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Many Seller’s don’t give much thought to an Open House, clean up a little bit and figure out what to do while the agent hosts the open house. Unfortunately there are those that take advantage of open houses for other reasons than to see your home. To help protect you, just think of these items:
- Jewelry. This is an easy target for thieves, because it’s small and easy to walk out with. Fortunately, the answer here is simple: get a safe-deposit box and put every piece of jewelry that you don’t wear every day in it. It will cost you maybe $50 a month during the time your house is being marketed, and the peace of mind is invaluable.
- Prescription drugs. Again, an easy target for thieves or any open house visitor who just asks “to use the bathroom.” Some people keep their meds in the refrigerator, where they’re in pretty easy reach too. Take them with you before you leave the open house in the agent’s hands instead.
- Small electronics. Cameras, iPods … these are the kinds of things that are small enough to hide in a handbag or coat, and can therefore turn up missing. Lock them away in a filing cabinet.
- Personally identifiable information. This means stuff that has your bank account or social security number on it; mortgage bills, bank statements, credit card statements, cell phone bills. Most identity thieves aren’t going to go to the trouble of attending an open house, but before you let your agent host an open house, make sure these things aren’t lying on your desk (or in an open top drawer where they could be quickly snatched.) Or as in a recent open house that I attended, on the dry board in the office.
Some quick tips to keep you and your valuables safe during an open house. Can you think of anything else?
I believe that when a home owner calls me to sell their home, that is in fact the goal, sell their home. I do a lot of work before meeting with them and during the life of the listing and I don’t want to waist time or money for me or the home owner. Part of the work is figuring out what their property is worth in today’s market and making a plan to adjust the evaluation once we are in the market. I explain this to the sellers and part of the plan is what has become known as the Rule of Tens.
- If the house is on the market for 10 days with no calls or showings…it’s over-priced
- If the house has 10 showings and no offers…it’s over-priced
If either of these events are triggered, than it’s time to talk about a price adjustment. I have this discussion on front so that the sellers have an opportunity to give it thought and be prepared for the discussion when I call to meet. This is part of what makes me a successful agent.
How about you, can you think of any other indications that a property is over-priced?
Marketing your home for sale is so much more than putting a sign in the yard and entering the details into a local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Especially in Phoenix where many of the buyers for the local real estate are out of town. Either they are second home buyers or people relocating to Phoenix. It’s important to post your home on the Internet where 92% of buyers start their search, according to a recent NAR report.
One of the benefits of the Arizona Multiple Listing Service is that most brokers have opt-ed to allow their listings to be agregated to other sites, contributing to more exposure of your property on other sites like Realtor.com and Yahoo Real Estate. As your agent, I also use additional strategies to exposure your home to as many potential buyers as possible.
- Utilizing photos to provide the best exposure for your home
- Keyword rich description to help buyers find your property
- Consulting with a Professional Stager on how best to present your home
- Dedicated website, a URL that points to your listing only
- Posting on Craig’s List
- Regular announcements on Twitter and Facebook
- Listing Post on my Blog
- Listing Announcement in my e-Newsletter
Those are just a few of the first steps. In addition to the marketing is the monitoring to make sure we’re effective in marketing your home:
- Traffic counts on dedicated website
- Click-through and Viral count on Twitter, Facebook, Craig’s List and Blog
- Report of contact questions and showing requests
- Feedback from showings
I do all of these things not only to make sure your home gets as much exposure, but to make sure we’re doing our job to sell your home for the highest possible amount as quickly as possible.
Can you think of anything that I missed, if so please post a comment.
Earnest money is the amount of money a buyer submits with an offer to purchase a house. You actually write a check and send a copy with the purchase offer. Typically it’s a personal check.
Earnest money proves the buyer is ‘in earnest’, or serious about buying that house. If the seller accepts the offer, the earnest money is immediately deposited with the escrow/title office. Contributing to the funds needed to purchase the house.
HOW MUCH IS RIGHT?
A really common question I’m asked by buyers (especially first time buyers) is: How much earnest money is the right amount?
It’s really up to you, typically you will see it in the range of 1% to 2% of the purchase price and not less than $500.
RULE OF THUMB
One rule of thumb about earnest money is, put up as much earnest money as you can afford to lose if you change your mind. According to the contract Earnest money is forfeitable if the buyer is in breach. This means that if the buyer backs out of the purchase after the Due Diligence period, the seller has the right to keep the earnest money as compensation for the lost time on the market.
EXAMPLE
For example: Buyer looks at a house with an asking price of $399,900. Buyer makes an offer of $360,000. That $360,000 is made up of:
- $4,000 earnest money
- $32,000 cash down payment
- $324,000 to be financed by a mortgage
While showing Real Estate in Phoenix, one question that I am asked quite a bit: Is this a safe neighborhood? And it’s one of those questions on the forbidden list of Realtors, we can’t answer it for several reasons. Namely because, how do you define safe?
I am however able and very willing to point you to two websites that will tell you abou the crime in Phoenix. From there, any buyer can make an informed decision on the crime around a potential home. Spotcrime is a pretty cool, interactive map tool.
An authoritative site is the Phoenix Police Department website, they too use a map based system to show crime for an area. Just look for the link that says Interactive Crime Statistics. It can be a bit hard to find on their site.
Are there any other sites you can think of that would help you decide if a neighborhood is safe? Post in the comments.
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