A.D. Cantelmo Property Management
Our Business is Property Management in Orange County California
Look at selling a home as a strategy
Too often people look to Realtor's as magicians who can do
something special to sell their home and every time I hear that, I laugh. Yes,
there are good Realtor's and bad Realtor's, but the good ones don’t rely on
Magic, they rely on strategy.
As a Property Manager, I not only lease homes, but I also
sell them and there is not much difference in the strategy I use, there is a
difference though in how I implement the strategy.
In each case, whether you are leasing a Home or Selling a
home, getting people into the home to see it, is the main part of the strategy.
If people don’t come and see the home, they will never act on it.
Selling the
home, the MLS Is the greatest tool a Realtor has. I hear commercials on the
radio about a Realtor who is spending Thousands of dollars to sell your home.
Of course that is just hyperbole and unless you are a Realtor who sells in a
unique situation, for example, you are specializing in foreign buyers; the MLS
will bring you the greatest amount of activity on your listing. Every agent
understands this.
So how
the strategy is implemented for me, is how do I use the MLS properly.
When I
talk to people about pricing their home, I never force them into a lower price
then what they have in their head. I want sellers to feel as though they are
not leaving any money on the table. So for example if the Comps in the area are
$500,000, but when I talk to the sellers they feel their home is better than
all the other homes so they think their home is worth $525000. Every homeowner
thinks their home is better than the rest and that is natural, so who am I to
say it is not. After they give me the price they feel their home is worth and
every homeowner has a price in their head, no matter how many times they say
they don’t, I tell them that listing their home for their price is fine,
as long as after a period of time and I give it two weeks, and the showings are
few, then we need to adjust the price to get back in line to where the comps
are. This way the homeowners are satisfied that they gave it a shot at the
price they felt they could get and now they will let me do what I need to do to
get more people through the home.
As a Realtor, how you price the home is very important, so
many people like to use odd numbers for personal reasons, and that is OK as
long as those numbers don’t interfere with getting people in the home. As a
Realtor you need to understand how other Realtor's search for properties and in
my experience, I find Realtor's search in $25000 increments. For example, if a
Realtor has a client that wants to pay $500000 for a home, a Realtor will
search the MLS for $500000 and below or they will take it up a notch and search
$525000 and below. This is very important because that can mean that a potential
buyer may never see your home if you price the home $1 over the search
criteria. This is not magic. It is a strategy.
I always make sure I am under
the range I think potential buyers for my home will be searching. I never price
a home for $505000, or $510000 or $530000. I always price a home for $499000,
or 5249000. This way I am never over the $25000 increment that I find Realtor's
search.
That strategy has worked well for me and I explain that to
my clients when I list a property.
Leasing a home is not much different as far as pricing, the
biggest difference in leasing, is that more listing for lease are leased from
the sign outside then the MLS and that is a huge advantage for the listing Realtor.
There are other things I do that is part of my strategy, but
that will be for another article.
A.D. Cantelmo Property
Management Specializes in Property Management in Orange County
Ca.