Real Sage Advice

Help me sell my home! Part 2

If you've read Part 1 of Help Me Sell My Home, and you have realistic expectations about how long it should take for your home to sell, and it's lingering on the market, I have a few suggestions for you.

I'm not going to bore you with the list of things you should do, or not do to stage your home and make it as cosmetically pleasing as possible for your potential buyers. You'll find lists like these all over the internet. (If you just have to have a checklist, and some of us do--here's a checklist of 450 things to do to sell your home faster. But finish reading this post before you download another list!).

Here's the problem I have with these lists:

They don't take into consideration YOUR home, YOUR plans, and YOUR potential buyer.

If you ask me what you need to do to get your home ready for the market, I would tell you; "It depends. Tell me where you'd like to move, when you'd like to move, how much money you need to move, and how much work you would like to do to the house. " Armed with that information I can give you a laundry list of items to get your house ready for the market.

If you're a senior, the first step to moving, is defining where you want to live. It may be a senior condominium, townhome, or a Winnebego so you can travel back and forth from Arizona to Minnesota. Whatever your plan, the details of your move should get planned around what's important to you.

If you're having a hard time getting your home to sell, and your home has been on the market significantly longer than average, it's time to re-visit the condition, the marketing plan, the real estate agent, and the price. Evaluate all of it. Get opinions from other real estate agents and staging professionals to make sure you're on the right track.

You might find you'll need to:

• Make some cosmetic changes to the home (such as paint or carpet),
• Adjust the price (make this count, a small adjustment rarely gets your home the attention it needs. Drop it once to the right price, and you only have to do it once) or,
• Change the way the house has been marketed (this might include a change of real estate agents).

The correct course of action for each house and each seller is different. This is why it pays to interview your REALTOR before you hire him/her. A great real estate agent with experience working with long-time home owners is the project manager of your move. Your real estate agent can help you manage all the details of downsizing or moving to a senior community.

Other helpful articles

Steps #1 and #2 of moving for seniors

Step #3 to a move plan - don't procrastinate

Step #4 Can you afford the home you want?

Step #5 Tour Senior Housing

Social Security

ABC posted an interesting article about Social Security today. I've never thought about Social Security as a type of insurance before this article.  Our government could sure take a lesson or two about managing risk. When Social Secuirty was founded, the payout was at age 65 at a time when we lived to the average age of 64. Now our average age is much older, and there simply have not been enough adjustments to the payout schedule to make this "insurance policy" work.  No wonder I'm paying into an "insurance policy" that likely won't be around when I retire.

Help me sell my home! Part 1

If you're purchasing a cooperative or a condominium in a senior housing community, hopefully you've taken my advice and moved first, and put your house on the market second. For most seniors this can be done financially and is less work, and less stress, for both seniors and their families.

In this real estate market this may mean your house has been on the market for a while!

Do you know how long it *should* take for your home to sell? It's easy to get inpatient after 30 days, but your expectations may not be realistic.

Given that you've got a good real estate agent, have adequately prepared your home for the market, and have done a good job of pricing your home based on the condition and location, you should be able to sell your home close to the average number of days within which homes have sold in the last 90 days. Keep in mind things always seem to take a little longer now that we're entering the fall market.

An earlier post: How long will it take my house to sell, lists statistics from March, 2007. I've taken the liberty to compare today's statistics with those in March and have noted them with "U" FOR UP or "D" FOR DOWN.

Minneapolis
	Avg. Days on Market		Avg. Sales Price
Calhoun	75.3	D	$377,983	U
Camden	77.9	D	$128,791	D
Central	71.9	D	$293,380	D
Longfellow	41.2	D	$217,329	D
Nokomis	50.7	D	$239,745	U
North	90.4	D	$96,393	U
NorthEast	68.8	D	$201,688	U
Phillips	80.3	D	$155,320	U
Powderhorn	73.7	D	$173,455	U
Southwest	58.8	D	$360,825	U
University	88.3	D	$266,773	U

St. Paul
	Avg. Days on Market		Avg. Sales Price
Riverview/Cherokee	80.2	D	$180,860	U
Homecroft	84.5	U	$189,900	U
Crocus Hill	62.3	D	$372,576	U
Downtown	83.7	D	$171,152	D
Central	68.2	D	$144,823	U
Como	53.6	D	$215,217	U
St. Anthony/Midway	55.9	U	$243,222	U
Meriam Park	62	D	$352,105	D
Mac/Groveland	53.7	D	$316,837	U
Highland	61.8	D	$307	U
Phalen	128.6	U	$164,739	D
Dayton's Bluff	79	D	$160,514	U
Southeast	82.2	D	$195,505	D

Related posts:

Step #1 and #2 of the Senior Move Plan

Senior Real Estate Designations

Over the weekend I completed the training and testing to receive the Senior Real Estate Specialist designation.  There wasn't any graffiti, no parade, not even a cake.  What this means I can now sign my name:

Lisa Dunn, MA,CSA,GRI,RSA,SRES

Yipee!  Well, kind of...

