Selling Your Home in Charleston Area’s Fall Sales Season

Springtime is correctly known near and far as the peak season for selling your home—in Charleston, SC; elsewhere in the U.S.; probably on Mars, too. Everybody knows it. This has created a most unfortunate side effect: namely, the notion that if you missed the spring home sales binge, you’d best cancel all plans and hold your house off the market until next year (even if you’re actually ready to list).

So…should you give up on selling your home in Charleston, SC as we move into the cooler months?

Far from it! In fact, many agents with years of experience under their belts have done the math and consider autumn to be the second best season to sell a home. When you think about it, it’s logical. For one thing, there certainly are prospects who won’t wait—buyers who will be happily mowing their new lawns by the time next spring rolls around. Weather is another reason: fall brings many moderate, perfect-for-home-touring days. Then there’s the calendar itself, providing extra motivation to buy (e.g., everyone who wants to be in their new home before the holidays, or who needs to complete the sale in tax year 2014).

For those who aren’t falling for the wait-until-spring notion, here are a few tips that will help you spruce up your Charleston area property for the fall sales market:

First off, make sure all of the personal summertime clutter—the kids’ camp gear, pool floats, the by-now thoroughly bent croquet wickets—are out of sight. Put the yard into tip-top condition with grass cut, shrubbery tamed, and lawn raked. You should be able to step out the back door and view an uncluttered vista. As always, the object is to enable anyone who visits to readily visualize their own family’s stuff in the cleared outdoor space.

Shorter days means waning natural light, so selling your Charlestonarea home in autumn requires a little extra attention to lighting touches. To guarantee the home looks its best even in late afternoon, open the draperies, blinds, and shutters, and make sure lights and lamps are all turned on. Outside, anywhere the summer’s growing season has resulted in plantings that have overgrown windows, now is the time to trim them—it’s always amazing how less than an hour of snipping can brighten up a home’s interior. You may also consider adding some lighting along walkways, or a well-placed floodlight over the driveway. As we move deeper toward winter, those features will give a subtle boost to after-workday early evening showings.

You don’t have to have hired a professional stager to take advantage of the positive seasonal touches that go with the advent of autumn. Colorful mums, warm-hued candles, pumpkins (or just about any harvest-themed table décor items)—all are familiar details that have the predictable effect of helping people feel more at home. A few well-placed accents don’t take nearly as much effort as some other aspects of selling your Charleston home, but taken together, all contribute to a welcoming presentation.

Where is the nearest pumpkin patch? Where are the closest autumn-themed school or community festivities? Selling a home in fall can benefit when you leave some material about our local seasonal activities in the entryway. Sometimes the charm of a neighborhood winds up being the deciding factor for a waffling prospective buyer.

If you’ve been undecided about whether selling your home now—or waiting until next spring—is the best course of action, why not contact me today for a preliminary walk-through and pricing evaluation. I think we can put together a plan in action to get your home sold for top dollar sooner rather than later!

Interested in selling your Charleston area home? Visit: www.jeffcookrealestate.com
Interested in buying a Charleston area home? Visit: www.discovercharlestonareahomes.com

-Jeff Cook

Jeff Cook Real Estate

Sellers, Beware: Five Reasons You Might Not Get Top Dollar when You Sell Your Home (And How to Avoid Them)

For most people, their home is their largest asset, so they want to maximize that asset by getting top dollar when they sell. Here are a few reasons you might not get top dollar when you sell - and how to avoid them!

Selling At The Wrong Time

From early spring to late summer is home-buying season for most people, especially those with children. Putting your house on the market during this period is when you are likely to get top dollar for it. Early fall is also a good time to list your home. Winter - especially December - is the worst time to list. If you list your home outside of prime selling season, you are likely to get less for it than you could have otherwise.

Selling a Home in Charleston, SC and the Renovation Puzzle

When you are selling a home in Charleston, SC, two underlying unknowns are always present. How long it will take? Is one. The second is what will the final selling price be?

