REAL ESTATE TOPICS...Addressing California’s Housing Affordability

How to Address California’s Housing Affordability Crisis

By Treasurer John Chiang

A wise man once said that the best way to get out of a hole is to “stop digging.” Today California is short 1.5 million affordable homes for families struggling to make ends meet, and the hole is growing bigger each year.

Rents keep soaring. Homelessness is at a record high. Businesses cite high housing costs as a reason to move jobs out of state. And with rents still rising by double-digits, families cannot make ends meet no matter how hard they work. Housing costs have driven the state’s poverty ranking from 15th to the absolute worst in the nation.

We have to stop digging – and start building affordable homes for California’s families.

For nearly 10 years, a state budget crisis and policy choices slowed building of affordable homes, even as a tide of need rose higher. When the redevelopment program was eliminated and voter-approved bonds ran dry, more than $1 billion in annual state investment in affordable construction was wiped out. Since the beginning of the economic downturn, California under-utilized its private activity bond authority and lost out on billions of dollars in resources that could have been used to build affordable housing and create thousands of jobs. Meanwhile, families living on the edge sank deeper into despair.

Gov. Jerry Brown has opened up a much needed, statewide dialogue about California’s housing crisis with recent proposals to break down barriers to development. His embrace of a $2 billion plan to build housing for chronically homeless people living with mental illness is a breakthrough in tackling one of our state’s most complex, longstanding challenges.

However, even if they are fully implemented, these proposals only offer relief for a subset of individuals and families within the broad spectrum of housing need. California can and must do more to address the growing number of families who will not be able to afford the rent even if development restrictions are eased by state and local governments. These families – often headed by working parents in low-wage jobs—are the growing face of the homelessness crisis in California.

As treasurer, I administer two state programs that deploy dollars and incentives to spur production of quality, affordable developments that guarantee affordable rents for families for the 55-year, assumed life of a building. These are safe homes that support children’s learning, families’ health and communities’ quality of life.

I am proud my office championed reforms that many leading, affordable-housing advocates are calling “the most significant in the past 15 years.” They optimize and leverage scant state housing dollars to obtain maximum federal match and private investment that create California jobs. Yet with state investment at a record low, our production of more than 7,000 new units a year is far less than what is needed to meet growing demand for affordable homes.

As our state’s chief investment officer, I see the cost of our neglect of housing needs from an economic lens as well as a human one. The credit rating agencies that influence the cost of borrowing for infrastructure projects and schools say the cost of housing is hurting businesses, and our CEOs say a lack of workforce housing is the reason companies like Toyota are moving jobs out of state.

Without action at the state level to invest in the programs proven to deliver quality, affordable homes that lift families out of poverty, California will only see more economic despair and homelessness.

So let us stop digging – and start building.

REAL ESTATE TOPICS...HOME PRICE GROWTH EXPECTATIONS DECLINE. but...

HOME PRICE GROWTH EXPECTATIONS DECLINE, BUT CONSUMERS’ OUTLOOK ON HOUSING REMAINS POSITIVESource: Federal Reserve

The results from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations Housing Survey reveal that there was a modest decline in home price growth expectations. However, the majority of households still view housing as a good financial investment. Mortgage rate expectations have declined since last year’s survey, and renters’ perceived access to mortgages has become easier.

Making sense of the story

• Average home price change expectations at both the one- and five-year horizons declined from the 2015 survey. For example, the mean one-year ahead expected change in home prices in the 2016 survey was 3.3 percent, nearly a full percentage point below the mean forecast in the 2015 and 2014 surveys.

• Attitudes toward housing continued to remain positive: 59.2 percent of respondents think that buying property in their zip code is a (very or somewhat) good investment, and 13.2 percent think it is a bad investment.

• However, attitudes have become somewhat more polarized over the last three years: 21 percent of respondents think that housing is a very good investment (compared to 14 percent in 2014), and 2.9 percent think it is a very bad investment (compared to 1.3 percent in 2014).

• The average probability of buying a home, conditional on moving within the next three years, rose to 63.0 percent from 59.9 percent in 2015.

