We see a lot of homes before they hit the market.  Quite often the sellers are also interviewing other Realtors (which we like), so we are very comfortable working within a competitive scenario.   We always feel confident if the seller asks the right questions of the agents our company will stand out in every way.  And I'm talking about the tough, probing, questions like

• How much have you sold this year? 

• What experience do you have in selling homes in this price range? 

• How many other homes do you have in your inventory like our home?

• How do buyers find your website? 

• How many visitors go to your site every week?

An educated, informed seller is our best ally.  I'm not bragging when I say 90% of the time we get the listings we want after a listing presentation.  It's just a fact, and one I'm very proud of.  It shows we are doing the things sellers really appreciate.

If you are a frequent visitor to our site, you will see many new listings throughout the year, but what you won't see are ...

1. the listings we have had to respectfully decline and

2. the listings we want that go to another Realtor. 

I've always said we could start another company with the listings we decline, and it's true.  I'm talking millions of dollars of inventory and sometimes, very expensive homes.  If you are interested to know why we have to do it, please click here. 

When sellers call us, they have usually already visited our website. They can see how we market our homes, our Internet presence, our professionalism, and of course, our track record in selling great homes.  So why don't we get every listing we go after?  It is invariably one of the following four reasons ...

#1 We priced the home below the other Realtors

When we are given the opportunity to visit with a seller on a listing appointment we will tour their home and make mental notes of both its positive attributes along with what might be considered its challenges.  We look at the condition of the home and the level of finishout.  We look at the lot, outside structures, and the surrounding neighborhood.  When we provide our opinion of value, we will have supported it with the best available comparable sales.  We won't use listing prices, because those are meaningless.  We use the actual sale prices of comparable homes.  We will never intentionally overprice a home. 

You may be wondering why any agent would price a home so high they couldn't sell it?  There are four reasons ...

1. The agent made an honest mistake.

2. The agent overpriced it to "win" the listing.  They need signs in the yard to help them get other listings they can sell.  The overpriced listing gives them an entree to show sellers they have other listings.

3. They are using the overpriced listing as "bait" to fish for buyers they can sell reasonably priced homes to. 

4. The agent let the seller overprice the home for them.  They know they can't sell it at that price, but they also know they aren't going to get the listing unless they take it at the seller's price. 

If the overpriced home is on a high traffic street, all the better.  The agent is getting the benefit of some inexpensive advertising at the seller's expense.  The agent may even make a sale or two off the leads that come to them from the signage.  If they are still there when the seller realizes they missed the pricing big time and starts to get desperate, maybe the agent can get a sale out of it after all.

There is always an agent ready to take a listing at a ridiculous, "pie in the sky" price without any supporting comparables.  We know and accept that.  All we can do is shake our heads in amazement and go on down the road. 

Of course, there are also downsides for the agents when they take extremely overpriced listings. 

1. The agent is going to ruin their reputation in the market.  Sellers are smart.  They know when their neighbor's home is priced way out of line.  If they see a pattern, they will figure out pretty quickly the agent is just listing homes and not selling them.  That might work short term, but it will hurt the credibility of the agent in the long run.

2. The listing agent is going to look awfully bad when that home sits there month after month with no activity, no showings, or no offers.  And then the seller becomes agitated.  They will usually figure out either the agent pulled the wool over their eyes when they priced the home, the agent didn't know what they were doing when they priced the home, or they may even think the home is priced right but the agent isn't doing their job in marketing the home.  This is not a good client relationship to have.

Those are all reasons we will never take a listing we cannot support with solid sale comparables.  We never, ever want to put ourselves in a position like that.  

Does this mean we never "miss it" on pricing a home?  Absolutely not.  If that were the case, we would sell every home in our inventory every single year.  And that has never happened.  But there is one thing you can be sure of ... we will never intentionally overprice a home to "win" a listing.  We would rather "pass" on it and let the other agents run with it.  We will compete heads up with any company out there on the strength of our marketing and sales performance, but we will never compromise our integrity when it comes to pricing a home.

