use it whenever you are representing anything!
Once you put your home on the market, spend some time thinking about what sort of person is going to want your home. Where does that person work? How can you reach them to let them know about the availability of your home? This exercise is one of the things that will help you decide where to spend your advertising dollars.
When you design your ad, use your location. Let people know where you are. Rosehill? Tomball? Cypress? Magnolia? The1960 area? Spring? Think again about what people want, and where your home is. What special features does the area offer? Peace and tranquility plus towering trees appeal to some, and urban concrete and modern will little upkeep appeal to others. Where does your home fall in these regards? Design a line that will grab peoples’ attention. Things like “New garbage disposal” will not impact desire to call, but tree shaded, privacy fenced yards very well may appeal to the masses. Ads do not sell homes. Statistically only about one caller in eleven will actually come to see the property they called on. A sign in the yard, an ad in the paper and a prayer that the property will sell has been a frequently used marketing method to sell properties in days past. Today there are far more compelling methods to conquering the sale. There is incredible competition for every product out there. Based upon the advances made in the technology in the past ten years, it appears that more marketing choices will be available in the market of tomorrow. For today, be sure to utilize things like the internet, Facebook and email.
Be sure that you have given the information about your property to all your neighbors. Chances are that they may have a friend or relative who would love to live in the neighborhood. Every one around you will want to know about your home anyway. What you ultimately sell for has a direct impact upon the value of their house too. Getting the word out about the availability of your property is important. As you can see there are a myriad of creative ways to do it, spending as little money as you can. Saving money was the reason for selling the property yourself in the first place, wasn’t it?
As soon as calls are coming in, you will need a way to see which callers are actually able to buy your home, and who you should show your home to. The process for this is called “qualifying the prospect.” The next blog will go into that in detail.
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We have talked in a previous article about the most important part of selling any property. That is the price.The second most important thing is getting the property in show shape. This requires that you take a very objective look at your home. Better yet, invite a trusted friend over, arm yourself with pad and pencil and begin to look from the street. Are any limbs in the way of your view? Do you see pleasant, clean lines, glistening windows, and brightly colored plants peeking out of well kept flower beds? If this was the first time you had seen this house, would you want to go inside? Write down anything you see that is less than picture perfect, and make plans to fix it.Repainting trim, and using a power washer, especially on porches and around front doors, will help to make a good first impression on potential buyers. Flaking paint anywhere should be addressed and freshened. Neutral colors are a safe bet as a general rule. The plan should be to make the front of the house look well cared for and friendly.Once you get inside your front door, look again for anything that looks faded, discolored, smudged or extra. Clutter tends to diminish the size of your rooms. Since you are planning to move anyway, this is a great time to begin to pack. Anything you consider personal, or precious should be put into a box, labeled for future reference, and put out of sight.Look all around. Look in corners, up and down. Banish the dust bunnies, polish the paneling, clean the chandeliers, and discard the extras in your décor. The objective as you go from room to room, is to look at the space through the eyes of a prospective buyer. They are coming to look at the house, not your furnishings. You want people to be able to visualize their things in your rooms. Now get really critical and look carefully at your flooring and wallpapers. Do they reflect the tastes of today, or are they remnants of the past? Remember that you only get one chance to make a good first impression. A little money invested in new floor coverings may make a lot of difference in the amount of time your home is on the market. It will also influence the kind of offers you get. At the very least, be sure that everything is clean and stain free.Kitchens and bathrooms are areas that frequently help sell houses. Be sure that your countertops are clear and all the sinks and faucets are gleaming. Curtains should be open if possible to show off the view and to create light. Everyone prefers to have things light and bright. Arrange the things in the pantries and closets to appear orderly and to show off the space. Color co-ordinate the towels and accessories to show off the tile or wallpapers. Extra time spent on this will pay off in greater results. Just as you would take your car to get it detailed before you took it to the dealer to trade it in, getting your house in show shape is an important part of positioning it on the market. We will discuss that phase in another upcoming blog. If you have specific questions in the mean time please feel free to call us.
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This area is a well kept secret. Nestled in the trees of Northwest Houston, homeowners are under strict restrictions to keep up their property. The result is a delightfully well landscaped and beautifully maintained area. For many years Prestonwood Forest has been known for the creative lights at Christmas time. The season is celebrated by many of the homeowners with a sharing of themes. Streets are ablaze with lights and cut outs of beloved characters such as Snoopy and the Disney cartoons. Other streets have done more traditional things such as candy canes and religious icons. Residents compete for a few prizes from the homeowners association.
What most people do not know is that the lawns are also well done all year long. A drive around the neighborhood will net the viewer a lot of pleasure in seeing the creative use of different plants in the landscapes.
