Hire professional cleaners before listing your home?

Dave,

We’re putting our home on the market in the next couple of weeks and we’re wondering if we should have it professionally cleaned beforehand. It has a little dust here and there—nothing major—but we’re wondering if a good, deep clean will make it really shine (and hopefully sell faster). What would you tell your sellers to do?

Thanks!

Amber

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Amber,

Great question! There is no doubt about one thing that matters to every seller. Clean means MORE money and less time on the market! Our team sells homes faster (over 30% faster) and one reason is because we stress to our sellers, "Get it clean, clean, clean!" The more show ready your home is, the faster it will sell and as a bonus (literally), it will likely bring a higher price! So the answer to your question is yes, clean it yourself (if you are good at cleaning) or hire professionals to get it “over the top” ready for your initial blast of showings. This clean will also come across in your electronic footprint (photos & virtual tour) and most likely translate to more showings. Lastly, don’t just clean the inside, also pay attention to the outside of your home. 

Making your yard and landscape “shine” will complete the look both inside and out and indicate to the buyer that your home is not only well cared for inside, but also on the outside. Buyers love homes that they believe are well cared for and a dialed in home makes an awesome first impression! Clean it up and get ready to move!

Best of luck,
Dave Kimbrough

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Our front door is often left unlocked after showings. What should we do?

Dave,

This may sound like someone just complaining but it actually is more serious than that. Our home has been listed with a reputable firm for four months. Whether or not our house has sold by mid‑July, we will be relocating to Denver to start new jobs. The concern we have is that after leaving the house during a showing, we frequently come back to find a door unlocked, lights left on and occasionally our bathroom used. With us no longer in town, can we require our listing agent to inspect our house after each showing? Unfortunately, we do not have a relative or a friend nearby that we feel comfortable asking to oversee or burdening them with our property.  This issue becomes even more concerning if our house continues to linger on the market. How do you deal with these problems?

Thank you,
Gayle and Tom, Grand Junction

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Gayle and Tom,

This is a common problem and a very real concern as it is too often for our sellers that they come home after a showing and find exactly what you describe. The simple answer is to sell your home, but I fully appreciate that sometimes it is easier said than done. 

First, I must point out that from time to time all showing agents make mistakes and overlook details like locking doors and turning off lights after they leave a showing. I will admit that one time, as careful as I try to be when showing a house, we went in through the front door and out through the back door and I forgot to lock the front door and actually left the key in the front door lock!! Luckily the showing agent was extremely forgiving and showed me quite a bit of grace, but as good as my intentions were that day, I failed to show the attention to detail and respect for the seller’s home that I should have. My point is, it happens to the best of us, but will not happen to me again! Should it happen? No, but does it happen more often than it should? Yes. That being said, you have hit on a couple of points that could help alleviate your concerns.

It is very reasonable to request your agent check up on the house after showings. This may be difficult for your agent to manage, depending on how busy he/she is and the frequency of showings. If you are getting 3-4 showings a week, this can be more difficult, but if it is 1-2, then it becomes much more manageable.  Most agents want to make the selling experience as trouble free for their sellers as possible and thus are typically very quick to accommodate their seller’s needs, if at all possible. Do not be afraid to ask your agent for their help, that is what they are there for. 

“You mentioned, you did not have any friends or family nearby that you felt comfortable asking for help, but I would consider a reassessment of your friends and family and re-think who might be able or willing to help.”

You mentioned, you did not have any friends or family nearby that you felt comfortable asking for help, but I would consider a reassessment of your friends and family and re-think who might be able or willing to help. I understand you may not have close neighbors, but any neighbor or friend who has kids (teenagers) who would like to pick up a few extra bucks each week for checking in on your house, may be just the ticket. As I recall, teenagers are eager to earn a few extra bucks, but I must admit there may be a generational gap between then and now. : ) Young people today do not seem as money motivated as I was when I was younger! You might even check around at church, as many times the youth group has folks who are looking for odd jobs and extra sources of income. As I have mentioned in this column before, you may see this as a burden to your friends or family, but believe it or not, there are many people who love to help. There are also two types of house sitters, those who would live there while you are gone and watch over the property and those who you can hire to come out once or twice a week to check things over. 

