Green Built Home

Sometimes when I start talking to a prospective Seller I get this question and it is always interesting to see where the conversation goes as we talk about the definition of green, what that means and what that has to do with whether I can help or not.

First of all, I’m a Real Estate Broker and study all things real estate which include the housing market, mortgages, negotiation, marketing, information technology, community data, property preparation/staging, buyer psychology, and local and national trends. I love helping all different kinds of people and families through the buying and selling process and I love helping to sell all different kinds of homes. So to me it doesn’t matter if your home is a ranch or a two story; if it is feng shuied or vacant; if it is beige or green. Our Madison real estate team is talented in many different ways. Our excellence in service and commitment to our passion for real estate make us a great choice for many people hiring a real estate team.  

So why do we get this question?

Not only does our team live and breathe Madison Real Estate but we are also passionate about the environment and sharing information with our clients and the community about ways we can all make a difference for our families and our planet in the homes we live in and the choices we make. The community hears this message loud and clear because it is a core value of our company. The real question is not whether I can help you sell your home because it is or is not green. The question is what is a green home?  

What is a Green Home?

This is the interesting question because there are so many aspects to green and what we have been bombarded with from the media that is gets quite confusing. In researching the definition of green I came across Michael Richmond’s work (an expert author on the subject) and found this:

“The best definition of Green refers to the health impact of what we do on living things. So Green is primarily a health-related issue. This is seen in the fact that cleaning products were the early Green issues. In fact, indoor air quality is a big factor in Green buildings. Sick building syndrome was the result of poor indoor air quality, which is the antithesis of Green.” I also found the dictionary definition includes, “environmentally sound, beneficial” (along with references to color and money).

Energy Star Home

With that, a green home could be a home with healthy indoor air quality and environmentally sound. That doesn’t really work for me. If I owned a 4,500 sq. ft. home located 15 minutes (driving a car) to where I work but had great indoor air quality and was built in an environmentally sound fashion, it still wouldn’t feel green to me. For me a green home takes into consideration the energy efficiency of the mechanicals, the system of the home, the landscaping, the location in relation to daily living, the space and how it is used for the family. It is a healthy space. It is efficient. And it takes smart choices in sustaining its green features. What is the point of having a super efficient furnace if I keep the heat set at 80 degrees all winter long? That is where our choices make a difference. A big difference.

If you are curious how our passion and additional training as EcoBrokers can help in a real estate transaction, please read more here. But if you just want a Realtor to help get your home sold or help you find a new home, then call us. We can help.

Darcy, Kathryn, Sara & Carlos Alvarado, Julie

608.251.6600, team@thealvaradogroup.com

Showing Ready Home

You’ve  picked your favorite Realtor, you’ve figured out a pricing strategy, you’ve worked for days getting your home in showing condition and now your home is officially on the market, full blown marketing has begun and your beautiful home is exposed to all the world. A big sigh of relief and then the phone rings…a showing…tomorrow? Okay! Now what?

What to expect now that the showings have begun…

The day your Madison WI home goes on the market live you will receive a link to the listing and your marketing home books will be scheduled for delivery within a couple of days. Your showing instructions were filled out with all the other listing paperwork so the showing line service knows how to get in touch with you. The showing line is a contracted service that is open 7 days a week from 8am – 8pm and available to schedule all showings and help coordinate the showing feedback.

If you’ve priced your home right (which is important to do because there is no point in price testing in this market unless you are just pretending to sell) then you should expect to get showing requests in the first week your home is on the market. If you don’t get any showings in the first 2-3 weeks then your home is overpriced or not being marketed correctly. And this happens. I have seen homes listed with incorrect area codes (mls codes are crucial to proper marketing and kind of a no brainer).

Overpricing is a great thing to do if you are trying to help your neighbor sell. If your neighbor has their home on the market (which we assume is similar to your home) and you price yours higher, the buyer will come through your home and then go tour the neighbors home and realize the neighbors’ is a way better value than yours and BAM, you’ve just helped to sell your neighbors home. Aren’t you sweet? Although after all that work staging your home, I doubt your goal is to help sell the neighbors home so please, price it right! No market testing allowed.

Back to your first week on the market…an important week. You want everything perfect and it should be. Buy the pretty flowers, turn all the lights on and please take out those plug in smelly things (it makes it seem like you are trying to cover something up).

Will I get 24 hours notice? Maybe. Maybe not. So leave your house ready for showings every day. That doesn’t mean you have to leave all the lights on every day (tsk tsk), but have it picked up and in showing condition when you leave for work in the morning. Most Realtors will give you a days notice for their showing but things happen.  A Realtor may be out with their buyers and as they listen to their buyers comment on homes they are seeing they will realize what they like and don’t like they may decide that their buyer should see your home. You want to be ready for that. However, if you aren’t ready you can say no. If you have a sick child at home, say no. Don’t feel bad saying no, your life is your life. But please try and accommodate all showings. Please. It is the only way I can sell your home.

