TOP 5 REASONS LAS VEGAS HOMEOWNERS SHOULD AVOID GOING FSBO
There are Top 10 Lists aplenty that detail just why any Las Vegas homeowner should think twice before planting one of those For Sale by Owner signs in their front yard. One of them is that when you sell your home all by yourself, the sheer amount of time you’ll have to devote to mastering processes that are already fully handled by full-time real estate professionals is a true waste of time. It’s one wheel that doesn’t need reinventing. If you are among those considering how you will sell your own Las Vegas property this spring since your time is important, let’s start saving it now by cutting those top 10 lists down to the Top 5 Reasons to Avoid FSBOs: 1. You’re involved. It may sound like a good idea to be your own salesperson since you are the most intimately acquainted with the product—your Las Vegas house—but logic rules against it if for no better reason that buyers will be automatically skeptical of your impartiality. Why? Because you aren’t! You also don’t get the benefit of a professionally trained pair of eyes helping prepare your property to appeal to today’s buyers, nor the benefit of honest feedback that buyers won’t share with a FSBO seller. 2. Legal peril. Throughout this year’s political debate, a frequent refrain from candidates (both Las Vegas and national) has been the need to cut down on over-regulation. Without getting into those weeds, it is certainly the case that federal and state laws require a number of very specific disclosures. If you aren’t a real estate attorney, that lack of familiarity could make a FSBO sale an open door to after-sale litigation. When that happens, there goes any commission dollars saved (and maybe a lot more!). 3. Expense. That’s right, one of the Top 5 Reasons to Avoid FSBOs is that a FSBO can actually amount to an extravagance. It’s logical, too—because most buyers take one look at your asking price, mentally subtract the commission, and proceed from there (wouldn’t you?). The most recent studies bear out the bottom line: only 8% of successful sales were made via FSBO, and on average, they sold for 15% less than the agent-assisted sales. 4. Marketing Oomph. We professionals market Las Vegas homes all year long, 24/7. As a result, we know which marketing approaches are currently bringing in results, and which are wasting time and money. We also have open channels with the media companies we deal with regularly—an advantage that FSBO sellers can’t hope to match. 5. Expert Opinion. The open secret is that those who know the most about how to get the best results from a house sale tend to rely on expert help. A good example came in 2014, when Al Bennati, the CEO of the “BuyOwner” dot-com (“the strongest For Sale by Owner marketplace”) decided to sell his own St. Petersburg home. He listed it with a REALTOR®. There! Time saved already—who needed a Top 10 list when you have these? I bet you agree: these “Top 5 Reasons to Avoid FSBOs” are more than sufficient reason to avoid the FSBO route…and to give me a call instead!
PAINLESS FIRST STEPS FOR SELLING YOUR HOME IN THE LAS VEGAS
Selling your Las Vegas home is the kind of major undertaking that has so many facets just deciding where to start can delay liftoff. Since there is no actual “right” place to begin, like other mammoth projects, just digging in anywhere will do. The happy truth is that when you’re selling a home, once the momentum gets going, the rest of the pieces tend to fall into place. To get the ball rolling here is a pre-sale checklist of major activities that selling your Las Vegas home will entail. To get started, pick any one: Nagging problem elimination. Very few of us attend to every home maintenance problem as they gradually develop. If there were a reliable poll on the subject, I’d guess that 95% of Las Vegas homeowners have at least a two or three Las Vegas that we’ve learned to live with—but which will need to be attended to before we get very far toward selling our home. Identifying them is a pre-sale first step…then fixing them is the action item that transforms the idea of selling your home into reality. First impression inspection. Any time you return from an outing you have the opportunity to get started on what will become your marketing approach. Do this by stopping and seeing what kind of the first impression your property makes on someone setting eyes on it for the first time. What seems least fresh and appealing? Is it fencing that could use a quick coat of paint? A planter that needs colorful blossoms? The numerals on the mailbox? Selling your home starts with favorable first impressions. Lights! Camera! Action! An essential element to getting prospective buyers clamoring for a tour is the photography that highlights your Las Vegas listing. To start preparing for that, pick a room—any room—and stageit: clear it of unneeded objects, furniture, etc. This will entail figuring out where to store the objects that you want to keep, but which clutter up the visual appeal…and once you’ve identified where they will be stored, you’re seriously on your way to selling your home. Getting down to business. Educating yourself about the competition means taking a look at this spring’s Las Vegas listings to get a feel for where the market is. Which comparable homes have just sold, and which haven’t moved for months? Your home may not be ready for market for a while, but the earlier you start familiarizing yourself with today’s Las Vegas real estate market, you better the odds that your listing price will be right. Exit strategy. (My favorite of all) Be prepared to move! Any action you take in this direction, be it checking out reliable moving companies or beginning the hunt for your next house makes selling your home that much less of a long shot. Each of these is a step that begins to transform the idea of selling your Las Vegas home from a looming cloud of uncertainty into a doable certainty. I didn’t even mention the easiest and surest pre-sale checklist item. It’s one certain to get the ball rolling: Call me!
BRIDGE LOANS HELP LAS VEGAS SELLERS MAKE DEALS HAPPEN
They’re called “swings” or “bridges”—but they don’t belong on a kindergarten playground. They’re the specialized loans that can help Las Vegas home buyers get past the kind of cash crunch that can snag an otherwise perfectly achievable purchase. This is a timing situation that happens quite frequently; it’s in the nature of residential real estate transactions. Suppose you are selling your Las Vegas home to an out-of-state buyer. The deal is well on its way to being finalized on the agreed schedule. Meanwhile, you have found a new, bigger place that’s perfect for your family (it’s in Las Vegas, too—also in a great neighborhood). The problem is that you need to close on the new home before the sale of your current one is finalized. That’s the cash crunch. The solution can be a bridge loan (AKA, a swing loan). It’s a loan for the short period of time that will allow a home buyer to close on the new home purchase as the other sale closes. Of course, the problem is (this is what the lender has to be thinking) what if the sale of the old house falls through? The answer is to be able to produce a binding contract for that sale—without it, there is little chance the loan will be granted. Bridge loans aren’t terrifically popular with lenders since they involve a certain amount of paperwork for a transaction with such a short duration. I find that lender reluctance is minimal when we deal with one which is already involved—either holding the earnest money deposit or otherwise engaged with the parties. Even so, the terms of a bridge loan will be more expensive than other kinds—but since the term is brief, the higher interest cost does not amount to much of a deterrent.Bridges and swings aren’t the only possible way to solve the buying-before-closing dilemma. Sometimes a line of credit (HELOC) on the old house will fill the void, particularly if it has not yet been entered in the Las Vegas MLS. If it is already listed, the line may come with some extra charges, including cancellation or closing charges to compensate for the likelihood of its short duration. It is sometimes also the case that the lender financing the purchase of the new home is willing to provide a bridge loan by using the old property as security. Although that is a secured loan, it’s likely to be an expensive one. When my clients buy or sell, or, as in some of these situations, buy and sell, some of what I do is to help put together creative solutions. Seeing you successfully sell—or move into—your Las Vegas home is what my service is all about. It starts when you give me a call!
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