Property Marketing, That Moves

Available on select listing packages for homes listed at $250K or higher, we provide you with $70K worth of coverage in the event the person buying your home would file a law suit citing you did not disclose a material defect in the home that covers your attorney fees. While these types of law suits do occur, they are fortunately rare but having peace of mind is priceless and protecting our clients is what we do - and this is one of the ways we keep protecting you after closing.

Currently, homes are nearing an average of about 60 days from the time they are listed to closing on average. The important thing is to work with an agent who will be honest with you and can give you real - data driven - pricing guidance. Some homes fly off the market and other sit because they are not priced reasonably for their condition (updates, locations, comparable sales, etc.).

Nope. This is a really bad through process and very dated. That's not how things work today, and it's a sure fire way to lose equity in your sale. Click below to read our article on this that goes into more depth, but simply put, you won't need to negotiate because no one is coming to look at an overpriced house in the current market. People who try this typically get 20% less than they would have if they would have used a sound pricing strategy in alignment with current market conditions. Your Text Here

I'm by credentials, a data scientist and would be happy to give you a second opinion (or a first). The Zillow Zestimate is one of the most inaccurate numbers - sometimes its too high, others too low, and statistically only right less than 5% of the time. The other issue is most real estate agents use similar automated valuations to price your home, setting your up for possible failure and gambling with your equity. Zillow's Zestimate or any automated model does not know what the inside of your home looks like, it doesn't factor in your yard may be on a slope while a comparable sale had a flat level backyard oasis. Things like proximity to schools and shopping matter. No one can accuraltey price your home without touring both your home, the neighborhood, and driving by comparable homes, especially in Pittsburgh where one site of a street can be flat and the other the houses have 38 steps to the front door. Give us a call and we will gladly set up a free no obligation in-home consultation. Also, if an agent shows up at your house with a price ready to go - we suggest you throw them out immediately. Unless they are clairvoyant, they used an automated tool which means they are guessing and have no idea what your home is worth. That is not someone you list your home with - they are gambling with your equity. Give us a call - 412-663-3325.

It does. 60% of homes are found organically on search portals like Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com, RedFin, etc. but 40% of homes sold are discovered through marketing efforts which is why its important to list with an agent that has real marketing skills, which are few agents. A sign in the yard and mailing a few postcards won't get eyes on your home or buyers in the door. Real marketing targets and find buyers most likely to want a home like yours at that price point. That's why we use data driven ad targeting, and market homes across more than 50 different channels using innovations used by the largest companies out there in advertising - because we used to work in marketing for large corporations. Not only that, we have innovations and technology we use right in our clients homes like interactive house touring paired with old school marketing which can be effective when done right. We'd love an opportunity to show you how our proven marketing systems go beyond what any other agent in the Pittsburgh market does. Many of our technologies are proprietary and in house meaning no one else even has them to offer.

Probably not. Many sellers get caught up in the list price and not the net proceeds from the same. If you put a $30K new kitchen in, but only got $20K more for your home at closing, you'd be in the hole $10K. Sure, the house might have sold faster - and listed higher, but the check you get at the closing table is for less money. If you have a really dated house and a high urgency level to get it sold (relocating for example and can't carry a second mortgage), then maybe big upgrades might be worth it. Sometimes they can be if say you have a home that looks like the set of that 70's show in a high dollar neighborhood and you've owned it for a long time. Sometime tha can net larger returns but there are also other options like selling to an investor who shares the profits on a flip and sell with you - a program we offer as an option. The best thing to do is to work with an agent that is skilled with home valuations and current costs of home renovations to guide you to the right choice that will yeild the highest return in your net proceeds. This is an area where we excel at, and we would be happy to get you a home valuation and explore multiple options because there is no one sized fits all, and in Pittsburgh every neighborhood had economic differences that all need to be factored in. Making an informed decision based on data is key. We know homes - and we're here to help.

