Great questions - way to keep Realtors on our feet.

Several things that can be done:
1 - Pull a new CMA every month. If the house is not priced correctly, it will not sell. When the market is changing like ours currently is, it is important to constantly have the finger on the pulse. If there are changes in price needed, then the realtor and seller need to make those adjustments to make sure the house is priced competitively,
2 - Talk about cold hard facts - Seller has to make sure that house is buyer friendly. Clean, updates made, neutral colors, inviting aroma, etc....
3 - Broker Open house - Serving lunch and having an open house for oter realtors helps showcase the house thus keeping it fresh and alive in their minds. This will help remind them to bring their buyers to this house and to talk about it with other realtors

Hope this helps!

Juan Carlos

Sat May 3 2008, 11:46

Buyer incentives. As appealing as buyer's agent incentives are, they do nothing for my buyers. When serving buyers, I would prefer to find properties with buyer incentives.

Encourage your sellers to offer a home owner's warranty and pay at least a portion of the closing costs. On conventional financing they can pay up to 3% of the sales price, and everything but the DP on FHA financing.

This allows you to price the home at or near top dollar for comps in the neighborhood, and put most of the bargaining chips in your seller's stack. When recommending this to a seller, your selling points are that no matter what they ask, most buyers will come in with offers below asking price, and they will be offering the buyer a fair price at lower cost when the competition is focused in price alone. Ask them to recall their buying experience, and whether they would have preferred buying at lower cost to buying at lower price. If they negotiated both, ask whether the seller offered to pay closing costs. If not, there you go--that seller did not have all the chips they will have in the negotiations.

The one caution is that your seller not ask for top dollar plus buyer costs. This passes bargaining chips over to any buyer with a good buyer's agent, and, even if you find a willing buyer, the property may not appraise.

There's paradox in this strategy. If the home is reasonably priced, I believe it serves a buyer's best interest, despite the negotiating leverage provided to the seller. In addition to the relief they will feel by knowing that a lot of their out-of-pocket costs will be reduced (or eliminated), a lot of the tension associated with the negotiating process will be reduced, and they will be getting the home they want at a reasonable price. Then too, a number of factors can open the possibility for negotiating a lower price too, and it likely won't hurt to try to shave a few points off of the price.

Sat Apr 26 2008, 07:54

That sounds Interesting "value range marketing" can you please enlighten me?

Fri Apr 25 2008, 19:16

I think this is the perfect market for Value Range Marketing. Agents in our area (Santa Maria, CA) are having a lot of success. It lets the potential buyer know that the seller is not set on a price, and also give them the opportunity to start the negotiating process.

Fri Apr 25 2008, 14:24

We offer a buyer agent rebate for all of our listings. Based on the list price of the house the rebate can vary from $1000 up to $5000 however we are also based on client a flat fee listing agent for $795, therefore allows the buyers agent rebate programs. Due too our reduce commissions.

Wed Apr 23 2008, 14:00

Find the target and market the target extensively. Example: If you have a home that is targeted for first time homebuyers, send out flyers, postcards, etc., to tenants in the area telling them to Join the Tenant Revolt and become a homeowner or if your listing is for a buyer who is selling a home, send a flyer or postcard, or just call a homeseller who is selling a home thru the M LS at 50-70% of the askiong price for your listing to let them know about it. "If you're selling you must be buying, why not here?"
Have fun with it.

Wed Apr 23 2008, 13:56