Great tips for those wanting to sell your home!

Here are some great tips that I found from an article about selling your home quickly! Please let me know if you need a list of trusted contractors for those home repairs, I will gladly provide with it.

5 tips to help your home sell quickly-By Karen Aho of MSN Real Estate
To many buyers, a house that's been on the market a long time must have hidden problems. And that could lead to unnecessary and endless price reductions. Luckily, even in a distressed market, there are ways to prevent roots from sprouting under the 'for sale' sign.

Leave it to the pros
Welcome to the wacky world of home sales, where a little stubborn behavior can be costly. But there's a tried-and-true solution that can be summed up with two basic points:

• Find a seller's agent whom you like and trust. 
• "Make sure you interview three great agents that focus on your area," says Alan Mark, president of the Mark Co., a real-estate marketing and consulting company in San Francisco. "Then realize that you're hiring a professional who knows how to do this."
• Listen to that agent. More on that below, but the key is to separate the emotional qualities of your home from the basic functional qualities of the house.

"To start with, your house is unique — and so is everybody else's," Mark says. "Everybody thinks their house is unique. Get over it."
It’s never easy to relinquish control, particularly when it’s your home and your money. But if the goal is to sell, and to sell fast, then you’re better off trusting the expert, even if his advice appears trivial — like the paint on a couple of walls — or counterintuitive, such as undercutting the price.
To get a sense of what we mean, see the five tips below, all from experienced agents who say these are areas where home sellers often need some persuading.

1. Price it right; price it low
Some may find Katya Dennis a bit offbeat — or at least bold — in her pricing strategy, which at first blush appears to be undervaluing the property. But Dennis, an agent in Northern California with David Lyng Real Estate, swears by her method.
"I always tell my sellers, you can never price a house too low, because the market will take care of it," she explains.
Dennis recently listed a home for $535,000, even though it had been appraised at $560,000. The house sold within weeks — for $575,000. The reasoning is simple, she says. The low price drew quick and competing bids.
Had she listed the home for $560,000, she's certain the sale would have dragged and brought in even less than the valuation.
"If you start high and start lowering it, you will never get to the number that you will get to by starting low and going up," Dennis says. "Because when you start lowering the price, people will start wondering what's wrong with the house. ... And if it's been sitting awhile, people will try and lowball."

2. Try a fresh sales approachEven on the phone, it's clear that Leis can be tough. But her success stories may provide peace of mind to sellers who find themselves initially put off by agents' edgy tactics.

3. Don’t try too hard to fight the market
Sometimes a seller has to accept that there's only so much an unfriendly marketplace can offer.

4. Remember, renovations aren't a magic bullet
Be flexible with price. "Price is still what's moving." And if you want the house to move, find an agent willing to be brutally honest.

5. Don’t, repeat don’t, skip the online sales push
One last tip from agents: A home that relies on its good personality alone won't cut it in today's market.
"The days when a buyer shows up at my office and says 'Where are we going today?' those days are long over," Romano says. "They show up with a list of homes they've seen online. Some of them, you look at and say, 'Why would you want to look at that?' and you see it looks really good online."
A year earlier, he took a home that had been on and off the market for two years and sold it in 11 days after telling the sellers to follow his rules, which included staging the home and lowering the price.
"The market had continued to decline," Romano says. "Even if a buyer were interested at that (higher) price point, the buyer won't get a mortgage because it won't appraise out for that. It doesn't do anyone any good to list at above the appraised value."

It's a seller market! Here are some great tips on writing the best offer letter that you can!

10 tips on how to write an offer letter
By Sam DeBord Real Estate News

Homebuyers trying to stand out from a crowd of offers in today’s competitive market are often told to write a personal letter to accompany their offer. Buyers who are financing a home, or have a smaller down payment, often have trouble competing with all-cash buyers. Appealing to the seller as a person, as opposed to a contract, can sometimes give a buyer an emotional edge.
What isn’t often explained to buyers is how exactly to write that letter. The best ideas are often squandered by poor execution. Here is a quick guide to framing the home buyer letter and leveraging your best attributes by thinking from the seller’s point of view:

1) Flatter First
This is an emotional pitch. You’re attempting to tell the seller, “I’m such a good person that you should ignore the numbers.” They need to like you. Tell the seller how great their taste in color is, how much you’d love to have their lifestyle, and what an amazing neon bottle cap exhibit they have over the fireplace. Lay it on thick, but keep it sincere. You’re selling, but you don’t want them to feel like they’re being sold a used car.

2) Get To The Point
You may have 10 great ideas that you’d like to tell the seller. They will only remember two. The seller may have 10 other letters to read. If you mix in your best points with your lesser points, they may all just become a jumble.
Pick two or three reasons why you will be the best buyer for this home, and make them distinctly recognizable. The more streamlined you make your message, the more memorable it will be.

