Month: March 2021

Prepare Your Home for Spring

From recent freezing temperatures, warmer weather is just around the corner and here are my best tips to prepare your home for spring.

While shopping over the weekend for fresh, new accessories for my new listings, I went into Home Goods to see what they were featuring this spring.

First of all, I love the feeling I get when I walk into Home Goods. They know how to get you in the mood to shop. It’s the same trick I use for all of my new listings. Home Goods and I both know we’ve got a short time to grab the buyer while they are present and either they’ll buy or they’ll move on. I call it the 10 second rule. It’s based on grabbing the buyer within 10 seconds of entering a house.

Home Goods is bright, full of happy music, and the colors throughout the store are outstanding. Furthermore, it’s such a pick-me-up and an incredible feeling. I love their bright cheery dishes, pillows, springtime furniture and outdoor cushions. It makes me want to buy everything in the store and give my own home a spring makeover.

I also love Home Goods for doormats and front door wreaths. They are bright, colorful, and full of life. The spring season is the best time for a change. It’s like starting over new again. In addition, you get a new lease on life and your home deserves this as much as anything. For that very reason, you will reap the benefits from your mini spring home makeover.

How to Stand Out

This week while working on a couple of houses, I thought about what would make us stand out from our competition. Both houses had substantial front porches so I decided with the new season and the energy in the air, I wanted to focus on the porch and really hone in on the curb appeal to draw people inside.

As a result, at one of the houses I added a new spring doormat, a fresh wreath and added new pillows to the homeowner’s glider. The most fabulous part of this house was the screened-in back porch! After all, who doesn’t want a porch? My buyer, Ashley, (what’s a girl to do with a pedestal sink?) bought a house with a porch and without that pedestal sink a few years ago. I hope she’s taking time to enjoy her porch – especially this upcoming spring season!

Here are My 11 Best Tips to Prepare Your Home for Spring

  • Paint your front door
  • Add an expensive pot filled with colorful flowers next to the door
  • Find a pretty new wreath and hang it on your front door
  • Get some new house numbers
  • Change out your mailbox (if it’s on the house) or paint it to match the color of your door
  • Add some dark mulch to your flower beds
  • Shop somewhere like Home Goods and buy a few new colorful accessories for inside
  • Buy some new pillows for your couch
  • Paint a room (or the entire interior of your house)
  • Throw out last year’s outdoor cushions and get some new brightly colored ones that will cheer you up on a daily basis
  • Buy a new umbrella for your outdoor table

We had a cold winter in Kansas City. Therefore, it’s time to live life to the fullest and enjoy spring. Whether you’re selling and want to create the model home look or dwelling and need help zinging your home into spring, you can call me direct or text me at (913) 515-3250 or get started here.

How Many Offers Does it Take?

Everyone wants to know just how many offers does it take to sell your home in Overland Park.

The local real estate market is so crazy in certain price ranges, but come on, how many offers do you really need to sell your house? Some agents like to brag about how many offers their latest listing received. It’s the best way to boost their ego and they think it will make all sellers want to use them to sell their home as well.

Other agents like to take advantage of the hot market. They will actually let offers stack up for a couple of days before presenting them to the seller. While there is nothing wrong with doing that, it does tend to make other Realtors and their buyers mad. When buyers make an offer, they like to know whether they are going to get the house or at least be considered. Wouldn’t you if you were a buyer? They don’t like waiting a couple of days to find out they had no chance of their offer being accepted.

What’s the best game plan?

There are many options an agent can employ when strategizing their game plan to sell your home. Each agent thinks their plan is the best and is unique to them. From what day is the best day to list your home for sale, to how many offers they will accept, to the number of days they will collect offers.

But after all, how many offers does it take on one house? Some agents say it’s in the best interest of their seller to let the offers pile up. Why? What’s the most any house is going to sell for? We’re in Kansas. This is not California. A $300,000 house in Overland Park is not going to sell for $350,000. How much can you push the price up before the house doesn’t appraise for the price offered – maybe $15,000?

Home buyers are desperate to buy

Today’s buyers are desperate to buy a home. With low inventory and reasonable prices in the local market, most buyers have lost out on more than one house. When I tell a buyer that they probably aren’t going to get the first house they make an offer on, they look at me with dismay. After losing out on many houses, they make crazy offers on houses that really aren’t worth what they are offering.

For example, a friend of mine told me her neighbor’s house had received 14 offers and sold for $22,000 over the asking price. When we researched that, the sale price was only $5,500 over the list price. 14 offers??? Really?

Did the house sell for $22,000 over asking and the appraiser didn’t see the value? Or did the seller exaggerate the sale price to my friend? If the house actually did sell for $22,000 over asking and it didn’t appraise, then the seller probably was forced to reduce the price to the appraised value.

But in the end, if you’re the seller, don’t plan on using that $22,000 extra money on your next house until you determine you are actually going to receive it. If your house doesn’t appraise, you may not have the money you were hoping for and it could sure screw up your next purchase in a hurry.

How many offers does it take to sell your house?

Here’s my strategy when I list your Overland Park home for sale. My goal for my listings is to get 3 great offers the first day on the market. Everyone will have a final chance to bring their best and final offer by the end of the day.

That’s exactly what happened with my house in Leawood South. My sellers ended up with $12,425 over their asking price. (In the end, they took the lowest offer but it was a cash deal and it closed in 2 weeks – with no appraisal).

Don’t expect agents and their buyers to wait around for a couple of days to hear whether or not they got the house. Buyers today certainly don’t want to miss out on another house while you’re busy collecting offers. Your best offer could end up walking away because they found another house.

If you have a great house that’s priced right and looks good, you only need one great offer in this market. You’ll keep everyone happy and save yourself unnecessary stress.

Call me at (913) 515-3250 or contact me here to see what it’s going to take to keep things stress-free when selling your home. I promise not to bring you 20 different offers that I have to present. I won’t put you through all that. 3 great offers will accomplish the same exact thing and in much less time.