Selling Soulfully with Jennifer Allan

I don't know about you, but I'm very much enjoying this debate on whether or not we listing agents can positively affect the market value of our listings. I believe we can. And frankly, I'm stunned at the amount of opposition to that notion.

Now, a disclaimer - I don't work in a distressed market, so I shall defer to those who do that they know more about selling homes in that environment. Fair enough. If you work mostly REO's and short sales, you are excused from this discussion. Although... well, I'll get to that in a sec.

For the rest of us... those of who work primarily retail markets...

If your seller gave you $2,000 and asked you to spend it for him with the goal of getting the highest price in the shortest amount of time... what would you spend it on? Obviously every home and situation is different, but give me a list of priorities you'd address.

For example, would you...

• Take out a full-color ad in the neighborhood newspaper? and/or
• Bring in a stager? and/or
• Bring in a handyman? and/or
• Replace/refinish flooring?
• Paint?
• Hold a catered broker open house? and/or
• Board the dogs?  and/or
• Landscape? and/or
• Have the house professionally cleaned? and/or.....

I have a very clear list in my head of what I'd tackle first, next and after that, depending on what the home needs, but I'd like to hear yours. But here's the big question... DO YOU THINK IT WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the market value and ultimate sellability of the home? Or would your seller be throwing his money away?

Your thoughts are very much appreciated!

RELATED BLOGS:

• Any idiot can give his house away
• Stop! Before you reduce the price...
• When your listing's not selling...
• Houses aren't pet rocks...

 p.s. As alluded to above, perhaps this is not relevant to a distressed market... but maybe it is. What if banks gave their listing agents $2k to spend on improving the property... do you think it would help move these properties faster... for more... or at all?

 Available now at www.SellwithSoul.com!

This is yet another follow-up to the topic of "Is Price Always the Best Answer to a Non-Selling Listing?" that I started last week. You can read more HERE and HERE.

Real estate agents are quite fond of the philosophy that "Price conquers all," meaning that if you price a listing low enough, it will sell regardless of the challenges the property presents.

Fair enough.

But I must ask. So what? Is that our job as professional real estate agents to simply recommend a price low enough that any piece of junk will sell?

Or, rather, is it to help our sellers get the highest possible price in the shortest possible time, whatever a realistic price and time may be? If our job is to simply sell it fast, at any price, well, shoot, just about any idiot can give their property away! Isn't that why homesellers hire us in the first place, to do a better job for them than they can do for themselves?

Real estate agents are always bragging about their listing expertise and defending their commissions by claiming they MORE THAN EARN THEIR FEE. Uh, well, I have to disagree if the only solution we offer our sellers is to price aggressively. There ARE other things a seller can do to maximize his sales price, and it's our job to 1) know what those things are, and 2) be willing to share those secrets with a seller and 3) help the seller accomplish those things. (and those were the topics of the previous blogs linked to above)

What if you went to your doctor with a pain in your leg and the only solution he offered was to cut the offending appendage off? Yes, that would cure the pain in your leg, but maybe there's a better way that involves a little more effort on his part (and yours). Or if your plumber simply removed the toilet that wasn't flushing instead of figuring out how to repair it?

Of course, if I request that the doctor amputate my leg, or that the plumber tear out my toilet, or that my Realtor simply give my house away, well, then, they have my blessing. But in most cases, c'mon, our clients deserve a little more effort and expertise than that, don't they?

I'm not sayin' that price isn't important - of course it is. But if we keep preaching that "Price is the ANSWER!" to the exclusion of any other effort on our part, we may end up preaching ourselves out of a job...deservedly so, I might add.

Coming Soon!

Picking up from Wednesday's "If Your Listing Isn't Selling..."

So, if your listing isn't selling and you've agreed with me that perhaps price might not be the best solution, what else can you look at?

Well, it might be really simple. Have you checked access lately? Lockbox still there? Key still in it? Key still work in the lock (sticky locks kill showings)? Is the seller declining or restricting showings?

Have you previewed your listing lately? Does it still show well and smell good?

