Ep 013 - How to Get Your Home Ready to Sale or List

Welcome to Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast, where you'll discover strategies to save money, save time, and be better organized in managing your largest financial asset and biggest expense, your home. Your hosts, John Bodrozic and Beth Dodson, who are co-founders of HomeZada, have been supporting homeowners for over 20 years. They are here to share with you their tips and suggestions, as well as interviews with industry experts, with the goal of helping you become a smarter homeowner. Now here's your hosts, John and Beth. Welcome to another fantastic edition of the Be a Smarter Homeowner podcast. Today we're going to talk about how to get your home ready for sale. Beth, why don't you introduce our fantastic guest today?

Thanks, John. Uh, yes, we've got Jill Elliott. She is a broker associate with @Properties Dallas and brings over 10 years of experience in all aspects of real estate. She has consistently been a top producer in the DFW area, receiving yearly Circle of Excellence Awards. Before becoming a full-time realtor, Jill was a radio personality with 22 years in several cities around the country, including, including Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Columbia, Augusta, and Atlanta. This may seem a strange transition, but her former career allowed her to work with So many different people and charitable organizations that a real estate career was a natural fit for her. Jill has has a podcast for the love of real estate on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and others, and we'll talk about that a little later. She is a big fan of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. She's a member of the Metro Tex Board of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors. Jill is a graduate of the Oklahoma State University Go Cowboys and lives with her wonderful family and dog Stella on the shores of Lake Louisville.

Jill, thank you. No, really, thank y'all.

We've had a great time so far. For people who don't know, off camera, we've had such a great time with all kinds of tech, which we just enjoy.

Yes, definitely.

So to get us, to get us started, you know, our audience at Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast is current and potential homeowners. Can you tell us a little bit more about what it's What they can do to start getting their home ready for list— listing with yourselves as a realtor or any other realtor?

You know, it's probably going to sound a little bit crazy, but you almost have to let go. When you start to think, I may want to sell my home, you almost have to say, I have to let go of so many things. Like, for example, you may say, oh, this, this part, this room looks great, but to somebody else it may look cluttered. So you need to let go of certain things and just certain ideas of what you thought because the home is not yours anymore. So you want to start thinking like a homeowner, which means when you would walk into somebody else's house, what would you want it to look like and how would you want it to look? And so sometimes it's important to have a real estate professional look at that because we can, we know what, when a buyer walks into a house, what lights up their eyes. And we want to make sure that you have that. And sometimes people are like, yeah, but this is my home. Well, it's really not if you're going to sell it. So my first thing is just sort of let go and let the process happen.

No, these are great points. Fantastic.

Follow-up for you, Jill. The condition of the home, right? You may walk into a home that's all, you know, updated and great. And then you may walk into a home that's, you know, 20 years old, hasn't really been updated. Any strategies generically that you might be able to provide our audience if you have like an older home on how to sort of get ready?

Right, yeah. So, some people, you know, if they haven't done many updates, really it's okay. I think now, and I, you know, I can really speak for the state of Texas, but people like the bones of the house to be in order, believe it or not. I call it the big 3 with the 4th: roof, foundation, AC. And then plumbing, windows, electrical all fall next. But when people see that, they feel like the house is taken care of. Then when you add the, as I call it, the Chip and Joanna experience, right? Where you have—

Yeah.

You know, where they're gonna jump out and say, here's your fixer-upper, right? Then you have people like that. So those homes do tend to go higher because if you haven't put the money into it, your chances are you're not going to get that money out of it. However, if you throw location in there, that's a whole nother story. So, so that's really good to know. Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's really good to know that people really still do care about the structure of the home and that it's functioning. Do you also recommend that if there's Areas of home maintenance that homeowners need to tackle. Is— should they do certain areas of home maintenance before they come to a real estate agent to get their house listed?

