Seller's Tips
WHEN WE LIST YOUR HOME FOR SALE, WE GAURANTEE TO PERFORM THE FOLLOWING:
- Install an easily identifiable yard sign and/or directional signs.
- Place an information box on the yard sign with handouts about your home.
- Install a coded lockbox for easy agent access.
- Entry in "Multiple Listing Service" with custom updating.
- Color photos of your home.
- Provide customized in-home brochures.
- Listing to be posted on the web at www.cometova2.com
- Your listing will be uploaded onto the Long and Foster web site.
- Custom advertising in a variety of formats.
- Frequent updates on your listings and status of others in area.
- Follow-up with each agent that tours your home for feedback.
- Color photo and information on display in office for prospective walk-in customers.
- Tour by local Long & Foster agents for input.
- Review and remind in house agents at weekly office meetings.
- Mail notice cards to surrounding homes in the area.
- Assist with negotiating contracts on the sale of your home and provide full service getting the contract to settlement.
"We may not be the ones who sell your home but we will be the reason your home SELLS!"
RECIPE FOR SALE:
There are 5 main ingredients that make up the sale of your home:
- LOCATION: We usually cannot move a home! To coin the favorite phrase of appraisers: "Location, Location, Location." The pricing of your property must reflect its location.
- CONDITION: The upkeep and presentation of your property is crucial to obtain the highest value for your home in any given market at any given time. The pricing of your property must reflect its condition.
- PRICE: Price is the number one factor in the sale of a home. A property is really only worth what one person is willing to pay another to gain ownership of it. Price must be in direct relationship to the other 4 ingredients and it is the most important of all!
- TERMS: The more terms available on your property the more potential purchasers you reach. The pricing of your property must reflect the kinds of terms available to purchase it.
- THE MARKET: i. e. Interest Rates, Competition, and the Economy all make up and influence the state of the market when you sell your home. The pricing of your property must reflect the current status of the Market.
When
all of the above ingredients are in agreement …we have a sale! If just
one of them is out of line it will take a longer time to sell, and . .
. the more ingredients there are out of line . . . the longer it will
take before the sale of your home takes place.
PRICING IS CRUCIAL
The definition of MARKET VALUE is: What a ready, willing, and able buyer will pay, and the seller will accept at any given time.
- Buyers in this area are very sophisticated.
- Buyers buy by comparison.
- Exposure to qualified buyers is what sells houses.
- An overpriced house gets no exposure to qualified buyers.
- People who are not qualified to buy the house at that price are not looking at it.
- The people who are looking are overqualified and are looking for more features than the house has to offer.
- An overpriced house sells all the houses available at market value in the area around it.
- Fair Market value is dictated by buyer demand.
- Houses which remain on the market a long time become "shopworn,buyers and sales agents begin to wonder what is wrong with the house.
- Contrary to popular opinion, the longer a house remains on the market, the less chance there is to get the highest price.
- The very first contract received is often the best because it comes from a backlog of buyers who have been looking and are desperate to buy, and will offer the best price. These buyers have been waiting in the wings for this particular house, and their agents have been eagerly on top of the market, seeking this house.
- Any study of the market will show that from the time when houses are put on the market, prices gradually descend as time passes. When the price reaches market, the house sells.
- "Waiting for your price" can only be accomplished by waiting for general appreciation and the price will then be in cheaper dollars.
- No matter what defect a house has, price will cure it. Any house, no matter what the condition, location, or problem will sell at the right price.
- A house priced right in the beginning is half SOLD and will bring MORE than one overpriced and reduced.
- REMEMBER:
WE CAN'T DO MAGIC!
If a house is not priced right, it will not sell!!
SUGGESTIONS FOR THE HOMEOWNER (PREPARING YOUR HOME TO SHOW):
- Have your property looking its best at all times.
- Keep the yard neat and clean. Lawn mowed, shrubs, trimmed. Make the prospect want to come inside. First impressions are important.
- Dress up the windows!! The eyes of the house.
- Have the garage clean and neat. Broken window panes…loose door knobs make a bad impression.
- Keep the house tidy…should appear as a comfortable home in which to live.
- Make all minor repairs such as sticking doors, leaky plumbing, broken light switches…if not, these can kill a sale.
- If you have a dog, keep him out of the house and under control.
- Shut off or tune down the radio or TV.
- A moderate amount of heat adds a felling of coziness in cold weather.
- Let plenty of light into your rooms. Nothing dispels gloom more effectively than lights.
- Never apologize for the appearance of the house. It only emphasizes the faults.
- If redecorating is needed, do it if possible. Properly done, it creates appeal.
- Leave the showing of the house to the salesperson! Interrupting his/her sales presentation may lose the sale.
- If a customer asks questions about the house and neighborhood, answer directly and truthfully.
- Questions about the transaction should be referred to the salesperson.
- If you feel that the salesperson overlooked some of the good selling points, telephone him after he returns to his office.
- Be prepared at all times to show your home…the prospect you turn away may be the future buyer.
- Please feel free to discuss frankly with your Realtor any problem that may arise relative to the marketing of your property.
- Remember… you have signed a Multiple Listing Exclusive! Do not sign any other listing until the present one has expired.