• The increase was particularly pronounced for renters, whose average probability of buying their next home increased from 43.2 percent to 48.9 percent.

• Renters continue to perceive obtaining a mortgage (if they wanted to buy a home) as difficult, with two thirds stating that it would be somewhat or very difficult to get a mortgage.

• Renters continue to report a strong preference for owning. The share of renters who report preferring or strongly preferring to own instead of rent (if they had the financial resources) rose to 74.1 percent from 68.5 percent in 2015.

REAL ESTATE TOPICS...Foreign Interest in U.S. Homes Cools

Foreigners pulled back on home purchases and also bought less expensive homes than they did in the prior year

By 

LAURA KUSISTO

Jul 6, 2016 10:00 am ET

Miami condo developers, California realtors and others in the housing industry have hoped recent turmoil in the global economy would boost foreign interest in U.S. real estate. New figures suggest the opposite is likely.

Purchases of U.S. residential real estate by foreigners who aren’t residents of the United States fell by $10 billion in the year ending March to $44 billion, the lowest level since 2013, according to a survey by the National Association of Realtors released Wednesday.

A strong U.S. dollar and weakening economies in Europe, South America and China along with rising U.S. home prices have hurt the purchasing power of foreign buyers. Tighter restrictions by the Chinese government on moving money out of the country also have made it more difficult for people there to buy U.S. homes.

The survey looks at two categories of foreign buyers: recent immigrants and non-residents. Purchases by immigrant foreigners actually rose to $59 billion from $49 billion, according to the trade group.  The share of non-resident buyers decreased to 41% from about 50% in previous years.

Foreigners also bought less expensive homes than they did in the prior year. The average price of homes purchased by foreign buyers fell to about $480,000 from nearly $500,000 in 2015, largely because immigrants tend to buy less expensive homes than affluent non-residents purchasing investment or vacation properties.

While foreigners make up a tiny share of the U.S. housing market, they are critical to small, lucrative segments of the industry. Miami and Manhattan developers are relying on foreign buyers to help fill a swell of high-priced condos coming to market in the next couple of years. The high-end housing market in San Francisco and southern California also gets a significant boost from foreign purchasers.

For the second year in a row Chinese buyers were the top purchasers of U.S. properties, buying $27 billion worth of residential property, or about one quarter of the dollar volume of properties sold to foreigners. That was down from nearly $28.6 billion last year, the first annual decrease since 2011.

That activity also was driven largely by recent immigrants, not non-residents investing in property abroad. Only 39% of Chinese buyers were non-residents, down from 47% last year.

Not being able to find a property was the top reason for deciding not to purchase. That was followed by cost, an inability to obtain financing and the exchange rate. The median existing home price in March 2016 was up 24% from a year earlier for a buyer from Brazil and 10% for buyers from China and Canada, factoring in currency depreciation.

“Their currency has much weaker purchasing power now than before,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR. “They are more sensitive to price points now than before.”

The results are based on a survey of realtors of their transactions conducted in the year ended March 2016.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, also owns Move Inc., which operates a website and mobile products for the National Association of Realtors.

REAL ESTATE TOPICS...The Best Housing Markets for Growth & Stability in 2016

By Amanda Dixon

Historically, the housing market isn’t nearly as volatile as the stock market is. Housing bubbles eventually burst and as we’ve seen in recent years, recovering from a housing crisis can take time.

Rising home values allow homeowners to build equity in their homes. Stable growth is generally considered to be better than a rapid rise in prices followed by a crash. Here are the best housing markets for growth and stability in 2016.

• Colorado’s crushing it. Three of the top 10 metro areas with the most stable growth are located in the Centennial State. Once again, the housing market in Boulder takes the No. 1 spot on our list, with a 308 percent overall growth rate since 1991.
• Westerners have the upper hand. Our 2015 analysis revealed that five of the housing markets with the most stable growth were located in the West. This year, six Western metropolitan areas made the top 10. Plus, three Western markets haven’t faced any significant price declines in the past 25 years.

