Latest / Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life / Avoiding Common Pitfalls: The 5 Biggest Mistakes Homeowners Make Before Listing in Santa Clarita

Transcript

Avoiding Common Pitfalls: The 5 Biggest Mistakes Homeowners Make Before Listing in Santa Clarita · Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, April 11th, 2024.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I am Connor with Honor.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today is going to be your real estate update.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to cover a lot of things, but at the very end, I'm going to talk about five things real estate sellers wish they would have done before placing their home onto the market.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: That'll be closer to the end.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: But let me give you our daily information, what's happening here in Santa Clarita Valley.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Currently, still very much a seller's market.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Sellers, once they put their properties on the market, depending on city, but most cases anywhere from seven to 12 days, they're getting offers.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And those offers are typically multiple.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So multiple buyers want to purchase those sellers' houses, and those buyers are willing to give those sellers a lot more than the sellers might have assumed they were going to get in the first place.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: However, there is a delicate balance between, and this is one of the things we'll talk about with regard to those five things, delicate balance between what a seller wants to get for their home and what a buyer will be willing to pay.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: There are also dangers, and we see this very clearly, of overpricing real estate by having that price set a little too high, even a little, makes a big difference because realistically, where's the dollar start that's going to stop buyers from wanting to proceed, even with writing offers for less than what you're asking for your home?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: That is a very delicate place to be.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about what's happening here in Santa Crita Valley.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: Again, coming soon properties for the last seven days.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: We have nine of those.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: 81 properties in the last seven days have been listed for sale.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is all residential all across the Santa Crita Valley cities.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going to be Castella, Canyon, Country New Hall, Saugas, Stevenson Ranch, and Valencia.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of these 81 homes, you're going to have a split between single-family residences, condominiums, townhomes.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're looking at real estate here in Santa Crita Valley, when it comes time to purchasing, you might see something categorized or talked about or explained as being a detached condominium.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: That is something that some people stumble a little bit over.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Basically, that is the way that the city, the builder was able to get that residence recorded.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And most of those are going to have very small lots and potentially have one of the neighbor's walls as part of your backyard.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So there'll be something in the paperwork with regard to the home, the way the home transfers to you on title that'll have some sort of an easement or the ability for something happening to your neighbor's residence, giving access into that particular yard for them with, of course, whatever the proper notice would be.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: These are things, though, that you really need somebody that knows what's happening in real estate, so you understand when they have the whole posse show up wanting to demolish part of the garage wall because they've had some kind of a pipe break inside of it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: 52 adjustments as far as price changes.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a larger number than we've seen in a little while.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: So these are people that have their properties on the market.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: We just got talking, got finished talking about pricing your home correctly right out of the chute, right out of the gate, super important.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we see that we have 52 properties that have had their prices changed, and a majority of those, over 90%, are going to be price reductions from where they were listed for sale.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And now we're probably starting to see those properties start to move a little bit faster.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Typically online, when you do change or modify a price as a real estate agent, the syndication systems grab them, and then all of a sudden, all of them start bringing that listing higher and higher to the top of it because there has been a change implemented and they want to be the first site that says they've been able to report on that, try to get more people to use them and you know that whole real estate commerce thing.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: 21 properties came back on the market.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's a little lower than I've been seeing lately, which is good news for sellers out there.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: And apparently buyers are still wanting to move forward with a majority of the transactions.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: 39 plus 52, we have both one active under contract dealing, 39 and 52.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Both that amount has gone into escrow, and that amount is actually overrunning the amount of properties we're putting onto the market every week.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: That is very a slight balance, though, because the week before we had less and so on.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it does end up balancing out.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're somewhere in the neighborhood of 380 listings, active on the market for sale in all of the cities.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: So as far as being a seller's market, buyers are still able to get some advantage in the way that they construct their offers.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that as a buyer you might want to consider is getting a full underwriter approval for your mortgage.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to come about via your real estate agent if they introduce to you to their lender that they like, or if you brought a lender to the table and now you're working with an agent, I would talk to your lender about that very thing, giving you a more solid ground to stand on as far as approval letter.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: In addition, when you have that offer written by your real estate agent, my suggestion is have your lender give a call to the actual agent representing the seller as well to inform them of your ability to be able to borrow and get money for this residence.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Plus, when they connect with the lender, they see that, well, wow, this guy's on top of it, this lady's on top of it, they are really following up for their client, and that is a good showing for the seller and the seller's agent.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Food for thought.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: The five things sellers wish they would have done before placing their homes on the market for sale.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to start with very simply, here we go, we're getting there, we're getting there.