#2  The Other Realtor Undercut Us with Their fees

As with all things in life, you get what you pay for, and that holds true when it comes to selling a home.  If you believe you are going to get top dollar for your home simply from the  MLS and Realtor.com, you certainly don't need us.  There are hundreds of discount brokers out there who will list your home for almost nothing.  And that is what you are going to get from them.  Discount brokers are offering their services for almost nothing because that is the only bargaining chip they have ...  the willingness to work for free. 

As with every successful real estate company, our marketing costs are extremely high.  We spend between $60,000 and $70,000 per year in maintaining our website, domain names, postcards, Google advertising, Internet fees, nice office space, and our support staff (who help us market our homes and stay on top of market trends with their research).  Quality comes at a cost.  We average between 5,000 and 7,000 hits per week on our website, from all over the area, country, and world. 

Cutting a commission by 1% on an $800,000 home equates to $8,000.  That is a lot of money, but if the home is marketed like it should be (and the way we do it), we will make that up and a lot more by the way it is presented to the world.   And we think we can sell the home more quickly at the same time because it is going to be seen!  That is exactly why sellers of expensive homes trust us to sell their homes. 

Our clientele realize we are going to take the time and energy (and spend the money) to make sure their home is understood by the public, marketed beautifully, and seen.  Those sellers paid for everything in that home, and they want us to make sure the buyers also know what's there.  Educated and informed sellers and educated and informed buyers tend to run in the same circles.  Our company tends to attract both!

#3  the seller Wants Us to Provide Marketing We Don't Believe In

Like most companies, we go with what works for us.  We don't believe newspaper, magazine, or television shows are the way today's buyers are finding their homes.  To us, that is "old school marketing".  If a seller believes these are the best avenues for buyers to find their home, we are not the Realtor for them.

We live in a high tech, Internet driven world.  Buyers for homes in our price range are not finding their homes in print or on a Sunday television show.  They are constantly on-line at home or at the office with high speed Internet access doing their own research.  We make sure they can find our homes, and once they do, we try to keep them coming back to our site.  That is where we spend our marketing dollars.

#4  personality conflicts

I would love to say that every time Rhonda or I go into a listing presentation we click with the sellers right off the bat, but that is not always the case.  For better or worse, we are pretty straightforward with sellers.  If we see something we think might be a deterrent to selling the home (ie: busy wallpaper, too much furniture, clutter, landscaping in poor shape, location, etc.), we are going to discuss it with the sellers right then and there.  The last thing we want is to have to bring those things up months down the road.  The seller will ask us "Why didn't you tell me that right up front?" and what can we say?

Early in my real estate career, I, like most young agents, was guilty of trying to avoid uncomfortable topics with sellers.  I wanted sellers to like me and to believe I had total confidence in their home.  The last thing I wanted to do was bring up an issue that might offend the seller or hurt their feelings, so I remained silent even if I saw potential buyer objections.  But I eventually learned by keeping silent, I was hurting the seller by not being frank about their home, and I was also hurting my chances of ever selling that home.  We now "call it like I see it".  If the sellers are sensitive to our observations and become offended, chances are, we won't get the listing.  We can live with that, but we will also know we did the right thing by being totally honest with them. 

I have always felt businessmen tend to accept a more direct approach than women.  Men tend to be bottom-line and results oriented.  They don't want agents "beating around the bush".  If they believe you know what you are doing and are being sincere about your opinions, they are usually not going to be offended by reasonable comments or suggestions about their home. 

Women, on the other hand, often see their home as an extension of themselves.  And that is quite understandable.  Not to be sexist here, but they probably did all the decorating.  I know that's the case in our home.  So when I offer constructive suggestions or point out issues that might come up in selling their home, they may feel like I am launching a personal attack on them. 

The nice thing about our company is the seller can request either Rhonda or me to list, market, and sell their home.  And they get the exact, same, quality of service and marketing program from either one of us!