Well, or maybe get a real estate agent to give you some ideas, because you might think somebody cares about something, but they don't. For example, let me talk about wood rot. Okay, there is not an inspection in the country that is going to say, you know, that wood rot looks great there. They're going to point out any type of wood rot that you have on your house, and everybody has it. So, you know, keep in mind those kinds of little things that, that you should do. If a window is foggy, it's going to be called out. Do you have to fix it? Probably not. Definitely not hazardous, but it could be an easy fix to where it lets the other things about your house shine. Does that make sense? Like, so if somebody's just foggy windows, they might miss how great your kitchen updates really are. So I think it's important to just do those little maintenance things like, like that. So if you walked into somebody else's house and you notice, oh wow, this garage door, one of the panels is, is almost out, you would want to fix those things because you want people to feel like you actually, you know, not that you don't take care of your house, but that, that you don't overlook the small things. Because could that be something bigger down the road?

How important is curb appeal? The whole first impression, right? When you first drive up to a house.

Yeah, exactly. And sometimes on my Facebook page, I'll put, this is curb appeal, right? Because this is what it means. And it doesn't mean you have to have this huge elaborate landscaping in front of your house. You just want to make sure it looks clean, nice. Again, if you walk up to a house and it might have columns or something, they got wood rot all over them. Think about that. Are you going to want to walk up to somebody else's house when you're looking? Because chances are, if you're buying— I mean, you're selling, you're going to buy. So you would want those kinds of things fixed. I mean, curb appeal, I think, is everything because it really lets that person know that as you walk through these doors, you know, there's going to be— we have taken care of this house as much as we've even taken care of the flowers in the front. We've done that.

No, that's a good point. And, you know, you also When it comes to curb appeal, you start looking inside the house as well. And some people recommend staging if the house is already empty. Would you recommend that with the customers you work with?

Sometimes, not all the time, because sometimes I can go into a house and I can say, let's get rid of all of this stuff and move it over here or there. And I can sort of see it a little bit differently. For example, let's say you have a pool and, you know, you have a big chair in front of the sliding glass door or something because it You can see the tele— you can see the television better or whatever. Well, move that chair because what's important is you want that eye to go straight out to that pool or backyard space, which we can talk about backyard space too all day because I think backyards are huge right now. But, you know, with the whole COVID and people staying home more, they want their backyards nice. Doesn't have to have a pool or anything, but they just want it presentable. So it makes the inside look outside, outside look inside. So it really people feel like they get more square footage or a little bit better bang for their buck. But staging as a whole, I think it can be great depending on if the house is completely vacant and maybe you have this really rectangular room or some type of room that, you know, might take a little bit of that, you know, imagination, if you will, for the buyer. So yes, you might want to stage it. You can also— there's also virtual staging where you can send the picture and they will put some furniture in it for you. And you do have to disclose that it's Virtually staged, but it just sort of gives people an idea of, oh, my couch would look good here, a chair would look good here, things like that. But definitely in some cases I do recommend staging. It is an expense depending on certain things with the buyer. I mean, would the seller or the agent pay for it? I think that depends. But overall, sometimes you can sort of get away with not staging because Even if you're moving out, you can leave some of that furniture or you can leave some nice pieces of, you know, maybe some vases or just some things that sort of give the room a little bit of pop of color or something.

So I have a quick question on that because we just talked about staging. And if there is furniture in, in the house, are you saying that some individuals would actually rather buy that furniture that they see in the house Because it's, it's basically start to finish and they don't have to move some of their other stuff.

Absolutely. In fact, I just did this, I think it was last year. Yeah. A wonderful family was moving and they were also missionaries. So when they were leaving Guatemala, they didn't bring much with them. And so this one particular house had the just nicest furniture. Well, oddly enough, They wanted to sell it. They didn't want to take it all with them. So my people had the opportunity to buy it, and it still looks fantastic. I went and saw them the other day. And yeah, definitely. And that does make life easier for a lot of people because maybe where they were coming from, they sold all their furniture. So, but usually if it's like a maybe an heirloom, they won't. But yeah, yeah, that happens a lot, especially these days.

That's convenient.

Switch the gears a little bit.

Yeah, but, but also real quick, like I had someone move from Australia, so they didn't really bring much. But so, so it worked out for them too, that, that there was furniture in the house.

So Jill, question for you, like if people hadn't really sold a house before, think about the fine— how do they set their own financial expectations on the finance side? Meaning, you know, How are they going to arrive at the list price? And are you trying to coach them financially over what this is going to mean to their pocketbook?

