Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to AllView360 all things real Estate Podcast. With your hosts Daniel Gutierrez and Shannon Dempsey, we explore real estate from every angle, giving you insights, tools, and confidence to make smart decisions that support your future. It's time for a new perspective on property. Welcome to AllView360. Hey, guys. Today we're talking about how to maximize your home. If you're going to rent or you're going to list to sell, which are the same thing and different.
And we do both of them on a regular basis. So we thought we'd kind of go over what's different and it changes on a regular basis, too.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Yeah. This is a question. We get a lot.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: It's a question we get a lot. And it's an answer that I change depending on what the market's doing.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Also too, depending on what the client wants and what their reality is, what their situation is.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: And their budget.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: And their budget.
[00:00:47] Speaker A: And their budget. So when it comes to first listing your home for sale or rent, first impression is the biggest key factor there.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Where do you draw the line at? First impression?
[00:00:59] Speaker B: I don't think there is a line.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: There has to be a line. Like, what's the first first impression of a home?
[00:01:05] Speaker B: The curb.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: You think the curb?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Do you want to ask me what I think?
[00:01:09] Speaker B: What do you think?
[00:01:10] Speaker A: I think it's the neighborhood. Okay.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Well, you can't change the neighborhood.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: You can change how they get into the neighborhood. I do that for listings. So I'll change the direction of the way someone comes in.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: How do you do that?
[00:01:23] Speaker A: I suggest you take your client off of this exit. I suggest you come in this way, and I'll tell the agent that showing the property that this is the best route to take to get a true indication of the neighborhood.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Because to me, that's the first impression.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: No, that's. That's clever. Great. And how.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: I mean, does it work? I don't know. People actually follow my rules now because
[00:01:43] Speaker B: I just follow what my GPS says.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah, true. Okay.
So then after that, it's curb appeal.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: When they show up to the home, what do they feel? What do they think? If you have an opportunity to impact how the neighbors appear. Great.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Physically.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: No, I'm just kidding.
Yes.
Also.
But like, for instance, when we're going through this process, if we know that it's a really dense neighborhood and anytime before 9am or after 4pm there's nowhere to park.
[00:02:18] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Then at that point, we try to schedule showings in between that to address the parking issue. Also, too if someone's coming to view a home, regardless if it's for rent or for sale and they can't park, it's game over. They're never.
Or street sweeping days. Like, don't do a showing on street sweeping days where they came.
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Or trash day. Yes, I do know trash day for listings. Okay, so as far as the parking goes, that's a big one. A lot of the downtown stuff or rentals or listings or a lot of the apartment condo styles. Parking is an issue.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Beachfront. Beachfront. On weekends, it's really difficult to find parking.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Okay. So we've now narrowed back from it being curb appeal to actually being fully delivered.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: But once they park, it needs to look nice.
So cleaned up, no trash, no weeds, fresh coat of paint, if possible.
You know, sell the. Sell the experience.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: When it comes to parking, I've handled this a few different ways with listings, especially recently in the last year, as I try to get more detail oriented with all of it. With the condos or the high rises, I'm physically walking through giving a video on how this person should park. And I send that video to the agent. I say, please send this to your client, because I don't want them walking into the listing already irritated with the process of finding parking.
Now they're late, now they're off schedule. So that video, 30 seconds. Here's where you're gonna park. Here's how you pull in. Blah, blah, blah. The response that I've gotten from agents on that has been wonderful, and I'm hoping it's helping with the overall experience.
The other thing, I'm not even realizing I'm doing this parking stuff now that
[00:03:54] Speaker B: you brought it up, you. You pay attention to the details. That's why you're so excellent.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. The other thing with parking. So I don't like people parking in the driveway. Sellers parking in the driveway when a showing's happening. On the flip side, no one actually parks in the driveway when they're showing the home. I do right up in that driveway, but for the most part, people won't pull in. So I'm asking sellers, whose car normally would not be on the street, pull out of the driveway, and then pull your car pretty far up.
And that's been working well too. As far as overall curb appeal, my
[00:04:23] Speaker B: philosophy is sellers or owners for a rental, don't park in the driveway. Agents don't park in the driveway. Let the clients park in the driveway.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Okay, so first impression, parking, curb appeal, all of that.
[00:04:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Clean windows, fresh landscaping, no trash cans.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:40] Speaker A: And then you move into the actual home.
