Matthews Alive is a fun filled family event for kids of all ages. It was founded on one simple principle that it still runs by today....non profit help. The whole event is made up of rides, arts, crafts, games and local vendors. There is also live entertainment for kids and adults of all ages throughout the weekend. The mission of the group is to provide a basis for non-profit organizations to help raise money and awareness for their causes in Matthews and surrounding communities. The best part is 100% of ALL proceeds go back to the local orgizations. What better way to celebrate Labor Day weekend than at Matthews Alive and help out local non profit orginzations at the same time.
The event kicks off tonight at 6:30p.m. and runs to 5:00p.m. on Labor day. Tomorrow, there is a parade through downtown. It has grown over the past 17 years to be the largest Labor Day parade in the southeast. Schools, bands, and orginzations from all over Charlotte and surrounding communities come out to particpate in it. If you get the opportunity to go I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
To find out the whole scheudle of events and activities going this weekend visit their website at www.matthewsalive.org
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
Friday, September 3, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Selling Your Home? Price It Right
If you are thinking of putting your home on the market or have it on the market one of the biggest factors that can affect your home gettign sold is price. In this housing market pricing a home right may be more crucial than ever before. The buyer has so many choices and homes are not moving at the pace they once were a few years ago.
There are a couple of schools of thoughts on this. One says, that you have done certain updates and improvements for the home and feel you should recover some of that expense out of the house. The other is to say I need to sell sooner rather than later and want my home sold before the average for my neighborhood.
Both strategies can backfire on a seller. Yes, certain home improvements do add value to the home. But, if you do $10,000 in home repairs and upgrades you probably are not going to recover that money out of the house when you go and sell the house. If you insist on inflating your asking price for the home by X amount of dollars in the hope of getting it back you are probably going to drive buyers away from your home. They will notice you are over priced for the neighborhood and look right past your home.
On the other front, if you price it too low; you probably will get a lot of people to look at your home online and/or in person. But, there will be some question as to whay you have the home priced so low. If they know the reason why you are selling for less than the market value they will probably try to get you to go even lower than that. You probably will end up with offers signifcantly less than you want or can accept on the home.
The best strategy is to price your home competitively to the maket. When the home goes on the market you need to know what the local homes in the neighborhood have sold for recently that are comparable and what the homes in the area are listed for. A happy balance between those numbers can help you achieve your ultimate goal....SOLD.
But, just because you have priced the home where it should be today; does not mean in a month or two or three the values have not changed. Ask your Realtor to update you on a monthly basis on what is on the market and what is sold and adjust your price accordingly if need be. I see to many homes that have been on the market for four to six months and the sellers are asking the Realtor why has the showings decreased and why are we not getting any offers. Probably becuase there home is now over priced for the current market.......
Want to sell your home...Price It Right.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
There are a couple of schools of thoughts on this. One says, that you have done certain updates and improvements for the home and feel you should recover some of that expense out of the house. The other is to say I need to sell sooner rather than later and want my home sold before the average for my neighborhood.
Both strategies can backfire on a seller. Yes, certain home improvements do add value to the home. But, if you do $10,000 in home repairs and upgrades you probably are not going to recover that money out of the house when you go and sell the house. If you insist on inflating your asking price for the home by X amount of dollars in the hope of getting it back you are probably going to drive buyers away from your home. They will notice you are over priced for the neighborhood and look right past your home.
On the other front, if you price it too low; you probably will get a lot of people to look at your home online and/or in person. But, there will be some question as to whay you have the home priced so low. If they know the reason why you are selling for less than the market value they will probably try to get you to go even lower than that. You probably will end up with offers signifcantly less than you want or can accept on the home.
The best strategy is to price your home competitively to the maket. When the home goes on the market you need to know what the local homes in the neighborhood have sold for recently that are comparable and what the homes in the area are listed for. A happy balance between those numbers can help you achieve your ultimate goal....SOLD.
