Jamie’s posts are always insightful, chock full of information, plus great statistics and details interpreting the data.

Should this post be well received, I may be doing more in the future.

Map of the 43 townhomes for sale in 21093 under $400,000.

Today’s Baltimore Sun Real Estate Wonk column was about what to do to sell your townhome in Timonium, as I currently have listed two of the 43 townhouses for sale under $400,000 in the 21093 zip code.

In researching the area in detail, and realizing the depth of the number of houses competing for the same buyers, I realized I needed to help my sellers understand the market on a whole new level than ever before. Thus began the blog post. I am hoping this helps sellers best prepare their house for sale.

Homes need to be clean, neutral, and priced well. Remove clutter & consider staging. A buyer needs to be able to see themselves in the home. Remember, once you’ve decided to sell your house, it is no longer your home. Your goal is to have it be someone else’s!

I hope you will enjoy my Baltimore Sun post, and if you have Timonium real estate needs, contact me!

Appraisals done by people in general are both objective and subjective, which means that often if you had two professional appraisers come to your house, you would likely get two different price opinions, if they did not have a target price to go from.

Computerized appraisals are just that. It uses transactional data information but does not take updates and other ancillary details into consideration. According to the Wall Street Journal article by M.P. McQueen,

Automated valuation models were pioneered by Yale economist Robert Shiller, who developed the first systems in the early 1990s. While arguing that these appraisals are more objective than human appraisers, Mr. Shiller and others say that in some situations the models may be providing unrealistically low values, prompting lenders to reject loan applications or lend less money on particular properties.

I have to question as to whether the data is similar to those used by Zillow Zestimates to find value. Baltimore County Zillow Zestimates have been well off in many situations, and the disclaimers on their site are many. Their CEO & CFO explained their data issues to me, and I discussed them in my post about misleading Towson Zestimates.

If owners have tax credits or have lived in the property for a long time, that can easily skew results, creating an incorrectly low “appraisal” or Zestimate.

So, if you are looking to refinance your Baltimore County home, be aware of computerized appraisals.

April 30, 2010 marked the end of the Homebuyer Tax Credit. Though there was an small uptick in sales from qualified homebuyers, this does not truly mean the end of the spring market for sellers who are currently on the market or getting ready to go on the market.

Three tips are given in the video for homesellers to make their house ready for sale and more marketability.

1) Price it right. Be ahead of the curve and price more aggressively than the ones recently sold in your neighborhood.
2) Get a pre-sale home inspection. Then you can fix things up front and have your house ready for buyers without worrying about what may pop up during an inspection and cause re-negotiations.
3) Consider all offers. Notice they say “consider”. Sometimes a lower offer than you wanted or expected may have better terms and conditions than one later on. Keep in mind that an offer with a lot of contingencies or conditions has a more likelihood of something not going correctly than one that has less.
Finally, contact a local real estate professional.

For Towson real estate professional advice, contact me today.

Most of the tips are courtesy of Barb Schwarz of Stagedhomes.com , and realtor.org, the National Association of REALTORS(R) website, some are mine:

1) DECLUTTER!

• Take everything down from the fronts and sides of the refrigerator. Counters in kitchens should be cleaned of all unnecessary things, like papers and appliances you do not use on a daily basis.
• Bathroom counters should be clean of everything except your toothbrushes and soap. Towels should be in only one or two coordinating colors.
• Remove most personal photos. People need to imagine their family there.
• Take most decorative items down from furniture. Keep only 1, 3, or 5 things in a group in each area. This includes pictures, candlesticks, pillows, and other small items you may have on side tables and mantles! (The odd # grouping has been shown to be more appealing to the eye).
• This one isn’t on the list, but it is a big one on mine. CLEAR OUT YOUR CLOSETS. The more stuffed your closets are, the more people feel there must be a storage issue. Whatever season you are in, leave that set of clothes. All others should go in boxes. The linen closet should only have the extra set of towels you will need, the one or two bottles of shampoo, soap, etc you should need while your house is on the market. Storage closets can have larger items in them, but should NOT be stuffed to the gills!

2) RENT A STORAGE UNIT

• Take out unnecessary furniture. The extra chair, the ottoman, the side table you don’t use. Less furniture makes a room feel bigger.
• Boxes should go in the unit. People understand that you are moving, but you don’t need the mounds of boxes to prove it. (Those decorative items you removed earlier? The clothes & “stuff” from your closets? Hopefully you put them in boxes. Put the boxes directly into the storage unit, so they are ready to go to your next home!)

3) REHANG PAINTINGS & PAINT WALLS

• Some of your paintings/pictures/etc might need to come down to open the room up. This may mean rearranging some as well, which will show the walls in their natural state, which means you will most likely need to paint.
• Paint colors are very personal. If you have bright or strong colors, you may want to consider making those rooms more neutral.
• Touch up paint in rooms where there may be little nicks or scratches marring the paint. You want to look fresh!
• Repainting throughout is almost always a big plus. Fresh paint puts a fresh face on your house!

