Thanks for calling this morning to follow up with our conversation. The following will explain why you may want to consider listing your home for sale with us. Three things sell homes; Price, Condition, and Exposure. It's been said its location, location, location, but that's a given we don't control. The home is in excellent condition, you have determined what you want to get for the property, and what we do is expose your home in it's best light to as many buyers as possible to get you the best possible price in the least amount of time and inconvenience to you. Our job as a listing agent is not to sell your home ourselves but instead to get it sold, either by us our by any one of the agents to whom we expose your property.
Many agents have at least some of the tools we use to sell your home. It's not always the tools you have but instead how well you use them. The following are the tools we have to expose your home and how we use them to their full potential.
Multiple Listing Service (MLS)
- Exposure to agents and Internet Search Engines; The Multiple Listing Service is the most important tool we have. It allows all of its agents to list their properties making the property information to all Real Estate agents who are a member. The MLS also feeds all the major internet search engines such as Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, and others through an "IDX" feed, making most of the home information available to Buyers searching the internet. The vast majority of Buyers today begin their search on the internet and do not work with a Real Estate agent until they are ready to look at the homes they have found.
- Beaufort, Hilton Head, & even Charleston MLS and more; We are members of not just the Beaufort MLS, covering mostly Northern Beaufort County, but we are members of Hilton Head MLS, covering Southern Beaufort County. Our Broker is also a member of the Charleston MLS, allowing us to expose your home to every agent on the East Coast of South Carolina. Remembering our goal is to expose your home to as many people as possible, this agent exposure is very valuable.
- Pictures, Descriptions, & Visual tours; Buyers today expect to find all the information at their hands about a home on the internet. Many Buyers pass by a home that doesn't have good information. Many Real Estate agents do not take advantage of the MLS which feeds to internet search engines. We list our properties with good pictures, detailed descriptions, and a visual tour that completely shows the home in its best light, giving the Buyer all the information needed to decide if they have an interest. Some agents simply move poor pictures to a simple visual tour program which simply makes poor pictures move a little. We take full advantage of well taken pictures as well as panoramic pictures that show how the home relates to environment and house the interior spaces connect to one another.
Buyer Inquiries to see your home
- Professionally Staffed Office; We offer a professionally staffed office open weekends to handle all Agent and Buyer request to schedule a showing for your home. Our Main Office Number, 843-321-9204 not only rings to the office but also rings to our mobile phones, giving us a much better chance of answering the call and scheduling a showing. Buyers and Agents do not like to wait for returned calls and often time is short.
- Buyer Lead Internet Capture; We invest a great deal of money generating buyer leads with a professional Webmaster utilizing our ForSaleInBeaufort.com website using our Market Leader buyer capture program, enhanced Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, RealtyTrac, and other profiles as well as purchased key search words from Google. We heavily invest in driving buyer traffic to our website to sell homes, yours and others.
- ForSaleByOwner (FSBO) yard signs and listings; Having a FSBO sign in your yard can possibly be dangerous for the home occupants, inviting anyone off of the street to knock on your door. Even though your intention is not to let just anyone in your home, you may not have a choice once you open the door. Using a Listing Agent, the buyer prospect will need to call an agent to schedule a showing.
Pricing your home for sale
- Cost vs. Value; What a home was purchased for and what was done to improve a home doesn't always reflect value. Buyers only look at what a home is worth and not what the Seller has invested in the home. Appraisers use the most comparable sales in the same or similar area with similar size and condition over the past six months if possible. We have access to all sales and can complete a Broker Price Opinion to determine the most likely range of value that your home will sell for today. The contract sales price can not exceed the appraised if the home is going to be financed unless the Buyer brings additional cash to the deal.
- Price to show; Our objective of a List price of a home is to get showings. If a home is overpriced, Buyers who might buy it may not look, thinking its out of their price range and Buyers of the price range may scheduled a showing but not buy due to expecting more for the price. Pricing the home correctly is critical to get buyers to look who may actually buy it.
- ForSaleByOwner saving commission; Sellers of a ForSaleByOwner often do not save the commission they think they will and actually sell for less than they would if they had an agent properly exposing the home to as many buyers as possible. Buyers understand that Seller is not paying a commission and may deduct that cost from their offer.
Closing after Contract
- Inspections, Repairs, Appraisals; Once the contract is written for the purchase of the home, their is still more work to do. The home isn't closed until the check clears the bank. The listing agent coordinates the Home Inspection, Request for Repairs negotiation, Appraisal and CL100 Termite and Wood Rot Inspection. The entire process has deadlines and procedures to follow and can often involve many hours of work. Contracts can fall through during this process only to start over finding a buyer for the home. The Listing Agent can work as an unemotional messenger to help coordinate the process
Real Estate Commission
- Listing and Selling Agent split; Typically the Listing Agent and Selling Agent split a Real Estate Commission when a home sells. The Listing Agent represents the Seller and the Selling Agent represents the Buyer. If the same agent represents both, the Agent works as a dual agent. All commissions and splits are defined in the listing contract between Listing Broker and Seller.
- Standard Real Estate Commissions; There are no "standard" Real estate commissions. The Broker In Charge of a company sets the Real Estate Commission for its agents. It is illegal for Real Estate Brokers to collude and fix real estate commissions. It is common to see residential Property listed paying a total 6% commission with 3% being paid to the Listing Agents Broker and 3% being paid to the Selling Agents Broker
Thanks again for allowing me to explain what we can do for you and how we can assist you in selling your home. Call me anytime to discuss how we can help.
Carl & Sing
Comments(5)