Hosting a successful open house

We showed some Placer County homes to our clients yesterday, which included visits to three different open houses. Our clients did not spend more than 1 minute in each open house because of the trash, dirty clothes, beat up cars in the driveway and street and worse yet, the seller/tenants walking around. Yep! You read that correct, the homes were beyond dirty and the seller/tenants were home during the open house. It was a disaster to say the least.

So agents, if you are planning an open house, here are some tips directly from our clients, as well as many other potential buyers who were also at the open houses, albiet briefly. They were making comments and jokes back and forth as they were leaving each home. 

First, clean the home, stage the home and keep the dogs and humans away. Potential buyers want to snoop, they want to talk about the home, they do not want the dogs barking and they do not want the seller/tenant listening to their private conversations about the home. If you are dealing with small kids or stubborn seller/tenants, no worries, send them bowling or send them to lunch for a few hours. Second, be at the open house, or have one of your new agents there. They need to be handing out a CMA, talking about the home, the history of it, any updates, etc. Potential buyers want to know these things and when no one is there to answer their questions, they leave.

Lastly and most importantly, price the home properly. Do your research and do not price the home $25k above the highest and most recent comp just because Placer County is a sellers market right now. Two of the three open homes yesterday were priced well above market value and were absolute junk. Those homes will most likely sit for a few weeks or months, so be mindful of the area and good luck!

    

Credit repair tips

We just had one of our buyers tell us that they needed 60 days to close escrow because their loan officer told them they needed to clean up a small collection on their credit report. This opened up a can of worms for us since their loan officer already told us that they were pre-qualified and homes are selling so fast here in Placer County, that a 60 day escrow is sure to get our offer rejected. So for those of who are buying a home, buying a car or motorcycle, just want to see what your credit looks like, want to clean up a derogatory trade line or just want to maintain your good credit rating, here you go! First, look at the open trade lines on your report for accuracy. The most common credit killers are old utility bills or HOA bills from a previous residence that you did not know about. Contact these agencies and make the payment, but make sure they give you a receipt and that they report the "paid" account to the credit bureaus. Tip; it takes 30-90 days for the repaired account to help improve your scores, so plan any purchases accordingly. If your credit is good but your score is low, then there are two possibilities. First, your credit line to current balance is too high or you just do not have enough credit depth. These are easily remedied by either paying the balance down or attempting to get your credit limit increased. These will typically raise your score and that is an excellent thing to have, as almost everyone is judged by their credit rating! Remember this is free advice so please use caution when working with creditors and good luck!