We provide you and your buyer a home warranty - something other agents make you pay for. Seller's coverage protects you from murphy's law - you know, you accept an offer on your house and the dishwasher dies. You'll be required to replace the dishwasher - spending unplanned money. Our seller's home warranty covered offered to all our listing clients in Pittsburgh will repair or replace the item after you pay for a low service charge of around $99. For $50, you can elect to add HVAC coverage (furnace and air conditioner) for additional peace of mind - included extra coverage on our Onxy and Marble listing packages with homes $200K or more. All homes listed wiht us get seller home warranty coverage.

It does. Pittsburgh home buyer's have a hard time visualizing empty spaces or spaces that need work. I see it every day working with buyer clients. Often a home looks smaller than it is when empty, or a room is hard for a buyer to envision what they would do with it.

Home staging makes small spaces look larger - and the right straging can make a home look better and more enticing and feel more like home.

The downside is you as the seller need to pay for the cost of home staging which can get expensive - a thousand dollars is a good number to start with depending on how much staging you have done. The benefit is if you have already moved and have a new mortgage payment, you could recoup that cost if the home sells faster as every month it is on the market, you're paying two mortgages and could have a net gain.

Staging your home even if you have to live in it before moving is really important and smart. It's more about rearragnging the space to be more open and appealing, or refreshing things like window treatments tha when done right, give depth and make a ceiling feel higher or room larger.

Many Pittsburgh homes have crammed living rooms for example, especially older homes that were constructed before the TV was invented and the gathering space was the dining room. In older homes, swapping the light fixtures and dining an living room can make a huge difference. The dining rooms in older homes have the right space and layout to show a TV and better fit a sofa - while removing excess furniture like your partner's Lazy-Boy recliner you've secretly wanted to set fire too for 10 years makes a room feel larger.

When we do a consultation with listing clients, we have a checklist of best practices and help people identify ways to stage and declutter their homes to improve the look and feel with only needing to spend some sweat equity. We also have some staging pieces we may be able to use to help - free of charge.

This is the biggest challenge Pittsburgh home sellers face. You need to upsize or downsize, but you need to proceeds from the sale of your home to buy the next one. The biggest problem is getting someone to accept your offer if you need a contingency to sell your home, which isn't easy, and you risk missing out on homes while waiting for yours to sell.

While we're the real estate team that exists to protect and maximize equity, sometimes doing a "buy before you sell" program makes the most sense. You borrow from your equity for as low as 2.5% and pay it back at closing when your house sells. The good news? Vacant homes ususually sell for up to 10% more meaning you have high odds of recouping that interest rate. We have multiple options for buy before you sell programs and work with Home Light, One Real Mortgage, Zoodealio, and others to provide you the most cost effective options.

It's also a double edge sword because if you need a long closing because you still need to find a home, some buyers may pass because their timeline is different making buy before you sell programs a great option for many Pittsburgh home sellers.

Give us a call. We can help you explore all the options and strategies we have in our toolbox to help you successfully sell your home and get you into your next one.

Seller concessions are where you cover certain costs for the buyer purchasing your home like transfer taxes, closing costs, title fees, or paying commissions.

Typically, if a buyer is short say $5K for waht they need to close, they will offer you $5K over asking or over their actual offer so you are not actually paying anything in this case. The risk is if the home does not appraise for that increased value. In some cases, the buyer may need you to cover these costs.

Yes, be open to them, but only if they make financial sense, and work with an agent with the business acumen to help you sort through good and bad offers.

The NAR lawsuit changed how real estate commission work, and the seller no longer has to pay all agent commissions. However, in the current market, most buyers cannot buy a home without the seller contributing.

You have an option to provide upfront compensation in a pre-written agreement called a CBC (Cooperating Broker's Commission). This can be advertised anywhere except in the MLS - so it can help your home sell. For example, a rider on the for sale sign in your yard advertising "3% Buyers Agent Commission" - because a buyer and an agent that know this is a sure thing will want to look at your home above all others, but that's just one option.