How long are the showings? Showings are normally scheduled in one hour appointments. For example you may get a request for a showing tomorrow between 2-3pm and another one from 4:30-5:30pm. Convenient? No. But say yes to both of them anyway and then plan on being out of the house during the scheduled showing times. If it is scheduled from 2-3pm that doesn’t mean the agent and buyer will show up right at 2pm. They might come at 2:30. Or even 2:55pm But they will do everything in their power to come within that time frame. Imagine what it is like to try and schedule 10 showings not knowing how long the buyers will want to be in each house at a time, calculating travel time, etc. It isn’t easy so please be empathetic if a showing is late (or even early). Sometimes the agent will leave their card so you know they’ve been there, and sometimes they’ll forget. Sometimes the buyers will take the marketing booklet and sometimes they won’t. But it sure is a good sign if they do take one. Also, expect there to be miscommunication problems at least once while your house is in the available and showing stage. There are a lot of people involved and mistakes happen. The agent requesting the showing may mix up the time with another showing. The showing line person may write down the wrong time. Or maybe you heard the time or date wrong and then all of a sudden you have an agent at your front door who thinks they have a scheduled and confirmed showing. And you are in your pj’s. Don’t freak out. Life happens. Take a deep breath and figure out if it is realistic for you to take 10 minutes to get out of the house to accommodate the showing. If so, ask the agent to wait and kindly agree to hurry out the door. If there is no way you are letting anyone in your front door to see your wreck of a house (which we all understand), then say no. Apologize for the mix up (even though it may not have been your error), and be nice. If you get hostile you could potentially lose a willing and able buyer. If they really want to see your home, they will reschedule.

What did the Buyers think of our home? Showing feedback is pretty important and also can be very misleading. So let’s talk about this straight. First, the logistics. The showing line service will schedule the showing with you (either online or via a phone call). Once the showing is confirmed they will call the agent back to let them know they are confirmed to show your home and then the showing is entered in the system. Our office and the listing agent get an email immediately when a showing has been scheduled and we know who will be showing it. After the showing takes place an email is sent to the agent that showed your home asking for feedback. There is a email form that the agent fills out on behalf of their buyer letting us (and you) know their feedback and what their buyers thought. And there is room for open comments. You might get feedback forms that say your home is overpriced, or just right or doesn’t have a good layout. They may comment that the Buyer didn’t like the backyard (it is too big or it is too small) or the bathrooms are outdated. Please brace yourself as you read the feedback forms.

Remember these things in regards to showing feedback:

• You will get more negative feedback then positive feedback. This is because if the buyer is planning on writing an offer they aren’t going to gush about how much they love your home. That would not help their negotiating position.
• Just because all the feedback says that your home is priced right, doesn’t mean it is priced right. If your home is priced right, you will get an offer. If you have had 20 showings and your house has been on the market for more than 2 months and you haven’t received an offer than it is overpriced. Period. And the same goes the other way too. I just had a listing that had 2 new showings and 2 second showings within a two day period and we had just received an offer and another one was on its way. We got one feedback form back that said the house was overpriced. Really? Obviously not. 
• Take note of what you can change and that is it. If the buyers didn’t like the layout then they weren’t the right buyers. Don’t worry or focus on that. If the buyers comment that your home feels outdated, then you call me and we can talk about what changes you can make to update the home in a cost effective way. If the buyer comments on the landscaping, then yes, get out there and do some yard work. But if they don’t like the corner lot, then let it go.
• No feedback is feedback. Not all Realtors will send their feedback. If they showed your house and didn’t write an offer, that is feedback. Listen to it.

I think I’ve properly prepared you for what to expect and how to handle showings and the feedback you will get. But if I missed something or if you still have a question, please comment! I love your feedback.

Whether you really need to sell your home or not, I am going to encourage you to PRETEND. I know that sounds weird but hear me out. I work with people every day that are getting ready to sell, need to sell and/or have been trying to sell their home, so I know what is going on in their world (and sometimes I know too much!). You don’t need to know everything I know about this because some things you just don’t want to know (trust me on that). But there is one thing I know for sure that is so wonderful and amazing. And recently every time it has come up, I have felt like I’m keeping this secret from the world by not sharing it! So here it is: Right before you put your house on the market it looks fabulous. Absolutely amazing and perfect. And at that time, and maybe only at that time, the homeowner says, ”Oh my God, I love our house!”

That’s it. That is the secret. Doesn’t sound that earth-shattering does it? But it is. If you’ve lived in your house for a couple of years you know that there is some caulking you need to do. It’s been on your to do list for a couple of years now. And you’ve always wanted to replace the ugly brass light fixture in the front hall. You have a painting that is leaning up against your closet wall that you’ve been meaning to hang in the kid’s room and the chair in the living room would look a lot better in the family room but you just haven’t gotten around to moving it yet. Then there is that one piece of chipped trim that has been like that since you bought the house and you still wonder how it happened, but fixing it…just hasn’t happened. And the appliances are super old and need to be replaced.