The answer to that second one at least partially depends on actions the person selling the home controls, since performing renovations and add-ons boosts a property’s salability. But which renovations add the most value? Even though considerable study has been given to the issue, for any given home it’s difficult to pin down which are most likely to have the greatest impact.

Overpricing Your Charleston, SC Home: Why and Why Not

A crucial part of selling your Charleston home comes right at the outset—when you set your asking price. It boils down to a decision to go high (the I-love-this-place-and-gotta-have-it-no-matter-what price); or low, with a number that is just under neighborhood comparables (the I’d-better-snap-this-up-before-someone-else-does price).

The One Chance a Charleston, SC House for Sale Can Count On

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

It’s a saying that job applicants (at least the successful ones) take to heart. It’s why a lot of serious primping goes on before a blind date. It’s why movie directors spend as much time as it takes to light and prepare the first shot that will introduce their lead actress. And if you’re going to have a house for sale in Charleston, SC this summer, it’s why it’s worth it to take pains to make its first impression as strong as possible.

When Selling a Home in Charleston, SC, Upgrade Choices Really Matter

For owners who are contemplating some major upgrades with an eye to eventually selling a home in Charleston, SC, there’s always the question of where to do the upgrading. Last year, the National Association of Home Builders weighed in with a study of what today’s home buyer “really want”—which supplies some guidance that may be helpful.

Selling a Home in Town Means Fielding an All-Pro Team

It’s a bit complicated, selling a home in Charleston, SC. Although you can make a case for the feasibility of doing the whole thing yourself, there are enough areas of knowledge where experience, expertise, and even licensure are recommended that few would ever try it.

For Sale by Owner Can Be Risky Business!

 When you determine to sell your house, one of the first choices that comes up is tactical: do you try to sell it yourself as a Charleston “For Sale by Owner” property—or do you enlist a real estate agent? Since your object is to maximize your profit, you might think that most thrift-minded home owners would decide to eliminate the agent’s commission and do the work themselves. But that’s not the case.

Selling a Home: What Makes Your Property Stand Out?

This summer, success in selling a home in Charleston area will depend upon the same factors as always: location; quality; buyer appeal.

A home’s location—short of calling in the house movers—is pretty much what it is. The structural quality of workmanship and the level of maintenance that it’s received though the years can be gussied up where it shows (and should be!), but that, too, is largely a done deal.

Selling Your Home — Assuming Success is the Way to Go!

If you’re thinking of selling your home in Charleston, SC this summer, you’ll want to fetch top dollar for your efforts. Preparing the property is a given, of course, but savvy home sellers often share another kind of preparation. They prepare themselves by adopting the attitude shared by legions of successful salespeople—they assume that success is inevitable. They think and act positively.

Discover Why Your Homes Aren't Selling

Just when you think you've done everything you need to do to get your home ready for the market, months pass and your home doesn't sell. Consider a few factors that can effect your goal of selling your home.

3 Cheap, Easy Ways To Make Your Home For Sale More Inviting

Many putting up their home for sale on the Charleston market don’t have a lot of available cash to spruce it up.  While staging houses is a definite plus, it costs, as does many of the other suggested “to-dos."  Here are a few cheap, easy ways to make your home look more inviting to buyers:

Selling Your Home in Charleston, SC is a Collection of Decisions

Selling your home in Charleston, SC: from the first inkling that you will be putting it on the market until you sign off on the paperwork, the process can be seen as a series of dozens and dozens of decisions. Many are not simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decisions, either; and many have answers that no one can ever prove was right or not.

Short & Sweet—Charleston, SC Open House Checklist

Estimates so far indicate that summer 2014 is likely to be a better than usual season for area home sales. The past winter threw a wet blanket over all kinds of business activity, creating a perfect scenario for a sales bounce back—and that’s exactly what is beginning to show up in the stats. As Bloomberg News reported last week, sales of homes “climbed in April for the first time in three months…the biggest in six months…”

Experience Teaches Real Estate Agents Some Truisms

 Because real estate agents in Charleston, SC see everything in the market, we have a pretty good idea about why some houses sell (and why others sit on the market for years). Whether as buyer or seller, anyone planning to enter Charleston area’s real estate market this summer can benefit from some of the tactics and factors that Charleston real estate agents keep in mind when as they go about the business of making home sales happen:

Selling Your Charleston Property…for Bitcoins!

