Northwest Denver Undressed

Any Idiot Can Give Their House Away – In Real Estate, Is Price Really All that Matters?

Real estate agents are quite fond of the philosophy that “Price conquers all,” meaning that if you price a property for sale low enough, it will sell regardless of the challenges the property presents.

Fair enough.

But I must ask. So what? Is that our job as professional real estate agents to simply recommend a price low enough that any piece of junk will sell?

Or, rather, is it to help our sellers get the highest possible price in the shortest possible time, whatever a realistic price and time may be? If our job is to simply sell it fast, at any price, well, shoot, just about any idiot can give their property away! Isn’t that why homesellers hire us in the first place, to do a better job for them than they can do for themselves?

Real estate agents are always bragging about their listing expertise and defending their commissions by claiming they MORE THAN EARN THEIR FEE. Uh, well, I have to disagree if the only solution we offer our sellers is to price aggressively. There ARE other things a seller can do to maximize his sales price, and it’s our job to 1) know what those things are, and 2) be willing to share those secrets with a seller and 3) help the seller accomplish those things.

What if you went to your doctor with a pain in your leg and the only solution he offered was to cut the offending appendage off? Yes, that would cure the pain in your leg, but maybe there’s a better way that involves a little more effort on his part (and yours). Or if your plumber simply removed the toilet that wasn’t flushing instead of figuring out how to repair it?

Of course, if I request that the doctor amputate my leg, or that the plumber tear out my toilet, or that my Realtor simply give my house away, well, then, they have my blessing. But in most cases, c’mon, our clients deserve a little more effort and expertise than that, don’t they?

I’m not sayin’ that price isn’t important – of course it is. But if we keep preaching that “Price is the ANSWER!” to the exclusion of any other effort on our part, we may end up preaching ourselves out of a job…deservedly so, I might add.

A Denver Crime Map That’s Kinda Cool

Okay, so maybe I’m a weirdo for thinking a map of crimes is cool, but, well, I do. I’m always asked by my buyer clients “How’s the crime around here?” and in case you didn’t know, I can’t legally answer that question! So, having resources to point my clients to is tremendously helpful in my business.

Here’s a neato site that maps out all the recent crimes surrounding a Denver address, intersection, park or other public locale.

Cool, huh?

Denver Demographics – a Touchy Subject

Did you know that there are some topics a real estate agent can’t discuss? Topics such as crime rates, school ratings and general demographics are not subjects up for discussion due to federal Fair Housing laws.

However, just because I can’t legally answer such questions doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask them, or that the answers aren’t available! You should and they are!

Here is a fantastic website that will tell you just about everything you want to know about the demographics of Charming Old Denver. You can even compare neighborhoods!

Here’s a link to the 2007 Denver Police Department Annual Report. Scroll down to page 12 for detailed crime reports for each district.

Here is a website that offers parents an objective rating of public schools, including test scores and demographics. Here’s another one.

Here’s a link to a searchable directory of Denver sex offenders (you first have to agree to the terms of use before you can use it).

Hope this is helpful!

STOP! Before You Reduce the Price on Your Home…

So, your house is on the market and it hasn’t sold. Bummer.

You’re probably considering reducing the price. After all, that’s what “everyone” says, isn’t it? Especially in today’s market, “the only thing that matters is price.”

Eh, I disagree. While price might be an answer, it’s almost never the only answer, or even the best one. What else might be the problem?

Well, it might be really simple. Sometimes lockboxes jam, or locks are sticky. If real estate agents and their buyers can’t get into a house, they can’t fall in love and they won’t buy it. Same goes if the seller is declining or restricting showings.

How does the property show and smell? After a few months on the market, even the most fastidious homeowners get tired of making sure their home is in show-ready condition every day.

How’s the MLS description? Is it dull (”3 bedroom/2 bath ranch in Woodbridge”) or jazzy (”Mid-Century tri-level with modern flair!”)? Does it over-promise, but under-deliver (e.g. it claims that the house has a 2car garage, which is really an oversized shed)? Are the photos in season? ARE there photos? Are the driving directions correct, if the property isn’t a slam-dunk to find?

Here’s a biggie that many people don’t consider – IS THERE A BUYER for this house? Are other similar homes selling? If so, there’s something wrong with yours. If not, there may simply not be a buyer on the planet at this time and we can’t manufacture one. Not all homes are sellable, contrary to popular opinion.

Take a really close look at what IS selling in the neighborhood or market area. Can you identify any common denominators among the selling listings versus the non-selling ones? Maybe all the sales are of 4-bedrooms and yours has 3. Maybe it’s the 2-story models that are selling and yours is a ranch. You can’t fix that, of course, but it might help you understand what’s going on.

But what if the problem isn’t simple, but is fixable?

Here’s a 15 minute clip from a training presentation I gave on this topic in New Jersey last spring that will answer that question!

