Whiteboard Topics: How to Price Your Lake House

When it comes time to sell your lake home, how do you price it appropriately?

Glenn S. Phillips, Lake Homes Realty’s CEO, answers this question in today’s Whiteboard Wednesday video.

To get the most money you can for your property, Glenn recommends asking yourself four questions:

  1. Are you thinking about the current market value rather than the amount you invested?
  2. Is your home priced to be THE best value in your area?
  3. Is your house picture-perfect and move-in ready? 
  4. Would you buy it at that price?

Ultimately, if your lake home isn’t priced appropriately for the current market, it will “sit rather than sell.”

Connect with a Lake Homes agent to help find the best price for your home, and sell it soon! 

Whiteboard Topics: 5 Reasons to Choose Lake Homes Realty

How do you maximize your opportunity to sell your lake home? When it comes to selling, here’s the real goal: you want to maximize the odds that you will get the maximum price the market will bear in a timeframe that is suitable for you. Here are five ways Lake Homes Realty can help you sell your lake property.

  1. Maximize exposure
  2. Pricing guidance
  3. Lake real estate expertise
  4. Unique network
  5. Buyers from across the country

As mentioned in the video, the Lake Real Estate Market Report contains unique multi-state market information about lake homes and land, including lakefront property, lake access property, lake view property, and near-lake property.

Free to the public, the market report can help lake home and land buyers and sellers better understand their local market, and how it relates to other similar competing markets. Download it HERE.

Whiteboard Topics: 5 Reasons It’s a Good Time to Sell Your Lake Home

During the pandemic, many lake homeowners are concerned about their investment. If you aren’t using your lake home anymore, is now the right time to sell? Glenn Phillips, Lake Homes CEO, answers this question. Due to the market’s price peak, high buyer demand, limited appropriately priced inventory, and low mortgage rates, now is actually one of the best times to sell a lake home. To explore your options in selling your property, connect with one of our Lake Homes agents. With both local market expertise and a national presence, we’re here to help. 

Whiteboard Topics: Lake Home Selling Myths

Lake Homes Realty CEO, Glenn Phillips, discusses five myths about selling a lake home. While there are many similarities between selling a lake home and a primary residential home, there are key differences. For lake homes, these include the higher percentage of out of town buyers, the impracticality of open houses, unusual aspects that break automated valuation systems, and buyers’ value shifts from opulence to practicality. If you’re considering selling a lake home, find a lake agent who understands these unique traits of the market.

Whiteboard Topics: Is It a Good Time to Sell a Lake Home?

With COVID-19 on lake homeowner’s minds, many are wondering if now is a good time to sell their property. Lake Homes CEO Glenn Phillips outlines five reasons why now is a good time to do so.

During these times, sellable and appropriately priced homes are selling fast, and prices are stable. For buyers looking to mortgage their home, they are attracted to the historically low interest rates.

Finally, there’s a high demand for lakefront property, and the market peak has continued to rise. If you’re exploring the idea of selling your lake real estate, keep in mind that the process is often slow and hiring a lake expert agent will facilitate the process with their expert knowledge.

Would you like to learn more about selling your lake property? Here is a FREE downloadable guide:

Home Not Selling? The Two REAL Reasons WhyDOWNLOAD NOW 

These 4 Things are Essential to Selling Your Lake Home

Selling your home is never easy, but selling your lake home comes with its own set of unique challenges and pitfalls. Check out LakeHomes.com‘s five tips for selling your lake home to ensure you’re prepared for the journey.

Clean up the Lakefront

Just as you would pressure wash your driveway and edge your lawn for a traditional home sale, it’s important to make sure your waterfront is in tip-top shape when selling your lake home.

agent shaking couple's hands who are selling their lake home

Lake weeds can quickly overrun your shoreline, so be sure to free it from suffocating vegetation.

You should also cut overgrown grass along the edge of your retaining wall and incorporate shoreline-stabilizing landscaping.

Popular lake landscaping features blue flag iris, lemongrass and cardinal flowers.

Keep in mind when touching up your home’s waterfront appeal that you avoid introducing invasive species to your lake

Such species include water hyacinth and purple loosestrife. Though they may be pretty to look at, theses plants are dangerous to the your lake and its ecosystem.

Other ways to improve your shoreline appeal include installing solar lights along the path from your home to the waterline and painting your metal bulk head for a restored look.

Repair Your Docks and Decks

You know that plank that’s been missing from your dock since 2004? If you’re selling your lake home, it’s time to replace it.