I challenge you to pretend that you got a new job in (insert your fantasy destination) _______ and you are moving in 1 month. You have to get your house on the market and ready for showings in 2 weeks. Spend the next two weeks doing all of those things that you know you would have to do to market it properly. Some of it you can hire out. A handyperson (check out our list of preferred contractors) can get a lot done in 1/2 days work. But most of it you need to take some time and do. With everything else you have going on in your life this may seem silly. But I can’t tell you how many times I hear people say, “I always wanted to do that” and “if only I could have enjoyed my house like this longer.” You get my point? So many people are buying new appliances for people they don’t know. Future homebuyers are going to enjoy the fresh paint and the clean windows. You deserve to live in a home you love. So do it! Do it now!

You wanna know a secret? I create marketing materials for homes that I list and I always put together these homebooks for the buyers so they can have all the information about the home and the neighborhood. Well the home information page has a list of updates that the homeowners have done since they’ve owned it and usually it is organized by the year of the updates. Well most homes have the majority of the updates in the first year it was purchased and the most recent year (work done in preparation for the sale). Then there are some years that the poor house was neglected. So I’m always on my husband to update something. And I’m nagging him for the simple reason that I want to fill up my homebook page with updates when we are finally ready to sell. Yeah, okay, I nag him because I know things need to be updated and maintained too but secretly I’m thinking of my future homebook! (only slightly pathetic).

If you need more inspiration than that (which would be kind of pathetic) then read this blog post called Low-Stress Ways to Move House and De-Clutter Your Life by Annabel Candy who was guest blogging for one of my FAVORITE blogs, Zen Habits. Now go pretend to sell your house.  

Before Photo

After Photo

Selling your home in 10 steps.

Everyone talks about staging your home to get it ready to sell…but there is much more to the process than preparing your home for showings in the Madison WI real estate market. What happens after you’ve removed everything from the front of your refrigerator? And what is expected of Sellers throughout the process? Here is a basic overview from beginning to end.

1.  Define your goals, wants, needs and expectations.  A good place to begin is by exploring your short and long term goals in life and how selling your home fits in. 

2.  Determine the best price for what’s going on in the market right now.  Assess the current state of the market and what comparable homes are actually selling for by reviewing a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) on your home. That way, you can objectively determine its fair market value and price it right. In any market, a Buyer’s or a Seller’s market, it is important to price your house ahead of the market. Positioning your home correctly in the market will get you top dollar.

3.  Prepare your property so that it is in top-selling condition.  Most of us don’t keep our homes in top-selling condition. Think about your home from a buyer’s point of view. Repair, replace or remove items in your home so that it makes a GREAT first impression.

4.  Implement time-proven, research-based marketing strategies.  Market your home to as many people as possible using for sale signs, internet, open houses, feedback tracking, Realtor connections and relationships, neighborhood mailings, and web listings.

5.  Show your property.  Ensure that your home is always in top-selling condition. When you leave for work, make sure that your home remains in top-selling condition; you never know when the phone will ring and an agent will be requesting a showing. You know what they say about a first impression!

6.  Receive an offer.  When a buyer decides to buy your home, an offer will be presented and you’ll most likely have 24-48 hours to respond.

7.  Negotiate to sell.  Most offers require some level of negotiation. Decide your parameters and be prepared to negotiate towards a win-win situation. There are many different negotiating strategies to consider. And there are different areas in the selling process to negotiate. Don’t get stuck on price when there might be inspection issues or closing dates that could be deal makers too. Negotiation is a skill and if you are too emotionally invested in what you are negotiating, work with your agent to make sure that this part of the process is handled professionally and focus on the end results.

8.  Have your home appraised and inspected.  Once you have accepted an offer, you’ll work with you agent and your transaction coordinator to arrange an appraisal, inspections and a survey (if required). If the buyer requires that certain repairs be made on your home, negotiate or make the necessary repairs to move successfully from contract to closing.

9.  Prepare for closing.  A few days before closing (also known as settlement), your transaction coordinator will be in contact with the title company and the buyer or buyer’s agent to ensure that all the necessary forms and documents have been prepared.

10.  Close!  At the closing, ownership of your property is legally transferred to the buyer. Don’t forget to bring all keys and garage door openers! Congratulations!

How much time does all of this take? It depends on your market, your situation and your motivation. I’ve seen some sales happen within 30-40 days from the time of the first conversation to the cutting of the checks. And in other situations it may take a family 2 months just to prepare their home for sale, get new appliances, and clear out the clutter before it is ready for showings. If your first question is how many days will my home be on the market, contact Sara Alvarado for a phone consult and you’ll be on the right track, 608.438.5005.