Real Estate Services – You Got What You Paid For… No Disdain Intended

Got a timely phone call from the mother of a friend of mine who has her Charming Old Denver house on the market. Been on the market awhile… like… a really long while. She’s in a panic and wants my opinion and possibly my services. Dandy.

So, I look up her listing on the MLS. Right off the bat I see half a dozen issues in her listing that are certainly hampering her chances for sale. They are:

1. Buyer agents must contact her directly for showings (that simply isn’t done here in Denver; we have showing services),

2. The photos are poor (there’s a cat on the bed in the bedroom photo)

3. The description is dull (”3 bedrooms, 2 baths, carport, blah blaaah, blaaaaaah”)

4. The main photo shows snow on the ground (it’s now what, July?),

5. The listing hasn’t been “refreshed” (a common practice here in Denver), and

6. All negotiations go thru the seller. Ugh.

No surprise, it’s listed with a MLS-only company that charged $195 for the “basic” package and $295 for the “enhanced” package. BEFORE I GO ANY FURTHER, LET ME SAY THAT I AM NOT CRITICIZING the listing company.

The (non-)Seller GOT WHAT SHE PAID FOR. She wanted minimal service and she got minimal service. I doubt that she was misled into believing that for $295 she was getting anything but.

So, she asks what I charge as a real estate commission. I’m direct about such things, so I told her… 6% without an upfront marketing fee; 5.2% with an upfront marketing fee. She seemed shocked, but recovered quickly and said “Well, I guess you GET what you pay for.”

It would have been easy for me to smugly say “Yep,” but, the truth is, I don’t believe that. Because you certainly don’t always. Just ‘cause someone charges more doesn’t mean they provide more. Okay, well, probably most of us “traditional” agents provide more than the $295 company, but sometimes I wonder! Just do a search online for “bad MLS photos” and you’ll get a good taste of the abysmal service some of in my industry provide.

So, yes, I think it’s fair to say “You GOT what you paid for” (without disdain) when a seller comes to me in a panic because her $295 listing agent didn’t perform. Hey, it was worth a shot. But with me, I promise she’ll GET what she pays for.

You can read more about my real estate commission structure for Denver home-sellers here.

Houses Aren’t Pet Rocks! No Amount of Marketing Can Sell a Stupid Product

Back in 1997, one of my first seller clients asked me the question: “Jennifer, I assume our house will sell quickly because it’s so cute (it was), but if it doesn’t sell right away, what will you do?”

Hmmmmmmmm. Hell, I dunno. I was a green bean real estate agent; I’d only had one other listing in my career and didn’t have a clue. I came up with something that probably sounded like this: “I’ll do a broker open house, I’ll do mid-week open houses, I’ll distribute color brochures throughout the neighborhood and post an ad on the nearby college’s bulletin board.”

Lucky for me, the house did sell quickly, so I didn’t have to implement my admittedly weak Plan B.

But it’s now 13 years later and I still don’t have a good answer to the question: “What will you do in 30 days if my house hasn’t sold?” However, with 13 years of experience under my belt, I KNOW that there ISN’T a great answer to the question! Especially if the seller is expecting me to reach into some magic bag of tricks and pull out a secret marketing strategy that I reserve only for my non-selling listings!

Here’s the thing. Even if I HAD a magic bag of secret marketing tricks, why would I hold out using them until after the listing is stale? Wouldn’t it make more sense to hit the market with all guns blazing?

But the truth is, I don’t have a magic bag of tricks.

NO AMOUNT OF MARKETING CAN SELL AN UNSELLABLE HOME.

I could do broker opens every day of the week, distribute enough color brochures to kill a small forest and refresh my Craigslist ad every 21 days for the next five years and my listing will not sell if it’s not properly priced, properly prepared and properly presented!

NO AMOUNT OF MARKETING CAN SELL AN UNSELLABLE HOME!

My job as professional real estate agent in Denver is to know what it’s gonna take to get a house sold. I need to know how to price the home TO SELL; how to prepare my sellers for the reality of Being on the Market and how to help them prepare the home to evoke the most positive emotional reaction from the greatest number of potential buyers (and their agents). It needs to look good, smell good and photograph well. It needs to be easy to show without the distraction of barking dogs or a work-at-home owner. If there’s an obstacle to sale, I need to recognize it and have the balls to be frank with my seller about it (and help ‘em fix it).

That’s how I sell my listings. By working with my Charming Old Denver home-sellers to create a marketable product, not to throw time and money at advertising after the sign goes in the yard. Frankly, our MLS system is an incredibly efficient system to sell houses and there’s nothing I can do individually to out-market that MLS.

The moral of the story… when talking with a real estate agent about his or her “marketing plan” don’t be fooled by promises of fancy marketing unless the agent has a solid PRE-marketing plan!

www.CharmingOldDenver.com

So, THAT’s Why They Call it HIGHlands!

