"Now its time to Convert Your Investment Into Cash"
Now is the time to really start thinking of your home as an investment, because RIGHT NOW, is the point in your life, where you are going to convert your home into CASH !
Here are some points to consider :
Even non spectacular homes will show better than many of their counterparts if they are tidy, organized as compared to those that may be better but so untidy that they form a mess…FIRST IMPRESSIONS – remember what we are always told – FIRST IMPRESSIONS COUNT !!!
We’re trained this, its engrained in our minds, we cannot easily change it, and it usually is true.
I like things that the more I see them the more I like them…I always preferred golf courses that became more tricky the more you played them, that had culture and a fire within them that just sort of grew on me…
But slimy bathrooms, and fragments of animal biscuits won’t cut it when you want to sell your house.
Here’s the deal, get it right and you will do well :
"PEOPLE WANT TO BUY A HOME & HOME OWNERS WANT TO SELL INVESTMENTS"
Proverb abc by Terry Hashimoto
Get rid of the dogs and cats and all other pets unless it is a rural setting where the animals have lots of room to be outside and not disturb showings…
I don’t have a clue what the ratio is, but its got to be around 50 / 50 those that prefer cats versus dogs, and vice versa…so increase your change, “ reduce the negatives “ by giving your pets, buddies, friends a vacation to the outlaws while you are selling your house…
I lost a great listing recently taking an associate with me to a listing appointment…the gal was all set to list with me, we had made a positive connection and could sense her distrust of real estate agents in general, she had a bad experience somewhere down the line, and I felt it was my job to make that change…
Well, I had just gotten back into the business and I wanted confirmation of the :
That’s what they call them these days. They aren’t real appraisals, but rather a view of what it looks like from a current market perspective…but back to the listing appointment…
So we get there and this gals got this big white fluffy cat, the whole place is spotless and it’s a real beauty of a unit…the agent I bring along is allergic to cats ( so am I but hey; this is my potential customers home )…my eyes are beginning to run, I’m getting a little bit stuffy with my breathing, but hey, this is a really nice listing, so I just carry on for a tour of the house…
When we go to sit down, the agent that I had brought along, very politely explains that he is allergic to cats and asks the gal, if she’d mind putting the cat in a room…and she gets offended “ its his house too, you know is the response “…I could have just died, right there and then…
Well I did my best, and I worked it hard, but the deal was gone, EL FINITO, NEVER GOT IT BACK !!!
I busted my butt getting the confidence of my new friend / customer, but with that one question it was gone again. Why risk it, when you are selling your home, place the pets with a friend and or have a place where they can be and not disturb the showings, and give your house time to air out.
Ever see an ex smoker complain about smoke smell ? Well I have, when I traveled a lot as the founder of Jazz Golf Equipment so many years ago and traveling building my business it was interesting to watch going out for dinner, people complain…ex smokers about how it smelled in restaurants, bars, places that allowed smoking while Winnipeg had now a ban and they had gotten used to non smoking places.
I don’t think there’s a bigger turn off, than sent…Remember living in an apartment, and one of the tenants cooked up something that should have set off the fire alarms, and SELLED SOOOOOOOO BAD !
That scent in the apartment was such a good incentive to make more money and get the heck out of there.
Too much scents to cover other odors are a turn off. If you must use scents for such purposes :
Cinnamon & or Coffee
Are the best ones : Why ? …
Because the sent of Cinnamon and of Coffee seems to notate positive experience, and what we want to do is in the most positive manner stimulate our potential customers senses.
To create these scents can be as easy as brewing a pot of coffee and or heating up some cinnamon sticks in the oven…be careful to not to start any fires.
But that’s really the job of the realtor – your realtor – TERRY HASHIMOTO
And that’s the next point…remember your house has become YOU, and YOU are very proud of all those grand children, saved up trophies, every little thing that you’ve save up over the years…well, sorry, your moving here…and now your home has become your investment, you’ve chosen a very positive step here, downsizing, moving to the lake, apartment, moving up whatever…but YOUR INVESTMENT, must now make the transformation to some person, couples, families HOME !
Most people don’t have the vision you do, they can’t see past the 15 million items of stuff you’ve collected all in a little area, how its really, actually, not a bad sized bed room, or how the back yard is pretty nice, except that little area where the dog has used all winter. TRANSFORM YOUR HOME TO YOUR INVESTMENT !
Ok, so what about the CMA –remember, that stands for Comparative Market Analysis…
I sold real estate from around 1976 unit 1983, then again from around 1988 until 1990, and in between did 3 major golf business’s…Playing Golf as a Career on various stages across the world, the Caddy Shed and then Jazz Golf…Golf was my passion, but Real Estate my business, what I always knew was my true north, and now, as I enter the summer portion of my life,( note not winter – I’ve still got amazing energy & enthusiasm to serve you !!! ), I make a commitment to end with what I can do best.
In the early stages of my real estate career we just called them “ evaluations “ my dear late father Ben would yell through the office walls at Blue Ridge Real Estate, “ Terry, wake up ! Go do an evaluation on 123 Anywhere Stree, or something like that, “ and I’d be off, check it out, check out what houses sold that were like that in the past year or so, and today its pretty much the same, but like everything else it changed.
We were just agents back then, guys that wanted to make a buck selling houses, parcels of land, whatever turned our crank, we wanted to get our customers the best price for whatever it was that we were doing, selling, buying and or both and that part hasn’t changed.
But now we call them “ COMPARATIVE MARKET ANALYSIS “
I love it when I see an agent advertising FREE CMA’S…
Imagine a doctor telling, that same agent that just ran an add for free CMA’S, in doctor vernacular how ill he or she was…
But no matter how rude some of us can be within any trade organization and business. The principals of a COMPARATIVE MARKET ANALYSIS are the same as the EVALUATIONS, that we did before and now.
All we do is check out how your home stacks up relative to other homes that have currently sold in your area and we make adjustments up and down for positive things that adjust values for your area.
We do them on a computer, they look great and they are much more accurate. But most importantly they represent a value that is absolutely indicative of now.