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: The very beginning, overlooking the prep and staging part, basically being rushed into getting their house on the market more sooner than when it was actually ready.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I believe it's very good emotionally and mentally to get all the things done that you said you were going to do because they were put in motion for a reason.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Getting those finished and then having that property put on the market at the correct price and so on.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But again, not preparing it the way that it should have been.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then when it gets released, you really can't take back that first impression that's gonna live a long time in people's minds.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, incorrectly pricing the home.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's food for thought from earlier in today's show.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Something to watch out for when you are establishing that price for your residence.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure you're looking at factual listings, things that have actually closed escrow and sold, and also in a close time frame to the time that you're gonna be selling your house.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: So you want to see those.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: If you're you're establishing a price now, you're gonna want to see around 180 days of market activity in residences that are very, very similar to yours in very close proximity.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Then you're gonna want to work the numbers to kind of glimpse if it's gonna take, let's say, 30 days for your house to get into escrow and finish all total, then you're gonna want to wanna see with those where those comparable properties stacked up as far as dates closed and when they closed.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't have much overlap there and these properties are, let's say, five and a half months back in age from the time they close to present, and you're talking about a 30-day in the future escrow time frame.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, 30 days, 45 days, you understand you're gonna be running out, and those particular appraisal reports aren't gonna be any good anymore unless they write up an obscene amount of justification, having nothing else to compare it to, but that could be a problem for you listing your home as far as value goes, depending on where those appraisers are pulling the value from.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as far as when you list your house, don't make this isn't a scare tactic.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: Your agent should have this covered.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the agent representing the seller is the one that's going to give access to the buyer's appraiser.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: That agent should be telling the appraiser, if there's any question, these are the comparables I use.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: This is a formula I used.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: And in most cases, appraisers are pretty receptive.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: In some cases, they don't even want to talk to you.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: They don't even, they just give some ums and ums and don't want anything to do with the agents, but again, a good agent should be able to maybe at least inform them if in fact they have difficulty pulling comps.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're from out of the area and not used to Santa Clarita, they might have a problem with that.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: Something to think about.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so not understanding the paperwork, and of course, this is something that should be explained to you as a seller going in of all the expectations, the things you're gonna have to fill out.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: A good listing agent is gonna have a lot of this done ahead of time.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: But in some cases, due to availability and time frames and such, it's not done.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: But the seller needs to be informed that, hey, we have time frames that are built on a contractual basis.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have things that the contract says we have to do at certain times, and part of that is getting the proper paperwork from you as a seller, known as disclosures, over to the buyer so they can complete their time frames and their inspections and their investigations.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: And if not, well, then their time gets extended, but you've also breached contract.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: What are the penalties for breaching contract?
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Depends on who's injured, and I'm not an attorney, so you want to follow that up.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: But most likely, most in most cases, this moves through fine.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it is something to bring to your attention that because the paperwork wasn't established or explained, and maybe the seller really has that eye for detail, it might take them a while to get through disclosures.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: If they don't know what they're up against, that the pre-planning wasn't there, it's gonna be a problem.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: I promise I've seen it.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Choosing the wrong agent or going it alone, self-serving, right?
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Going it alone, I can talk about that.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's a possibility.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that people do.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: You sell your house yourself, you get a buyer, you get an escrow company, and then you try to get all the paperwork you can and put it all together.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, you have every right.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: I like my car.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: The transmission breaks down.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure I'm going to want to invest the time in learning how to fix it.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it's a skill for the rest of my life.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many times I'm going to be fixing the transmission and so on.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as real estate goes, daily craft, daily indulgence into the real estate space, looking at the news, digesting the new contractual changes, and looking at everything.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is my craft.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, this is what my focus has been.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, I'm able to charge a premium for my representation.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it works perfectly.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I will save my money if my transmission breaks for the transmission service repair person who's the best in their field.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this has served you well.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know we went through four.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Five is the mistake would be not calling yours truly.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: Again, self-serving, funny, tongue in cheek.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great time, everybody.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for watching my update.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: We will be back tomorrow talking more about the Santa Cruz Valley.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: I am Connor with honor.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Have a fantastic day over and out.