Blog of Craig's Arizona

Some word of advise for those selling your home in the Phoenix Real Estate Market, always check your listing to make sure it is correct.  And to keep your agent honest.  I’ve seen way too many bad pictures and bad data to believe the owners intended for their property to be presented that way.  With the advance of the iPhone I think more people are getting lazy and just taking a bunch of quick photos for their listing and not putting the effort into it.  A couple of things to know about your photos, there should never be any people in them or pets.  Keep it about the home, not about the people living in it.  Check the facts as well, nothing aggravates me or other agents more than thinking we’re showing a 3 bedroom and we show up and it’s actually a 2 bedroom with a hallway that the listing agent thinks can be a bedroom (maybe with just a sleeping bag).  If you’re not sure, ask, we’re here to help you.

So what are some of the things that buyers think about when looking at homes, well, the obvious first thing is location.  I want to be close to work/school/entertainment.  Hence the reason the 3 most important things in Real Estate is Location, Location, Location.  So knowing that, let’s jump into the fourth factor, price.  One factor that I’ve seen form the opinion of making an offer more than anything else is price.  It’s also the first factor that is controllable by the seller.  The seller can list the home too high and miss their market completely because it won’t show up in the automated searches Realtors® set up for their client, price it too low and you could create a bidding war or questions about the true value of the home.

Buyers are also thinking about the value of the home, is this price include everything I want or will I have to contribute more to this home to get the home I want.  Let’s take a buyer that really wants a pool, 4 bedroom and 3 car garage in the $200,000 price range.  If I can find a home that has everything he wants but the pool and it’s likely he can get it for $170,000 and the cost to get his desired pool is $30,000, we’re where we want to be on price, but he will have to consider that time it will take to add the pool and the disruption to his enjoyment as the pool is being installed, the home may not look as appealing as one that matches his needs for $210,000.  There are several reasons for this, one is his time to get the home to what it needs to be and the other is immediate enjoyment.  This is one of the reasons why negotiations is so individualized to the two parties involved in the transaction.

Now you can apply the same concept to floor color, kitchen cabinets or any other element of the home.  Understanding and communicating the needs of the buyer is important to the seller and their agent so they can work with and adjust the offer to make it work as much as possible with all the desires of the parties involved.  When I represent the buyer, I try to determine the needs and desire of the selling party as much as I can so I can customize the offer to give them what they need within the boundaries of what my client needs and wants.  This helps create that win-win feeling and also helps our offer feel like the right answer for the seller.