Ellicott City Realtor Catonsville Realtor

Top Seller Tuesday - Absorption Rates for Catonsville

May Absorption Rate for 21228 Zip Code - Catonsville, Maryland:

All Homes:  27 weeks of inventory

Homes valued under $300,000: 24 weeks of inventory

Homes valued over $300,000:  36 weeks of inventory

May Absorption Rate for 21229 Zip Code - Catonsville, Maryland:

All Homes:  124 weeks of inventory

Homes valued under $300,00:  128 weeks of inventory

Homes valued over $300,000:  26 weeks of inventory

Read this post to find out more about Absorption Rates and what they mean.  If you'd like more information about absorption rates for your area, how much your home is worth, Catonsville home sales, or how long it will take to sell your home, please feel free to contact me. 

Top Seller Tuesday - Absorption Rates for Ellicott City

May Absorption Rate for 21042 Zip Code - Ellicott City, Maryland:

All Homes:  41 weeks of inventory

Homes valued under $300,000: 13 weeks of inventory

Homes valued over $300,000:  46 weeks of inventory

May Absorption Rate for 21043 Zip Code - Ellicott City, Maryland:

All Homes:  28 weeks of inventory

Homes valued under $300,000:  28 weeks of inventory

Homes valued over $300,000:  28 weeks of inventory

Read this post to find out more about Absorption Rates and what they mean.  If you'd like more information about absorption rates for your area, how much your home is worth, Ellicott City home sales, or how long it will take to sell your home, please feel free to contact me. 

Another Catonsville Success Story - Selling Your Catonsville Home

801 Woodsdale Road

Listed April 16, 2011.  Under contract April 26, 2011.  10 days on the market.

Don't worry about what your friends tell you, or what you hear on the news.  The only thing that really matters is whats actually happening right now in Catonsville.

If you are thinking of selling your Catonsville home, call someone who knows the market, who understands what the Buyers are looking for, and what it takes to get your Catonsville home sold.  Call me 410-480-3555.

Whose Time Are You Wasting?

This is a story I hear all the time - a Homeowner wants to move, but they don't think they can because of what they've heard about ‘this market'.  When I ask the Homeowner why they think that, I usually get answers about what they've heard on the news about the tough real estate market, or the lagging economy, or about foreclosures and short sales driving down prices.

In this situation, I always offer to take some time and sit down with them to help them really evaluate if moving is an option, and I often get this answer - ‘I don't want to waste your time.'

Wait - what?  Whose time?  My time?  That's awfully considerate, and I appreciate it - I really do. But I wonder if these Homeowners have ever thought about their own time wasted - time wasted unhappy in their current situation, time wasted wishing they could move, time wasted thinking they can't move based on what they hear on the news.

The fact is, everyone's situation is different.  Each person in this situation has a different motivation, different beliefs about why they need to move, and different end goals.  For me as a Realtor, it's so important that I understand the motivations and goals.  Because the real estate market is only going allow what it's going to allow.  The numbers are what they are.  Motivations and goals make the picture complete.

If you'd like to move, but aren't sure if it's a possibility for you, I can take a few minutes over the phone to get an idea of a situation.  Knowing just a little bit about your neighborhood, community, and home, considering current market conditions, and the mortgage balance owed (assuming equity is needed to move up), I can give a conservative estimate - a simple ‘yea' or ‘nay' as to whether a move is realistic, based on what it is you want to accomplish.

I'm not suggesting that this is the best way for me as a Realtor to evaluate your situation.  Ideally, we would spend some time evaluating your goals in order to come up with a plan for your move.  But yes, if you are worried about wasting my time, I can do an initial consult over the phone.

Quite frankly, however, I wish Homeowners would be as considerate of their own time as they are about mine.

Top Seller Tuesday - Absorption Rates for Elkridge

March Absorption Rate for 21075 Zip Code - Elkridge, Maryland:

All Homes:  55 weeks of inventory
Homes valued under $300,000: 44 weeks of inventory
Homes valued over $300,000:  98 weeks of inventory

Read this post to find out more about Absorption Rates and what they mean.  If you'd like more information about absorption rates for your area, how much your home is worth, Elkridge home sales, or how long it will take to sell your home, please feel free to contact me. 

Five Ways to Sell Your Catonsville Home in 30 Days or Less.  I can't guarantee to sell your Catonsville home in less than 30 days ...  but with a committed Seller who is willing to work as hard as I do to get their home sold, and for whom selling quickly is a priority, selling a Catonsville home in less than 30 days is certainly possible.  I will post my Five Step Strategy for Selling your home in 30 days or less over the next five days.  You can view the previous steps here: Step 1.  Step 2.  Step 3. Step 4.

