4 Big Problems Sellers Must Face When Selling a Hoboken Condo
Categories: Design, For Sellers, Hoboken Condos
1. You Have Only 3 Minutes
Let’s say you list your Hoboken condo for sale and, thanks to excellent marketing, have a showing appointment for a potential buyer to come to see it. You’ve got their attention and they are in the door. How long do you think the average buyer spends in each property? Five minutes? Maybe 10 to 15 if they really take their time? To think that you have 5 minutes to convince a buyer to buy your condo is generous. Most buyers walk in, take a quick look around and make a snap decision in the first 3 minutes whether or not they like the property enough to buy it. This decision is a gut reaction and can be very subjective. If they don’t immediately get a good feeling about your condo in the first few minutes, trust me, they are ready to move onto the next.
Your condo must make an outstanding impression in the buyer’s mind immediately. That means you need “wow factor“. Wow factor is what happens when someone opens your front door, steps inside and, literally, says “wow”. Selling real estate successfully is all about first impressions. There are many different ways to make “wow” happen depending on your particular property. An exceptional realtor should present your property in such a way that potential buyers walk in and can picture themselves living there. Unfortunately, many realtors have no clue how to do this and some sellers don’t use a realtor thinking they can do it better on their own. We’ve all seen photos on-line of condos for sale taken with the laundry piled on the closet floor and the toilet seat raised in the bathroom. Many people just don’t get what it takes to make a property shine. The most important steps include decluttering, depersonalizing, modernizing and creating an immediate focal point that draws the buyer’s attention to the defined attributes of your particular condo. Spending all day, almost every day seeing other condos that are for sale certainly gives you an edge in knowing what must be done.
When a buyer walks through your condo and has an internal dialogue that sounds like: “well, if we change the paint color and redo the floors, then put the couch over here to make this room flow better, we could eat over there, and maybe build a small closet against this wall” forget it, it’s over. When a buyer focuses on what is wrong with your condo instead of what is right you have lost the sale. The buyer must be so taken with everything right about the property and can picture living there so easily that they never even notice any potential flaws or drawbacks.
2. Your Taste Doesn’t Matter - Selling a Condo in Hoboken is a Numbers Game
You might have spent years agonizing over every little detail in your home to get it just the way you like it. The problem is, nobody cares what you like. To sell your condo you need to consider what most condo buyers will like. Of course, you can’t get inside every buyer’s head but you can shoot for the most popular choices that are most likely to appeal to the greatest number of potential Hoboken condo buyers. For example, if you’re selling a 2 bedroom condo in Hoboken, remember that Hoboken is full of young couples with babies and they almost always want a washer/dryer in their home to wash the baby’s onesies. If you are selling a 1 bedroom condo in Hoboken, chances are high that your buyer is a young, single professional who commutes to work in the city. Most guys want a place to put a really big flat screen and most girls like a huge closet with adequate shoe and purse storage. Did you think about that when you set up your furniture or organized your closets for showings? Is the first-time Hoboken buyer going to walk in and immediately see the perfect wall opposite the couch for the plasma TV or “ooh and aah” over the little shoe storage boxes built into the closet? You may love the purple walls in the bedroom but do you think more buyers will prefer purple or cream? Even if you never needed or wanted these features what matters now is what your potential buyer likes and wants. The more potential buyers you can appeal to, the more likely one will take action and make an offer and the more offers you get, the more likely you are to sell.
3. There is Stiff Competition in the Hoboken Condo Market - Go See For Yourself
The inventory of Hoboken condos for sale is on the rise. You are not the only game in town, no matter your location or price. Today’s condo buyers have choices. Let’s imagine that you own a condo in 100+ year old, 10 unit, walk-up building on Park or Willow or even Hudson. These long, narrow, two-to-a-floor condos are abundant in Hoboken. Does yours stand out from the others? Have you actually seen the others that are for sale? If not, why not? The potential buyer of your condo will probably see all of them before deciding on which to make an offer.
