Unless you live in a yurt, you’re going want to be in the driver’s seat when selling your place in Santa Fe, at least within a certain price range. While the market has reached a more traditional balance between buyers and sellers after the recent changes, there are some things you can do to make sure you actually get to drive the car. Read on.
Ditch The Flowery Language & Stick to The Facts
Flowery language full of superlatives and 42 adjectives per line won’t sell your home. The facts will. When a realtor is considering showing your home to a potential client, the only thing they look at is the skeletal stuff. They want facts. Buyers do too. The only problem is the flowery language has somehow become an entrenched tradition. Don’t let your home be marketed via nonsensical prose that paints it like a 90,000-square-foot chateau built by the Duc de Burgundy’s first son. And make sure the facts are properly represented in your listing.
Hit The Market with a Bang
Marketing plays a pivotal role. And the best marketing strategy may be something close to my “everything, all the time” approach. Make sure photos are ready; make sure brochures are ready; have your broker send out e-mails to other brokers. Hold open houses: not once or twice, but as much as possible. If the marketing plan doesn’t reassure you from the outset, it may not be sufficiently strong. Spending loads of money isn’t a requirement, but expending energy and effort is. If it doesn’t feel like you hit the market with a bang, don’t panic. But make sure you do so in the ensuing weeks.
Think about Skipping the Staging
Most buyers can quite easily look past the furniture that you’re self-conscious about, your shortage of attractive hand towels in the kitchen, and the fact that your mid-century modern furniture was only modern in 1874. But don’t get me wrong; staging can place your home in the most attractive light for showings and there are many circumstances when it helps. My point is that there are many other things that can eclipse it in importance (appropriate pricing, for example!) and it’s important to attend to those.
Be Honest, Always
It is vital to be straightforward, clear, direct, and fully honest at all stages of the contracting process, whether you’re a buyer or a seller. For example, disclosing (potentially) adverse material facts about a property is a fraught process. Given how convoluted the regulation surrounding this issue is in New Mexico, it’s vital that your disclosures be defensible. If a second-floor bathroom leaked four years ago and your homeowner’s insurance paid for repairs, you must disclose. It’s also important that your honesty is apparent to the counterparties in the transaction. This removes risk from the process and can smooth things greatly.
Do The Work
This is the most important thing, and it’s something some sellers don’t want to hear. Be willing to put in the work. It isn’t just hard work for the realtor; it can be hard work for the owner. Don’t expect it to be otherwise. If you need to do a little landscaping to improve curb appeal, consider it. If you must clean the house constantly for showings, do it. If you need to leave for four hours to accommodate open houses, try to do it. It often takes work.
Try To Get a Backup Offer
In New Mexico, sellers have relatively fewer rights during the contractual process, and buyers have many more. Certain provisions in New Mexico purchase agreements provide exit chutes for buyers that carry few repercussions for them. If, for example, when your home is inspected, NM buyers can raise any number of objections based upon the report (within reason) and if the seller does not agree to cure all of them, the buyer has a right to terminate and have earnest money refunded. A contract may have one or more contingencies attached (the sale of another home or obtainment of a mortgage) which may cause the deal to terminate with little consequence to the buyer. Make sure your broker is willing to do the leg work to attempt to get a backup offer, so that should the primary-position buyer exercise his or her rights, you’re protected. Many times, backup offers (depending upon the motivation level of the buyer) are stronger than the first contract, and this can work in your favor. It takes a lot of work to get a solid backup offer, but it’s a worthwhile tactic.
Read Your Dang Documents
The home purchase agreement in New Mexico, without any addenda or amendments, now runs 20+ pages. But almost every page of that contract will contain provisions or language that are vital for sellers to fully understand. If the thought of reading a real-estate form puts you to sleep, that’s good. You’re normal. Have your realtor explain exactly what the provisions mean so that you know where your rights lie. The language is not that impenetrable and the more fully it’s understood, the lower the odds of a surprise.
Everything’s Negotiable, Except When It’s Not. Be Reasonable
In theory, almost everything regarding a New Mexico real estate transaction is negotiable. In practice, certain traditions (which can vary from county to county) mean that some things can be firmer than you’d like. In Santa Fe County, it’s customary and typical that the parties split title company closing fee, the seller pays the cost of the new owner’s title insurance policy, each party pays his or her recording fees, and the seller pays the cost of a survey (if needed). Your closing costs will generally run about 7.50-7.75% of the purchase price.
There are hundreds of points of negotiation in a sale; the one thing a broker can’t control is how responsible a negotiator your counterparty is. Sometimes it’s best to choose your battles wisely, to ensure that a successful transaction actually takes place.
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