I do _________ just to appease my home selling clients.

You can fill in that blank with things like:

• Running ads in the Sunday paper
• Holding open houses
• Using QR codes on sign riders
• Enhancing listings on Realtor.com
• Setting up a Facebook page for the home
• Blasting an email notification to every agent in town

Or any of an assortment of “marketing” tricks and gizmos one might imagine.

(Of note: I’m not saying that anything listed above is necessarily a bad idea. They may work in your market. Personally I’ve found them all ineffective and a waste of time, money and/or effort. But your mileage may vary.)

True confession – I’ve never understood the “appease the seller” argument.

Oh, I understand that everyone wants to make their clients happy. After all, we are in a service based industry. Making the client happy goes a long way toward improving client satisfaction. Happy clients are repeat clients. Happy clients refer their friends and family.

What I don’t understand is doing things that don’t work (or are, at best, ineffective) just to make your seller happy.

The Key to Making a Seller Happy

Mayhap I am about to grossly oversimplify things, but making home sellers happy seems to me to boil down to one thing…

Sell their home.

Having spoken to countless home sellers I can safely say I have yet to hear anyone say, “My agent used this bitching QR code on our sign rider!” or, “Who cares that our home never sold, the Facebook Page our agent created for our home was AMAZING!”

Sell their home.

That’s what home seller’s want. They don’t really care how the home gets sold. Just sell it. Sell it as quickly as possible. Sell it for as much as the market will bear. Put them through the least amount of pain possible.

That will make your home sellers happy.

You take a listing to sell the home. Not to generate buyer leads. Not to get yard signs plasted across town. Not to promote yourself.

At least I hope you don’t take a listing for those things…

It isn’t your seller’s job to generate sales prospects for you. It is not your seller’s job to pad your database of potential buyer clients. It’s not your seller’s job to showcase your for-sale sign.

Those are all parts of your job, and they have to be done, but they shouldn’t be done at the expense of your seller.

If you take a listing, do what you are being paid to do.

Sell the home.

Trust me. Do that, and your client will be happy.

• Open Houses…
• Home Sellers: Review How Your Home is Displayed to Others!
• The Two Hardest Things to Tell a Client
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Real Estate Agents
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Home Sellers

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

What, you didn’t know this was a series?

Yeah, me either until about 10 minutes ago…

Here we’ll explore seven habits that highly effective real state agents practice. In an act of shameless self-promotion, we’ll throw in that if you are a Phoenix home buyer or seller, you need to only call Thompson’s Realty to find an agent that practices these seven habits (and more) in their daily routine.

Effective Habit #1: Understand the Real Estate Contract and Supporting Documents

It seems stunningly obvious. An effective real estate agent should understand the real estate contract and all the documents that surround and support it. In the state of Arizona, we have standardized purchase and sale documents that are pretty much the lifeblood of a real estate transaction. Yet nearly every day we are presented with evidence that there are agents out there with fundamental misunderstandings, or misconceptions, about what these documents include.

THAT’S CRAZY TALK!

Yeah, it should be crazy talk, but it’s actually reality talk. Agents need to understand every single line of the real estate sales contract. There are critical timelines in that document that must be followed to protect your client — be they buyer or seller.

Home buyers and sellers — you should review the standard contracts and other documents before you make or consider an offer on a home. ASK QUESTIONS. The docs are drawn up by legal types and are often worded in ways only those people can manage. A good agent should be able to explain every line of the contract to you in plain English. You need to understand these documents. And if your agent can’t explain them, well…

Effective Habit #2: Patience

“Patience is a virtue.” I don’t know who first said that, but they were right. (Actually, according to several sources, the saying is believed to have originated in “Psychomachia,” an epic poem written in the fifth century. Now you know.)

Real estate agents need patience. Patience in dealing with other agents, with lenders, with title companies, with inspectors, with appraisers, with banks, and yes, even with their clients. Let’s be honest, some of you client types are not the easiest people to work with.

The real estate sales process is long and arduous, and not for the feint of heart. Patience is required to navigate the often stormy waters of a real estate sales transaction. The patient real estate agent, one that can shrug off the inconsequential and zero in with laser focus on the crisis of the moment is the agent that closes those transactions that can slip away from the less patient.