The same applies to newer construction units like MetroHomes or Fields construction buildings. These units are not inherently that different from one another. They tend to be located in similar areas like the northwest section of Hoboken. Your condo, at whatever price it is offered, must be one of the best available in that particular price range. Hoboken buyers are smart, sophisticated and willing to shop around. Your condo unit must be perceived by the buyers as the best deal in town. If it’s not, your condo is simply not going to sell in today’s market at the price you are asking.
4. Hoboken is a Buyers Market - If your Condo is Overpriced it Will Not Sell
This problem relates back to the other three. Sellers always have reasons why they can’t bother to paint or put possessions into storage or replace the bathroom vanity or redo the kitchen. Sometimes it is unrealistic for a seller take the time or make the effort or invest the funds to build a new closet or rearrange furniture or whatever may be needed. That’s fine. That’s a seller’s decision. There is, however, always an alternative to taking action. If your condo can’t show as the best on the block it had better be a bargain. If your condo does not call out to the average Hoboken condo buyer and make their heart beat faster as soon as they walk in the door it is unlikely to sell unless it is perceived as a great value compared to the other similar condos for sale that show beautifully. There are some buyers out there who would rather get a deal and do their own renovations than pay top dollar to buy a mint condo. Keep in mind, however, that most Hoboken condo buyers are young and busy with jobs and families. The majority of them don’t want to or don’t have time to deal with construction or renovations. Most Hoboken condo buyers want a condo in move-in condition.
How do you know what the sale price of your condo should be? Well, again, if you have a skilled realtor they can help you correctly reach that decision. Beware that many real estate agents out there today are not doing well in a slower market. These less successful agents will do absolutely anything to get a listing. If you tell them you would like to get $500,000 for what is really a $400,000 condo they will list your condo for $500,000 rather than offend you and possibly lose the listing. The problem is, your condo won’t sell if it is overpriced. That real estate agent isn’t too smart because they are going to have to spend time, money and effort to market your property to no avail. If it doesn’t sell, they don’t get paid and you are not happy with them since you likely will see it as their failure to do what you hired them to do - sell your condo. But then, if they were a good agent they would not have taken the listing at an inflated, unrealistic price. So tell your agent you want to go and look at the Hoboken condos for sale that are similar to yours at the price you would like to ask. If you were a buyer, and be objective now, would you choose your condo as the best condo for sale on the market right now? If not, you need to list your unit at a lower price.
Sellers don’t like to hear that they are going to get less than they would like when they sell their condo. Many sellers price their condos based either on what they paid and how much they hope to make in profit or on what their neighbor got for his. Buyers don’t care what you paid. Buyers don’t care what your neighbor sold for last year or last week. Buyers only care about what is for sale right now and how your condo stacks up. Of course, some buyers may decide that no condo currently for sale in Hoboken is worth its asking price. That buyer, for whatever reason, has not made the necessary mental committment to part with his or her money at this point in time. That buyer is never going to buy your condo anyway. The buyer you need to attract and convince is the buyer that is serious about buying a condo in Hoboken now. The serious buyer has made the mental leap and will part with the cash but still wants value, and value is perceived as getting the best possible property for sale.
Remember the 4 classic steps in a making a sale: AIDA or Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. The proper marketing and advertising of your condo should get the buyers attention. When they walk in the door, the WOW factor is going the get their interest. A buyer who can picture himself living in the space has desire. When that buyer feels that your condo is priced right because it represents a good value compared to the alternative he or she will take action and make an offer. Its a formula that’s been around and proven for a long time. Now you know how to put it to your advantage to sell your condo in today’s Hoboken condo market.
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Hoboken Condo For Sale - Comes With Its Own Transients!
Categories: Design, For Buyers, For Sellers, Hoboken Condos, Hoboken New Construction
They’ve Got To Be Kidding!
