Yes, the fall season is a good time to sell. But — no matter how busy the market and how fab the home, Sellers are wise to keep their egos in check — and homes updated!
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The personal stories of one Realtor’s battles and triumphs in the highly-competitive Bay Area Real Estate Market, seeking to illuminate and humanize the very real ups-and-downs of homeownership.
The fall market is upon us, which means we’ll have one strong, final push before the holidays descend and the market grows quiet. With families now home from their fun-filled vacations and school firmly back in session, the fall market, like the spring market, can bring some outstanding results.
However, not all homes are created equal.
Condition, location, interest rates, and demand are the driving forces with respect to property values, and while Sellers don’t necessarily control the interest rates or the demand a listing receives, they have a lot to say when it comes to the condition of a property. While some people are meticulous about their homes, others have ignored them for years, if not decades, and undoubtedly, they will pay a price come time to sell.
Which isn’t to say that these diamonds-in-the-rough won’t find an audience – they absolutely will – but that the Sellers should NOT expect a premium for homes with glaring and increasingly expensive issues. DO count on Buyers to factor in these costs in their offer price; costs that are increasingly on the RISE.
Unfortunately, with steep tariffs in place, many raw materials are not only becoming more expensive to secure, there are also a fair amount of items that seem to be permanently “out of stock.” As with all commodities, the lack of available materials is both a growing concern and a challenge. Consequently, when plan A doesn’t work, it’s time to pivot to plan B and find another way around. (There are always solutions when we seek them out.)
But even with homes where updated kitchen and bathrooms are already in place, (BTW – 70’s, 80’s and 90’s remodels are not considered “updated.’) and even when the Natural Hazard Disclosure clears the property site of any major concerns, insurance companies are still demanding that older homes address any outstanding issues which make a property difficult to insure: ie: knob & tube wiring, galvanized pipes, older roofs, and outdated HVAC systems. These issues that, until recently, could be put off until addressing a major remodel are now more imminent and top-of-mind . . . or should be. (It’s important to note that insurance companies offer a grace period that is often less than three months for corrective measures!)
With a housing stock of increasingly aging homes, chances are that many of these older components won’t stand up to scrutiny. Unless you’ve taken your house down to the studs, your systems are very likely outdated. In other words, there’s a veritable buffet of potential problems on the “hit list.” The latest objection seems to be “fire-adjacent zones,” which (let’s be real) is nearly every neighborhood in the Bay Area, let alone the state of California. Therefore, homes in the hills are going to be more difficult to sell and more expensive to insure. But let’s be clear, ALL of us are going to see higher insurance rates in the coming years, irrespective of the age and condition of our homes or where they sit.
Let’s also understand that turn-of-the-century homes lived dramatically differently than today’s modern families. Many, if not most, of the affluent households would have employed domestic, live-in help. Kitchens were walled off and undersized, closets were sparse, formal dining rooms were often the largest room in the house, and the concept of a family room, media room, or game room didn’t exist at all. There were parlors but no home offices. Primary suites . . . forget about it. (I grew up in an older home in Sacramento, where our family of eight shared one and a half bathrooms. That would hardly be acceptable by today’s standards, where multiple bathrooms are the norm.)
Finally, while our team does an excellent job of getting properties ready for the market, chances are we won’t have the time or the necessary means to erase decades of deferred maintenance, which is, frankly, beyond the scope of what our license allows us to do . . . That being said, we certainly tend to a WHOLE lot more than our predecessors did, transforming homes in the process, and assuming far more risk. And while prepping previously ignored properties is certainly a demanding part of the job, it’s not as difficult as delicately explaining to Sellers why their homes may not be worth as much as they think they are . . . (Pride goeth before the fall?)
Here’s the reality (or should I say “realty”): whether your home is beautifully maintained or poorly managed (or somewhere in between), the market will ultimately decide the value of any given property at any given time, irrespective of what a Seller wants, needs, must have, or thinks their property is worth. But if you properly attend to your home through the years, chances are, you’ll have a far better result come time to sell, AND you’ll enjoy a higher quality of life while living there, and that’s not a bad trade-off.
How can we help you?
Julie Gardner & Sarah Abel | Compass Realty
Not just Realtors, but consultants in all things house and home, we’re here to educate, explore, examine and refer . . . In short, you may count on us to take care of your home as if it were our own and anyone who knows us, knows we take pretty darn good care of our homes.
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