Yesterday I started this blog with the idea that I was going to provide some help topics for homeowners wanting to sell their homes. In my travels around Little Rock I see time after time property for sale that have no appeal what so ever simply because the yard has been allowed to grow up or the paint has started to peel. A window has been cracked or broken. Sometimes it is for sale by owner, and sometimes there is a Realtor sign. I almost feel sorry for the Realtor because I know they will not have many lookers let alone offers for that property. I guess they probably know it better than the owner, it should be a no brainer as far as I am concerned, but it seems for whatever reason, once it is turned over to the Realtor especially if the owner is absent, time stands still as far as upkeep goes.
I am not trying to say bad things about either owners or Realtors I know that sometimes things are pretty tight and from the Realtors point of view why spend money out of their pocket for something that is not theirs? I wonder if that is sound thinking or not. Before I go any further let me make one thing clear, I am not a Realtor, never tried to sell a house, do not know what percentage they make and as far as that goes do not even know the average price of property in Little Rock. But lets say just for conversational purposes that the average price is $180,000.00 out of that 3% will go to the Realtor (my guess). If my math is right that would be $5,400.00 not a lot but a fair piece of money. OK now if I (playing like I am the Realtor) was able to sell in the first week pretty good. If not in the first month not so good, because now it is starting to show signs of vacancy, that is if it is vacant, and if not then this scenario might not apply. In this market you can get the lawn taken care of anywhere from $35.00 to $70.00.
Lets take a middle of the road and go with $50.00. Speaking for myself, I know that if I knew I would get $50.00 every two weeks for a lawn until it was sold I would be pretty happy. If it sold in the first month probably only one cutting, second month three cuttings, third month five cuttings. Total cost for lawn care $250.00, how many more times would I be able to show that property to potential buyers? How much easier would it be to sell the house and get what the customer wants? Would I be looking for a lawnmower man? You bet your sweet bippy I would. Would there be a way I could recover my cost? I don't know, perhaps if I put my mind to it. I could get the owner to reimburse me when the sale goes through if we talked about it up front. But even if not I still have a pretty good chunk of change from the commission and to me, spending a little money to make a profitable return would be worth it.
I think there would be all kinds of ways to put money in my pocket if I had a good looking house to sale. After all when I go to trade my car in do I take it in there all dirty, trash all over inside and expect to get a good trade in? Why would it be any different with a house? Think about it..
