Ten Things Not to Do When Selling Your Montclair Home

1. Price your home with “room to negotiate.” Sellers think that the more they ask for, the more they will get; study after study has shown that this is not the case. It is ultimately the buyer, not the seller, who decides the price. Pricing your home “slightly higher than what it’s worth” will only serve to keep potential buyers from even looking at your house.

2. Take too long to respond to an offer. Potential buyers read a lot into your actions; they will think you are not interested in their offer and thus turn their attention to other prospects.

3. Refuse to counter a low-ball offer. You can’t take it personally; this is a business transaction. Come down a little bit in your asking price just to keep a dialogue going. And if another offer happens to come in, you now have some leverage on both ends.

4. Follow buyers around, pointing out your house’s charms. Buyers need to be able to visualize themselves and their belongings in your house. They need to make an emotional connection first; your chatter is a distraction.

5. Contact buyers directly. There are too many opportunities for miscommunication and misunderstanding if you do so. This is what real estate agents and lawyers are for.

6. Convince yourself that it’s not worth painting the house because the buyers will want their own colors. This is a classic case of being penny-wise, pound-foolish. If your goal is to sell your house, remember that you only get one chance to make a good first impression. A neutral color and a fresh coat of paint are always best.

7. Refuse to address home inspection issues because your house is “as-is.” If  problems such as mold, asbestos or termites are discovered during an inspection, the buyers will expect you to fix them; In this market, with so much inventory to choose from, buyers do not have to accept a house with major a safety issue. Moreover, once a problem is discovered, you are legally required to disclose it to all potential buyers in the future.

8. List your house as an “office exclusive.” Unscrupulous agents may try to convince you that only the agents in their particular office are trustworthy; this is an attempt to keep other agents from getting the sale (and the commission). Obviously, the more agents trying to sell your house, the better – go with an agent who will “multiple list” your house.

9. Make your house difficult to show. Many homeowners are conflicted about selling, so they limit the days/hours that agents can get into their home. If agents can’t show your house, they can’t sell it.  Your house must be competitive not only in price and condition but also in ease of showing.

10. Try to conceal problems you know exist. First of all, this is fraud. Secondly, whatever the problem is, it will ultimately be found. A freshly-painted basement, for example, immediately suggests to a home inspector an attempt to cover up water damage.

Last June only 2 of the 54 homes (4%) sold in Montclair were over the million dollar mark.  This June, of the 28 homes that sold 7 of them (25%) closed over the million dollar mark with one on Heller Drive selling for $2,549,000 -  a bright spot perhaps for the luxury market.

First and foremost, one of the spouses should be able to commute via mass transit to work. If the family lives within walking distance of a bus stop or train station, that’s a bonus, not to mention another advantage of living in a walkable suburb. The second requirement is flexibility on the weekend. Having kids in suburbia means driving from religious school to sports practice to birthday parties, so schedules need to be carefully coordinated. The third is the recognition that sometimes the best-laid plans fall apart, requiring backup. One-car families need to have friends or family they can lean on in a pinch, or at least the number of a local taxi service.

Families that get by with only one car can save thousands of dollars a year in insurance, gas and maintenance. They also significantly reduce their carbon footprint. Not a bad deal!

On January 24, the governor conditionally vetoed a bill that would have replaced New Jersey’s Council on Affordable Housing with simpler ways for towns to meet their affordable housing obligations. He feels that the bill places too much of a burden on towns and builders; I believe that his proposed solutions will endanger the building of any new housing for middle- and working-class New Jerseyans. These are often the very people who provide the services essential to any community–the firefighters, police officers, shop owners, schoolteachers, etc. Without this economic diversity, walkable suburbs such as Montclair may become richer in terms of per capita income, but we will almost certainly become poorer in terms of our civic spirit. Hopefully this will never happen.

It seems today’s Montclair home buyers expect more out of the kitchen than they did in years past. The dream kitchen of today is not just equipped with Sub-Zero and Viking appliances; it is also centrally located within the house and versatile. Susan Serra, a home designer on Long Island, explains in this month’s issue of Realtor magazine that “Living room and family room activities are merging into the kitchen, and it’s changing how kitchens look.” The kitchen has become the nerve center of the house, where party guests congregate and kids do their homework.