Would you be willing to sell your Charleston property to a buyer who is offering virtual currency?

In recent news, there has been an influx of people who are putting their homes up for sale in Bitcoins. It may be actually worthwhile to consider the upsides, because doing so opens up your Charleston area property to a vast new market (not to mention potentially garnering the attention of your local media and scads more traditional buyers who are in their audience).

Tax Deductions In Your Home: Four Places To Look

Paying your income taxes each year leave your wallet a bit thin? There may be money hiding in your home that lessens your tax burden. Here are four places to look:
Home-Office Deduction
If you work from home, you could qualify for a home-office deduction. Taking the deduction can be a bit complicated, so many people who qualify don't claim the exemption. An estimated 26 million Americans have home offices, but only 3.4 million claim them on their tax return. Perhaps that's why the Internal Revenue Service attempted to simplify the process in 2013.

Curb Appeal: Charleston Area Property’s Lasting First Impression

It’s usually the curb appeal Charleston properties put out there that either plants a winning first impression…or a ho-hum (maybe it’s more interesting inside) reaction. This holds for casual passers-by as well as serious prospects who are pulling up for a scheduled house showing. It’s simply true: you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Selling Your Charleston, SC Home: What About Repair Requests?

If you have taken good care of your property, you rightfully expect that selling your Charleston area home will result in its fetching a good price when it hits the market. That’s the right mindset for success, but it serves sellers best when it’s only a starting point. Dealing with flesh-and-blood buyers can require some judicious flexibility—for one reason, there is usually an inconspicuous (somewhat annoying) fly in the ointment. The metaphoric fly is the fact that no property is without its flaws; and its metaphoric buzzing is likely to get louder as your sale’s closing grows nearer.

Negotiating a Charleston Short Sale this Winter

A Charleston short sale is a transaction in which the amount paid is not sufficient to cover the existing mortgage or property liens. Once the lender agrees to accept the lesser amount, the short sale succeeds, the lender calls it even with the seller, and all parties can move forward.

It’s a good thing to ‘unfreeze’ a property, yet short sales in Charleston, SC can be tricky to close. In the worst-case scenario, a buyer and would-be short seller can be put on ice for a full year or more before the short sale succeeds. As is evident to anyone who has been through the process, a Charleston real estate agent with short sale experience is essential for leading the way through the negotiations and closing.

In addition to working with a knowledgeable agent, it’s good to also approach a situation which might turn into a short sale by understanding the general precepts that influence those who will make the decisions. Usually, the mortgage-holding bank publishes how they wish to be contacted. Often, it’s through the “Loss Mitigation” Department (or a title to that effect). That language tells you all you have to know to explain why their attitude may be less than enthusiastic.

Like any commercial business, the bank’s decision-makers seek to minimize the time and man-hours needed to gain the best result. If you come to them with what is an obviously unreasonable offer, they are no more likely to react positively than any other seller. For this reason, researching the market value of nearby properties--enough so that it’s easy to show that your offer is based on a reasonable discount from those prices—is the best way to be taken seriously.

Although you shouldn’t be surprised if even a reasonable offer is turned down at first, don’t be afraid to counter with a second offer.

Depending on the circumstances, I sometimes advise my clients to decide on a viable time frame in which to either close the deal or move on. Not only will this prevent your wasting time, but it can motivate a loan officer to truncate what might otherwise become long-winded negotiations.

Short sales in Charleston, SC are still to be found for motivated and patient buyers. If you are looking to buy a home in the coming year, now is the right time to contact me to start your search!

Interested in selling your Charleston area home? Visit: www.jeffcookrealestate.com

Interested in buying a Charleston area home? Visit: www.discovercharlestonareahomes.com

-Jeff Cook

Jeff Cook Real Estate

Charleston, SC