4) WHEN YOU HAVE SHOWINGS

• Have some music on — Light FM is best — when I was showing homes this weekend, we were struck by how nice it was to have the music going in one of them.
• Leave all lights on. Yes all. Are you wasting electricity? Yes. Is it worth it? YES. Your home *hopefully* shows best when it is brightly lit. Let people see it in top notch condition!
• Make sure you are NOT HOME. Allow for extra time before and after the showings so you don’t leave late and don’t come home early. People will feel rushed and uncomfortable.

5) OUTSIDE

• Make sure gutters are clean and there is not any mold, mildew, rust or any major marks outside. If necessary, have the house power washed.
• Get rid of the *stuff* — the toys, the wood stacks, the forgotten piles of leaves.
• Have nice plants around the property — in the flower beds, etc. Make sure they are well maintained and not overgrown, nor dead!
• Paint window and door trims if necessary. Again, fresh paint = fresh face! If most of the exterior is looking worn and it is a painted house, PAINT IT!

I hope these tips help you in staging your home to a successful sale. If you would like more information on your Towson house value, please contact me today!

These tips hold true in the Towson real estate market as well as others across the US.

Tip #1: When Pricing Your Home, Don’t Try to Make Money. If a similar house down the street is on the market for a certain amount, list your home just under that amount. Buyers will perceive your home as a deal, and will more likely move on yours versus others on the market.

Tip #2: Don’t Be Lazy When It Comes to Presentation. Staging is a great way to get your home to look its best. Remember, once you decide to sell your home, it is no longer *your home*. The goal is for it to be someone else’s! A Staging Professional is a good investment along with a REALTOR(R). As Gary Keller said, “Price gets you interest. Staging gets you offers.”

Tip #3: Some Photos are Priceless. When listing in winter, especially when you have feet of snow still to melt like here in Towson, share any photos you have of the yard, landscaping, etc, from when it is nice out with your real estate agent. Your agent can incorporate these into their marketing of your home. You know how great your yard is to enjoy, but when others can’t see it at the moment, they don’t know what a difference that makes in your home versus another. With these additional photos, it could make the difference.

Tip #4:Don’t Be Cheap When It Comes to Fixes. Have a faucet that drips? A floorboard that squeaks? A carpet that needs replacing? DO IT. Have older appliances? Buy new ones. Yes, new ones. They don’t have to be expensive, but more modern helps to sell!

I disagree with Tip #5 because my buyers find it extremely uncomfortable when the owner is home, and I find that they tend to not take the house seriously if the seller is there. It is good to have brochures and photos there to share information about your home, and your agent is an important facilitator in this process in speaking with the buyer’s agent and getting buyer’s questions answered. But do NOT be there for showings. Buyers want to open cabinets, closets, and feel like it could be their home. If you are there, they can’t imagine themselves as the owners there.

I hope Towson home sellers find this information useful as they prepare to sell their homes. Please contact me to help you further!

Set to be open Memorial Day 2011, this would be a great addition to the Towson community.

Loni Ingraham, of the Towson Times, wrote about it the day Baltimore County voted to lease the land for $1 per year. Here are more details in her article.

The space is also set to have office space in the old Warden’s building and possibly a cafe.

Mary Gail Hare, of the Baltimore Sun, wrote an article on June 14 about how the renovations began last week on the 3 story building, which was declared a historical landmark in 1991. Azola & Associates Inc is doing the work. They are known for their renovations on historic properties, like the one they did at the Stone Mansion in Coldspring Newtown and the Bromo Seltzer Tower in downtown Baltimore.

So what does this mean for Towson Homeowners? If you are a charter member, your membership may be transferrable with the sale of your Towson home. Once the pool is opened, as discovered at the Mays Chapel Swim Club in Timonium, they sell out quickly and there is a wait list years long. Having a charter membership could possibly help your Towson House Value for resale in the future, when memberships will most likely be hard to come by!

Last week I had a client call me because his HELOC was reduced by a large amount right in the middle of construction to improve his home. He could not understand how the bank could make the determination that his Towson house value had dropped over $200,000 in the past 18 months since he opened his HELOC.

Upon speaking to the bank, the representative pulls up Zillow, and proceeds to tell him this is how they discovered the value change.

“Is this true? Has my value really dropped by THIS much? I knew we were in a depressed market, but did not think it was THIS bad,” he asked me.

Based on a true market analysis, his value has really only dropped by $25-50,000. So how is Zillow off this much?

Enter the powers of social media!

I was able to find both the COO & the Director of Community Relations for Zillow on Twitter.

