Episode 207: Seller's Guide

The frenzy is over, but the opportunity is still real—if you sell with intention. We break down a practical blueprint for today’s slower, more selective market where buyers judge with their eyes and decide with their wallets. From curb appeal moves that shift first impressions in 30 seconds to financing incentives that cut monthly payments, this conversation gives you the tools to stand out without slashing your price.

We start with the buyer’s mindset: more options, tighter budgets, and a laser focus on payment and cash to close. Then we get tactical. For resales, we map out a prep plan that starts at the curb—fresh mulch, trimmed shrubs, a soft-washed exterior, unified lightbulb color, and small hardware upgrades that modernize fast. We talk FHA and VA must-fixes to keep your buyer pool wide, plus how to use showing feedback to target the updates that matter. For builders and spec homes, we highlight simple wins like basic landscaping packages, spotless job sites, and move-in-ready details that build trust before the tour begins.

Pricing and affordability are where deals are won. We explain why overpricing backfires and how a clean market analysis keeps you competitive from day one. More importantly, we show why incentives beat price cuts: a two-one buydown can drop your first-year payment by the equivalent of a massive discount, often for a similar credit cost. We also unpack forward commitments—how big builders lock wholesale rates to offer eye-catching fixed financing that reframes affordability. Whether you’re selling a beloved resale or 20 spec homes, the playbook is the same: price to today, present with care, and craft affordability that buyers can feel.

If you’re ready to sell smarter—not cheaper—tune in, take notes, and share this with a friend who’s listing soon. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us which incentive you’d choose first so we can dig even deeper next time.

Transcript

Setting The Stage For Sellers

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey everybody, welcome back to Constructive Conversations. I'm Zach Daniel with Victorian Finance. And I'm Luke Barkstill with Viz3D Space. So today we're talking directly to sellers. The market has shifted from the frenzy of 2020 to 2022, and the strategies that were then don't necessarily work today. Homes are still selling, but the difference between homes that sell quickly and homes that sit on the market are usually coming down to the preparation, pricing, and incentives.

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Yep. Yeah, that's right. You know, buyers they have more options today. Interest rates are higher than they've been, you know, in a long time, really, uh historically lower, but in the past few years they're they're higher. And that seems to, you know, have uh sellers be a little bit more strategic, and having a strategy is what's going to cause them to stand out a little bit.

Days On Market Reality Check

SPEAKER_01 1:01

So today we're going to break down some practical tips for sellers to stand out and whether you're selling a resale home or new construction. Yep. So let's kind of dive into it, Luke. Um let's talk about what the average time on the market houses are really staying at today.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Yeah, so again, just depending on your market, uh, but I I like using examples. So I've I've got a current example right now. I've got a friend of mine, their house, I've got it listed. Um, and we we kind of ran comps and stuff on it. And average days on market for this house is sitting about you know 80, 90 days. You know, it's not a 14-day market anymore, hadn't been in a long time. I think everybody is seeing days on market being like north of a month or so.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, I would I've been seeing that too. I think anywhere from 30 to 90 days is really to be expected. That's right. And it just really depends on how prepared you have been and getting your house listed as if you're closer to that 30-day mark or the 90-day mark.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah, absolutely. You know, preparation is gonna go a long way, and then you know, having that strategy that we were talking about of pricing and where you want to be and all that, all that's gonna come into play on days on market.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

I completely agree. So, you know, sellers they need to mentally be prepared for having multiple showings over several weeks of time and being prepared to really negotiate uh the sales price and their offers.

First Impressions And Curb Appeal

SPEAKER_00 2:37

That's right. Uh yeah, you know, one thing I like doing with uh my clients, and one thing I'm doing with this friend of mine is we've said, hey, you know, let's talk long term. What are what's the exit strategy if it hits 90 days? What's the good what are we gonna do? You know, are you is this price where we're hanging out? Are there adjustments? Are there concessions? And you kind of just build the strategy out on how to tackle those uh little brackets of time.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah. I agree. Um, you know, first impressions really matter when it comes to when you list a home, so that really boils down to the curb appeal that you have on your home. Um how someone feels about the first 30 seconds when they walk up to your house, uh that's gonna either make or break if they're really interested in it. Because if they're blown away when they walk up, even if there's smaller defects, they're more likely to, you know, look past those or oh, that's not a big deal. But you know, if the curb pill isn't there, they'll nitpick everything when they walk through the house.

