Get the most from your Realtor
HANNERLE MOORE
Contributing Columnist
realestate@lbknews.com
Given the enormous glut of homes—not to mention, the unprecedented number of foreclosures forcing their way through the system—to sell your luxury home in today’s market it will likely face some serious competition from numerous properties just like it. That’s why it has never been more important to list your home with a Realtor whose skills and years of local experience will both minimize the time it takes to sell while maximizing the amount it sells for.
There are many agents locally who are duly licensed to sell your home; and would no doubt jump at the privilege of doing so. As a specialist with more than three decades of experience selling ultra high-end properties on Longboat, St Armands and Lido Keys I have experienced every type of up and down market. Knowing what I know, if I were interviewing prospective agents to sell my luxury home, here’s what I’d insist on knowing before making a final decision.
Price right
First, I’d want an agent upon whom I can absolutely depend to analyze the home, tell me what needs to be done to make it show at its best; and—above all—price and market it correctly from day one. Price remains the undisputed king in today’s market; and in spite of all the good news you’ve heard recently about the economy showing flickers of improvement, real estate markets that have been hardest-hit by the housing bubble have a way to go before prices actually stabilize, much less appreciate. Price it right today, or you may find yourself chasing the market down.
The speed with which you ultimately sell will be in direct proportion to the aggressiveness with which you price the property. Priced in parity with similar homes that have sold recently, yours will at least pop-up on the radar screens of buyers combing for opportunities in your price range. Priced several percentage points below its competition—and/or a very recent appraisal—and it will stand out as one of the best opportunities for buyers ready to commit. An overpriced home will simply languish on the market; often taking on the aura of a problem property that nobody wants.
See the plan
Next you should ask to see a specific action plan of how the agent plans to market your home. A cogent marketing plan is often what sets the true professional apart from the agent who simply throws your home on the MLS, runs an ad and considers the obligation to market your property fulfilled. As someone who cut their teeth in this business as Marketing Director for Michael Saunders & Company—then branched out to become one of the company’s top-producing agents—I completely understand the link between target marketing and expedited sales.
As nine out of every 10 buyers start their searches over the internet, today’s most effective marketing plans usually boil down to a strategic combination of time-honored and new techniques. You will definitely want to know what the agent has planned with respect to your property. If the agent seems the least bit vague about how he or she will expose your property on the internet consider that tantamount to alarm bells going off in your head. The agent should not only show you exactly what Web sites your property will appear on, but also should be able to show evidence of the quality and quantity of traffic each site attracts.
Internet has limits
At the same time, the internet has yet to become the be-all and end-all of modern property marketing. People still depend on long-established media for specific property information; and clients of mine are typically presented with a comprehensive plan that targets local, national and international buyers through a combination of sophisticated internet marketing—enhanced by professional photography, video tours and appropriately descriptive web copy—along with full-color brochures, direct mailings, print advertising and my weekly full-page newspapers ads in such targeted local staples as the Longboat Key News and the Longboat Observer.
The agents you interview should be prepared to show you how similar strategies have worked for other recent clients. In a listing presentation, I am always proud to show a prospective client how successfully my other clients have fared in this unforgiving market. You couldn’t ask for a more meaningful job reference than records of closed sales which, under closer scrutiny, show they spent a relatively short time on the market before finding buyers who paid reasonably close to the original asking price.
These are just some of the questions I would be most inclined to ask an agent hoping to list my home. As no two homes are alike, you will probably have many more specific questions to ask about preparing your property for sale. The important thing is to never be afraid to ask. There are no dumb questions when you’re about to entrust the sale of one of your most precious assets to someone you may barely know.
