The residential real estate market is starting to turn around...

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<p>I would love some advice from CC real estate agents on a particular repair/improvement on our house before listing.</p>

<p>Our house is a one story ranch. The garage forms an L shape with the rest of the front of the house, so it is visible as you drive up the long driveway. </p>

<p>The garage door (very plain style) has begun to rot on the lower right corner. The partially rotted area is about 2 feet wide along the bottom and extends about 6 inches up.</p>

<p>Should we:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Leave as is? Everything else on the exterior is in good condition and recently stained.</p></li>
<li><p>Jury rig a repair (fill in the wood with some material) and repaint the garage door in the same color?</p></li>
<li><p>Buy a cheap new garage door for about $1100?</p></li>
<li><p>Buy a better quality garage door with some interesting panels for about $1700?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I expect (hope) the sales price of the house to be about $250,000 in a small town in Michigan.</p>

<p>Thanks for your advice!!</p>

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<p>^ Is there any reason you can’t just replace the bottom panel?</p>

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<p>MovedtoMI, I had a similar issue with my garage door. I replaced it with the cheap new garage door. (My house is under contract.)</p>

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<p>Sometimes you can buy just a panel, remove the rot panel and replace it. I am assuming it has 3 or 4 vertical panels.</p>

<p>I would as a realtor tell you to if you can’t do that buy a matching CHEAP door.</p>

<p>The problem when you have wood rot is buyers, even women immediately think water or bug issues. They will start looking deeper into your home for every flaw. It will become a nickel and dime issue.</p>

<p>They have no emotional connection to the house, it is a financial aspect and they are counting their pennies when it comes down to the last 2 or 3. </p>

<p>You have an emotional connection because it is not a house, it is a home. It is if they are judging your child. </p>

<p>I tell clients all the time, don’t be busy jumping over the nickels to pick up the pennies.</p>

<p>Financially by not repairing it with a brand new panel or door, anyone who writes a contract will not offer top dollar, and it will get old on the market.</p>

<p>Buying the top garage door will not result in people writing a contract compared to the cheap one. A garage door is a garage door in their mind. </p>

<p>If you can afford to splurge on a 1700 door, I would tell you as an RE. Buy the 1100, and then spend the 600 on the WOW things.</p>

<p>Such as:</p>

<p>Power wash house, deck and sidewalks
Key pad opener
Paint
Updated faucets
New curtains/blinds
New ceiling fan…white with brass is out!
Fresh Linens
Brass/wood floor registers
Solar path lights</p>

<p>Guys look at structure, but they also notice attention to detail. Every buyer wants that new construction home.</p>

<p>Little things matter even floor registers matching light switches are remarked on by buyers.</p>

<p>I would also tell you to ask your RE to do a brokers open house, and have them create questionnaires.</p>

<p>Typical questions include:
Negative aspects
Positive aspects
Pricing properly?
If they would show it?</p>

<p>RE agents are brutal, because let’s be honest they will see your home as their listings competition. I have seen it all from easy fixes (house is dark —turn on the lights) to you are kidding me (odd shape lot - as if the owner can do anything about that!)</p>

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<p>For every poster, a really great resource if you are handy is Habitat for Humanity. Many cities have a re-sale store that carries everything from light fixtures to ceramic tile to tubs at an insane low price.</p>

<p>In our area they are inundated with left over builder/contractor supplies. You may have a 6 arm brass chandelier in the foyer or DR, and it is unappealing, go there and get the 18 arm for 50 bucks. Yes, it is still builder’s quality, but at least it doesn’t look dinky.</p>

<p>From there go to Pier 1 or another company and buy lamp shades for the bulbs, so they are not looking at the brass so much, but not a statement.</p>

<p>Also, if you have screens, REMOVE THEM. The quickest way to make the house look darker is the window screen. Place them in the garage so potential buyers see you have them.</p>

<p>I would also suggest you go to Good Will or Salvation Army. If you have a worn wall to wall carpet. Get a large area rug. They have them there for 1/3 the price. rent a steam cleaner, do the carpets (it will pull up the pile), and do the area rug. Place it in and now for a 100 bucks you have a burst of color, while you hide the carpet.</p>

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<p>[Bidding</a> Wars Erupt as U.S. Supply of Homes for Sale Falls - Bloomberg](<a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?)</p>

