There are two main strategies that get homes sold in Prosper, Texas. The first is exposure. You have to have enough lines in the water to catch that fish we call BUYER. You may get a few nibbles that get you all excited, but we're looking for that one fish who wants the house and can qualify for a loan in today's economic environment. The other strategy is positioning. Positioning of the home on the market to compete for a smaller buyer pool and succeed in capturing the buyer.
It's tougher to get a home loan than it was just a few years ago. If I tried to buy my own personal home right now, I wouldn't qualify. Why? It's tougher for self-employed individuals to obtain a home loan. And, I didn't have as good a 2009 due to the recession as my 2005 documented income that supported the purchase of the house. I'm in the same boat as a lot of my fellow real estate agents and many of my clients. We purchased our homes in better financial years.
Do not take it personally if your home isn't getting enough showings to your liking. Nobody is getting 5-10 showings a week, unless they are distressed and giving the house away. Anyone who tells you they are getting that much showing traffic should have to hand you the showing report and prove it. I don't believe it. A good rate of pace for a home listing in Prosper, TX is 2-3 showings in any given week. That is the truest sign of demand. A showing every few days by a qualified buyer. If you can get the occasional agent preview in that week to bump traffic up to 3-5, you are really rocking along and soon to meet your buyer, so long as there are not underlying condition, location, or amenity issues that would turn off the buyer that we worked so hard to get to the house for a look-see.
Exposure
In regard to exposure for the home listing, you are looking for online traffic that not only finds the house on the internet, but seeks out additional details and mapping to the house. These views online should come from a myriad of sources: Realtor.com, trulia.com, point2homes.com, visualtour.com, postlets.com, homegain.com, homes.com, brokerage sites, and others. No, I did not leave zillow.com out of the mix intentionally. Zillow is a poor tool, in my opinion, due to the fact that Texas is a non-disclosure state when it comes to home values. Zillow brings in buyers, in our area, who feel they have reason to lowball offer on our homes in Texas. It is not a true reflection of market value, and it is not a critical tool in my real estate toolbox (again, my personal opinion, based on actual experiences).
The double-edged sword with exposure is that once you make them look, you cannot ignore it when they don't come for a showing. Online rejection is still rejection. But, without a showing and feedback, it can be difficult to discover just what the buyers did not care for in the marketing of the home. So, a home listing cannot just be set up once and left for others to find. It must be tweaked and monitored to ensure that it isn't a failure in the marketing strategy that is keeping others from finding the house (I go back to the house in Prosper that has a Winter photo still in our MLS in late June...marketing strategy ERROR!).
Positioning
Price positioning can be a turkey-shoot. There is no magic ball that tells us the exact price at which the home will sell. But, we do have to try to be mind-readers. In today's economic environment, our job is still the same. Find the pricing at which the seller and the buyer might reach a mutual gain and act as liaison to a successful end of the transaction. It sounds so easy. It has never been more challenging. Buyers are resistant to admit that the market, in the DFW Metroplex, is in recovery mode and getting stronger every day. They want the market to stay down so they can steal away someone else's hard-earned equity. Sellers can be too caught up in their own financial circumstances to admit that there home may not hold the monetary value that they believe it holds. This resistance on both ends creates wide gap for the agent(s) to fill. It is more likely for us to fail in this environment for any number of reasons that didn't exist just a few years ago. We know the seller wants more (in most cases) than the real value, and we know the buyer wants the house for less. Neither cares about the circumstances of the other. Until they enter into a mode of cooperation, the agents just spin wheels with lowball offers and knee-jerk reactions. Even when good agents advise their clients, we cannot force their actions. And, even when we believe whole-heartedly in the value of a home, the true value is set when the seller and buyer decide they are willing to negotiate. A really successful real estate transaction is not a simple 'let's meet in the middle'. It is a thoughtful and well-planned effort to negotiate more than just the sale price, and to truly work to find the mutual gain. A true negotiation is a thing of beauty and something that a good real estate agent enjoys so much more than the effort of finding the house. Donald Trump did not write The Art of Finding Great Homes. He wrote The Art of Negotiation. Finding the home is the chore, before the real work can begin.
Have a blessed Father's Day!
Ronda
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