1. Boulder, Colorado

For the second year in a row, the Boulder metro area ranks as the housing market with the most stable growth over the past 25 years. According to our 2015 analysis, the average homeowner in Boulder hadn’t suffered any significant price declines since 1991. So far, that hasn’t change and the metro area has the highest average home appreciation of any city in our study for 2016.

2. Austin-Round Rock, Texas

Not much has changed since last year in the Austin-Round Rock metro area either, particularly in terms of housing market stability. While home prices took a bit of a dive following the housing crisis, they’ve managed to recover and continue to rise (since 1991, they have increased 271 percent). And since Austin ranked as one of the best cities for new college grads, it looks like the area is a great place for homeowners and recent graduates.

3. Casper, Wyoming

The Casper metro area is another familiar spot to our list of housing markets with the most stable growth. It remains in the top 10 and since 2015, it has moved up in our ranking, even though its total growth rate dipped a little. The overall growth rate since 1991 is now 300 percent, which is 6.2 percent lower than what it was last year.

Compared to the housing market in Cheyenne, Wyoming – which has only seen home values climb 179 percent since 1991 – Casper’s housing market seems to be in pretty good shape.

4. Bismarck, North Dakota

The housing market in Bismarck has barely seen any shifts since 2015. Although home prices remain high, they seem to be stabilizing. For real estate agents and others who’ve paid close attention to the market, that’s probably interesting given the fact that prices were rising rapidly for years.

5. Midland, Texas

In the past 25 years, the Midland metro area hasn’t experienced any periods of significant price declines. And since 2015, its overall growth rate has remained fairly stable.

A relatively strong economy accompanies the area’s stable housing market. As of April 2016, the unemployment rate in Midland, Texas was 4.3 percent according to non-seasonably adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s slightly lower than the national unemployment rate of 4.7 percent.

6. Fort Collins, Colorado

2014 data from the U.S. Census Bureau says that there are about 311,435 people living in the Fort Collins metro area. Employees there work in several different industries, including manufacturing. And its tech industry seems to be growing thanks in part to opportunities provided by Colorado State University.

Meanwhile, home price growth has been fairly steady. On average, homeowners had a 5 percent chance of seeing their home values decline by 5 percent if they bought homes at any point in the last 25 years.

7. Billings, Montana

Trying to decide whether to buy or rent isn’t always easy. Fortunately, there are tools available to help you make the right decision. If you’re thinking about buying a house in Billings, it may help to know that the average homeowner has never experienced price declines of 5 percent or more since 1991. And within that same period of time, overall growth has been more than 200 percent.

8. Missoula, Montana

Missoula is another metropolitan area in Montana known for having a housing market with a strong potential for growth. Home prices have climbed 272 percent in the past 25 years. But compared to the other metro areas in the top 25, Missoula is one of the few places that has dealt with some significant price declines over time.

9. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado

Considering a move to Denver? As you weigh the pros and cons of purchasing a home in the area, it’s important to take multiple factors into account. While there has been a 270 percent total growth rate since 1991, the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood housing market – much like the one in Missoula – has seen home prices drop significantly at times during that period.

10. Grand Forks, North Dakota – Minnesota

The Grand Forks metropolitan area is a college town that’s home to roughly 102,449 people. Much of its economy still remains dependent on agriculture and two of its other leading industries include aviation and manufacturing.

In terms of its housing stability and growth, conditions for homeowners have improved since we conducted our study in 2015. Prices have increased 188 percent since 1991.

REAL ESTATE TOPICS...Inventory Drops Again

Trulia: Inventory Drops Again, But Demand For Starter Homes Also Falling In Many Markets

Inventory continues to drop for all homebuyers, but there are signs demand is waning for the few starter homes out there.

SAN FRANCISCO, June 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Trulia, a leading destination for homebuyers and renters, today released its latest quarterly edition of the Trulia® Inventory and Price Watch. This quarter's report offers buyers and sellers deeper insight into the change in supply and affordability of homes over the past year, within three different segments: starter homes, trade-up homes, and premium homes. Based on the for-sale homes listed on Trulia, this report calculates housing inventory within each segment nationally and in the 100 largest U.S. metros, from April 1, 2015 to April 1, 2016. For the full report and methodology, see here.