How's your MLS description? Is it dull ("3 bedroom/2 bath ranch in Woodbridge") or jazzy ("Mid-Century tri-level with modern flair!")? Do you over-promise and under-deliver? Are the photos in season? ARE there photos? Are the driving directions correct, if the property isn't a slam-dunk to find?

Here's a biggie - IS THERE A BUYER for this house? Are other similar homes selling? If so, there's something wrong with yours. If not, there may simply not be a buyer on the planet at this time and you can't manufacture one. Not all homes are sellable, contrary to popular opinion.

Take a really close look at what IS selling in the neighborhood or market area. Can you identify any common denominators among the selling listings versus the non-selling ones? Maybe all the sales are of 4-bedrooms and yours has 3. Maybe it's the 2-story models that are selling and yours is a ranch. You can't fix that, of course, but it might help you understand (and explain to your seller).

But what if the problem isn't simple, but is fixable?

Tell ya what - if you want to hear the rest of the story - click here for a 15-minute audio from a live presentation I did this spring on this very topic! Hope you enjoy!

This stuff is also included in my released-just-this-week book "If You're Not Having Fun Selling Real Estate, You're Not Doing it Right!" available as an ebook at my website.

excerpted from my new book "If You're Not Having Fun Selling Real Estate, You're Not Doing it Right!"

When your listing hasn't sold, what's the first thing you look at? 

PRICE!

Right?

Nope. Not always. Not even most of the time.*

Many real estate agents claim that price cures all. And in a way, they're right. If you have a listing that shows poorly or is difficult to show or smells funny, there probably IS a price that will inspire buyers to overlook the clutter, access issues or eau du Chef Boyardee.

But is price the RIGHT answer? Again, not always. Not even most of the time.*

Why on earth not?

Three reasons.

First, I hope that when we real estate agents price our listings, we're pretty proud of that price. If I've put a price on a property, unless the market has declined, I'm pretty sure I'm in the ballpark. And the thing is, in today's market, buyers are well aware that they can "make an offer," so a minimal price reduction--say, $229,000 to $224,000 probably isn't going to make much of an impression on the market. In order for a price reduction to be meaningful, it's going to have to take that listing into a different pricing tier, thus introducing it to a whole new set of buyers who weren't looking at it before. And, depending on the price range of the property, that might mean a price reduction of $20,000 or more.

Now, think about what we could do with that $20,000--seriously.

Second, automatically resorting to the solution of reducing the price is really not what my seller wants to hear, and in that mindset, he's likely to question my professionalism and commitment. Let's face it, a price reduction is an awfully easy solution to offer and often abused by the real estate community. We all know agents who "buy" listings at a too-high price and then, as part of their game plan, beat up the seller later for a price reduction. And this isn't a secret to the general public--a lot of sellers are aware this happens, too. So, when your first and only solution is a price reduction, I believe it can really damage your credibility, especially if you recommended or agreed to the price in the first place.

But the main reason I'm opposed to looking first at the price as the solution is because it's rarely the best solution for the seller.

The thing is, there are tons of solvable problems - some simple, some not-so - that can keep an otherwise marketable home from moving. Our job is to play detective with our non-selling listings to determine if there's a problem we and/or our seller can solve, outside of a price reduction.

Stay tuned... I'll pick this up tomorrow!

*Unless you're overpriced to begin with, of course.

www.SellwithSoul.com

For those who haven't encountered a "listing exclusion" yet, it's simply a request from a seller that if a certain person or persons buy the home after it goes on the market, your listing commission won't apply. For example, perhaps the seller knows a guy at work who says he'd be interested in purchasing the house, but he's still thinking about it. Your seller doesn't want to wait for him to make up his mind to go on the market, but neither does he want to pay you if the guy actually ponies up. So, the seller asks you to "exclude" this particular person from your listing agreement.

Should you do it?

My advice? Sure. Don't argue, don't explain, and don't make a big deal out of it. Write in the exclusion and get on with putting the house on the market. The chances that this guy is actually going to purchase the house are slim, but if he does, the seller will probably need your assistance to get the contract written and to closing. For which you most certainly may charge a reasonable fee.

No reason to go to battle over this. Save your energy for bigger things!

 The Summer of Soul Begins Saturday... Get Your Ticket here!