<p>Bidding wars, absent from most parts of the U.S. residential market since its peak in 2006, are erupting from Seattle and Silicon Valley to Miami and Washington, D.C. The inventory of homes hovers close to a six-year low, while an increase in jobs and record affordability are tempting more buyers. The number of contracts to buy previously owned homes jumped 14 percent in February from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported yesterday."</p>

<p>The best start for the housing market in several years.
The decline in inventory is amazing. We are into April and inventory should be rising, but it looks like inventory is still decreasing…at least
where I live. There is almost nothing for sale. Nothing.</p>

<p>Towards the end of the bubble…inventories were rising…not falling. Big difference.</p>

<p>Sellers see home prices increasing so they are losing motivation to sell. Buyers see low interest rates and want to capture those rates.</p>

<p>If financial institutions ever open the spigots…</p>

<p>These institutions just need some buyers for new loans. Syndication. Then the financial institutions can make and sell the loans…leading to increases in home prices…improving their own financial situations.</p>

<p>As home prices rise fewer people will be underwater on their homes…and we would have a revese of tbe situation we have had for the last 5 years…the downward spiral. (I think the downward spiral is over anyway). We could start an upward spiral.</p>

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<p>the market in our area [Silicon Valley, VC central ] is just
nuts! a neighbor, who is also a successful long time realtor, recently told us that he had submitted 9 offers for 9 different clients and was outbid 9 times in the past 2 months.</p>

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<p>I am not really seeing home prices rising in South Orange County CA… yet. But home sales are definitely on the upswing, along with multiple offers as others have described. I just got off the phone with a realtor in Newport Beach who said she and most all the realtors that she comes in contact with are all running around like chickens with their heads cut off at the moment. </p>

<p>It is only a matter of time for most markets to react to what is happening in the trenches.</p>

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<p>Newport Beach is a pretty nice area. :)</p>

<p>MenloParkmom…</p>

<p>0 for 9. Hmmmmm…That’s not too good a record.</p>

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<p>Figures the market would turn around right after we sold dads house :(</p>

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<p>I traded down…so I guess if the market turns…I will be a loser. That’s ok. I was sick of the expenses anyway. My gas and electric bill was $95 last month …down from $600 a year ago. And for this time in my life…the new place is better.</p>

<p>Jym626… You don’t have the expenses anymore…no more headaches…and you have some of the money.</p>

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<p>True. No more headaches. Will soon get things ready to process distributing the estate. Then I’ll be in for a new set of headaches… as well as a positive benefit too.</p>

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<p>"0 for 9. Hmmmmm…That’s not too good a record. "</p>

<p>I know! I was surprised he would divulge that! </p>

<p>"most all the realtors that she comes in contact with are all running around like chickens with their heads cut off at the moment. "</p>

<p>ditto up here- too many buyers chasing down too few homes! and too many newly rich people with cash who can close in a week, no contingencies.
they are the ones outbidding the “normal” buyers. hence the 0 for 9, I guess…</p>

<p>from Bloombergs article:</p>

<p>One home in Palo Alto, California, received 38 offers and sold for $1.65 million, or $452,000 more than its asking price, said Ken DeLeon, a real estate broker in Silicon Valley since 2002. Another client paid $2.56 million for a home in 2007 and is listing it for $3 million, with the expectation of receiving higher offers, he said. The seller wants to use the proceeds to buy a home in Saratoga, about 18 miles southeast of Palo Alto, where the market hasn’t heated up yet, DeLeon said.</p>

<p>Prices are hitting all-time highs, above Palo Alto’s 2007 peak levels, in the 94301 and 94306 ZIP codes, as buyers rush to purchase in advance of an expected flood of newly minted millionaires when Facebook Inc. (FB) has its initial public offering, DeLeon said. The Menlo Park-based social-networking company filed paperwork in February for an IPO that may result in a market valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion.
‘Hottest Housing Market’</p>

<p>“It’s insane,” DeLeon, who brokered 101 home sales last year valued at $275 million, said in a telephone interview. “It’s probably the hottest housing market in the nation.”</p>

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<p>Well…MenloParkmom…I think we read these reports first…from you…you beat Bloomberg to the punch.</p>