What do I do that few, if any, other agents do to properly market homes?
The First Ingredient Is Having A Client Who Is Serious About Selling!
I am retained to sell a property - not to just list the property! Any agent can list a property. Easy and it just takes an hour or so. There are plenty of discount agents out there who will list for a few hundred dollars and I’ll be very glad to discuss why doing so is a very bad decision on your part. The math just doesn’t work and your risk is increased. So, your first decision is “Do I want to SELL my property?” If you want to sell and maximize your proceeds and minimize your risk the you will want to retain a full service Realtor who has the capability to market your home world-wide.
The proper marketing of your home requires a serious decision on your part that you really want to sell your home. This means that you are willing to do the things necessary to be successful in your goal. This requires that we have to gather the necessary information to make sure that your goal is achievable. The following is required:
Let me provide you with a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA). This information gives us a reasonable idea of the likely SELLING PRICE of your home by taking into consideration the market appeal of your home in it’s present condition.
Get A Pre-Listing Appraisal of VALUE: This is a value that an appraiser puts on the home with the majority of the value coming from the square footage, location and general condition of your home and how it closely it compares to the other homes in your neighborhood. This value is important as there is no sense in trying to sell your home for more than it will appraise for by the Buyer. By the same token, there is no sense in “leaving money on the table” by selling for less. Let's find out the current value of your home by an unbiased 3rd party.
Properly Price Your Home To Sell: First, what price you need or what price you want has nothing to do with what the market is actually willing to pay for your home. Ideally, the two numbers above are the same. If there is work needed (that would lessen the market appeal) to be done on your home and you have the budget to perform that work and still sell for approximately the appraisal value then the work should be done to maximize your sale price and minimize time on market. If the net sale proceeds are not sufficient to pay existing mortgages then there is a need to either bring money to the closing or have the lender be willing to take less than what is owed. If this is not possible then you have several options remaining, neither pleasant. However, I am very good at explaining your options and helping you arrive at a decision.
We Need To Have The Same Goals!
I Market To Hundreds Of Potential Buyers!
My Job Is To Market To Agents Who Have Buyers and “Free Agent” Buyers. These days, any agent is lucky to find 2-3 qualified buyers a month. That includes me. So, what are the chances that the particular buyer that I have found is a specific candidate for your home? Yes, you are correct. Slim. So, what do I do?
First - I market to the agents who are currently working the marketing area of your home. This means homes in your price range within a couple miles that are currently active listings. If someone seeing their listing is not a match, they will bring them to your propety.
Secondly, to those agents who have recently put contracts on homes like yours in your area. Additionally, I market to listing agents of properties that are “one notch down” in price range. Thogse agents may have sellers whose goal is to sell and upgrade one notch in price, amenities, bedrooms, etc. Now, if I am putting your home on the radar of several hundred agents and each of those agents are touching 2-3 qualified buyers per month then I am effectively marketing to approximately 500 potential buyers per month.
Now, this is another use for my UnBranded site. This other agent can send to their Client the UnBranded link to the property and not have to be nervous that they are advertising me.
Well, what happens if I find a Buyer for your property? Generally speaking, I assign them to another agent in my office who can properly represent them since, generally speaking, it’s impossible for me to properly represent both you and the buyer in the purchase of your home.
A Dedicated, Multi-Page Website Is A Key Ingredient!
Dedicated, Multi-Page Property Website:
Complete with aerial videos where they make sense. Yes, this is an expensive marketing method. AND, I do two sites for each property. Why two? Because, one has to be “UnBranded” (no agent name, etc.) for the MLS systems. The other is a fully “Branded” site with my contact information to allow site visitors from around the world to contact me for additional information.
In fact, the minimum cost for almost any of my sites is about $2,500 and it’s not hard to spend $4,000 or higher for each site. This is plus the two domain names and double faced sign rider that I purchase for each property. Examples of my sites are www.Chateau-Tivoli.com (fully branded) and www.Chateau-Tivoli.info (UnBranded for the MLS).
So... why two sites? The UnBranded site name is in any real estate site or marketing that doesn’t allow personal branding, such as the MLS system. My Branded site name is everywhere else and is easily referenced in email, flyers, signs and is prominently mentioned on hundreds of real estate websites. Additionally, the sites are submitted and tracked for search engine optimization. This allows the developed site to, most likely, come up first in a Google search. The tracking allows me to understand what works and what doesn’t and make appropriate changes as needed.
My Results Are My Best Recommendation
My Results:
My efforts in combination with the tools that Harry Norman, Realtors provides, allows me to actually sell your property. If I take a listing, it gets sold. Sounds like that is obvious but listings expire all the time. There are agents out there with a slick listing presentation and they make a lot of money for themselves but there is a strong probability that YOUR home doesn’t sell. The old “Throw a lot of them at the wall and some will stick.” That is not a good marketing strategy for YOUR home. Of course this is subject to change but, so far, since 2010 I have sold every property I have listed and I am in the top 2% of all Atlanta agents on sales volume. The reason is simple. I don’t carry a lot of listings - I just sell the ones I have by having time to concentrate on the proper marketing of them. You don’t want an agent who has a ton of listings taking time away from the proper marketing of your home. You want an agent dedicated to selling YOUR property!
First, why is this page not on the menu? My marketing is unique, compliments of decades in the business, and I am not in the business of training my competitors.
First - Why am I with Harry Norman, Realtors?
It's just a fact, with my decades of experience and current production, I can have my license with any brokerage in Atlanta. I could be with brokerages where I pay a couple hundred dollars a month and keep all the brokerage fees. But, with the lack of the brokerage resources and affiliations for world-wide marketing, I could not do a good job for my Clients and get the kind of results that I get. Since I consider taking the assignment of successfully selling my Clients home my ethical responsibility I have to have my license with the best luxury home brokerage in Atlanta. And that is Harry Norman, Realtors who, year after year remains #1 brokerage for luxury property in the metro Atlanta area.
