Selling your home today is significantly different than what it once was. It is no longer sufficient enough to simply list the home for sale, put a sign in the front yard, and wait for someone to buy it. Your agent has to be actively engaged in the process to sell your home.
That level of engagement comes from a multitude of sources that we feel are a minimum necessity to successfully list and sell your home: market knowledge, accurately pricing your home, coherent marketing strategy and forward planning, negotiation expertise and guidance, and experience.
Market Knowledge
To successfully list a home for sale requires intimate market knowledge of an area. Your agent should be well-versed in comparable active, pending, and closed listings. Your agent should also provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) that quantifies the market statistics in terms of active, pending, closed, and expired listings. Your agent should go over all of this information with you so that you are fully aware where the market is currently at, and where it is projected to go.
Click the image above to see an example of a Comparative Market Analysis.
Accurately Pricing Your Home
This aspect of selling your home is in our opinion by far the most important. Like the Field of Dreams renowned quote, “If you build it, they will come”, residential real estate’s quote is “if you price it in line with market the buyers will come.” This is always a fine line that your agent and you, the seller, must walk. Obviously, every seller would like to sell his home for the absolute max that he can get. However, the effects of overpricing your home can have quite a contrary and negative effect than one would assume. Therefore, we always refer to the Pricing Pyramid as a reference point for our sellers.
The Pricing Pyramid is a great reference point to know what level of traffic you are going to derive based upon your chosen list price.
In addition to having reduced activity at an above market rate for your listing, you will also experience additional days on market. Below is a graph from Realtor.com showing how extra days on market affects showing activity. At around the fifth week the listing goes stale and your home is now viewed as being ‘passed over’ by other prospective buyers.
More days on market can mean less activity and interest after week five.
Generally the consequences of overpricing your home and spending more days on market results in selling your home blow market.
More days on market can translate to selling actually below market value of your home.
Coherent Marketing Strategy and Forward Planning
There is definitely a difference between marketing a home for sale and having a coherent marketing strategy, which includes forward planning. Therefore, the second that your agent walks in your home to even talk about selling your home, he hopefully already has the marketing strategy laid out. In addition, he hopefully already has buyers in mind that may be a fit for your home. All of this factors into how well your home will be marketed. Per Realtor.com here are some of the top items that discriminating Internet buyers are looking for while shopping for a home:
- 99% – Property Photos (Plenty of Good Ones)
- 99% – Detailed Information About Properties for Sale
- 88% – Virtual Tour
- 80% – Real Estate Agent Contact Information
- 78% – Interactive Maps
If you are interested in seeing how we plan to market your home please contact us today via email by clicking here.
Negotiation Expertise and Guidance
This is the most complex part of the sales transaction. This is where your agent will show to you how well they are versed in the standard Arizona Association of Realtors (AAR) residential purchase contract. Your agent must work diligently to negotiate on your behalf to get you the best deal when that offer does arrive. This requires tapping into the aforementioned market knowledge, as well as knowing the art of negotiations. You will want your agent to be aggressive, play his hand intelligently, and ensure that they can put together the best deal on your behalf. The best way to find out if an agent has these skills…ask for references or rely on the referral of someone whom you trust.
Experience
Last but not least is experience. Granted doing something consistently wrong for decades is no better than having to feel your way through the dark the first time. However, we believe that there is a fine line between seasoned and open to grow versus experienced and stuck in your ways. Your agent should be seasoned, but utilizing all of the techniques, tools, and best practices of today to be a truly successful agent. We would much pass on a listing or buyer if it is beyond our level of expertise as opposed to make you our learning lesson. Therefore, when it comes time to sell your home make sure you are getting the seasoned veteran who is at the top of her game taking your listing assignment.
