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We arranged for our doberman and two cats to stay with a neighbor when we were at work. On weekends, they went in the car with us when showings were scheduled.
Just sayin'
I worked about 80 hours a week. I didn't know any neighbors. Literally- not one.
I moved to a different state without knowing a soul in it. I became friends with my fellow teachers, but they were also at work when I was. I taught 40 minutes away from my house. My weekend/evening part time job was full of high school and college kids who I would have never entrusted with a key, much less my pet.
Because I worked so much, I not once had to leave for a showing. I was at work every single time. So, my cat, who is terrified of strangers, hid and most of them only saw her food and litter box. She did sleep in my bed under the covers sometimes, so they would just see a lump in the bed. I went under contract twice with people who viewed the home with her and her things in it. As long as it is evident that you clean up after your pets, it will be a non-issue for many people. At least in the starter home market.
I worked about 80 hours a week. I didn't know any neighbors. Literally- not one.
I moved to a different state without knowing a soul in it. I became friends with my fellow teachers, but they were also at work when I was. I taught 40 minutes away from my house. My weekend/evening part time job was full of high school and college kids who I would have never entrusted with a key, much less my pet.
Because I worked so much, I not once had to leave for a showing. I was at work every single time. So, my cat, who is terrified of strangers, hid and most of them only saw her food and litter box. She did sleep in my bed under the covers sometimes, so they would just see a lump in the bed. I went under contract twice with people who viewed the home with her and her things in it. As long as it is evident that you clean up after your pets, it will be a non-issue for many people. At least in the starter home market.
I have to respectfully differ.
Some people are VERY sensitive to pets, starter home or no. Honestly I don't think one cat is that big of a deal. More than one or a large dog, yes. If there is a pet of any kind, its usually included on the listing. I have severe allergies, so my realtor has to warn me if there are pets in the houses we see.
I do a listing appt where we go over comps, marketing strategies, availability for showings and a walk thru where I tell them what needs to be done to get house ready to sell. Then I have them call me when the house is ready to sell and I go back and do another walk thru and make sure it looks good. If it does, THEN I have them sign a 3 mo listing agreement. If it doesnt, I don't list it. I do a 3 mo listing because if they did as I suggested, keep it show ready and make it available to sell, it should be sold during that time. If they dont, then I will not renew listing.
I'm not going to waste my time and money advertising something that doesn't show well.
I recently listed my house and have it under contract. I had already moved out of the house before it was listed. I can imagine it would be a lot more of a pain to be occupying the house while it's on the market, but I know this is more typical for most people.
My listing agent suggested just removing everything, at first I thought maybe it would be nice to have some furniture, but the stuff I had was mostly older stuff anyways. I also got the house painted and some other mostly cosmetic stuff done to get the house ready to sell. The listing agent , that actually owns the brokerage actually offered to loan me the money to get the work done and pay them back at escrow.
I think its hard for some people to realize how others might perceive their home.
I do a listing appt where we go over comps, marketing strategies, availability for showings and a walk thru where I tell them what needs to be done to get house ready to sell. Then I have them call me when the house is ready to sell and I go back and do another walk thru and make sure it looks good. If it does, THEN I have them sign a 3 mo listing agreement. If it doesnt, I don't list it. I do a 3 mo listing because if they did as I suggested, keep it show ready and make it available to sell, it should be sold during that time. If they dont, then I will not renew listing.
I'm not going to waste my time and money advertising something that doesn't show well.
I've heard it said that real estate agents mostly want to sell 'pretty homes'. I can definitely see why. It makes things easier.
In my market inventory is so tight right now that they seem willing to list pretty much any home though.
I can see as an agent though you wouldn't want to have a bunch of listings that are just sitting there as it doesn't look great to have a bunch of homes with a lot of days on market.
I've heard it said that real estate agents mostly want to sell 'pretty homes'. I can definitely see why. It makes things easier.
In my market inventory is so tight right now that they seem willing to list pretty much any home though.
I can see as an agent though you wouldn't want to have a bunch of listings that are just sitting there as it doesn't look great to have a bunch of homes with a lot of days on market.
I think its just easier to sell a house that looks good. A primary residence should feel like "home" when you walk in and buyers are always chasing that. Sellers have their own idea of what "home" looks like and get insulted when people objectively state that something they hold dear may not inspire others to want to live there. And let's face it, some people just have very specific taste that does not translate well to others.
