Buyers - Get a Home Inspection! (Please!)

I am still amazed when I hear from a seller that they purchased their home without a home inspection. Or when a buyer suggests that the home looks great and they don't have the cash for a home inspection so they don't want to have one.

Sometimes I'll even hear a buyer tell me that their Realtor told them not to do a home inspection. Even in a strong seller market, not doing a home inspection is a huge mistake. Even a new home built just for you can have serious issues. We recommend to all of our buyers, even our new home buyers, that they have an independent home inspection of the property. And if you ever hear a real estate agent suggest you bypass the home inspection or any other inspection you may want then fire them on the spot. Just my humble opinion but not inspecting such a huge purchase is idiotic and irresponsible.

Here is another point for buyers to understand. No matter how closely you look at a home it will never be as clear as it is the day you move in. Remove all of the previous owners things and walk in with time to just really poke around and you are bound to find plenty of issues, no matter how minor. The concern are all of those minor to major items that are beyond being picked up with the naked eye or just the untrained eye. Even having a home inspection won't guaranty a problem free home but you will be ahead of the game and much more prepared for your new home.

So would you rather spend $400-1500 on a thorough home inspection or thousands of dollars to do renovations and corrections that you did not know anything about before they became problems for you after you moved in?

Be smart, inspect the home BEFORE you move in.

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What is IDX and Why is it Important to Selling Your Luxury Home?!

Today's post covers a very little know subject of IDX agreements, Real Estate Brokers and how this affects your ability to sell your home in today's Internet driven market!

There is a super secret statement made by every broker to the MLS in our area. It's called the IDX agreement. Every broker makes a statement the the MLS about whether it is okay to share their listings with other web sites, such as Realtor.com or competitor web sites like a Keller Williams Realty Listing showing up on a Re/Max web site. Most broker say 'yes', please share our listings with all available web sites. Why? Because they know that our area is driven by the Internet and exposure is king, no matter what web site their listing appears on. That same agreement requires those competing web sites to state somewhere in the posting which real estate brokerage is providing the listing. If the real estate broker truly wants to help the listing sell then sharing is king and absolutely paramount to success in Northern Virginia.

But some real estate brokers actually say 'no', do not provide our listings to anyone at all. Why? Well here are my thoughts. They are often old-school in my personal opinion. By this I mean that they are trying to keep all calls and all leads related to their listings tightly held in their grasp. The problem for sellers is that if the Broker's web site is not generating the highest web site traffic then this is a bad thing. And it's hard to compete with Realtor.com that generates about 5.7 million unique visitors per month! There is no local web site that can compete with that. I believe it is a huge disservice to a seller not to publish their listing to every web site that will accept it. Buyers come from all across the country not just locally. Someone in California may not think to try and search a local real estate broker's web site, especially if they do not even know it exists in the first place.

As for buyers trying to find that special home, they may just end up buying their 3rd best dream home because they never knew that just down the street their true dream home sitting in the middle of fox hunt country was for sale and at a price they would have been more then willing to pay.

If you are signing with a real estate broker ask them to tell you if their broker publishes their listing to all available web sites. Then ask them to show you a copy of a company Full Listing. The MRIS system we use in Northern Virginia shows on page 3 of a full listing printout what the advertising choice for that real estate broker is. For example a broker that does not want their listings shared with other sites will show [ Advertising: IDX-DNP ] at the bottom of page 3.

In closing make certain to do your home work and hopefully the post today will share information that most owners may not understand about the complexities of real estate listings in our MLS.

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ManassasCondo.com launched by Bradley Group International

If you are looking for information on condominiums in Manassas Virginia make certain to check out ManassasCondo.com. Bradley Group International has just launched ManassasCondo.com as the leading resource for information, photos and condominums for sale in the area.

When interviewed, Steve Bradley the team leader for Bradley Group International stated that the team is very excited with the new addition. "The site was launched last week and already the visitors to the site and requests for information on available listings has started to roll in. We are still adding features and mapping to enhance the site so visit often."

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No Photos & No Room Sizes, Are You Kidding Me?!

This new post is to share my irritation as a potential buyer. I'm a Realtor but the market is down so it is a great time to look for great investment properties. What I am so frustrated about are all of these homes in the MLS with NO, or only ONE photo and no room sizes in the listings. Even worse is a listing written up to say 'This is the jewel of the neighborhood, a must see, incredible upgrades throughout the home, check out this amazing kitchen.' Then you open it up to find there is only one picture . . . . ARGHHHHH!!!!!! How about a picture of that amazing kitchen or some of those upgrades?
The current numbers state that over 80% of ALL potential buyers start their search online and I am no different. Do you understand what a significant number 80% is?! So why on this wonderful earth are agents not including more photos and details in their listings is beyond me. The cost to a Realtor in our MLS to add up to the maximum of 20 pictures is the cost of a McDonald's lunch for two. The cost to include room sizes is . . . well, there is no cost. So I ask again why in this day and age of the Internet are there not more photos and details?

I can understand that some sellers actually request no or limited photos when the home is in terrible shape and in need of a lot of work. Even then there can be other photos in many instances to help a potential buyer.

Please, if you are a seller and you are interviewing Realtors tell them, demand in fact that they include the maximum 20 photos or as many as they can. The cost to the Realtor is insignificant and the impact on the attention your home will get will grow. According to information shared with me by my Realtor.com representative listing with multiple photos are viewed 40% more then those with no photo. Again a very significant number that cannot and should not be ignored.

So stay involved in your home sale and make certain to check on your home when it is online. Make sure that if you were a buyer that it would catch your eye. Best of luck out there.

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Absolutely Not! The Best Realtors Say No Thank You!

A professional in any industry needs to be honest not only to their clients but to themselves and their ability to help their clients. Too often real estate consultants are so hungry to get their next check that they start to lose sight of the real goal of providing a winning solution to their clients.

In real estate when working with sellers it is important that your Realtor be honest with you from the moment you meet. The best agents are willing and more then ready to say 'No, I can't help you based on your goals'. For example, when a real estate agent takes on a new client knowing full well that the clients preferred listing price is completely out of line with the market and recent sales, that is a bad thing. It is bad for the seller and just as bad for 'potential' sellers in the area.

We all understand that the most recent closed sales are the best indicator for the market value. But even knowing that sellers and even some Realtors are still setting their numbers based on other homes active* in the market. That is a huge mistake. After interviewing with potential clients we have often told them we were very happy for the opportunity to meet with them but that based on their goals, in this case their wanting to list much higher then the market will support, that we would have to say no.

[* A side note, in this slow market we have now I prefer to reference 'Active' homes in the maket as Failed Listings. These are all homes that have not sold for a reason. The next question is why. Most often we see it is pricing too high for the market as it stands today. ]

A very popular saying among Realtors to use is the 'I'd rather be your second Realtor and help you sell your home'. Basically this eludes to the fact that many times it takes a seller a few months on the market with another Realtor to realize that they are in fact not going to sell at their initial price.

So if you are interviewing Realtors to help with your home sale don't just ask how many homes are they selling now but how many clients have they said no to. In my opinion this is a great indicator of a Realtor's true ethics in supporting their client's selling goals.

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