Homeowners are knocking down the walls separating the kitchen from the dining room and even the living room, creating a more open, inviting space. For sellers not looking to do such a drastic overhaul, there are a number of smaller steps that will create the same feel. Serra suggests using sconces and small lamps rather than overhead lighting, for a softer effect. Buyers love extra storage space, so adding a cabinet or wall shelving will add appeal. And most important, don’t skip the basics: make sure the countertops, flooring, etc. are in good condition.

Before you renovate or sell your Montclair home, give me a call or send me an email and I’d be happy to discuss what many of my buyer clients are looking for in the “current kitchen”.

I invite you to comment below or email me with your own reasons for loving your hometown, and I’ll post them here!

Travel + Leisure‘s August 2010 issue has a list of “Coolest Suburbs Worth a Visit,” and Montclair is first on the list. Baristanet is unimpressed, as to live in Montclair is to know it’s a “cool” suburb, but the article does make you think- what makes a suburb a travel destination? There is a lot here for a variety of different sightseers. Gardeners and horticulturalists can stop by the Van Vleck Gardens and Presby Iris Garden. Fans of independent bookstores have two to visit, Watchung Booksellers and Montclair Book Center. Art lovers can take in the Montclair Art Museum, and history buffs can tour the Montclair Historical Society. And foodie-types will have as much and as varied a meal plan as they could hope for (Thai! Japanese! Greek! French! Mexican! Pizza! Bagels! The list goes on!).

“Today’s home buyers aren’t just looking for good schools and low crime rates when they evaluate a neighborhood, many brokers say. They’re paying much more attention to what they can walk to.” (emphasis added)

The growth of walkability as a desirable quality comes from homebuyers who want to avoid traffic as much as possible, and may also be looking forward to a day when gas prices get too high. Aging boomers buying homes to retire in and younger couples buying their first homes are both starting to look for the same easy proximity to town restaurants, shops, and activities.

This is why the towns I work in are so popular, and why I focus on the benefits of walkability when buying or selling homes. Though walkability depends on a number of factors - traffic patterns, topography – I have found that buyers are more and more looking to be within walking distance of things to do, and are willing to pay more for it.

Many first-time home buyers go through a learning process to figure out what exactly they are looking for in a house, and what architectural style will provide those qualities. Looking for a big porch to sit out on in the evening? Why not go for a Craftsman? Love decorative details? Choose a Victorian. Farmhouses are folksy and unpretentious, while Contemporaries and Mid-Century Modern houses have stylistic aspirations. Every house style has pros and cons, and the more you know about what you’re looking for, the easier your house search will be. Take this quiz to see how well you know the houses around you in Montclair and Glen Ridge.

As reported in MinnPost.com, housing researcher John McIlwain has predicted that the period of suburban sprawl is over, and that more Americans will be pushing to live in more urban (one could even say “walkable”) suburbs. “[A] combination of economic, demographic and regulatory trends over the next decade will create ‘a new normal’ in housing markets across the United States,” as spurred by four key demographics: older Baby Boomers who move to more urban areas (even if not the “big city”), younger Boomers who will be tied to suburbs by the inability to sell their suburban homes because of the “soft market,” the Millenials (children of Boomers) who are unable to find steady employment and thus will be forced to rent longer than earlier generations were expected to, and immigrants who need space for large families. The need will therefore be to make more of what currently exists rather than building further out.

We are already seeing some of this in north Jersey, where people who moved to towns like Montclair in the 1970s and 1980s are being priced out and moving instead to smaller towns like North Caldwell. North Caldwell has already begun to adapt to this new wave of Boomers. Other towns are starting to see demographic shifts due to a rise in immigrants. Many lower-middle-class residents are unable to live in the towns they work in, and some of the smaller suburbs are benefiting from this regular stream of homebuyers. Towns of all economic backgrounds will start to build up their “urban” centers, and those areas will in turn act as a draw to newcomers who want to live a more ecologically friendly life but not in a major city.

A good history of the American suburb is Columbia professor Kenneth T. Jackson’s Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States.