The Greater Capital Association of Realtors most recent monthly statistics indicate that the 393 closed sales in the six county region in February was a 17% increase compared to the same month in 2009.  It did however reflect a 17.5% decrease compared to February of 2008.

Following the same trend, the first two months of this year were up 7.5% from 2009 with 784 closed sales, yet still lagged about 22% behind 2008. In addition the region experienced a 16.7% surge in new listings at 1290. Pending sales were up 13.5% to 615 and there was a 7% increase in the median sales price of homes to $187,000.

James Ader, the association’s chief executive officer commented that “It has been some time since so many indicators were positive at the same time.“  Ader and other experts agree that the up to $8000 tax credit for homebuyers helped attribute to the significant increases in the Albany real estate sales.

Both he and the association’s president, Laurene Curtin feel that despite the fact that the credit will expire in April, the real estate market will continue to improve. Though she doesn’t see consistent across the board improvements every month and not at the levels of last month, she does expect the market to slowly start rebuilding itself.

Putting your home on the market involves some work. There may be repairs to make, cleaning to do, and perhaps some painting. But one of the first and most important things you can do before putting your home on the market is to de-clutter it as much as possible.

The objective is to make the home appear open and inviting when you are welcoming prospective buyers. The reality is a clutter-free home looks more spacious. Think less is more!

The first step is to decide what items are essential for everyday living. Once you’ve established that, you can begin to sort through the rest of your things. It helps to organize items into three categories, one to keep, one to sell and one to donate.

Having a garage sale is a great way to begin your de-cluttering process. After the sale, you may wish to donate any items that didn’t sell.

Once you have decided which of the items you are keeping, it is best to pack up and store off-site your personal items like collections and photos. This allows the buyer to visualize the space being their own, and prevents them from being overwhelmed and distracted by your stuff.

De-cluttering your home can be quite a process, so make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get the job done right.

If you have a lot of things to get rid of it may be wise to consider a junk removal service. These companies specialize in residential cleanup and will remove unwanted items – from small items to old furniture, appliances, etc. – from your home. They do all of the loading and cleanup for one predetermined price.

If you are overwhelmed by the process, or have accumulated a vast inventory of items over the course of many years, you may want to check out The STACKS Organizational System. It is a step-by-step method for dealing with de-cluttering and organizing your home.

Whether you decide to tackle it on your own or with the help of a professional, begin the process as soon as you make the decision to sell your house and keep chipping away until you get the results you want. Not only will you be getting your house in perfect “show” condition, you will also be preparing to make your packing and moving experience a much lighter, organized and easier one.

You’ve received an offer on your home, now what? Remember once you accept an offer, that offer quickly becomes a legal binding contract to sell. So, before you accept any offer there are a few steps you should take to make sure the deal is in your best interest.

1. First find out if the buyer has been pre-approved for the mortgage loan. Many deals are either held up or get canceled because the buyer can’t obtain financing – thus wasting valuable time.
2. Find out if the buyers is expecting you to pay for repairs or agent commissions. Add these together and subtract that number from the offer they are proposing. This number represents the actual offer they are making.
3. Ascertain is what your absolute bottom line is. Make certain that you research your costs and do the math.
4. Once you obtain the balance of your mortgage, ask your real estate attorney to estimate closing and escrow costs you will be responsible for.
5. These numbers will determine whether you are going to profit or pay out of pocket to close the deal.
6. The offer will have an expiration date. Most buyers will give you enough time to consider the offer carefully. However, If the deadline you have been given is short, find out why. Most of the time, if the buyer feels there are other interested parties, the deadline will be shortened in hopes of getting their offer accepted first.
7. Alert any other serious, interested parties that you have an offer on the table. Multiple offers can lead to a bidding war and reward you with the best possible deal.
8. Above all, consult with the experts. Be sure to have your attorney review the contract prior to accepting it. He can fine tune it and make suggestions you may have overlooked.

So the saying goes – “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”  When selling a home, the sign in the front yard is a big part of that first impression. Yet, many Capital Region for sale by owner home sellers seem to overlook this critical piece of their marketing campaign.

I recently drove by a Guilderland home for sale by owner. I instantly knew the house was for sale by owner because of the sign by the road, so in that respect it did it’s job. But the sign was bent over and nearly touching the ground and I really had to struggle to read the hand-written phone number of the home seller. In addition, there was no flyer box attached to the sign for a potential buyer to pick up detailed information about the home. I remember shaking my head thinking to myself “What kind of impression does this convey about this home? Are they even serious about selling?”

This isn’t an isolated scenario. I see it all over. It’s seems that many homeowners just don’t seem to get the importance of professional signage when selling a home. Here are some guidelines to make sure your drive-by traffic is getting the best impression of your home.

