Email Elizabethselling homes in bad locations
A Busy Location Impacts Sales Prices of Sacramento Homes
Some homeowners feel the effects of how a busy location impacts sales prices of Sacramento homes. An example was a home we sold on the corner of a busy street in an affluent neighborhood. This was a gorgeous large Tudor style home in mint condition but had not been updated in many years. Its Old World charm was very appealing.
I met a wonderful seller who had been sadly disappointed. She had the family home on the market for months with a different Realtor and very few buyer showings. One of my probate attorneys referred me to this client. My study of the area confirmed the home had been seriously overpriced and lacked staging. The seller, a very bright woman, knew something was not right with the listing. She was looking to make a Realtor change.
This seller wanted to know and understand everything about the listing. After all, this had been her family home and she took her responsibility seriously. Who wouldn’t, when they loved their parents so deeply? She wanted to do the right thing in memory of them in selling this home for the best possible price. She caught on so quickly to everything we explained. She took a real interest in what we were doing and it was very positive. She was gracious and appreciative.
The distance between the current listing price to a realistic sale price was quite high, so I suggested an appraisal. They had completed a previous appraisal, but it lacked adjustments for mint condition versus comparable remodeled homes. The appraiser made no significant adjustment for how a busy location impacts sales prices of Sacramento homes. The seller understood a new appraisal was needed and the appraiser needed to be familiar with the area. The appraiser did make the adjustments to the value.
We staged the home with a top stager in the Sacramento area. Our photographer shot beautiful artistic photos in brilliant vivid color using high resolution photography. The brochures turned out spectacular. The yard was detailed and the home was professionally cleaned. The windows sparkled (a pet peeve) and we went on the market listed for sale in the MLS.
We had so many showings and no offers. The buyer feedback was often the location and the lack of updated kitchen and baths. Because the home was situated on the corner of a busy street, the seller definitely felt the effects of how a busy location impacts sales prices of Sacramento homes. She received my activity reports each week and understood the marketing cycle and what was necessary to sell the home. She agreed to lower the price after seeing months of our diligent efforts. Also, a huge number of buyers had seen the home but did not make offers. Previously, she had had very few showings.
Then, an offer comes in and the inspections determined: asbestos ceilings and insulation. Combined with the estimated high costs of estimates for asbestos remediation and cost of updates, the buyers canceled. We worked day and night and obtained another offer, this time cash! An appraisal value is not always absolutely a correct value as the buyers determine the price by what they are willing to pay for a home.
Our previous sales efforts included weekly open houses with a lot of buyer traffic. Mailers, ads to the Bay Area, social media marketing, direct agent marketing, local magazine ads and so much more. We had launched a very aggressive marketing campaign from Day One. When you have a beautiful home with so much to offer, it still will not be an easy sell on a busy corner, even in a premium neighborhood. The seller had every confidence in us and we did sell it. She gave us a fantastic recommendation.
So, are you seeing how the effects of a busy location impacts sales prices? When selling Sacramento real estate, a seller should hire an agent they respect and trust, with references. It may take a bit longer to sell a home in a busy location. As long as the seller is getting a consistent high number of buyers coming to look a property, it will sell. We knew that we needed to have as many people through each week as possible, so that was our focus, and it worked!
If you have a challenging location and want to obtain the highest offer the market will deliver, we work diligently and put in long hours, whatever it takes, to sell your property. For results call Weintraub and Wallace Realtors at RE/MAX Gold at 916-233 6957.
— JaCi Wallace
Selling Homes in Bad Locations: SOLD 7511 Georgica Way in Sacramento
7511 Georgica Way, Sacramento, CA 95822 SOLD at $315,000 by Elizabeth Weintraub.
Selling homes in bad locations is one of my specialities as a Sacramento Realtor. Probably because almost every home, when you get right down to it, has a drawback of some sort, and a good sales person finds a way to make that drawback not look so terrible. I always look for the worst thing about a house so I can downplay it. If I don’t know what the worst thing is, believe you me, a buyer will undoubtedly find it and focus on it, and I’d rather beat the buyer to that punchline.
Address it head on and then draw attention elsewhere. Really accentuate the positive aspects. It’s not really that different of a strategy when selling homes in bad locations. Now, everybody has their own idea about what constitutes a bad location. Some sellers are surprised to hear they live in a bad location because they don’t see it that way. After living in the same place for years, the badness seems to become invisible. They become so used to it that it doesn’t exist anymore.
When I initially studied this new listing online, I could see it backed directly to the train tracks. Not only did the train pass by, but high tension power lines were in the back yard, too. The yard itself was fairly small and a large wall loomed as the barrier between the tracks and the house. Not really an attractive setting. The subdivision itself of Hampton Station was created about 10 years ago in the middle of a lower-income neighborhood, and I’m not sure the builders even finished construction. This was at the second wave of the market crash in 2007, just before the big collapse in the market.
The seller bought this home because she moved to Sacramento from out of the area. She wanted an affordable home that was newer with all of the bells and whistles. The lure of the community being brand new and a home nobody else had ever lived in sounded luxurious. She loved the granite counters, wood floors, stainless appliances, formal dining area, all of that space! A train was not important in the overall scheme of things. It was a trade-off.
A tradeoff our new buyer accepted as well. Where in Sacramento can you buy a 10-year old house for $315,000? Especially in a newer community like this close to downtown? I will admit I was getting a little bit nervous because it took me 9 days to sell this house. Most of my listings this year sell in less than a week. But because I am accustomed to occasionally selling homes in bad locations, this one went off without a hitch.
7511 Georgica Way, Sacramento, CA 95822 sold at $315,000 on March 29, 2017. If you’re looking to sell a home in Sacramento, give yourself the edge of hiring a Realtor with more than 40 years of experience by calling Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