I saw an interesting Hoboken condo property yesterday. A 10 unit building was gut renovated and all the units were for sale, a few already under contract. The building was your typical Hoboken 5 story walk-up with the staircase in the center and a ‘right’ and ‘left’ unit on each side of the building. If you’ve ever seen them, you know that these units can be very long and narrow. The location wasn’t bad - the 300 block of Grand Street. That’s between 3rd and 4th Streets, on Grand. Remember that for later.
We went into one of the units listed as a 2 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath for $439,000. The unit was 670 square feet - pretty small for a two bedroom. In fact, just knowing the square footage makes you wonder how two bedrooms could possibly fit. Most two bedrooms in Hoboken condos are closer to 1000 square feet.
Two Bedrooms and No Living Room
Squeezing two bedrooms into 670 square feet takes a bit of doing. If you design an open kitchen with a 2 seat breakfast bar, the area on the far side of the breakfast bar is your “living room”. A very tiny living room but you could theoretically fit an Ikea love seat and coffee table into the space. Forget about having a real sofa. Given the space (or lack thereof) what would make more sense would be to treat the second bedroom as the living room. Perhaps even remove the wall between the ‘living area’ and bedroom or open it up with pocket or French doors. But then you’ve got a $439,000 one bedroom. At least you’d have a reasonably sized living room.
Whatever You Do, Don’t Open the Kitchen Drawers
Let’s consider the kitchen. It has about 6 cabinets total, 3 uppers and 3 lowers. My favorite was the cabinet between the sink and refrigerator. In order to open one of the few the drawers, you must first open the refrigerator door. That’s right - you must open the refrigerator door - all the way - in order to open the drawer. Otherwise the drawer just hits the refrigerator, eventually denting the stainless steel. The corner cabinet beneath the drawer was essentially wasted space since the door only opens about a third of the way. Since corner base cabinets are where one would store things not used very frequently - like big pots, the door’s inability to open renders the whole cabinet sort of useless.
What Does That Glossy Brochure Say?
There were very fancy, clearly expensive brochures in the condo. The very first page touted “attention to detail“. Inside it, I was stunned to see the “Neighborhood” section with a full page photo (the only full page photo in the brochure) of the Elysian Cafe. I guess if you consider all of Hoboken your neighborhood the Elysian is in the neighborhood of 3rd and Grand Streets. The Elyisian is uptown at 10th and Washington Streets. Not exactly the same neighborhood as 3rd and Grand. Nice try, though.
My Condo Comes With a Transient?
Even more unbelievably was the page of the brochure that listed the condos’ features. Among them was “glass transients and doors“. Someone doesn’t know the difference between a transom and a transient. A transom is the horizontal glass window often found above doors in Hoboken properties with high ceilings. They would be opened up at night in the old days to allow air to circulate through the long, narrow apartments. A transient is something fleeting, like my respect for the intelligence of the people who wrote this brochure. The property is listed with one of the largest brokerages in the US. Don’t they have proofreaders?
Given the obvious lack of attention paid to quality in both the design of the units and the promotional materials used to sell them, buyers’ interest in buying these Hoboken condos are going to be pretty transient, as well!
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Going “Green” in Hoboken Condos One Step at a Time
Categories: Crazy Ball, Design, For Buyers, For Sellers
Granite Counters May No Longer Help Sell Your Condo
We just celebrated the 30th anniversary of Earth Day, now expanded into Earth Week. On April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day, I happened to be on a family trip to Washington D.C. and on the mall where the first Earth Day event was taking place. I can still remember listening to a young Ralph Nader speak about the need to protect the environment. Thirty years have gone by and our environmental problems have become so much worse. Maybe it’s time for us to start taking our part in the problem more seriously. So here is my contribution for Earth Week 2008 (a tiny bit late).