Yard signs should be easily visible from the street, and have a contact phone number clearly displayed.

Directional signs should always be used if you live off the beaten path. Place them at the end of all streets leading to your house. Write your address on them. They will have an arrow pointing the way to your home.

If you’re having an Open House, use directional signs specifically made for this purpose. You can also add an Open House attachment to your yard sign that will specify the day and time of your Open House.

Put a flyer box out in the yard (preferably attached to the sign), and keep it stocked with flyers. The flyers should  include the following: a description of your home, the asking price, a contact phone number or email address, or both, and multiple photos of the home.

Our FSBO Albany sign package includes everything you need to attract that drive-by traffic! A professional and easily visible 18×24 yard sign with the photo flyer box attached, a phone number set for the sign, and directional signs.

When you place an ad with us, you will have the ability to print photo flyers from your ad on our website. The flyers include your full ad description with contact info, price and up to 8 photos…perfect!

When marketing your home, don’t underestimate the power of signs and flyers. Taking an all-inclusive approach to your marketing strategy will ensure that your efforts are rewarded with success! Good luck and Happy Homeselling!

Using high quality, multiple photos of your property in a real estate ad is critical to successfully selling your home.

Time and time again property ads that don’t feature photos get overlooked by prospective buyers in favor of ads that are really able to showcase the unique features of the home.

Not only do buyers favor ads with photos, they often times feel a seller is being deceptive by not using them. The consensus is that if a seller isn’t showing the home, there must be something to hide!

The quality of the photos you choose for the ad is extremely important. Use a good camera. A slightly overcast day is great for outdoor shots. A bright sunny day is best for interior shots.

Concentrate on taking quality photos of the features a buyer would be most interested in. Encourage them to imagine cooking in the beautiful gourmet kitchen, cozying up to a  family room fireplace, or splashing in a sparkling in ground pool.

Help peak your buyers interest and motivate them to call by showcasing your home in it’s best light. A well written ad featuring multiple quality photos will be your first step to initiating a successful and rewarding marketing campaign for your home.

Any informed consumer would immediately see the benefits of selling by owner as compared to paying an agent a 6-7% real estate commission. Why, then, doesn’t everybody sell by owner?

Agents and brokers are notorious for convincing sellers that they just don’t have the knowledge and expertise to sell on their own. The fact is that successfully selling your home involves two basic factors: #1. Pricing the home correctly and #2. Marketing it effectively.

Professional real estate appraisals are available for less than $300.  Albany Real Estate Appraisers will give you an accurate marketing price and also provide you with a selling tool to justify your asking price to your potential buyers. There are many free websites that can also help you determine the asking price for your home based on current market comparables.

For Sale By Owner Albany is a proven marketing strategy that offers unparalleled exposure for your home. Full color photo advertising in For Sale By Owner magazine plus unbeatable web exposure with 8 photo color internet advertising on 518forsalebyowner.com and web syndication on 9 other popular sites!

You’ve priced your house accurately, and have marketed it effectively to thousands of active buyers resulting in a solid offer, now what? We strongly recommend hiring an Albany Real Estate Attorney to handle the closing and any paperwork subsequent to the transaction. Clearly this exempts you from having to be an expert in real estate transactions. That’s what you pay the attorney for, and you would pay him whether you sell on your own, or hire a real estate agent.

Be prepared with the information and resources you’ll need and make a strong commitment  to the homeselling process by allocating time to make appointments, show the house and negotiate with buyers. Saving potentially tens of thousands of dollars will surely make your successful By Owner experience well worth the time and effort you’ve invested!

2/11 The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has released a report that concludes that people who sell by owner get closer to their asking price and sell more quickly than those who list with an agent.  NARs report 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers was based on a questionnaire of 133,000 consumers who purchased a home between July 2007 and June 2008.

According to the report, homes selling by owner reap 97% of their asking price as compared to agent listed homes which come in at 96%. The report also found that an agent listed property took 10 weeks to sell while it takes just 6 weeks to sell by owner.

While the study didn’t specifically mention the cost of a real estate commission, it did suggest that using an agent would result in the seller losing another 6 percent off the sales price in addition to the 1% lost on the asking price. In response to the troubled current market where home prices are falling, sellers need to know that Realtors own suggest that homeowners will end up with more money in their pocket if they sell by owner than they will if they list with an agent.

The NAR report findings provide further evidence of the benefits of selling by owner.  In separate studies by Northwestern  and Stanford Universities, FSBO sellers were found to be as effective as agents in maximizing the sales price of their homes. After commissions are factored in, the studies reported, sellers who sold by owner actually saved money and realized more equity than sellers who sold through agents. The September 2008 issue of consumers reports magazine reported that FSBO sellers are more likely to get their asking price while agents, on average, deliver a sales price that is $5,000 less than the original asking price.

