How Do you Respond to a Carpet Allowance?

Should I offer a Carpet Allowance to get my Home SOLD?

This is a great question from many Home Seller's. Here is how I responded to that same question:

---Original Message---
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009
To: 'brad@kornteam
Importance: High

Brad and/or Sonya,
I want to add a $5000 carpet and paint allowance to the listing. The number one thing that seems to be consistently noted in our showing feedback is how “outdated” and/or poor condition ....(I have the full email at our Korn Team blog at www.kornteam.com


---Response---
...consider one more option. …Consider doing a 90 days, same as cash type deal…or even get him to put some cheap carpet (but decent looking) in.

Unfortunately, with all my years of selling, even the allowance will not get them past picking your home. It is truly a “Beauty Contest” AND a “Price War” and you have to win both. Obviously the price is not keeping them away…we are getting some decent traffic. Even a cheap new carpet is still new and looks great.

....I know you are both busy, so you might want to decide if you would rather discount the price and not do the work…make is such a good deal that anyone will overlook the carpets, etc…….OR…..do a little work to make it neutral (cream, off white, wheat colors, etc…) and have a better shot getting the price you are at. The honest truth is...if your home blew their socks off from the minute they walked into the home, carpet and paint would never keep someone from making an offer.

...they are seeing either better values out there, or maybe even homes that don't need the work, and are priced very competitively (sometimes even more than you...but no work needed, and completely updated).

Thanks.Brad
www.kornteam.com
brad@kornteam.com

Is NOW a good time to sell?

Many clients ask if they should wait till April (or so) to put their home on the market. Actually, my advice is quite different. No matter what market you are in, the Fall and Spring months are one of the BEST times to be on the market.

Real Estate is everything they taught us in High School Economics....it is "supply" and "demand". The reason people think they should wait is because they heard a lot of homes sell in the summer. Well, that is true. In fact, 50% of home sales in the US sell in the summer months. However, during the summer months there is more competition for those buyers.

What I suggest is to get your home on the market right away. Jan-Mar will be the months you will have the leasst amount of competition for the rest of the year. Many sellers sign 6 month contracts when they list their home. If they list in June and expire around Thanksgiving...the majority of sellers go ahead and take their home off the market. Those are the months that you have the least amount of sellers trying to take YOUR buyer.

Another way to look at it is this, in the summer there are a lot more buyers....but also a lot more homes for sale. In the beginning of the year there are fewer buyers....but they are typically more serious buyers (especially if there is snow and bad weather). Those buyers HAVE to move. So, even though you may get fewer lookers, the lookers out in the weather ar serious buyers. In fact, those serious buyers have fewer homes to chose from, so I would argue that sellers typically get a little more equity during the first months of the year.

If you would like further explanation on this, feel free to contact us at brad@kornteam.com