There has been a lot of focus on ‘green buildings‘ lately, like the new Garden Street Lofts in Hoboken, which also happen to be some of the highest priced Hoboken condos ever. Yet every day I hear buyers ask “does that condo have granite counters and
stainless steel appliances in the kitchen?” and “are the bathrooms all tiled?” Many sellers think that putting new granite counters in the kitchen or replacing the carpets with hardwood floors is an easy, inexpensive way to upgrade their condo before selling. Granite, marble and most other stone is not green! Stones like marble, granite, slate, sandstone and limestone come from quarries. They are dug out of the earth from quarries which leave behind a huge, permanent, ugly gouge in the mountainside that disfigures the landscape for years and years. Stone quarrying causes all sorts of destruction to natural habitats, noise pollution, air pollution and water contamination from waste. We’ve all learned what damage has been done to our forests by over harvesting of trees. Now hardwoods are “FSC” certified (they come only from forests that are sustainable).
Why Not Recycled Paper or Glass For Your Next Kitchen or Bath?
Today there are hundreds of green products you can consider when renovating your condo. From recycled paper counter tops to reclaimed hardwood and even tile floors, the choices are affordable and attractive. There are many websites like the GreenHomeGuide where you can find advice and descriptions of these new options. Many of us, myself included, thought that if you wanted an upscale, luxurious finish granite, marble and stone were the way to go. Now we know better and have the information to make an intelligent, responsible choice. So before you begin selecting granite colors or looking at hardwood floors, explore the new options. Here are just a few to start:
- Bamboo for floors, cabinets and counters
- Marmoleum (made from linseed oil and natural pigments),
- Glass tile from Oceanside Glass made of recycled glass,
- IceStone (icestone.biz) produced in Brooklyn. Made of cement and glass, 75 %recycled, it is suitable for floors, walls and counters. Surfaces are available in almost any color, as the pigment can be added to the background mix and customers can select from a variety of sizes and colors of glass.
- Vetrazzo by Vetrazzo LLC (www.vetrazzo.com), which uses 80 percent postconsumer or postindustrial recycled glass and produces no off-gassing or VOCs.
- EnviroSlab (www.enviroglasproducts.com) is a recycled-glass terrazzo built in a color-pigmented epoxy resin.
- PaperStone (www.paperstoneproducts.com) composed of postconsumer waste paper and natural resin. Very strong and durable, its Certified line of counters uses 100 percent postconsumer waste.
- Richlite (www.richlite.com) another paper-and-resin counter, made from pulp derived from managed forests in the U.S. Like PaperStone, this matte slab material comes in natural colors that add a soft, comfortable feel to the room. The surface is stain-, scratch-, and heat-resistant, durable, and easy to maintain.
- Counterfeit, manufactured by shektaStone (www.shetkastone.com), is made from decommissioned paper money. Tops are scratchproof, waterproof, and stain-resistant and come in shades of green, including one that looks like marble and another that has pieces of U.S. Treasury bills visible in it.
- Reclaimed tile floors - take a look at the gorgeous ones at Pave Tile & Stone.
The list grows every day as more manufacturers are answering the demands of consumers for greener, healthier products. Remember, those same consumers are the ones willing to pay top dollar for environmentally friendly living spaces like the Garden Street Lofts. When time comes to sell, your greener floors and fixtures will lead to more green in your wallet! There are plenty of resources on the web where you can learn more about green building and remodeling alternatives. One of the most respected informational sites is buildinggreen.com. You’ll be surprised by the beauty and affordability of these new options and can sleep better at night knowing you did your part to help protect the earth while getting top dollar when you sell your Hoboken condo.
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Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign!
Categories: Crazy Ball, Design, Neighborhoods
Hoboken Streets Are Over Run with Signs - It’s Time For a Change.
Every Saturday and Sunday morning, you can watch as Hoboken realtors scurry around town, putting out sandwich board signs on street corners all over Hoboken to advertise their open houses. These signs are supposed to direct people to the open house but there is no evidence that this is at all effective. Worse, when it is windy, the signs often end up in the street instead of on the corner. Cars drive over them, people have to walk around them, and to say the least, they can be very unsightly.
