Experts Offer Advice on Selling Your Home
By Shirley Ruedy
the Gazette
It’s not only what’s in the
package, it’s how the package is wrapped.
That point is important in today’s home selling-market, which is just
emerging from an ice incrusted winter.
Spring, the time honored "open house" for home sales, is fast
approaching. One can see a plethora of for sale signs beckoning.
What’s the smartest thing you as a home seller can do to grease the
wheels for a quick sale?
Get that puppy priced right in the first place was the consensus of
an array of Realtors from throughout the corridor. The importance of
that just can’t be stressed enough, they say.
Right behind that: get it looking good. "Houses won’t sell for
one of three reasons," says Tom Lepic of Lepic-Kroeger Realtors
Inc. of Iowa City. "The House has to have a good location, be
priced right and show well – that is, be in good condition."
Sally Cline, a Realtor with Iowa Realty in Coralville and President
of the Iowa City Area Board of Realtors, puts it plainly. "Many
buyers form their first impression before they step out of the car, (so)
Clean up the yard, keep the entry clean and open, paint if necessary. ..
A coat of paint may make the difference." she says.
National reports say the realty market is, broadly speaking,
"soft." In a February 14 report, David Seiders, The National
Association of Homebuilders’ chief economist, said the unsustainable
boom years of 2003 and 2006 … resulted in a "grossly overheating
market."’
Florida and other coastal states have suffered, including California
and Massachusetts, where business has eroded by 30 percent. Builders are
having "to push hard" to move their inventory.
"We expect housing starts to bottom out in the first quarter of
this year before embarking on a gradual recovery path" Seiders said
on Feb. 16.
NAHB reported new home/apartment construction in the Midwest was down
15.2% in January.
Certainly, location counts. Some regions of the country aren’t down
– the Iowa City area for instance.
"Our market in Iowa City in 2006 was the best year we’ve ever
had; 2007 is the best start we’ve had," Lepic said of his
company. "There has been more dollar value in Iowa
City/Coralville/North Liberty. (We have) 30 percent of the sales market
in (the area)"
Lepic, with 28 years’ experience in realty, cites market sales as
reported to the Iowa City Multiple Listing Service. For 2003,they
amounted to $433 million; 2004, $485 million; 2005, $541 million; 2006
$555 million.
Cheryl Carrol-Nelson, CEO/president of Iowa’s City’s realty
association says that in 2005, a total of 2,644 single family/condo
housing units were sold, and in 2006, it was 2,634. For the first two
months of 2006, 190 were sold, in the first two months of 2007, a total
of 193 (as of publication deadline).
In Cedar Rapids, the first six months of 2005 saw 2,425 homes sold,
with 2’267 in the last six months of 2006. For the first seven weeks
of 2006, 362 units were sold, and for the same period in 2007, 301.
"We’re pretty steady," says Jane Sloan, president of the
Cedar Rapids Area Association of Realtors. "We expect to gain
momentum. We’ve had a few more houses on the market than
traditionally, but not that many. The market
(in Feb. and March) will begin to pick up now. Buyers look faster".
Especially if the product is priced right in a pretty package.