Effective Habit #3: Understanding the Real Estate Market

Local knowledge of the real estate market is important in helping a home seller set a price, and a home buyer submit an offer. Local knowledge is important for helping a home buyer find that perfect home. MANY real estate buyers and sellers rely on an agents local knowledge, and as such, ya gotta have it. “Local knowledge” doesn’t just mean memorizing the number of homes listed for sale and the median sales price, it means understanding the schools, shopping, medical facilities, HOA rules and regulations and anything else a potential buyer may need to know in order to make educated decisions on where to buy. For sellers, understanding the real estate market is critical in being able to properly prepare and price a home for sale.

Effective Habit #4: Understanding the Client

Thanks to the human genome, every individual is different. You need to understand, and be able to extract when necessary, what your client’s needs, wants and desires are. What is their motivation for buying / selling? What do they HAVE to have in a home vs. what would “be nice” is crucial to undertand so you, and they, don’t have to wade through thousands of potential homes trying to find the right one.

Ask people what they most need out of their real estate agent, and I’ll bet you a significant number of people will tell you, “I want my agent to understand my needs and requirements.” That usually comes right after, “I want my agent to communicate with me…”

Effective Habit #5: Communication Skills

Most of what happens in a real estate transaction, if you really boil it down to the root, is communication. Communication between buyer and seller agent, agent and lender, and especially agent to client. Great communication skills are rarely genetic, it requires study and practice. I’m not saying you have to be a skilled orator on the level of say a Dr. Martin Luther King. It’s not “speaking skills” per se that are required, though it helps if you don’t bumble and stumble and sound like a buffoon. Communication involves speaking, writing and even listening skills. You must be able to communicate effectively — that means losing the acronyms and not speaking in real estate terms that people outside the real estate space may not understand. Timeliness of communication is critical as well. Sometimes, even if there is no change in the transaction, reaching 0ut to your client and letting them know that is just as importnat and talking to them when a big matter is at hand.

And for God’s sake, answer email’s and phone calls!

Effective Habit #6: Technological Skills

No, you don’t have to understand how to write computer programs or solder a component on a mother board. But in the year 2011, it is important for real estate agents to have at least some fundamental tech skills. Skills that go beyond just knowing which way to face the document in the fax machine. I’ve seen agents that can’t fumble their way through an MLS search, or fill out a contract electronically. How they survive is beyond me. Want to really serve the younger home buyer? You better learn to text. Want to work with out of state clients? Learn to use electronic signatures, and learn to fight the idiots that don’t accept them. Want to market a home on the Internet? Well then learn how to do that.

None of this stuff is really all that difficult to grasp. Go to Google (google.com. It’s a web site). Go to YouTube. Teach yourself some basic tech skills. If you can’t teach yourself, sign up for a class. There are a bazillion of them being sold for free.

Effective Habit #7: Be Likeable

I’ve said this numerous times in speaking engagements of all sorts — people pick a real estate agent because they like them. Perhaps that is oversimplification, and perhaps it seems odd to say this in an article about seven habits of highly effective real estate agents. But the bottom line is this: real estate sales is not rocket science. It doesn’t take years of formal education and training to be a good real estate agent. What separates any given agent from another is a razor-thin margin. There are only so many ways to complete a real estate contract. Marketing skills are important in selling a home, but the greatest marketer on the planet can’t sell an over-priced home, or a home in bad condition (unless that has been factored into the price). Put “Agent A” next to “Agent B” and you’ll be hard pressed to be able to quantify why one is superior to the other. Many times agent selection by a home buyer or seller boils down to whether or not they like you.

Yes you.

So don’t be an asshat. No, you don’t have to burry your nose into your clients posterior (that’s really not “likeable”, it’s ass kissing, which few people truly find likeable). No, you don’t have to be your clients BFF. No, you don’t have to be a “yes man” and agree with every word your client utters, nor do you have to tell them everything they want to hear. In fact, rarely will you be telling clients what they want to hear because a solid 9/10ths of real estate sales involves educating your clients and that usually means telling them what they don’t want to hear. Just be honest. Brutally so. While the truth in and of itself may not be likeable, your clients will ultimately like you for being honest.

Be yourself. Be true. Be real. That’s likeable. Leave fake smarmy sales guy at home. Or locked in a trunk somewhere. No one likes fake smarmy sales guy.