Animal lovers can find thrills in their backyards. The area is in a migration path so many birds, such as ducks, doves, several species of woodpeckers, chickadees, mockingbirds, starlings and cardinals are frequent flyers through the neighborhood. We have also enjoyed the antics of raccoons, possums, skunks and squirrels. The most exciting visitor was a Palliated Red headed woodpecker who stopped by very briefly last week.
The towering trees, and larger lot sizes give a feeling of country serenity, yet the neighborhood is easily accessible from Willowbrook Mall and 1960 at 249.
Homes were generally built in the mid 1970s and have spacious rooms and many built ins. Lots of homes have updates such as tile or wood flooring and updated kitchens. Many still have the original charm enjoyed by the owners for many years. There is always a chance to find something that you can put your unique touches on.
If you are interested in finding a home in the low to mid 100s, this could be the place you want to call home.
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Many of the subdivisions that we have been active in since 1978 are stable, but not showing any appreciation right now. We had become used to annual inflation factors of up to 15% over the years. While things may not be gaining in value, for the most part they are holding. Houston has an incredible ability to do better than most of the rest of the nation when it comes to upholding home values.
The largest hurdle right now is getting things to appraise for the value asked for by the seller and offered by the buyer. This used to be what was defined as “Market Value.” Things are changing due to new rules by the lenders. Lenders have been hurt by the market collapse of recent years. It was not a total surprise. They had allowed people to purchase properties that they really could not afford and did not qualify for. When the economy got a little soft, these folks could not make the payments and the lenders found themselves holding properties that they did not wish to own. With the failing values, the properties often did not have the value they had when they were first sold to the folks who should not have bought them in the first place. This in a nutshell describes the general market mess.
Things are not as bad as the media would have you think. In fact, compared to the recession of the 1980s, it is not bad at all. It does however have its challenges. The fact that the lenders now are asking appraisers to work for less than they have ever charged for appraisals, is, in my opinion, going to be the root of a brand new evil. Think about it. If you had spent years learning your profession and now you are told what you can charge to do your job, what would you do? It is highly possible that many of the good appraisers, who had worked hard to get the sellers the best value for the properties they were selling, will now change the way they do business, or retire and go into another line of work.
Before all the trouble with the market, lenders hired appraisers that they knew, or that they had heard good things about. No one likes to have to redo the loan process. Agents who had studied the market before listing homes knew about what a subject home should sell for and priced it accordingly. If an appraisal came in below what the agents studies had shown, the agent could share the comparables they had used, and if the appraiser could not find a value close to the sale price, (without knowing what the sales price was) the agent could challenge the report. We did that on many occasions. Now, we are pretty much stuck with the appraisal report, and sellers have to sell for the appraised value, or not at all.
We believe that this is a short term problem that will work itself out as the newer appraisers get more experience and are able to do more complete work. The more experienced appraisers will not all disappear. With the lowest interest rates since the Second World War, there are homes that will sell. The foreclosures will all go away soon, and there will be a shortage of homes. This will drive the prices back up, since all of the market is driven by supply and demand. So, if you do not have to sell till mid August, hang in there. That time of the year is always a good time to sell, and this year the limbo games should be over, or at least much less prevalent.
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Thirty years ago, the very first customer I had worked with were a delightful couple with stable income and realistic expectations. We looked at a myriad of homes and these people, who we will call “Bob and Naomi” for the story, came to me right after I had gotten my license. Real Estate licenses, I soon learned, were licenses to get into trouble. The classes I took did not nearly equip me to serve the needs of anyone. I knew the basics of how to open houses via lock boxes, to research for the wants of clients and to write contracts. That was about all I knew. As a result after a few weeks these first clients had seen forty homes. They were totally worn out but had not seen a home that made them beg me to write an offer. Luckily one of the title companies was giving classes during the week between the last time I had shown homes to this tolerant couple and the next time we were scheduled to look at more homes. The class was about how to help people find just the right house. There was no way that I ever wanted to be accused of manipulating someone into BUYING. The class showed how to do the research and then preview homes looking for the solutions to the problems the potential clients had described. The day before the appointment to actually show my clients again, I went to see six homes, three of which had all the features that had been mentioned as buying criteria. The three homes were in the right area, had the right room sizes, and were in the right price range. The difference was in me. It was a confidence that I had found a home that met all the criteria better than all the previous forty. As we began the days search I was truly excited about the house that was my “target” home. When we went into the first house I showed how the house met the needs they had expressed. Each feature was explained in that reference. By the time we got to the back yard, these patient folks were ready to write an offer. Wonderful! The only problem was that that was not the house that was the best one I had found. Not wishing for them to settle for less than the absolute best, I told them that we had appointments on two other homes that would do the job even better than this one. They were truly nice folks. As I look back, I marvel that they did not fire me and find someone else to represent them. They did love the “right” house. We wrote the offer. Then the fun really began. In that day I was working for the absolute best brokerage I have ever been with. We had a buddy policy which meant that we had to call our “working partner’ and go over the offer we had written. This was designed to help us not only look over the offer, but have it seen from a different perspective by a more experienced agent. I located my working partner who was leaving for an afternoon at a Houston football game. She called me back on a pay phone and walked me through the entire offer. After some minor changes, she approved it and I went back to the buyers with the corrections. There were not computers. We worked with paper and carbon paper. Delivery of the offer was done by driving the offer across town to the listing agents’ office. There were copy machines so that five copies of the offer could be made. This was so that each agent could have a copy, the title company could have one and the buyer and seller each could have an original. As you can imagine, all this took lots of time. Offers were presented in person all the way around. We got to know our fellow agents a whole lot better, but we were not nearly as productive as we are with all the technical advances. The last time I checked, these people were still in that first house. It makes sense. It was after all the absolute Best house for them!
