Why Fall Is a Great Time to Sell Your Home

Selling your home in the fall actually comes with a lot of benefits.

Sometimes, it really pays to go against the crowd. As you probably know, spring is the season when most people around the New Jersey commuter towns put their homes on the market.

Summer is the high season, and it’s when most homes get sold. However, there are a few powerful reasons why fall might actually be a better time than either spring or summer to sell your home.

Home buyers in the fall are more serious. They have been looking at listings for months, and they are eager to conclude their search and move in comfortably before the holidays. Additionally, many spring and summer listings have come off the market, giving you less competition, and making the newness of your listing very attractive.

Home buyers in the fall are more serious.

Now, if you are thinking of selling your home this fall, there are a few things you have to do differently. First, you have to prepare your home to account for the particular fall conditions.

For example, you need to check the HVAC system and replace your furnace filter so your home will be warm and smell fresh. Also, make sure to turn on all the lights; you've got to compensate for the shorter, cloudier days. Make sure your gutters are free of leaves and the landscaping is tidy.

It’s a slightly different season, but I can assure you that it’s a great time to sell your house. If you’re thinking about selling this fall, or you have any questions at all about our market, give me a call or send me an email. I’d love to help you out in any way that I can.

Why Overpricing Your Home Can Net You Less Money

If you're selling your home and you overprice it, it can be costly.

When you list, you can either choose to price it right or overprice it. Pricing the house right assumes that the Realtor proved that they pulled up the proper comparable homes and weighed the features and benefits of the house correctly and are in tune with market conditions. If the seller doesn't agree with this list price, they should openly question the Realtor to prove otherwise.

Sometimes, sellers want to bump up the asking price for their home to either test the market or to leave room for negotiation. However, sellers need to be aware of the cost of overpricing their home:

1. Overpricing can scare buyers right away. Sellers tend to think there is a handful of buyers who will want to buy their home at any given time, but the truth is, there are usually one or two buyers who want to buy the home. Overpricing can scare one or both of them away, leaving nothing.
Overpricing can cause buyer’s remorse and headaches throughout the transaction.
2. Overpricing the home can cause buyer's remorse. Buyers know when they're getting a fair price. If they feel they're getting an unfair price, they might be unfair during the home inspection period and it will cause unnecessary stress and complications throughout the deal.
3. Overpricing can actually net the seller less money. If a house sits on the market, they may have to overcompensate later and underprice the home below market value to generate interest. Secondly, the seller's carrying costs like mortgage, taxes, and utility costs need to be accounted for. Since New Jersey homes can have issues with things like the sump pump or pipes freezing, the sooner the house sells, the better.

Overpricing can cause appraisal issues. When you have issues with the appraisal, it can not only cause a lot of stress, it can kill a deal. If you'd like to discuss home prices and the importance of pricing correctly when it comes time to sell, I'd love to speak with you. You can always give me a call or send me an email and I'd be happy to help.

Help Us Bring Awareness to a Cause That's Close to Us

Today I wanted to talk about a community service project that helps kids and their families. It's a project I'm working on and I'm asking for your help.

My team and I are looking for service organizations that help children with mental or emotional health issues and can benefit from our project.

We want to bring mental and emotional health awareness to the community.

Our project is called Rise Up Kids.

We want to bring organizations into the community and make families aware of their services. Currently, organizations that help families are one of the best-kept secrets. As a rotary member, I got to meet some of these service organizations at our weekly meeting, but once they left the meeting, it was the last we heard of them.

They're not marketing experts and they work with skeleton crews, so it's understandable that you may not have heard of them. You might find a pamphlet at a library or hear a commercial every once in awhile, but that's usually it.

We want to bring them into the community and make families aware of what they actually do. Would you know where to refer a friend with a child suffering from a lost parent, a mental illness, or a substance abuse issue?

I can tell you that my own family has benefited from these organizations recently - in particular, the New Jersey Center of Mental Health and Bridgeway. They helped our family cope, gave us hope, and they helped us stay united in trying times.

With Rise Up Kids, we'll invite about 10 organizations into a local community park, draw kids and families out by offering a free RE/MAX tethered hot air balloon ride, and we'll ask these families to visit each organization's informational booth for a ticket. Once they've collected all 10 tickets, they've earned the free balloon ride.

Thank you so much for reading today in regard to a topic that's very important to me. If you have any questions about the event or you know of an organization that can benefit from the event, please give me a call or send me an email. We appreciate your help!