According to most realtors, these signs are a necessary part of doing business. Yet in today’s internet world, that’s just nonsense. All of the open house information is readily found on-line at sights like craigslist, realtor.com and more, and it’s typically in the Hoboken Reporter classified section. For anyone who really cares, finding where the open houses are being held is pretty simple. The one thing the signs seem to do is make the seller feel all warm and fuzzy. So as long as one agency does it, the sellers will pressure every agent to do it. How do we get it to stop? Don’t let anyone do it! Or at least make them do it in a better way.
What’s the Alternative? Kiosks!
Why not have the city install a central kiosk or two, in high traffic locations that don’t block the sidewalk, where each agency can rent ad space? In fact, the city could use the revenue improve the street scape of Hoboken. Let City Hall fill some pot holes or plant some trees. The City has an interest in keeping the streets clear for pedestrians and ensuring the safety of its drivers. Keeping these signs out of the way and out of the street and having them placed in designated areas would surely further that purpose. It would also make Hoboken look a whole lot nicer.
Maybe even a little bit Parisian?
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Top 7 Reasons Your Condo or Home is Not Selling (That You Can Do Something About)
Categories: Design, For Sellers
Why Hasn’t My Condo Sold Yet?
When a property has been on the market an eternity and it’s just not moving, there is a reason. It may be in a bad location. That’s not really anything the seller can do much about. The property is just ridiculously overpriced. Sellers can be greedy. That’s hard to change. Often there is a different reason and a simple fix.
If You Really Want to Sell - Let Go Of Your Attachments
Sounds like something I would hear in yoga class - and it’s true. You’ve been living in your condo with things a certain way and you’re all attached to it being a certain way. You’ve justified all the reasons you never made those little improvements and now you’ve deeply bought into your justifications. If you really want to sell you may have to make some changes. Here are 7 of the most common issues that usually have a very easy fix:
1. The Closets Are a Mess
You should have sprung for the closet organization system when you bought the place. After years of living with clothes piled on shelves and crammed on a single closet bar, it hardly seems worth the effort to change your closets now. Well, it is. One of the biggest turn-offs for buyers is a lack of closet space, a common fault with Hoboken condos.
Solution: Go to Ikea. Buy a new closet system.
They’re a fraction of the cost of California Closets and just a functional and good looking. They are easy to install yourself with nothing more than a screwdriver. If you simply can’t afford it - hide everything! That’s right, hide the mess. Buy a bunch of pretty, colorful, matching paper boxes. Pile all your stuff into the boxes and arrange them neatly on the shelf. Then get matching hangers and pretend you work at the Gap. You know what I mean. Everything in color order, facing the same way. Add a big dose of potpourri or home fragrance and you’re good to go.
2. The Bathtub Is Gross
I can’t tell you how many tubs I look at in the most pristine bathrooms that have dirty, stained caulking.
Solution: Go to Home Depot. Buy some “caulk remover” and new caulk.
This is a really inexpensive fix yet it makes a huge difference in the appearance of your bathtub. Check the sink, too. Moisture accumulates where the countertop meets the wall and often mildews. Re-caulk it if it needs it.
3. The Floors Don’t Shine
Hardwood floors get scratched by furniture and shoes and lose their shine. They need to be refinished every so often. Carpet looks nice when it’s brand new but after a while it seems more like a place where somebody else’s dirt is hiding. A small change in the appearance of your floors can make a huge difference in the attractiveness of your unit.
Solution: Have the floors refinished and replace carpet with hardwood.
If you already have hardwood, you’re ahead of the game but you need to have them sanded and refinished. A relatively small investment here has a big payoff. If your hardwood is the very 1970s style checkerboard parquet (yes, you with the condo at the Shipyard) get rid of it and put in plank flooring. Not only will it look 100% better, it will set you apart from your neighbors who are selling. If you have wall to wall carpet seriously consider ripping it out and installing hardwood, or at least a laminate like Pergo. Hardwood is way less expensive than you would imagine. Look on-line. There are plenty of discounters.
