Washington DC Real Estate – “Back to the Basics”

Posted Jan 12, 2008 @ 8:23 pm, Viewed by 335 Visitors, Read 339 Times.

Although I don’t subscribe to the “the sky is falling” school of real estate (especially in the Washington DC area), it is true that for whatever reason, we are in a market different than the one where everything sold overnight at an inflated price. What this means is that we’re returning to a normal market – a market that is definitely advantageous for buyers, but also rewards sellers who are willing to return to the basics of Home Selling 101.

Here’s a question: If you were going to sell your used car, wouldn’t you at least vacuum the inside and wash and wax the outside? Seems like a no-brainer and people don’t question the need to put their car (a depreciating asset) into its best showing condition if they’re planning on selling it. But not all home sellers, who are probably looking at selling their most important asset, are willing to give the same attention to their houses. Replace the carpet? Paint? No, they’d rather leave that up to the prospective buyers, who they are sure won’t like their choice of carpet and paint. 
 
Case in point: a home for sale in Kensington, Maryland (an area in the close-in the Washington, DC suburbs) that sat on the market for almost 7 months,  had dark paneling in the office and basement, a dark red paint in the living room, and flowered wallpaper in the kitchen. The sellers had moved on to their new home and were paying two mortgages and a bridge loan and the listing agents only answer was to continue to lower their price. When panic finally set in and the owners consulted another agent, they painted the dark paneling, painted the living room, removed the flowered wallpaper and “staged” with some borrowed artwork and a few carpets. The house was under contract before the work was even totally completed.
 
It’s truly not rocket science…it truly is “returning to the basics”

- Contributing blogger Gretchen Koitz

 Bethesda real estate | Chevy Chase real estate | Washington DC real estate blog                                                                                               

The Gretchen Koitz Group | serving the Washington DC Metropolitan area including Washington DC, Montgomery County Maryland, & Northern Virginia

 

 

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The Koitz Group

The Koitz Group The Koitz Group at Long and Foster is a multi-generational group of highly experienced agents. Its principal, Gretchen Koitz has over 20 years of full-time residential real estate experience and shares her expertise as director of new agent training at the Bethesda Gateway Office, where for each of the past five years the productive level of the office has exceeded $1 Billion! Read More

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