Insider Secrets from a Top Realtor

The walls have eyes — and sometimes ears

With high-tech home security measures like Ring cameras, the owners could eavesdrop easily on your conversations when you’re walking through a home.

Also, you probably shouldn’t be too quick to overshare with the listing agent. Even the questions that seem innocuous are being asked for a reason. Let’s say I ask, “Where are you guys originally from? What brings you down here?” And you mention that you have a sister who lives down the block, and she is going to have a baby — that tells me that you have an emotional stake in this neighborhood and you are committed to buying a home there. I will tell that information to the seller, and it will help them when it comes to negotiations. The silent buyers who don’t share anything more than is absolutely necessary always have more leverage.

Don’t be afraid of HOAs

People get nervous about HOA communities because they think they will come with too many rules. On the one hand, there are rules, and they can be a bit much sometimes. Rules about the type of mailbox you have, how long you can have holiday lights up and whether you have a say in the landscaping can annoy potential homebuyers. 

But a lot depends on your personality. If you want to be able to put a jungle gym in your backyard or paint your door whatever color you want, an HOA might not be for you. But there is a quality control that comes with an HOA. You won’t suddenly wake up one morning and realize your neighbor has an old truck with no tires on his front lawn. But make sure you read the bylaws in their entirety, so you know what you’re getting into. If you have pets, what are the pet restrictions? What are the resale restrictions? How much does it cost and will fees go up each year? In my experience, people are first concerned about the cost, but after they move in, it’s the rules. Read the rules first. ​

Aim for 85 percent of your house wish list

Rarely does somebody find a house that has 100 percent of what they want. My rule of thumb is if you get 85 percent of your wish list, that’s a big win. So consider this especially if you can’t decide between a turnkey house that’s basically ready to move into tomorrow and a fixer-upper. 

When people find things about a house they don’t like, they sometimes decide, “Well, we’ll fix it down the line.” But buyers don’t always think realistically about the future. They don’t consider the hassles that will be involved, like waiting on the contractor, waiting on city approval, which can take forever, or the time commitment involved in rehabbing your house, which can become a full-time job. 

That said, if you’re a fixer-upper by nature and it’s in your temperament, absolutely. Go for it. But thinking, “I’m not crazy about the bathrooms, but we can just gut them and start over,” might be biting off more than you’re ready to chew.

Mortgage brokers don’t always need 30 days

If I’m representing a seller and the buyer is doing a mortgage with a turnaround of 30 days, I ask them to bring that down to seven to 14 days. And if their mortgage broker won’t do that, then I’m going to insist they work with somebody who will — and most will, especially for conventional loans. It’s harder at a Big Box mortgage place where you’re navigating representatives at call centers. That’s why I always like to work with locally based mortgage brokers, even if they are part of a national company. 

A quicker mortgage turnaround is good for the seller. But it’s also beneficial for the buyer since it puts them on a more even playing field with cash buyers. I like to write contracts so that the mortgage approval happens within 10 days, to match up with the 10-day inspection window.

Be a little superstitious 

Never close on a Friday, or the end of the month. When you’re ready to close on a house, you might be in a hurry to wrap everything up. But I highly recommend waiting if it’s getting too close to the weekend. A Tuesday or Wednesday are ideal, or even Thursday in a pinch. If you close in the middle of the week and something goes awry, you have a buffer to resolve any issues before the weekend.

But Friday is never a good idea. Remember Murphy’s Law? If anything can go wrong, it will. In real estate, it’s always a good idea to prepare for the worst but hope for the best. 

 If the wire doesn’t come through on a Friday at 5 p.m., the sellers can say, "no keys for you until I get my moola." Bottom line, the wire being late means no handover of keys. Which means the buyer is now begging the mover to keep their furniture on the truck over the weekend. The closing agent is getting hollered at. The buyers' agent gets it from every angle and might have a heart attack. The buyers then get hit with a massive bill to keep furniture on the truck, and no one is happy. All because you didn’t close on a Thursday. 

FOR SELLERS

Be picky about your Realtor

Don’t feel pressured to go with the first Realtor or real estate agent you meet with. Evaluate them like you would a doctor — it’s not enough that they have knowledge and experience. Do you feel comfortable with them? Are they really listening to you? Are they going to fight for you, or do you feel like you’re just another number to them? How are they going to present your property online? With video or just photos? And talk to a few! Don’t be afraid to ask them plenty of questions about what they’re offering and how they work with sellers, and compare with what you can get somewhere else. 

Buy a cheery doormat 

Sellers pay so much attention to staging the inside of a property and then forget that the first thing a potential buyer sees is the front door. Those first impressions can make or break a sale. Invest in a fresh doormat for $30, and a doorbell that doesn’t sound like something from a gothic castle. Is there rust on your front door handle? Buyers notice things like this. 

Before we open it up to the public, I like to bring a seller on a field trip to their front door, which they never see because they only enter through the garage. We get on our tippy toes and then bend our knees so we can get the vantage point from somebody who’s 6-foot-2 and somebody who’s 5-foot-3.

Gaze out of your windows longingly

It doesn’t just matter what your yard looks like from the outside. What about from the kitchen window? Or the master bedroom? I call this strategic landscaping. If somebody is at the kitchen sink and they look out the window, what do they see? What about from the dining room? Or the bathrooms? You can use strategic landscaping to emphasize the beautiful parts of your property and conceal the less-than-attractive parts. Strategic landscaping can block unpleasant trees, or a next-door neighbor’s house that’s an eyesore.

That cookie trick actually works

I’m a big believer in the power of a welcoming odor. Walk into a kitchen that smells like freshly baked cookies, and you instantly feel at home. It brings up positive memories of our childhood, and at least in my experience, it instantly puts people at ease. But authenticity is key when it comes to aromatherapy. Some odors, like potpourri or anything coming from a plug-in, can be distracting and unpleasant. It smells like you’re trying to cover something up. Nobody smells incense and doesn’t immediately think, OK, what are they hiding? Did a smoker live here? A pack of dogs? Put some cookies in the oven, and they’re transported back in time to their youth. But potpourri will always smell like a distraction.

Use incremental pricing to attract more buyers

When potential buyers are searching online for a new home, they typically do it in increments. For homes priced up to $350,000, they’ll search sites like Zillow or Realtor.com in increments of $25,000 (think $275,000 to $300,000). For homes between $350,000 and $900,000, it tends to be increments of $50,000. From $900,000 up, the ranges typically jump $100,000 at a time. So if your goal is to get as many eyeballs on your listing as possible use these increments to your advantage.

If you price a home at $610,000, for instance, you’ll be missing out on searches for customers who capped their price at $600,000. Instead, price it at $599,000. You can always reject an offer, but if the offer never comes because your house wasn’t on anyone’s radar, then you’ve missed the opportunity to negotiate.

Highlight your closet space if you have it

You can lose a deal over the primary closet, and not just because it’s not large enough. People get weird about closets. If it looks overstuffed and disorganized, it changes their feelings about the entire house. 

Invest in some LED lights, which can make a closet look double the size. Buy some new hangers, all in the same style, and then color-coordinate your clothes, so the whites are with the whites and the blues are with the blues. This not only looks neater; it also has a psychological effect. A buyer will look at that and make assumptions about the homeowner. Who organizes their closets like that? Only somebody who’s very meticulous and organized — the kind of person who isn’t going to let any home repair slide. Exactly the kind of person you’d want to buy a home from.