Bonus! Effective Habit #8: Reader Submission

What do YOU, oh avid reader, think is an effective habit of an effective real estate agent? If you are a home buyer or seller (or ever have been) what do you look for in an agent? If you are a real estate agent, what habits have you developed that helps separate you from the gaggle of other agents plying their wares? Let us know in the comments!

Photo Credit: Lincolnian (Brian) on Flickr. CC Licensed.

• The Immutable Laws of Buying and Selling Real Estate
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Home Buyers
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Home Sellers
• If You’re Going to Play the ‘Lawyer Card’ You Better Bring Your A Game…
• Honey check out this crown molding! And the baseboards!

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

It fits though, and there is something to be learned from how home sellers have approached the often arduous task of putting their home on the market, and more importantly, closing the transaction.

Effective Habit #1: Be Realistic

What your neighbor sold their home for last year, or even last month, doesn’t matter. What you “lost” because you didn’t sell your home at the peak of the market doesn’t matter. Those fancy granite counter tops you had installed? Yeah, you won’t recover every dollar you spent when you sell your home, and that holds true for any home improvement.

Selling a home ranks WAY up the list of “life’s most stressful moments”. But you have to understand and be realistic about your home’s value, your neighborhood, and the real estate market you in. There are many factors that impact the potential sale of your home. Many you have no control over (market dynamics, economic conditions, the lending environment). But there are things you can control (home condition, cleanliness, curb appeal, availability). Address what you can control, and understand the impact of what your can’t. Realistically.

Effective Habit #2: Be Open to Suggestions

You hired a real estate agent to help you. Listen to what they have to say. You don’t sell a home every day. Your agent sells several homes a year (we’re assuming here you aren’t using your brother’s best friend’s second cousin who is part-time agent part-time barista because you want to “help them out”). If you hired the right agent (insert shameless plug here), then you should listen to their professional advice. Sure, you may not be able to do everything they suggest, but at least listen and consider suggestions your agent may have for the best way to present, market and sell your home.

Effective Habit #3: Be Available

YOU don’t necessarily have to be available to buyers interested in your home. In fact, you shouldn’t be present during showings – it makes buyers uncomfortable and they will rush through the home. But you do need to make your home as readily accessible to potential buyers as possible. In the Phoenix real estate market that means letting your agent install an electronic lockbox. It means you need to be able to vacate the premises with reasonable notice – and occasionally with unreasonable notice. Your home can not be sold if potential buyers can’t view it. “No showings on weekends” or “Showings only between 11:00am and 1:00pm on Thursdays and Fridays” won’t cut it (and no, I’m not making those up. We’ve seen this in listings..)

Effective Habit #4: Be Smart

Understand the local real estate market. Understand the home selling process. Understand the home buying process (you may not be buying, but you want to understand what your potential buyers are dealing with).

Why understand all this?

Knowledge is power.

How do you understand all this? Let your agent help you understand it. That’s what you’re paying them for.

Effective Habit #5: Uhm…

Well, in the ultimate proofreading FAIL, somehow I managed to leave out Effective Habit #5 when I published this article. Sigh. Let’s have some fun with my ineptitude! Leave a “Highly Effective Habit” for home sellers in the comments and I’ll put my favorite one here with a link back to your site.

Here is what I picked as my favorite “reader submitted” Habit #5. There were some *great* suggestions, and I highly recommend reading all the comments on this post! In fact, when I get some time, I’m going to compile them all into another post…

From Sean Carpenter:

Remember to Balance Emotion with Logic – Selling your home and all the things involved with the transaction can be very exciting, but many times it is an extremely stressful event.

Homeowners not only have to worry about their home remaining clean and available to unknown Realtors and buyers on a daily basis but they often have other important things that they could be doing to ready themselves for their move. It is also true that most Sellers have a tremendous amount of pride in their home and want to make certain that the marketing and eventual sale price are reflective of that pride.

The moment you list your home for sale with a Realtor, it just becomes a house on a shelf. You may not like what the market tells you but it will never lie to you. If you don’t have showings you will very likely not receive any offers. If you get showings and still don’t get any offers you must be prepared to lower the price. Don’t take it personally.