Now, what are we looking at?
[00:04:45] Speaker B: I mean, psychologically, there's a ton.
What do they feel when they open the door? What do they smell? What do they see? The lighting. Natural lighting is key. Open the windows, get fresh air in there, make it a comfortable temperature.
Have. Appeal to all the senses.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Appeal to all the senses. Do you suggest people paint the front door if necessary?
[00:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I think there's certain aspects. There are certain points where it's good enough. Others where it's like, absolutely not. We need to change this.
But also, too, to one of our other points, like, what is the seller? What is the owner willing to do?
[00:05:18] Speaker A: I know. And that kind of moves in. So the decluttering and the overall appearance when you first walk in leads into staging, which is another key component. Yeah, we've handled staging multiple ways.
Usually with a vacant home, I recommend a full stage. That's something that has to be cost effective. But statistically, it's a fully staged home. I think it's 11% higher sales. And then the day count, the days on market count significantly lower when it comes to a staged home.
So in my dream world, we are power, wash windows, no cars in the driveway, fully staged vacant property.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: No two stagers are made alike. Find a good stager that knows the essence of the community, the home, the intended buyer, the likely buyer, and appeal to them.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: Yes. I worked with a lot of incredible stagers. The ones that I've been drawn to and continue to use are people that I like, their initial style, the style that they like, what I see on their social media, I'm drawn to that style. And then what I've noticed is they spend a lot of time in the home before the actual stage day, and then they completely adjust the style based on the overall appearance of the home, the paint color, the style of the exterior, the neighborhood, all of that. And that's been fun to watch.
So, yeah, it is important to find a stager that's going to align with what the property is actually doing.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: They need to. You can't just have a one size fits all. Also, like, over cluttering small homes, terrible decision. That will kill a lister.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Have you had a stager over clutter a small home?
[00:06:47] Speaker B: 100%.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Did you tell them?
[00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah. It's like, over cluttered. You can't even walk around.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Have you restaged a staged home?
[00:06:56] Speaker B: We've asked them to make a dish or, like, changes.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Okay, you've asked them to make changes?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: I could see you walking in and
[00:07:02] Speaker B: just fully or like even, for instance, especially like the majority of California, you know, we're not a super old state. So you have like a 1990s, early 2000s build that's more like the Venetian style. And all of a sudden you put a bunch of modern furniture in there, like it's not going to work.
They have to know that they have to be able to adapt to that and really understand the experience that they're trying to give to the clientele. That's coming through.
[00:07:29] Speaker A: The home I've had where I've. Because I become obsessed with stage homes, the vacant ones, I'm very into it. I think it looks really good. I see the results. I see the overall effect it has on the buyers. I've had a couple homes last year that were not staged, that I had staged because I firmly believed in it. And night and day, they got offers pretty quickly after the home was staged, after not having offers for a while when the market was challenging.
I am so into it to the point that with clients still living in the homes, like right now, I have two listings that are fully staged with clients living in them.
One of them, she came in, fully analyzed everything that they had, told them what to do, they did it then with their existing furniture, she rearranged it, did all of the accessories, and now they're living in a staged home. But it's partially their furniture. It's really cost effective to do it that way. And the home is showing a million times better. Multiple offers, all the good things.
So it's. What did she call it?
It's like it's not a full stage.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: I don't know. You haven't done this partial staging?
[00:08:34] Speaker A: Partial staging.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: We've done it where we go in with the existing furniture. And I say we as for different people.
So we've gone in.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: We are different people.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: We're not.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: We've gone in, used their existing furniture and then added accents where needed, removed stuff especially like their personal belongings, things that are very unique to them that we wouldn't want photographed in listings or that we really wouldn't want available to the public for anyone coming in, and just made it look like a much more desirable home to the greater population.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Okay. And then as far as rentals go. Cause staging's costly.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: And when you're selling your house for top dollar, it makes sense. When you're collecting commission, it all makes sense with rentals and all of that. And as far as marketing goes, how are you handling staging there?
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Rentals are completely different. So we do still professional photography and we highly recommend that for anyone doing a rental, iPhone, photos, Android, whatever it is, flip phone, if you still have one, it's not going to work. The quality of a professional camera and a professional photographer is going to pay dividends relative to just iPhone photos. So hire professional photographer, have professional photos. We do what's called digital staging, using technology to make the home appear as if it were staged.
