Home Remodeling and Home Value

How much value does a home remodel add to my home? A very good question. I attended a seminar taught by a fellow Keller Williams agent and 29 year appraiser. We discussed the difficulties, as agents, trying to assist our sellers with the proper pricing of their home. For many sellers pricing becomes an emotional and frustrating issue. A couple of suggestions: Get a good idea of your competition from you agent. Look at all of the features of your competition's homes. Look for new construction in the area. Assess your homes value based on its current age of features Assess your homes value based on doing various remodeling projects Determine if you need to do some remodeling in order to be competitive with other homes. Try to look at your home through the eyes of a potential buyer. The same potential buyer who watches HGTV for the latest trends in housing and wants a "move in" ready home. Work with an experienced agent. The chart shows expected returns for various remodeling projects in the Atlanta area and the Southeast. If you find yourselves in the North Atlanta, Lake Lanier, or North Georgia area look us up at www.randywellsteam.com

PLEASE LET US SHOW THE HOME!

Too much information can be a bad thing. There are times when less is more. When it comes to the sale of your home less can be more. We have had two of our sellers learn this point the hard way. In both cases our sellers chose to stay in their home while it was being shown by a buyer’s agent. In the first case our seller spent more than two hours with the potential buyers. She earned their trust, their friendship, and probably had some influence on the buyer’s ultimate decision. Our seller told them all of the things she had done to the home, how wonderful the neighborhood was, and how happy they would be living in this home. She also said that she would offer a lot of the furniture and the golf cart as part of the negotiations. This is where the trouble began! The buyers had been interested in this home for over two years! When it appeared on the market they were ready to go. They sent us an offer. A very good price to start but......they wanted the golf cart and a lot of the furniture for free.! (Rough estimate was $15,000 in cost). Our seller was not very pleased with this initial offer. As we talked further with her she told us that their two hour meeting was productive, they had developed a friendship, and yes she had offered a lot of the items to go with the home. What she meant was that the items were for sale! Oops! In the second case our seller let the agent show their home. As he spoke with the potential buyer he mentioned that he wanted $400,000 for the home. At this time the home was listed for $469,900. The buyer interpreted this as his bottom line. However the seller meant this amount after the commissions were taken out of sale. As we received our initial offer, the buyer's agent repeated what our seller had said:"I want $400,000 out of the home". That is not exactly what our seller mean but that is how the buyer interpreted the conversation. The only thing that needs to be said in both of these incidents is the same: Please let your agents sell your home, represent you, and do the negotiating. We politely ask that you do not do our job of selling your home. In the end it opens up a lot of potential problems. Trust your agent to market your home, sell your home, and represent in the best way possible. It will be the best decision you ever make!