Effective Habit #6: Be Reasonable

When (not if!) you get an offer on your home, think about all aspects of the offer. Price isn’t the only consideration. The buyer’s ability to qualify for a loan is crucial in today’s real estate and lending environment. When you get a request for repairs, consider everything closely. Do you really want to say, “I won’t fix that leaky faucet!” and risk losing a buyer because you didn’t want to pay $50 for a washer and a 30 minute repair? And if you’re thinking, “No buyer would walk away because of a leaky faucet,” think again. No, I’m not saying to have to bow to every buyer demand. Be reasonable though. And talk it through with your agent.

Effective Habit #7: Don’t Be Afraid to Ask Questions

This is YOUR home you are trying to sell. You need to be comfortable with what is going on. If there is anything you don’t understand, ask your agent for clarification. Don’t be embarrassed that you don’t know what “escrow” means, or what a title company does. Again, you don’t sell a home every day. These terms aren’t important to you 99.9% of the time. But they are important now, and often agents tend to forget we frequently speak in a foreign language. There are no stupid questions. Ask.

The Bottom Line

These “seven habits” can help you through the home selling process. No, they won’t ensure that your home sells for top dollar, but they will help you get there. And your stress levels may be greatly reduced. To be brutally honest, it will also greatly reduce the stress levels of your agent as well. That’s not a bad thing. Humans don’t like stress so anything that can be done for all parties involved in a stressful situation is a good thing.

As always, your thoughts and comments are appreciated? Anyone have an eighth effective habit for home sellers?

Photo Credit: Yours truly. I know, the photo doesn’t make a lot of sense. But the post is about “seven habits” and when I hear “seven”, I tend to think…. Jack Daniel’s.

• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Real Estate Agents
• The Immutable Laws of Buying and Selling Real Estate
• How to Make a Home Seller Happy
• The Two Hardest Things to Tell a Client
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Home Buyers

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

Anyone that has read this blog for any length of time knows that lousy listing information on homes for sale is a pet peeve of mine.

Here is today’s winner. It covers pretty much every aspect of what makes a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) entry wrong.

First, there is only one photo. It’s of the front of the home and the most dominant aspect of the photo is the SUV parked in the driveway.

The directions field normally contains, shockingly, directions to the home. Typically something along the lines of “Go south on Main ST, east on 1ST, home is 0.2 miles on left (north) side.

The directions for this listing?

“See Map”

The “Remarks” section is where the listing agent can put descriptive info on the home. It’s the only place in the MLS where the listing agent can “sell” the house. Sure, you often see flowery fluff like “Honey stop the car!”, and “I’m gorgeous inside!”, but more often you see language that describes the home and neighborhood. Both agents and potential buyers find the remarks section especially helpful in determining if a home may meet their basic needs.

The remarks in this listing say only, “Fabulous 3 bedroom w/ a den. North/South exposure. Great floorplan. Enjoy the easy care desert landscaping. Must see”

Not exactly helpful.

Then we get to the room measurements. The MLS has a place for dimensions for all of a home’s rooms. Handy for knowing in advance the size of the bedrooms, if your 9 foot sofa can be placed far enough away from your 60” plasma TV, that sort of thing.

Room dimensions for this home?

Blank. Zip. Zero. Nada.

The MLS allows the listing agent to enter the type, style and details of things like the roof, fencing, home owners association rules and utilities. That information on this listing says “see remarks” and, naturally, there is nothing in the remarks…

A woefully incomplete listing entry like this would by definition require a call to the listing agent for more information and details. So we’re treated to this gem in the “Realtor remarks” section:

Listing agent office hours Mon-Fri 7-4. Contact via EMAIL is best for response. Do not call agent on Sunday.  Don’t request more info until you have shown the home and are ready to write an offer. (my emphasis in bold)

I understand having office hours. Many real estate agents work ridiculous hours. It comes with the job. As a service provider, we have to be available when our clients are available. Given that a significant portion of the home buying population works Mon – Fri 8 – 5, a significant portion of the home buying population needs to see homes outside those hours. You don’t want calls after 4pm or on Sunday, fine. Then put the necessary info in the MLS so I don’t HAVE to call you. Attach a file to the MLS with details, do SOMETHING akin to your job that meets your responsibility to your client and I won’t need to call you.

