Posted on Saturday, July 02, 2011
Listing appointments are tough. You sit with the homeowner who may be under two false assumptions – all REALTORS are the same and My house is worth “x.” Let’s talk about both.
All REALTORS and more importantly Real Estate Brokerages are not alike. Before I became a REALTOR I thought the same thing – but like any other industry there are wide differences. Some are local only, some specialize, some are slow to change, some focus on buyers, some sellers. So what? Well consider this – in our market here in Naples. 85%+ of all home buyers begin their search on the internet, not the local paper. So I am going with a brokerage with a massive online presence. But don’t they all have this internet stuff? Nope – and if they do have the capability varies widely. Another thing to consider – in our market 31% of the buyers are international. So what? If a buyer comes to town he/she recognizes the international brands. So if I am selling I am going with one of the big brand name brokerages – why risk turning off or missing 31% of the market? These are some of the reasons we are at Coldwell Banker – and we can go anywhere. We chose to be at Coldwell Banker because our clients like the web and international presences and helps us be more competitive and serve our clients better.
What about the value of my home thing? Before we start remember the importance of marketing we just talked about. Even an aggressively priced home is going to have a tough time selling if you do not have a REALTOR willing to attack this market with you. So remember the last paragraph.
Many sellers have an optimistic view of their home value. After all they only need to sell it to one person so they hope for that one person to come along. One problem is the internet thing again. Buyers view all aspects of your home online and at any point in time there are many many buyers looking. So you put your house out there with a high price and boom, it gets a lot of online looks and then it is set aside as buyers wait for the “right” price point. ouch. If you do not see visits to your home and I mean repeat visits in 30 days (I like 14 days better) then you probably missed the current online wave of current buyers and you are on the sidelines. “But I will plan to do price reductions and meet the market price over time” you say – well, with this approach all you do is train the buyers to wait for your next move while other homes are being bought up. Stalkers we call them. Ouch. And there is one other thing. If inventories are above 12 months in your area watch out, there still may be downward price pressure and waiting to sell only means you missed your chance to sell at today’s price and now you are chasing the market down to sell at a lower price.
Give us a call at 239.595.3921 or email us at markcgoebel@yahoo.com if you want to discuss this further. We give our seller’s the “brutal truth” about marketing their home and valuing their home.
And for our United States clients, Happy Fourth of July everyone. Let us always remember freedom is not free and remember all those served this great country of ours.
Naples Best Addresses is yours.