SPEAKER_00 3:46

No, that that's that's absolutely true. And it's it's funny because you can, you know, everybody's like, I'm gonna spend money getting my house prepped for market. And so they go and they immediately start repainting the insides and doing all these things. And I'm not to say those are bad, uh, but I think that's when you need to strategize with your agent. I wouldn't just, hey, I'm not gonna list it right now. I'll talk to you when I'm ready. That's a that's a bad idea. I would get with your agent and go, okay, I want to list the house. I'd like for you to come do a walkthrough. Tell me where you think I can put the money to make the market kind of want to look at it, right? Like get the curbapill up, put it in the important places, put it places we know inspections are gonna dink you on.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Like really especially.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Especially on a resale house that's older, you know, adding the handrails on steps or fixing pill paint around windowsills and door frames and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

Especially if you're trying to hit like a VA uh FHA market, like those right there, you know, if you if you just said, you know, I don't care, I don't want to do that stuff, you s you need to know that by saying that it starts restricting your buyer pool a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, and you know, that will if you get offers for FHA or VA, but you've already committed to not wanting to do those, then those become off the table for you. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Or or if you've you know you you go start cutting your price to get showing super fast and you've got it marked FHA VA, well, they're gonna hit you for those things. You're gonna have to do handrails, you're gonna have to fix pill paint. Well, if you've already slashed your house, you know,$15,000, that money may not be there for you.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Yeah, that's absolutely true. But you know, some of the good curb and pill things that uh I think could be really important to help bring people in is small stuff like replenishing the mulch in your flower beds or trimming back bushes, things like that, just to make the house overall nice to walk up to.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

100%. You know, I I would say most people don't pressure wash or softwash their house. I would say getting with a wash company, licensed and insured, and getting them to soft wash the house. There's low pressure applied, it's not gonna peel paint, uh, it's it's gonna give it this nice kind of pop. Flower beds being the next thing. Uh, you know, if there's a driveway and it's like a you know how driveways get like gray and black and color, have them wash the driveway, just something to make it kind of stand out a little bit, right? And that that'll go a long way.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Yeah, absolutely. Or, you know, just even minor uh upgrades to the house, like fixing or like updating exterior lights. If you got an older house, like say it from the late 90s, early 2000s, you got like that brass or gold color light fixtures or something, you know, could look at updating those things.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Door hardware in the house, right? Like I I live in a home that was built back in the early 90s. It's got the brass hardware on it. Okay, yeah. If I were to go put that on the market, one of the first things I do, I'd go through, I change out every door handle, every door hinge, change out your cabinet hardware. They're they're that's a small spin. Yeah. Small spin to get a nice like finish on stuff.

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

You know, what light bulbs, guys, light bulbs. Put the same color light bulb in every fixture of the house from one side to the other and make sure they're all the same age. So if you're gonna list your house, I would just replace them all.

FHA VA Requirements And Prep

SPEAKER_01 7:39

Like just new light bulbs throughout the house. That's that's smart because nothing is worse than you walking through a house and you got yellow lights in one room or blue lights in another.

SPEAKER_00 7:48

You got a you got a fixture that's got a white light, but then there's one bulb that's like kind of white, but kind of not. It just a it's just not a good look. Yeah. And it's too easy to take care of something like that.

SPEAKER_01 7:59

Absolutely. Um, but you know, now let's kind of focus like we like to do on new construction and how they can make the curb appeal for new construction. Sure. Um, you know, if builders include landscaping packages, that's that's gonna appeal. Um I I know builders do, some builders may build a spec house and they may just let seed and straw the front yard. Right. Um a landscape package saw that that's gonna appeal to more people.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Most uh most spec homes are gonna be exactly like that. It's not it's not a big spend on landscaping, but it's just to kind of quick and dirty, make it look nice and right.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

And you know, that's probably included in the price already. Oh yeah. Um but and it's not gonna just make or break, you know, the the overall price of the home if you just go that extra mile and sod the yard and put in landscaping versus just seat and straw. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Um cleaning up job sites is another big one, you know, especially with these new construction neighborhoods where they may have several specs uh in one phase of a neighborhood or something.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

