Tego Venturi:
I want to talk about this whole idea of selling and selling in this market. And are you leaving money on the table as a, as a home seller? The reality is this is the strongest seller’s market that I think we’ve ever seen in the Albuquerque area. And it’s not just Albuquerque it’s across the country. I mean, there’s a select few markets that aren’t that way, but it is a strong seller’s market, which means you put a home on the market it’s most likely going to sell. Right? Obviously price matters. But you know, you could get a let’s say a lower price point home that’s in fair condition, take some cell phone photos, throw it in the MLS and you’d get some offers right away. The question is, are you leaving money on the table? Are you leaving money behind when you do that? So just Tracy, can you talk to folks that are thinking of selling of the things they need to be thinking about?
Tracy Venturi:
So, you know, we know from years and years of doing this, that our website gets people from all over the world, right? We’re seeing people buying houses here that haven’t stepped foot here to buy that house. We’re seeing people from all over the United States, we’re seeing people from actually in the last month or so we’ve had several that are international. They might be PCs’ing coming back to Kirtland air force base, or for some other reason or out of the country and coming back.
Tego Venturi:
And you said it real quick, you guys say with PCS’ing and if people don’t know, I mean, anybody in the military knows what that means.
Tracy Venturi:
PCS’ing is a permanent change of station. So military people, when they get assigned to a new base, they PCs permanent change of station to the new one. Yeah. So that happens. But we know that there’s a lot of people online, shopping and choosing what houses they’re interested in. And even though it’s a great time to be a home seller, we feel like it’s a disservice to our sellers to not present it as professionally and high quality as possible. We’ve seen some houses that are getting cell phone photos or really crooked, you know, they’re not good. And you know, we feel like perhaps money is being left on the table sometimes. Plus the negotiating skills.
Tego Venturi:
Yeah. Well, that’s what I wanted to ask you because obviously presenting the property, merchandising it, making it show, well, you know, be the model home. That’s going to get you the most from the presentation side. But what about, you know, you get multiple offers, what’s important there and what should your agent be talking to you about your real estate agent that’s helping you?
Tracy Venturi:
Right. So multiple offers it’s lovely, right? From a seller’s perspective, being able to choose among a few of three or four or five offers. But the highest priced offer is not always the best offer. And you know, just this past week with our team, I can think of at least two instances where there were multiple offers and the highest priced offer was not the one selected. So all the other terms are very important. Closing timeframes, inspection deadlines, the quality of the financing or the cash, even sometimes cash without any documentation to prove that your buyer has the cash available or ready cash. So to speak something that can be converted into cash quickly might mean that there’s not faith, that, that cash exists.
Tego Venturi:
And we know, you know, I’m going to say, we know all the tricks right on, you know, when we’re representing a seller, we’re looking at more than just the bottom line price, because there’s so much more to it. You know, the pre-qualification, you know, have they actually been pre-approved or that a lender just kind of take a phone call and get some basic information said, Oh yeah, it looks like you qualify. Or they actually approved for the loan. They’re ready to go.
Tracy Venturi:
So that’s a really good sidebar. Right? So there’s pre-approval and pre-qualified. So a lone letter that comes to us along with the buyer’s offer that says they’re pre pre qualified. So a lot of times the language in those letters says based on the information you’ve given and given us, you appear to qualify. However, we have not checked your credit, we have not verified your employment. We haven’t checked your taxes. This does not mean we will lend you that money. So you’re going, what’s the point, right? Why would we give much credibility to that type of letter when it says it’s only based on what you told us, you haven’t even filled out a loan application to give us all your data. We haven’t even pulled your credit yet, versus pre-qualified where somebody actually has already pulled their credit and done some of the due diligence to verify some of the information.
Tego Venturi:
And I want to just make something clear here. We’re not, we’re not throwing lenders under the bus. You know, what happens is the buyers call up and say, well, I don’t want to do all that. Now just give me my prequalification. Well, the buyers are doing themselves a disservice by doing that. I assure you that lenders want to do the due diligence and give you as a buyer, a very strong pre-approved, you know, qualification letter that you submit with your offer. And so buyers need to not try to shortcut that step because it’s going to make a big difference in them winning or losing when they make, make offers right now, when you get multiple offers. Right?
Tracy Venturi:
Right. So the other part of that is, you know, having an experienced agent that does a lot of transactions in this market right now that really knows the ins and outs of how to look at one offer over another for a seller is pretty important, to really give good advice and help the seller make a good decision based on what we, what we have and the relationships we might have with other realtors and with local lenders, because obviously with a local lender is preferred in our market over out of area lenders.
Tego Venturi:
You know, we we’ve talked about this many times, but I’m going to say it again, local lenders that have an office that have a reputation to protect in town. They want to make sure that they’re keeping that reputation strong and doing the right thing. And unfortunately, we’ve seen it. And I, again, I’m not trying to like slam anybody here. I’m just saying we’ve seen it when you have these kind of out-of-state online lenders. They just don’t have quite as much skin in the game to make sure that everything’s good to go. And that the the buyers are taken care of.
Tracy Venturi:
Well, and that’s oftentimes the out of area lenders don’t know about some special programs that might be available here. They don’t have a down payment assistance program for first-time home buyers, right? Yeah. They’re just more limited on the products that they can offer to home buyers. So that’s, that’s things to consider when I’m wondering if you’re leaving money on the table. So who you choose to sell your home with you does matter
Tego Venturi:
Again, it’s not just about price. It’s about, you know, working those offers and negotiating the best deal for you
Tracy Venturi:
And preterm and presenting the proper property in the best light possible.