Have You Really Decided Not to Sell Your House?

I have been helping frustrated owners sell properties that other agents could not sell since 1996.  What does this mean?  I use the multiple listing service to monitor daily residential and multi-family properties.  I look for property listings that might appeal to my buyer-clients, that compete with properties owned by my seller-clients and those which come off the active market without selling.

During the course of any year a number of property listings are canceled or their contracts expire before there is a sale.  Some of these properties will come back on the market with the same agent, perhaps at a lower price, some owners will hire a new agent thinking that will solve any problems they had and a significant number of properties will remain off the market for months or longer!  I always wonder what happened with whatever plans those owners and families had.

While some owners may resort to renting their houses so they can move, many seem to either give up or delay their plans, perhaps waiting for what they think is a better time to sell.  Those looking to buy another home need to know how waiting will affect a purchase.  Either way, the fact is that buyers look at houses all year long and they can only see and buy properties that are on the active market so waiting to try again may be counter-productive, especially in areas that tend to move more slowly.

I understand and empathize with people who feel frustrated by the harsh reality of the Real Estate market.  Any optimism they felt can lead to frustration:  why aren’t people coming to see their house?  Perhaps they had many showings but no one made a good offer.  Many probably wish that family, friends and neighbors would stop asking them questions.  I do have one serious question:  what happens if you do not sell?  If anyone really wants or needs to sell, why not restart the process now or start planning for next year?

I am a full-time agent, a REALTOR®, an Associate Broker, an Ethics Instructor and a Mediator.  I have listed and sold Real Estate in Delaware, Montgomery and Chester Counties and in Philadelphia.  Many properties that sell were “previously listed” and most of them sold only after something was changed with the way they were being marketed.  Price is not always the issue.  In fact, many sellers take unnecessary reductions.  For any “previously listed” property to sell, something must change.

The most effective choices are marketing (meaning “exposure” or awareness of your property: your MLS sheet is your property resume.  How accurately did it represent what you were selling?), pricing strategically and/ or hiring a different agent.  Changing agents can bring a new perspective and a different philosophy that might provide the advantage you need in a competitive market.  What would your last agent do differently this time (other than a price reduction)?  Will doing the same thing over again even with a new agent produce a different result?  Change for the sake of change can be a mistake.  You may be adding days on the market without increasing your odds for success.

Why should you call me?  My background in Client Service Management combined with my Real Estate experience, training, education and knowledge will help me to assist you.  Real Estate is not “rocket science” but it requires a thorough knowledge of the “process” and a proven strategy.  I have a common sense, client-centered approach.  You can learn more about me by listening to my podcasts, reading my blog and by visiting my website.  I have a lot of material available.

Effective marketing allows buyers and agents to find properties like yours in their search results (think “Google search”).  If they could not find your property in their searches, the odds were against you perhaps causing your property to sit on the market!  Many sellers are asked to reduce their price (and their proceeds!) when marketing was THE real problem.  Reducing the price will NOT always solve a marketing problem.  I NEVER ask for a price reduction without justifying it.  Every house has a price at which it will sell; my job is to get my clients the highest price possible.

If I earn the opportunity to work for you, you will receive the highest quality service, attention to detail and effort.  Communication is critical:  my job is to keep you informed so that you can make the best decisions.  Most of my clients never had any ongoing contact with their agent!  I work for my clients.  In addition, I offer the following guarantee that I will do what I promise:  if I don’t, call me to discuss your concerns.  If I cannot satisfy you, you may cancel our listing contract unless your property is under contract with a buyer!

Thank you as always for taking the time to read my blog and/ or listen to this podcast.  Please contact me if you would like to discuss this further.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY:  We are not all the same!

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The PAR Listing Contract, Paragraph 13: ADDITIONAL OFFERS

I created and am teaching a class on representing sellers from the Consumer Notice through settlement.  As part of my preparation for the class I reviewed the PAR Listing Contract in detail.  I have always questioned two specific statements in paragraph 13 which is titled ADDITIONAL OFFERS.  I have worked around these two statements in my own business and used the classroom as a way to see if other agents agreed with me.  Most did.  Here are the statements and my thoughts.

