It’s a typical concern for all sellers when they are starting the process of selling their home.  You want the most amount of money in the shortest time possible.  How can you do that when you know a buyer is going to try to negotiate the price down to get a bargain?  Your first reaction is to price the home higher because, you believe, you can always come down on the price later.

Although that sounds like a sensible thing to do, you need to understand how a house is marketed, and what agents and buyers are thinking.

Most sellers believe that a Realtor’s job, when listing a property, is to find the buyer for the house.  Truthfully, a listing agent is a “marketing agent”, and if they are doing their job honestly (and not keeping your house a secret so they can find their own buyer and make all of the commission), they will be marketing your property not only to the buyers, but to all the other Realtors in the direct and surrounding areas.  You see, 9 times out of 10, it’s another Realtor who has a buyer that is perfect for your house.

Real Estate Agents know the market that they work in, and know what properties should be priced at.  When your listing goes out to the masses, and is overpriced, the Realtors in the market are going to put your house on the back burner because they know that it will never sell for that price and it will be difficult to find a buyer willing to pay that price.  So, your house sits on the market and doesn’t get the showings that are needed to expose it  the most amount of buyers to the house.  Also, buyers are very savvy these days, and since market information is readily available on the internet, they too will know that the house is overpriced and will not even consider it.  Or, they make take a “wait and see” attitude, watching to see when you do start to lower your price.

The first few weeks of your listing is the most crucial when setting the stage for a sale.  A property that is priced right, combined with a listing agent that that has the tools to get it out in front of as many agents and buyers as possible, will have the greatest chance of selling in the shortest time.   The longer a house sits on the market, the lower the chance will be of selling. 

You need to also consider that once you start discounting the price, the buyers start discounting the house and looking for problems, or feeling that you are desperate.  This puts you into a bad position when it comes to negotiating a deal on the home.

If you are serious about selling your home, and want your listing agent to have the best chance possible to get it sold for you, then you need to price your home at or below market value – the first time!

 

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This immaculate home is in brand new condition! The huge great room gives you the feeling of a much larger home.

Details 3 Bedrooms, 2 Full Baths

• 1674 sq ft living area
• 2183 sq ft underbeam
• 2 Car Attached Garage
• 20.5' x 20.5' Great Room
• 9' Ceilings Throughout
• Wood-Burning Fireplace
• PRICED BELOW APPRAISAL at $150,000
• Appraisal on file

Features include:

Priced at $150,000, this home is below appraised value, and ready to move!! Call Michelle at Pinnacle Real Estate Services today at 601-569-0075 or email michelle@prchomes.com

The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is coming close to expiring. In order to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit, you must close on a house on or before November 30, 2009.

This tax credit is available to "first time home buyers" (anyone who has not owned a home over the past 3 years). There are a few other stipulations to receiving this credit.

1. The tax credit is 10% of the purchase price of the house, up to $8,000. Therefore, if you use this credit to purchase a $30,000 home, you will only receive a $3,000 credit.
2. It must be your primary residence where you live more than 50% of the time and you will have to do so for three years or the government will take back the credit when you sell the home.
3. To get the full credit, your modified adjusted gross income must be under $75,000 for singles and less than $150,000 for married joint filers.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this Federal Tax Credit, you must find a home and enter into contract before the end of September due to the time frame that it takes to get your offer accepted, completing inspections, and processing a loan.  This process is now taking up to two months, depending on the lender you choose.  Keep in mind that if you do not close the sale on the property on or before November 30th, you will not be eligible to receive this tax credit.

It's a great time to find that home you are looking for, and receive the great credit on your taxes next year!  If you are ready to take advantage of this tax credit, give me a call.  We'll find that perfect home for you!

I was watching a recorded seminar last night and picked up knowledge of a great tool that I thought I would share.  I know a lot of Realtors have to deal with being spammed because we all have our email addresses on many websites, floating around in cyberspace.  I know that in the 11 years that I have done business, it's been a problem for me personally.

Got take a look at www.spamdisappears.com.  This site will encode your email address so that when you put the code on your website, the spam bots cannot read it.  Give the code that is generated to your webmaster to encode your email address on your website.  The link will still work to send you an email, it just won't show what the email address is. 

There is also a Free Video: "How To Stop Spam You Are Already Getting".

Happy surfing!

Searching for tools to assist you online for your Real Estate business?  The internet has a wealth of tools available that you may not be aware of.  Through my online travels, I've found so many helpful sites.  Many of these useful tools are free to use, or have a free trial period.  Here are a few that you might want to check out:

OpenOffice - Free suite of office tools, similar to Microsoft Office.  It is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on all common computers. It stores all your data in an international open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of charge for any purpose.

Jott - With Jott Assistant and Jott for Salesforce, you just call a simple phone number, speak your notes, messages, or updates and hang up. Jott Voicemail works the same way, but your friends, family, and colleagues are the ones leaving the messages when they call your number. Then, Jott takes the spoken messages, turns them into text, and sends them to the right destination via email, text message, or web update

Evernote - Create, clip, and share notes on the web and see them everywhere.  Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere. Did we mention that it's free?

Livemocha - Free online language course.  Livemocha is the world's largest language learning community with over 2 million members! Designed for all language goals and skill levels, Livemocha offers free and plus learning options that actually work – and make learning languages social and fun!

