Hello, this is Michael, Julie’s husband and I am writing her column today.
Buyers today have more time and choices than they have had for a long time. With that in mind, I joined Julie to preview some homes for some buyers she is working with. I’m like everybody and find it fun to occasionally look at homes. We were looking for homes in the $475,000 to $525,000 and only if they had a pool.
Of the eight homes we looked at only two were what I would call, ready to show. It dawned on me that with this slower market houses remain on the market longer and are getting fewer showings. By the looks of the first home we visited the Mom, had given up a long time ago trying to keep the toys picked up, the bathrooms clean and the dishes done. The second home was better but very hard to imagine living in because it had so much stuff you could not see the floor. The garage was so jammed; you could not even get two feet into it.
Seems to me if you have a home for sale with a pool it is going to attract someone who wants to have one. Why wouldn’t you keep your pool clean? Then there was the one that looked like a gang was living there for the last year. The mattress on the floor with sheets that looked like they had not been washed in monthsÂ….yuk! It was really too bad because this home could have been spectacular. Of the two that showed well, one was owned by a young couple who clearly has pride of ownership and was there when we visited. Maybe they just cleaned it up when they got Julie’s call, but I suspect it is ready to show everyday. The other home that showed well was clearly staged and done well.
Be clear, if you are selling a home, there is work to do and it doesn’t stop until the sale closes. In today’s market the showings may happen infrequently but when they do it is vital that your home is presented as well as it can be to the prospective buyer. Remember they have many homes to choose from and it doesn’t take much to tell their Realtor to move on to the next.
By the way, Julie did return with her clients to the two homes. Although neither ended up as their final choice, they got a serious look and the number of showings correlates to sales.*