I contacted COO Spencer Rascoff and he tweeted back:

“Lenders shouldn’t rely on Zestimates. Use an appraisal.” “We have “a Zestimate is not an appraisal” language all over the site. http://twurl.nl/7lj6mc “

He then emailed me directly because he wanted to get to the bottom as to why they are so far off.

Director of Community Relations David Gibbons tweeted:

“…it may not change outcome by he {sic} can’t reduce heloc based on Zestimate alone.” “Lenders are supposed to use commercially licensed AVMs & appraisals, not Zestimates!”

While they are both correct, and I agree with them wholeheartedly, lenders ARE using their site, and if the site’s purpose is to provide real estate information, then the site should be more accurate.

Through emails and more discussion, I was able to find out more about how the Zestimate values are determined.

David direct messaged me that it: “looks like your purchase price and taxes have the biggest impact on your Zestimate…”

I asked what that had to do with a current value of a home, because there is no correlation whatsoever in the real estate market from what you paid for it and what it is worth now.

His answer: “homes only sell on average once every seven years so when figuring out what a home is worth its last price is important – though 2002 is…we count past sales in less and less over time … a sale last year would have much greater impact.”

NO WONDER the values are off so dramatically. And if Zestimates continue to be calculated in this respect, then we should be looking for values to be tremendously off in 2013-2014 in the other direction. So my client can be assured that in 3 years his Zestimate should be approximately $200,000 OVER true value!

Please be aware that the Zillow Zestimates, at least in the Towson market area, may have no relationship to the true value of any home.

This reiterates the point that REAL ESTATE IS LOCAL and, as COO Rascoff wrote: “a Zestimate is not a replacement for a real estate agent. Far from it.” For your free Towson Home Price Estimate, contact me today!

I pondered this recently, as a listing I have coming on the market in Hunt Valley has a Zestimate about $40,000 LESS than the value determined during my true, in-depth market analysis as a licensed Towson Real Estate Agent. (On the other hand, using their “My Estimator” tool brings the value up to over $110,000 HIGHER than its true value!) 

With a closer review of the Zillow site, I was able to find some interesting accuracy statistics about the Towson Home Price Zestimate averages (per Zillow.com):

• Zestimates within 5% of actual sales price (actual home sales) : 30%
• Zestimates within 10% of actual sales price (actual home sales) : 50%
• Zestimates within 20% of actual sales price (actual home sales): 71%
• Median Error: 10%

Here is the actual verbiage from them, which helps me understand the inaccuracy:

Data Coverage and Zestimate^® Accuracy

The home data we have compiled to generate a Zestimate home valuation varies by location. Some counties provide all the data we could hope for, but others are lacking such key things as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, or, in some cases, the square footage of the home. The more data we have, the more accurate the Zestimate. And, we’ve made it easier for our users to help us improve accuracy by incorporating edited home facts into our Zestimate calculations. In some areas, we might not be able to produce a Zestimate at all, but we do have some basic information on the homes.

When I stopped to think about it, I realized that the site does not have correct information because Baltimore County has not provided it to the public about the square footage, number of baths, the fact that it has hardwood floors throughout, a finished basement, and other imperative details when determining a Hunt Valley House Value.

As an example, if there is a home in Towson with the correct value of $300,000, 71% of the time the Zestimate could price the home as low as $240,000. Can you imagine being a seller viewing that info? Or how about a buyer, if it were 20% ABOVE? Would you, as a buyer, be happy with paying $360,000 for this home?

Zillow.com even acknowledges the importance of getting a comprehensive market analysis from a qualified local real estate agent. To get your free Towson Home Price Estimate, call me!

These sellers listened to their agent about price and condition, and have blown the other very comparable units out of the water.

Are they hurting the values in the neighborhood? NO. They will most likely get ABOVE $300K because they have competing buyers. And what do you think the neighbors eventually might get? Probably around the same amount as these sellers.

So what is a seller to do? First, do your research. See what homes are on the market around you. See where the prices started, and to where they have dropped. Ask a REALTOR for help. We can find how much of a percentage your zip code has lowered in value over the past year, six months, and even one month, to help you correctly price your home. Finally, PRICE AHEAD OF THE MARKET.

This townhouse is the perfect example of the RIGHT way to sell your home in this market. The others will eventually get the same amount for theirs. These people are just getting it sooner. Isn’t that better in the long run?

