- The Wrong Marketing
Every property is unique, so there should never be a ‘one size fits all’ marketing approach to selling a home, yet this is the approach adopted by most Realtors, with a ‘spray and pray’ marketing push in which the goal is to market to as many people as possible, regardless of whether they are buyers, in the hopes that sooner or later someone will see the home.
Our marketing approach involves identifying your home’s likely buyer, creating a marketing profile around them, and tailoring our marketing to put your home in front of the right people via a pro-active approach, rather than marketing to just anyone in a passive way. When you sell your home with us, you will know exactly what marketing we are doing, and more importantly, why we’re doing it.
2. The Realtor ‘Bought the listing”
Beware of agents who “buy the listing”. This is the industry term for an agent deliberately inflating their suggested listing price in order to persuade the seller to give them the listing. The unethical agents who do this know that the home won’t sell at that price, and they plan from day one to request price reductions at a later date. In the meantime, the agent uses your listing to market themselves and pick up other clients, while your home sits on the market without offers. In order to avoid listing with a Realtor who is trying to buy the listing, always ask them to show you the comps they used to determine the listing price they are suggesting.
3. Presentation:
No matter how beautifully finished your home may be, there are a number of tried and tested home staging techniques we use to help your home appeal to buyers, and almost every property listing can benefit from these tricks. It’s all about encouraging buyers to imagine living in your home; when they start envisioning their new life in the property, they get emotionally attached to your home and don’t want to be outbid.
Your home could be the nicest in town, but if your listing photos don’t present the home in the best possible way, they actually hinder your chances of a successful sale. Too often we see stale listings with photos clearly snapped by the Realtor on their phone, with no thought given as to the best presentation of the home. In fact, this happens so often that there are websites dedicated to sharing these bad listing photos.
4. Buyer’s agent commissions:
Although buyer’s agents aren’t supposed to be swayed by higher or lower commissions, they are human beings with bills to pay, and most don’t sell more than a couple of homes per year. The amount of commission offered by your agent to the buyer’s agent can mean the difference between selling your home very quickly, or not at all. The amount of commission offered to the buyer’s agent on your home sale should be discussed with you; if it isn’t, you should question why not. Often, a listing agent will offer a low commission to the buyer’s agent in order to keep more money for themselves or to list for a discount fee; this then hinders the home’s sale because few buyer’s agents are willing to show the property to their clients. We always offer an attractive commission to encourage buyer’s agents to show your home.
5. Your Realtor:
While most people believe that all Realtors offer the same level of service and the same types of marketing, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The Realtor you choose to sell your home really can make or break the deal. An inexperienced agent doesn’t know what they don’t know, and often make mistakes throughout the transaction that can significantly reduce the level of buyer interest (such as the wrong marketing), the number of other agents willing to show the property (their reputation; the commission offered), or the chances of the deal closing (avoidable errors during the transaction).
We also often see private MLS remarks listed by the Realtor that contain highly unusual terms, statements and claims that have often not been discussed with the seller. When listing your home for sale, you should always ask to approve the private MLS remarks, as well as the public listing in order to ensure that your agent hasn’t included anything you’re unaware of.
Remember that the number of years the Realtor has been in business does not equate to experience; it is possible for them to do one deal per year for twenty years and not be a skilled real estate professional. Who you work with, truly does matter.
If you’re thinking of selling your home, call me for a no-obligation discussion on (949) 910-2994 – Jenny Sharpe