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We are Dream makers. One of our favorite slogans is “Opening Doors and Dreams since 1978.” The concept is here is simple. You create your dream. Then share it with us. We can put our two minds and over 50 years of experience to work on all the details, and the search. We will happily begin to search the Greater Houston area and particularly the Northwest Houston area out to The Woodlands, Tomball, Magnolia and over to Rosehill and Cypress for your perfect property. The property that you visualize in your moving dreams will be our target.Our goal from day one is to listen to your wishes, make you feel comfortable with every step of the purchase or sale and help move you toward a winning Houston area investment. Your complete satisfaction will be our highest reward. We have included a section of this web page that highlights some of the testimonials we have received from clients over the years. If you have questions about the buying process, please feel free to either call us or leave an email here. We want to earn your business.
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Is the top of your home buying criteria “affordable”? Lets define that word. Does it mean getting the most value for the least possible amount of money? If that is what you mean by affordable, we look for properties that meet that definition all day every day, and we've have done it for YEARS!! As “The Northwest Houston Home Team," we feel that our clients deserve to know about all the bargains before they make a buying decision. Because of this we have set up our website so that you can find all of the most affordable homes in Houston, and the surrounding communities just by clicking on the site… You do not have to look any further. You have found your connection to ALL the N.W. Houston bargains. We love treasure hunts! If you see something you would like more information on, just ask. We will give you all the information you are seeking. If you don’t see what you are looking for, let us know what you want and we will see if anyone is getting ready to list something similar. If you do not see it here… its not on the market yet. But if you will give us a call we may be able to quickly find what you want. We have devoted more than 50 years combined to helping people open doors to their dreams. With a track record like that doesn’t it make sense to allow us to help you? Sure, you can go it alone… The result of that is that you can spend hours or days wandering around in the weeds looking for deceptively described properties. Exploring new things is sometimes fun, however exploring the prospects of buying or selling without the proper guidance and direction could be a risky venture couldn’t it? So… you have nothing to risk by just clicking on our website and starting on your adventure. We are here to help you when you are ready. We have the answers, and we will be happy to share the information we have spent many years gathering… It makes your search for affordable easier, quicker and cuts down on hassles! Call The N.W. Houston Home Team your team of 2 experienced Real Estate Brokers in Northwest Houston Texas for a guided tour through the Affordable Home maze. We will make your dream of an “affordable” home in the Greater Houston area… a reality! Call 713-632-4500 or 713-447-4343 today… and let the “affordable” search begin!!
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New "government" regulations regarding home loan appraisals went into effect on May 1. These are sure to gum up the works and SLOW DOWN the appraisal process and surely the loan process when you go to buy real estate. So.... when you plan to buy a new home you need to allow a few extra weeks to process your loan. We'll provide a link to further information on this new process next week.
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Don't forget to wish Mom a Happy Mothers Day!  After all if it weren't for her you wouldn't be. And while you're at it get one of these houses for her. Just imagine how surprised she'll be!
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Awesome location! Super Clean
• 2,307 sq. ft., 2 bath, 4 bdrm single story
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MLS®
$149,700
Prestonwood Forest, Houston
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As close to perfection as it gets. This spacious, well planned and delightfully decorated home has been meticulously maintained. Ceiling fans in each room for super comfort. Formal rooms plus large den with vaulted ceiling and rich wood paneling give room to spread out and enjoy the close in location. Shopping, dining and schools are within an easy drive. Subdivision is known for its extravagant Christmas lights.
Property information
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Comfy and Cozy!
• 2,392 sq. ft., 2 bath, 4 bdrm single story "Traditional"
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MLS®
$149,900
Candlelight Forest West, Houston
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Beautiful blend of quality and charm lovingly maintained by original owners. Could not be duplicated at this price. Lushly landscaped with tropical and native plants. Easy care with covered patio, raised decking, fenced separate dog kennel and concrete walkways. Lavish storage throughout. Storm windows for enhanced security and lower utilities. Refrigerator stays.Gas logs in fireplace. This is a rare find. Hurry!
Property information
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