Archive for the 'For Home Buyers' Category
There is a lot of competition with Westchester NY homes for sale. During this major housing recession we’ve learned that aggressively promoting the home from top to bottom is extremely important.
When I list a home I tell the seller a hard truth that permeates this market whether you are listing at the high end in Scarsdale or Larchmont to a small coop in downtown White Plains. That truth is that buyers are demanding and LAZY….Seriously, most buyers just don’t want to lift a finger to do anything. The thought of sweat equity has been left in the dustbin of the bull market along with no-doc, low-doc and stated income loans.
Given this atmosphere – where buyers are skimming the cream and leaving the rest – we think often of bringing in stagers to achieve a depersonalized move-in ready feel to a home. People make upgrades just to sell a home. New kitchens and baths are often installed just to appeal to buyers. But what about that all-important first impression? Before people even enter your Westchester home? Curb appeal is very powerful and if you miss out on plantings during this summer market – you are missing an opportunity – and perhaps leaving money on the table.
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It was once said that there are two main emotions that drive any market – fear and greed. As a general rule, the side with the royal flush tends to play the “greed card” while the side with an lowly pair deuces operates from the “fear” side of the equation. This market is definite staked towards buyers and as a result – some are overestimating their power by pushing the greed card way too far. I never knew there were so many ways to blow the opportunities that this market has to offer by simply being too greedy.
Westchester Home Buyers who assume they can just lean hard on sellers until they cave…
Buyers seem to be playing a lot of games lately and some are almost drunk with hubris. Nevertheless, parts of the housing market in lower Westchester is no longer a no-holds- barred buyers market. Some of the most desirable pockets are transitioning to a sellers market. Transitioning markets are tricky – the transition might be real – or it might be just another false start. But its a trend that has been ongoing for a while now – so I do take it seriously.
For the moment however, buyers are coming up with some very creative ways of shooting themselves in the foot.
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Right now I’ve got a couple of clients who appear to be wandering aimlessly through Westchester county in search of the “perfect home.” In the past I had a great deal of patience and would take a qualified buyer almost anywhere they wanted. But with Westchester homes for sale inventories still fairly high and buyers finding new and very creative ways for shooting themselves in the foot through by overestimating their power in this buyers market and ignoring comps altogether when they make offers…..I have to find a way get these buyers to narrow the field to something resembling sanity.
After showing almost 30 properties to one couple and over 40 properties to another – these buyers appear to have no urgency and seem to want to meander aimlessly into every town, village and city in Westchester county and quite literally schedule showings for every single home that might – just might – remotely qualify. I just pulled some favorites picked by one such client and the X’s on the map depict where the most recent 15 of the numerous favorites they had filed away.
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In real estate it is a known fact that it is actually the buyers who determine the market. Home sellers can put any list price they please on the listing sheet, but it is the buyer that actually speaks for the “market.” However, that is not to say that an individual buyer can determine the market by him or herself! It “buyers” collectively that determine where the market is for any given home.
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Spring was late this year and with all the rain that we have had – everyone is eager to get some sunshine on their faces and get outside. It was a long and difficult winter and seeing the sun again is such a treat. I don’t know about anyone else, but my outdoor space could use some remedial help. Whether you are selling your home or just looking to ENJOY your home more – these post from Marie Graham – my Ninja Stager friend – will give you inspiration and direction…
By Marie Graham – of The Refreshed Home
FINALLY! Spring has enthusiastically, colorfully, and jubilantly arrived! After an interminable winter, we are OH-SO ready to get back outside, and enjoy our friends, family and property.
But is your space ready for all your big plans?
If some updates are in your future, here is the first of 3 parts on what to consider before you even THINK of setting foot in an outdoor living store.
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There is yet another reason for first-time home buyers in Westchester NY to get off the fence. Rising rental rates. There has always been a yin/yang between buying vs renting a home. Before the crash of 2008, Westchester homes have been priced such that the pendulum had swung toward renting. For a while now that the pendulum was in the center making the decision a wash. Buying made sense if buyers were looking to stay put for at least 5 years. Now the pendulum is starting to swing in favor of buying.
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Last Saturday I was busy prepping a property for listing. The owner no is no longer local – so after supervising the sanding and refinishing of floors, painting and the rehab of a bathroom – I went in with a cleaning lady complete my vacuum cleaning and other cleaning supplies since the home is now empty. These are some of the activities that can and often are, associated with listing a home.
At some point during the process, I got a phone call. I was expecting a couple of calls and stupidly did not notice that it was an 800 number. It was a representative from what we refer to as a “third-party-site.” Such a site is basically a web site with a fairly good “mousetrap” that somehow convinces the unsuspecting public to logon and give up their name, email address and perhaps even their phone number. Very often the site promises to find the unsuspecting buyer or seller an agent that is an area “expert” who supposedly knows the location they are interested in the inside and out. What the prospective buyer or seller doesn’t realize is that most (but not all) of these sites are simply mills that collect buyer and seller information and “sell” the information for an agent willing or desperate enough to give up enough of their commission to satisfy what appears to be an insatiable appetite.
Real estate agents are middle men…
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Westchester county schools are known for their competitive nature. Now, in any competition there are so-called “winners” and some “losers”. However, as someone who went to what some would call a “fair” high school and wound up with a Ph.D. from a “name school” and subsequently taught as an adjunct professor in several local universities – I am going to put on my educator’s hat and touch one of the “third rails” of real estate by offereing some unsolicited advice.
STOP THE SCORE OBSESSION – PLEASE!
This blog came about because I have had several clients recently that are twisting themselves into knots trying to find something in a school district they truly can’t afford.
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This post was heavily influenced by Leslie Ebersole’s “How many showings is ‘too many’? How much info is ‘too much’? If you haven’t read it, you should.
Amassing Information or drawing conclusions?
Many buyers – particularly younger buyers – are obsessed with amassing as much information as they can before making a decision to purchase a home. I sometimes call the “paralysis by analysis.” Granted, consumers have vast amounts of data at their fingertips – but that does not mean that have the capacity to correctly interpret what they have.
As a former scientist, I was always on guard against that natural tendency to skew my interpretation towards the direction that I favored. In other words – if I was working with one hypothesis for two years – it is only natural for a bias towards that hypothesis to develop. Data has a way of being malleable to a certain point. Buyers may skew the data towards a lower sticker price – sellers would tend to skew the same numbers in the other direction.
Without a proper frame of reference, buyers and sellers a like are going to have a tough time wading through the mass of an often conflicting pile of data.
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Many sellers who are barely breaking even or are under water are desperate for every penny they can get out of their home. For many their home was their nest egg and now rising taxes and financial hardship are forcing them to sell at the depths of the biggest housing recession since the Great Depression.
The question goes something like this:
“We need to get “X” out of our home in order to move on with our lives. You say it is worth 20% less. Why can’t we try it at the price we need and if it doesn’t sell, lower the price in a couple of months?”
Right now, this is still a brutal market for many sellers. Some areas have bottomed out – most are bottoming out – but quite a few markets aren’t there yet and buyers know this and are driving a hard bargain.
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