interview with Brad Korn, The Korn Team, Keller Williams:
How do you feel being the nicest home in the neighborhood affects the ability for the home to sell?

My normal response in a market like this is that “you do not want to be the castle in the neighborhood” and therefore if someone ‘TRULY’ has the nicest house in the neighborhood, they need to realize that is not going to help them. The only way this can help is if they were the only house for sale…or there is very low inventory AND everyone currently on the market is way overpriced. Remember, it is truly about Suppy & Demand…NOT 3 most-like comparable sales. Let me explain. If you have 12 homes for sale, and use the 3 highest sales as comps…we can justify why someone would price higher, but what about the true read on the market that there are 9 more sales lower.

We help a seller with the nicest home in the neighborhood realize that they are going to get just a little bit more than the other homes if they have incredible updates, however, hopefully they have some enjoyment value from living in an incredible house.

If you feel your home is one of the nicest homes in a neighborhood, be sure you contact The Korn Team at (816) 224-KORN (5676 or visit our website and reach us at www.kornteam.com. We can help you determine if you can put more equity in your pocket. Do not list with anyone else until you have met with us. Our meeting is not a sales pitch..it is an evaluation of your currrent situation and we help over 100 home owners and home buyers get the most out of these market conditions every year.

October Real Estate Update as we enter the 4th Quarter of the Year

This is a National perspective from our friend Terri Murphy who shared this information with us in a recent podcast on tips for sellers. She mentioned there are some interesting changes on the home sales front. Existing home sales INCREASED in August even though we are still impacted by tighter credit and appraisal issues. Add to that the regional disruptions by Hurricane Irene, NAR reports that we actually saw monthly gains in all regions. Total sales that included single family, townhomes, condo’s and co-ops rose 7.7 percent and are 18.6 percent higher than August of 2010.


Terri also shared that when we look at PENDING home sales, we see a slightly different picture. The numbers for properties that are pending, but not closed slipped a bit in August, but are higher than a year ago according to the same report by the National Association of Realtors. There are some positive market fundamentals. And the NAR chief economist says they may be the result of sales that were delayed in the preceding months. But we still enjoy great low rates for favorable affordability. And Joe, we see a rise in rent which of course motivates more buyers and investors to absorb foreclosed properties.

So with great low rates, and good pricing and high motivation, it’s a great time to buy and sell. But we do know that properties that are staged sell faster and for more money. The Korn Team has had a record summer selling properties in the Greater Kansas City area. They are helping seller's stage their homes to get top dollar given the current market conditions.

In the past 2 months, the Korn Team actually helped 2 seller's sell their property (in the 300k price range) who had been on the market for 6 months and the other, 1 year. We simply helped them restage their property, put a better marketing plan in place, and sold them both in under 30 days. That is after they had been on the market with not much activity. There really is no reason your showings should be slow, or that you should be on the market for 6 months. Let us help you show you how to position yourself in the market to be one of the next properties to sell and stage your home so you can win the buyers over when they see you home. You can schedule a one-on-one marketing evaluation strategy plan for your property by giving us a call at 816-224-KORN (5676) and if you would like to hear our latest podcast on staging tips, visit http://www.kornteam.com/ and click on our podcast icon on the left side of our webpage.

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)

Are Contingent Offers Bad?

I was just reading some comments about how contingent offers on a home can be bad and put the seller at a disadvantage. Contingent offers typically mean a buyer can make an offer on a home, but must sell their home first. The writer mentioned the normal reasons why... your home won't be shown as much; you will typically have to wait for their buyer's buyer to find a buyer; You might be willing to take a little less for your home so you don't have to wait...and several others.

I have been selling real estate for over 15 years, helping over 120 families a year buy and sell real estate. Let me share with you my thoughts about automatically assuming a contingent offer is a bad deal...because it is not. If you have the right, experienced agent working on your behalf, it could be a VERY prosperous deal for you.

Here is my response:
I totally disagree with sellers being at a disadvantage with contingencies...and I will tell you the other side.

1) in many larger priced home, a buyer is going to have a home to sell to get thier equity. If you have a home that has been on the market, and a buyer can only write a contingent offer, you might be in a better position to get them under contract NOW and get the terms locked up. If you make them wait till their home sells, they may find a home they like better, because they will continue to house shop if you don't take their contingent offer.

2) if their home is priced to sell, they could be a more valid buyer than the other one you have (no one). As a listing agent we will require the buyer agent to submit a CMA of the buyers home to evaluate if they are indeed priced to sell. If they are, this could be a very lucrative offer...because you can ask a buyer to pay more for a home and counter offer bigger prices or terms when the seller is willing to take a contingent offer. Buyer's typically pay more for the home to 'inconvenience' the seller a little.

3) Contingent status typically is a default with Active homes on MLS. The only buyers who don't look at contingent offers, are other buyers who have homes to sell and would be contingent as well. The cash buyers and non-contingent buyers still look at contingent homes because typically those offers can be bumped out. Which in turn helps your seller get a better price as well, because they typically won't accept much less than the higher priced contingent offer they negotiated.

4) Very seldom is there a chain reaction. Obviously the higher priced the 1st home is will determine if the others will have a home to sell.

5) It is good advice to see if you can get the buyer to buy non-contingent, but if it means they will have to walk, you should at least consider it. This of course does not apply when a market is extremely strong. But if you are working in conditions that are typical accross the country, I think you might be giving the consumers, and agents some not so good advice.

I have been explaining the benefits of contingent offers to my sellers for over 15 years, and I don't feel like any offer we have ever taken put them in a worse postition than not taking the offer originally.

When you are representing a buyer, I can explain how accepting our contingent offer is great if they don't want to take a contingent offer. Unless they enjoy cleaning and rushing out of their home 5-10 times they can relax if they take our contingent offer. 6-7 of the 10 have homes to sell. If you accept our contingent offer, all the contingent buyers (whose offers you really don't want to take anyway) will quit coming to kick you out of your house for 1-2 hours ever day.

So, if you are trying to sell your home in today's market, you might want to contact The Korn Team to evaluate your particular situation. If you are wanting to buy a home in this market and you have a home to sell, and you really need to get your equity out of your current home to buy... then you must absolutely contact our team of specialists. We are watching WAY TOO many homebuyers putting themselves in HUGE financial stress by buying homes non-contingent when they really should sell thier home first. Let us show you how to get your offers accepted and how the seller will benefit by accepting your offer.

Brad Korn
The Korn Team
Serving Greater Kansas City (and Lincoln, NE)
http://www.kornteam.com/
http://www.weselllincoln.com/
816-224-KORN (5676)