GIMP - GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

99 Designs - Looking for a great looking logo, blog header, or website?  Getting something designed at 99designs is easy. Run a “design contest”, where thousands of designers compete to create the best possible design to meet your needs. All you need is a clear idea of what you want designed and how much you're prepared to pay for it.

 

These are just a few of the MANY tools that you can find online these days.  I've been doing my Real Estate business online for over 11 years now, and I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to have so many things available for free, or next to no cost, these days. 

 

With so many homes on the market today, a new property listing can get lost in the sea of listings, even in a small town.  When you are a seller needing to sell your home, you don't need just a sign in your yard, and a hope and prayer that the realtor you have chosen will miraculously find a buyer.  That may have worked in the past, but I'm sorry to tell you that it doesn't work in this market, today.

With Strategic Marketing, Pinnacle Real Estate Services markets your home in a variety of ways to put it out in front of more buyers.  Your home can't be the best kept secret.  Let's face it - You've picked up a real estate magazine that "showcases" the houses for sale in any given area.  What do you notice about those pages?  Are there many differences between one ad and another, or are they a sea of house pictures and a picture of the listing agent tell you how great they are and all the awards or designations they have received?  Is it easy to really spot which ones are in your price range, and have the features that you are looking for?

Now let's talk, for a minute, about where the buyers are.  Now, if the buyer lives in the town your home is in, then it's possible that they will see that real estate magazine ad.  But what about the enormous amount of buyers that are relocating to your area?  Do they drive in to town just to pick up all the magazines and newspapers to see what houses are for sale?  Where would they likely start their home search?

Pinnacle's Strategic Marketing advertises your home, not only in print, but on over 30 individual websites across the internet, with emphasis on the unique features that your home provides.  To see an example of one of the many ways a property is marketed using Pinnacle's Strategic Marketing, go to 23158 Whitfield Road. 

Your home needs a great amount of exposure in today's market to catch the eyes of the buyers who are actively in the market right now.  Shouldn't you get the best marketing available for the commission you will be paying?

For more information about Strategic Marketing by Pinnacle, call Michelle Fradella, Broker, at Pinnacle Real Estate Services in Picayune, Mississippi.  601-799-1848 or 601-569-0075

http://www.PRCHomes.com

 

Are mortgage companies and banks still lending? There is so much speculation and false information on the news today, so I thought it would be good to interview a mortgage lender and see what, in fact, is the situation. Click the BlogTalkRadio Podcast to hear my call with Jessica Tebo of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage in Picayune, Mississippi:

You've been reading that video is way to go when driving traffic to your website, but how can you get it up on more than one website at a time? I

f you have ever downloaded a video to sites like YouTube or TubeMogel, you'll know how excrutiatingly long the process can be, and that's just loading it once!

I've found a great service that submits your videos to more than 30 video, podcast, social networking, and social networking sites with just ONE submission! And there is a wealth of information on how to create videos, tutorials, and tips to get your videos out there, jumping your SEO faster than any other form of marketing.

Now you can learn about the power of marketing with online video through a series of free videos, and even have the chance to win a LiveScribe Pen!!

Mike Koenigs is always sending out more tips and info every month, to help you make your videos high-quality, and search engine friendly. The name of this service is Traffic Geyser. To find out more, click here and watch the 4 free videos:

http://www.TrafficGeyser.com/cmd.php?Clk=2940104

When your home is on the market, it's important to make it readily available to be shown to prospective buyers. Here are some tips to help you get ready:

· Increase your chances. The more people who see your home, the more likely you are to sell it quickly. Yes, it's inconvenient to show your home at dinnertime, but if the people buy your home, isn't it worth it?

· There shouldn't be any major housecleaning at this point. The kinds of tasks you ought to be concerned with now are simple ones: making the beds, stuffing last night's dirty pans in the dishwasher, picking up loose newspapers, etc. Even young children can participate by "cleaning" their rooms.

· If the season is appropriate, open the windows in each room and let in some fresh air. Stale air isn't appealing. And if you smoke . . . do it outside while your house is listed. Non-smokers are very sensitive to stagnate smoke smell, and nothing is more of a turnoff.

· Keep your thermostat at a comfortable setting. If it's too cold or too hot, a buyer won't stick around very long to really see what your home has to offer.

· Turn on all the lights for every showing before prospective buyers arrive. This also gives you an opportunity to select the lighting effects you want for each room. No area of your home should be dark.

· Turn off the television and turn on light, background music.

· Arrange for pets and children to be at a neighbors. Perhaps it's unfair to lump children with pets, but young children can distract buyers from their purpose. Keep pets away from buyers.

· "De-personalize" the house as much as possible. Take down any extra family pictures that are hanging on the walls or displayed on the shelves. They will often distract the buyer's attention from what is most important ... the house!

· Most importantly, please leave the home during all showings. It is uncomfortable and difficult for buyers to view the home when owners are present. Oftentimes, they will rush through the home and not give it the proper attention your home deserves. It is also hard for the buyers to "picture themselves" living in the home when the sellers are present.

For more tips when selling your home, see my Seller's section at Pearl River County Homes.