Four Easy Ways to Boost Your Homes Showings

Q: We have not had a showing in almost a month. Any suggestions how to get more showings? I thought of offering to pay closing costs, lowering the price or offering a flooring allowance. --Frustrated seller

A: All of the above. But in a different order of priority. And that's not all!

One thing that virtually never changes about real estate is this: When a listing won't sell and isn't even getting any showings, a price reduction is the single tweak a seller can make that wields the most potential to get buyers interested and get the home closer to being sold. Is it that buyers are greedy? Not necessarily -- several things make this so.

First: the realities of how buyers search for homes. Well, over 90 percent of buyers look for homes, first, on the Web. As such, they are forced to enter some basic search parameters, which normally include a range of bedrooms, a range of bathrooms, a price range, and an area (city/state or ZIP code). If your home's list price does not fall within a given buyer's price parameters, that buyer will never see your home's listing.

Second: the realities of house hunting. The buyers who aren't coming to see your home are going to look at listings of other homes in your neighborhood, and they're going to see the other homes in town with similar prices and features. And then they'll compare them all. If yours is smaller, less upgraded or not as attractive as other homes at the same price, or is priced higher than really similar homes, buyers will take a pass.

Third: Other than their own space and location needs, buyers have very few reasons to feel urgency to buy on today's market. The buyers that are out there are primarily buying now to take advantage of affordability -- i.e., they want a great deal. So, overpriced homes are an A-class turnoff.
In fact, buyers who may see your overpriced home online, and like it, will actually wait to allow the market to educate you into reducing the price, rather than taking on the unpleasant and often impossible task of convincing a seller of their home's true market value.

While being educated by the market, to a seller, sounds terrible, it's worse for your home to be lagging and you not taking the lesson away. Clearly, my top-line advice is to lower your price, below a $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000 cutoff, so that your home falls within buyers' search parameters.

Buyer incentives, like closing-cost credits, can also help distinguish your home from the competition, but they are not likely to dramatically increase showings of a home no one is currently coming to see, unless you're going from zero credit offered to a full 6 percent, which might not be necessary.

If you can reduce the price and offer a bonus or commission increase to the buyer's broker or agent, you will reposition your home, and a buyer's incentive offering won't hurt your case, either.

Instead of offering a flooring credit, though, I'd rather see you consider replacing the flooring that is in bad shape. I'm not big on sellers doing much costly repair work these days, but floors are a massive surface in a home -- replacing them can create an entirely different experience for those who do come see your home, and it can be done cost-effectively.

Marketing your price-reduced homes as having new floors vs. having a flooring allowance (which implies that it has old, dirty or otherwise undesirable floors) might be the better boost to viewings.

The more viewings you get, the more likely you are to get your home sold.

Hows, Whys, and Whats of Real Estate

Wow! I’ve lived my life and Real Estate career of 30 years and never Blogged but, it is our future and I am all about advancing into adventures unknown-Here we go-please enjoy the journey with me…

In my opinion this is Thee year! The “pivotal” year, such as 2005 was, but I was behind the market, as a lot of people were. Being from the “show me State of Missouri”, I have been shown from 4^th quarter of 2005 until about 2^nd quarter 2007 what it was really about,  And I had missed it! I was too busy to take the time to analysis the statistics and prepare for what we were all about to embark upon. I learned!!! Now, this year is the year to prepare for the next 10 years of our Real Estate Industry. And that is what my Team is doing!

Could one ask? How, why, what, where, when and who? Yes, we all should be asking any Real Estate Professional exactly that before engaging. How is the market changing, Why in Polk County, What can I do as a Buyer or Seller to trump the advantage before we miss it again. Where is all this happening; Nationally, Florida, Polk County, even Winter Haven? When is it going to make a difference in my life, Who is going to make the difference, of course, that would be you!

I personally am excited for Polk County! In my wildest dreams, would I ever have thought children 2 to 10 years old would be my new boss? Never! Legoland is bringing such a new dimension to our Polk County, that I have found it is difficult for some to even grasp! But, my friend, hold on for the ride, because this is going to be an exciting adventure for all of us! (Especially 2-10 yrs) We have so many growth opportunities that the employment will change our real estate world forever.

So join us this year being on the cusp of the cutting edge of pioneering and evolutionizing our new Real Estate World!

Renee Butler

Technology-times are a changing!!!

Well this is the first blog entry that I have ever made so bare with me this is a learning process for me also, so here we go.  The first topic of my first blog will be how technology has and continues to change the profession of real estate.  For myself the son of a real estate agent then real estate broker who owned her on company I have had the pleasure of watching the industry grow from a little boy until now.  Over the years I can remember there being no internet to now where statistics say 87% of real estate sells start on the internet.  Times have changed over the years and realtors have done there best to keep up.  While my mother now knows how to turn on a computer and check her email she is still one of the group of real estate agents that were successful before the age of computers and doesn't want to change.  She has her website and it is maintained very well, but the new breed of younger realtors has to be ultra aggressive in their marketing of themselves and their properties on the internet. 

The tools of the internet that are available to realtors to use has become vast and overwhelming at times.  Our teams tries to stay on the cutting edge of what is out there by learning of the new products at conferences and trade shows.  We currently have multiple websites, use visual tours, have centralized showing service (which has an online journal of activity on your property), facebook pages, use craigs list, email drip campaigns, and countless other services to stay up with the times.  I was told constantly that the first showing of a house is no longer at the house but through the visual tour and pictures available to customers on the internet.  That being said realtors the old adage of realtors always with their phone stuck to their ear has now been replaced by the "new age" realtor with a lap top or pda in their had checking their email or texting.

All the services that are now available to the customers has made the modern home buyer/seller extremely knowledgeable which has helped the industry also.  Customers now have access to many pages that will research what your looking for and will give you countless information on everything from price to school zoning.  The easy of getting public records off the computer now makes it easy for people to check how much the house down the street sold for and what their's is worth.  While many realtors feel that all this knowledge has hurt the real estate market, I on the other hand believe that it has made the realtors step up there game so to speak.  It has made the realtors also become more knowledgeable knowing that the customer probably knows just as much or more about the houses than they do.  It has also made them start to enhance their knowledge of computers and embrace them.

I hope this blog wasn't to painful to have to read, like I said this is also a learning process for me and will get better. To wrap up my first blog I want to say thank you to my mother for helping me along the way and giving me so much knowledge in this field.