Sell Your Catonsville Home in 30 Days or Less - Step Five: 

And When the Offer Comes In  ... Be Available, Be Reasonable, Have a Strategy and Stick to It

Be available - when a Buyer writes and offer on your Catonsville Home, try to remember - they are excited!  They have pictured themselves living there, and they are in the rosy glow of imagining their new life.  Be available to discuss the offer - in person with me - within a reasonable time frame of receiving the offer.  The same day, or the next day, but as soon as possible in any case.

Be reasonable.  Don't take offense that a Buyer has written what you perceive as a ‘lowball' offer for your home.  During this stage, the Buyer may simply be trying to assess your mindset - how serious are you about selling your home?    Remove your emotion from the situation, and together, we can evaluate the offer one component at a time.

Have a Strategy and Stick to It. The total negotiation process should not take more than 2 - 3 days, and really should not be that difficult.  Catch the Buyers while they are still excited.  Know your numbers, and be flexible.  Most importantly - don't take the negotiations personally.  Make a plan with all of the parties involved before you ever receive an offer, on how to handle counter offers, and how (and who!) will make the decisions.  The time to work out who will make the final decisions about the offer is not after you have received an offer.

In the past four years, during the time of the ‘downturn' in our market, my average days on market for selling Catonsville homes is 44 days.  I can't sell every home in less than 30 days, and I wouldn't claim that I could.  Selling in less than 30 days is not a priority for every Seller.

However, if selling your Catonsville home quickly matters to you, when you commit  to the process and follow my advice and Five Step Strategy, I believe that together we can accomplish your goals.  Give me a call for a market analysis of your Catonsville home, and to find out more about how what matters to you, matters to me.

Five Ways to Sell Your Catonsville Home in 30 Days or Less.  I can't guarantee to sell your Catonsville home in less than 30 days ...  but with a committed Seller who is willing to work as hard as I do to get their home sold, and for whom selling quickly is a priority, selling a Catonsville home in less than 30 days is certainly possible.  I will post my Five Step Strategy for Selling your home in 30 days or less over the next five days.  You can view the previous steps here: Step 1.  Step 2.

Sell Your Catonsville Home in 30 Days or Less - Step Three:  EMarketing - How to Make the Most of Your Catonsville Home's Online Presence

When interviewing Realtors, ask them how many photos they will be taking of your Catonsville home.  If they say anything less than 20 photos, ask them if they are aware of how Realtor.com ranks home searches.

Part of the default search result ranking on Realtor.com is by the number of photos provided.  Here in Catonsville, some agents will simply provide the standard exterior photo.  Many agents will provide the minimum number required to created an automated virtual tour -  which is six photos.

But if your Catonsville home is in a list of 50 other Catonsville homes that a Buyer is looking at, one of the ways I get your home to the top of that list is with the maximum number of photos that I can provide.

And here's where you come in - give me every opportunity to shoot every room of your Catonsville home.  If you have to have a ‘junk room', make it the garage or the unfinished area of your basement - I wouldn't take pictures of those rooms anyway.  If you have to keep a pet secure in a room, be home while I am taking pictures, so that you can move the pet to another area.

Keep your yard neat, both front and back, and I will get photos of those areas.  If you have nice landscaping, a garden, or a water feature in your yard, I'll add that to the photos as well.

I have a robust Emarketing plan for selling Catonsville homes, and it goes far beyond great photographs.  That's my job - getting your Catonsville home in front of as many interested Buyers as possible.  And when we work together, and when you stick to my Five Step Strategy, we'll get your home sold - and sold quickly.

I can't guarantee to sell your Catonsville home in less than 30 days ...  but with a committed Seller who is willing to work as hard as I do to get their home sold, and for whom selling quickly is a priority, selling a Catonsville home in less than 30 days is certainly possible.  I will post my Five Step Strategy for Selling your home in 30 days or less over the next five days.  You can view the previous steps here: Step 1.

Sell Your Catonsville Home in 30 Days or Less - Step Two:  Pictures.

Great Pictures Can Get Buyers In the Door to Your Catonsville Home - What will you do to chase them back out?

After a recent showing of a Catonsville Home, my Buyers turned to me, very apologetically, and said they were sorry for wasting my time taking them to the home were viewing - but that the home had ‘looked so great on the Internet!'.  I told them not to worry about it, that this is my job - this is what I do.  And more importantly, that I see this all the time.

Here are the top offenders when showing a home that are guaranteed to make the showing of your Catonsville home stop short:

• A dirty entryway - If you do nothing else to prepare your home for sale, please make sure the Front Door, Steps, and Porch are clean and tidy.  Your Buyers will be spending more than a few seconds on the Porch, chatting with the Realtor, assessing the property, waiting while the Realtor opens the Keybox ... don't give a reason to have a negative conversation about your home right off the bat.
  