We can also allow a buyer to put the ask in the offer and negotiate it. Knox knows offer strategy - and we recommend when a home is likely going to be a harder home to sell, do a CBC and let's market that everywhere we can to get buyer traffic in your home. If your home is likely to sell fast or doesn't have any barrier to selling (outdated, needs repairs) then we suggest you let the buyer write it into the offer because with a CBC, that must be presented BEFORE the buyer's offer is given to us. If we get multiple offers and one has no ask for commissions with a $295K offer and another is $300K with a 2.5% commission ask, you'd net $2,500 more by taking the $295K offer and not paying a commission. This is also why we preach list price is not the important factor - the next proceeds at closing are and pricing and offer strategy/negotiations are literally where the money is at.

Statistically, 83% of people going for sale by owner net less at closing than working with an real estate brokerage and agent - supported by our favorite thing - data. Meaning you have a 17% of making more money. Not great odds if you were waging a bet are they?

The other risk is legal. You are not a real estate agent that's been trained in the law who works at a brokerage with attorney's on retainer. The ways in which you can be sued are many as you are legally liable to be 100% compliant with all state and Federal laws - ignorance does not protect you. A seller should never meet or interact with a buyer before closing day for example. Let's say you get an offer on your house for $190, listed at $200K and you turn it down. The offer was an African American. A month later, you get another offer for the same price from a white family. You accept - not because of race, but because you've realized you were priced to high and don't want to miss out on another chance to sell. When the house sells, that price is public record. Now the first family you didn't sell to sues you for racial discrimination and fair housing violations that if you were found guilty, can result in massive fines - possibly jail time. Same is true if you meddle in a home inspection. You can get sued after closing if a defect is found in the home and the buyer can say you deliberately steered an inspector away from it. Even if you might net an extra one or two thousand dollars, it could bite you later. When you work with a brokerage and a licensed agent, they take on most of the risk - and the law suits. They also protect you through the process.

Pricing is another factor. Do you know anything about comping homes or even have access to the right market data? Because you won't get that from ChatGPT or Zillow - they can only give you parital data.

Speaking of Zillow - you'll have to pay for every website you list your home on and most FSBO homes are filtered out of standard search results by the site or by the home buyer. FSBO's are sometimes challenging to work with and many agents will steer their clients away from FSBO properties because of that. What this all amounts to is if there are 10K buyers who are a match for your home, you'll be lucky if 50 of them ever see it online. That's a big problem. Because out of those 50, maybe 2 or 3 will every look at it in person. That's not us trying to sway you - it's reality. I say this as someone who has done FSBO before I was in real estate on both the buy and sell side.

If you are in a position where you simply have to sell and can't afford to pay commissions, reach out. We have options and solutions that are a happy medium to FSBO and traditional listings we can explore with you.

Available with our Onxy listing package. Initial fee is 3.5% and if your home doesn't get an offer within $2K of our suggested list price when you follow our marketing plan and pricing guidance, we cut our rate to 3% on day 30, and 0.25% ever 30 days. Minimum fee is 2%. Clients must agree to our listing plan and be in compliance with agreed upon actions. For example, if a client agrees to to repaint purple interior walls white and does not, this would make the fee reduction void as this is an item that makes a home harder to sell as one example.

Most things add value - but what you are probably really asking is what upgrades can I make that will get me more money at closing. The answer is very few will benefit your net proceeds.

There are certain things a home has to have - roof, door, windows. walls. These upgrades do not add value - not exactly. If a similiar home were for sale in your neighborhood, could you get more because you have new windows and a new roof? Yes - because a buyer will pay more but they won't pay the cost of those things more. Maybe $5K-$10K more. These are depreciating assets in value - eventually that buyer will have to replace them again.

Exceptions: Kitchens sell homes. While these too depreciate (after 10 years, they add no value from the update believe it or not), but a buyer will pay more for a new kitchen - but again, not the cost of that new kitchen so you will never recoup 100% of that investment - or even close. This is why we don't recommend major updates when listing in most cases - with some exceptions.