Don’t miss the next deadline of For Sale By Owner Magazine, Tuesday, November 11. The magazine will hit the stands in hundreds of high-traffic locations on November 20.

It’s still a good time to sell your house! Interest rates are low (but perhaps not for long), and Albany Homes are selling! Make sure your home is showcased in its best light in our full color magazine and fabulous new multi-photo website. Advertise NOW and get a full free month of advertising! Call us today at 518-452-6330 for details!

Remember, selling your home is easy and we are here to help every step of the way!

A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast of a prominent real estate consultant. I’ll call him Jim. Jim is a very successful real estate broker who typically lists 300-400 properties per year. He also earns a very good living by charging Realtors to help them boost their business.

I enjoy listening to these consultants (and Jim in particular) from time to time because it often will give me some insight on the real estate industry from a broad perspective. A lot of the information deals with the “business” side of real estate and does not really pertain to the “for sale by owner” market.

But one idea really got my attention. It was pointed out that most successful real estate agents have a price reduction policy that is incorporated into their listing agreement with the client. The reason? Realtors only get paid when houses sell. The last thing an agent wants is to have inventory sitting on the market. Every day that passes with inventory that isn’t selling is another day without earning a commission. An example of a price reduction policy is: “The listing price will be reduced by 1% every 30 days until the house is under contract” or “The listing price will be reduced by $2,500 after every 12 showings without a contract”.

Let’s analyze this a bit. As we know, setting an asking price is not an exact science. Market conditions must be taken into consideration. In a slower market, setting your asking price based on comparable properties that have sold in the past may not be indicative of current market conditions. Therefore, adjusting your price to the current market may be what’s needed to get the home sold. Smart agents know that the lower the price, the quicker it will sell. I can’t tell you how many times Jim stated “Agents don’t sell houses – price sells houses”.

Having a clearly laid-out plan that addresses how price reductions are going to be handled can take the guesswork out of finding the right price for the current market conditions. When you put your home on the market with For Sale By Owner consider implementing a “price reduction policy” and then stick to it.

We just lost a client that listed with a Realtor. I never like it when a client is unsuccessful in selling their own home, and this case was no different.

These clients were friends – and although I haven’t known them that long – they are great people and I was really pulling for them to sell without paying any commission. Often times, when clients are not successful, it is because they are overpriced or aren’t committed to selling on their own. This client was committed – conducting and advertising open houses every weekend, they were advertising with our largest ad – they were even doing some supplemental advertising in the local newspaper.

They were selling a home in the upper end of the market and they insisted they had done their homework to price it. They had invited several top Realtors in to give them comparables, and based their asking price of $650,000 on their recommendations. The 18 year old home had been completely and tastefully renovated with custom moldings, hardwood throughout, kitchen with granite countertops and even a new 50 year slate roof. If ever a house shows well it’s this one. The home is in located in one of Loudonville’s more prominent neighborhoods.

So what went wrong? I had suspected the home was overpriced from the start but the client remained firm with their asking price. As a policy, we do not give specific pricing recommendations. I spoke with the client often when she would make her weekly visit to our office to pick up fact sheets for the week. She always remained optimistic but towards the end I could see she was becoming discouraged. At one point she called me to ask my advice about whether or not to call a visitor to her open house that had seen the house twice and seemed very interested. I strongly urged her to do so.

The next week when she came in, I asked how she made out with the call to the prospective buyer. She indicated that while they loved her home, they were going to look into new construction if they were going to buy in that price range. It was about a week or so later that I received a reluctant call from her husband that they had decided to list the home. He apologized profusely but explained that they were building a new home that was nearing completion and they had get their house sold.

This is where it gets confusing. Our office noticed that their home was listed in the paper this weekend with one of the area’s top Realtors. This Realtor has an excellent reputation and is very familiar and knowledgeable about the Loudonville market. Everything seemed right until we saw the price. It was listed for $575,000 – a full $75,000 less than they had it for sale by owner. Now, on top of that they will be paying close to $35,000 in commission! So let’s do the math. If they get their full asking price (which may or may not happen in this slowing real estate market), after commission they will end up with approximately $540,000.

So this client, who was so firm on her price when selling by owner, conceded $110,000 when listed with the Realtor. This begs the question ‘What if, before listing the house, they had called the prospective buyers that loved it so much, and offered it to them for $50,000 less?’ That certainly would have gotten their attention and they still would have been ahead $60,000!

What’s the moral of the story? Do your homework. Price your home to sell from the start. The correct balance of price and exposure dictates whether a house will sell.