If nothing worse than being an agent going to look at a house that's done, right? Because if you're doing multiple constructions, you have one over here that's done, you have one over here that's almost done, and one over here that just started to frame it, right? And that's one of the benefits of being able to look at all the phases and see it all. Big downside, and there's nothing worse than being an agent rolling up to show the finished product, and you're trying to convince them, like, hey, you know, this is a good house. This is not a crabby house, right? But meanwhile, you look across the way and the builder's got just garbage and scrap everywhere, and it's not a well-maintained site, and then the homeowner's like, well, if that's the way they treat it during the build, what's behind these walls, right? Yeah. And I can't you can't say anything to Mr. Nature. Like, good point?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Yeah, no, yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right, and you know, it's a construction site, so things are gonna happen, but you don't want just everything kind of spilling over into the street, muddy streets, nails everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

I mean No, especially if it's gonna be an ongoing new construction. Yeah. Like if I'm going out there to buy as a homeowner and I'm going, I'm I'm signing up full full knowledge that I'm gonna be living in a construction site for a little bit, you can make it less of that. Yeah. Being being a builder.

Low-Cost Upgrades That Pop

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yep, absolutely. Yeah, you you for sure can. So, you know, curb appeal is important, but where the brass tacks really come down to it is if buyers are looking to see if they can afford something. 100%. Um, you can do everything you can to make your home appeal to people, but once they fall in love with it, they have to know that they can afford this house. And so, really something that all sellers, whether you're doing a resale home or new construction, really need to strategize on is how to make that home affordable. My opinion, incentives and rate buy downs go so much further than lowering the price of your home.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Oh, yeah, yeah. I I would agree completely. And it's just about negotiation. I mean, it's not it's not rocket science. It's finding someone you can be open and honest with. It's like we keep going back to this, building your team, right? So having an agent that you can be open and honest with, and not you don't want to hold anything close to the chest. You don't want to be like, well, I really want my monthly payment to be this. So I'm just I'm gonna tell them my price is X, but really I could go to Y, right? Like you don't want to do that. You wanna be open, honest with the lender, with the agent, because then you can all sit down as a team and go, okay, that's our target. That's our goal. Let's get there. Let's figure out what we have to do to make that happen.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

Absolutely. And you know, when when it comes to incentives and buy downs and things of that nature, lowering your interest rate 1% versus dropping the price of the home$10,000, it I mean, it's not even it's apples and oranges in comparison. I mean, you can save on your monthly payment$200 a month by dropping that interest rate. If you drop your price$10,000, I mean, think of it this way: you're looking at the difference of financing something ten thousand dollars over thirty years, it is just gonna be dollars in comparison.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

That's right, that's right. It won't be anything, and and you use up your negotiating credits. Yeah. Like so when you go sit down at a table with somebody, you have so much that basically you're telling them no to. And once that emotional amount is spent, like it's gone. You you get no more out of that person.

New Construction Curb Appeal

SPEAKER_01 13:17

No, no, you you don't. There is not uh in most situations, whether it's resale or new construction, they'll offer you one thing or another. And you know, I know I deal with a lot of new construction, so they'll do like flex cash. Sure. And buyers ask me all the time, well, should I just use that and lower the price of my home? And I'll run the numbers for them. I'm like, I mean, that is an option, but that money is better spent covering your closing costs to save you that money out of pocket, lowering your interest rate, and then if there's some left over, put a fence in or an outdoor kitchen or get refrigerator or something.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

Get some usability out of it. Um, you know, like that's a good point. You know, your your appliances, if they're not all included, you know, using that flex cash to tackle some of those things, so you're not paying out of pocket or five, or even worse, financing that in.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

Again, it's all the money you're saving is actually going to a you know five-year payment on a credit card or something. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. It's really just strategy, man, is sitting down and talking.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

So a couple of options uh for these incentives, uh, and we've talked about briefly before, is called a temporary buy down.

SPEAKER_00 14:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

An example of something like that would be like a two-one buy down. So just to explain what a two-one buy down is, you are temporarily lowering your interest rate for two years. On the first year, it is lowered by 2% of what your rate is. On the second year, it is lowered by 1% of what your rate is. And then on the third year through the rest of the loan, it is at the note rate that you locked in at. Right. So, for an example, say you have a 6% interest rate locked in.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

That first year, you would be making payments on a 4% interest rate. And the next year, it would be a 5%. And then year three through the life of the loan, it is then 6%. It's a great way to kind of ease your way into monthly payments, especially if you're going into something higher than you currently are spending. Sure. And so you can kind of prepare for something like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

You can always refinance if the market I was about to ask you, just you explain that. So like you know, today I think is a really good example. Like today's market, right? What are we at right now?

SPEAKER_01 15:52

So, you know, right now, let's just look at it. I would say on average, we are.