Line 118 basically says:  “Unless prohibited by Seller, if Broker is asked …, Broker will reveal the existence of other offers”.  While I understand and appreciate that we have to be honest, our primary duty as stated in Article 1 of our Code of Ethics is to protect and promote our client’s interest.  Generally speaking, I am not sure that telling an agent or a buyer that you have an offer on a property really helps the seller especially if the offer is not something they are likely to sign and/ or the buyer wants to avoid what may not really be any viable competition for the property.  The question demands a yes or no answer, not a maybe.  Suppose you have an unopened email or a package that you know contains an offer for a property you have listed.  You may have no idea about the details:  it could be full price or above asking or well below.  There could be contingencies that are unacceptable to your seller client.  Are you supposed to tell others that you have an offer?  Again, you cannot say “maybe”.

I offer two alternatives for rewording the sentence to be more proactive.  One would be a statement that the agent will not reveal the existence of other offers unless authorized by the seller.  Or it could state that the agent is authorized.  Either way, the statement is plain and simple.  This may be semantics but I like these phrasings better.  The other alternative would be a check box offering the seller the choice to accept or waive disclosing the existence of other offers at the time of signing the listing contract.  When the disclosure is waived the agent would respond by saying they are not authorized to answer the question.  Again, if authorized the answer is an honest yes or no.  In addition, suppose you say yes or no and the circumstance changes, perhaps an offer dies or one comes in.  Does the seller or the buyer’s agent or the buyer expect a real-time update?

At the very least, my hope would be that there is a greater likelihood that a conversation would take place than is probably happening now and that is a good thing.  Too many of my seller clients who have worked with other agents before hiring me have told me that they were negotiating an offer or heard there was interest and then nothing happened.  When I mentioned my concerns to my students I sensed that many never gave a thought to the downside of this:  some buyers run the other way when they hear about competition and line 118 does not differentiate between viable and non-viable offers.  Of course, we have many different business models and if a property is located in a market that thrives on any type of competition, disclose to your heart’s content but one size does not fit all.  We have to know our clients, their circumstances and their local market.

Within the same paragraph, line 120 states that “ONCE SELLER ENTERS INTO AN AGREEMENT OF SALE, BROKER IS NOT REQUIRED TO PRESENT OTHER OFFERS”.  My office policy has always been to present any and all offers and let the seller decide what to do.  Admittedly this may require their seeking legal advice if they like the latest offer even though under contract with another buyer with their having no apparent right to terminate the existing offer without creating a default.  Experience tells me that the grass is not always greener but it is their house!  Either way, the client is the boss and gets to make those decisions.  I advise and they decide.

My questioning this particular statement has a more basic rationale:  when a seller signs an agreement of sale, we are required by MLS rules to change the status within 3 business days.  In addition, our Code of Ethics Article 3 and RELRA require that we disclose the existence of accepted offers.  The keyword is accepted meaning that a contract has been signed.  It is the right thing to do.  Bright MLS offers two status choices:  A/C, meaning active under contract, or PENDING.

A/C technically means that the seller is still allowing showings, presumably as a way to limit the damage should the contract fall through while PENDING stops showings.  Buyers sometimes wonder why and we have to assure them that they have a viable contract although some find this unsettling and it can affect the process.

Many agents, whether it is their thinking or their client’s, use A/C and, while true or not, agents have always complained that agents who use the A/C status often do not allow showings which is a violation of our rules and makes no sense.  That is a separate matter but, given the likelihood of using A/C rather than PENDING, it makes no sense to have the seller agree that we not present any additional offers while we seem to be encouraging them.  I think we either need to change this statement or offer options depending on the MLS status chosen.  Again, let’s force another conversation.  We live in the age of scanning and email with electronic signing.  Real Estate is a people business and yet technology seems to separate us.  Sometimes I see the negative impact of that when I am asked to mediate a dispute or chair a panel hearing an ethics complaint.  The root of many problems is a failure to effectively communicate.