I’ve lived in Northwest Denver on and off (mostly on) for over 14 years. And yeah, I’ve been aware the entire time that sections of my beloved ‘hood are called “Highlands” (West Highlands, Highlands Square, East Highlands, Potter Highlands, etc.). Never gave it much thought, though. After all, the city next door to me is called “Lakewood” and I’ve never seen a lake or even a woods there.

So, I recently went on a bike ride with some friends along the Platte River. Now, by definition, a “river” tends to be a low spot, as opposed to at the top of a hill. But anyway, I told my friends I’d meet them near the river for our ride. I rode my bike to the appointed meeting spot, rode around for an hour or so, and then headed home.

OMG. Up… up… up… Do I live on a friggin’ mountain? No, I just live in HIGHlands. Now I get it…

Rumor has it that Pferdesteller Park just two blocks from me is the highest point in the City of Denver, although I couldn’t find any verification of that in my exhaustive 2.5 minute web search on the topic. But anyway, yeah, I live in HIGHlands and there’s a REASON it’s called that.

Now, I just gotta find the Lake and the Woods in Lakewood.

Which Costs More in Denver… a Bungalow or a Tudor?

Because I’ve been selling in this neighborhood for almost 12 years, I have a pretty good handle on what buyers like and will be willing to pay more for. Bungalows and Tudors are by far the most popular floorplans and if well-maintained, command top dollar, especially if their vintage features have been preserved. 1950’s ranches are less appealing, as are turn-of-the-century cottage-style homes, for various reasons. But how MUCH less appealing?

So, I’m doing a fun little analysis this morning. I’m comparing the average price per square foot (psf) and the average and high/low sales prices of each vintage. For example, I just ran a search on my MLS for ranch-style brick homes built between 1920 and 1930 (i.e. the Bungalow), with square footages of between 900 and 1100. Came up with 46 Bungalows with an average psf of $322, a high price of $419,000 and a low price of $220,000.

Did the same thing with Tudors built in the 1930’s. Surprisingly, the results were almost identical – $322 average psf, high: $415k; low: $235k. Why am I surprised? Because I’ve always thought that Tudors commanded a higher price due to their more elaborate architectural detailing. They always seem to, anyway. Interesting to find out that statistically, they’re no more or no less appealing than Bungalows.

I kept going – analyzing the stats for 1900-1910 cottages and 1945-1960’s ranches. In case you’re interested, cottages command a much lower psf than Bungalows or Tudors and 50’s ranches are somewhere in between.

Good to know. I’m not sure how I’ll use this knowledge (outside of writing a blog about it), but I’ll betcha’ it comes in handy sometime soon!

Charming Old Denver Architecture – the Denver Square & the 50’s Ranch

 So, to continue our discussion of Charming Old Denver architecture…

 The Denver Square – In other cities, this style is called a “Four Square.” Thousands were built between 1894 and 1920 and, even though many “offer” the same floor plan challenges as the Victorian, a well-preserved Denver Square will usually sell quickly, for top dollar. Denver Squares usually feel structurally sound and often offer amazing interior detailing, such as tile fireplaces and custom mantles, wood floors, doors & trim, vintage light fixtures, high ceilings and leaded glass windows.

The 1950’s Ranch – This style appeared on the scene after World War II. Some say that homes built during this era are some of the best built homes in Denver. Ranches typically offer brick exteriors and are often on larger lots. Inside, the floor plans are family-friendly with 2-3 bedrooms upstairs and a full, usable basement below. Total livable square footage of a 1950’s ranch often exceeds 2000, large by Denver standards. Most ranches feature oak floors, often untouched after years of being protected under carpet. While the 50’s Ranch has never been as popular as the Tudor or Bungalow, it seems to be gaining favor in Denver as “Mid-Century Modern” becomes vogue.

Looking for Foreclosures in Charming Old Denver?

Looking for Foreclosures/Short Sales/REO’s in Denver… but don’t know where to start?

Frankly, neither do I. I’ve made the executive decision that the Foreclosure market is not my thing. In the late 90’s, I worked with a lot of investors, but that was a different world – one in which the sellers actually seemed to want to sell! I’ve heard so many horror stories of deals that seemed too good to be true… and were. Or sales that dragged on and on for months only to eventually disintegrate after wasting an incredible amount of time and energy.

Nonetheless, today’s market does offer incredible opportunities for the amateur or professional investor and I’ll bet a lot of us will wish we’d taken advantage of one or two of them… I know if I had a couple extra hundred thousand lying around right now, I’d be picking up some real estate…

Anyway, I wanted to pass on the name of a guy I met a few weeks ago who has created a dandy little niche for himself in this Foreclosure market. What he does is purchase a foreclosed home, renovates it, procures a renter and then sells the house at a cash-flowing price. I’ve seen his work and it’s decent! I’ve never done a transaction with him, but my impression was that he’s a straight-up guy offering a win/win proposal. His tagline is “We Always Pass the Deal on.”

If you’d like an introduction, just get in touch with me and I’ll hook you up.