You have options, explore them. First and foremost, ask your agent and his/her company to help you solve the problem and alleviate your concerns, as I am sure you will find them very resourceful and helpful in finding a solution you are comfortable with. Here’s to praying for a worry-free move and your home selling soon!

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team

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How do we know when it’s the right time to sell so we can get the highest value for our home?

Dave,

My wife and I have been discussing whether or not we should put our home on the market. We know the average home sale price is high right now. We’d like to take advantage of the rising prices and cash in on the equity we currently have in our home, but do you think the prices will continue to rise? If we wait another year could we get $5,000 or even $10,000 more on the sale? How do we know when it’s the right time to sell so we can get the highest value for our home?

Thanks for the advice!

John and Arielle, Grand Junction

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John and Arielle,

Knowing when the right/best time to sell anything is one of the hardest questions in the world to answer, but I will try! Ultimately, if I could predict the best time for selling anything I would be super wealthy and be writing this column from a white sandy beach on a tropical island with a drink in one hand and...Sorry, I was getting carried away there, back to reality...unfortunately I am writing this column from my office late on a Wednesday night to the not so relaxing hum of office lights and forced air heat! All kidding aside, the world is volatile and things can change quickly for the good and for the bad. Right now, things are quite good. We are currently in the best real estate market we have seen since 2008 and for that, I am very thankful!   

“With that being said, I anticipate the market to continue growing across the board and prices to continue rising. I do believe that we will see some price settling in the next 12 - 18 months, as the low inventory levels we are now seeing receive some relief from new construction.”

With that being said, I anticipate the market to continue growing across the board and prices to continue rising. I do believe that we will see some price settling in the next 12 - 18 months, as the low inventory levels we are now seeing receive some relief from new construction. There are many new subdivisions in process and that may help loosen up the supply and slow rising prices. Keep in mind that it will not stop rising prices, only slow them a bit! Like I recently wrote in an earlier column, the secret about Grand Junction is out and people are going to continue to come! Why not? It’s an amazing place to live.  

One last tidbit to consider. If you are selling at the top of the market, then it is highly likely that you are also buying at the top of the market. Buying and selling in the same market is somewhat relative. If one house goes up 10%, then it is likely the other one has gone up in a similar fashion! That is not always true, but something to consider, depending on the differences in what you are selling and what you are buying. I always recommend you try your best to maximize your price, but sometimes the “best” time is the “right” time for you and your family! Hope that helps!

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team

What do I have to disclose in my Seller's Property Disclosure?

Dave,

A few years ago we had some significant water damage that was done because our next door neighbor left his irrigation sprinklers running overnight and the water flooded his lawn and ran down into our yard and into our basement. We have discussed selling several times since this happened, but are just not quite ready! When discussing this with one of my friends, he said that I would have to disclose the flood when we do decide to sell. I am still not sure I agree with him, as the neighbor's insurance paid the claim and we did not have to file anything with our insurance carrier. Even if the flood was not our fault, was not due to any problem with our house and did not impact our insurance, do I still have to disclose it when we go to sell?

Jerry

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Jerry,

As common practice, I too do not always buy what my friends are selling, however, in this case, I am going to side with your buddy. I have found that the only thing worse than being wrong is being wrong and my buddy being right! All kidding aside, in my opinion, you do need to disclose the flood when/if you decide to sell your home, even if it was not caused by a defect or problem with your home.

In the state of Colorado, each seller is asked to fill out a Sellers Property Disclosure and it is designed to be and give a historical snapshot of your home to a prospective buyer. You should always fill it out to the best of your knowledge and not omit any significant event, even if it was caused by an outside event of which was not related directly to the home. Many problems are caused by outside events, like wind, hail, some fires, floods etc. Look at it like medical records. If you were in a bad car accident at one point in your life, it was the other driver's fault, but you were fully recovered, it would still prove prudent and valuable to your doctor to include this point in time in your medical history. Same is true for your house. The good news, in this instance, the event is easily explainable and apparently has not re-occurred, but most importantly it COULD re-occur and that possibility of re-occurrence is important to relay to a potential buyer. 