Starter and Trade-Up Home Inventory Show Double Digit Dips, while Premium Inventory Remains Flat The spring house-hunting season brought very little relief for homebuyers, as the national inventory of all homes has dropped by about 6% over the past year. The number of starter and trade-up homes on the market nationwide has dropped by 12.3% and 11.5%, respectively. Meanwhile, decreased inventory continues to take a toll on the affordability of all home segments. Buyers will need to set aside between 0.5% and 1.3% more of their income towards a home purchase than they did last year. However, starter affordability has been hit the hardest, and as a result, starter homebuyers need to dedicate 1.3% more of their monthly income to buy a starter home.

Big Drops in Inventory Not Necessarily Affecting Home AffordabilityIn places like Portland, Ore., Dallas, and Colorado Springs, Colo., large decreases in starter home inventory has led to double-digit increases in starter home prices. However, demand may be waning for the few starter homes that are on the market. In 20 of the 74 metros where starter inventory has dropped, starter home prices have also fallen over the past year, which suggests there are fewer buyers looking for such homes.

Starter Home Unaffordability Spreading Beyond CaliforniaIn the last edition of Trulia's Inventory and Price Watch, nine of the 10 metros experiencing the largest drop in starter home affordability over the past four years were located in California. Over the past year, starter homebuyers in the Mountain West, Pacific Northwest, and Gulf Coast of Florida are also beginning to feel the pinch. While a California city – Oakland – still tops the list, starter homebuyers need to spend 8.1% more of their income to buy a home this year in Denver, 6.1% and 5.2% more in Seattle and Portland, Ore., and 5.5% and 4.8% more in Cape Coral, Fla., and Sarasota, Fla, respectively.

QUOTES FROM TRULIA'S CHIEF ECONOMIST RALPH MCLAUGHLIN:

• "While falling inventory continues to make it difficult for buyers to find homes, those looking to buy their first home will face less competition than last year in many markets."
• "While California still reigns as the most expensive place to buy a starter home, affordability problems in the Pacific Northwest and Gulf Coast of Florida are starting to mimic those in the Golden State."

REAL ESTATE TOPICS...Cultivating Trust

REAL ESTATE NEWS...Here They Are: The Top 20 Markets for June CALIFORNIA

The overall residential housing market is heating up this summer, but a markets in a few cities across the country are in a league of their own, notes Jonathan Smoke, realtor.com®’s chief economist.

Realtor.com®’s research team identified the hottest markets by factoring in which ones had the most views per listing on its website and saw the quickest inventory movement. In these markets, homes are selling 20 to 38 days faster than the rest of the U.S.

Once again, California dominates this month’s list, but eight other states are also represented (Texas, Colorado, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Washington, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire). Seasonality is a big factor in this month’s rankings, Smoke notes.

“This is a peak time for people to be buying vacation homes in Michigan, because the weather is perfect,” Smoke says. “California markets tend to be fairly consistent—we don’t see huge changes.”

REAL ESTATE TOPICS...Crisis Averted: 5 For-Sale Fiasco's (And How They Were Solved)

Quick thinking and preparedness kept these real-life, last-minute debacles from killing a home sale.

By Blake Miller

Few things are more crushing than having your home go on the market, getting an offer, reaching the closing table, and having the deal fall through at the last minute thanks to some late-breaking debacle. Whether it’s a financing issue, an inspection problem, or some other hiccup that pops up during the final walk-through, some home sales just aren’t meant to be, while others squeeze by at the last minute.

“It’s good to make sure you inform buyers and sellers that unexpected things can happen, often at the worst time,” explains Keith Thompson, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Charlotte, NC. “Depending on the nature of the individual transaction, I have my clients come up with contingency plans should the closing be delayed for any reason.” Here are five real-life scenarios where the sale almost didn’t happen — and how you can keep something similar from happening to you.