But instead you’re going to tell me not to request more info until I’ve shown the home and have a client ready to write an offer?

Seriously?

Well good luck with that.

You see, I’m not going to even show the home because you’ve given me NOTHING to indicate whether it meets my buyer’s criteria. N O T H I N G.

What is a seller to do?

You shouldn’t even have to ask your agent for this but…

Make sure you see the actual MLS listing. Ask them to show you both the public version and the agent version. Make sure there are plenty of photos that display your home in the best light possible. Descriptive text, room dimensions, all that needs to be included. Ask your agent how they handle inquiries on the property. Find out when they are available to field questions from potential buyers and buyer’s agents. A good agent will likely tell you all this, and more, up front.

What do you do if your home is already listed and you think the listing information isn’t complete?

Talk to your agent. Express your concerns. If they can’t address them, then speak to the agents broker. The broker is the agents “boss” (not technically as agents are independent contractors, but the broker is legally responsible for the agents actions and is your first step in resolving issues with your agent).

Sadly, in the case of this woefully lame listing, the listing agent IS a broker / owner of their own brokerage. If that’s the case and they won’t fix things to meet your needs, your only recourse is the broker’s Realtor association or the State Department of Real Estate. Good luck with that.

And some folks wonder why real estate agents rank below used car salesmen in the eyes of John Q. Public. . .

• How to Make a Home Seller Happy
• The Two Hardest Things to Tell a Client
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Real Estate Agents
• 7 Habits of Highly Effective Home Sellers
• If You’re Going to Play the ‘Lawyer Card’ You Better Bring Your A Game…

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

But, if you are going to go FSBO, or go with a limited service agency (basically a real estate brokerage that you pay to put your home in the Multiple Listing Service while you do all the remainder of the work) then at least make sure you are spending your time, money and effort wisely. Let’s face it. Some marketing methods work, some may work, and some just flat-out don’t work — or the probability of them procuring a buyer are so remote that they aren’t worth the effort.

Here’s an example in the latter category received yesterday via email (names and MLS# obscured to protect the ignorant):

What you see above is the email in its entirety. That’s it, no attachments, no phone number, no nothing. Let me explain why this is a complete waste of time, and is not “marketing” your home effectively:

1. If I had a buyer interested in your home, I would know it’s available the second it went into the MLS. Therein lies the power of the MLS. I don’t really need an email asking me if I have a buyer. I know my buyers, and what they are looking for. Heck, my buyer had your listing before you sent this email if it was of interest to them.
2. But let’s say I am one of the lazy agents that doesn’t know how to set up good searches in the MLS to meet my clients needs. Then maybe an email asking me if I have a buyer for your home could be effective. However, consider this: If I am too lazy to set up a search, won’t I be too lazy to open up the MLS, log in, copy and paste the MLS number you provided into the system, and pull up the particulars on your home?

You see, your email that cluttered up my inbox (along with several others that day from actual agents who email flyers to hundreds if not thousands of agents in one fell spamming swoop) tells me nothing. Absolutely nothing. Do I have a buyer for your home? I don’t know. Where is it? How big is it? How much are you asking for it? Yes, I understand all that info is in the MLS, but if you are going to butt into my inbox, at least make it so I don’t have to stop what I’m doing, log into a system, and look it all up.

Normally, I would have clicked DELETE as swiftly as possible. But for the purposes of this post, I went into the MLS just to see what the deal was with this particular listing.

So now you’re going to get Jay’s bonus tips on ways not to sell your home!

Photos:  Photos are important. Really important.  These photos do nothing to help sell your home. Let’s face it, orange trees and cactus grow like weeds around here. If your landscaping is compelling, by all means showcase it. A photo of part of a tree (that needs pruning BTW) and a cactus are not compelling.

And then there is . . .

Pricing: Listing a home for $270,000 that comps at $200,000 (on a good day) is not conducive to selling your home. That foreclosure across the street? You may not like it, but it is your competition.

Again, there is nothing wrong with selling your own home. If you’re willing to take the time, understand marketing and want to take on the legal liability, go for it. But keep in mind, the Phoenix real estate market (and many other markets across the country) are not in the best of shape right now. If you really have no clue how to sell a home (and clearly some don’t) then you may want to leave it to someone that does this for a living. Will it cost you? Sure. But what is it costing you if you can’t sell your home?

