sellers: Preview Ten Listings Today and Report Back
- 11/04/07 04:13 PM
Got this idea from Herb Hamilton's featured post today "Doom or Gloom or Huge Success."
Active Rainers - let's have some fun. In the next 48 hours, go out and preview ten listings in your area. Any ten you want. Make it easy on yourself and preview the ten homes closest to your home. It'll take you an hour or two.
Then report back. Of those ten properties, how many are being competently marketed? How many are not?
To my way of thinking, here's what "competently marketed" means:
The home is easy to show (yes, even on Sunday)* The sellers know … (45 comments)
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sellers: Hey! What Happened to the Real Estate Market?
- 10/31/07 12:07 AM
Unless you've been hiding under a rock since August of 2007, you know that the real estate market in most areas of the country has sustained a massive blow to its ego. Not that things were booming before August, no, we were all a little nervous about and frustrated with our slow-moving inventory, but we figured we'd snap out of our doldrums soon enough.
BAM!
Along comes the mortgage crisis and, just like that, a good chunk of the home-buying public is suddenly un-mortgage-worthy. Crap.
So here we are.
As I write this, it's late 2007. Sellers are slashing prices, buyers … (26 comments)
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sellers: What if...?
- 10/17/07 01:35 AM
What if...
Your accountant prepared your taxes using last year's rules?
Your physician treated your arthritis with an expired prescription?
Your painter painted your house using 5-year old paint?
Your child's kindergarten teacher taught using 1970's methods?
Your stockbroker traded using 1990's strategies?
Your real estate agent priced your home using early 2007 comps?
copyright Jennifer Allan 2007
… (16 comments)
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sellers: Real Estate Agents: Get Good... or Get Out
- 10/16/07 11:44 AM
Yep, that means exactly what you think it means. If you are not a good real estate agent, get out of the business now before you spend one more dime or dollar on your personal marketing or MLS dues. Give your overpriced listings to someone else who will price them right and market them intelligently. (That way you might actually see a few dollars from your efforts down the line when the referral fee comes due after closing.)
Gone (for now) are the days where being a good real estate agent meant you were a Good Prospector. NO ONE IS IMPRESSED … (98 comments)
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sellers: SELLER, CAN'T YOU HEAR ME?
- 09/16/07 12:08 AM
A fellow Active Rainer, who shall remain nameless in the interest of protecting her relationship with her clients, recently commented on one of my blogs as follows:
"Jennifer I just wrote an email to a seller who has a very overpriced listing. They swore they'd lower in two weeks if no activity. It is now 5 months later and two very good offers that they rejected."
I asked her for an update and she responded with:
"Jennifer their response was 'they are perplexed that I didn't mention this during the negotiations.' I just don't understand which of the 12 emails and 10 … (18 comments)
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sellers: It’s Good to be the Queen - If I ruled the (real estate) world, Part II
- 09/15/07 12:32 AM
I wrote two unrelated blogs yesterday - one about how I would rule the (real estate) world and another about how we real estate-types are put in an awkward position when negotiating our commission with sellers.
After a day and night to ponder my blogs and the commentary, I realize that these two blogs are indeed, very closely related!
To summarize blog #1 - I am currently negotiating a contract for a book deal. The person I’m negotiating with will also be my editor, if we come to agreement. So, this guy has to first wine me and dine me (cyberly-speaking) … (11 comments)
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sellers: If I ruled the (real estate) world...
- 09/14/07 07:59 PM
Okay, that's a little melodramatic and I don't have time to talk about everything I would change. And, frankly, I have no interest in ruling any world.
So, let me rephrase that. If I ruled my real estate company...
I'd pass this law: Any agent who works for me will have to prove to me, their queen, that the sellers they allow to hire them have either a strong NEED or a strong DESIRE to sell. No market-testers allowed.
My company's listings would be 100% marketable. My company's listings would sell. Buyer agents would flock to show my listings first because … (52 comments)
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sellers: What Your Home Sellers May Not Know... but need to
- 09/12/07 03:22 AM
Loreena Yeo wrote a blog from her hospital bed today that, as her writing often does, inspired me to put my own two pennies on paper.
A few weeks ago, my partner and I put a Charming Denver Bungalow on the market. Our seller is one smart cookie and he's sold several homes on his own. We didn't want to insult his intelligence by boring him with all the details of having a home on the market; we figured if he had a question about the process, he'd ask. Oops.
