Utah Real Estate #13: Are You Really Prepared To Sell Your House?

Posted by Patrick Wiscombe on June 27, 2012 under Utah Real Estate Podcast | Read the First Comment

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In this edition of the Utah Real Estate Podcast, we talked about:

• Are you really prepared to sell your house on your own?
• What is your home worth?
• Utah is a non-disclosure state
• Are you making an offer or are you asking?
• Professional performance vs. going it alone
• Are they buying or getting decorating ideas?
• Can you pre-qualify your buyer?
• Are you too close to the situation?
• What happens if your home doesn’t appraise for the selling price?

Press the ‘PLAY’ button to listen to Utah Real Estate #13: Are You Really Prepared To Sell Your House?

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YOUR CALL TO ACTION
If you’re looking to buy or sell a house in Utah, please call or text me (Patrick Wiscombe) at (801) 874-7717.
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Cool Voice Guy: Information you need, the podcasts you love, this is the patrickwiscombe.com podcast network.

Cool Voice Guy: It’s real estate news you can use, this is the
Utah Real Estate podcast, giving you free expert advice, and tips if you’re looking to buy or sell a house, and now, here are your hosts, Roger Zundel and Patrick Wiscombe

Patrick Wiscombe: The Utah Real Estate Podcast is brought to you by Weichert Realtors at the Rockies. If you are looking to buy or sell a house in Utah, please call Patrick Wiscombe at area code 801-602-5850. That number again area code 801-602-5850.

Patrick Wiscombe: It’s the Utah Real Estate Podcast, my name is Patrick Wiscombe. Coming up on today’s edition of the Utah Real Estate Podcast; you’ve seen the signs in the yard, for sale by owner. You’ve tried to perhaps buy a piece of property on your own and I realize that we are in the realty business. Most people think, “Ah I can do it on my own!” But are you really prepared to sell your house on your own? Joining me for the podcast this morning is Greg Hales, the Commercial Real Estate Manager at Weichert Realtors at the Rockies in American Fork, good morning.

Greg Hales: Good morning Patrick. How are you again this morning?

Patrick Wiscombe: I’m doing well. Let’s get into this particular topic. Are people really prepared to sell a piece of property on their own but why are some of the reasons why people should not consider selling their house on their own?

Greg Hales: There’s one question that every home owner wants to know, what is my home worth? Well, they’ll call the Jones’ down the street or the Smiths’; they’ll look up on a realtor, what are you asking for their home, what are you listing your home for? That is not a good indicator of what your home is worth. Your home is worth what a willing buyer will buy your home for and a willing seller will sell your home for. Now, Utah is a non-disclosure state. I don’t want to use too many terms you are unfamiliar with, but non-disclosure means when you record your deed or your sale, you are not required to disclose it publicly. California is a disclosure state such as they use that for the tax basis. It’s a very good system but not to get bogged down in it. Knowing what your home is worth, you need to know what homes sell for. You do not have access to that. You do not have access to the Multiple Listing Service. You do not have access through the County Recorder’s office; it does not tell you what homes sell for so what is your home worth is critical to know how much you can list it for.

Patrick Wiscombe: If someone makes an offer on your house, you could sell it for a lot less than what you could sell it for.

Greg Hales: Absolutely. Absolutely, it doesn’t matter what people list things for, you want to know what things sell for. As a professional, our job is to find people to buy and sell houses. We get paid based on performance. So why would that relate to your home? As a realtor, I’m going to pre-qualify and have a good understanding about what my buyer is capable of. Is he qualified? Is he prepared to buy at that time? As a for sale by owner, you get everybody or anybody walking into your home at any time. I know several friends, and I will tell you this honestly, they will go to open houses on Saturdays and Sundays to get decorating ideas, to see layouts, to see houses, and they represent themselves as buyers. They always say it quickly like this, “We are potential buyers,” meaning maybe in twenty years they may be buying. As a realtor, we’re going to find out because we only get paid on performance so we are not going to waste a lot of time running people around who want to see decorating ideas. As a for sale by seller, you’ve got to deal with that because anybody who comes through your home or anybody who calls, you don’t have the expertise or the background and/or the diligence at that time to pre-qualify them. As a realtor, your job is to be paid on performance. People who come through your home, they’d be offended if you asked, “Wait a minute, before you come through my home, have you already been through FHA or VA? Have you qualified? What is your loan to debt ratio? Are you capable of making a house payment on this home?” They would be so offended that they would walk out of your home because you’re a for sale by owner, you’re not supposed to be an expert in that field.

Patrick Wiscombe: Well I’ve heard Rodger Zundell who is the owner/president of Weichert Realtors at the Rockies; now he deals with this stuff and you’ve been dealing with real estate for a long time, and this would have been one of the first podcasts that we recorded, he goes, “Even I use a real estate agent because I value their input for negotiations and the expertise to make sure I’m not getting too emotional about buying something.”

Greg Hales: That’s exactly right. I would echo and agree with Roger on that one. I’ve bought and sold, for me personally, eight homes. I have not listed one of them for sale. I’ve used a separate residential realtor on every single one of them.

Patrick Wiscombe: Last question, and honestly, I’ve wondered about this a time or two. What do you do if your home does not appraise for the price that you have sold it for? That’s a big problem. How do you get around that one?

Greg Hales: That is a huge problem in today’s world because of the reduction in prices in several areas of homes, and just so you know, appraisers do not use what a home is listed for. Appraisers use, as a baseline, what a home sells for and then they make adjustments accordingly. If your home is sold for more than what the appraised value is, you’ve got a problem. Your buyer generally will say, “Well listen, I’m only going to pay what it’s appraised for.” The seller says, “Well I don’t care, I’m selling it for what I want to sell it for.” Then again you need that third party, almost a mediator, as your realtor to go to work for you on how to bridge that gap. It might be they just have to pay more money. It might be you have to find better comprables; there are a number of things. That’s a big issue and using a professional will help you overcome that obstacle.

Patrick Wiscombe: Alright, that will do it for today’s edition of the Utah Real Estate Podcast. Are you really prepared to sell it on your own? I think we’ve answered some of those questions more than adequately. Now, assuming that you are not wanting to sell it on your own, you can call or text me at -area code 801-602-5850, 801-602-5850. So for Greg Hales, the Commercial Real Estate Manager at Weichert Realtors at the Rockies in American Fork, my name is Patrick Wiscombe, thanks for listening. Be sure to tell anybody who’s looking to buy or sell a house in Utah to call me directly. So for Greg, I’m Patrick, thanks for listening, we’ll talk to you tomorrow, see you.

Cool Guy Voice: Helping you buy or sell a house, this has been the Utah Real Estate podcast, with your hosts Roger Zundel and Patrick Wiscombe, sponsored by Weichert Realtors, and heard exclusively on attherockies.com