Archive for September, 2009

Meeting With Realtors

So you’ve decided to sell your home and have a fairly good idea of what you think it is worth. Being a sensible home seller, you schedule appointments with three local listing agents who’ve been hanging stuff on your front doorknob for years. Each Realtor comes prepared with a “Competitive Market Analysis” on fancy paper and they each recommend a specific sales price.

Amazingly, a couple of the Realtors have come up with prices that are lower than you expected. Although they back up their recommendations with recent sales data of similar homes, you remain convinced your house is worth more.

When you interview the third agent’s figures, they are much more in line with your own anticipated value, or maybe even higher. Suddenly, you are a happy and excited home seller, already counting the money.

A Sales Practice Called “Buying a Listing”

If you’re like many people, you pick Realtor number three. This is an agent who seems willing to listen to your input and work with you. This is an agent that cares about putting the most money in your pocket. This is an agent that is willing to start out at your price and if you need to drop the price later, you can do that easily, right?

After all, everyone else does it!

The truth is that you may have just met an agent engaging in a questionable sales practice called “buying a listing.” He “bought” the listing by suggesting you might be able to get a higher sales price than the other agents recommended. Most likely, he is quite doubtful that your home will actually sell at that price. The intention from the beginning is to eventually talk you into lowering the price.

Why do some agents “buy” listings this way?

There are basically two reasons. A well-meaning and hard working agent can feel pressure from a homeowner who has an inflated perception of his home’s value. On the other hand, there are some agents who engage in this sales practice routinely.

From Real Estate ABC

The Valerie Fitzgerald Group specializes in luxury residential real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu. Valerie has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles brokerage community. She’s also the author of Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business.

Subscribe to this blog: Valerie Fitzgerald Group Blog. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ValreFitzgerald

Selling your home on the Internet is more than just a collection of pretty pictures, according to two art and design education professors.

“Your online impact is equal to your curb appeal impact,” says Aimee Flynn, Graphic Design and Interior Design Department instructor at the Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham. “In both instances, the way you package the product to entice a potential buyer is key,” Flynn added.

Knowing potential buyers is also key. “A common mistake is to assume that your home would appeal to everyone,” says John C. Franke, a General Education department instructor at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. “People don’t usually think about their homes in this way, but by analyzing your neighborhood and your home’s unique appeal, you can pinpoint your target audience and market accordingly,” Franke said.

“Keep in mind that you’re selling a dream — if someone can imagine his or her life unfolding in the images and descriptive text, you are one step closer to landing a successful showing,” says Flynn. Franke, with professional experience in retail buying and merchandising, and interior store design for various specialty department stores, says that the photographs used to promote your home mean everything.

“Pictures must be professional-looking and include shots of landscaping, interior attributes such as laundry room, basement storage, garage and other unique selling points,” he says.

“The home should appear to be bright, clean and appointed with fresh flowers or other notable accents to add style or seasonal flair,” Franke said. Flynn and Franke offer these additional tips for preparing your Internet home listing:

• Shop the competition. Research how others present their homes online locally and in other cities before you begin to develop your tactics. Good places to start are local real estate listing sites.

• Seek professional help from within your social network. Don’t be intimidated by technology but don’t try to master what time doesn’t allow. Web designers, photographers and other experts are probably living within your social network. Request their help.

• Sell the locality. Promote the city, school system, neighborhood parks, restaurants, etc. All of these things sell a quality of life and double as search engine buzzwords.

• List the address. Make sure you give very clear directions from main roads or intersections. This allows an interested party to check out the location of the home beforehand, which may weed out non-serious buyers.

• Highlight the property’s features. Mention any recent renovations (completed with a permit), the number of bedrooms, if you have a fenced-in yard, and any unique offerings.

• Include detailed descriptions. List the square footage, individual room dimensions, property taxes, association fees, etc. Post multiple images.

• Keep the price in a searchable range. For example, a $299,000 price is more likely to draw borderline buyers than $301,000.

• Choose sites that organize listings by date. When you update your listing, any saved changes will bump up its positioning in the list.

• Seek viewer input. The only way to know what people are thinking about your home, your site or their interest in your property is to provide an easy way for browsers to offer feedback and to ask questions. Add a feedback form or email address to your listing.

by Broderick Perkins, Realty Times

The Valerie Fitzgerald Group specializes in luxury residential real estate in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Malibu. Valerie has more than 20 years of real estate experience and is known for her solid reputation in the West Los Angeles brokerage community. She’s also the author of Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business.

Subscribe to this blog: Valerie Fitzgerald Group Blog. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ValreFitzgerald

Clients will often look to you for advice about the investment value of a property, whether it’s their intention to live in the home or to purchase it to generate income.

If the property is being purchased as a family home, the first consideration would be how the client’s life will fit into the home. Only the client can answer that question.

However, if the purchase is for investment purposes only, then you can offer the client an analysis of its potential to produce income. If you don’t feel comfortable in this area of real estate, refer your client to an agent whom you trust does sell investment property.

It’s an interesting area of business, but it also requires knowledge in the areas of cap rates and gross multipliers that you’ll need to communicate clearly to the client. Investment property is purchased more on a business level than on an emotional one.

Again if you don’t feel comfortable selling this type of property, don’t do it – refer the business to an agent who does specialize in investment properties. I have never focused on this area of the real estate business and have limited knowledge.

I believe in always doing my best for clients and have chosen to familiarize myself with the process on a basic level and then refer my clients to agents who do specialize in the real estate investment field.

From Heart and Sold: How to Survive and Build a Recession-Proof Business.

Subscribe to this blog: Valerie Fitzgerald Group Blog. Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ValreFitzgerald