But, just because you have priced the home where it should be today; does not mean in a month or two or three the values have not changed. Ask your Realtor to update you on a monthly basis on what is on the market and what is sold and adjust your price accordingly if need be. I see to many homes that have been on the market for four to six months and the sellers are asking the Realtor why has the showings decreased and why are we not getting any offers. Probably becuase there home is now over priced for the current market.......
Want to sell your home...Price It Right.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Does Writing "Motivated Seller" Help You Sell A Home?
If you are selling your home and have been reading my blogs for the past week or so you might notice a trend. I recently had a couple of weeks where I have viewed 30+ homes to a few different buyers. Most of the homes have been on the market for longer than they should have been. There are numerous reasons as to why.
One of my personal favorites though is "motivated seller". Who, in today's market that is trying to sell a home is not motivated? Would any of us be selling our home if we did not have to or want to sell? So, why do Real Estate agents insist on writing motivated seller?
Here is my take on this from two of my buyers perspective. The asking price might be fair but they would probably take a significantly less money for the house....Becasue they are "motivated sellers". You have just given my buyer a reason to come to you with a ridiculously low offer. When you counter at a reaonable offer(one my buyer might have taken) my buyer is going to come back and say "they are motivated; they will come to our number" or we will move on to another house. They now have locked in their head that you have to sell and they want to get the porperty at a low, below market value price. if not, they probably will move on to another property....
So, I ask why does your Realtor write "motivated seller"?
Dave dicecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
One of my personal favorites though is "motivated seller". Who, in today's market that is trying to sell a home is not motivated? Would any of us be selling our home if we did not have to or want to sell? So, why do Real Estate agents insist on writing motivated seller?
Here is my take on this from two of my buyers perspective. The asking price might be fair but they would probably take a significantly less money for the house....Becasue they are "motivated sellers". You have just given my buyer a reason to come to you with a ridiculously low offer. When you counter at a reaonable offer(one my buyer might have taken) my buyer is going to come back and say "they are motivated; they will come to our number" or we will move on to another house. They now have locked in their head that you have to sell and they want to get the porperty at a low, below market value price. if not, they probably will move on to another property....
So, I ask why does your Realtor write "motivated seller"?
Dave dicecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Selling Your Home? Tell A Story
To many times homes that are priced right in this market do not sell for one reason or another. One factor I found recently when I got a lsiting on an expired home is telling a story about the house. Yes, I beleive that you need to take a lot of good qualitiy photos. However; photos only tell half the story. You need to be able to write about a house telling about it and the wonderful features the home has.
We all like to visualize things in our head. That is why some of the greatest writers of our time are who they are. Who has not read Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and not envisoned themselves standing on the raft going down the Mississippi river reading it? Well it is the same thing with a house. You do not have to be a world class author or writer to tell a good story. You just need to be honest, sincere and most importantly detailed.
I personally feel that a story with pictures has more of a grab factor with people than just a good story or good photos. Why do one without the other? We are in a very competitve market today. People have many choices and are overwhelmed when they go online to view the vast amount of homes that are out there. For example, I had a client search in a specific zip code for homes in a $100,000 to $110,000 price range. After narrowing their criteria down to exactly what they wanted in the home they still had to search through 56 lsitings. That is a lot of homes to search through to see what you like and do not like. Most people are glancing at the photos and the first few lines of what is written and if they do not see or read anything they like they are moving on to the next home.
So, you need to have eye catching photos and catch words in yoru dsescription that tell a story about the house. You want people to envison themselves in the home with their furniture and belongings. You want to make them feel as if they already know the home before they get there. I took a listing that I just did that for. The house had been on the market for over a year prior with another agent. The photos were good; but there was a story to be told with the house and they did not tell the story. I did. In less than one month I sold the home.....
if you have your home on the market or are thinking of putting yoru home on the market tell a story about the home....who knows it may help you sell the home sooner rather than later.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/broker
www.davedicecco.com
We all like to visualize things in our head. That is why some of the greatest writers of our time are who they are. Who has not read Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer and not envisoned themselves standing on the raft going down the Mississippi river reading it? Well it is the same thing with a house. You do not have to be a world class author or writer to tell a good story. You just need to be honest, sincere and most importantly detailed.