And it does really well with the listings. It gets a lot of people in, but it doesn't have the high economic cost of fully staging a home, which can be thousands and thousands of dollars. But we're still able to have a lot of the value without a lot of the costs.
In addition to that, the same rules still apply. It has to be gracefully staged. It has to appeal to the correct audience.
And in regards to actual physical staging, I have seen real estate agents who do do staging for rentals, but the clients pay for it and they're told that this is needed. In my opinion, you're losing your client's money.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Do. Oh, why?
[00:10:36] Speaker B: Well, like let's say you.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: With rentals.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: With rentals. Okay, let's say a home, nice home, rents for 5,000amonth. That's gonna be what, a three bedroom home? Depending on the area.
Three bedroom home for staging, you're probably in California. In California? Yeah, in California, Southern California.
You're probably around 4,000 to $5,000 to stage a three bedroom home. Right.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: So you're one month's rent to stage the home.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Exactly. One month's rent to stage the home. The leasing commission is going to be 6%.
So at that point you're two and a half months in before you break even just on your listing and leasing costs.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: So staging for rentals is virtual stage. That's the. Yeah, that's the go to there.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah, it's unnecessary. I mean it would be wonderful. But the economic cost is outweighed by the economic benefit. It doesn't make sense. Not in rentals, in sales. Absolutely. It's a completely different ball game.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Okay, I agree, I agree with all that. I'm a big fan of staging. So once they're in the home, we've already redid the staging. We're doing all the photography, we're doing all the pre marketing stuff. But before that they're going to do some upgrades and things to the home to get it showing better. What are budget friendly or honestly no cost items that you have sellers do or landlords do to get their home showable.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: I mean there's A lot of factors there. The ultimate decisions are the clients. But what are they looking for? Are they looking to sell quickly? Are they looking to maximize the sales value? Are they looking to maximize the return on investment for any of those repairs? So asking those questions and understanding that if you're a seller, you want to understand what you're looking for and what your resources are to do this potential work. If you're an agent, you want to be able to consult with your clients to give them all of the details so they better understand and can make a decision that works for them.
A lot of the stuff we already discussed, the decluttering, giving it that curb appeal, like you could buy some nice roses and little like scent boosters for relatively.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: Scent boosters?
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah, relatively. No cost, but like, have you walked into like a super high end hotel? Right. They have all of the. All of the.
That experiences all of the senses immediately. Yeah, senses. And the one I remember most is smell. But the human psychology and human physiology, what most people remember is a smell. So those little scent boosters go a long way. Even the high end.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: Right now I can think of three hotel chains that all smell the wrong way.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: The high end home builders all have their unique sense for all of their model homes.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: I didn't know that.
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: So you walk in, you have the smell, you have the experience, you have the fresh breeze, all of that.
That's the cheap stuff. We love the fresh freeze, the inexpensive stuff. After that, I think curb appeal is huge. That's gonna be the
[00:13:34] Speaker A: first impression.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: First impression, exactly. Thank you.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Do you want to keep talking for you.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: But after that. The data has shown the buyers and renters care first and foremost about kitchen and primary bathrooms.
So when doing a renovation, those are gonna produce the highest return on investment in general.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: This is not. That's not budget friendly.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: No. But. Well, it could be, depending on the budget. Budget's all relative, right?
[00:13:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
I was thinking like, take down the curtains.
[00:14:02] Speaker B: So take down the curtains. Okay.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Or you're redoing bathrooms and kitchens. What about taking down curtains?
[00:14:07] Speaker B: A fresh coat of paint inside.
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Fresh coat of paint. That's expensive for. That's expensive.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Okay, but that's relative.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Relative. Okay. So you think a fresh coat of paint is necessary all the time?
[00:14:19] Speaker B: No, absolutely not.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: There's times where the paint's completely fine.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
So I was gonna say for budget friendly. I'm not trying to redo kitchens and bathrooms to be budget friendly. Maybe my budget's a little less. But I'm thinking take down curtains yeah.
Plug up any holes. Plug up. What's the right word for patch? Patch. I don't do that stuff. So patch any holes, paint there any touch up.
Clean the walls, get them looking as good as possible.
Get as much natural light in there as possible.
Get a good clean. The things that you don't normally clean, you're gonna wanna clean.