“Many sellers are afraid to tell about problems they have had with their home. It is quite similar to kids, no parent wants to disclose that they have had problems with their kids, but all of us have had problems and amazingly in spite of us parents, our kids grow up to be productive members of society even with a few bumps along the way.”

Many sellers are afraid to tell about problems they have had with their home. It is quite similar to kids, no parent wants to disclose that they have had problems with their kids, but all of us have had problems and amazingly in spite of us parents, our kids grow up to be productive members of society even with a few bumps along the way. Very few of us want to disclose that we have problems with our kids or our homes, but we all have problems here and there and it is okay. If you have owned a home for any real length of time and have not had any problems, then you are without a doubt in the minority. On any property disclosure you want to answer each question to the best of your ability and make sure that you provide how each transgression happened and most importantly, how it was repaired or remedied. The solution and fix is more important, in my mind, then the problem. Buyers understand that problems happen and almost always are fine with them as long as the fix was proper and professionally handled. 

The buyer is going to want to see that the problem has been remedied professionally and in the solution there has been some corrective action taken to prevent it from happening again, even if the neighbor is forgetful. This might include a French drain or some kind of grading between the two homes that would divert water out on either side of your home to the street. The bottom line, disclose. If you are wondering if you should disclose, then you probably should disclose. I am sure you can relate to this. If I am wondering to myself, should tell my wife, then I probably should tell her and deal with whatever the repercussions may be up front. It is always easier that way even if it does not always feel easier. It may not be on that same level, but I am sure you see where I am going with this. I hope this helps clear up how to treat disclosure.

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team

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What are common closing expenses for sellers?

Dave,

We are currently in the process of selling our home and it just went under contract—yay! We want to know what to expect financially from this point forward. What are common closing expenses for sellers?

Thanks!
Cheryl, Palisade

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Oh my gosh, this is such a great question and one that I get ALL the time! As a seller you have the privilege of paying the sales commission you agreed to with your listing agent, assuming your home is listed with a Realtor. Costs associated with selling your home that are the seller's responsibility are varied, but you can almost always calculate an additional 1% if your sales price is UNDER $300,000 and .7% if your home is over $300,000. If you calculate it that way you will, almost always, come up with a slight overestimate of your closing costs. 

The most common cost that is overlooked is your property tax. What most people don’t fully realize, as I did not prior to becoming a real estate agent, is that our property taxes are paid in arrears. It’s probably something most folks just don’t think much about and it often times is a bit of a surprise. How it works is, the title company will pro-rate the current taxes from January 1 to the day of closing and you will have that amount debited on your settlement sheet. The two largest debits you will see (outside of real estate commissions and your mortgage payoff) will be the taxes and the title insurance policy. Title insurance simply indemnifies that the title to the property will be passed from you to the new owner in good standing and free of any liens. For a $250,000 home you can expect this expense to be in the $900-$1000 range. These costs are on a sliding scale based on purchase price.

The most discussed fee on the seller's settlement statement is often the charge for water & sewer. The bills for water and sewer, if left unpaid, can be held as a lien against the property and thus MUST be settled at the time of close to ensure the passing of a clean title (as discussed above). In order to ensure that the amount that is owed is covered, the title companies always hold out an amount significantly over (generally around $200) your typical water and sewer bill. This ensures there is enough to pay it off and they will refund the difference back to you shortly after close. This one always creates a fair amount of discussion about how you never have had a bill that high etc., but believe me they will refund you the difference in short order. Always remember that your other services like gas, electric, telephone, television etc. are your responsibility and you should call 24 – 48 hours prior to close and let them know you will be moving and the service will be transferring to a new owner on the date of close.

