Want To Know What Your Johnson County Kansas Home Is Worth?

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

On many listing appointments home sellers perk up once we get past discussions about showing condition, marketing, commission and staging and get on to another important home selling factor… pricing of the home. Although I’ve been doing this for years, I continue to find it interesting how different agents can have such varying opinions on an appropriate list price for a given home. It seems that agents either don’t agree on the best comparable listings for establishing pricing or maybe there’s ulterior motives involved. 

When going over pricing, I discuss a price range and explain that whether we go on the high or low side of that range depends on the seller’s real estate goals. I like to welcome the seller’s opinion because knowing a seller’s motivation is critical to helping them achieve their real estate goals. Still, there are cases when a seller asks me point-blank, “How much will my home sell for?”  And my answer is always the same… Unless I’m going to buy the home from them right then and there, it’s impossible to answer that question because we don’t know who the BUYER is going to be. What I can tell them are the factors that buyers will NOT be considering when deciding how much they’re willing to pay for a home…

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Most agents are somewhere between pretty sure and really sure what your home will sell for, but the truth is no agent knows for sure because the market value of every home is determined by what a buyer is willing to pay for it. The market changes daily and think of it this way… While there may be a buyer today willing to pay $300,000 for your home, if they buy another home today and you don’t put your home on the market until tomorrow, there’s no way to know how quickly a similar buyer will enter the market-place.

A home that is in excellent condition Structurally (foundation, roof, driveway, etc.), Mechanically (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, etc.) and Cosmetically (paint, carpeting, fixtures, etc.) and which is listed by a real estate agent who uses effective marketing techniques will net the highest possible sales price from a ready, willing and able home buyer.


Posted by Jason Brown

Would You Really Take The Gamble On A Contingent Contract When Selling Your Kansas City Home?

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

When selling a home in a buyer’s market, it can be easy for a home seller to become enamored with any offer they receive. But if that offer is a contingent offer, there’s a lot more to consider than just the price, close date and whether the buyer is asking the seller to play the buyer’s closing costs. A buyer could offer thousands over list price and it would mean nothing if the buyer is never able to get their current home under contract and closed. With few exceptions, this is why I advise Kansas City home sellers to pass on any offer to purchase that’s contingent upon the buyer locating a buyer for their current home. Sellers should ask themselves, why gamble the success of the home sale on a buyer who doesn’t even have their own home under contract?

Assuming you’re not a distressed seller and that your property is not so unusual that it may not see another offer for many months, it would be better to continue marketing your home to locate a better buyer. By “better buyer” I mean a non-contingent buyer. Another option is asking the buyer to come back once their current home is under contract. At that point, the deal would be contingent upon the CLOSING of the buyer’s current home, rather than contingent upon the buyer FINDING a buyer and CLOSING on the buyer’s current home. There’s quite a difference there to say the least.

A home seller can even require a buyer to provide a copy of the real estate contract on the buyer’s current home thus proving the buyer’s current home is under a bona-fide real estate contract. A seller could be even more strict, if they feel it’s necessary, and tell the buyer they won’t consider the contingent offer until the buyer’s current home is through the 10-day inspection process or even past the loan approval process — though that latter is so restrictive that most home buyers can’t meet that restriction quick enough to make a deal work.

The most important thing for home sellers to remember is the seller has control over all the important factors of the home sale, including pricing and condition. But once you accept a contingent offer (where the buyer’s current home is NOT already under contract), the BUYER has control over the same critical factors on their home sale and that could lead to a failed transaction. In other words, the seller has no control over how the buyer prices their current home, the condition of that home, the marketing being done on that home, etc. So consider asking a buyer to come back once their current home is under contract. Or better yet, if they want to negotiate a better price, come back with a completely non-contingent offer, which puts the risk on the buyer (risk of owning two homes if their home sale falls apart for some reason), rather than pushing the risk on to the buyer with a contingent offer.


Posted by Jason Brown

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A Cost Effective Bathroom Staging Tip For Kansas City Home Sellers

Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Staging a home to sell is about more than giving a home a thorough cleaning and strategically placing some furniture. Those are great starting points of course, but as a seller works to make their home as appealing as possible to potential home buyers, they must take every reasonable step to get their home on par with the other area homes for sale. In fact, in today’s real estate market home sellers are having to go above and beyond to blow the competition away and win over the next home buyer that comes into the neighborhood and in to view their home. 

Staging a home has costs involved but when done properly, can be the key to getting a home sold.  In most cases, the costs of staging are made back up by generating a higher sales price. But the costs may need to be viewed as simply a preparation cost and necessary to get a home sold in today’s complicated real estate market — in other words the costs may not be recouped but could be the difference between for sale and sold. One of the biggest buyer turn-offs I see is dated ceramic tile. From your rose-colored 1960’s tile, to your 8×8 1970’s tile and almond 1980’s tile… out-dated tile can really hurt the eyes.  

Sellers who can’t afford to install new tile can neutralize the tile by painting it. We all know that tile is made with the specific goal of KEEPING things from attaching to the tile. But there are some great products out there – like Sherwin Williams Adhesion Primer – that are specifically designed to help paint adhere to tile. When choosing a primer, spend whatever it costs to get the best product available. If you don’t, the paint could be peeling off within a year. The finished paint can be either a latex or oil-based paint. Latex paint is easier to use and provides easy cleanup but may require multiple coats and won’t last as long. Oil based paint often requires one coat and are longer lasting but can be complicated to apply, hard to clean up and leave an odor in the home for several days.


Posted by Jason A. Brown

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