1. Locked out

“I had a three-bedroom apartment about to close on a Friday and the furniture was being moved out the day before,” explains Liza Nematnejad, a broker with Douglas Elliman in New York, NY. “The movers accidentally broke the key as they were removing a large piece of furniture from the apartment, and part of the key remained inside the door’s keyhole!”

Crisis averted: Know that just about anything can be fixed in a short window. “I was able to get a master locksmith in at 6 a.m. the next day to replace the entire lock, and we were able to close on time at 9 a.m. and deliver a set of new keys to the new owner,” says Nematnejad.

2. Lions and tigers and … rats?

“Working for a seller in the Pacific Northwest, you are always worried about rats,” says Matt Parker, a broker with Keller Williams, Matt Parker LLC, in Seattle, WA. Representing a seller, he was about to sell a home that had been an art studio to a first-time homebuyer. The home was immaculate and cute, and the potential buyer was ecstatic. “Until the inspection!” notes Parker. “The inspector found the normal things and then … rats. Rats everywhere in the crawl space. Dead rats, live rats, rat pathways, rat excrement all over the place. If you have ever smelled a rat infestation, with their nests, you know what the crawl space smelled like when we opened it up! This sale was during a very hot market, and so we could not find a contractor who would work on it.”

Crisis averted: “We begged a construction worker to suit up, remove everything in the crawl space, and completely reinsulate it,” says Parker. “The construction worker found the rat entry point, sealed it, and the girl closed on the home and lived happily ever after.”

3. Get professional representation

“Several years ago, my business partner had gone out of town and for the first time had left me running the show,” says Thompson. He says he received a call from his partner’s past client who was under contract to buy a new home and about to accept an offer on her current house. The catch? The former client had negotiated both of these deals on her own, without a real estate agent. “The day before closing for the home they were purchasing, there was a burst pipe that caused significant damage,” says Thompson. “She had called me looking for advice. Since we had not entered into a buyer’s agency agreement, I was prohibited from providing advice, and the seller of the home also did not have an experienced person to rely on.” He says there was resignation in the voice of the past client. “I told her if she asked us to represent them from the beginning, we would have been right in the middle of things helping them to resolve the situation.”

Crisis averted: “Realtors act as a buffer between the buyers and sellers,” explains Wendy Flynn, a real estate agent with Keller Williams College Station in College Station, TX. “Buyers and sellers can freely express themselves to their agents, and then the agents can communicate with each other, with a focus on the task at hand.”

4. Rotten to the core

“I represented buyers for a single-family home in the Portola district of San Francisco,” says Davis Pemstein, a broker with Climb Real Estate in San Francisco, CA. “When going through inspections, we drilled through the stucco to find the framing of the entire house rotted and in disarray. This was to the tune of $75,000, per the inspection company.”

Crisis averted: “We eventually negotiated a $50,000 price drop to keep the deal together and make the buyers feel comfortable moving forward,” says Pemstein.

5. Mortgage drama

“When we were selling our townhouse, the woman buying it decided to change mortgage companies two weeks before closing,” says Thomas Ferro of Washington Crossing, PA. “Because of this, she could not get her loan in time for settlement. On our side, we were buying a short sale and did not have any more time to push back our settlement on our purchase.”

Crisis averted: “The buyer of my house had to borrow the money, in cash, from multiple friends, to be able to close and buy my house,” says Ferro. “I ended up buying and selling my houses on the same day.”

REAL ESTATE NEWS...What Brexit Means for the U.S. Housing Market

Britain's decision to leave the European Union shouldn't affect home buying and selling in the short term – but keep an eye on the global economy.

Britain’s decision to leave the European Union is roiling global markets. But what, if anything, does it mean for the U.S. housing market?

The answer is no one really knows, and that’s the problem.

Simply put, the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU, or “Brexit,” is a global macro-economic event that will, over time, have smaller but not necessarily insignificant, economic impact here. Collectively the EU, at nearly $700 billion annually, is our biggest trading partner. Britain alone, at more than $100 billion annually, is the seventh-biggest. The EU is the world’s biggest economy. Should it stumble badly, trading partners would also take a fall.

