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Ready Set sold with Bryan Vogt #26-02: Kelly Etheridge and Kathleen Popovich of the Bryan Vogt Team: There are more motivated buyers during the holidays

November 25, 2017


Bryan Vogt: Welcome back to Ready, Set, Sold. I’m your host Bryan Vogt, and with me today I have Kelly Etheridge.
Kelly Etheridge: Hi everyone.
Bryan Vogt: And I have Kathy Popovich
Kathy Popovich: Hey everybody.
Bryan Vogt: And they are team members, they’re fantastic people and great at what they do. So happy to have them on my team. What we’re talking about today, and specifically is why it’s such a great time to put your house on the market. This is what realtors, especially top realtors fight usually all year long at this time of year that sellers say, “Well, I’m going to wait til Spring. I’m going to do this, I’m going to do that.” There’s various reasons for it.
But one of the things we hear often is this, by putting your house on the market in this season, that they won’t get top dollar. They won’t make as much money. They can’t possibly make as much money. And simply, it’s not every time, every situation’s a little bit different. But that’s not usually the reason why you wouldn’t get it, because that would happen anytime during the year. Your location is your location.
What I mean by that is, is what’s going on in your marketplace is the combination of three months, and I put this in the book, there’s three months back. We’re in November right now, well we move backwards, we say October, September, and August, that’s more of a reflection of what’s going on in your price range, and that’s something that you want to be looking for. Again, you’re taking advantage of the Fall market still, but you’re still in the holiday season. That’s important to understand, because again, it’s not just working in November.
The other thing is that we see quite often is actually people getting better pricing just because of supply and demand. And Kelly, you brought this up in the last segment. Buyers know they need to move, and they tend to, not always, but they tend to have stronger offers, because they just need to get that house. They want to move into it. There are always going to be exceptions, and that’s understandable, but most of the times we actually can get the same pricing or very, very close to it to where people don’t even notice. Whether it be the Spring, whether it be the Summer, or whether it be the Fall, during that Winter time because there is a rush to get.
Right now, just with timing as we’re recording this, is we’re probably looking at the idea of maybe you would be closing your house on the market the first week of the year. I mean you could have it that quickly. I think that’s really important. The other thing too is, what people don’t know, and this has been going now for two to three years, maybe longer, that January has been either the second or third highest months in close sales.
Let me repeat that, January for the past, I know couple of years, and I don’t see any reason why it won’t happen this year, has been the second highest month in closed sales. That means that people were looking in November, they were looking in December, and now they’re closing in January. That’s what we mean by getting your house on the market if you so desire.
With that said, I think we talked about the pricing issue, I think the other part though that we probably want to get into is how the house looks. One of the other issues that we run into, and Kathy I want you to address this, because you’ve been doing this for a very long time, the people don’t want to decorate the holidays, because they think that’s going to hurt their sale, and that’s simply not true.
Kathy Popovich: Actually it’s a big misconception. Your house never looks better generally, than it does during the holidays. Everything’s clean, it’s decorated, it looks wonderful, it’s cozy. It gives them that kind of at homey feeling when they come in to look at your home.
Bryan Vogt: That’s true, and Kelly, you’ve probably have seen it too. But people get decorating ideas. They love, they love the fact of being able to walk in there, and not just decorating ideas, but gives them ideas of what their house could look like, which then, perception is reality in this business. And buyers can see themselves where the Christmas tree’s going to go down. “Oh, I can string the lights here.” Maybe there’s a lighting switch for the outdoor lighting. That’s one thing that I think people sometimes misconceive. When you’re putting your house on the market this time of the season, decorate as you normally decorate.
The other factor too, and Kelly maybe you can address this a little bit more, but basically when you’re doing the holidays, and this is just people, this is us as, not just as realtors, but just living in our homes as the holidays come up, that you have guests coming in. Keeping the house tip-top shape is what you’re doing anyway, right?
Kelly Etheridge: Yeah, yeah.
Bryan Vogt: That’s what you want to kind of stress upon is, is that very simply, once you’re on the market, you’re actually killing two birds with one stone.
Kelly Etheridge: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bryan Vogt: I think that’s important for sellers to know also. Is to make sure you have, actually your house in going to be great working order, but it’s also going to look sharp. And then again, the lights can be actually amazing. I’ve gotten to see some beautiful settings. But, you know we had a situation too, it doesn’t just have to be the holidays. We went into a house, I think it was back in August, or something like that, it was in Belleville.
Kelly Etheridge: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bryan Vogt: And they had a Christmas tree that they kept up all year long.
Kelly Etheridge: Yeah, they had a room devoted to Christmas, and it was just really neat to see all her decorations and little snowmen, and it was just very cozy and homey.
Bryan Vogt: And it was funny because one of the things that she said, and it turned out they were going to decide to wait longer into 2018. But one of the things I know that they said was, “I guess I’ll have to get rid of this.” And of course we said, “Absolutely not.”
Kelly Etheridge: No.
Bryan Vogt: Yeah, no, that’s a feeling that you want. You want to have those type of things in there. Sentimental things, those are fantastic things. Again, it just goes back onto the holidays, and making sure that you have your decorations up, or if you don’t want to do decorations, that’s up to you, but by all means please consider doing that.
I think the other segment that comes into play that we hear about is the outside of the house. That the grass isn’t as green. That this isn’t, the trees, all the leaves have fallen off now, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. One thing to keep in mind is, it’s an even playing field. Everybody’s leaves are gone. Everybody’s grass isn’t quite as maybe green as you’d want it, and that’s okay. That’s number one, I think number two is it doesn’t happen too many times, because we’re always wishing for a white Christmas, right guys?
Kelly Etheridge: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Kathy Popovich: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bryan Vogt: I mean, you know whether it just snows an inch Christmas Eve.
Kathy Popovich: Christmas Eve through Christmas day.
Bryan Vogt: Yeah, and then it all goes away and turns 70 degrees by the end of Christmas day. But again, those pictures can be stunning putting your house on the market. I mean I’ve seen them. Kathy I know maybe you’ve seen them also, where they just look beautiful.
Kathy Popovich: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Bryan Vogt: That you have the trees with the snow on them in the background, if you have trees.
Kathy Popovich: Actually, I was looking at some personal pictures of mine the other day and we had snow on the ground with the outside lights and everything. It was just wonderful. Looked like a little wonderland just around our house.
Kelly Etheridge: Like a Christmas card?
Kathy Popovich: Yeah.
Bryan Vogt: Right, again, and I like what you said there Kelly, it’s true, it is like a Christmas card. That’s how cool this stuff looks. Again, sellers, and I put this in the book all the time, sellers buy on emotion, and then they also then after they make an emotional decision, they just fight with logic. Again, that’s important to know. Perception is reality when we’re talking about real estate, and that’s why it’s so important that when you do have the things, besides not just the Christmas, but you have the house your lights on, you have all those things on, it just makes a very good warm flow to it.
The only thing I would say to be a little careful of, anytime there’s open flames, I would not necessarily put the fireplace on. That can freak people out. Even if it’s a gas log, they know they’re leaving and they’re afraid, and something could go wrong. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that.
Kelly Etheridge: You can put electric candles.
Bryan Vogt: Electric candles, well that’s true to, yes. Yes, that’s true. Well with that said, in the next segment we’re going to be talking more about the reasons why you should be putting your house on the market if you want to. Of course, if you don’t want to, we’re not forcing you to, but the next reason might surprise many of you. You’re listening to Ready, Set, Sold, I’m here with Kelly Etheridge and Kathy Popovich,

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