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jkom51
Oakland, CA
(Zone 9b)
December 2, 2006
12:46 PM Post #2961929
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Excerpted from the NYTimes today:
December 3, 2006 NYTimes by VIVIAN S. TOY
Finding That One Buyer in a Million
VERY few houses are perfect. One might have an expressway just beyond the backyard, or asbestos insulation in the basement that has never been ripped out. Or it might be perfect only in the eye of its owner, with unusual paint colors or eccentric wall paneling. There are all kinds of things that homeowners love, or simply learn to live with, in their houses. But if you’re trying to sell a house in today’s market, and it has something buyers will see as a challenge or a defect, you may be stuck with a house that won’t move.
“When the market was high, there was no category of problem house that was impossible to sell,” said Roberta Baldwin, a broker at Re/Max. “You could be on a busy street, have no backyard or back right up to a parking lot — it didn’t matter. Buyers were able to overlook all kinds of issues.”
Now that has changed. “Sellers still don’t want to hear that there’s anything wrong with their house,” she said, “but they have to take stock and make peace with any defects in their houses, because the hiatus we had from crabby buyers is over.”
Joan Breslow, an agent at Country Living Associates in Stamford, Conn., said she tries to prepare sellers for an onslaught of buyer negativity. “I tell my sellers they have to be prepared to hear anything and everything, and no matter how insulting a comment might be, they can’t take it personally,” she said.
The quickest solution for any house that isn’t selling is to drop the price, but in many cases, that isn’t enough.
But brokers agree that most other issues can be addressed. Sometimes, sellers can smooth the way to a sale by acknowledging a defect before buyers find it themselves or by marketing their house only to those most likely to buy it. If improvements and changes are done properly, and before a house goes on the market, “problem homes” need not be problems at all.
Well, It’s Different
The easiest solution to a problem might be to get rid of whatever makes the house stand out, but if that isn’t feasible, sellers can commission architectural plans that show ways a buyer could make alterations. “Maybe the bathrooms are too small or the kitchen’s in the wrong place for today’s buyer,” said L. P. Finn, the director of corporate services at Coach Realtors. “That’s when having detailed professional floor plans can help people look past all the issues.”
Sellers can also carefully select their audience. One of Ms. Chase’s listings is a waterfront house in Glen Cove, on Long Island, which has been on the market for nearly a year without an offer. The living room is painted to look like a medieval tent, and murals give the stairs and hall a jungle look, with a lion here and a monkey there. “I know it’s not to everyone’s taste,” the owner said. “I would hate to see it happen, but the reality is anybody with a bucket of paint could make it their own.” She acknowledged, though, that her asking price, which she has dropped from $2.495 million to $2.37 million, “reflects the artwork to a degree.”
When Problems Run Deep
These days, most buyers won’t even look at a house with a damp basement, or one that needs a new heating or electrical system, or one that has asbestos pipe insulation or an underground oil tank that might leak. The only way to deal with these types of issues, brokers say, is to confront them head on, either by spending the money to fix them or getting estimates for what it would cost to do the work and cutting the asking price by that amount.
Ms. Baldwin of Re/Max tells every homeowner who has drainage problems to install French drains and a sump pump. “It’s such an easy thing to criticize, and if you don’t do it, the home inspection will kill the deal for you,” she said, recalling a recent case in which a buyer brought in a $26,000 estimate for drainage repairs that the owners felt should cost only a few thousand dollars.
Joan Madden, a broker at Coldwell Banker Previews International in New Canaan, Conn., said that she urges anyone who hasn’t already removed an underground oil tank to at least check the soil for leakage. “A buyer can accept an in-ground tank,” she said, “but they’re going to want to know it has a clean bill of health.”
Cosmetic Changes and More
Any house with a 30-year-old kitchen, peeling paint or wall-to-wall shag carpeting might as well have a sign on its front door that reads, “Don’t buy me.” While it might not make sense to put in a new kitchen or bathroom, brokers say there are plenty of less expensive improvements that can and should be made. Debbie Doern, the manager of Coldwell Banker branches in Larchmont and New Rochelle, N.Y., said that wherever necessary, her brokers urge sellers to paint inside and outside, reglaze bathtubs and polish hardwood floors. “We recommend anything shy of renovation.”
“Buyers have so much more to look at — they’re being much choosier,” Donna Materasso of Pelham Realty says. “You just don’t need any negatives anymore.”
It Is Where It Is
The best ways to deal with location issues are to minimize the negatives and to look for the types of buyers least likely to be bothered.
Louise Brooks of Prudential Douglas Elliman said she recently sold a house on a relatively busy street that had been on the market for more than a year. “First, we made sure they had flowers around the outside to make the house more appealing,” Ms. Brooks said. “Then we made a point of working with buyers who wouldn’t mind the road.”
Dealing With Illegal Additions
You may not have known that adding that deck or half bath required a building permit, but you’ll have trouble selling if the existing house doesn’t match the description on property records. Few buyers will touch it because banks will not finance a house that is not up to code or does not have a proper certificate of occupancy.
“Unfortunately, we see decks that haven’t been legalized and additional rooms built without variances all the time,” said Beryl Zawatsky, the owner of Beryl Z. Realty. Sometimes getting proper permits retroactively can be worth the time it takes, she said, but “it might be easier and cheaper just to cut the deck off.”
She recommends having a house inspected and brought up to code before placing it on the market, or at least starting the process to make all changes legal. |
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