Herb Baldwin's Morrow County Blog

Authors note: This is the first in a series of posts from my publication called "The Seven Most Common Mistakes Sellers Make And How You Can Avoid Them").

The #1 Reason Homes Don't Sell In Morrow County (or anywhere else for that matter)

A surefire way to get less than the fair market value for your home here in Morrow County is to overprice it in the beginning. It sounds contradictory, but it is true.

There are several reasons for this. First, if your home is more expensive than the similar homes in the area, fewer buyers will choose to even look at it. Why would they waste their time? And the buyers that do decide to look at your home will likely use it for comparison, to justify their decision to purchase a different home. “See? A similar home but a lot more expensive. We should get the one we saw yesterday – it’s a bargain compared to this one.”

Second, the longer your home remains unsold, the less interest it will generate among the buyers. Eventually, when it’s been on the market longer than the other similar homes, buyers will start to think that there is something wrong with it. And then you are faced with the real possibility of being forced to sell it for less than its real value. So make sure that your home is priced correctly from the beginning. This will save you time, aggravation, and money.

Overpricing is not the only pitfall that sellers fall into, some even under-price their homes. How do you know your home’s real value? By getting a professional Comparative Market Analysis (CMA). A CMA will show you what similar homes in your area are selling for, and how long it takes to sell them. You will be able to see the range of values that your home falls into, and then determine an accurate asking price. I offer CMAs for the homeowners in Morrow County free of charge. Just give me a call at 419-947-4004 or send me an e-mail to herb@herbsells.com, and I will prepare one for you at no cost and no obligation.

When I got into this business, cell phones were just hitting our market (about 1995) and although many people HAD cell phones at that time, most people didn't recognize the strange number prefixes.  The 419 area code was familiar enough, but the 560, 244, and other 3 digit prefixes were "strange" and not recognized by most as "local" cell phone numbers.

Working as a real estate agent in Morrow County with sellers in Mount Gilead, Cardington, and Marengo, I felt strongly that I wanted to be able to publish a mobile number where my clients, both current and potential could call a familiar and local number and reach me whether I was in my "office" or not.

Soooo, back in '95, I had an additional "land line" brought into my house with a number 419-947-4004 and then, for only $1.95/month I had that number permanently "call forwarded" to my cell regardless of the carrier or the cell numbe I had at the time.  Remember, this was before the days of the phone companies being able to "port" your number from one carrier or one cell phone to another.

Now, due to phone line "porting" being available, I have a Verizon cell phone with a "land line" number of 419-947-4004.  This is the number I publish most often and this is the number I want people to call me at.  To most people, this LOOKS like a regular Mount Gilead land line number, so they assume that they are calling me at my office.  I am now able to shut off the old 419-947-4004 land line and stop the call forwarding ... saving more than a few bucks every month.

Just exactly like most businesses, when you call, if they are not able to answer immediately, your call will go to voicemail.  That's the way I have my phone set up.  If I am not available when you call, your call will go to voicemail.  I am not available before 7am or after 9pm.  I am not available when I am eating lunch or dinner.  I am not availble when I am "in person" with someone else and I am not available when I am in a meeting or showing properties or in a closing.

As I tell all my clients, if you call and leave a message on my voicemail, I will most usually call you back within an hour or so.  Generally (not always) my time face-to-face with a real person will be over shortly and then and only then will I check my voicemail and return your call.  You will not have to wait hours or days to hear from me.

This post comes because today (while I was out showing properties) some guy called me at 3:28 and at 3:30 and at 3:31, never leaving a voicemail message.  Please DO NOT call me repeatedly hoping you will wear me down and I will finally answer your call.  Quite the opposite ... if you call me repeatedly and not leave a message about why your call is so all fired important, I WILL NOT call you back.

Those people that give me their time (in person) are ALWAYS more important than the impatient idiot that calls repeatedly trying to get my attention.