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My Seller's Guarantees What Sellers Can Expect From Me –
1) Communication – With my mobile phone, one number gives everyone instant direct access to me. I always carry it with me, and you can call me anytime 7 days a week between 7 am and 8 pm. This is the same number that will be on my sign in your yard, and I will respond to calls to show your home during those same time periods. Occasionally I do miss a call (usually in the shower or a continuing education class), but my phone includes voice mail that is displayed on the screen. If I do miss one of your calls, I will return your call within 2 hours. If I am going to be out of town, before I leave I will call you with the name and number of the agent in the office who will be covering my calls. I also check my email frequently.
2) Marketing – I have dual membership at the Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors in both the residential side, the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), and the commercial side, the Commercial Investment Division (CID). This gives me access to the information for the total real estate market. I have the computer and digital photo technology to quickly have your home or property listed with:
MLS – This includes up to eight photos and all of your home’s features for all of the Realtors in the metro-area. MLS exposes your home to the pool of buyers of all the Realtors in town, and also features a reverse search option that allows me to notify other agents who have previously programmed searches that match your home. Realtors are now able to email listings to their buyers from MLS and allow them to preview your home prior to showing, thereby reducing showings to uninterested buyers. I can also create a link within your listing on MLS that allows viewer to click through to the listing page on my site to read a more detailed ad.
CID – This includes a detailed business flyer for commercial properties with one photo, that can be emailed to other commercial brokers or interested buyers.
RealTulsa.Net – My own multi-page website, which has numerous community links and can be accessed from hundreds of search-engines. Your home or property listing will include a multi-photo slideshow, photos that can be enlarged, a flyer that you or an interested buyer can print from your listing, and an enhanced text ad which automatically downloads several times weekly to the databases of Yahoo’s classified.
KW.com – Our national website, which includes one photo with an enhanced text ad.
Realtor.com – The National Association of Realtors website that allows buyers to search for homes on their own. This site averages over 2 million visits per month. This site downloads the information and the main photo from MLS.
Homes & Land Magazine – A bi-monthly publication given away in high foot-traffic locations. This features a color photo with a custom text ad that is also featured on their website Homes.com. I will run your home’s ad a minimum of two times.
3) Open Houses – I will hold your house open a minimum of 2 weekend days per month, and possibly every weekend with the help of other agents in the office. These open houses will include ads in the real estate section of the Saturday paper, as well as a listing in the open house guide of the Greater Tulsa Association of Realtors that is accessible by the public.
4) Honesty – Real estate is a profession that requires expertise in a wide range of fields, and each home sale involves its own unique mix of circumstances. If I do not know the answer to one of your questions, I will not make something up. Although I may not know the answer right then, I do know where to find it.
5) My Business Philosophy, No Team Approach - Rather than risking dropping the ball which sometimes results from oversights in group efforts, I handle all clients’ transactions personally and do not hand them off to assistants. In such important transactions I take my responsibilities very seriously and, if my plate is too full to give you the attention you deserve, I will gladly refer you to a another experienced member of our office that is fully competent in the area of your needs. Because I have neither the time nor desire to chase after and harass potential clients, I guarantee the decision to work together will be yours. With my low-pressure, no-pester sales philosophy I will extend the same respect to you that I appreciate myself.
My website and the internet are my assistants, allowing me to save everyone considerable time and inconvenience. I can narrow the showings of your home to only potential buyers that are looking for your home’s features through my website, and each one of my signs and flyers contains directions on how a potential buyer may preview your property. Life is too short to do things the old way.
Selling A Home Is Teamwork – Once the process is underway, I will depend upon your help in reaching our mutual goal in the following areas:
1) Realistic Pricing – After evaluating the sales data for your location and then comparing these homes to your home in terms of features and condition, choosing a price within 5% of the market value usually results in a fair-dollar sale in a reasonable amount of time. Your home will get the greatest number of showings the first 30 days. If you overprice your home, you will greatly reduce the number of prospects during this initial period, and you home’s listing may become “Stale”. Additionally, long market time and reducing the price later leads to the conclusion that something is wrong with the house.
2) Repairs: “Normal Working Order” – Over time we all become comfortable with the little quirks and problems we live with in our homes. That light switch that you have to jiggle or the faucet that drips may have been something you could live with, but in the eyes of a potential buyer it is one of a number of clues as to how your home has been maintained. Most standard contracts of sale contain repair amounts to be paid by the seller which usually total around 2% of the sale price, and you should expect these amounts to be deducted from your proceeds as a worst-case scenario. These repair amounts do not apply to cosmetic repair or bringing an older home up to code, but inspectors are paid to pick your home apart. However, once a repair is written up in an inspection report it must be done in a workmanlike manner and not jury-rigged to get by. In the case of electrical, mechanical and plumbing items, even the most trivia problem, like replacing a washer in a facet, must be done by a licensed tradesman.
To avoid spending the maximum amount required by the contract on repairs and to speed the sale of your home, spend a little time or money before that buyer is shown your home. To avoid getting emotional over an inspector apparently insulting your home, I recommend reading these reports three times because it always seems more reasonable the third time through. As to major repairs like a new roof, these repairs must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and can always be included as part of the sale and paid for out of the proceeds from the sale.
3) Showmanship – Basically, cleanliness and neatness sell. Why try to tell a potential buyer how your home could look when you can show them? Even if you have to store them, get rid of as much furniture and possessions as possible to give your home a more spacious feel. Put a new coat of neutral-colored paint on any dingy rooms, open drapes and clean the windows to let in the maximum amount of light, have the carpets cleaned, take care of any odor problems from pets or smoking, keep the yard maintained, and go ahead and haul off any junk you’ve been meaning to remove. Pay particular attention to the front door area, as this will be the first thing inspected while a buyer is waiting to enter your home. Keep your home in Move-In-Ready condition and inviting. You’re probably going to have to do these things anyway to help your home sell, so you’re ahead to take care of them for that initial surge of buyers.
4) Make Your Home Available – Regardless of the method you choose to have your home shown, you need to allow agents access to show it to potential buyers. It is inconvenient to have your life interrupted, but the easier you make showings the quicker your home will sell. As a prime example, I had a buyer with me from New Jersey, and we had gone back to a listing for a second look. We were also there to take digital photos to email to her husband in New Jersey because we were ready to make an offer. The seller would not let us in and ask us to return tomorrow. Since we then had extra time we decide to check out another listing, and that was the one she ended up buying.
Remove all valuables so you don’t have to worry about them. It is always best to OPEN ALL WINDOW COVERINGS, TURN ON ALL THE LIGHTS AND LEAVE during a showing, so that the potential buyers and their agent are comfortable while touring your home and feel free to discuss it. It has been my experience that the potential buyers that make remarks about this and that needing to be fixed or changed, are the ones that are more likely to make an offer. Sellers that remain and try to promote their home to potential buyers often come across as desperate, and that will definitely lower the offer you receive.
5) Negotiate Reasonably – You can strike yourself out by playing hardball. The sale of a home involves a give and take process, so be flexible. Drawing lines in the sand too quickly can result in loosing opportunities before you know their ending total value. Reasonable actions return reasonable responses.
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