One last tip. Your mortgage statement always provides a payoff for you to reference, however, the day it is printed you start accruing interest so your payoff is always higher than what is printed on your statement. I always tell our sellers to just add one extra payment to the amount on the settlement statement and that will provide a safe payoff amount. In my experience when closing day comes people are happy they overestimated and get a little money back, rather than under estimate and have to go digging for that little extra! I hope this helps and by following these guidelines you should have a safe estimate of your closing costs. Congratulations on getting your home under contract and best of luck on your new journey!

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team

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How Effective is Staging Your Home When Selling?

Dave,

We would love to get your opinion on if we should or shouldn’t stage our house while it’s up for sale. Our plan right now is to be completely moved out before our house goes on the market. We have seen all the shows on getting your home staged to sell and we’ve recently started to question if we are making the right decision.

We’ve heard that houses that are not staged get lower offers than house that are. Should we change our plans to completely move all our belongings before selling the house? Is staging a house really worth it? 

Shawn and Kathy, Fruita

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Shawn and Kathy,

Great question with many options and angles, so let’s get right to it. I have said it before, but I will say it again, I love to watch HGTV and the DIY Network, but unfortunately it is not “reality” television. Sure, their intent is to inform, but their primary goal is to entertain! I think it would be a good life practice to not assume or expect real life to reflect what you see on television! A little more real life and a little less entertainment might actually be more helpful and enjoyable in the long run, but I digress and am starting to really show my age…Ugh, you know when you get that “I’m becoming just like my Mom/Dad moment? Well I just had it! Okay, back to the task at hand, does a house show better furnished or unfurnished? 

It has been my experience that 80% of the time I recommend to home owners that their home will show better furnished, however this answer is somewhat dictated by your furnishings! The furnishing knife cuts both ways. I have sold houses where the furniture is so nice that it is actually a distraction to buyers. They can come away from the showing loving the house, but saying “my furniture is not that nice and the house will never look that good when we move in!” The buyers assume, and in some cases rightly so, that the cost to get it to look that good again will be too significant. On the other hand, when the furnishings are meager, old, worn out, super personalized or just plain ugly and out dated, the buyer often times can’t see past them and they distract from the positive features of the home. Many times in this instance, the house can take on the personality/condition of the furniture and leave a bad or less than desired impression. Being somewhere in the middle or on the nicer side is the place to be. 

“When you make the decision to show it furnished or empty, go with one or the other…don’t hedge and try to live in both camps.”

When you make the decision to show it furnished or empty, go with one or the other…don’t hedge and try to live in both camps. Generally I am not a fan of half staging, with the exception of when you have a difficult layout and furniture placement is not easily identified or you are staging a brand new home. A half furnished home brings a bevy of questions that have everything to do with the situation of the seller and little to do with the house. If the only furnishings in the house are a blow up bed, kitchen table, futon and 65 inch TV and Xbox it will invite lower offers than if the house was empty…half furnished homes show poorly and give off the vibe of a family or home in flux! A situation in flux can give the impression of desperation, even if desperation doesn’t reside there! The smell of desperation to a buyer is like the scent of blood to a shark…get ready to welcome lower offers and the longer an empty home is on the market, the stronger the scent becomes!

A fully furnished and lived in home will typically provide no indication of motivation and the same can be said with an empty home! With an empty home, the buyers may make assumptions, but any good real estate agent can quickly dispel any of the buyers’ preconceived notions of assumed motivation and get things back on a level playing field. I personally think empty homes provide the opportunity for buyers to envision where they will place their own furniture!  If they start placing furniture in their minds, you are getting closer to setting the hook. 

In close, focus on the basics but either stay in your home until you get a contract or completely move out! There are always one off situations where you just have to punt, but in most cases those are your best two options. Hope that helps!

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team

Should we install central AC in place of our swamp cooler?

Hi Dave,

I have lived in Grand Junction for nine years. A year and a half ago my husband and I bought an older home with a swamp cooler. We love the house but really miss the central AC that we had in our previous home. As summer approaches we are considering installing central AC in our house but are wondering what sort of return on that investment we would see if/when we ever decide to sell this home.

Thanks!

Jenn L, Grand Junction

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Jenn,

Great question!  It is funny, I grew up in Grand Junction and spent most of my childhood living with a swamp cooler and that was all we knew. I don’t believe, or at my advancing age am I able to recall if, anyone had refrigerated air. My how times have changed!