4. The Lighting is Awful
Dark, dreary, or cast in a blue/grey glow? Does this describe your space? Do you have bare, exposed bulbs in your bathroom fixture or high hats where there should be spots? Sure, the spots cost more and use more energy but now is the time to use lighting to your advantage.
Solution: Buy new bulbs!
I am all about saving the environment and not wasting energy. So while I don’t advocate ‘over lighting’ a home day-to-day, selling your property is like displaying diamonds in Tiffany’s window. Ever notice jewelers always use halogen lights in their display cases? It’s because it makes the diamonds sparkle more. You need high wattage in your kitchen and living room space so it looks bigger. Then think about accent lighting to highlight a particular feature - say next to a chair and bookshelf to create a reading nook, or strategically placed around the dining area to chreate a warm, glowing atmosphere. Again, Ikea is great for inexpensive light fixtures - and we’re talking $10 to $50 for major improvements. Those $5 Home Depot plain white ceiling-mounted globes the developer installed - replace them all with something pretty and turn blah into a benefit.
5. Who Picked Out Those Colors?
You may just love purple. Or shocking pink. The latest trend in home decor may cry out for lime green. You’ve had that wall painted bright orange since you bought the place. Guess what - not everybody likes what you like. People are thinking to themselves “why on earth would anyone paint that room purple and lime green?”
Solution: Duh - paint it neutral!
Unless you are a talented decorator by profession, it’s best to stick with warm, neutrals. My favorite paint color is Benjamin Moore’s Calming Cream (and I love the name). You want to stick with unobjectionable colors. Creams, warm toffee beige, soft moss greens. Ask they guy at Lowes which colors sell best. Go online to different paint company websites or look at the little leaflets they give out at in the paint department at places like Lowes to choose a non-personal palette. You want to go for the colors the most people will like. Plus a clean coat of paint does wonders to make your condo shine.
6. The Kitchen Hasn’t Been Updated Since 1968.
A gut renovation is ideal but can be cost prohibitive and disruptive. But short of that, there is much that can be done to bring your kitchen into the 21st century. We will assume that you will or will have it scrubbed from top to bottom so that it is clean. Beyond that, however, you need to make it inviting. Otherwise, the buyer will think: I don’t want this place because it needs a new kitchen and that’s too much work and too expensive.
Solution: Fake it.
I staged a Hoboken condo recently that had a horrible kitchen. The cabinets were dark, dated oak with ugly, worn, fake brass knobs. The counter was formica in a mottled brown and beige pattern. The appliances were half old, half replaced and didn’t match. Fortunately, it has a neutral white ceramic tile floor. Without breaking the bank, my handyman painted the outside of the cabinets glossy white. I bought new draw pulls and knobs. We got a few decorative tiles and mostly field tile to match the countertops and installed a new backsplash using the decorative tiles as a focal point. The light fixture was changed for a track style with little halogen bulbs. The seller’s big splurge was for a new refrigerator and matching micro-hood. My point is that you can make drastic changes for a reasonable amount of money.
7. It’s Too Small
Square footage is what it is. You can’t really make your condo any bigger. It would surprise you, however, to know how many buyers react badly to clutter. Any space can be made to feel bigger.
Solution: Get rid of the junk.
You’re selling so, presumably, you’re moving. Think of it as getting a head-start on packing. All the unnessesary stuff you have laying around; the extra furniture jammed into the second bedroom; the 48 different kids toys have to go. If you have to work your way around a mess no matter how large your space it is not going to show well. Even if it means temporarily renting a storage space - do it. Clutter won’t sell.There are probably a dozen more ideas I can think of but I’ll save those for a follow-up post. You get the idea, I hope. If you are really serious about selling and want to get the most money possible for your property, and who doesn’t, then a little work will have real payoffs.
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