The best things you can do to get a better price or sell faster are cheap and simple things. Fresh neautral white paint in your home, refresh the landscaping for curb appeal, spend money on professional deep cleaning so baseboards shine and stair rails aren't... sticky. What matters most to buyers in our experience is the perception that a home has been maintained and taken care off. Annual servicing of the furnace, clean, no signs of neglected repairs. Put your time and effort into fixing the loose door knob or broken hinge on a kitchen cabinet. Fill in missing mortar. Those are the things that will be the most effective - and not force you to take out a loan to do them.

If it's 20 years old or more - you almost have to. In the last few years, home owners insurance will not insure a home if the roof is older than 20 years. We call it the closing killer. Everything is great. The contingencies are over, the lender just needs proof of insurance to close - and the insurance company won't insure the home meaning the lender won't fund the loan, and you're not selling your home and just wasted a month with it off market, which means when we get it back on the market, we're going to likely have to drop the price because people will think something's wrong with it. In fact, you'll probably lose more in having to drop the price than what a roof would have cost. Even a cash buyer will be unable to get insurance and may still back out - because who is buying a home they cannot insure? A cash buy could take a credit and put the roof on themselves after closing - so there is hope, but most buyers are using loans. All of them need a passable roof to close.

Most agents don't understand FHA/VA loans and give bad advice most of the time, but if you home has certain issues then they could be telling you the truth. As a general rule, why would you turn down any buyer?

FHA/VA Appraisals (sometimes referred to as inspections) require certain things for safety: handrails if 2 or more steps, electrical be up to current code, etc. In Pittsburgh, some basements don't have any space for a railing on the stairs the entire way down. In fact, my home is like that. The railing can't extend to the top half of the steps, and you can't fit one which means I would never be able to accept FHA or VA if I sold my home because it can't pass the appraisal/inspection.

If you have an older home with 2-prong outlets, they're perfectly fine right? Except FHA and VA require 3-prong grounded outlets and that can get pricey. It really depends on your home, but make sure the agent is telling you you should not accept FHA or VA because your home won't pass the apprisal, not because they have some dated delusions about those loans. The appraisal used to be 100X more strict - but today it's just basic safety. In some cases, you might need to install a $50 railing - worth it to sell your house, or install a $20 GFCI outlet by a sink.

An agent is legally required to accept esclation clauses unless you as the seller instructs them not to - and you would never do this. I see agents put in private remarks all the time, "Seller has requested no escalation clauses" - and I know its a lie costing that seller money possibly.

Say your house gets multiple offers. An esclation clause is like bidding on Ebay - you say your max bid is $1000., and you'll increase your bid in $10 increments up to your max. That's an escaltion clause. When an agent steers you from them, you could lose money. A lot of money. I wont a multiple offer recently with an escalation clause. The list price was $325K - the house was priced under market value by $25K (smart - this is our preferred stategy) which caused a bidding war. We said our max price was $340K - the highest number I felt comfortable the home could appraise for based on comps and data. Our initial offer was only $325K - asking price but increased in $2K increments over the next highest offer. The seller got $2K more than they would have.

Why do agents steer people away from escalation clauses? Frankly, because they are terrible at their jobs, don't understand them, and don't take any effort to learn how they work. We recommend interviewing an agent before you sign with them, and this is one of our recommended questions to ask. "What is an esclation clause?" If they can't explain it or tell you they are a problem - you know not to hire them to represent you.

We recommend for the most effective execution and prep-time 60 days and no less than 30 depending on how much work needs done to prepare your home for listing and marketing. If you're 75% of the way in deciding that yes, you're going to sell in 2-3 months, that's when you should start interviewing and meeting with agents. A good agent in a consultation is going to be brutally honest with you and tell you everything you should be considering. This gives you time to decide which of those things you can get done, how long you need, and get a plan in place. Planning 30-90 days in advance results in homes selling for higher prices and faster. Homes that suffer are usually the ones that go from meeting an agent to a sign in the yard in days or weeks.