Monday, October 01, 2007

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)

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Is Feedback from Showings on my Home Important?

We notify our seller's immediately IF an agent sends feedback. Here is our updated information during a market review with one of our seller's:

"Showing traffic has been very good considering the market conditions. Very consistent.
You should be getting emails with the feedback, etc.

The feedback seems to be a little mixed as to whether or not you are overpriced. Half say it high, half say it is good. The other consistent feedback seems to be that there is still work to be done. I don't know what they may be focusing on other than just the picky little things (which is a common thing in this market). The buyers want over the top immaculate."

Typically only 2 out of 10 agents in the KC market will actually provide feedback. It has been my experience the best feedback is to evaluate what homes received contracts after our seller's home was on the market. Agents telling you to change colors of rooms is not necessarily the best feedback. Our team will help you decifer that feedback to see if it is a valid comment, or just them giving their opinion.

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

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Is the Real Estate Market in Greater Kansas City Really Bad?

The Korn Team doesn't think so, in fact, with (supposedly) the worst market ever, we personally set a new team record over the past 15 years. In June, The Korn Team sold 23 homes. That was an all time high since we started our team.

In fact, just to show you what the market conditions are like for our team: In 2005 ( the third best year of Real Estate KC had ever seen, we sold 114 homes). In 2006 (the worst market Missouri had ever seen) we sold just under 120 homes. So far this year we have sold just under 70 homes, and we are on track to close right around 120 homes again this year.

Unfortunately, not everyone can say that. The day's of just putting a sign in the yard, running ads and open houses don't work in a tough market. Anyone can sell a home in a good to great market. Even the homeowner can! But in a tough market, you are going to need even more than just MLS to sell your home for top dollar.

No matter what the market conditions are, we have proven we get our client more equity than the average agent. According to the National Association of Realtors, homes typically sell 3%-5% under the asking price. When we compare our stats from 2006 and 2007 to our competition, we are blowing them out of the water. Much of our competition in these market conditions are getting contracts accepted about 5%-7% under asking price. Want to see The Korn Team actual statistics for 2006 and 2007? Keep in mind these are just our "listings". These are the sellers that hired us to sell their home. This does not include all the buyer's we have helped.

We sold over 60 listings in 2006 and of all those sales, we averaged our sellers 99% of their asking price. That was the first solid year of the worst market KC has ever seen.

So far this year (as of the posting of this blog) we have sold 38 listings (not buyer sales, just our listings) and we are still averaging 99% of thier list price at the time of offer. We are getting them 97% of the original asking price. So, we try to get them top dollar, but even after making a small adjustment, we get the offers negotiated back up to almost full price.

So, don't trust your biggest asset (the equity in your home) with just anyone. Contact our team today for a FREE, no obligation review of the market conditions for your home. We promise to blow your socks off when you see our proven marketing plan.

The Korn Team
Serving Greater Kansas City & Lincoln, NE
http://www.kornteam.com/ or http://www.weselllincoln.com/
brad@kornteam.com

Saturday, August 25, 2007

How The Korn Team gets more buyers to your Open House

Everyone wants to sell their home. Open Houses have, for the longest time, been a regularly requested activity. The truth is, less than 1% of all homes actually sell at thier own open house every year. My team has been selling real estate for over 16 years and we have multiple open houses every week.

We have never sold a home AT the open house. Don't get me wrong, we sell homes because we held a home open....just not the one we were sitting at during the open house hours. It does happen...just not enough that you should be kicked out of your home every Sunday for hours on end.

However, for those of you who do like open houses, here is just a few ways The Korn Team ensures we get the most traffic possible to your home on that day.

1) Put the signs up a week in advance, all over. knock on the doors of the homes and invite the homeowner whose property you put the signs in on Monday morning.

2) Call anyone in our database working with or knows a buyer in the 125k price range for that particular area. Then, call and invite them to the open house.

3) There are SEVERAL websites that you can also post the open house on. Definitely let us know so we can get it on realtor.com. It should be on MLS and KWLS as well. We post it on as many sites as possible...at least by Monday or Tuesday so you can get more traffic than you ever imagined.

If you are trying to sell a home, or know someone that is, have them contact us today for a free, no obligation evaluation of their home in this market.

Brad KornThe Korn Team
(816)224-KORN (5676)
(816)268-3839 fax
brad@kornteam.com

Your Personal Real Estate Consultants....for LIFE!

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want. Zig Ziglar

ps. Shop our list of over 19,000 homes currently for sale in the Greater Kansas City area, for FREE! visit http://www.kornteam.com/
pss. You can also keep up to date with the Kansas City market by tuning into our monthly Podcast and Blogs at http://www.kornteam.com/.
I can't sell my house! What is wrong?

The real estate market is tough all across the country. Here is a recent converstation with another top agent in the area that spells out exactly what you need to do to ensure you get your home sold. If you are not selling your home, and frustrated because you are not getting any offers, listen to this comment:

My collegue states: "The truth of the matter is that there are 3 times the amount of homes on the market now as compared to last year. Is yours the best staged, best priced and the easiest to see? If not, it won't sell, but it will help the competition to sell." There are tips and tricks we know that can help you get more showings. It always comes down to Location, Price and condition & in this market...the marketing plan can play a BIG part to make sure the eyeballs at least get on your property.
On Aug 21, 2007, at 3:10 PM

For all your real estate needs, contact The Korn Team Serving Greater Kansas City & Lincoln, NE. We have already sold over 70 homes so far in 2007. You can't be one of our next sales unless you contact us today! 816-224-KORN (5676) or visit http://www.kornteam.com/ to see how we market our listings.

Friday, August 24, 2007

I just had a seller ask me if I would advertise that fact that they are a motivated sellers. I just posted a blog with the response I gave that person. See my advice at http://www.sellingmyhome.blogspot.com/

Brad KornThe Korn Team(816)224-KORN (5676)
(816)268-3839 fax
brad@kornteam.com

Your Personal Real Estate Consultants....for LIFE!

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want. Zig Ziglar

ps. Shop our list of over 19,000 homes currently for sale in the Greater Kansas City area, for FREE! visit http://www.kornteam.com/

pss. You can also keep up to date with the Kansas City market by tuning into our monthly Podcast and Blogs at http://www.kornteam.com/