Site Cleanliness And Buyer Trust

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Hold on. Because like where I'm going with this and where we'll get to in a second, is is actually pulling this up. Today's rate, we've come down a little bit. And if you're optimistic like I am, I believe that what this administration's gonna end up doing is pushing this down even further, right?

SPEAKER_01 16:22

So a 2.1 is a pretty good option right now. It is. So, you know, the average rate right now, we're sitting at 6.14%. It did drop below 6% last week, and it, you know, with the oil kind of skyrocketing in this past week, uh, it's kind of made some readjusting. It made some shifts. Uh but you're right. I think overall we are looking at lowering interest rates over the next year, uh, further in than they have been.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Uh, because right now we're still sitting at the level of 2.1, you could be paying on a 4.14 is what we just looked at. So you're paying a 4.14% interest rate, and in the next 12 months, if they drop interest rates, you can come back and refi. Yeah. You're gonna pay the closing cost and stuff again of a refi, but yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

And it could uh you know, it could really set you up into that fixed rate position, or you know, if rates are not where you want them to be, you'll go up to that 5.14, still lower than what the market's at, and kind of sustain and borrow yourself a little more time.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

And then if the market goes the other way and goes higher, you're going up to 6.14.

unknown 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

So 6.14 would be your worst case today. That's this is what we're talking about strategy. You know, if you're looking to enter the market right now, new construction or uh just buying a home, talking to your lender, talking to your agent, figuring out what your goals for the next few years are gonna be, and then trying to strategize where you're gonna be in a comfortable payment that you can kind of sustain that.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah, absolutely. And how those programs work, it is prepaid interest that you're paying up front. Uh they have to either be paid by the seller or the lender, so you as the buyer are not paying that.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Right.

Affordability Beats Price Tags

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Um, but the cost of that is typically the same as the cost of, you know, if you're cutting your price ten thousand dollars or five thousand, fifteen thousand, you know, whatever you are listing at and you're cutting your price, you can apply that money to a program like this and not cut the price of your home.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

Because we all know, as we've talked about before, the further you cut the price of the home, the the market reacts, the appraise values. Well, I started.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

That was gonna be my next point is if you cut the price and then you close that sale, you're now the new comp for your neighborhood that you're in. That's right. And then if the next one goes up and they're comping off yours, well, they may have to cut their price. So if it's all about payment and you like the house, then you know, a strong point is these two one buy downs and negotiating uh negotiating your rates and not the price.

Incentives vs Price Cuts

SPEAKER_01 19:22

So, you know, what I've I get asked a lot, um, especially with some of the larger builders, you know, if you got like DR Horton, Lennar, other kind of big box production builders, how are they advertising rates so much lower than what the market is? I mean, we just saw what the market is today, 6.14%. If you drive by a D.R. Horton neighborhood, you could be seeing a sign for 399%. Right. So how are they doing that? It's called a forward commitment, and it is a great incentive for builders to use. And what they do is they are locking in a segment of forecasted interest rates up front. And so let me explain that a little bit. If the builder is working with a specific lender, and these builders have their own mortgage company, so they're paying their mortgage company, they are going and getting a wholesale rate, and that means there's no margin or anything built into it. Right. They are at a wholesale rate, and they are gonna commit a set amount of volume, and by volume it is like the price tag of houses that's sold. So say it's 10 million in volume, based on their sales price of about 250,000. What is that? That's about 20 houses. Yeah. Um, so they're committing that they will sell 20 houses in this time frame of commitment. It's usually about a two to three month time frame. And they can lock in on a wholesale rate that they have purchased from this lender. Now there's all kinds of criteria. You know, you'll have to have a minimum credit score of this, the house will have to close within that time frame. So generally it's on sitting inventory. And now they have this fixed rate. It is not a temporary buy down, it's nothing, and it is a fixed rate at that wholesale rate. It could be three nine nine percent. Right. It's a great incentive that builders are really diving into and leveraging right.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Right. And you're not gonna see that from a custom builder necessarily. That's gonna be a big box store just because of the volume they're generating.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Exactly. Right. Exactly. I mean, you're you know, and while they have that volume. Component in there is the builder's paying X amount of money into it, but if they make the sales they surpass that volume, then they've kind of retouped the money that they invested into that.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

And everything we're talking about right now, like that, the reason all this matters is because as a seller, when you're putting your house on the market, buyers are they're not shopping based on like the overall price tag, they're shopping on their monthly payment. Absolutely. That's the bottom line. What is my monthly payment going to be?