I personally feel that a story with pictures has more of a grab factor with people than just a good story or good photos. Why do one without the other? We are in a very competitve market today. People have many choices and are overwhelmed when they go online to view the vast amount of homes that are out there. For example, I had a client search in a specific zip code for homes in a $100,000 to $110,000 price range. After narrowing their criteria down to exactly what they wanted in the home they still had to search through 56 lsitings. That is a lot of homes to search through to see what you like and do not like. Most people are glancing at the photos and the first few lines of what is written and if they do not see or read anything they like they are moving on to the next home.
So, you need to have eye catching photos and catch words in yoru dsescription that tell a story about the house. You want people to envison themselves in the home with their furniture and belongings. You want to make them feel as if they already know the home before they get there. I took a listing that I just did that for. The house had been on the market for over a year prior with another agent. The photos were good; but there was a story to be told with the house and they did not tell the story. I did. In less than one month I sold the home.....
if you have your home on the market or are thinking of putting yoru home on the market tell a story about the home....who knows it may help you sell the home sooner rather than later.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/broker
www.davedicecco.com
Monday, August 30, 2010
Home Been On Market Long? Have Realtor Take New Photos
The other day I had a client that had asked me to send them listings in a specific area and with certain guidelines. As I am browsing through the list to make sure the homes meet all their criteria; I came across what I felt was a lazy agent. Here in Charlotte, NC. if we get snow it is one day and most likely melted the next day. I viewed a main image of a house that had snow on the ground. The trees were all barren and it looked dark and gloomy outside. As I scrolled through the photos I noticed all the exterior shots were that way. Now, in fairness the interior photos of the home were very warm and friendly.
In a competitive market such as this one is, proper photos are vital to help with a home sale. There is an old adage that rings true "a photo is worth a thousand words". Last year I had a listing I received in the summer. When fall came and all the trees had the beautful leaves that changed colors I took the pictures looking out at the wonderous view and all the colors of the trees were breathtaking. Two weeks later the house was sold. The buyer mentioned at the closing that the view of the fall leaves different colors enticed him to view the property. Did it sell the home? No, but it brought a buyer who might not have otherwise came to the home.
Also, when you have photos from another season, the buyer will instantly think what is wrong with this house? Why has it been on the market for such a long time. You could be drivng away people who would otherwise view the home and possibly purchase it by the pictures. In fact, for me that was the first thing that came to my mind when I looked at the pictures of the house with snow. There are too many choices out there not to refresh the photos with the seasons and bring the home out in it's best light.
We are in a very competitive market and you the seller need any and all advantages you can get to help sell your home today.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
In a competitive market such as this one is, proper photos are vital to help with a home sale. There is an old adage that rings true "a photo is worth a thousand words". Last year I had a listing I received in the summer. When fall came and all the trees had the beautful leaves that changed colors I took the pictures looking out at the wonderous view and all the colors of the trees were breathtaking. Two weeks later the house was sold. The buyer mentioned at the closing that the view of the fall leaves different colors enticed him to view the property. Did it sell the home? No, but it brought a buyer who might not have otherwise came to the home.
Also, when you have photos from another season, the buyer will instantly think what is wrong with this house? Why has it been on the market for such a long time. You could be drivng away people who would otherwise view the home and possibly purchase it by the pictures. In fact, for me that was the first thing that came to my mind when I looked at the pictures of the house with snow. There are too many choices out there not to refresh the photos with the seasons and bring the home out in it's best light.
We are in a very competitive market and you the seller need any and all advantages you can get to help sell your home today.
Dave diCecco
Realtor/Broker
www.davedicecco.com
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