Friday, February 25, 2011

Will Sell Your House for FREE!!!

We just had a call from a potential client that has an upper bracket home to sell. Since we met and discussed the marketing program The Korn Team uses to get homes sold, the owner received some enticing offers from other Realtors. We showed the homeowner how we are getting more exposure to our clients properties which means more people see our clients homes AND because more people see our homes, our clients are reaping the benefits of 3-4% more equity than our competitors in the same marketplace.

You see, 90% of all agents truly do not spend any more money than they have to to get more exposure to a property. National Association of Realtors states that the average agent is selling 4-6 properties each year. That is only one sale every 2 months. There just is not enough margin in Real Estate to make a decent living AND have money to spend on marketing. Now, the reality is that most full time agents might be selling 12-20 homes each year. If half of those are buyers, that means they are helping only 6-10 sellers sell their home each year. Again, that is only 1 sale every couple months. It is truly hard to get the experience and become the BEST if you are only doing something once or twice a month.

As a home owner, your equity can disappear quickly...and it disappears by the THOUSANDS!!! Contracts don't get negotiated for a couple hundred here, couple hundred there...it is a Thousand here AND a Thousand there...

So, what was the enticing offer?
After talking, this homeowner mentioned that a Realtor from their church had offered to sell their home for FREE! Wow, really, free is awesome....if the Realtor will get the house sold, and get them the most money. I asked, my soon to be new seller client, who was the agent? Let's see if they have sold a lot of properties. The home owner did mention that this was a pretty successful agent and had seen their stuff around quite a bit, and knew them from church or school (can't remember which they said). I had heard of the agent before so I they have probably been selling real estate for a little while. When I pulled up the sales from the Multiple Listing service, we found that in the past 14 months, this realtor had only sold FOUR homes (that were listings). "Is that really who you want helping you sell your upper bracket home?", I asked.

When a home owner is hiring someone to sell their property, you think you would want someone that sells a LOT of homes. Not just homes (because that could be a lot of buyers), but homes they were marketing to sell. I even went back over the past 26 months and this agent sold 7 listings (14 total sales including buyers). That is a home every 2 months. The Korn Team in that same time frame had sold and closed 100 properties (not counting the buyers we have helped buy homes) and averaged between 97%-98% of our clients' asking price. That was just the signs we put in yards and marketed to sell. FREE sounded great, however, when you think about it...who really can market your property to get you top dollar and do it for free? If anything, you will be leaving equity on the table because all the marketing that needs to be done can get done for free. It costs money to make money.

In today's market (and truly, even in great markets) we have watched home owners sell homes fast in hot markets and we have seen homes sit on the market with no activity....Our homes get shown because our marketing definitely gets our listings in front of more potential buyers. We get our properties sold faster and for more money because we find buyers other typical agents may miss. Brad always says, "if you get more eyeballs on the property, you will get more for the proeperty and sell it for the most the market will bear."

Don't take ANY chances with your equity. There hasn't been much in the past few years, and every thousands of dollars in equity you have in your property is yours to get. You just have to have someone that is not afraid to spend money and focus on marketing that will get you the most exposure possible for your property. It costs nothing to meet with The Korn Team and it might make you THOUSANDS!

Take your interview process very seriously. There are so many things you need to be aware of when considering marketing your home or property.

You can see how the Korn Team markets properties at http://www.kornteam.com/ and click on featured properties. We take over 100-150 photos of our listings. We use wide angle lens and photo software to show our properties off. We have virutual tours, best positioning for print media, upgraded websites on the real estate sites that matter and we have 24/7 marketing for our clients where buyers can get information about the property. More exposure means more equity. Call The Korn Team today for your free, no obligation market evaluation. You can find us online or call directly at 816-224-KORN (5676)

The Korn Team
http://www.kornteam.com/
(816) 224-KORN (5676)