Well, now he's asking. In a rather annoyed tone of voice, … (19 comments)
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sellers: Seller, Help Me... Help You
- 07/16/07 06:21 AM
That's the tentative name of a CD (DVD?) I'm putting together to help agents educate their sellers on how to best help the agent get a home sold for the highest price, least amount of time, blah blah blah. It's not a product for sale or for profit... it's actually a part of a course I'm designing on creating a listing presentation template.
So, I'm asking you to Help Me... Help You!
The goal is to give agents a tool to communicate difficult concepts to their seller or seller prospect without being the messenger who gets shot. (I think there's another guy … (18 comments)
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sellers: Real Estate Agents, Just Say NO to Price Reductions!
- 07/11/07 07:48 AM
I don't believe in price reductions. Never have. I believe that just about any home can sell in 30 days or less, in any market, if it's priced properly on Day One. And no, by "properly" I don't mean "under" although that may very well be the case in many markets. If a home sells in the first month of marketing, it WILL sell for market value and the seller will almost certainly obtain the highest possible price. We all know that extended marketing times do nothing positive for the eventual sales price, not only due to the perceived stigma of a … (75 comments)
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sellers: Dear Home Seller... Trust me, I know what I'm doing!
- 04/12/07 12:52 AM
I just read Midori's great blog called "Pssst... Mr. and Mrs. Seller, Can We Talk?", which reminded me of something I used to include in my listing presentations. I don't know if my seller prospects much LIKED it, but it made me feel better for saying it... What do YOU think??
Dear Seller,
In my 10 years of experience, I have learned a thing or two about the selling of real estate. Like all real estate agents, I have experimented with various sales strategies and gimmicks, and I know what works and what is a waste of time and money.
I … (27 comments)
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sellers: What does a listing agent DO for all that money?
- 03/31/07 02:21 AM
I was cleaning out old files this morning and came across this little blurb I wrote years ago and used in my listing presentations. If you like it... feel free to use it!
What does a Real Estate Agent DO for all that money?Many people think that the main reason you hire a real estate agent is for MLS exposure. And, unfortunately, in some cases that may appear to be the primary service some real estate agents provide. However, a GOOD agent provides much more than simply a For Sale sign and a listing on an online database.
ConnectionsA good real … (17 comments)
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sellers: "I'm a Listing Specialist So I Don't Work with Buyers"
- 03/18/07 03:00 AM
If you don't work with buyers on a regular basis, you don't have the expertise to accurately price homes for market. Many experienced agents snottily declare that they Don't Work With Buyers - they only handle listings and hire buyer agents to show homes. I know a few agents in my area who are huge listers and have never shown or previewed one of my listings. I don't understand how they can claim to be a neighborhood expert when they don't know the competition...don't have an understanding of how buyers think.
Because I work with both buyers and sellers equally, I … (15 comments)
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sellers: Being Up-Front with Our Sellers, Part III - The Condition of the Property
- 03/02/07 11:21 PM
...Continued from Being Up-Front with Our Sellers, Part II
The Condition of the PropertyJust last week, I had a conversation with a young man who is putting his house on the market. The home is tenant-occupied and shows poorly, which he acknowledges. However, he has photos of the home taken when he lived there that "show how nice the home really is." He wants his agent to display the photos in the home so that potential buyers won't be put off by the current condition.
Well, nice idea, but unfortunately it won't work. What he doesn't realize is that buying a … (1 comments)
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sellers: Being Up-Front with Our Sellers - Part II - Tenant-Occupied Properties
- 02/05/07 03:02 AM
... continued from: Being Up-Front with our Sellers, Part I ...
Tenant-Occupied PropertiesAn obstacle I run into time and again is a seller who doesn't understand the difficulties of showing, selling and closing a single-family tenant-occupied residential property. The typical situation is that my seller client has a nice little home with a nice little tenant and he wants to sell with the current lease intact. In other words, he doesn't want to kick the tenant out before marketing because he needs the monthly income from the tenant's rental payments. Fair enough.
What he needs to know from me are … (2 comments)
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sellers: Being up-front with our sellers
- 02/03/07 02:53 AM
We real estate agents should have strong opinions. We should be willing and able to share these opinions with our clients, especially our seller clients. We are not hired for our looks, so to speak, rather we are hired because we are experts in the field of marketing, selling and closing the homes of those who honor us with their business.
What if you visited with an attorney who told you had a strong case when in fact, you didn't? Or if your physician told you that the little mole on your shoulder was nothing to be concerned about when indeed, … (6 comments)
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Got this idea from Herb Hamilton's featured post today "Doom or Gloom or Huge Success."
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