SELLING
Whether it is a buyer’s market or a seller’s market, the time and effort it takes to get your home prepared to sell is always challenging. Opening your home up to have strangers peer into every corner of your home, even your closets can be hard to handle. Having them pick it apart and give not so nice feedback sometimes can be heartbreaking. Then having inspectors tear it apart even more with a full written report of how you have “failed” to keep up your home is certainly not something any home owner wants to hear. Ultimately these mental challenges must be overcome in order to sell your home. With the right REALTOR® it can be handled with a sense of understanding and a precise plan to succeed and sell for top dollar in any market.
Putting together a plan and executing that plan is of the utmost importance. Now, not all of you will listen to what is best for your sale, but those of you that do, will benefit with a quicker market time, higher sale price and less stress during this whole process. The most important aspect in this process is for you, if you live there, to relinquish and transform your living mode and how things are to a selling mode and how things need to be. You must turn your home from a private sanctuary into a product to be viewed. How can you do this? Well, it cannot be fully summed up here, but I have done this hundreds of times and there is an art to selling. There are many layers of knowledge and skills that not everyone possess.
There is a proper order to this process and having a professional makes all the difference. If you think all real estate agents do is put a sign in the yard and hope it sells, we need to talk. Knowing that not all real estate agents are the same is a good starting point. It takes much more than that to be considered an expert in this profession. Having the skills to truly evaluate your home’s value. For example, understanding the impact of functional and economic obsolescence, analyzing the appreciable factors of the home, or analyzing diminishing marginal returns if necessary. The most important question I answer is what will give you the highest return with the lowest investment. Any investment, whether monetary or not, is looked at in this manner. The overall goal is to broaden your home’s appeal to the maximum number of potential buyers.
I have spent almost 20 years developing these skills into a fine tuned process that has had amazing results for my clients. I have always said and will say again here, it is a partnership that gets results when selling your home. Meaning if I give you the necessary knowledge and the tools to get your home ready for the market, but you decided it is not necessary, the results will not be the same as if you have. There are areas that are “fixed” and cannot be changed like location or square footage, but the areas that are “flexible” is where we concentrate on the most. I surround myself with great people that know more than me in their specialized field and I utilize their skills at every step of the process for the greatest outcome.
First and foremost, it is best to have our seller consultation meeting about 30 days before you feel you want to have your home on the market. It is not always necessary but a good rule of thumb. This can guarantee better results by allowing enough preparation time. In some cases 60 days or more may be necessary.
I have dedicated my career to serving the needs of my clients. In doing so, I pursed various aspects of learning to enhance my skills for all the different seller experiences that exist. Earning designations like the Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) and the Seniors Real Estate Specialist (SRES) have helped me along my career to serve my clients at the highest level of skill and professionalism. I encourage you to review my education to see all the earned designations and certifications and what they could mean to you as a seller.
FIRST-TIME SELLERS
In most cases this is the scariest of all the selling experiences, even more so than buying a home. It is the moment you find out if you truly gained or lost on your home’s value. Maybe you over improved it, maybe you did not keep up with maintenance like you should have, or maybe the pink walls were not the best idea. There are so many decisions made during ownership and the impact of those decisions are about to be real. We guide you through each step of the process and get you prepared for the market to get it sold for the highest price possible.
LUXURY SELLERS
Selling your upscale home comes with its own challenges. Depending on the price of your home, that alone can eliminate the vast majority of buyers. It has never been more important to make sure your list price is on the money and your home’s appeal is on point for presentation. Remember choosing the right RELATOR® is not necessarily the one with the flashiest flier or best presentation, but it is the one that will do the best job and exceed your expectations in every way possible. Most high-end sellers expect the best in the industry and should strive to hire the best. Working with an agent that has luxury homes as one of their cornerstones in their business is a great start. Having a professional with an attention to detail usually is a prerequisite.
