How to Interview a Realtor0

Choosing the right or wrong agent could result in a swing of thousands of dollars in your pocket on the day of closing.
Sellers have many choices when it comes to hiring a real estate broker or agent. So how do you interview and compare them? There are hundreds of real estate licensees in our area. Choosing the right broker for your home can be confusing. It is especially difficult when you speak with several different agents; and they all seem so convincing.

There is a way to find an agent who will most likely succeed in getting your desired price and terms. The key is asking the right questions. The following list provides you with questions to ask your prospective Realtor. The list will not only help you select the right Realtor, but also get you the very best from the one you choose…

1.    Are you a Broker or an Agent? (Agents work for the Broker)
2.    What is your Financial Guarantee of Your Performance?
3.    Do you have a Risk Free Easy Exit listing agreement?  (Can cancel the listing agreement?)
4.    Tell me the Emotional Triggers of my home that will attract the most buyers?
5.    Tell me about your Internet Marketing skills. How many sites will my home be seen on?
6.    What Multiple Listing Services are you a Member of?
7.    How many Professional Photos do you use to promote my home?
8.    Do you have a Home Hunter Service for Buyers and, if so, tell me about it?
9.    Do you have Development and Investment experience?
10.    Do you have a Comparison Matrix of your services comparing yourself to other Realtors?
11.    Do you have a staff to see that no details are overlooked?
12.    How many potential buyers and sellers do you talk with in a day? A week? A year?
13.    In what ways will you encourage other Realtors® to sell my home?
14.    Do you have a system to follow-up on other agents so that we get valuable feedback after every showing?
15.    What is the market value of my property? What listing price do you recommend? How did you arrive at this price?
16.    How will you assist in my relocation plans?
17.    Do you have a written marketing plan designed to sell my property quickly and for top dollar?

Posted: How-To, Selling Real Estate

The Sky is Falling0

How to get Your Home Sold in a Falling California Housing Market

The shark frenzy is long over. It is now a buyer’s market with inventory skyrocketing in Southern California… but you need to sell your existing home and move. How do you get it done without taking a bath?

In this slumping market, there are four keys to getting top dollar of the sale of your home.

1. The Broker: You must know how to find, interview and choose the right real estate broker that can get you top dollar. (This topic is be a new article soon on HomeAdvice.net) In addition, the right broker is a true “transaction engineer” and knows how to handle problems to get it closed.
2. Merchandising Your Home: What story are you telling to the buyer with your property? You must merchandise your house to sell for the most money. This topic is introduced on my blog but the full 18 page article will be your how-to guide to get this done.
3. Pricing: Pricing is a strategy. There is not just one price. More on this later.
4. Aggressive High Tech Marketing: Only the best seasoned professional brokers know how to do this, not new agents that sit around and wait for something to happen.

Each of these topics entail much more discussion so stay tuned.

Posted: The Market

Merchandise your House to Sell Now1

How to Merchandise Your Home House to Sell For Top Dollar

by SCOTT FARRELL

So you intend to sell your home. As soon as you make that decision and commence that process, everything changes. Your Home is no longer a home. This is the hard truth and you must change your mindset to be successful or risk leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the escrow or closing table.

Your “Home” is now a “House for Sale” which is a Product in a very competitive market of which buyers have ZERO emotional attachment to initially.

You and your family live in your wonderful home. When you put it on the market, you are officering a product for sale and the family does not go with it. So your home becomes a house. The house becomes a product and you will either be a very smart merchandiser and sell your product and make top dollar …. or not. The choice is yours to make and if you want top dollar, you need to learn how to merchandise it like a professional.

To Merchandise
Merriam-Webster defines it as follows:
1 : to buy and sell in business
2 : to promote for or as if for sale

To carry on commerce, to buy and sell, to promote for sale… like merchandising a movie star.

Another dictionary defines it this way: promote a product by developing strategies for packaging, display, and publicity

Packaging, display and publicity. That makes sense too. By now I think you get the idea. You have to be a smart marketer to make the big bucks on the sale of your home house.

Merchandising your House is about creating an environment in and around your property that appeals to the emotional needs and desires of the buyer. I am not just talking about staging. It is much more than that. (This article relates to residential real estate.)

To some, the term merchandising might sound cold. We are talking about a business transaction that involves the sale of an asset that might range from a few hundred thousand to several million dollars. You bet it is business. But here is the catch; we want to merchandise the house as warm, inviting, open, spacious and energetic. Not cold or calculating so please do not confuse the term with what we intend to create as an environment for your buyers.
The Mindset
To be a successful merchandiser, you must learn to think like a buyer. To be successful in selling your house for top dollar you must be able to understand how buyers behave and what causes them to take action to buy a house.

Living in a home and selling a house are two very different things.

You must accept that statement as fact right from the beginning. Someone once said that you do not get a second chance to make a first impression. Once you have completed all the action items outlined below you will then be ready to make a first impression… but not until then.

Here are the basic steps:

1. Prepare your house for sale
A. Fix everything that needs to be fixed
B. Remodel and improve where needed both inside and out
C. Paint
D. Re-carpet
2. Clean … everything
3. Clear and Organize
A. Pack all possessions not needed for staging or daily living. Ideally, you move extra items to storage instead of the garage.
4. Dynamically Stage the House

… Please call me for the complete guide.

Remember that selling a house is not the same thing as living in a home. This is a temporary situation and will make you a lot of money if you merchandise your house to sell for top dollar!

All the best,

Scott Farrell

Posted: Selling Real Estate