Scent is a budget friendly thing. Okay. And then you, with the larger budget, you're gonna redo kitchens and bathrooms, you're gonna reno the home as a budget friendly.
[00:14:59] Speaker B: I'm gonna tear it down and build a new one.
[00:15:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Budget friendly. So also too one that probably people don't think about but is an immediate killer to any listing of any sort is.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: I feel like that's dramatic and probably not. What?
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Water stains.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: Oh, that is an immediate killer. Yes.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Yeah. People walk into your home and they see water stains on the wall, water stains on the ceiling. Yes. It goes from water stains to mold to rot to death.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: The emotional impact of a water stain. And almost always. Almost always it is a water stain from a leak from 10 years ago that we repaired. We just never did that. Yeah, let's paint that. Let's paint that. And let's disclose that the leak happened in 20.
What's 10 years ago? 2012-2014-2015-2015. I was originally gonna say 2002. So 2015, 10 years ago. This is when that leak happened.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Paint it now. Now's the time to paint it.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: I'm glad you agree.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a good one. I'm sorry for disagreeing before you even said it.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: I get that a lot.
So, yeah, Water stains, that will kill any listing, regardless if you're looking to buy or sell.
[00:16:07] Speaker A: Agreed. Agreed. Okay. So now we're in the home. It's looking good.
[00:16:10] Speaker B: It's photo before that, like you said it. But if you're going to sell or rent a home and you have water stains repair correctly, they're just going to keep coming back. It's going to cause issues. Spend the time, spend the money, do it right. Get it repaired.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Yes. We don't want to cover up any active water issues.
We want to cosmetically correct anything that was avoided after it was fixed.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Okay. So now we're in there.
This is what I experience with sales.
They walk in, they love the home and then they'll say to their agent, like, how much is this priced again?
So it's almost like they go in knowing the price, they're looking at a bunch of homes.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Then they come in, could I guess what you're gonna say put a price tag on the front door.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: No.
Would you do that?
[00:16:56] Speaker B: No.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Oh, no. What I was gonna say is the pricing strategy, I think overall is a perception of the home and something to focus on all across the board.
So they come and they say, how is this priced? Or what's this one listed at? Because they've looked at four other homes before yours. Now they're just comparing it directly to those ones. They've looked at, whether you're priced well for the neighborhood. So with pricing, very, very important to get top dollar for your home right now, what are you suggesting? Both with rentals and sales? Staged it, we photographed it, we talked about budget.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: We did the parking ease, we talked about budget friendly.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: We redone the kitchen. We've redone the bathroom.
We talked about, we covered the water stains from 2002.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: We talked about budget friendly repairs.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Yes. So now we're on to pricing.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: Okay, what would you do?
[00:17:45] Speaker A: I know what I do.
[00:17:46] Speaker B: Okay, tell me.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: Okay, so with pricing and depending on the market you suggest, you always suggest to your client what they should price their self, what they should price their home at. You provide the data, you provide the information, you provide the comps.
Right now, the conversation about strategy and what is 2025 right now? So we're in a high interest rates, kind of a funky interest rates, high,
[00:18:09] Speaker B: insurance rates, high, all of it. If you could even get insurance, if
[00:18:13] Speaker A: you can even get insurance. I'm hoping that this is not relevant in six months, but it probably will be.
Okay, so pricing right now, this strategy is so, so, so important.
And we've already had the home turnkey. And you're right, that is what's selling the turnkey homes. Because people don't have. Buyers do not have the budget to do anything after the fact with their home, all of their income, cash flow, everything is going towards making sure that they are comfortable and being.
Putting themselves in a position to make that monthly payment.
[00:18:41] Speaker B: Well, there's a few components there because like if you have to renovate a home, that means you're not living in it. That means you're renting somewhere else or staying in your existing home and paying that other mortgage. But also our experience and the, the facts, the data, the stats, all the research shows that if the home has to be renovated or repaired before move in, like in any significant manner, it's going to sell or rent, particularly in this case sell for significantly less than the cost of those repairs because the buyer then has to incorporate the time, the risk, all of the issues that go into having to repair a home. So let's say you have a million dollar home and it's $100,000 or market value for a turnkey move in ready home is a million dollars. These $100,000 in repairs, it's not going to sell for 900,000, it's going to sell for 825. Because someone's going to have to go in and put all the work in to put that $100,000 and then it's going to be worth a million dollars.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: Yes. So the convenience of turnkey is important.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: It is.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: But my pricing strategy right now is I'm a big fan in seeing results and going a little bit under what the market value is to get people in the door being competitive, being competitive, but being competitive with the people that are already being competitive. So you're almost having to just undercut it a little bit more.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: And there's a lot that goes into that. I mean there's a lot of psychological factors that go into pricing strategy. There's certain cultures where certain numbers are not viewed as lucky or great.