• A smelly home - whether it's your animals, cigarette smoke, a mildewed clothes washer, or a lawnmower in the basement that makes your entire home smell like a service station - nothing will chase a Buyer right back out the door faster than a smelly home.  Conversely, try not to cover up offending odors with an excess of candles/air fresheners/cookies in the oven - oftentimes these smells can be just as offensive to Buyers.  And the combination of a smelly pet with a heavily scented vanilla candle can often be nauseating.  Just keep your home smelling fresh - open the windows, change pet bedding often, and remove the offending items a few days before listing your home.
  
• Dirty/scuffed walls and dirty floors - Recently, I previewed a home with my assistant.  We went  back 3 days later and she said to me - ‘WOW -  it doesn't even look like the same house! What did the Sellers do?'  My answer?  They painted the walls in the Living Room, they touched up the trim throughout the house, and they washed the walls in all of the other rooms.  They also tore up the old, dirty carpet to show the hardwood floors underneath.  The difference was impressive.

If you don't pay attention to the previous three items, your home will become stigmatized.  Buyers will know it, Agents will know it, Buyers will tell neighbors, friends and family members.  This is how a home begins to sit on the market ... long, longer ... and then weeks and months go by.  Don't let this happen to you!

I will take great pictures of your Catonsville home - well lit, high definition, wide angles of each room, multiple shots of large spaces, lighting that showcases both your interior spaces, and the views out your window ... I will do all of this to get Buyers in the door of your Catonsville home - what will you do to keep them there?

Five Ways to Sell Your Catonsville Home in 30 Days or Less

I can't guarantee to sell your Catonsville home in less than 30 days ...  but with a committed Seller who is willing to work as hard as I do to get their home sold, and for whom a quick sale is the top priority, selling a Catonsville home in less than 30 days is certainly possible.  I will post my Five Step Strategy for Selling your home in 30 days or less over the next five days.

Sell Your Catonsville Home in 30 Days or Less - Step One:  Price - Be Realistic About Your List Price

Your Realtor is going to show you ‘comps' for your Catonsville home - these are homes similar to yours in age and location.  These will be homes that have sold recently, usually within the past six months to a year.  In some areas in Catonsville, there may be a very limited number of comps to analyze.  Your Realtor may also show you homes currently under contract, and currently for sale.  This will give you an idea of what other Buyers will be seeing when they are searching for homes.

The comps will give you a general idea of a range for which to sell your Catonsville home.  For example, the comps may show that you should sell your home somewhere between 450,000 to 500,000.  That's a 50,000 range.  Whether you list in the bottom half of that range, or the top half of that range depends on many factors that a Realtor can help you assess.  Namely, which direction is the market going - up ... down ... or staying the same?  And how much competition do you have in your price range?

When deciding where in that range to price your Catonsville home, take into consideration your immediate location - are you on a busy street?  Are you near the railroad tracks?  Are you near the Beltway?  What schools are you districted for - not just Elementary, but Middle, and High School?  What is the condition of your home?  Even if you have an older Catonsville home that has not been recently updated, if it is clean and neat, you have a shot at selling in 30 days or less.  If you can't make these assessments objectively, enlist the help of your friends.  Have them come to your home and point out the things that a Buyer might object to.

The other important thing to consider is to look at these Catonsville homes the way a Buyer would look at them.  It may be your natural inclination to look at a comp, and identify all of the ways your home is superior to this other home, and therefore should sell for more money.  Detach yourself when looking at comps - you're no longer the owner, you're the Buyer.

A Buyer with a great Buyer's agent is going to be looking at all of the same comps you are looking at now - and the Buyer will look for all of the reasons and justifications to offer less money on your Catonsville home than the comps.

I can't tell you in a single blog post how to price your Catonsville home to get it sold in 30 days or less.  I can tell you that the first step in this process is to get the price right by looking at the comps and carefully evaluating your own property, location, neighborhood, condition and schools.  You don't have to ‘give your home away' in this market - but you do have to be competitive with other properties that a Buyer will see.

I Just Finished My CDPE Course - I Have Always been Your Realtor, and Now I am Your Certified Distressed Property Expert.  I have always sought to further my education and expertise to best serve my clients - and the CDPE designation helps me do that.

Whether you are in foreclosure, pre-foreclosure, or just think you might be 'under water' (owing more money on your home than you believe it is worth), give me a call.  You have options-you don't have to let the bank take your home.  I have more than 25 years of experience selling homes, and together we can make a plan to get you the result you are seeking.

Tim McIntyre - CDPE - Certified Distressed Property Expert
Compassion - Dedication - Patience - Experience
Your Local Expert for Maryland Foreclosures and Maryland Short Sales