Okay, so usually if they haven't, you know, they bought the house, so they're not quite familiar with the sell side, right? Okay, so what I would do then is, or probably any realtor would probably go in and what we call, you know, a CMA, cost market, It's like a market analysis.

Mm-hmm.

Although now we use a little kind of different things too, because we can't just use straight numbers because these days everything isn't so black and white. Because if you've done certain updates, that might be a little bit of an uptick for you. What I also do is I go back into the neighborhood and I really have them look at the pictures and also compare days on market. I can send them all that information of days on market, what it went for. So let's just use round numbers. You have a $500,000 house and It went for $575,000. Somebody was willing to pay over that amount for it. However, um, there's another house that only went $20,000 over. Well, why is that? Well, it's same square footage, it's the same most, but maybe this person just went through and put all those cute tiles now that we're seeing in laundry rooms and things like that. Or they, you know what I'm talking about? I know y'all do. Um, and, and so then they're gonna go, I don't wanna do that myself. I'd rather have, you know, just do it this way. To me, it's a little bit of a catch-22 because then maybe you could do those updates yourself. If— do you see what I mean? And if you do that, would that be more advantageous monetarily for you? In other words, maybe you have money from this sale where you could find a house like the $520,000 house that maybe isn't as updated and sort of do it yourself over time. So that could be an option too. But as far as finally getting to that bottom line, they really have to be the ones that come up with the price. We learned that in Broker School 101. That really is the seller sets the price, but we have to educate them. And I think that's what's important.

Yes.

And I really want to stress, if you do use an agent, which you should these days, that you let them drive the bus. And I know that's hard to do. It's hard for me to in any other way to maybe sometimes let somebody else drive that bus if I think I know something about that. But the reality is, is between disclosures and all of the things that, that you really need behind the scenes, it's important, I think, to have a professional because it's not the same as it was 20 years ago. It's not the same as it was last year. Things have changed. They change like every quarter now these days, you know. So, so that's why I think it's important to have somebody that really knows to show you just these little intricate things. Well, why is it— why can't my house go for this much? Well, but you didn't really do this, this, and this. See?

Sure.

So that's why.

So with that said, is— are there things that a homeowner can do to bring to the table to prepare themselves prior to meeting with a realtor?

Um, yeah, probably. I mean, they can say, well, maybe let's just say there's an open house in their neighborhood and they go in there and they're like, whoa, look at all of this. Um, you know, just little things like, like I said, declutter. Um, really, if you have a great garage, but you've got— and I sometimes you got to put boxes or whatever in your garage, I get that. But, you know, really show off certain areas of your house if you do have a, um, a great workspace in your garage, right? People love that. If you do have Certain things about your house, but if they're just caught up on, oh my gosh, as soon as I got up here, the lawn needed to be mowed, this tree is dying, you know, and then they get in the front door and they notice all around the door there's wood rot and things like that, you know, then they're gonna— I don't think they really see that value of the house. So if you can look around your own house and say, you know, maybe we should— you know, this is a huge closet, but it's stuffed with stuff. Let's consolidate that. So People can see, um, and put their things in it and stuff like that. So yeah, maybe a little fresh paint. I mean, I'm gonna go ahead and go there with it, um, because I have a big German Shepherd and I'm very conscious of— people probably come in my house, does it smell like a dog, or has the cat box been emptied lately?

Exactly.

Um, I don't have a cat, but those little things, um, I think that you have to really think about because you don't want people to walk in and turn around and walk out.

Yep.

So if a homeowner does not have any relationships with any real estate agents and they're basically trying to sell their house, and then how would you recommend them going about finding the right real estate agent to list their house?

469-513— no, just my phone number.

Beautiful, I love it.

Okay, okay, you ready for this? This is one that I think freaks people out a little bit. Find one that you trust. Notice I didn't say like, I said trust. Trust.

Yeah.

Trust. Obviously trust is everything in any relationship, whatever it is, trust, and then work from there. So in other words, maybe the agent that, that the neighbors had maybe wouldn't work for you, but maybe meet a couple of people. But honestly, you guys, everybody's a real estate agent, at least in Texas.

