Did you know that the median home built in San Diego or Orange County was built in the mid-1970s?
That’s before many of today’s first-time homebuyers were even born.
The California Association of Realtors reports that 71 percent of people age 55 and older have been living in their home for 18 years or longer. Almost a quarter of these homeowners have lived in the same home for 39 years. Which brings us back to 1979. The age of disco.
Let that sink in for a minute.
If selling your family home is on your to-do list for 2018, you may want to first consider when your home last had a significant design update. If it was more than three to five years ago, you may have some work to do before your home is ready to hit the market. Unless you are satisfied with selling for a low-ball, “fixer upper” price.
Here’s why:
Baby Boomers are retiring and ready to downsize. Others are selling off their parents’ homes to prepare for a move into assisted living or after their death. Millennials are looking to settle down and buy their first homes. However, there is often a major disconnect between the older homes that seniors are prepared to sell and those that younger buyers want to buy. Millennials in particular are demanding fully updated, move-in-ready homes and are willing to pay more for them, rather than taking on any renovation projects themselves.
In other words, they love Grandma. But they don’t want to buy her house.
Nationwide Mortgages recently released an infographic entitled “How Millennials Are Changing the Housing Market,” which reported the following facts:
· Millennials are now the largest group of homebuyers, accounting for 34 percent of the total market and 66 of first-time buyers.
· For this generation of buyers, a move-in-ready property is a top priority. Student loan debt, stagnating wages and busy careers prevent these buyers from investing time and money to renovate fixer-uppers.
· “Must-have” features: luxury kitchens, fully updated baths, new appliances, green/energy-efficient features and smart home technology.
So, does your home fit the bill?
Even if your home isn’t stuck in the era of “disco chic,” when shag carpeting, wood paneling, popcorn ceilings and avocado green appliances were all the rage, chances are there are still some updates that would make your home far more attractive to today’s buyers.
Including words like “newly updated,” “subway tiles,” “quartz countertops” or “shaker cabinets” in a home’s listing have been shown to significantly boost a home’s final sale price and shorten the number of days it spends on the market.
That’s where Avenue3 Realty comes in.
We specialize in an innovative renovate-then-sell strategy that ensures owners aren’t leaving money on the table when it comes to selling their home. Best of all, we do it with no upfront costs to sellers.
“We know that investing precious dollars into a home you already want to sell is not appealing, or even possible, for a lot of sellers,” said Angelia Sciarrino, CEO, owner and broker for Avenue3. That’s why we invest our own time and money into making updates and improvements to remove that financial burden on sellers. When the home sells, we earn our commission and get repaid for the work we’ve done. The seller keeps the extra profit from the increased value of the home. It’s a win-win.”
“Many of the sellers we work with have lived in their homes for decades, so it’s very common for us to see design features that were highly coveted 15 or 20 years ago, but are now turn-offs for potential buyers or are used as justification for low-ball offers,” said Avenue3’s CFO, owner and broker Gina Scafani. “We stay up-to-date on the latest interior design trends and know what buyers are looking for in a particular price point or neighborhood.”
The key is working with a real estate partner that understands the “sweet spot” for marketability and profit, without over-improving for the target buyer or neighborhood. With decades of proven experience in evaluating, improving, marketing, and buying/selling homes in Southern California, that’s Avenue3’s specialty.
To learn more about how Avenue 3 Realty can help you maximize the profit on the sale of your home, give us a call at (844) 714-2833.