I’m taking a little break from house renovation to post a few things on a Sunday morning, but we have a lot to do still, and not sure when we’ll get back home to California. It’s kind of weird/depressing to be living (and kind of camping out) in the (unfurnished) old house again. It has a gourmet kitchen that we remodeled ourselves, but few utensils and tools (e.g., we have a fancy GE Advantium microwave, but don’t have a toaster). We did get a good inflatable queen bed, and it’s fairly comfortable. We bought a little gas camping grill which is a pretty good deal for $40 at Home Depot, and grilled steaks last night on the patio by the pool, and tossed Caesar salad in a bowl she bought at Walmart. We don’t necessarily mind buying things we can’t take back to California, because we can leave them with her son who lives in Lake Worth.
Patricia’s not generally a Walmart shopper, but she was amazed at how low cost useful items were. It’s why Sam Walton has brought more Americans out of poverty than any government program.
BTW, we’re trying to sell the house ourselves. If we give it to another realtor, they’d end up taking two thirds of our equity in commission, which just seems crazy for what they actually do. Easier to drop the price and take the difference ourselves. If you know anyone crazy enough to actually want to live in south Florida, it’s a great house in as good a neighborhood as they come, given that it’s in south Florida. Note that while a lot of people have been getting rid of their screened pool enclosures, I’ve steadfastly insisted on keeping ours, to protect ourselves from the deadliest animal on earth. It’s particularly worth noting now that zika has shown up in Miami.
[Update Monday morning]
Here’s the web site that’s listed in the Craiglist ad, with a lot more pictures.
A typo in your advertisement: “Delay Beach”.
Rand, I’m a real estate professional, and I need to warn you that the home for sale page you linked has some MAJOR issues.
It says very, very little about the house. Price, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc, are all major factors and should be included.
The pool pic does show your screening, though it’s hard to say for sure, especially for someone not familiar with it. Given current events, IMHO you should have this info prominent, because it’s a major selling feature.
When a buyer is looking for a house, they’ll usually find quite a number of potentials. This makes them very prone to ignore ones where they need to follow up to get the data.
A further suggestion; advertize the house on more than one real estate site; there are quite a few free ones. More is better.
We had an earlier version of it with lots of pictures, and “real estate professionals” said, “Oh, no, you’re showing too much, you want them to come look at the house to see all that!” With all due respect, while I agree, we’ve gotten very tired of “real estate professionals” over the past few years.
Anyway, unfortunately, the older version with many pictures is on a machine in California, and we’re not there. We’d have to build anew, with phone cameras.
I’ve been a broker for 20 years, and though it’s not the only thing I do, it’s most of my income. Caveat: never in Florida, so I don’t know that market’s norms. And you think you’re tired of real estate professionals? Try having to work with them every day like I do! 🙂
Perchance, were those that gave you the advice to minimize the information agents or brokers in Florida? If so, that’s a rather old trick; giving a fisbo (For Sale By Owner) bad advice so the house doesn’t sell (and thus they might get the listing). One way of evaluating advice (mine included) is this; pick up one of the many free real estate homes for sale books in the area (commonly found at restaurants, gas stations, etc) and look at how those selfsame pros advertize their own listings in that market. I’ll bet you’ll be hard pressed to find even one that doesn’t include at least price.
I’m not suggesting more pictures, just basic stuff (in text) like price and number of bedrooms, (and your wisely-retained pool screening) be mentioned.
One way of judging this is, how many inquiries (real ones, not from people in the biz looking for listings) is that page getting for you? If it’s generating a significant number of inquiries that turn into showings, then I’m wrong. If it’s not, then there’s a problem of some sort.
I assume you have a for sale sign out front, but one thing many fisbos and also a lot of pros fail to do is include a flyer box, with flyers. This can be something as simple as a piece of large PVC pipe 0n the sign, with a loose fitting PCV end cap on a cord to avoid rain damage. Print out your web page for the flyer, black and white is okay (color is better), but it’ll help a buyer who is out cruising around remember yours, and that does help.
However, whichever way you go, I do suggest putting your house on other free sites too; more exposure is always good.
Best of luck to you on your sale; I hope it goes well.
It was the advice of our then listing agent. But Florida is terrible, for many things, but also real-estate agents.