Other Realtors will know what some of those designations mean, most consumers won't know what any of those designations mean (other than the MA-most of us know this is a Master of Arts). Those letters are no more meaningful to most consumers than the jumbled up letters found in a bowl of Alphabets cereal.

When you're interviewing any professional for any job, you would want to understand:

• what kind of training they have,
• the years of experience they have,
• if they have any specialities, and
• the kind of results they receive.

The Alphabet soup of REALTOR designations can answer the questions about the kind of training and specialties your real estate agent has. 

If you're looking for a REALTOR who specializes in working with seniors, here are the designations you'll want to look for:

RSA-Realtor Senior Advisor. This is a designation offered by the Minneapolis Association of Realtors. It consists of 12 hours of classroom and a bus tour to local senior housing communities in the Twin Cities. Real estate agents are also introduced to numerous professionals in the senior industry that can assist thier clients in preparing for a move. This designation is the most intensive, most locally relevant designation for Twin Cities Realtors.

SRES-Senior Real Estate Specialist. This is a nationally recognized designation. It consists of 12 hours of classroom work, some of which can be completed on line.

CSA-Certified Senior Advisor is awarded by the Society of Senior Advisors. There are fewer than 5 real estate agents in the state of Minnesota with this designation. The important distinction between this certification and the others, is that this designation does not verify one's skills as a real estate agent. This designation is available to any professional in any field that works with seniors. It is most prominent in the financial services industry. It is the most broad, most in-depth, and most expensive of the three designations. In addition, this course does not qualify for continuing education credits toward a real estate agent's license. If you see a real estate agent with this designation, you know they have invested a lot of time and money into learning about important aging issues.

Most importantly, these designations represent one thing.

They are just designations.

Those designations tell you about training, and somone's intention to focus on a speciality. Those letters don't tell you anything about the experience someone has or the results they get.

If you see another title behind a real estate agent's name such as "Senior Specialist", it could be that's just what they call themselves.

Ask questions before you hire your next REALTOR.

How do I talk with my parents about moving?

Here's my very best advice.

Don't.

As least not yet. (For my REALTOR friends reading this...No, I'm not crazy).

Before you sit down and have one of those discussions with your aging parents, I would ask you to walk through this exercise and see if you really do need to have that discussion.

First, ask yourself, why do you want your parents to move?

a) I want my parents to move closer to me so I don't have to drive so far to visit.

b) My parents call me numerous times during the week to ask me to do things for them, and I'm just too busy. They would not have to call me as much if they were in a building where other's could help them.

c) My parents are no longer able to take care of the house. They seem to be doing okay otherwise, but the house needs a lot of fixing up.

d) I'm worried about my parent's safety.

Here are some thoughts you might consider.  If you answered:

A. It can be nerve wracking to worry about your parents and not be able to be with them as often as you like. Unless your parent has told you they would like to be closer to you and/or the grandchildren, this is NOT the reason to have a conversation about your parent moving. If the concern is really a lack of a support system for your parent, check with the County, and local block nurse programs to see if you can arrange for companionship for your parent. There are also companies that provide companion care, be sure you check for references before you hire anyone.

B. Are your parents: lonely? or do they REALLY need your help?

There are two things we all need to get along in life. First, we all need a sense of community; a support system, to know that we matter to someone. Are you getting frequent calls because your parent's friends have all moved out of the neighborhood and there's no one else for them to call? 

Second, we all need safety and security. These phone calls could be due to a sense of insecurity due to being alone, or there could be some items around the house that really do need to be taken care of to make sure your parent is safe in their home. When my parents call me to come over to set the time on the VCR, I know they feel like it's been too long since my last visit (even it it's only been a few days). Spend some time thinking about this because one requires a hug, and one requires a handyman.

c) If your parents want to stay in the home, and they have the means to take care of the items that need to be fixed for the house to be safe, why shouldn't they stay?  Sometimes, however, seniors stay too long in their homes.

d) If the safety concerns are about your parent being alone, check into some companion care. If the safety concerns are about the decline of the neighborhood or your parents attention to details or their balance, perhaps in home health care or a move make more sense.