Who isn't?

Um, and it's funny because when I started this 11 years ago, I moved to Dallas. It wasn't as crazy as it was. Um, I decided, oh, I'm gonna marry my brother's best friend from high school and move from Atlanta to Dallas, and I'm gonna be a real estate agent after 22 years of radio and TV. And, um, then all of a sudden, like a year later, everybody was a real estate agent. Everybody. And it was like this craze. Um, but I think that just really somebody that maybe— and that you're okay that's going to tell you the truth. You know, if you're sitting there and you've got a big hole in the wall in the living room and they go, you know, just put a picture over it, that'd be fine, or people don't care, you have a great location. No, you know, you want to present your home as if you were, you know, as you want top dollar for it. So, if you were going to pay top dollar for something, How would you want it to look? And so I really think that, that when you find that agent that's going to tell you— and I will tell you this, when I was my husband and son's agent, and who my son is an agent now, but back when we sold our house and built one, I got to be the ice pick queen mean girl because I knew they would still like me and trust me. So it was okay. But I'm like, move that chair, do this. You know, things I can't do. And We sold it in a day and all that jazz. But do you know what I mean? Clearly it worked. But if you kind of like things a little more sugarcoated or something like that, maybe you do it this way or that way. I really want to tell you, don't always just look at the value of what that Realtor brings or their brokerage because our brokerage does— I guess there are discount brokerages and there are people who, you know, charge very little, those kinds of things. And you really have to wonder, you know, what you're getting, because just because you sell that house in one day doesn't mean it's headed to the closing table by any stretch.

Right.

It could go back on the market and back on the market. So you just need people who are going to tell you the truth. Now, sometimes you have people that go, yeah, I know it says $500,000. You know, roughly of what we should list at, but really, we really think we're at $850,000 or $900,000. Okay.

Radically different.

A little different. Because it can be emotional, right? Maybe you have 15, 20 years of your life in that house, right? So, it can be a little bit of an emotional thing to move. But I do believe that if you let that person, that professional, and they really show you the comps and what this person did and that person and what's going on in the area, Is there a hospital going up? Is there a grocery store around that, you know, has come into town that's really good, or a mall? So I think you have to kind of look at the whole picture as well.

So speaking of that, you know, you talk about, you know, it may sell in a day, but it may not close at the closing table. With that said, what are the situations you've seen why a house may not close at the closing table?

Maybe from a listing agent side, you know, we have a lot of, a lot of low, very low inventory. So sometimes people like to put a contract on each house, which can get really expensive, a few houses. So they may say, oh yeah, we want this house. And then all of a sudden, we have an option period in Texas. And so during that time, they just back out because the next house came available. You might see that. You might see where maybe the buyer went out and bought a car and that messed up their debt-to-income ratio. Um, they— the buyer may have, um, you know, decided that, that, that they just didn't want the house and, and they would rather lose $5,000 or $6,000 maybe than buy a house they really don't want. Um, so there's lots of reasons. Sometimes the lenders just delay and delay. Um, so I think picking the right lender is crucial, crucial, um, because they might tell a buyer upfront, oh, you have this low interest rate and it's going to be great. And then the underwriters don't really see that. And so they keep asking for information and information and you're delaying the close and those kinds of things. So there's all kinds of things I think that can happen along the way and you just have to sort of navigate through them. And I've seen a lot. I'll tell you, I've seen a lot and I sort of like it actually because I can fix, usually can fix anything that comes along. But yeah, it's really interesting because every single transaction is unique yet the same. So we all have the same goals. We all had the same things of way we started out. And then in the end, you just have to navigate through things. Maybe the seller had to leave the country or something and you have to delay the close date. But now with technology, obviously, that's sort of a different story. I actually closed a house in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea. Yeah, like, yeah, we sent the papers. The guy had to find a notary because the buyer had to delay. So that means his vacation at the Dead Sea was not going to stop. I got the pictures with them with all their dirt on them and the mud and everything. It was really funny. So yeah, you sometimes just have to be creative and make it happen, but it could be delayed. And that's okay too. You know, sometimes people expect this perfection and it's not. It's not a perfect science of what Right.

