Listing tomorrow, every “impossible” in Sun City…
Archives (page 2 of 14)
I am Cassandra: I wrote a long thread on Twitter last fall on how to list a home so it will sell for top-dollar on the first weekend. The response? Crickets. The truth is that most real estate agents are very bad at selling homes, by my standards, and yet all of them are convinced they have nothing new to learn.
Here’s the way the world works: The only remaining marketing channel for a residential listing is the MLS – by way of sites like Zillow and Realtor.com. I do everything I can think of to supplement the listing, but, in a world where no one looks up from the cell phone, the cell phone is the only way you have to reach buyers.
Hence: More than ever, real estate is not just a marketing praxis but a publishing job: To be effective, the listing must make your home’s ultimate buyer crave the property. The analogy of the Christmas Wish Book is spot on: If I can get you to peruse my listing over and over again – you’re not looking at anyone else’s.
And that’s my job. Over time, we’ll talk more about how I work; as noted, I have no fear of my competitors learning anything from me. For now, take this away: The listing is the invitation to the showing, and the showing to the offer. The marketing strategy that works is the one that gets buyers off their phones and into your home – before anyone else can steal it away.
Urgency. Fear of Missing Out. Sold. And it all starts with the MLS listing…
This post marks a soft relaunch of this web site. I’m marketing for new business for the first time in 14 years, and we’ll celebrate with a new Sun City listing later this week.
Jump over to the About page to see what’s what. The Cliff’s Notes is simply this: I want to list your Sun City home, when you’re ready to sell, and I would love to have the opportunity to show you why I am the better choice: Better results in time and money, yielding better net returns in your pocket at Closing.
Call me: 602-740-7531. I can do better, and I can prove it.
What’s going right in our part of Metro Phoenix? Everything that hasn’t gone wrong…
Arizona is reopening – like it or don’t. We never shut down as much as other states, and businesses are opening back up now, with the leader of our V-formation of geese racing to keep up.
So far, we have had no notices of tenants in trouble. That’s day-to-day until things settle down, but we’re over 25% guaranteed income, and we shop hard for income stability on the way in. Cross your fingers, we won’t have a problem.
Over the past year, I’ve warned that we were nearing the top of our market, so the choice was to sell or risk another turn of the wheel. We haven’t actually crested even yet, but Notices of Default will start hitting mailboxes soon, so we could be looking at another glut of listings shortly. Still a good market to sell into, but that may not last long from here, and, sadly, we may be looking at bargain-basement buys again before long.
And yet: The future’s so bright… Vertical, high-density, transit-dependent real estate development will suffer nationwide from here, where the kind of Arizona homes you already own will profit immensely from America’s rediscovery of open spaces, fresh air and unlimited (ahem!) sunlight. I anticipate much higher than normal population growth over the next few years – to the benefit of every current property owner.
So you know, my biggest day-to-day concern is the ongoing landscaping problem, and that’s a good way to manage your worries from afar: The virus and the response have hurt the state, but not us, and our concerns are largely unchanged from two months ago.
I hope every bit of news in your life is this good.
Best,
Greg
I plan to write a series of picture-posts about all of the incredible development that’s going on in the Western half of the Valley of the Ever-Fecund Sun, but before that I want to salute two assets that let us catch our breath in this blacktop desert: The New River and the Aqua Fria River.
They’re anarchic linear urban forests, profiting best from neglect, but they are an accessible wilderness in the city. Just breathe…
Documenting my value proposition in four quick minutes. I know I can get more for your West Valley home – and my stats back me up.
How to take maximum advantage of the #iBuyers – Wall Street-funded whales who are remarkably inept at real estate. Their losses can be your gains. Learn how – and share this video with your friends.
Pardon my absence. More work means less time to write about it. I’ve been writing a ton about #iBuyers, actually, but I’ve been doing it from iBuyerSpy.com. I encourage you to pursue my work there, and I vow to share some of it back here, as well.
Here’s a sample to get us started: iBuyers can’t close. Their ineptitude is your opportunity.
It’s a simple as this chart, 30 Year Conventional and FHA mortgage rates over the past year:
What goes down will come back up – perhaps costing you tens of thousands of dollars on your loan qualification amount.
Ready to commit? Cathleen and Maddie have time available for a few motivated buyers: 602-740-7531.
There are always good reasons for waiting. The inevitable turning of the mortgage interest rate tide is a strong goad to act now. If you miss out on this opportunity, you might not see another one like it for a long time.
I’ll answer a cliché with a cliché: It’s never over until the fat lady signs – but then it is.
Everything that makes homes seem so affordable right now is a reflection of our insanely low interest rates. Every bump in those rates will cut the amount of house you can afford to buy – or commit more of your income to housing and less to the rest of your life.
