Bad Call? The best way to sell a house is to exceed Buyers’ expectations (plus dangle a tempting price, and stir up lots of “pre-list” and “new list” buzz). The corollary? “The best way to lose a Buyer is to disappoint them.” —-Ross Kaplan, “Realtor Sales Secrets”; City Lakes Real Estate Blog. Is it a mistake not to...Read More
Seeing Double — or Quadruple! With MLS now allowing unlimited online photos, some listing agents are going nuts, uploading literally 50, 60, or more photos per listing. While that might make sense for sprawling, upper bracket properties, how many different photos can you take of an average-sized — or small — property?? Question #2: How...Read More
Guilt By Association When agents see a listing ” in mid-January, in Minnesota ” with leafy trees and a bright, green lawn, their knee-jerk response isn’t to say to themselves, “My, what gorgeous landscaping.” It’s to click on “History” on MLS to see how long the home’s been on the market ” and find out how many...Read More
Is it Halloween Yet? I’m a big fan of dramatically lit homes. And with the seasonal change, we’re heading into ever-shorter Fall days. And yet, the technique doesn’t work all the time ” and can even backfire: especially for smaller homes, interior lighting at night can produce an (unhelpful) “Jack-o-Lantern effect.” The (kind of) scientific...Read More
When? How Much? If an otherwise well-staged, well-marketed home isn’t selling after a reasonable interval on the market**, a price reduction is invariably indicated. How big? It all depends on how overpriced the home appears to be. Toss Out the CMA Once a home is actually on the market, interest from prospective Buyers ” or...Read More
Staging Malfunctions, or, Seller Cold Feet Call it the real estate equivalent of a “wardrobe malfunction”: the staging appointment, made weeks (or months) earlier, finally arrives, and . . . the client just can’t go through with it. That just happened this week to a stager I regularly work with. Unfortunately, she had been planning...Read More
