Real Estate: Summer Has Arrived

By Matt Trudel

The Memorial Day Weekend was fabulous, and summer has finally arrived. Also heating up is the real estate market with inventory still being low keeping buyers aggressive with their opening offers.

Sellers who are prepared and have done all the things sellers should do before putting their house on the market are being rewarded handsomely for their efforts.

Here is a recent example of how it can be very effective in getting the most for your home.

Seller X has his home and wants to list it for sale for a certain price. Upon doing the walk-through prior to doing the Market Analysis, it is obvious the house needs major decluttering inside and outside. There are some repairs that are needed. This is sometimes one of the hardest things to explain to sellers, but it is important to explain it thoroughly and give them the hard facts. Seller X committed to everything on the list and was shocked he was able to accomplish it all in such a short time. His property sold for more than $50,000 over the asking price on the first day it hit the market.

This is a good example of why you want to hire an experienced broker when selling your home.

Find a broker with a proven track record and who knows the location and how the market is trending. Just hiring a friend who has a real estate license is not always the best choice when getting ready to sell or buy.

Experience is a very valuable asset when it comes to real estate and successfully achieving your real estate goals. It can easily be the difference in getting the home you want or missing out on putting it under contract. Here is a good example of a buyer who recently was successful in the process and strategic planning and aggressive negotiating skills prevailed.

Buyer Z was looking for a new house with me. She did all the preplanning we discussed with getting financials in order, all pre-approved, and was ready to go if we found the right property. In my daily search that I do, I also check the “coming soon” market to see what is about to hit the market. That’s where I found the right house and it was going to hit the market the next day. I scheduled the first appointment the next day for us to view it.

She loved it but I warned her there were eight other showings scheduled over the next two days. We went back to the office and wrote a very strong offer, slightly over the list price with a short window for the seller to respond within about eight hours. We successfully blocked out all the buyers in the other showings and went under contract that evening.

These are just a couple of examples of recent transactions that have taken place. Hopefully they will help you think about how important it is to find the right broker for yourself. Interview or at least talk to a couple of real estate brokers about what their own strengths are in real estate.

Hopefully they can easily provide you with some recent examples or even provide a few previous clients you can talk to. And if you do have a friend who has a real estate license, you should not be concerned about not using them. We are professionals and should never get upset about our friends choosing to work with someone else. It is part of the business and nothing to take personal. If they do get upset with you that is not your fault and maybe it’s a good thing you don’t use someone who isn’t professional.

This article was written by Matt Trudel, Broker and Owner of Five Star Realty, Windham. 207-939-6971. <