On March 3, our team of local real estate experts will reveal the essential home selling secrets you'll need to get a jumpstart on preparing your home for the 2018 market. Dar Walden only holds the SELLER SEMINAR ONCE A YEAR!! Learn from the #1 Real Estate Team in the state of Alaska! Seats are limited, so register now!
On March 3, our team of local real estate experts will reveal the essential home selling secrets you'll need to get a jumpstart on preparing your home for the 2018 market. Dar Walden only holds the SELLER SEMINAR ONCE A YEAR!! Learn from the #1 Real Estate Team in the state of Alaska! Seats are limited, so register now!
On March 3, our team of local real estate experts will reveal the essential home selling secrets you'll need to get a jumpstart on preparing your home for the 2018 market. Dar Walden only holds the SELLER SEMINAR ONCE A YEAR!! Learn from the #1 Real Estate Team in the state of Alaska! Seats are limited, so register now!
Here’s a rundown of some of the do’s and don'ts of home renovation if you’re getting ready to sell your home. Don’t: Wait until you’re ready to sell to start renovating. This is one of the biggest mistakes sellers can make. Do yourself a favor and do your renovations while you live in the property so you can enjoy them. You’ll never be able to get a dollar-for-dollar return for them, so the best way to compensate for that is to use those renovations for your own personal enjoyment. Do: Work on curb appeal. People tend to overlook this here in Alaska because it’s hard to manage curb appeal in February, but curb appeal is the No. 1 thing that draws people into a home. If they don’t like what they see when they drive up, you’ll probably lose them before they ever step foot into the home. Just make sure to use common sense and avoid doing something like building a $10,000 decorative retaining wall because you definitely won’t get your money back. Just clean everything up and make your exterior look nice and neat and it will carry you further than you can imagine.
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Do your renovations while you live in the property so you can enjoy them.
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Don’t: Expect to get a dollar-for-dollar return on invisible repairs. Repairing or improving things like heaters, septic tanks, and roofs is necessary for your sale, but buyers will already expect them to be done, so you won’t be able to raise your list price $15,000 just because you put $15,000 into repairing your septic tank. That’s not how the market works. Do: Make sure the upgrades you make are appropriate for your home. You don’t want to tear apart a kitchen in a million-dollar home and replace it with $10,000 worth of upgraded kitchen cabinets. The reverse is also true—you don’t want to put $150,000 into a kitchen in a home that’s only worth $250,000. It’s OK to go high on a renovation, just make sure you’ll be living in that home for the next three to 10 years. The longer, the better. Don’t: Overspend on a deck upgrade. Everybody loves decks, and in the lower 48 the return on investment is very good for an upgraded deck, but that’s not the case in Alaska. We typically don’t spend a lot of time on our decks—our winters are too harsh. Do: Make sure your upgrades are appropriate for the subdivision. If you put $150,000 into a home that’s worth $250,000 and you wanted to get $400,000 out of the home, you should know that the subdivision would never support that $400,000 pricing. If you have any questions about home renovation or you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in our market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d be happy to help you.
On March 3, our team of local real estate experts will reveal the essential home selling secrets you'll need to get a jumpstart on preparing your home for the 2018 market. Dar Walden only holds the SELLER SEMINAR ONCE A YEAR!! Learn from the #1 Real Estate Team in the state of Alaska! Seats are limited, so register now!
If you’re thinking about selling your home, you need to make sure that you avoid these three major mistakes before you officially list your home for sale: 1. Overpricing. Often, the agent will give the homeowner a range in value of where they think the home should be priced. Many homeowners want to go above that because they think the property is worth more. However, overpricing your home will gain nothing. It will end up costing you months on the market, lead to multiple price reductions, more negotiations, and less money overall. 2. Marketing. Not all agents are created equally when it comes to marketing. Homes don’t sell themselves, contrary to popular belief. The best way to ensure a quick and profitable sale is by getting the property out there and in front of potential buyers. Last year, we sold more homes than any other agent or team in the state of Alaska. Our 574 total sales in 2017 is a much higher figure than the nine homes per year the average agent sells.
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Your home needs to be show-ready at all times.
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3. Not making the home presentable. If your home is on the market for sale, it needs to be in show-ready condition at all times. It should smell good, but not too good. What I mean here is that you want to get rid of any unpleasant or odd odors, but you don’t want to overdo it on the air freshener or candles because then the buyers will think you’re trying to hide something. You want to find a nice, happy, and fresh medium. If you have any questions about selling a home or anything else about real estate in general, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.
Welcome to 2018! I hope you and your family had a great holiday season and were able to spend some time with your loved ones. I apologize for being gone from my video blog for longer than normal; I had surgery and I’m hobbling around on crutches, so I’ve been out of the office. Today, we’re going to talk a little bit about what our local market is doing. Right now, we have 637 active listings, which is about 3.3 months of inventory. We have 200 pending properties at the moment, and that’s about a third of what’s out there. Pending properties mean that they’re under contract and haven’t been sold yet but are on the way to being sold. We’ve had 160 expired properties over the last six months. There are really only three reasons why a property doesn’t sell and the listing expires: the condition, the pricing, and the location. Typically, location is the smaller percentage, with 98% of the reason being price and condition.
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98% of the reason why a listing expires is price and condition.
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The average sales price is a little bit higher than it was in 2016, at just under $270,000. The sellers are still getting about 99% of their last list price, as long as they’re priced appropriately. The average days on market to be sold is 54 days, but right now in the Anchorage/Eagle River/Girdwood area, the average days on market is 123 days. Why the difference? The properties that sold in 54 days were priced appropriately and were in good condition, so buyers swept them up quickly. It’s a red flag when properties have been on the market for 123 days, usually meaning that the price and/or condition aren’t attractive to buyers. As a seller, you really control how long it takes to sell your home through those factors. If you are thinking of selling your home this year, now is the time to get started on it. If you’re thinking about buying, we’re going to start seeing inventory increase in February and it will be rolling pretty well by April. For any questions or real estate needs, feel free to give us a call. We’d love to help you.