So there's aspects of that and like literally what numbers to use, whether you use a nine at the end or a six or a zero, those have factors.
I mean there's a ton that goes into it, but absolutely. And even then too, like the psychology or even just the.
So the actual number that you pick, for instance, when someone looks on Zillow, on Redfin, realtor,.com, whatever it might be, and they type in, my budget is $800,000 for purchase or $3,500 for rental. If you're priced at $3,500, some of those systems will exclude your listing and you will never be seen because you are right on where their parameter.
If you were to list a dollar less, you might be included. Same thing on the MLS or even generally when I'm looking for clients, I will take their budget, their max budget and then add another 2, 3% and just see those homes because that also lends the opportunity to have a wider pool to look at and also to potentially negotiate down back to where they're comfortable. You see a home that's $10,000 more than the Mac max budget, but it's been on the market for 200 days. They're probably gonna be willing to negotiate and you may have just been the only one who has actually tried.
[00:21:25] Speaker A: That is so true.
I feel like people, this sounds dumb, but I feel like people aren't willing to try right now. Like everyone is kind of shying. I'm not paying that for that price. I'm shocked at how many deals are getting done by the one buyer or by the one agent that decided that I'm actually going to start the conversation for this transaction and work and negotiate and be skilled and know what I'm doing to get a mutually beneficial outcome.
I don't know why. When I first started in real estate, that was a very common thing. You didn't pay full price for things. You came in where you wanted to come in. You went back and forth, back and forth. Then it turned into a market where you're paying asking price or more, and that became the standard. And now we're in this market where people think that they have to offer asking price.
I want everyone to offer asking price on listings, but from a buyer's perspective, I encourage them to offer lower, like off. Let's look at what this is actually worth. Let's look at the direction of this community.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: Or there's the sellers there, or there's the sellers that just want more than it's ever been.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Is that what you were saying, or did I hear what I wanted to hear and turned it into a whole different conversation?
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: For both.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Yes, for both.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Okay. But you're right. So there's the buyers who.
One tangent that I wanted to go on and depending on what side of the equation is how frustrated or happy I am.
Get a deal under contract, you have first rider refusal.
If I'm the buy side or consulting the buy side and we're under contract, we have all the power to try to get the deal done, and it's our first rider refusal to perform.
But if I'm on the sell side or consulting on the sell side, and I have a buyer that comes in, locks it under contract, and then starts going on a negotiation super hard, lowering the price, that's frustrating. But I understand the game. I understand where they're coming from. So depending on what side of the equation I'm on is whether I'm thrilled or frustrated. But to your point, can you call
[00:23:21] Speaker A: me when you're thrilled? Next time I just call you like I'm thrilled and then hang up?
[00:23:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: What was your point?
[00:23:29] Speaker A: My point is that buyers need to be more aggressive and buyers, agents need to be more comfortable being aggressive for their clients and actually writing those offers that are asking for a lot. Sellers aren't receiving them while they don't. They don't want to give a lot. But that's really the market that we're in right now.
Not that it. I don't think it's a buyer's or a seller's market. I think it's just if you look at a balance, market. Right.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: If you look at the metrics, is balanced.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: And depending on the submarkets, it goes either way. But at the end of the day, it's balance. And you still have the clients who are listing significantly over market and just sitting and sitting and.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: Yeah. What that means is there's sellers that want their number and there's buyers that have their number. And we're balanced. So we need to figure out what that in between is. And that's the skilled part that's missing.
[00:24:09] Speaker B: And then you have a unique situation right now where asset prices on the sale side are still very high, where rental rates have actually stayed pretty stagnant for the last 24 months.
And rental rates are a fraction of what a mortgage would be for buying a new home. So you could go in and rent a home that you're paying, go back to that $5,000 a month, where if you were to buy it, your mortgage would probably be closer to eight or nine thousand dollars a month.
