"...before you put your home back on the market, take a step back and review your situation..."

4 Important Points that Will Get Your house Sold!

If your home has just come off the market and hasn't sold, don't be discouraged. The reason it didn't sell may have nothing to do with your home or the market. In reality, your home may have been one of the more desirable properties for sale. If your listing has expired and you still want results, before you put your home back on the market, take a step back and review your situation.
Q. Where should you begin?
A. Start by making a commitment to do what it takes to market your house to get it sold. With the right system, the home sale you want is still well within reach.
Q. Why didn't your home sell?
A. Review your previous selling plan and you'll discover that an expired listing usually reflects a problem in one or more of these four major areas:
  1. Teamwork,
  2. Pricing,
  3. Condition of Your Home, and
  4. Marketing.

1. Teamwork

Your home is a major financial investment, and your relationship with your Realtor®should be a full partnership where your needs and wishes are heard, and you receive detailed and dependable feedback on the progress of your sale. Your agent has a responsibility to source this feedback from the agents who have shown your home, and to communicate this to you so together you can make the right decisions about what to do next. How well did this occur the last time you had your home up for sale?

2. Pricing

Did price work for or against you? The "right" price depends on market conditions, competition and the condition of your home. Pricing it too high is as dangerous as pricing it too low. If your home doesn't compare favorably with others in the price range you've set, you won't be taken seriously by prospects or agents.
You'll get the facts when you see the statistics!
  • To help you establish a realistic selling price for your home, ask your agent to provide you with an up-to-date competitive market analysis to give you:
  • a review of comparable homes recently sold or currently for sale,
  • an idea of how long other homes have been listed, in order to calculate an average time in which a home can sell in today's market,
  • a review of homes whose listings have expired, to understand what issues were at play.
Note: There is no mention of how much you paid for your home or its improvements. Like any other investment, the market value is determined by what a willing buyer will pay and a willing seller will accept.

3. Condition of Your Home

Show Case Quality!
Is your house someone else's idea of a dream home? When buyers enter are they inspired? Do they think, "I love this house!" Remember, the decision to buy a home is based on emotion, not logic.
A house in move-in condition invites a sale. You need to consider:
  • fixing all the little squeaks and cracks
  • keeping it clean for all showings
  • making it uncluttered
  • brightening it up
  • what your home shows like from the street concentrating on outside curb appeal.
Plus - Consider taking care of major items, such having your home painted. Offering an allowance to your prospective buyers, so they can have painting completed is not the same as having done it for them. Now, as they're trying to imagine what that new paint job will look like, they may also be discounting the price even further because of the less-than-perfect look of those walls.
Remember....
A house that presents well, sells for the best price because it outshines the competition. Ask your agent if they can arrange a no-obligation inspection of your home to help you assess the above.

4. Marketing

....Marketing Your Home To Sell! Some Questions You Should Be Asking!
One of the first steps in your marketing plan involves finding an agent who will best represent you. When interviewing agents, test and compare their knowledge and ask each to demonstrate how they will market your home to buyers. Also compare how much money each spends on advertising the homes s/he lists, in what media (newspaper, magazine, etc.) and the effectiveness of one medium over the other. Remember, it's not just how much they spend, but how they spend it.
Say goodbye to any real estate agents using old, traditional methods to sell your home because they don't work in today's market!
To be competitive in today's marketplace, agents who use new and innovative, non-traditional marketing approaches are the ones who are getting more homes sold fast and for top dollar.

Buyers are Out There...And They Will Come!

Before You Put Your Home Back on the Market remember:
  1. Effective communication is vital between you and your agent.
  2. Price your home according to market conditions, competition and the condition of your house.
  3. Be sure your house is in showcase, buyer ready-condition.
  4. Have an innovative marketing plan firmly set in place. Not intended to solicit property currently listed for sale.
""It's critical that you make the right decision about who will handle what is probably the single largest financial investment you will ever make.""
Not all real estate agents are the same. If you decide to seek the help of an agent when selling or buying your home, you need some good information before you make any moves.