How about the word inspection reports? Do you recommend the seller try to do an inspection before, or do you just say the buyers are going to want to do their own thing, or is it sort of flexible? How do you think about that?

Yeah, the short answer and long answer to that is no. But here's why. And there was a time, a long time ago, that people would do that. But I think that it's important to— it's almost like staying in your lane, right? Because of, I don't know, you know, basically a long time ago when people would just appraise it at whatever it was. And so this way the buyer is paying for that inspection. And if I did it prior, well, maybe that inspector said something totally different. He didn't even catch this or this or this, but this inspector said this, this, and this.

Right.

So I think it can get really convoluted. And you do have to disclose, if you buy a house and leave within 4 years, you have to disclose that inspection report. And that's fine. And some of the things maybe are fixed, some maybe not. And codes change sometimes. And you don't know every code on your house because the city changes.

Exactly.

You don't. And so little things too. Maybe you haven't looked at your roof. All you know is it's just not leaking. But then maybe one inspector says your roof is great. The other one says, hmm. So yeah, I think if the buyer's paying for that, then it's that one report. And then the seller can look at that and And if you have done some things to the house prior, like, you know, you can't roll that tennis ball from the front door, you know, it won't roll by itself to the back door. If you know that, that's a good thing, right? You don't—

Yeah, exactly.

In Texas, things, you know, we have fluctuating soils and things like that. So it's good to know, but you'll know, you know, those kinds of things. And then if inspector points out again, those big 3, and some of the others that could be possibly hazardous. But really, in Texas, people aren't doing a lot of, you know, they're not going to give you weather stripping on a door because that's $5 at, you know, Home Depot. And they're probably not going to do, in a 1980s house these days, change GFCI switches. Those are some things that you have to do. Some sellers will, some just say, no, I'm grandfathered into that, you do it, but I'll do this. But it is, with it being such a strong seller's market right now, Most of them aren't doing a lot of, quote, repairs, but they, they do have to fix anything that could be potentially hazardous or, you know, it's just blatant, like a broken window or something. Or if you advertise it— I've advertised a sprinkler system, it should work. I've advertised that I have a microwave, it should work. So if you know that that third burner isn't working on your stove, go ahead and fix it. Just fix it, because if you were moving into a house, you would want that done. Right, right.

That's correct.

Yep.

Yeah, no, this has been great, Jill. Thank you so much for all this valuable information. Now, one of the things that you are also doing is your own podcast. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

You know, my podcast is, um, very lifestyle real estate. I don't talk about how much money I make and how you can too, or here's how you can, you know, buy property and invest it and all that kind of stuff, unless the guest is talking about it. I— because I sort of have of a radio background. And really, you guys, like, I'm not uncomfortable being interviewed, but I, you know, I'm just like, oh gosh, did I say or do the right thing? I can't even know where I'm looking in the camera. But I sort of like talking to, especially as you'll see, some of my favorites. You know, Mike Connors, he's a great realtor in Kansas City. And actually, this is a funny story. He called me one day or sent me a message and he said, are you the Jill Kelly I went to middle school with? Because my maiden name is Ellen. I said, oh my gosh, it's Mike Connors! Like, all the girls like Mike Connors, right? And so, so I'm like, yeah. And then come to find out, we had this great rapport, and, and it's so cool, right? Um, but it's very lifestyle. Like, um, I did a show on, um, you know, moving. And like, we have this, um, I know this girl here in Dallas, and like, she will do everything. Like, everything. She will set your office up for you. She will fix your underwear drawer. You know, she has this cool company. Um, you know, so I do very lifestyle, very just, just stuff, because I think so many times realtors and real estate just gets so— I don't know, there's just— it just— you need to have some fun with it. You need to have some just ways, different ways to think about it. Because so many times I think people just think it should be this way and this way, but it's— it could go all different ways. So it's a very lifestyle sort of, um, fun, I guess, if you will. Um, you know, we did one on decorating, um, and they were great. And so I don't know, I just, I just like it, I guess, because I'm more lifestyle radio, obviously. Um, I did morning shows, so for me to just sit there and interview one, you know, back and forth, back and forth, I, I don't know how to do that. So.

