What Are You Doing To Sell My House? Besides The MLS?!?

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. How many times have you heard a person off the street say this. Or worse, from your own seller?! Obvioulsy the general public isn't as educated about our profession as they could be. I was considering printing this 5.7 million times and mailing it to every person in a 60 mile radius from my office, them mail it every quarter for a full year. That would cost just over 9 million dollars. I was hoping to start collecting donations! I have one hell of a pickle jar that can accomadate.....

Dear Mr. Seller:

Real Estate is an ongoing learning process, not just for agents but for consumers. When a home isn't selling the first thing a seller asks is... what is the agent doing besides putting my house on the local mls? I've heard this and so has every other agent who's had a listing that wasn't selling. I have also heard that "we make a lot of money per hour" line as well. To help you better understand just exactly what I do, how I do it and what it costs I've decided to disclose my personal expenses, work schedule and list of efforts to sell your home.

Discounting my commission would mean I would be asked to discount my services, which leaves me to ask you a very simple question.

Which one of these services would you like me to remove? Any one of these efforts or expenses could and most likely be the reason your home may sell either with me or potentialy another agent.

Houston Association, National Association & Texas Association of Realtors are all memberships that provide a large variety of services to Licensed Realtors. Some Examples include:  forms, legal advice, training, conferences, and much much more.  $349/yearly

The MLS or Multiple Listing service isn't free to agents this service cost me $480/yearly. The average time for a listing - actually obtained is about 8 hours. This includes taking photos, driving to and from, creating flyers, generating the content and measurements for your home. This also includes the research to perform the appointment.

The showings on your home will be facilitated by CSS or Centralized showing service. This costs me $468/ yearly to provide to YOU, my cherished client. This also requires updating, uploading and content to be provided from your listing.

Agents with RE/MAX pays an annual fee of $399.00.

Agents with RE/MAX  also are given thousands of advertising avenues as part of our dues. You may have seen a commercial or two. Every agent CAN pay a different fee to "hang their license." Working from home is generally cheaper.  I have an office, an office that cost money. Since fees are negotiable it wouldn't be fair for me to advertise or disclose what I pay. I can tell you it's more than $10,000.00/ yearly.

It isn't required, but it isn't practical to sell Real Estate without a Supa-Key. That's the little gizmo that looks like a pager. This device allows me to enter homes that are on the mkt.  $265/yearly.

In order to GET business you have to SPEND $.  What works means you have to spend money to find out. In other words, try, fail, try, fail. For practical purposes I'll tell you last year I spent in excess of $15,000.00 to generate "buyers & sellers." In a perfect world we are 100% referral, but that doesn't make perfect sense. I HAVE to make X amount of money per year. If I wasn't all that concerned then I could say make $50,000 a year (GROSS) just off of referrals then advertise that I'm 100% referral only! But I'm not.

According to recent studies 82% of consumers begin their search ONLINE for their next home. This further explains why I spent in excess of $15,000 online, last year. To be online means you need websites. It takes lots of time, energy and effort optimizing and ensuring the websites are up to date, effective, productive and most importantly EXPOSED. This runs about $2,000/ yearly.

One of the ways to market your home is by making a custom flyer.  Last year I purchased a $7,800 state of the art printer that produces high quality flyers. The ink/toner alone run about $3,800/yearly.

Gas as we all know is expensive, very expensive. I drive around a lot showing buyers, running signs, flyers, appointments attending closings and so much more. $7,000/yearly.

 The overwhelming majority of agents are self-employed. NO SALARY.  Unfortunately, this means we have ZERO benefits, retirement, insurance, health-care and so much more. We also are required to pay self employment taxes! ESTIMATED 18%/yearly - that's $18,000 for every 100k!

Internet, cell-phone, email, laptops, computers, blue-tooth gadgets, office furniture, business cards, paper, office supplies, move-in gifts, other printing costs, stamps, envelope AND MUCH MUCH MORE can easily exceed $10,000/yearly.

Above are some of the financial burdens a productive and quality agent must meet.

So what do we do? We spend A LOT of money for 1.

Second:

We get paid for what we know, not just what you see us do!

Relationships! What does this mean? It means I have solid relationships with: Lenders, Title-Companies, Appraisers, Handy-Men, Electricians, Pool Companies, Foundation Companies, Plumbers, Lawyers, Realtors, Insurance Companies. When things need to get done - RELATIONSHIPS  matter!

With every transaction comes experience, knowledge and more efficient handling of the next customer.

Often, I attend training, seminars, networking functions, civic meetings, Texas Department of Transportation meetings, Buyer Seminars, Seller Seminars, Lender Seminars - and many more.

TREC or Texas Real Estate Commission has licensing requirements that require classes to ensure I am up obtaining ongoing education.  Each class can range from $100-$400 depending on the course.

A day in the life of Greg Nino is usually 6 days a week between 60-70 hrs. Prospecting, cold calling, showing buyers, meeting sellers, training, making flyers, uploading listings, photo's, and so much more

A good Real Estate assistant runs between $10-$15/hour and $25,000.00/yearly

In all this is a short list of expenses and duties that I perform to help YOU sell your home, market your home and provide you the level of service necessary to complete our transaction.

 www.listingsforhouston.com

www.yourhomeinhouston.com

www.gregnino.com