• On Dual Agency

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

The debate over at the US News & World Reports Housing Front blog has ended.

Here are links to all the posts:

Day 1 (Thompson)
Day 2 (Healy)
Day 3 (Thompson)
Day 4 (Healy)
Day 5 (Thompson)
Day 6 (Healy)

Sometime later today of the Home Front Blog, there will be a voting poll set up. Read the posts, and vote for who you feel “won” the debate.

I know who I’ll be voting for, you should vote for who you felt presented the best argument.

I enjoyed debating with Greg Healy. Seems like a nice guy. He has a vested interest in the success of his FSBO site, and I of course, have a vested interest in the success of my real estate brokerage.

FSBO works for some. A very small some. More power to you if you can pull it off. Personally, I think it’s a mistake to go FSBO, but there is no denying some can do it, but most can not.

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

On Day 2 my opponent in the debate, Greg Healy, Vice President of Operations at ForSalebyOwner.com, posted his first “volley”.

Greg’s post was primarily (and not surprisingly) focused on the “6% Commission”, which is an erroneous assumption. First, all commissions are negotiable. Factually, the national average commission is around 5.1%. That’s an average, so of course in some places real estate commissions are typically higher, and in some places they are lower than 5.1%.

Then of course there is the common misconception that of the mystical 6%, all of it goes to the listing agent/broker. Try half that, at best.

My debate posts are limited to 400 words, which is probably a good thing as I could have written a War and Peace length tome in rebuttal to Greg’s post. There are several other points I wanted to make, but there wasn’t enough space available.

A response from Greg is due tomorrow, and I’ll have one more shot to fire on Friday.

Thanks to all who have expressed support here, elsewhere, and on the U.S.News & World Report blog!

Debate Posts:

Day 1 – Thompson
Day 2 – Healy
Day 3 – Thompson

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

I’ve been invited to an online debate on U.S. News & World Report’s blog, The Home Front.

The subject is, “Do you need a real estate agent to sell your home?”

I’ll be debating with Greg Healy, Vice President of Operations at ForSaleByOwner.com.

My initial volley is up, look for Greg’s first response tomorrow.

Readers will be able to vote at the end of the debate for the “winner”.

Should be interesting, hopefully educational, and maybe even entertaining.

I could use a little support people. It’ll be interesting to see if an “anti-Realtor” crowd gathers. Them I can deal with. Greg on the other hand, will be a strong opponent!

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

But that’s really neither here nor there.

In an article posted Sunday I discussed “silly counter offers”. The esteemed John Wake left this comment:

“It also sounds like you have a great client… and the seller and/or listing agent will be a PITA the whole way.”

For those not familiar with the term “PITA”, it’s “net lingo” for “Pain In The Ass”.

And as is the norm, John was spot-on in his assessment (on both parts).

Here’s a recap….

Our very qualified buyers make an offer on a very nice home.

The specifics of the offer aren’t all that important. It was a strong offer, by a strong buyer (as evidenced by the amount down, earnest money, closing time line, their loan parameters, and the fact they don’t need to sell an existing home).

Some things the buyers asked for:

* They wanted a closing date of July 31.
* They needed a 15 day inspection period as they will be out of town for several days (the “typical” inspection period is 10 days).
* They used electronic signatures (which as discussed Sunday, are perfectly legal).

The sellers countered:

* They wanted a closing date of July 30. Yes, one day sooner. The reason, as quoted by the listing agent? “I don’t like closing on Thursdays or Fridays”. (wonder if the seller really cares?)
* They nixed the 15 day inspection period, insisting on 10 days — this despite knowing the buyers would be out of town for a portion of those 10 days.
* They did apparently relent on the electronic signatures. A concession!

There were other items countered. We were a little apart on price, but close enough we felt we could work it out.

So our buyers re-countered on price, and again asked for a 15 day inspection period.

Next the seller re-re-countered. They were now OK with the purchase price — and let’s face it, that is (or should be) 99% of the battle.

But here’s where it went beyond ridiculous.

They countered the closing date again (after we’d agreed on their silly “no Thursday closings” rule). They, in a seemingly random act, pulled the close of escrow date in by two weeks.