[00:24:36] Speaker A: I don't want to pay that.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: I know, but that's the reality right now.
[00:24:39] Speaker A: I know. It's pretty crazy.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Or you have the people, the investors who buy homes for the purpose of renting them without doing the proper due diligence on the front end and only realize too late that the rental value is a fraction of what their mortgage or costs are.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: This is true.
Okay, I have one more point that I want to talk about before we have to stop talking.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Never.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Never. Okay, so timing of the market.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: In other states, timing is very important because weather plays and everything. In California, there really is no outlying factor that determines the timing of our market.
But I always say from Halloween to Super bowl, that's kind of the slower time. The spring market is the time to sell your home. How adamant are you about timing? Do you ever tell people, don't list now, wait until this time. Or do you. If you list now, it's gonna be slower? Like, would you absolutely not list your home in a certain time?
[00:25:40] Speaker B: There's no absolutes. But although we're not. We don't have four seasons.
We're still an international.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: I get a really long explanation just to say we don't have four seasons.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: We're still international destination. People are still moving from all over the country. So it's still the same thing with the school year cycle for families when Companies are hiring and people are transitioning or transferring. For companies, the data still shows that the shoulder seasons like the Halloween to Super bowl are still slower. Fewer people are selling, fewer people are moving, fewer people are buying. It still happens. I would always consult with the client if they have the ability to wait until spring, do so if they can't and they need to sell, do it. We'll figure it out.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: A lot of your clients are investors though, and a lot of their properties are rented out. So their timing aligns with whenever their tenant moves out. So what do you do like in when a lease ends for a tenant and that client has told you, hey, I'm ready to sell this home now. I don't want to rent it anymore. You're like, okay, cool, the lease expires November 30th. What are you going to tell your client? Are you going to say let's list in December? Are you going to encourage to wait? What does that conversation look like for you?
[00:26:48] Speaker B: It's still the same. So when we're leasing properties, we're still trying to get that leasing cycle into the spring and summer. We don't ever try to get all of the, all of our properties into the same month or the same two months will start in really April and then have. And try to get that leasing cycle to really end in September because at the same time we don't want a ton of vacancies all coming to market.
[00:27:14] Speaker A: So you've kind of already gotten ahead of it with setting that lease to end not in 100%.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: So if we have a tenant who's applying for a rental starting in December, we'll give them a 16 month lease to get them back into spring. Because at the same time, like for instance, last spot last winter was the worst leasing market we've seen in the last 10 years.
[00:27:35] Speaker A: So good for your mood too. I thought your mood was amazing during that whole time.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Thanks. Yeah, it was one of the worst leasing seasons or leasing winters we've ever had. On top of already being a very slow rental market. But at the same time too, sales also dipped drastically.
[00:27:52] Speaker A: So fun. Yeah, loved that.
I did not love that. That was not. That was not a good time.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: I thought you did.
[00:27:58] Speaker A: No, I mean I still was happy, but just not.
Not the easiest and I had some sleepless nights, but all that to say that's part of it.
Can we wrap this up in a little. Let's pretend that I am a client selling my home and you're going to tell me the top five things right now. That I need to do based on the conversation we just had. Okay, the top five things. Okay, so, Daniel, I want to list my house.
It is December 15th right now.
That's just what time it is right now. So it's December 15th. I want to list my home. I have a month or two to do a couple things and I want to list it at a strategic time quickly. What five things are you going to tell me?
[00:28:39] Speaker B: Okay, so first and foremost, let's make sure the home is in move and ready condition.
Everything's repaired, everything looks good, it works. There aren't issues.
Something we also didn't talk about is beyond just the listing is also the closing price. If you just cover up a bunch of stuff, a good inspector's gonna find it and then you're just gonna get negotiated down or potentially kill the deal.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: So you don't want me to cover my mold, you want me to fix it.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Okay, I'll do that.
[00:29:06] Speaker B: I want you to do that.
I want you to take probably three or four months to do that.
So we're out of February and into a better time.
The whole time, we're going to be discussing what the market looks like, what your neighbors are doing, what the comps are looking like both for rental and sale.
After that, we're going to want to hit the market really strong. So once the home is fully repaired, fully staged, ready to go, we have great photography, great marketing, everything set up, and we hit the marker hard.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Beautiful.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: And then after that, it's keeping the home in good presentable condition, working with showings.
