Gentry Lange, Real Estate Broker

08/30/2024

Just for those of you in Seattle

A new breed of Lawyers is taking to the streets for business.

08/08/2023

I called all the listing agents in the local market and told them this property was offered at $205,000, and many of them laughed at me openly. LOL. Sold in 1 day, or 0 days. I had it sold as the listing hit the market.

6566 Jermar Lane NW

07/03/2023

Your Hero Photo is the MOST IMPORTANT PART of SELLING YOUR HOUSE.

Price might rival it, but a bad photo hurts your sale so much.
The other photos matter a lot too. But nothing matters like that first shot.

Compare the old photo of my recent listing with the new photo. And bear in mind, this house is super hard to shoot. I should really post a photo from the street view sometime!

Anyway. I don't always talk about real estate. But, as they say in the game, I'm always happy to talk to you or your referrals about any real estate questions you have!

07/03/2023

We've been making pizza awhile. Last weekend I made a ton of BBQ chicken for my last open-house.

A few Realtors stopped by, heard the music, grabbed a Cider, and commented, "Nice Old School Open House!"

It was fun. Next time PIZZA!

02/10/2020

Mortgage rates are super low. Buying, refinancing?

01/16/2020

Sale --Next 5 Hours:

Feb 4th to the 11th, Seattle to Amsterdamn Round Trip $485. Icelandair.

Many others on Icelandair now.

04/03/2019

Gentry’s Real Estate Advice - As promised
(I will house this all on my Facebook Real Estate Site)

Chapter 1 - Pricing your home to sell.

Let’s get the biggest hurdle out of the way first. It’s time to sell your house, and you need to come up with a price. Pricing is in fact the biggest hurdle I face when coming to view your home, and trying to sell myself as a real estate agent/broker.

Let’s face it, most sellers want as much money as they can get. My job, as your agent will be to advise you on how to get the most money for your house. But most sellers don’t understand a few simple facts:

1. Pricing your home is a strategy.
2. Pricing a house is not the final sales price.
3. Pricing your home too high will hurt the sale of your home.

Let’s conduct a thought experiment. Your Seattle house is worth $700,000 USD. If your asking price starts at a million bucks, will anyone come look at your home? What if you price it at just 100k? How many offers with escalation clauses would you expect in Seattle if you priced your 700k home at 100k? More than 1 offer? More than 100?

You’d likely get more than 100. In my history, a home that was worth $330,000 priced at 290k got 27 offers and escalated to 370k. I had over 150 people at that open house, literally, during the super bowl. In the end, the home sold for a full 40 thousand dollars more than the highest price ever paid in the neighborhood at the time we sold that house.

So from my experience and the thought experiment above, you can clearly see that pricing is a strategy, the asking price is not the final sales price, and if you ask too much money the only sound you hear will be the sound of wind and tumbleweeds blowing through your empty open house.

So the saying among real estate agents is this, “Ask for less to get more.”

So am I saying you should ask for 100k for your 700k home? No not at all. Ask the lowest price you are willing to accept. Compare your home to others on the market and then price it slightly lower than the best comparable property you can find on the market the day your home goes on the market.

If your 700k home is ready to sell, ask yourself this, are there any homes within a one mile radius search of the same square footage, same age, and roughly the same condition of your home that are currently for sale? If so, are they asking 710k or 690? If they are asking 690, you are pretty safe asking 685,000. If they are asking 710, then ask 699. In the end, especially when the market is hot, you’ll get more than your asking price. As long as everything else is done right with your listing.

05/29/2018

New on market 1 bedroom condo, 380k. Call me or send buyers. Amazing view.

12/30/2017

What's your real estate plans for the New Year? Mine involve selling a property. Are you thinking of buying or selling? Give me a shout if you are, I'm happy to help.

08/03/2017

Seabeck 5 acres.... ready to build, went pending super fast!