Swamp coolers have many advantages. They are inexpensive to operate, they will drop the ambient temperature approx. 20 degrees, they add moisture to the dry air here, thus not only cooling, but providing needed moisture to the air in our typically dry climate! They sound incredible, right? As Lee Corso of College Gameday says, “not so fast my friend”. A swamp cooler will do all those things I listed and for all but about 30 days of our summer work incredibly well, however they are typically considered vastly inferior to central air conditioning units. We find that the vast majority of buyers from out of town have no idea what a swamp cooler is or has any idea how they really work or how to maintain them. To sum it up, they don’t like and don’t want what they are not familiar or comfortable with.

This is not to say that a home with a swamp cooler is inferior, as my own home has a swamp cooler, but as more and more people move here from areas outside of Grand Junction the swamp cooler is becoming a dinosaur and is almost NEVER preferred by buyers over Central AC. In fact most of the time adding AC to an existing house is considered a significant upgrade and can absolutely be a difference maker, especially to an out of town buyer. We regularly have requests from buyers to look at ONLY homes that have AC. 

“I believe that converting to central AC in your older home will absolutely be seen by future buyers as an upgrade and will prove to not only be a good investment, but will lead to a higher sales price and increase the number of potential buyers who will look at your home.”

I believe that converting to central AC in your older home will absolutely be seen by future buyers as an upgrade and will prove to not only be a good investment, but will lead to a higher sales price and increase the number of potential buyers who will look at your home. Lastly, adding central AC will prove to be a creature comfort that you and your family will enjoy for many years, so adding it would be something I would encourage. We don’t always want to do things or add features to our homes simply for a good investment or to get a good return. Sometimes we should add them to increase our quality of life and overall home enjoyment! In my mind, loving where you live is the most important factor to weigh! Put it in and don’t look back, especially when all your friends who live in swamp cooled homes come over and comment on how nice and cool your home is compared to theirs. That is when it will really feel good! 

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team

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When is the correct time for a final walk through?

Dear Dave,

My wife and I recently sold our home. Prior to the closing a final walk through was scheduled so that the people buying our home could take a look at it right before closing. We had not planned on their visit and no one told us this would happen until that morning. We were in the middle of packing and moving and it was very uncomfortable for us. They were there for over an hour!

We would like to know if this is a usual occurrence. What do you recommend?

Thank you,
Name Withheld, Fruita, CO

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This is a very common occurrence. In the Colorado Contract to Buy and Sell Real Estate, section 19.4 specifically spells out the right of the buyer to a “Walk-Through and Verification of Condition”. This is intended to allow the buyer to verify the condition of the property, prior to close, and make sure the property and its inclusions comply with the contract. Our team does a walk thru prior to close on every transaction when working with the buyer and this is to allow everyone to verify that the condition is the same as it was at the time the contract was written and accepted. It is far better to find that the fridge is missing prior to close than after close. Finding problems after closing are then the problem of the new owner. If a fridge was supposed to stay with the house and it was moved to Texas and we discover that after closing somebody is buying a new fridge and deciding who that will be may not be easy. I have bought a few too many fridges, washers, dryers etc.

“What you were victim of was poor agent planning and communication. Your agent should have filled you in advance and let you know that a walk through verification was standard fare and sometimes they can take an hour or so.”

What you were victim of was poor agent planning and communication. Your agent should have filled you in advance and let you know that a walk through verification was standard fare and sometimes they can take an hour or so. The buyers are not trying to be troublesome, they are just excited about their new home and probably can’t wait to make it their own. When you are in the closing stages of moving an hour can be quite inconvenient and seem like a lifetime, especially if you were not planning on it.  I am sorry it was uncomfortable, however it is every buyer’s contractual right and your agent should have provided you with some notice so you could plan for it.  Next time you will be prepared and expect their visit and it will not be uncomfortable and you will probably find getting to know them enjoyable!

Dave Kimbrough
The Kimbrough Team