Selling's "Secret" Formula.

You hear a lot about "location, location, location" when people describe a house. True, location is a pretty important part of the formula but the big picture is still a formula.

Price - The property needs to be priced in accordance with the competitive properties based on current market conditions. I like to ask the seller to take the out of area's buyer perspective and pretend that they are here looking for a house with their home's similar criteria. This pulls up all the similar houses in the area including those outside of their immediate neighborhood. If they have a special feature like a swimming pool, creek lot, media room, etc, we can see how many of the competitive properties have those features. It's important to look at current actives as well as pendings and solds for the past six months. The pendings tell us how about the immediate activity of that product and the solds tell us what "worked".

Location - This element has several layers to consider. The outer layer would be the school district or city. McKinney is a well regarded city with great schools but those two don't always go together. Up the road, the town of Westminster went bankrupt and that could be an expensive thing for people living (and paying taxes) in that area. Wilmer Hutchins, south of Dallas, closed it's schools all together. The second layer would be neighborhood or area of town. Within every city there are sub areas where different demographics naturally accumulate. Stonebridge Ranch on McKinney's west side is a 5000+ master planned community with loads of amenities including the only swimming pool with a beach in North Texas. It's made up of dozens of neighborhoods subdivided by size and price. The third layer would be the lot itself. Creek lots, lake views, green belts, golf course, cul-de-sac and those all so precious "treed" lots are all highly desirable. I've had two couples recently that would literally walked straight through a house to look at the back yard. If the back yard made the cut, then they looked at the house. I call it "sex appeal" because it seems like lots with special characteristics sell for a bit more and a bit more quickly because they create emotion in the prospective buyer. That's a good thing!

Condition - While this does encompass the yard and the outside of the house, it has a lot to do with the inside. I can't decide whether updating or cleanliness is more important. Let's say you have a absolutely spotless $350,000 home with the absolute latest finish out trends as established in 1991. You know, completely white kitchen with laminate countertops, 4" shiny white tile flooring with black grout and white appliances with beige builder grade pile throughout the rest of the house, and don't forget those gold doorknobs and light fixtures. Even in the same house, picture granite counter tops, wood or stone flooring throughout the major living areas, brushed finish lighting, hardware and plumbing fixtures...but the carpet needs cleaning and it shows cluttered. See what I mean? The outside of the property should be in good repair with fresh paint. Drive up appeal depends heavily on the upkeep of the yard and flower beds and that "mandatory" pot of flowers on the porch.

Now that you have the elements of the formula you tweak each element to find the correct formula to get it sold. In our current market:

Good condition + good location = average comparable square foot price.
Poor condition + poor location = below average price.
Great condition + poor location = below average price.
Poor condition + great location = average comparable price.

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