Of course either statement could be modified by changing the contract itself as I am doing or by using an addendum.  The question is whether either happens or is the seller put in a precarious position perhaps by an agent who does not understand the potential consequences.  Given that buying a house is typically the largest purchase someone will ever make and that the process itself is emotional enough even in the best of circumstances, I think we need to better prepare our clients for what may happen and that means making it easier for agents to explain the steps in the process and what may go wrong.  While having a sale fall through can be traumatic, it does not come close to how a buyer or seller feels when the process got in the way of itself.  The damage cannot be easily undone.

I know that no one wants longer contracts but I see these two statements as problematic.  On a related note, our state required property disclosure statement is almost the same number of pages as our state purchase agreement.  That is amazing to me!

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

HIRE WISELY:  We are not all the same!

Bright MLS Quarter 2, 2019 Housing Report

Bright MLS has released their Residential Market Report for single family homes for the second quarter of 2019.  In today’s podcast I will discuss YTD results through June for Delaware County Pennsylvania.  If you would like information about this or any other County in the Delaware Valley, please contact me.

The report compares the current results to one-year ago, same time period.  As with all Real Estate statistics, two things are true.  First, the performance within individual zip-codes can and will vary significantly from the overall County.  Real Estate is local and results can vary from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block.  There is no such thing as a “national” Real Estate market so, whether you may be looking to buy or sell, please contact me for details about your areas of interest.  I can provide current information and keep you informed about the evolving market.  Deciding whether it is the right time to sell or buy is a personal decision typically involving a number of variables.  I can provide the knowledge and insight to help you decide what works for you.

My second point is that, unfortunately, all Real Estate statistics involving sold data is stale.  While a sale may be settled or closed today, the real question is when was the offer negotiated?  Typically sales take 45 to 60 days to close so the market today may be different.  Up-to-date information is important!

As far as the statistics, 3310 properties were settled through June with an average “selling price” of $288,887 and a “median” selling price, meaning that half of the sales were higher and half were lower, of $227,564 compared to 3429 settled last year at an average price of $266,570 and a median price of $209,900.  The DOM or “days on the market” for settled properties rose to 61 from 55.  The ratio of the “average sold price” compared to the “original asking price” was 95.7% with the percentage dropping as the days on the market rose.  The “inventory accumulation” remains under 3, which suggests a slight seller’s market overall.  The underlying data shows a wide range of results in all categories among the 49 different municipalities in Delaware County.

We can debate whether averages or medians are more important but what really matters is how your property or one that interests you compares to those appraised and settled with similar location, features and condition.  Appraisers rely on nearby settled properties so average or median pricing loses some validity but may provide insight for both the short term and the long term.

What about the properties that did not sell?  Many came off the market and remain unavailable.  Houses may get showings without generating offers unless buyers think they are priced within the range of their perceived “worth”.  Most property listings whose contracts are canceled or allowed to expire have asking prices considered high for their market and/ or they were poorly marketed, meaning that some buyers may not have even known that a house was available to purchase.  Of course this may well depend on the ratio of buyer and sellers so there is more to this than raw statistics.  If a market has a lot of inventory, some buyers may not be willing to look at houses priced high compared to the rest of the market.  While sellers may be open to negotiating their price, many never get the chance.  I will happy to discuss specifics with you.

The overall economy is doing well with some adjustments here and there.  Pushing statistics aside, what are you planning to do?  Real Estate is generally a long-term investment unless you are looking to fix and flip it or planning to move again.  There are opportunities out there.  As with the stock market, it is very difficult to pick the best time to make a move.  All you can do is get the best available information, determine what is in your best interests and then start the process.  I am a phone call or email away and getting started is easy once you take action.

There is no time for inexperience, empty promises or false expectations!

  Remember:  HIRE WISELY.  We are not all the same!