SELLING AND BUYING (MOVE-UP SELLERS)
This one can be the most difficult of the selling experiences, as there are two transactions involved. Having a plan in place is vital. You thought one transaction was stressful, trying to sell and find a home in this market can be very difficult. Talking over your wants, needs and goals is very important. I suggest we meet at your home and essentially do a buyer and seller consultation meeting at the same time. We will review your home in all aspects and at the same time talk about what you are looking for in your next home. To make sure what you want is out there, we look at several homes first before putting your home on the market. Essentially making sure expectation meets reality. There are many details here and it is typically a longer meeting and in most cases can require a follow up meeting
INVESTMENT SELLERS
This can be selling your commercial retail building or your mixed use building or even that little condo you held onto from 10 years ago. I have worked with a lot of investors in the flipping world where we work together to buy the property and plan its eventual sale. Any of these sales are a bit different than selling your primary home. It is not an emotional sale but a dollars and cents sale. Mainly looking for profit margins or the possible gain or loss on your investment. Many investors also utilize 1031 exchanges which can be a powerful tool. Either way we work just as hard to maximize the sale of the property on the open market.
RELOCATING SELLERS
When we say relocating, it could mean corporate relocation or relocating without being transferred by a corporation. Having a professional in these situations is a must. Most relo companies prefer the REALTOR® to have at least earned the Certified Relocation Professional (CRP) designation. There is less than 1% of REALTORS® who have earned this designation. I have earned this designation and have helped many families with this very stressful move. Even though some relo companies suggest that you use their REALTOR®, just know that as long as the REALTOR® is willing to work with the relo company’s parameters and understands the process, you can use the REALTOR® of your choice. It is far better to choose a professional that has the skills and experience in working with relo companies, as there are many more details involved than your typical sale. We work with you to get the required relo documents completed in a timely manner and stay in contact with them during the whole process of selling your home.
DOWNSIZING SELLERS
Working with you to downsize in some fashion can be a hard process. Generally you are moving from a home you have lived in for decades. You could be moving into a nursing home or a family member’s home. It may just be that you are moving from a large home into a small condo, in which we can help you buy. In all these situations, the process takes a little longer and more preparation is usually needed. We lovingly provide understanding and patience to the process.
ESTATE SELLERS
This involves a deceased owner(s) and in most cases we are working with the relatives of the deceased. We are always sensitive in how we approach this. We work with you to get the home on the market incorporating all the same techniques and skills we use for any other sale. There can be a lot of steps in this type of sale, one being probating the will and determining who the executor/executrix is. We can assist in any manner if needed. We work with a lot of estate attorneys that trust our level of expertise when it comes to handling estate sales. This is something we handle a lot and are very successful at doing so.
SHORT SALE SELLERS
This is where you are upside down (under water) on your home, meaning the current market value is less than what you owe on it. More specifically, you decide to work with your bank and real estate agent to list your home on the open market. This is to attempt to sell “short” by cooperating with the bank and the bank cooperating with you in order to sell. This can be very stressful dealing with the bank and going through all the possible solutions to this problem. We have successfully handled a lot of short sales and have eliminated the full damage that was possible to your credit if it was foreclosed upon. This takes a great deal of cooperation between you the seller and the bank involved to make this work. It some cases the sale may be unsuccessful and be foreclosed upon.
REO SELLERS
Real Estate Owned (REO) properties are owned by a bank or institution that have been taken back via the foreclosure process. Our role is to work with the individual(s) at the bank to list their asset(s). The bank employs us, just like any other seller does, to get their home on the market and sell for the highest possible price in the quickest amount of time. We have worked with large and small banks and institutions a like to sell their assets. In most cases there is much more work involved to get these homes sold. Banks hiring us to dispose of their asset know they are getting a dedicated REALTOR® to do the job right.
DIVORCE SELLERS
The most emotional of all the selling experiences. In some cases you and your spouse/partner are not on the same page, but we are employed to tackle this sale and do so with compassion knowing the situation. We are skilled at handling these types of situations and playing a mediator to accomplish either a court ordered sale or a voluntary sale of your property. We work with a lot of divorce attorneys that trust our level of expertise when it comes to selling a marital asset.
FSBO SELLERS
While we respect your right to attempt to sell your home yourselves, unfortunately the statistics are not in your favor. There are so many reasons why these statistics happen. For starters, the knowledge base and skill level we as REALTORS® bring to the table, far out way the commission spent. Second, the lack of the most powerful tool, the Multi-Listing Service (MLS), is not being utilized. Competition can drive prices up especially in a seller’s market. I suggest that if you are thinking of trying to sell your home yourself, to have a consultation meeting with me first. I can assure you that we will be able to find a plan that will work to get your home sold. Not only that, but with you being completely satisfied. I truly believe you will appreciate what we can do for you.
