Real Estate

What price would they sell their home to attract the most Buyers, they had wondered. Olivia and Jacob had discussed what they thought they should sell their home for and also discussed it with Jacob’s mother, along with looking at values on Zillow, so they thought they pretty much knew at what price they would list their home. They were anxious to hear from the Realtors in regards to their recommended selling price.

There seemed to be a few options for pricing their home after speaking with the different Realtors. A few of the Realtors agreed with them on their price, one was a quite a bit lower and the Realtor they selected was just below what they had thought they should sell their home for to get it sold. The Realtor who wanted to price the home just a bit below what Olivia and Jacob had thought, presented her reasoning well regarding her pricing strategy by reviewing recently closed sales in the area of their home, homes that were currently pending/under contract and those that were active for sale. She showed them through these comparisons what the fair market value of their home would be based upon their home’s condition, updates, special features, size and location. It was also explained to them on how important it is to price their home right, the minute it is listed for sale in order to attract the most qualified Buyers to their home during those first few weeks when a new home listing gets all the buzz. She explained how they can really miss the boat, so to speak, when they price the home too high to begin with, as the Buyers that are really qualified to buy their home won’t even see it because their home had been priced too high, so they’ll be looking at their home’s competition who are priced correctly. Bigger Equity! She understood the attachment that Olivia and Jacob might have to their home with all of the memories, but gently reminded them that it’s the home’s specific features that prospective Buyers will be reviewing and considering.

She also mentioned the mistakes that so many homeowners make when they take Zillow’s Zestimates as gospel and even showed examples of actual homes sold in Coral Springs and how the Zestimates were off from the final sales price. They didn’t even realize either that Zillow even mentions on their site that their values aren’t set in stone, yet that mention seems to be covered up where one has to really dig in to try and find it. By the way, the Realtors that easily agreed with them on their list price, they came to find out, were simply trying to “buy their listing” – talk about a complete lack of integrity!

After careful research, Olivia and Jacob found what they thought to be a top Realtor to sell their home. Even though Jacob’s mother recommended a co-worker friend from her office who sells homes part time, they had decided to search for a more qualified Realtor to sell their home. Jacob’s mother wasn’t too pleased with them for not taking her suggestion of her co-worker, but Olivia and Jacob understood the importance of having a skilled, professional Realtor going to bat for them so they searched on for the right Realtor.

They had begun their search over the internet. When Olivia could, she snuck in a few peeks when she got a few spare minutes at her office, however most searching began at home after she returned from her office where she managed a busy advertising agency. Jacob was just too swamped at his office to help in the search, as his responsibilities of preparing his company’s IPO was very demanding of his time and by the time he arrived home late each evening he was just too beat and by the time the weekend rolled around they were busy with the kids running from soccer practice to soccer matches. Their kids are still at the young age when they had the ball at their feet they didn’t know where to kick it to score a goal; which end goal would they run towards?! What fun! So Olivia had taken the lead for searching for a Realtor to sell their home.

Starting her search on Google, she entered selling your home in Coral Springs. There were a number of Real Estate sites that popped up on the first page of Google’s search results and she noticed that there was one Realtor that seemed to be quite visible appearing a few times. Olivia clicked through on some of the sites where this Realtor was shown. She wanted to find out what this Realtor was all about. She then continued her search visiting a few other sites in search of that just right Realtor. She finally discovered a few possibilities and was leaning towards one but she wanted to speak with a few first before making her final decision.

She spoke with the Realtors she had found online, setting up appointments to meet with them to get a better feel for them and to find out more about how they’d sell their home. When Olivia and Jacob had met with the Realtors at their home they asked them the important, typical questions such as; how long have you been selling homes, what will you do to get our home seen by Buyers, how fast do you sell homes, how close to the list price do you sell the homes, what type of communication can we expect from you and how’s your sense of humor. Yes, they did, they wanted to find out about a Realtor’s sense of humor, as Olivia and Jacob thought a good sense of humor is always an admirable trait; admirable yes, but not your typical question that a Real Estate Agent is asked!

After they met with the different Realtors, the decision to hire one had become quite clear. The obvious choice was her knowledge for selling homes, which was revealed beginning with the moment when Olivia and Jacob had walked her through their home. The Realtor pointed out great features of their home that Buyer’s will love and she also made recommendations of what could be done to make the home even more appealing to a Buyer – great, they thought! This Realtor, they recall, had an impressive internet presence and seemed to be quite knowledgeable and experienced in selling homes as was evident in her many Real Estate articles. The Realtor was everywhere online; she had her own website packed full of useful home selling Real Estate information, was active on many of the Social Media networks such as; Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and many more. Olivia imagined if she was able to market herself as she did, she surely would be skilled at marketing their home for sale to attract the most Buyers. And her customer testimonials were amazing – you should have read what some of what her customers had said about their Real Estate experience, she sounded like someone you could trust! Great, they thought!