In the short term, for the U.S. housing market, the most direct threat isn’t from trade. It’s about the financial system and banking. Every housing market, including the United States’, is sensitive to interest rates. How central banks, such as the Federal Reserve respond to the Brexit fallout –by keeping rates low, for instance – would constitute impact.

Today, as Trulia Chief Economist Ralph McLaughlin points out, U.S. debt is viewed as a source of security for global investors. As nervous investors rush into the safety of U.S. securities, it puts downward pressure on rates. That means borrowing will be cheaper for buyers in the immediate Brexit wake.

“While the departure of the UK from the European Union has driven down the 10-year bond, and thus mortgage rates, we expect them to rebound later in the year as uncertainty over the economic consequences of the departure lifts,” McLaughlin said.

Those “economic consequences” may indeed be manageable. Or, they could be dramatic. Some have predicted the Brexit will lead to the dissolution of the EU. That scenario likely would trigger an economic recession in Britain and/or the EU. It’s not a stretch to think an EU collapse could spur a global slowdown — even a crisis. The U.S. economy is slowly, steadily growing. But a global recession that hammers U.S. exports could drag us down with it. That’s just one scenario. Again, no one really knows.

McLaughlin said that even if the global economic conditions do not deteriorate into recession territory, investors buying U.S. currency could also have an impact.

“As the U.S. dollar rises against other currencies, goods made in the U.S. for export look increasingly expensive,” he said. “Given recent slow domestic GDP growth, a decrease in trade could slow the domestic economy even further.”

The bottom line is, while potentially damaging, none of this should alter home-buying or selling decisions today. After all, as McLaughlin said, the immediate impact is essentially cheaper money.

And even while lower rates may save borrowers a little money each month, as Erin Lantz, Zillow’s vice president for mortgages said, “if you couldn’t afford a house a few weeks ago, you still can’t.”

But as the not-to-distant past reminds us, a recession brings lower income and higher unemployment and that puts a housing market at risk. Anyone considering a housing move should keep an eye on the news out of Europe and its effect on U.S. growth.

The uncertainty of Brexit should mean vigilance for U.S. home buyers and sellers.

REAL ESTATE TOPICS...8 Reasons Your House Isn’t Selling

If your home sits idle in a seller’s market, it’s time to get to the root of the problem.

By Laura Agadoni

It’s a seller’s market in many cities across the U.S. If your home is in one of those cities, say Charleston, SC, or Colorado Springs, CO, and isn’t getting offers, something could be wrong. The good news? Knowing there’s a problem is the first step toward resolving it. However, there could be many reasons your house isn’t selling. We’ve asked real estate professionals and agents from all over the country what those top reasons might be — and they’ve provided some sound advice on how to remedy each situation.

1. You’re overconfident

Being in a seller’s market might mean that your home will get snapped up for premium price, no matter its condition. But that isn’t always the best strategy to count on. “Sometimes homeowners and agents get overconfident in a seller’s market and get lazy about ‘Home Selling 101,’” says Sep Niakan, broker and owner of HB Roswell Realty in Miami, FL.

Solution: Be realistic from day one. Although you may love your house, brace yourself for it to potentially sit on the market for quite some time. And no matter the market, it’s still important to “position your home to sell well,” says Niakan. “What does that mean? Staging, staging, and more staging.

2. The house is priced too high

Classic supply and demand conditions come into play in a seller’s market: There’s high demand, yet low supply. Therefore, you can usually expect to get more money for your home. But that doesn’t mean the sky’s the limit when it comes to your listing price. “In a seller’s market, a seller may feel comfortable pushing the asking price a bit higher, and this can be a huge mistake,” says Chase Michels of Brush Hill Realtors in Downers Grove, IL. “Determining the best asking price for a home is one of the most important aspects of selling a home. If your home is listed at a price that is above market value, you will miss out on prospective buyers.” 