I think agents are just doing their utmost not to waste time. If a seller is not willing to listen, it means a longer haul until the house gets sold and more effort to sell it for both parties. But the sellers often can't separate their own idea of what is good in a home to what sells. There is also sometimes distrust that a realtor is trying to get them to spend money for some nefarious purpose. The reality is that they are trying to help you. But some people can't be helped.
I've heard it said that real estate agents mostly want to sell 'pretty homes'. I can definitely see why. It makes things easier.
In my market inventory is so tight right now that they seem willing to list pretty much any home though.
I can see as an agent though you wouldn't want to have a bunch of listings that are just sitting there as it doesn't look great to have a bunch of homes with a lot of days on market.
There is a difference between a pretty home and one that shows as well as possible. I'll list fixer upper homes. But they need to be priced right and still show as well as possible. So even though it may not be updated, I still expect sellers to declutter, clean the home thoroughly, have all light bulbs working, Yard weeded/cut/trash removed, and home should be easy to show.
I won't take a listing that doesn't show well...not one that just isn't pretty. There is a difference.
I once had to buy a house in a different city. I was only there on certain days as I was working a job which involved a lot of international travel. Basically I had 5 days to find a house and put in an offer.
My realtor lined up a lot of showings for me. There was a very charming place that I was interested in but the owner refused to show it except for a very limited time period. It did not coincide with my time in the city. So we had to pass and move on to other places. I put in an offer on day 3 out of my 5 day trip and got the place.
I watched that property. It sat on the market for over a year. I ended up looking for another property to invest in and called the same agent. Out of curiosity, I asked about the place with the limited showing window.
"Oh that!" she laughed. "That place is kind of a joke around the office. We have not gotten ONE successful showing of that property in over a year. Every time we schedule, the seller tells the agent that she is "ill" and can't be bothered. But someone knows her and says that she just doesn't want people going through her house when she is not there because she is afraid that they will dirty her rugs and steal her jewelry."
In year 2, the place was off the market. It reappeared several years later. The owner had died and it was being sold as part of her estate. It was open anytime.
It sold in 24 hours.
I'm not sure what your point is
My point was sometimes sellers have very good reasons for what they do. I think as long as an agent advises their client as to what they think of an issue, at the end of the day, everything is the sellers' decision
In our case, all of the agents managed to make it back on the weekend Funny how that worked
Sometimes you have to spend a little to make a lot.
A fresh coat of paint, some flowers, a colorful throw rug and that old huge sofa replaced with something sleeker and newer can literally mean the difference between getting below asking and starting a bidding war.
Realtors want you to make as much money on your home as possible. They got no dog in the fight if you paint your kitchen. But if that kitchen makes them 5 or 10K more for the bottom line, they are going to encourage you to do it. And guess what? You benefit!
You sound like you are less"in the middle" than in the "heck no" camp listening to advice.
Actually there was a Freakonomics study that proved this isn't quite true. Realtors would rather sell your home quicker for a bit less money. If you think about how much their cut of the difference is, it's worth it to them to sell it quicker.
One of my relatives needs to sell her house and she wants to do nothing. I said well get rid of the clutter and clean the carpet, update the lights in the bathroom. Clean sells, dirty and cluttered doesn't because most people can't see past it.
She said oh no I'll wait to see what the realtor tells me... then she proceeds to say oh I can put up this border I found in the basement (from the 80's) to update the bathroom. I looked it up online and I saw its in style.
I said no, don't bother just get rid of or rent storage for all this stuff everywhere and get the place professionally cleaned. She won't hear it, thinks it will show just fine dirty and that the next person that buys it will take care of that... ugh, she just doesn't get it.
She must be older. We bought our house 30 years ago, and all this "nonsense" of decluttering, and keeping things sparkling clean wasn't done then. Of course, we also didn't think hoarding was normal and people actually kept house, so the choices weren't sparkling clean or outright filthy.
So when we bought our house, the owner and his aged mother was there...with the dog. They were watching tv. I still went through the cabinets with water pipes, and we liked the place. The place wasn't staged it was lived in. It was clean, but there were dishes in the sink. People live there.
And I was thrilled to get the appliances! Some of them were 20+ years old.
So...in one way, she's right. Someone will eventually come along who can see past the clutter, and buy it. She won't like the price. He'll be asking for a nice discount.
Because now...we ask a lot of home sellers. I know when it comes time to sell this house, we will be safely ensconced in our new home, and ours will be cleaned and repainted and fresh... I won't care, I don't live there anymore. I just want the best price I can get.
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Funny how that worked
