A couple in their 30s feel a burning urge to move from the small townhouse they bought three years ago before their toddler daughter was born. Falling mortgage rates have convinced the pair that 2024 is finally the right year to trade up to a more spacious abode.
“Simply stated, they’ve outgrown the townhouse. They want a house with a much bigger yard and lots of interior space for entertaining family and friends,” says Stacy Berman, the longtime real estate agent assisting the couple in their search.
This millennial-age couple are even more unequivocal in defining what they don’t want in a property. They refuse to accept any house that needs repairs or updating. Indeed, their strong preference is for a house that’s brand-new or completely renovated.
“They really want an Instagram-worthy house,” says Berman, who contends many millennials are resistant to older homes because they lack the time and skills for do-it-yourself projects.
Rich Harty, who heads a Chicago-area realty firm, agrees that millennials -- now constituting a large swath of the homebuying public -- “gravitate to new-new-new.”
“Young buyers like move-in-ready houses. But they’re not handy and fear hiring contractors would be way too expensive. Also, they’re time-stretched and want a house that won’t require a lot of fixes to be immediately livable,” says Harty, whose realty firm caters solely to purchasers.
Despite the preference of young buyers for a brand-new property, the owners of older homes can appeal to such buyers if they prep for a sale with repairs and cosmetic renovations.
Harty’s overall advice for owners seeking to sell this year: “Get proactive in how you present your property.”
Here are a few other pointers for sellers:
-- Consider doing a presale inspection.
Dylan Chalk, a home inspector who’s done more than 5,000 inspections since entering the field in 2003, says homeowners who take an assertive approach to selling fare far better than those who are passive.
“You want to take control of your sale, not have it take control of you,” says Chalk, author of “The Confident House Hunter,” a book for buyers.
It’s true that an experienced listing agent can quite easily identify minor repairs that need to be done before your place is shown for sale. But it often takes the expertise of a home inspector to detect larger issues, such as those involving your home’s roof or its electrical, plumbing, heating or cooling systems.
Chalk, who’s affiliated with the American Society of Home Inspectors (homeinspector.org), is a strong advocate for what’s known as a “pre-listing home inspection.”
“Often, simple things can come up on a home inspection that can become much more complicated when the clock is ticking under a pending offer. You want to attack tricky repair items on your own time frame, not on your buyers’ time frame,” he says.
R. Dodge Woodson, author of several books on home repairs and remodeling, says many sellers are reluctant to go forward with presale repairs because of the cost and inconvenience involved.
Still, he says it’s important to spend the time it takes to search for the right contractors for your repair work -- whether that involves fixing a nonfunctional garage door or repairing a leaky roof.
-- Search widely for the best available contractors.
Woodson advises against using online advertising to hunt for home-improvement contractors. A more reliable approach, he says, is to seek recommendations from friends, neighbors or work associates who’ve had experience with the contractors they’re suggesting.
Besides those in your immediate circle, Eric Tyson, co-author of “House Selling for Dummies,” says you may wish to garner contractors’ names through the real estate agent you plan to list your home.
“(Agents) hear complaints if a contractor does a lousy job,” Tyson says.
-- Seek multiple estimates for large jobs.
Woodson, who has worked much of his career as a licensed plumber and has also run his own home-improvement company, strongly recommends that homeowners obtain five estimates for any job expected to cost more than $1,000.
Why five estimates? Because experience has taught Woodson that consumers need a range of bids to gain perspective on pricing.
“What you usually want is a contractor in the middle of the pack on price. You can throw away an estimate from anyone who comes in 25% or more above or below the others in the pack. The guy at the top is charging too much and the one at the bottom is probably cutting corners,” he says.
-- Check out contractors by visiting other clients’ homes.
After you’ve narrowed the contractors’ field with a comparison of price estimates, you may think your next step is to ask any company you’re considering for references. But Woodson says this is usually a “pointless exercise.”
“You don’t know if that reference is really someone’s brother-in-law or maybe someone else the company hired to say good things about them,” he says.
Also, Woodson says it’s a mistake to rely on photos the contractor has sent to you via email.
“How do you know that these pictures show the contractor’s real work? Even if they do, the photos could have been doctored,” Woodson says.
To get a better sense of a contractor’s work, ask to visit homes where the firm is now working or has recently completed jobs.
“Sure, someone from the company has to call clients to get their permission for you to come over. But even so, the company shouldn’t balk at letting you see their work. If they do, you’ve got to wonder what they’re hiding. This is a big red flag,” Woodson says.
(To contact Ellen James Martin, email her at ellenjamesmartin@gmail.com.)