Solution: Make sure that you and your agent are certain of the value of your home in your market and price it right. “Get an analysis of the local market with a professional agent, solid comparables, and specific market trend data,” says Jill Olivarez, a Miramar Beach, FL, real estate agent.

3. The home needs some TLC

It can be a bitter pill to swallow to pay for home improvements that you may not enjoy for long. But if you want to sell for full asking price, you might need to get your house in a condition that warrants it — and not base this number only on price per square foot. “Retail buyers understandably still want the most house for their money,” says Barbara Grassey, author of How to Sell Your House Fast in a Slow Market and founder of the West Florida Real Estate Investors Association.

Solution: “The seller should have amenities comparable to other properties for sale in that price range and should really upgrade certain amenities,” says Grassey. Some upgrade examples, she says, include a pull-down gooseneck faucet, an upgraded ceiling fan, a double-bar towel rack, or upgraded door handles. They sound simple, but a few small changes can make a big impact.

4. There’s a problem with the title

“Title” in this case doesn’t mean the cute name you might have given your place (“The Laurels,” “The Conners’ Corner Cottage,” etc.). Rather, it’s the document that shows ownership. “One reason a house won’t sell is because there is a problem with the title to the house that spooks buyers,” says David Reiss, law professor at Brooklyn Law School in Brooklyn, NY. Here are some examples he gives of title problems:

• Conveyance without a recorded deed (can sometimes happen in transfers between family members).
• A paid-off mortgage that is still showing up as a valid lien on the house.
• A mechanic’s lien that was filed for work done on the house by a subcontractor.

Solution: “Some [title] problems just require a little time to resolve,” says Reiss. Contact the title company to find out what you need to do to prepare for selling — then do it.

5. Advertising photos are subpar

It’s said that you have seven seconds to make a first impression — and the same goes for your house: 90% of buyers start their search online and make a decision about whether to come see your house based on a quick skim of your listing photos. If there are few or no photos, or if the photos look bad because they weren’t professionally taken or because the house is cluttered (which shows in the photos), many buyers will move on to the next listing. “When there are a lack of pictures … buyers often assume the worst,” says Amber Dolle, a Los Angeles, CA, agent.

Solution: Get your home staged and photographed by pros. You may think it’s an unnecessary expense, but according to IMOTO photography, professional real estate photos have the ability to generate 118% more online views and sell listings 50% faster — at 39% closer to list price. They’re worth it.

6. Your agent doesn’t seem to care

Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with your house at all: It’s priced right and is well-maintained. But your agent could be turning people off. “The agent is your front-line representative,” says David Kean, a Beverly Hills, CA, agent with Douglas Elliman. He notes, however: “Some agents have little to no personality, some are burnt-out, some don’t care, and others have no social skills.”

Solution: “Hire an agent you would invite to a dinner party. If you don’t find [an agent who’s] interesting and pleasurable to deal with, who will?” You may need to break up with your current agent before moving on to greener pastures.

7. The house smells bad

There’s a saying in real estate: “If I can smell it, I can’t sell it,” says Joshua Spotts, a Memphis, TN, agent. If you’re immune to the smell of your home, get a friend’s honest opinion. “There is nothing like entering a house and smelling a refreshing scent,” says Spotts.

Solution: Sometimes the remedy is a scented candle or freshly baked cookies. But if your house’s odor is persistent, it’s a good idea to determine what’s causing it and address it.  Take care of mold and mildew buildup, pet urine on the carpet, or set-in smoke odor.

8. Your appliances are old

Stainless steel is in, and old, yellowing-white refrigerators are out, says Seth Lejeune, a Collegeville, PA, agent. Although potential buyers realize they can replace a refrigerator, if your appliances look as if they belong on That ’70s Show, buyers might wonder what else might need replacing. “As for HVAC, heaters, and boilers, those are less noticed by prospective buyers during initial walk-throughs but are almost never overlooked at inspection,” notes Lejeune.

Solution: “Update your appliances so they don’t look like they’re on their last legs,” Lejeune says. This advice goes for the unseen too — if your HVAC has a problem, you’re going to have to pay to fix it, or at least come down in your asking price.