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Yeah, that that's any conversation that I have that is exactly what I'm asked. What is my monthly payment and how much do I need to pay at closing?

SPEAKER_00 22:44

Yeah, nobody, and I say nobody cares, they care, but nobody goes, I'm gonna buy this$250,000 house, and I'm gonna end up paying, you know,$320,000 in interest over 30 years, and so I'll I'll pay$320 for that house at the end of the day. Like they don't care. It's what does it cost this month? Yeah. And how much do I have to bring to the closing table?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Yep. That is exactly where everyone's uh pricing strategy really needs to focus right now because that's what buyers are looking at. So while I'm talking about pricing strategy, and would say some of the biggest mistakes sellers make right now is they are still wishing that it was 2021.

Two-One Buydown Explained

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Your house is not made out of gold, guys. No, I hate to hate to break it. Mine's not either. Uh, but you have got to price it for the market, right? It's not uh it's not cost replacement, it's not what it cost you when you built it, it is running comps on houses in the area, it's running comps on things that have sold recently, not sold five, ten years ago. It's what sold within the last 12 months, and then who are you competing with? Like if you're looking to sell it fast, what's your competition in the neighborhood? You know, you don't want to be like if they're at the market comp and you have two identical houses, but you need to move this one, you cannot be priced exactly the same or more than this guy. Like you have you have to figure out where you're gonna land, and that's only done by uh doing a market analysis. It is, and the realtor can help you with that, but and finding a realtor that knows how to do an appropriate market analysis, not hey, I ran it on a CMA real quick and just shot it over without looking at it, but went through, evaluated the properties, talked with you about it, and then got you your market analysis.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah, yeah, because the days of multiple offers coming in a hundred thousand over asking price, it's just that's not where we're at now. No, the houses are sitting on the market for, like we mentioned, upwards of 90 days, and you have to be expected to pay some kind of incentive or closing cost and be negotiable.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Yeah, and you know, being realistic about what you have as a property. What is your add value? What is the differentiator for your property? You know, what do you bring into the market that the next house down the street that's listed the same amount, what are you bringing that they're not?

SPEAKER_01 25:30

Yeah. And you know, the market doesn't lie, it will definitely tell you how you're priced. Because ironically, if you're priced too high, you're gonna sit on the market long, longer than other homes, and you're gonna end up cutting your price. And generally, you're gonna end up cutting your price to the point to where you would have made more money if you would have listed it right right out the gate when you listed it. Because houses that sit on the market longer generally do not sell as fast as houses. One is you're floating a pavement, you know.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Somebody somebody's floating it, somebody's paying for it, you know. Yeah, and so there's a you know, if you're thinking about listing your house and you're like, well, maybe the comps aren't right for me right now, I want to hold for a while. There are tools out there that your agents can use to show you what it would cost to hold the house.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yeah.

Rates Outlook And Refi Strategy

SPEAKER_00 26:29

And you can sit down and go, okay, well, I could list it for this today and move it like it needs to move based on a CMA. Or I could wait six months and take another swing at it because I think the market's gonna trend up 10%, you know. We'll do the numbers and then figure out what it cost you to like hold the property for those months, you know, and then wait weigh the options because it doesn't it doesn't do you any good if it costs you you know 80% of what you're holding for, you know? That's right. And you know, if it's if it's a price too high, you're not gonna get showings.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

No, you just won't. The market tells you by not showing up. Yeah, and you know, if you're getting showings but no one's making offers, then you know, it could be the condition of the house, and that's where that curb appeal comes in.

SPEAKER_00 27:20

That's right, and you know, uh that's the other thing you can lean your on your agents for. We request feedback often uh from other agents, and you know, sometimes they won't give it, but you know, having your agent reach out and go, okay, yeah, had that go.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Get give me some feedback. Yeah, so um that's another reason I wouldn't just spend all your like get ready for the market money up front. Without first seeing an agent. Yeah, well, get get some feedback on it probably as as it's being shown, right? Somebody may go, well, you know, I like that, but the kitchen was a weird color. Well, if you get that comment five, six times, okay, maybe it's worth paying to have the kitchen repainted.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

You know, taking that and adjusting it. Rather than, all right, I'm gonna get the house ready for the market, I'm gonna spend my entire budget before I've had any feedback. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

No, that I agree with that. And you know, just being competitive right from the start, um, that will just really help increase urgency, increase your showings, and help move the property faster. 100%. Alright, so let's talk about focuses for resale versus new construction, kind of what that strategy is. It's really what we've been talking about this whole time, but just kind of breaking it down. So for resale sellers, you know, what's some of the things we talked about?