Of course your home’s interior is important, but most likely prospects will be more concerned with the external parts of your property.

This means they will be paying special attention to the condition of your boat dock, deck and patio.

Ensure your docks and decks are buyer-ready by repainting metal surfaces with weather resistant finishes and removing any screws or nails that are not flush.

Also, replace any splintered pieces of wood and pay careful mind to weathered hand rails, which will not escape notice.

For a full boat dock inspection check list, click  here.

Lifestyle Staging

One of the most important things to remember when selling your lake home is that potential buyers need to be able to envision their own families occupying the space.

Real estate pros recommend staging both the inside and outside of the home to help make this easier.

Indoors:

On the inside, start by removing family pictures from the walls and replacing a few of them with mirrors, so potential buyers can literally SEE themselves in the home.

Also, get rid of clutter by removing knicknacks like key hangers and collectibles. You should remove any magazines littering the coffee table and swap out your colorful throw pillows and blankets for those in neutral colors.

Make sure the lake is within sight as much as possible, even if that means removing thick curtains and window screens that may obscure the view or darken the room.

To be sure your lake home is inviting and homey, subtle lake lifestyle-inspired accents such as a welcome mat that reads “life is better at the lake,” or hanging a beach towel in the changing room may do the trick.

A few candles and fishing pole-emblazoned coasters on the coffee table can also bring the home to life.

Outdoors:

Put away all inflatables, pool noodles and other water toys, and make sure there are no knotted fishing lines or rogue hooks laying out.

Take some age off your outdoor furniture with a pressure wash, and upgrade any weather-worn cushions with new, brightly colored ones.

Tiki torches, big umbrellas and other lounge accessories like Adirondack chairs are also appropriate staging props.

If you have a canoe or kayak, experts recommend placing one in your yard, and hanging a few life jackets on your deck will also help get buyers in the right mindset.

Last, outdoor kitchens and grills should be cleaned of ash, soot and food remains before showing your home.

Hire a Lake-Focused Real Estate Agent

Above all else, always hire a lake real estate professional to guide you through the lake home-selling process.

Unlike traditional real estate agents, lake-focused agents live, work and play in their local markets, which provides them with intimate knowledge about the area’s real estate and the nuances of the lake itself.

These lake experts can also provide sellers with national exposure for their listings via sites like LakeHomes.com, which welcomes two million visitors a year looking specifically for a home like yours.

Lake agents’ local expertise on current market trends and access to lake traffic information about where buyers are most frequently coming from can help make selling your lake home a smooth, effortless process, too.

Do you have tips for selling your lake home? Tell us in the comments section below. And for more on make the sale, be sure to read “3 Reasons Your Home Won’t Sell.

Beware the Consequences of Price Drops

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: one of the biggest reasons a home doesn’t sell is pricing

A smart asking price can be the key ingredient to the success of your home’s sale. Even in a bad market, a home will sell if the price is right. Choosing to forego expert advice, however, can lead to your listing stalling out on the market, which usually results in a price drop.

While asking for less may help you sell your home, there are some consequences of price drops that could be counterproductive to the sale.

Why Overpricing Is So Common

There are a handful of reasons sellers give for padding the asking price of their home.

Some point to unique, decorative features, like a brick pizza oven or wine cellar, as evidence that their property’s value is higher than it is. However, quirky add-ons, as opposed to neutral touches, have a higher chance of backfiring. Not all buyers will share your same tastes and some upgrades, like a luxury bathroom or tricked out kitchen, won’t garner as many returns on investment as homeowners think they will.

There’s also the mistake of setting an asking price based on what you need from the sale rather than what the home is actually worth.

Some lake homeowners aren’t likely to get as much from the sale of their home as they may have originally planned. Thanks to the 2008 recession, the demand for second homes isn’t as high as it was a decade ago. According to Forbes, vacation homes have been slower to rebound from the housing bust than off-lake properties.

In fact, since 2009, with the exception of 2010, markets with the highest concentration of vacation homes have under performed every year. So while a seller may be committed to selling a lake home at a certain price point, the property value may not have bounced back enough from the housing bust to make it happen.

Unfortunately, buyers don’t care what a seller needs for personal financial reasons. They’re only concerned with the home’s real value.

The Aftermath of Price Drops

Anything can happen that results in an inflated asking price. However, when a seller finally decides to lower expectations, there are consequences.