3) Paint A Picture
People remember what they’ve read at a far higher rate when they can see a picture of it in their head. “I really love this neighborhood because I’ve lived here and gone to school here,” doesn’t resonate.
On the other hand, “I spend half of my time walking the cobblestone streets around this block, dropping my daughter off at Gilman School and volunteering at Schnitzelfest every summer,” will trigger a visual memory for a seller. Think “I’d be so happy in the summer to be cooking Neapolitan pizza for friends and neighbors in your outdoor wood-fired oven”.

4) Don’t Remodel The House
Planning on adding a second story or changing the landscaping? Don’t mention it. You might be correct that the seller’s sewing room would make a great workout room for you, but this isn’t the time.
If you’re going to expand to create more bedrooms, you might be changing the seller’s favorite eyebrow windows in the roofline. They may have buried their dog under the tree you’re planning to pave over. he sellers may have awful taste, but homeowners are very protective of their homes.

5) Show Stability
Present yourself as a stable buyer who will have no problem closing the purchase. Whether that is a reference to your lack of contingencies, stellar employment record, or commitment to moving in as soon as the sellers are comfortable, ease the sellers’ fears of a shaky transaction.

6) Show Humility
At the same time, be humble and ask for the sellers’ blessing on your offer. “We would be so honored to live in your home,” goes much further than “We are confident that you will accept our generous offer.” The ball is in their court, and your letter should acknowledge that.

7) Don’t Whine
The emotion of your letter must be upbeat and high. It needs to make the seller feel good. Everyone wants to play with a winner.
The seller doesn’t care how many other homes you’ve lost out on. They don’t care that your rent just doubled. They don’t want to know about your wife’s sad condition that requires you to have a home like this. They just feel uncomfortable now. In fact, they’re already tossing your offer in the round file as they finish this paragraph.

8) Close With Clarity
Remember the five-point paragraphs and five-paragraph themes you had to write in school? While those formulas are too long and rigid for this letter, their closing advice should be noted. Your excitement, motivation, and ability should be reiterated at the end of your letter in a quick recap.
Remember that the sellers could be reading a few letters. Make sure that the closing of your letter reminds them of your best qualities and reinforces them.

9) Sign with Appreciation
The feeling your sellers will leave with can live or die on the signature line: “Sincerely”, “Cordially”, “Best Regards”, and “Yours Truly” do not apply. This is not a business correspondence of equals. Thank the sellers for spending their valuable evening reading the ode that you wrote about your unworthy self.
“Thank you so much for your time,” “Thank you for the opportunity,” “Your consideration is greatly appreciated,” or even “We are honored to have the opportunity,” will leave the seller understanding that you value their time and are grateful for it.

10) Spell Check. Grammar Check. Buddy Check. Do It Again.
As the recovering son of a former Catholic school English teacher, there is a dark secret I’d like to let you in on. We’re prejudiced. We look down on people who aren’t like us. There is a heinous belief ingrained in us from birth that says people who misspell and use incorrect grammar are lesser beings and not worthy of our respect.
Truthfully, though, there is an unbelievable amount of weight that some sellers will put on the preciseness of the letter. Right or wrong, the buyer’s personality will be judged from their attention to detail, ability to follow-through, and level of care in the letter. Buyer reliability is often gleaned from how well the rules of grammar are followed. If grammar isn’t your thing, find someone whose thing it is. You never know: the house you want to buy just might belong to my mother.

Write The Letter, Check It Twice, and Send It Off
There are many tactics being used by home buyers to stand out from the crowd. While not all sellers will read them, personalized letters are the most-accepted and popular form of unique buyer strategies available. Don’t rush the letter. Take the time to write it correctly. It just might be the most valuable single page of text you ever write.

Homes Are Selling Fast in Arlington

For most people selling their house the second most important thing, after netting the highest offer price, is selling the house fast.

Research done by realtor Brian Block shows that most homes under contract in Arlington and Alexandria have been on the market for less than 60 days. In some price ranges, it's as low as 36 days on average.

The only price ranges to average more than 60 days are $700-800 thousand and homes listed at over $1 million.

Of the 1,223 active listings in the MLS in the Arlington and Alexandria only 441 have been listed for more than 60 days, accounting for just 36%.

Quick Tips for Showing Your Home

Home Sellers,
While showing your home, whether by appointment or while holding an open house, keep these tips in mind:

* Clean and de-clutter your home (of course)
* Turn on all lights (including halls, bathrooms, stairwells...)
* Open all window coverings (natural light is important)
* Put soft classical or jazz music on stereo
* Clear off kitchen or bathroom counters
* Don't leave dishes in sink
* Close the toilet seats
* Put some fresh flowers outside the front door and on the kitchen table
* Ensure the temperature is comfortable (a house that's too hot or too cold will usher out buyers quickly)
* Remove the cat box from the house
* Put some potpourri out or use air fresheners

Remember, on the day of a showing it's the little things that count. Do things that will be pleasing to the senses of a potential buyer. You want to brighten rooms to help their sight and provide pleasant smells and sounds.

Real Estate Tidbits

The Mike Webb Team: http://www.northernvirginiahouses.com/