If you’ve been thinking about making your move – tick tock.
Why is right now the strategically perfect moment to move up?
Because the mortgage interest-rate trend illustrated in that chart won’t last forever. There are other good reasons to make your move now, if moving’s on your mind, but these rates make a $200,000 home cheaper than the rent on half that much house.
There’s this, too: When rates turn upward, that will put a damper on already wilted demand, so we may be at the de facto top of this market swing. Prices have been stalled, as best, over the last year.
Washington does want to re-inflate the housing bubble. That’s the reasoning behind all the everything-old-is-new-again exotic loan products, including 3% FHA-beaters from Fannie and Freddie.
But at the same time, both mortgage-interest-deductibility and residential capital-gains deferment are political footballs always in play.
As matters of abstract economics, all of this is destructive, market machinations devised to churn the residential real estate market to no productive benefit.
But as matters of personal financial strategy, events like these provide a useful guide of when and how to act.
Ergo: If you plan to move up in the near future, the future is now:
1. If you have a house to sell, low interest rates increase your buyer pool. It’s a buyer’s market, so you’re going to sell for what you can get, but qualified buyers are out there for turn-key-livable homes,
2. Whatever mortgage you qualify for, you qualify for a lot of house. To be a seller in a buyer’s market is no fun. To be a buyer is a delight. The house you’re looking for is the one that can be home to you for a long time, if necessary. Your payment will be very low. You’re looking for a home that will make you love that loan payment just that much more.
3. Manage your cash. Low-down loans are bad for the economy, long-term, but they may be very good for you. You don’t want more house than you can afford, but you may want the house that will be perfect for you after a few years of concentrated rehab. In this golden moment, you have options about where to put your money, with Uncle Sam practically begging you to put your accumulated equity into other investments.
My take? Let’s dance. We list strong, to get our houses under contract quickly and for top dollar. We work with great lenders who can get you the most money for you money. And we can get you moved into the home you know you’ll be needing for your family in the years ahead.
There may not be another move-up moment this perfect anytime soon. Call me at 602-740-7531 and let’s get busy today.
The holidays mean different things to different people, but they mean something special to well-prepared home-buyers:
When holly is in the air, it’s a great time to pick off bargains from motivated sellers.
It’s easy to understand why: All the other buyers are tied up with their holiday preprations. Inventories have been rising for more than a year, and some sellers need to make a deal NOW.
Who?
• Folks who want to account for their proceeds on this year’s taxes, not next year’s.
• New home builders who want their spec homes closed out on this year’s books.
• People who are sick of waiting and want to get on to the next chapter in their lives.
A well-crafted aggressive offer can make all the difference in a market like this one. Little things to take away the seller’s fears can make a huge difference.
As with everything in real estate, strategy matters. Give us a call – 602-740-7531 – and let’s talk about getting you moved.
No. In a few months, when the wildflowers bloom, it will be even more breathtaking…
Live where it snows? Had enough? Isn’t it time to get your Winter back?
Hard to believe, isn’t it? You can actually sell a home in Greater Phoenix and make money on the deal.
How can this be so? The long answer is long and boring, but the short answer yields a comprehensive truth in only two words: Market volatility.
We were a slow leak on the way down, until all of a sudden we were a fast leak. And then, just as suddenly, the market surged upward, gaining back a lot of lost price-pressure very quickly.
The result? If you bought a house in Phoenix or its suburbs within the past two or three years, it could be possible for you to sell that home and actually pocket some cash on the deal.
How much money could you scrape off the table?
It could be a lot, actually. We’re getting ready to list a property where we expect the sellers to more than double their 20% down-payment in less than 15 months, total, since they closed on the home.
Your mileage will vary, of course, but you only need to beat your original purchase price by 7% or so to put yourself in the black — and home values are up more than 30% over the past year.
Okay, so you might be able to sell at a profit. Why would you do it? And why now?
The why is your question to answer: To move up to a better home, to move down to a house you can own free-and-clear, to move on to another part of the country, to get your money out of housing and put it into a business — your reasons are your own.
But why now? Because supplies of homes are very low, demand is insanely high — and because neither of these circumstances can last forever.
It could be that we’re back on the appreciation track for the foreseeable future, in which case holding out for higher prices makes sense.
But it also could be that the recent upsurge in prices is the eye of the hurricane, and continued foreclosures combined with other bad economic news could push home values down yet again.
I don’t know which will happen — but I know that no one else knows either.
But if you have a reason to sell your Phoenix-area home, we can make it sell quickly and for top dollar right now. If you want to explore your possibilities — and calculate your potential profits — drop me a line.