Today I took some out-of-town buyers all over Southwest Reno. One of the ten homes we saw was a 70’s job not far from Swope Middle School. I don’t think the owner got the message that we were coming because, though very gracious, she looked like she had just rolled out of bed when we arrived.
She and her two girls stayed in the house while we looked around. Mom made herself scarce by inconspicuously working in her office, while one daughter slept and the other followed us around like a sweet little shadow… to the point where it was kind of weird.
We looked out back and saw a cat. In effort to make friendly conversation, my client said, "Oh, is that your cat?"
Sweet Little Shadow answered, "No, that’s a stray." Great, so the neighborhood is filled with feral cats.
Then Shadow volunteered this little tidbit: "We have skunks that live under the deck. The mean skunk and the nice skunk sometimes fight… then the whole house stinks." Kewl, thanks for sharing.
By the time we got to the master bedroom at the back of the house and saw the original 70’s hot tub out back, we asked Shadow, "So, does the hot tub work?"
"No," she replied. "We stopped using it about a year ago after it turned my swimsuit green." Nice.
The other thing about this house was that it was inundated with collectables. Good stuff, no doubt, but there was so
much of it you could barely see the house. Some of it I would guess is
extremely valuable, and if I were the seller, I would be concerned about theft.
Seriously, if you’re trying to sell, put your
valuables away, and get rid of the clutter. Think hotel room. Make your
home clean and generic so that the buyers can actually imagine their own
stuff in it. Especially if you’re asking top dollar.
However if you’re the buyers, and the sellers insist on hanging around while you look through their house (always a little disconcerting), seek out the children. They will tell you everything.
3 comments
LOL! That’s hysterical! Kids are little information machines. Mom would have been smart (and polite) to keep the child with her in the office. It sounds as if maybe she didn’t know you were coming. Still, I think she should have taken the kids for a walk or ride around the neighborhood to allow the prospective buyers time alone to see the place. When my house was on the market, I required an hours notice prior to showing, so I could take my (big) dog and be gone. It makes for a somewhat awkward situation otherwise. I remember a neighbor of mine who was trying to sell (and still is btw). Not only was his overpriced POS just loaded with trinkets and junk, but he followed people around, babbling incessantly. On a few occasions I could see the poor unsuspecting people, nodding along with him while backing their way out of the house, down the stairs, and into their car where they burned rubber to get away. Some people just haven’t a clue.
Hey Diane, great skunk story.
Speaking of skunks, let’s take a look at the high end of the market. Now I realize that “high end” means different things to different people, but let’s say just for conversation that $750K and over is the high end, ok?
If there are any realtors making a living in Reno today, they cannot be making it selling houses in the high end. This segment of the market could be called Death Valley for all the activity that is happening there.
In the $750K and above price range, there are in Reno-Sparks a total of 446 houses listed on the MLS. TWELVE of them have a pending offer. Yes, TWELVE. That is a listings:pendings ratio of 2.6%
That is THREE YEARS of inventory.
That is ugly.
In the $750K to $800K range, 2 of 62 houses have an offer.
In the $800K to $900K range, 4 of 97 houses have an offer.
In the $900K to $1 million range, zero of 43 houses have an offer.
In the $ 1 million to $1.5 million range, 3 of 131 houses have an offer.
In the $1.5 million to $2 million range, 1 of 64 houses have an offer.
In the $2 million to $3 million range, 2 of 33 houses have an offer.
In the $3 million and over range, zero of 16 houses has an offer.
Now I know, a lot of people will say: who cares about the high end except the realtors spending money on glossy fliers trying to move these houses?
So let’s look at the low end of the market.
In the $200K to $250K price range, there are 213 houses on the MLS. 50 of them have an offer. That is 23% of the houses in this price segment with an offer. That is about three and a half months of inventory.
So the high end is on life support and the low end is showing some signs of life.
It is a sign of the deterioration of prices over the past 18 months that there even is a $200K to $250K price range at all. Two years ago there were essentially no houses for sale in Reno in this price range. Now it is this segment of the market where the patient appears to at least be breathing on its own.
Wow! Some people just do not have a clue when it comes to selling their house. It certainly makes you wonder what else they have neglected.