We have no idea how much attention the page has been getting us. It’s not an ad so much as further info for people who see the ads. But we haven’t started really pushing it because the house isn’t really ready to show. We think that a lot of failure to sell has been too much showing of the home in bad condition. It’s a long story.
CJ’s right – if the ad doesn’t have price, # of bedrooms, # of baths, plus house size and lot size SF, I’ll skip past it as a waste of my time. (And I’ve looked with intent at a LOT of house ads over the years.) Specifically talking up the screened pool enclosure (and any other special features) is good too (though do NOT include the word “zika” in the ad!)
Lots of pics aren’t essential, but help more than hurt. You do seem to have the minimum there – front exterior, back looking out, one inside shot to hint that it’s nice and not a dump. A couple more interior shots also showing nice features would help.
LOTS of interior shots (and exteriors from more angles) can help convince cynics like me that you’re not trying to cherry-pick a couple nice angles in a dump. But a few nice pix will suffice to get the less cynical majority to consider it.
Nice looking house, by the way.
Speaking as an occasional home buyer (most recently 10 months ago), I agree that lots of photos make people more likely to visit.
OK, on second look I see you did list number of bedrooms & baths. Add price, house square feet, and lot size. I’m very serious – that’s all basic “should I pay attention” initial screening data for potential buyers, and the reaction if it’s absent is NOT to be intrigued, it’s to move on and make a shortlist from the many houses that do provide this basic data.
One comment: “A pool house” could give the impression it either is another house’s pool house, or has its own separate pool house. “House with pool” avoids this ambiguity. “House with screened pool” is even better… Mention it again at the end – “enjoy your private screened pool patio”.
And, why no address? Again, when I’m narrowing down houses to a shortlist of serious prospects, I like to do a driveby/walk-by to get a first impression of the overall setting, before I invest the time and energy to talk to an agent or owner.
The rest of CJ’s advice is also excellent, on putting flyers in a horizontal pvc tube by the sign (renew them regularly; some people will grab the whole stack) and advertising everywhere you can.
As I told CJ, it’s not really an ad (that info is/will be in the actual ads), and we haven’t really seriously put it on the market yet. We’re in the middle of a lot of fix up.
FWIW, here is the ONLY ad we are currently running, because it’s free.
@ Rand;
The craiglist link you posted does not go to an ad, but to “flagged for removal”.
Not sure what’s going on. We’ll look into it.
…it’s a great house in as good a neighborhood as they come,
I didn’t realize space advocacy paid this well. 🙂
It’s her house, not mine. 🙂
And that was actually more of a slam at Florida than extolling the virtues of the neighborhood.
Outside looks like a very nice home. Agree the link in your OP needs more interior photos and info as per Arizona CJ. Esp. the –> kitchen <– this is the thing that actually can move a house IMHO. It's the psychological communal draw. You think home when you think kitchen. It's also the one thing that can date a house or push you out of the market quickly if not in good condition. Doesn't sound like a problem in your case… As for me.. I think tuning out / leave me be to read, watch TV or surf on my iPad / when I see living room. I think "lair / man-cave / running my empire from / correcting the erroneous on the Internet" when I see a "study"…. 😀
Yes. Selling a house is a two-step process.
First you get onto people’s shortlist, so they’ll actually consider your place. Give them what they need to quickly triage a zillion listings down to a manageable list of houses *they* might consider.
Then, allow them to fall in love with the place. Odds are that the person that finally buys won’t be making a wholly logical decision. More precisely, avoid preventing potential buyers from falling in love with the place.
Your actual buyer will most likely be someone who’s a little tired of looking, worried they won’t find a good place, then walks into your house and just sees themself living there and sells themself. (The minority of rational investors aside.) Minimize anything that might disrupt the process.
“…. while a lot of people have been getting rid of their screened pool enclosures[…]”
I just can’t stop thinking about this. Any idea why would people get rid of their screens?
Keeps the bugs in.
Yes, that’s another issue. The spiders own the patio. Webs have to be swept almost constantly, which is one of the things she doesn’t like about it. But my attitude is it’s a lot cheaper to remove a screen than to install one, so we might as well give a buyer the option.
They don’t like the look, and it opens up the back yard, and they mitigate mosquitos by other means. Patricia has wanted to do it here for years (they’re not as bad near the beach as farther west, toward the swamp).