Price cuts usually happen after a home has been on the market for too long. “Too long” can mean different things for different agents. To prevent a listing from “going stale,” some agents suggest price cuts after two weeks on the market, while others will give it a month.

Either way, after a significant price drop or too much time on the market, one question always arises: “What’s wrong with it?” Potential buyers understand that you get what you pay for, so a listing that frequently gets cheaper and cheaper will have them questioning the quality of your home.

Even if there are no significant structural issues with the property, a potential buyer who’s already made negative assumptions about your home will be conditioned to see the glass as half empty no matter what.

Each price decrease also indicates that a seller lacks confidence in his or her own asking prices. So, when you mark your home down once, some buyers will just wait for another price cut. If the seller isn’t confident in the asking price, why should the buyer be?

These flip flops in pricing leads to even more time unsold and puts your property at higher risk for going stale. In real estate, an extra week or two added to a home’s shelf life can make a big difference.

Your real estate agent’s goal is to sell your home as quickly as possible for the best price. He should have enough market knowledge at their disposal to calculate your home’s real value, which if you follow his suggestions, will help the listing move faster.

So price it right the first time by trusting the expertise of an experienced professional.

The Good and Bad of Relisting a Home for Sale

Senior couple meeting Lake Homes Realty real estate agent

Even celebrities can struggle to sell a home, as discussed in Natalie Way‘s recent Realtor.com article Christie Brinkley Relists Her 2 Homes in the Hamptons: Why Haven’t They Sold Yet?

Brinkley’s homes are luxury properties, much like many lake homes across the country. Unlike other homes, such high-end and niche-market homes face challenges that other homes don’t when it comes to selling fast.

These types of homes are all discretionary purchases, meaning their purchase is optional. Like dinner at a high-end restaurant, no one has to pay that much just to have food, or in this case, shelter.

Because of this, selling luxury homes often requires more time on the market. Sellers have to wait to match up with a buyer that has both the means to purchase such a property AND the inclination to buy now.

The more expensive the home, the longer sellers should be prepared to have their home listed. This extended time commitment is just one of many reasons sellers may choose to take their home off the market and relist it later.

Why Homes are Relisted

Lake house locatedon the southern shores of Lake Rosseau
Photo courtesy of Muskoka Living.

High-priced homes rarely sell in a timely fashion. This can be attributed to several reasons:

  • The home was previously over-priced for that market and wasn’t going to sell.
  • Real estate market conditions have changed.
  • As a sales strategy, home is removed from the market in hopes it will appear “new” to the market sellers relist.
  • The homeowner has a change of heart about selling, then recommits to selling.
  • Sellers decide to use the home for a period of time, perhaps as a break from the interruptions caused by showings and selling.
  • The owner chooses to try a different real estate agent and/or a different marketing strategy.
  • The owner has “finally had enough” and is ready to be more aggressive in price and strategy to get the home sold.

Some of these factors sellers have no control over, such as the real estate market changing; others are just part of life.

Risks of Relisting a Home

Door County, Wisconsin lake house landscaping
Photo courtesy of Architectural Digest.

Relisting a home for sale is not without some market challenges. Some of these risks include:

  • Today’s knowledgeable home buyers (and local agents) know this property is not a new listing. Buyers may wonder if the home has some problem that is making it difficult to sell.
  • The home may get a reputation as having “been on the market forever.”
  • Taking a home off the market and relisting at a new price may lead buyers to believe if they wait long enough, the price may drop again.
  • If a home isn’t on the market, it can’t sell. During the time the home is unlisted, sellers are missing out on buyers that could come along.

Tips on Relisting a Home for Sale

Log lake home at night
Photo courtesy of BPImaging.

Relisting a home may not be a magical solution, but there are steps to take that help make the most of relisting the home for sale.

  • The marketing strategy must be very different when sellers relist. A new approach is needed to be successful before dropping the home back onto the market.
  • Make a meaningful change in the price.  This signals to buyers the seller is serious about a sale.
  • Update the property in some manner, but don’t go overboard since some of this money will not be recouped. However, yard landscaping, new paint, new carpet, or better staging can help a home sell faster.

There are really only two reasons a home does not sell: it is not marketed well or priced correctly.  However, the higher-priced the home, or the more specialized the home is (like a lake home), the more time it usually takes to sell.

Removing the home from the market and relisting is one approach used by people selling such homes. Though it does come with some risks, relisting can sometimes be another useful tool in the sales plan.

Still having trouble selling your lake home? Read “3 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid When Selling Your Lake Home“.