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Author Archives: Lane Bailey

What would my agent do?

A month or so ago, I posed a question on ActiveRain. It was interesting, and another post I recently ran across brought it back up in my mind.

If you have a real estate license, would you still hire an agent to sell your home?

It is an interesting question to ask real estate agents for a couple of reasons:

  • One of the reasons that REAs (real estate agents) give to unrepresented sellers (FSBOs) that they should hire an agent is because of the emotional detachment a neutral agent can provide.
  • I see a lot of agents poorly representing themselves.
  • Quite often on forums or venues that have a lot of anti-REA support, consumers will say that in order to save money they would be better off getting a license and doing it themselves.

And there are two comparisons I’m drawn to immediately when I think on this question.

  • A mechanic will usually do their own repair work. They know that they can trust themselves to take more care of their car than someone else. They have all of the tools (and as REAs, we should too!). They have the ability.
  • Lawyers generally don’t represent themselves. They pay another professional to handle it… while remaining emotionally uninvolved to the same level. Even though they have the tools and ability, it is in their best interest to hire out the job.

In the interest of complete disclosure, I don’t know if i will sell my own house when it is time to move. I think that I would market it better than another agent might… but I don’t have that emotional distance. My sons are growing up here. My wife and I bought this house from DisneyWorld while we were on our honeymoon. I don’t know if i would want to save the money, or if I would decide to hire it out.

But, the real reason for this post is this: I have been seeing a lot of agent owned properties for sale lately… and they are so poorly represented it isn’t funny. Few and/or poor pictures. Showing restrictions. Bad staging. Lousy descriptions. Over-priced. Every sin we rail against… right there for the world to see.

I know I won’t be hiring one of those agents…

This makes me angry… Very angry…

Tom Royce over at The Real Estate Bloggers posted about this today. And it angers me.

The thing to remember is that I grew up in a military area. Many of my friends from the sixth to twelfth grade were military. The kids were picked up and moved from place to place without having much of a choice. The parents didn’t have much choice either. And that isn’t even getting into the fact that these are the people that put their lives on the line to protect our ability to whine about stuff.

Any other landlord… ANY OTHER LANDLORD would be in jail. Write your elected representatives and tell them that this is not acceptable.

Don’t worry, we can lose the National Endowment for the Arts, and whatever sort of pork Robert Byrd wants this year…

Seller Seminar coming in May

The seller seminar previously announced will be coming in May. We will be covering a lot of topics that will help those needing to sell a house soon, or that want to be better prepared for a future sale. Among the topics we will cover will be:

* Improvements that may pay back at sale time.
* Staging your home for maximum impact.
* Marketing your home to the best effect.
* Price v. Value
* And many more

Many subjects that have been touched upon in this blog and my blog at ActiveRain will be covered in more depth. Also, since the seminar will be interactive, you can get answers to your specific questions. We will also be unvieling a cool new way to market your home, whether you use an agent or not.

Stay tuned for details. If you want to be on the leading edge, feel free to contact Lane.

Sunday, Rally Sunday

I just can’t help myself…

This one goes from Monte Carlo to Turkey… the hard way.

And here is another. This is how we do it in the US…

I hope these were fun for you.

What is my agent doing to sell my home?

That is a question that every seller asks when their home isn’t sold.  And it is a very valid question.

Let’s look at a few things:

  • The number of buyers that begin their search on the internet is approaching 90%

Does your home have an exceptional internet presence?  Sure, it is on the MLS, and that means that some sources that get “feeds” from the MLS will have it, like Realtor.com.  Your agent may also post it on Craigslist… good strategy, but not exceptional.  Does your home have a website?  What is on the website?  How does it compare with other homes in your neighborhood?

  • Buyers want to see pictures.

FMLS allows 12 pictures.  This is up from 8 pictures last year.  Only about 20% of listings have 12 pictures.  Only about 10% have a virtual tour of some sort.  Almost half of the listings don’t even have 8 pictures.  About 15% only have one picture… or worse, NO picture.  If there aren’t pictures, buyers won’t take the time to visit the house.  If the pictures aren’t good, the buyers won’t take the time to visit the house.

  • What is in the ad copy?

If you’ve spent any time looking at listings, you will notice that most of the ad copy is interchangeable.  I wonder if some agents just recycle the same stuff for every listing.  Listing the features and rooms of a house isn’t going to sell the house.  It might get a look, and there certainly is a place for telling a buyer what is there, but look at the advertising that grabs your attention and makes you want to look into a product… is it facts and figures?  Or is it about lifestyle?

Here are a few things that you should be doing with your agent:

  • Look over the agent and buyer copies of the listing sheet.
  • Review where the property is being promoted (keep in mind that there will be extras and it is very difficult to keep up with every Craigslist ad… sometimes they are updated every two days).
  • Make sure that your property has a website and that it is promoted on all of the flyers, ads, etc.  There is a lot more space to talk about the property on a website than any flyer.
  • Review the other houses that a buyer might look at to see exactly how yours stands up.
  • Be honest with yourself.
  • After looking at the other homes, put on your “I’m a buyer with no preconceived notions about any of these houses” hat… and think about how your home compares to the others.
  • Look at the price again.

Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

  • Buyers prefer a house that is ready to go, even if it costs a little more than one that “needs a little TLC.”
  • Buyers won’t overpay for a house.
  • Buyers probably won’t look at a house if they think it is overpriced.
  • Buyers will start to form their opinion of your house BEFORE they step through the front door.
  • Buyers will start to form their opinion about your house before they get into the neighborhood.
  • Buyers will start to form their opinion about your house when they see the first picture… at this point it is likely that their opinion is positive… that means that if they are coming to look they are excited about your house and if nothing spoils it, they will remain positive.
  • Details matter… even details that shouldn’t matter.
  • If your house isn’t available, there is a good chance it won’t be seen by that buyer later… they will just move on.

Yesterday I wrote a post on my Active Rain blog about a listing I ran across that was Unacceptable.   That kind of situation angers me.  And there isn’t much I can do about it.  But, hopefully I can educate a few sellers so that they aren’t victims of this type of behavior.

We will cover this subject in the Seller Seminar in May.

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