To Sell--Someone Must Market your Home

WARNING: This article may not agree with what you have been told about how to sell your home! Times have changed and so have Buyers.

When it come time to sell your house, you may be tempted to make certain assumptions about who is going to sell your home. Some common assumptions are:

• Having a Realtor in the neighborhood, who knows everything about our community, is better. You may believe that they will be better at "selling" your home than a Realtor who does not live in our community.
• Having a Realtor who really loves your home and one who does not critique how your home is staged is better.
• Having a Realtor who believes that they can sell your home for more than the other houses for sale in the community is better. You may believe that if your Realtor believes that it is worth more, people will pay more.
• Finding the Realtor with the most signs in the community is the best way to find a local Realtor who will sell your home faster than the other homes that he/she has listed in the area.
  

So, to determine whether or not these assumptions have passed the test of time, first we should look at how homes are bought and sold today. We need to understand who-does-what in the buying process.

• First of all, Buyers go online to find information about their new home purchase.  The "selling" that takes place for a listing is really about Marketing and Advertising. The pre-sale contact between Realtors is 95% positioning in web content, brochures, and the MLS listing. Photos and video play a role. But the listing agent's knowledge of the community and the home has to be content based marketing, not live "selling".
  

• Buyer's Agents help Buyers--not Listing Agents. When listing agents impose themselves on the buyer or the buyer's agent, this acts as more of a hindrance to the sell than a help. Normally, the Listing Agent and the Buyer do not come in direct contact with one another. Buyers don't want a Realtor that they don't know or trust walking them through a house and pointing out why the house is more expensive than the other homes in the community. This always comes off heavy-handed, and is a distraction to selling your home. You best bet in selling your home is a great buyer's agent who knows the needs of their buyer, and the best, clearest, most precise marketing materials that you can possibly present online for your property.

• Buyers don't know or care who lists your home. Buyers are not drawn to a particular listing agent's sign or name. In fact, buyers don't care who is selling your home. Your home can be listed by the biggest, or the smallest Realtor in the area. The real issue here is not who is selling your home, but how are they marketing and advertising your home. It is about visibility, not a name on a sign. 
  

• Buyers are looking at all the homes in the area. Put yourself in the place of your buyers for just a minute. When you bought your house, did you say to yourself "I am will to pay anything for the best house..." or did you say "We want the best house at the best price in our budget..."? Please know that your listing agent does not determine market value. What houses are selling for in the area is market value. You will ultimately only slow down the process of selling your home by listing your home above the fair market value. And having a Realtor who really believes in your house or believes that they can sell it above market value, will not help you sell your home this year. Pricing a home above market value will only reduce the number of potential buyers who see or consider your home. It will only slow you down.
  

Don't hire a Realtor to tell you how many pools and jogging paths are in your community--any person can figure that out. Hire a Realtor who spends $$$$$ marketing, positioning, and advertising your home online. Hire a Realtor that can bring you Buyers. Remember--listing agents don't really "sell" your home--they market your home. Don't ask your Realtor if they love your home. Ask them about their marketing and advertising capacity TO BUYERS. ASK YOUR REALTOR HOW they are going to bring you buyers. This is the winning strategy to sell your home.

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