In a buyer’s market, the time your home spends on market typically goes up and the price you get for it will often go down. To combat these issues, auctioning will give you a definite timetable for selling your home and generate a form of natural competition among buyers on the auction date.

Sell Faster

When you auction your home, you specify an exact date in the future when your home will be sold. It could be 30, 60, 90, or 180 days depending your needs. Once the auction is over and your reserve price is met, you’ll get a signed purchase and sale contract along with an earnest money check from the winning buyer. If the winning buyer doesn’t offer enough to meet your reserve, you may reject their offer. We’ll help you set a “Buy It Now” price that ANY buyer can pay before the auction happens should they wish to avoid having to compete with other buyers on auction day. So there is no downside risk to you, the home seller.

Sell for More Money

The auction process itself creates competition among home buyers. Auctions bring all interested parties together in one place at the same time for a single purpose - to find out who will pay the most for your home. Each bid by a buyer reinforces the value of your home to other buyers present and commits your buyers to their decision.

You, the Seller, Control the Terms of the Sale

First, we help you get a complete home inspection, termite letter, and talk about repairs (if any) that need to be done to your home. That way, buyers may bid on your home and buy it “as is” with full disclosure.

Next, we list your home in the Multiple Listing Service and feature it on this website. We will clearly tell agents and buyers that your home will be auctioned on a specific date in the future. Agents will bring their buyers to your home to preview it before the auction. We will provide those buyers with copies of home inspections and termite reports that you have already had done and the repairs you have made. That way, there is NO haggling over what is to be repaired that could jeapordize the sale of your home after the auction. All buyers must bring loan pre-approval letters to the auction or they will not be allowed to bid. By doing all this up front, it allows the home seller to control the process instead of the buyer.

If you’re having doubts about whether your home would sell in today’s market, please call us today and we’ll answer any questions you might have about our unique auction process.

We’ve all seen those ads by real estate agents in magazines, on TV, and on the radio promising they can sell your home quickly and for top dollar. These agents spend tons of money to run those advertisements and are actively scouring the streets for people who need to sell their home. They’ve built their businesses on getting as many signs with their name on it in as many yards as possible. Most every real estate agent seminar out there preaches this strategy and Realtors pay top dollar to hear this insider only advice. And the agents who go out and advertise strictly for home sellers do actually sell a lot of those homes every year.

But there is a dirty little secret to this that none of them ever want to talk about.

If you look at their numbers on a monthly or yearly basis, you’ll find that many of these mega agents only sell about 30% to 40% of the homes they list for sale. Why? Because they spend all their advertising dollars on finding people who want to sell their homes, not finding home buyers! Spending money finding people who want to buy those homes just isn’t in the budget. And if you bring this fact up at those real estate seminars, the guru up on stage will say things like “its all just a numbers game” and move on to the next topic. The guru knows that if you have 100 listings, 30-40 of them will most likely sell in any 3 to 4 month period.

Now most of the agents who run their business like this are genuinely good people and I’m not writing this to badmouth them. When you sign a listing contract with them, they seriously want your home to sell in 2 days so they get a commission check. They’ll put your home in the local MLS just like every other agent and hope that things work out in the end. If things don’t go as planned, they’ll send you a letter or you might get a phone call from them asking you to relist your home at a lower price. If you decide to go with someone else, they’ll quickly forget about you and move on to the next house.

I’m sure I’ll catch a lot of grief from agents all over the country for saying this, but it had to be said.

The National Association of buyers reports that 80% of home buyers use the internet as a source when they buy a home. It is at this point most people realize that if you’re selling your home, you need to get your home in front of as many potential home buyers as humanly possible. If your agent is spending those commission checks paying for more TV, radio, and magazine ads trying to find more people who want to sell their homes instead of buyers for your home, you’re getting a raw deal.

Did the light just go off in your head and did I hear your brain go clunk? Good. Keep reading.

The other little secret in the real estate business is that getting your home in the local MLS is the single most important factor in marketing your home regardless of what your agent might say and accounts for about 75% of the marketing process. Think about it, getting your home in front of real estate agents who get paid to find buyers is the single best option you’ve ever had or will have in the foreseeable future. But everyone selling their home using a real estate agent gets in the MLS anyway. In today’s competitive market, how you allocate the remaining 25% of your marketing strategy will definitely make the difference between selling your home quickly and the frustration that comes with having it sit on the market for months at a time.

So all things being equal, wouldn’t it be smarter to list your home with a local agent that advertises for buyers and has hundreds, if not thousands, of potential home buyers on their website every week by featuring your home on their website since you listed with them?

It’s a no brainer.

When you’re selling you home, the ONLY thing you should care about is getting your home in front of as many potential home buyers as humanly possible! You shouldn’t care whether or not your agent has their face on a billboard or does flashy TV and radio commercials. Getting 10, 20, 50, 100, or 200 potential buyers on a local real estate website to look at your home every single week will increase the odds that someone will buy it. “Its all just a numbers game”…sorry, couldn’t resist.