I don't know, Shannon. There's a lot here. What would you suggest?
[00:29:54] Speaker A: I just wanted the top five. And then how many times a day can I call you asking for an update on the status of my home?
[00:30:03] Speaker B: You could call me as many times as you want.
[00:30:05] Speaker A: Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Okay, cool.
[00:30:07] Speaker B: My phone will be on do not disturb.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Okay, perfect.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah. How many times could I call you to give you a status?
[00:30:14] Speaker A: You can call me anytime.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: Okay. And what would you think? Tell me the cadence that you update your clients.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: I love all my clients right now. And so I talk to them daily just cause I want to, but on a regular basis for just straight updating. Two times a week.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: I do a Monday update and I do a Friday update.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: Perfect.
[00:30:34] Speaker A: My Monday updates. Here's what happened over the weekend. My Friday updates. Here's what's going to happen over the weekend. Here's what happened during the week. And I just kind of keep that going because those in my mind are the two chunks of activity level.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: And there's two components to this. So Shannon does a lot of.
[00:30:47] Speaker A: There's always components. There's always multiple components to everything.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: You do a lot of sales, all of you. And what I would be overseeing on a daily basis is sales and over a thousand rentals. So my leasing team for all of our rentals updates clients on a weekly basis, keeps them very updated, and we try to set that trust that we're doing what they need and what the property needs to get the home rented. On the sales side, it's a different component. And I would say, yeah, to a minimum.
[00:31:14] Speaker A: Oh, what would you like? What would you.
[00:31:16] Speaker B: Well, I think what you said is key is Monday will happen over the weekend and then Friday will happen during the week. But I guarantee you, you're also texting and calling your clients all day, every day. Exactly like height. On the leasing side, it's a bit more difficult and we want to keep.
We want to keep our clients updated and know what's going on. But also too, we want to be able to have the time to do what we need to to get the home leased.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: Let me ask you a question. In your experience, what have been some of the most valuable renovations or changes the clients have made to their home to get the highest roi?
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Basic update? So I'm a big fan of the painting and the curtains and all of that good stuff.
Painting cabinets is a big one. So it's really costly to replace your cabinets to your kitchen, but painting them also on the expensive side, but a huge, huge difference. Yard is a big one.
Mulch is also expensive and like a key indicator that they just did this. It's temporary.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Mow your yard.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Mow your yard, Fertilize it. Get that grass green coming off of that right now because the winter months had the grass did.
But I just kind of what we all just discussed going in curb appeal.
Let's get this green, let's get this fresh, let's get it smelling good, let's get it cleaned.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Something that we do and I love doing. It's a lot of time, but it's awesome. It's super fun. Is clients who have older homes and like, you know, 60, 70 year old homes or plus in awesome neighborhoods that, you know, they bought the home or their parents bought the home a long time ago or they bought the home when they were first married. Now they're retiring and moving and the home was purchased for 30,000. Now it's worth 3 million.
If you don't do it. And a developer's gonna come in, buy the home and do it themselves. If your clients have the bandwidth, have the desire, have the finances to go in and do a major renovation, their return on investment could die.
[00:33:12] Speaker A: Rock, you're a budget unfair.
[00:33:14] Speaker B: It's not budget, it's return on investment. If I told you, Shannon, you could spend Nothing and get $100,000, or you could spend $20,000 and get $400,000. What are you going to do?
[00:33:27] Speaker A: Nothing. I'm just kidding.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: You know what I mean.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: I get what you're saying. Yes, yes, yes. So I guess.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: But investors, sellers, anyone, shouldn't shy away from those things.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: This is true.
[00:33:39] Speaker B: Or if they do, call me and I'm not calling you, I'll buy it.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: You're going to spend. Yes, I'll do that.
And then you can flip it and do all that good stuff.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: But how I look at things is if someone could buy it, do something and make more money, then obviously you can too. It's just, do you have the desire? And also the two.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: There's times when it's like skill set, vendor list, budget, ability.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: Sure. And if you don't have those things, partner with someone like us who does.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: That's a wrap on this episode of AllView 360 all things real estate. If you found this helpful, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone navigating their own real estate journey. Connect with us anytime on Instagram @AllView360 and on LinkedIn @AllView Real Estate. Until next time, stay curious and keep your perspectives. 360.