An agent can cost or save you thousands of dollars

Picking an agent is one of those critical issues that can cost or save you thousands of dollars. There are very specific questions you should be asking to ensure that you get the best representation for your needs. Some agents may prefer that you don't ask these questions, since the knowledge you'll gain from their honest answers will give you a very good idea about what outcome you can expect from using them as an agent. And let's face it - in real estate, as in life - not all things are created equal.
Hiring a real estate agent is just like any hiring process - with you on the boss's side of the desk. It's critical that you make the right decision about who will handle what since this is probably the single largest financial investment you will ever make.

1.What makes you different? Why should I list my home with you?

It's a much tougher real estate market than it was a decade ago. What unique marketing plans and programs does this agent have in place to make sure that your home stands out favorably versus other competing homes? What things does this agent offer you that others don't to help you sell your home in the least amount of time with the least amount of hassle and for the most amount of money?

2. What is your company's track record and reputation in the market place?

It may seem like everywhere you look, real estate agents are boasting about being #1 for this or that, or quoting you the number of homes they've sold. If you're like many homeowners, you've probably become immune to much of this information. After all, you ask, ""Why should I care about how many homes one agent sold over another. The only thing I care about is whether they can sell my home quickly for the most amount of money.""
 Well, because you want your home sold fast and for top dollar, you should be asking the agents you interview how many homes they have sold. I'm sure you will agree that success in real estate is selling homes. If one agent is selling a lot of homes where another is selling only a handful, ask yourself why this might be? What things are these two agents doing differently?
You may be surprised to know that many agents sell fewer than 10 homes a year. This volume makes it difficult for them to do full impact marketing on your home, because they can't raise the money it takes to afford the advertising and special programs to give your home a high profile. Also, at this low level, they probably can't afford to hire an assistant, which means that they're running around trying to do all the components of the job themselves. Bottom line, their service to you may suffer.

3. What are your marketing plans for my home?

How much money does this agent spend in advertising the homes s/he lists versus the other agents you are interviewing? In what media (newspaper, magazine, TV etc.) does this agent advertise? What does s/he know about the effectiveness of one medium over the other?

4. What has your company sold in my area?

Agents should bring you a complete listing of both their own, and other comparable sales in your area.

5. Does your Broker control your advertising or do you?

If your agent is not in control of their own advertising, then your home will be competing for advertising space not only with this agent's other listings, but also with the listings of every other agent in the brokerage.

6. On average, when your listings sell, how close is the selling price to the asking price?

This information is available from the Real Estate Board. Is this agent's performance higher or lower than the board average? Their performance on this measurement will help you predict how high a price you will get for the sale of your home.

7. On average, how long does it take for your listings to sell?

This information is also available from the Real Estate Board. Does this agent tend to sell faster or slower than the board average? Their performance on this measurement will help you predict how long your home will be on the market before it sells.

8. How many Buyers are you currently working with?

Obviously, the more buyers your agent is working with, the better your chances are of selling your home quickly. It will also impact price because an agent with many buyers can set up an auction-like atmosphere where many buyers bid on your home at the same time. Ask them to describe the system they have for attracting buyers.

9. Do you have a reference list of clients I could contact?

Ask to see this list, and then proceed to spot check some of the names.

10. What happens if I'm not happy with the job you are doing to get my home sold?

Can I cancel my listing contract? Be wary of agents that lock you into a lengthy listing contract where they can get out of (by ceasing to effectively market your home) but you can't. There are usually penalties and broker protection periods which safeguard the agent's interests, but not yours. How confident is your agent in the service s/he will provide you? Will s/he allow you to cancel your contract without penalty if you're not satisfied with the service provided?
Evaluate each agent's responses to these 10 questions carefully and objectively. Who will do the best job for you? These questions will help you decide.

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