1. Define your needs. Write down all the reasons for selling your home. Ask yourself, “Why do I want to sell and what do I expect to accomplish with the sale?” For example, a growing family may prompt your need for a larger home, or a job opportunity in another city may necessitate a move. For your goals, write down if you’d like to sell your house within a certain time frame or make a particular profit margin. Work with your real estate agent to map out the best path to achieve your objectives and set a realistic time frame for the sale.
2. Name your price. Your next objective should be to determine the best possible selling price for your house. Setting a fair asking price from the outset will generate the most activity from other real estate agents and buyers. You will need to take into account the condition of your home, what comparable homes in your neighborhood are selling for, and state of the overall market in your area. It’s often difficult to remain unbiased when putting a price on your home, so your real estate agent’s expertise is invaluable at this step. Your agent will know what comparable homes are selling for in your neighborhood and the average time those homes are sitting on the market. If you want a truly objective opinion about the price of your home, you could have an appraisal done. This typically costs a few hundred dollars. Remember: You’re always better off setting a fair market value price than setting your price too high. Studies show that homes priced higher than 3 percent of their market value take longer to sell. If your home sits on the market for too long, potential buyers may think there is something wrong with the property. Often, when this happens, the seller has to drop the price below market value to compete with newer, reasonably priced listings.
3. Prepare your home. Most of us don’t keep our homes in “showroom” condition. We tend to overlook piles of boxes in the garage, broken porch lights, and doors or windows that stick. It’s time to break out of that owner’s mindset and get your house in tip-top shape. The condition of your home will affect how quickly it sells and the price the buyer is willing to offer. First impressions are the most important. Your real estate agent can help you take a fresh look at your home and suggest ways to stage it and make it more appealing to buyers. * A home with too much “personality” is harder to sell. Removing family photos, mementos and personalized décor will help buyers visualize the home as theirs. * Make minor repairs and replacements. Small defects, such as a leaky faucet, a torn screen or a worn doormat, can ruin the buyer’s first impression. * Clutter is a big no-no when showing your home to potential buyers. Make sure you have removed all knick-knacks from your shelves and cleared all your bathroom and kitchen counters to make every area seem as spacious as possible.
4. Get the word out. Now that you’re ready to sell, your real estate agent will set up a marketing strategy specifically for your home. There are many ways to get the word out, including: * The Internet * Yard signs * Open houses * Media advertising * Agent-to-agent referrals * Direct mail marketing campaigns In addition to listing your home on the MLS, your agent will use a combination of these tactics to bring the most qualified buyers to your home. Your agent should structure the marketing plan so that the first three to six weeks are the busiest.
5. Receive an offer. When you receive a written offer from a potential buyer, your real estate agent will first find out whether or not the individual is prequalified or preapproved to buy your home. If so, then you and your agent will review the proposed contract, taking care to understand what is required of both parties to execute the transaction. The contract, though not limited to this list, should include the following: * Legal description of the property * Offer price * Down payment * Financing arrangements * List of fees and who will pay them * Deposit amount * Inspection rights and possible repair allowances * Method of conveying the title and who will handle the closing * Appliances and furnishings that will stay with the home * Settlement date * Contingencies At this point, you have three options: accept the contract as is, accept it with changes (a counteroffer), or reject it. Remember: Once both parties have signed a written offer, the document becomes legally binding. If you have any questions or concerns, be certain to address them with your real estate agent right away.
6. Negotiate to sell. Most offers to purchase your home will require some negotiating to come to a win-win agreement. Your real estate agent is well versed on the intricacies of the contracts used in your area and will protect your best interest throughout the bargaining. Your agent also knows what each contract clause means, what you will net from the sale and what areas are easiest to negotiate. Some negotiable items: * Price * Financing * Closing costs * Repairs * Appliances and fixtures * Landscaping * Painting * Move-in date Once both parties have agreed on the terms of the sale, your agent will prepare a contract.
7. Prepare to close. Once you accept an offer to sell your house, you will need to make a list of all the things you and your buyer must do before closing. The property may need to be formally appraised, surveyed, inspected or repaired. Your real estate agent can spearhead the effort and serve as your advocate when dealing with the buyer’s agent and service providers. Depending on the written contract, you may pay for all, some or none of these items. If each procedure returns acceptable results as defined by the contract, then the sale may continue. If there are problems with the home, the terms set forth in the contract will dictate your next step. You or the buyer may decide to walk away, open a new round of negotiations or proceed to closing. Important reminder: A few days before the closing, you will want to contact the entity that is closing the transaction and make sure the necessary documents will be ready to sign on the appropriate date. Also, begin to make arrangements for your upcoming move if you have not done so.
8. Close the deal. “Closing” refers to the meeting where ownership of the property is legally transferred to the buyer. Your agent will be present during the closing to guide you through the process and make sure everything goes as planned. By being present during the closing, he or she can mediate any last-minute issues that may arise. In some states, an attorney is required and you may wish to have one present. After the closing, you should make a “to do” list for turning the property over to the new owners. Here is a checklist to get you started. * Cancel electricity, gas, lawn care, cable and other routine services. * If the new owner is retaining any of the services, change the name on the account. * Gather owner’s manuals and warranties for all conveying appliances.

There are many other tips specific to selling your Timonium Real Estate, your Towson Real Estate, or your Hunt Valley Real Estate. Call me today & I can help you!

These tips are courtesy of kw.com