WTF? Can you say PITA? The Buyers did. They said “Adiós”.

I so want to ask the sellers:

Dear Sellers,

Why, pray tell, does the COE date now need to be 2 weeks earlier, when a mere 24 hours ago you’d already dictated what date you wanted???

And for whatever reason, you again refused to allow a 15 day inspection period. Hmmmm…. you know that 10 days doesn’t work for the buyer. All they need is a few more days. And you say, “Nope”. Are you just being difficult, or are you afraid a little extra time might uncover a problem?

And now you want additional earnest money, with some of it made non-refundable after the inspection period (you know, the one you won’t allow five extra days for).

You were this close to going under contract. And you blew it. There are 43,158 single-family homes listed for sale in the Phoenix MLS. We’ll find another one.

Sellers, you don’t have to concede to every buyer demand. But think about at least cooperating. Look at what the impact to your bottom line is. Work with the people that are telling you they want to buy your home.

Don’t be silly.

.

Originally posted on Phoenix Real Estate Guy. If you are reading this anywhere but inside your RSS feed reader, the site you are on is guilty of stealing content.

It’s relatively brief, but contains some good info. The article points out five signs that indicate your home may be overpriced:

1) Not enough showings
This is a prime indicator. But it’s a little “diluted” in the Phoenix real estate market because of the shear number of homes available for sale.

Let’s say you tell your agent, “I’m looking for a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home between $200 – $250K in Gilbert.

*poof!* You’ve got 495 homes to go see. Throw in Chandler (337 homes) and Mesa (659 homes) and you’ve got almost 1,500 homes to chose from in that fairly narrow band of pricing.

And that means if you’re selling a home in the East Valley, you’ve got 1,500 other homes you are directly competing with for buyer’s eyes and money.

Sometimes homes don’t show because there is a ton of competition.

2) Some showings, but no contract
Getting people to look at your home is step one. Getting people to make an offer on it is a whole ‘nuther story. An oft-quoted rule of thumb (including in the WSJ article) is ten showings should equal an offer. But I’ve seen that range from one showing to dozens. There is no hard and fast rule, but clearly if your are getting traffic (qualified traffic, not just “looky-loos”) and no offers, then something is amiss. 

3) Similar homes are now selling for less
In the Phoenix market, prices are generally declining. That means that what you priced your home at last month likely isn’t what the market considers your home worth today. Your price reductions may just be keeping up with declining market value, not positioning your home to sell.

4) Repeated negative feedback
Getting feedback from showing agents ranges from relatively simple to excruciating. Getting honest feedback is even worse. Ask 100 agents for feedback, and 95 of them will tell you, “My clients liked the home, but they want to look at more before they make a decision.” (In fairness, that is pretty much typical these days.) Rare is the agent who will give you brutally honest feedback. And let’s face it, even if you get something like, “It’s horribly overpriced”, “what were your clients thinking when they painted that wall” or “the home reeks of B.O.”, none of that should come as a surprise to the seller. A good listing agent will give you plenty of feedback before the home is even listed. There shouldn’t be any startling revelations on home feedback.

5) You’ve cut the price, but not enough
Here lies a tricky question. When a price cut becomes necessary, how much do you cut? I have seen, and you can’t make this up folks, price cuts of $1 a day, every day. Why would someone do something so ludicrous? To game the system. Agents can set up MLS notices for changes in property. Repeated miniscule price reductions serve no purpose other than to artificially get a listing on the “freshly revised” hot sheet.

The amount to cut is a fine balance between the needs of the sellers to net an amount, the speed at which they need to sell, and the perception of the market as to the value of the home.

And remember, it is the market that determines your home value. It’s not what your neighbor sold his home for, it’s not what you wish it was worth, it’s not even what an appraiser says it is worth. It’s what buyers in the market say it’s worth. Period.

There is no question; pricing in this market is key. It’s true though that any home can be sold if the price is “right”. Don’t believe that? List your home at 25% under what recent and true comparables are selling for. Your home will sell in days. Granted, no one wants to leave 25% of their homes value on the table, but it will sell.

The trick is determining a price point that is attractive to the buyers in the market that will net the seller as much as the current market will bear.

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• Listing Feed

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