It's easy for our emotions to get in the way when we are dealing with family members and loved ones.  Try to remember your parents really only owe you one thing...that's piece of mind. As long as they have put measures in place to provide for their safety, whether they move or not is THEIR decision.

Twin Cities Senior Housing Directory: Order yours!

I've been remiss in letting you know about the new Senior Housing  Directory for 2007-2008 that's been published by Senior Housing Inc. The directory has a pretty comprehensive list of senior condominiums, senior cooperatives, assisted living, and memory care.

I offer my readers a complimentary copy of the directory, and I even pay for shipping. This is yet another case where people wrinkle up there noses at me and say "WHY?" (Just for fun, I've mentioned other instances with the wrinkled up noses here, and here)

Here's the short answer: It's my way of trying to make things a little easier for an elder and their family.

Here's the long answer: The Twin Cities has some of the most comprehensive resources for seniors of any city in the country. The people who provide the services do a fantastic job of networking with each other. I've had the privilege to meet some exceptional professionals who have dedicated their careers to working with seniors.

Consumers generally don't look for these services until they need them, and they usually need them in a hurry. Google turns up 22,500,000 results for the term "Senior Housing"- and 2,270,000 if you Google "Senior Housing MN." Good luck trying to sift through that proverbial haystack.

Consumers looking for information about senior resources and housing need easy to read information that's easy to get. It's the reason I blog about senior housing and aging issues, and it's the reason I send out free senior housing directories. 

Order your own complimentary copy of the Senior Housing Directory.

Other Articles

The Maze of Senior Services

A pat on the back

Larry Cragun from Real Estate Undressed runs a monthly contest to identify the 7 best consumer articles written by real estate agents. I don't know how he has the time. He scours hundreds of real estate blogs and narrows all those posts down to what he considers to be the best 7 for the month.  Then, he'll take the authors that have been picked each month and narrow it down to best 7 for 2007.  No small feat!

Larry has bestowed another honor to Real Sage Advice for the article "Step #3 to the Senior Move Plan-Don't Procrastinate." You can see the other nominees here.

There isn't any money involved, nor did I win a trip to Hawaii to escape the cold Minnesota winter. It's a pat on the back from a colleague in the real estate industry.  Worth it's weight in gold.

Thanks, Larry.

You can stay in your home too long

I know I will want to be the one to decide when I move, and where I move. I know the same is true for my clients. When and where they move should be their decision-not their realtor's, not their care managers, and not their child's.

As this video suggests, sometimes our elders stay in their homes a little too long and it becomes a quality of life issue.

These are pictures of a home my husband and I purchased and rehabbed.

The Video

Clutter

We tend to fill the space we're in. Whether you live in 1000 finished square feet or 10,000 square feet, you likely filled it within the first couple of years you were there. Now live in the house for 30+ years, and you continue to keep bringing in the stuff.  Even after the closet is full, you're able to find room for just one more piece of stuff. Until, you're 84 years old and it's time for you to move to a senior condominium. 

You start to sort through things and you're just amazed at all the stuff!

When I work with an elder client, their family, or their care manager and we have to figure out the stuff, there is a process I take them through and local professionals I call on to help out. I can tell you about them in a future post...

Today I wanted to point you to a treasure trove of information I found about how to help your parent with all of the clutter, and how to keep yourself from ending up in that position!

WARNING: If you have clutter of your own reading these blogs might propel you into an organizing frenzy! They did me!

Enjoy!

Children of Hoarders
Unclutterer
Clutter Control Freak Blog
Neat and Simple Living Blog

Books:

Moving on: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home
Family Realities: Helping Aging Parents, Closing the Family Home, Dividing Family Possessions,Putting Affairs in Order
Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Plate?

Finally a joke on the credit card companies

I saw this over at the Silver Fox Whispers blog and just had to pass it on. I don't usually swipe someone else's post to pass along to you, but this is just too good for you to miss.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for February and March for their annual service charges on her credit card and added late fees and interest on the monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00, now somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to Citibank. Here is the exchange:

Family Member: “I am calling to tell you she died in January.”

Citibank: “The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.”

Family Member: “Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.”

Citibank: “Since it is two months past due, it already has been.”

Family Member: So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?”

Citibank: “Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!”

Family Member: “Do you think God will be mad at her?

Oh, this isn't all...see the rest of her post here...