That's fantastic.

Any parting comments? Any, any last bit of advice for people, uh, looking to list their home that we haven't gotten to?

You know, I would first say just try to find a realtor that you trust and respect the process. Um, you know, people don't realize that when you buy a house, a realtor is compensated, but, you know, it's, it's really not through the buyer. And when the seller sells the house, Chances are they did not pay a realtor when they bought that house, right? So that's how our system checks and balances itself. So if you're like, you know, and again, you know, all of it's different, you know, as far as price-wise, there's no fixed. Okay, we've got to get that clear. There's nothing fixed. But sometimes when you think about it, okay, so a buyer's bringing in their down payment. Now they have to pay for all their closing costs. Seller rarely pays closing costs unless maybe it's a few repairs during the option that they might give you a little bit of money for. The buyer also has to now, a lot of times they pay title, the title costs here to get the deal. And they pay for their own home warranty. They pay for, you know, again, their down payment and all of that stuff. And you kind of think of, and then a lot of times they're paying over, they might be paying $50 grand over. And if that house doesn't appraise and they've signed a waiver, then they will have to come up with that money. So that's why. But so many times they'll say, well, I don't want to pay a realtor on one side or the other. They call that for sale by owner. Um, and I've done it. It's my dirty little secret. I don't recommend it. I did it back in the day and I'm like, oh my gosh, I had some guy call me and he's like, I want to come by. And I'm like with my son by myself. I did have big dogs. Um, but I'm like, who are you? Like, and I realized I don't know if he's qualified. I don't know if he's just coming over to see my stuff. I, I mean, all of a sudden I just realized I gotta hire a realtor, right? Um, because The person I was with said, nah, you can do it yourself. I'm like, okay. It didn't— it's hard. You know, you gotta be there for every showing. But it's like anything else. If you go to a doctor, you gotta pay the doctor what they charge you. You know, you've got to— you know, if you have an attorney, you've gotta— you can't just go, you know, I think I'm gonna pay you 1% of that bill or 5 or 10. You know, they don't give you—

Right.

But I think so many times people think it's a hobby and it's really not. We have continuing education. Any realtor will tell you that we have continuing education. We have classes that we're constantly taking. We stop in at lunch at maybe a title company and have some, you know what I mean?

Yeah.

We're just constantly learning and we constantly have to think about it. And so I just recommend just calling a realtor or 2 or a couple that you like and then pick one and You know, go from there and let them be your realtor. You have a doctor, you have a lawyer, you have a banker, you know, have someone. And that's what I really want. I, you know, sometimes people, hey, I need to go see this property. And I think to myself, are you qualified? Nah, we haven't talked to a lender. We haven't done it. And I'm like, but we want to see it now. And I'm like, well, I can't put in an offer without it. And then I think, do I want to die today? I mean, I don't know. Like, who are you? Like, I'm not just going to walk into a situation. And put myself at risk. I've got to be around to make my husband and son crazy. You know, I really do.

Yeah.

Exactly. Yeah. You can't just, you know, when people use, you know, these big, you know, companies that just have the, you know, the properties out there, they're like, but it's like, it's not one, you know, 1-800, you know, call a realtor because there are procedures in place and You know, we're paid on commission. So, hey, you know, that's how it works.

Now, Jill, if someone wants to work with you in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, how do they contact you?

Easy breezy. I have the easiest phone number in the world. It looks like a robocall. 469-500-1300. That is as simple as it gets. Text me. Yeah, you can go to my website, all that jazz. But, um, but definitely 469-500-1300. I go to all areas because when I started 10 years ago, Um, you know, I started getting referrals because I figured, see, I'm originally from New Orleans, lived in Oklahoma, lived in Atlanta, right? So in between there, I have to know people in Dallas. So a lot of my friends from high school and things like that, um, contacted me or I contacted them and, um, it just sort of blossomed. And then they would have, you know, referrals and things like that. So that's—

Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. This has been super informative. Really appreciate it. And for our audience out there, thank you for joining us on this episode of Be a Smarter Homeowner Podcast. As usual, please rate us, please share this information with your friends, because we want to do the best to make you the smartest homeowner you can be.

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