SPEAKER_00 28:50

We talked about, you know, as far as being a reseller, if you're putting your house on the market, you know, what we just talked about, strategizing with your agent, getting stuff prepped, coming up with the a strategy of, okay, if it sits for 30 days, we're gonna do this, if it sits for 60 days, we're gonna do this. And then, you know, having those open conversations with your team, as well as if you're going to offer concessions or incentives, you know, knowing what you're gonna offer and what you're willing to apply to buyers.

SPEAKER_01 29:26

Yeah, yeah. You know, and things that we talked about was just the overall condition of the house, getting the feedback after you have uh listings to improve what needs to be improved.

SPEAKER_00 29:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Looking and keeping the home clean. And that means both, you know, cleaning the bathrooms, your baseboards, like you got house guests coming on. Pay a cleaner, guys.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Just listen, if you're gonna spend any money, if you were gonna do nothing else, nothing else, not paint, not flower beds, nothing else, hire a professional cleaner to clean your house top to bottom, front to back. They're gonna clean things you ain't even thought about cleaning. It's true.

Who Pays For Buydowns

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Um and with that cleaning, I would say that includes your flower beds. Pull the weeds, put down fresh mulch, trim the bushes. I mean, it is as clean as you can get your property and doing the soft wash and pressure washing too.

SPEAKER_00 30:21

I would say that though those if you just did those, like if your house needs more, obviously tackle that. But if you're as tight on on money you can spend getting it ready for market, you're needing to move it, figure out a way to pay for those things. That's gonna that's gonna go the furthest.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

And then lastly, is being flexible with your negotiations, you know, talking with a realtor, partnering with a mortgage lender, and just really finding out what incentives are other places offering. You know, are they paying closing costs for buyers? Is there some kind of two-one buy down or something? You know, you can partner with a lender and do those things up front before you list, and that way you have a margin that you have and you know how much you can net from the sale of your home. That's right, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Now, all great recommendations.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

So now let's kind of focus on new construction, some of the things the builders can do to really help move their product.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Yeah, I would say, you know, the rate incentives that we talked about that they're they're buying in bulk, those are that's huge. I mean, if you can get a f a fixed, you know, we used the example of$399. If somebody's offering that and they're a quality builder, I mean that is Oh yeah, that's awesome. That's hard to beat.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

I mean, you're paying half of what the market is paying in interest rate right there, and you know, there's no bells and whistles about it. It's just it's the fixed rate.

SPEAKER_00 31:56

Yeah, and most of the time they're moving ready. You know, they're you're not waiting on somebody to move out, you're not waiting on them to purchase another home. You're not gonna have to deal with the dents and dings of people shuffling stuff in and out. Yeah, and there's a lot going for them.

Forward Commitments For Builders

SPEAKER_01 32:10

With um, you know, one of the more underrated things for a builder that I would say is the home warranty. You're moving into a home that no one has ever lived in before. You can have all these incentives, all the you know, fences and appliances and things thrown in there, and you get a 12-month home warranty in case anything happens.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Yeah, I like, as an agent, I really like dealing with resales, but dealing with new construction is another animal, and I I enjoy it a lot. Uh, one of the things you don't think about is resales always have like an emotional price put on it. It was my house. I grew up there, it's grandfather's house. So there is always an emotional premium on resales that new construction is just not gonna have. They're they're moving another product, yeah, not you know, the house they built memories in.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, it it's a numbers game when it comes to builder. They're they're trying to push product and make profit because the longer they sit on a property, the more interest they're paying on it. That's right. Well, Luke, if you are thinking about selling, a key takeaway from today is just really preparation.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

Yeah, I think that's the biggest thing we touched on for sure.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

Yeah, I would say so. Buyers are still out there, but they're more selective and more payment conscious than they ever were a few years ago.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

Yeah, and you know, the sellers who are gonna win in this market, they're gonna be the ones that are focused on pricing, presentation, creating incentives, and you know, just really stratizing like we talked about.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Yeah. And so, you know, if you're thinking about buying, selling, or building, and want guidance through this process, reach out to us. And if you enjoyed this episode of Constructive Conversations, share it with someone who you think might be selling in today's market.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Yep. And uh look forward to meeting up with you guys next time. Thank you.