So the bottom line is when you’re selling you home, look for are local agents who heavily advertise for home buyers. You can find these agents by doing an internet search. After all, this is how 80% of home buyers mentioned in the National Association of Realtors study are finding them. If you put yourself in a home buyer’s shoes, you’ll realize they’re looking for local agents with homes for sale and no barriers to being able to easily search. If the agents advertising for buyers require registration before searching for homes, that agent probably isn’t a good candidate because home buyers typically don’t like divulging their information. They just want to see homes for sale and don’t want to run the risk of being e-mail spammed or hassled on the phone by real estate agents.

There is too much at stake in today’s buyers market to leave the sale of your home up to chance. Smart sellers know that taking ever single advantage available to them counts and sometimes the obvious or popular choice isn’t always the best.

Every single person on the planet wants to get as much as possible for their home when they sell. And they don’t want to pay too much in real estate commissions while they’re at it. In recent years, discount brokers have been advertising the fact that they charge less and save people money. I’m going to tell you how they charge less and why it may or may not be the best thing for you.

First, lets talk about commissions. When you sign a contract to list your home with a discount agent, you agree to pay them a commission and they share that commission with any other agent in town who can bring you a buyer. How much those discount agent share with another agent ranges from 2% to %4 in most areas. Whether you go with a full service agent or a discount agent, you’ll agree to pay another agent if they bring you a buyer.

So if you agree to pay 3% to another agent who finds you a buyer, the agent listing your home gets anything on top of that. The only difference between full service and discount agents is how much of what is left over they get at the closing table. Discount agents will often take a flat fee at closing or up front. Full service agents typically get their commission at closing. Their commission is typically twice what the agent who finds the buyer gets. In our example, the full service listing agent will get 3% also. This would bring your total commission to 6%. With a discount broker it would be 3% plus a flat fee or something like 4% or 5% total commission.

With either a discount agent or a full service agent, you’ll typically get access to the MLS. Since the marketing strategy will be basically identical, the difference lies in the service.

With a full service broker, you’ll be able to talk to your agent on a regular basis and they’ll most likely be responsive to changing conditions and will answer any questions you might have. With a discount agent, you probably won’t get much personal service. When you call them, they may tell you to “make it quick” and not have time to deal with your issues because they aren’t setup to do that. Since the payoff when they sell a home is less than a full service agent, they spend most of their time trying to get new clients. They don’t have a lot of time to service their existing clients.

But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if you’re familiar with the home selling process and know how to properly stage your home for showings, negotiate contracts, and handle all the closing details with lenders and attorneys. If this something you’re comfortable with, then a discount broker would most likely be a good fit for you and you could save a little money.

If you see that you’d rather focus on moving to your new home and not all the details associated with real estate contracts, then you’ll probably save money and headaches going with a full service agent. Missing critical details on a contract or at key moments in the process can often be extremely costly for people who don’t have experience selling a home.

So there you go. I hope this helps when you’re deciding which agent to hire to handle the sale of your home!

Your house should always be available for show, even though it may occasionally be inconvenient for you. Let your listing agent put a lock box in a convenient place to make it easy for other agents to show your home to homebuyers. Otherwise, agents will have to schedule appointments, which is an inconvenience. Most will just skip your home to show the house of someone else who is more cooperative.

Most agents will call and give you at least a couple of hours notice before showing your property. If you refuse to let them show it at that time, they will just skip your house. Even if they come back another time, it will probably be with different buyers and you may have just lost a chance to sell your home.

Try Not to be Home

Homebuyers will feel like intruders if you are home when they visit, and they might not be as receptive toward viewing your home. Visit the local coffee house, yogurt shop, or take the kids to the local park. If you absolutely cannot leave, try to remain in an out of they way area of the house and do not move from room to room. Do not volunteer any information, but answer any questions the agent may ask.

Lighting

When you know someone is coming by to tour your home, turn on all the indoor and outdoor lights - even during the day. At night, a lit house gives a “homey” impression when viewed from the street. During the daytime, turning on the lights prevents harsh shadows from sunlight and it brightens up any dim areas. Your house looks more homey and cheerful with the lights on.

Fragrances

Do not use scented sprays to prepare for visitors. It is too obvious and many people find the smells of those sprays offensive, not to mention that some may be allergic. If you want to have a pleasant aroma in your house, have a potpourri pot or something natural. Or turn on a stove burner (or the oven) for a moment and put a drop of vanilla extract on it. It will smell like you have been cooking.

Pet Control

If you have pets, make sure your listing agent puts a notice with your listing in the multiple listing service. The last thing you want is to have your pet running out the front door and getting lost. If you know someone is coming, it would be best to try to take the pets with your while the homebuyers tour your home. If you cannot do that, It is best to keep dogs in a penned area in the back yard. Try to keep indoor cats in a specific room when you expect visitors, and put a sign on the door. Most of the time, an indoor cat will hide when buyers come to view your property, but they may panic and try to escape.

The Kitchen Trash

Especially if your kitchen trash can does not have a lid, make sure you empty it every time someone comes to look at your home - even if your trash can is kept under the kitchen sink. Remember that you want to send a positive image about every aspect of your home. Kitchen trash does not send a positive message. You may go through more plastic bags than usual, but it will be worth it.

Keep the House Tidy

Not everyone makes his or her bed every day, but when selling a home it is recommended that you develop the habit. Pick up papers, do not leave empty glasses in the family room, keep everything freshly dusted and vacuumed. Try your best to have it look like a model home - a home with furniture but nobody really lives there.