Strategy to Sell Your Home

Great News but HURRY!   

The home selling market is changing rapidly!  Nearly 1/3 of recent sales have come from buyers who are not working with an agent.  They report that they are looking on Realtor.com, studying homes with interior photos, driving the neighborhood, taking a flyer from the tube on the sign in front of the home, and then making an appointment with our owners to see the home.  Don't miss the opportunity to use Realtor.com as your best selling tool.  Your home can only be seen on Realtor.com after you have listed with a real estate broker.  So even if you are not really anxious to sell your property through a buyer's agent, you must get on Realtor.com.  We can list your property with a low buyer's agent commission, and you can change the commission to a higher rate when you are ready and at any time.

See what your buyer will see on Realtor.com: go to Realtor.com, put in a search criteria that matches your home, and see what the competition to your home looks like.  Notice how many homes do not have interior photos!  According to the multiple listing service, only 30% of the listings have more than one photo.  Yet, buyers report they don't spend time looking at listings without interior photos.  You must hurry and advertise your home on Realtor.com because obviously there are a lot of homes that are not being marketed properly!

The Perfect Selling Strategy

People ask us, “What is the perfect selling strategy to market my home?”  Our answer, “Cover all of your bases.”  That means getting into the multiple listing services, advertise as a "For Sale by Owner," and most importantly, keep your costs down so that when an offer comes in, you can actually sell the home without losing your profit by paying high commissions.  Our plan helps you do just that.

It is important to add the multiple listing service to your strategy AND stay a “For Sale by Owner.”  There are only four types of buyers in the marketplace: two come from agents and two look for you as a “For Sale by Owner”.  The two types of buyers that come from agents are usually first-time buyers and out-of-area relocators.  The two types of buyers that look for you without an agent are the local house changers and the investor.  If you are marketing as a "For Sale by Owner" only, you are only attracting the first half of the buyer market; and if you “list” with an exclusive agent agreement, you are then only attracting the other half.  That’s why it is important that you have all areas of the market covered.  It makes sense that if you have your home marketed with all buyers in mind, that if there is a buyer for your home, they will be able to find you.

With Don Anthony Realty, you are able to accomplish both advertising strategies, thus “covering your bases” while saving yourself thousands.  It is really a no-brainer!  Being listed in the Multiple Listing Service (listing with an agent) has always been the #1 way to get your house sold.  That is why the term “agents protected” is often used by "For Sale by Owners" to attract agents and their buyers.  Unfortunately, the public has rarely had the option of marketing their property on their own and being listed with an agent at the same time.  Traditional agencies prohibit this type of real estate listing with their “broker rules” in order to keep the full commission for themselves. We have eliminated those rules by opening our own company, allowing you to have a profitable and innovative, yet proven way to sell your home.

Why agents don’t come to your house with their buyers when you are a "For Sale by Owner"?

The intent of an exclusive buyer’s agent is to show their client all the homes on the market that meet their client's criteria.  It never happens.  Looking for properties to show the buyer, the agent goes to the multiple listing service and pulls all the listings that fit their criteria.  The agent then maps the listings and courtesy-calls the owners to tell them when the agent will be showing the home.  Then the agent shows the listings to her buyer client.  The agent does not have time to look through the newspaper, or even drive the neighborhoods beforehand to see if there are any "For Sale by Owners" to show the client.  The truth is, there are so many houses in the MLS, that the client almost always finds something in that list to buy, and there is no need to look at other properties.

When the agent runs across a home that is a "For Sale by Owner" that has a sign out, the agent pulls over and calls the home.  If the owner is not home, the agent leaves a message and asks them to call as soon as they get home so that the agent and the client can see the house.  Sometimes they call back.  Unfortunately, most of the time it is when the buyer and agent are already in another area with houses to see, and those owners have already been called and told that the buyer and agent would be there.  Rarely do they have time to go back to the "For Sale by Owner" and more importantly, with very few exceptions, most of the clients purchase a home they have seen from the MLS.

The other problem that an agent faces when they are attempting to show a "For Sale by Owner," is their own client.  Many agents have not had their client sign a Buyer’s Agency Agreement; wherein, they get paid no matter what house their client buys.  They are afraid that their client, who has legal rights not to pay the agent, will go behind their back and buy the "For Sale by Owner" house that they showed them and not pay the agent for their time.

We think that the concept of "For Sale by Owners" offering “agents protected” is great, but it just doesn’t work as well as listing your home in the MLS.  With the MLS, an agent knows that they are going to get paid because the listing agent has a binding agreement with the seller wherein the commission is set.

The Bottom Line

In today’s market, the MLS still holds the power to get a home sold.  Most likely, that power will fade in the future with new technology becoming available to the public.  We have already seen a shift in power due to the Internet; but for now, as long as Buyer’s Agents who search only the MLS to find homes are successful (at no cost to their buyer client), the MLS will reign supreme as the best search tool for anyone who wants to purchase a home.

We hope that you are able to sell your home as a "For Sale by Owner," even while using our program.  However, to be “seriously” on the market, we know that you will need the MLS and all of its Internet exposure incorporated into your marketing strategy.  Thanks for letting us share our insights on the real estate industry with you.  We really love what we do, and we hope that it shows!