Easy showing homes always sell first and agents have a limited amount of time to take their buyers out to visit homes so a buyer’s agent is always going to take their clients to see the homes that are readily available to show and the ones that are by appointment only are going to be last ones on the list. Just having your home accessible and ready to be shown; the home is in order, there’s no dishes in the sink, beds are made. Just in order in general.
Ken: I’m curious. What are 2 or 3 of the most common questions you get from sellers when they’re considering selling their home?
Brenton: The most common question I get is what do I need to do to sell my home for top dollar. The answer comes from the experience that I’ve had over the past 20 years on what we can do to kitchens by changing out, cabinets, counter tops, adding backsplashes, or by changing out old appliances. They may have white appliances, now stainless steel is the popular choice. Taking the vinyl flooring out of bathrooms and just putting in some tile. Tile doesn’t have to be expensive, just affordable tile looks so much better. Many sellers ask what can I do to make my house sell for quickly. Or what I can do to sell my home in 30 days.
Average days on market here in the Phoenix area is creeping up. We’re in the 60 to 90 day range depending on the area of Phoenix you are in. That ties back into pricing your home right. If you’re relocating for example and you need to be in a different city at a certain time, we can always set the price below market value a little bit. You’d be surprised that by pricing your home 10% under market value, you’re going to get huge buyers pool-buyers that want to look at your home. Most of the time, we’re still going to be able to sell your house at the market value just by having multiple parties interested in it and getting multiple offers on your home and then being able to negotiate the price you want to sell it at.
Ken: I’d imagine that it can turn into a bidding war by strategically pricing your house below the market. You could end up selling it for even more than you thought.
Brenton: There’s 2 ways to think of that. Some agents like to price it above a little bit and some like to price it below. It’s just what the clients feel more comfortable with and what their time frames are. I like pricing at the market price with a combination of having the home prepared and presentable.
Ken: I know a lot of people think they can just put an ad in the local paper and a For Sale By Owner sign in the front yard and sell their home themselves. What are your thoughts on For Sale By Owner?
Brenton: I always tell a person that wants to sell their home on their own, “Absolutely. Give it a try.” I talk to a lot of For Sale By Owners. One particular person that wanted to sell his home, Michael, was out in Gilbert with his For Sale By Owner sign up. I gave him a call, because I give all for sale by owner sellers a call, and just asked him, “could I possibly put a text rider sign on your house. I’ll give it to you for free. I have a service that anytime anyone wants information on your home, they can text in a number and get photos of your home and information on what you are selling it at. It’s just using technology to market your property right in your front lawn”.
Then, the For Sale By Owner would get an automatic email or text of everyone that inquired through using the text rider sign. Obviously, I would also and I would go ahead and call those prospects back and make sure that they were 1, pre-qualified, 2, ready to walk the home and try to schedule an appointment for Michael so the buyer can see the home. This helps ensure that Michael is not just allowing anyone to walk through his home.
I also offer a smart seller commission program, which states that if you find your own buyer, you pay me nothing. You owe me no commission; you’ve found your own buyer and that’s 100% guaranteed. It’s a fair thing to do. What I do like to offer is if you would like me to handle the paperwork on that transaction, because there’s a lot of paperwork involved, I would do that at a reduced 2% fee total to handle the transaction for you so you can go on with your life and not have to worry about the real estate part of it. Really, for For Sale By Owner prospects or anyone that feels like they can sell their home on their own, I would give them the opportunity to do that regardless if they list with me or if they want me to put a text rider sign up.
I’ve always had great success with For Sale By Owners. There’s a lot of marketing involved in selling a home that a For Sale By Owner can’t do or doesn’t have time to do. I just approach it as an opportunity and if someone wants to go that route, I’m definitely willing to help them try, but they’re always going to have more success working with the qualified real estate agent.
Ken: That’s a great pool of resources that they can draw from. Just by putting the text rider sign on their sign, they have pictures and information online and that can really help them sell their own home quicker. I know you’ve had a lot of success here getting top dollar for your listings. You’ve talked about some of them but can you share with people that might be reading or tuning into the show some of the tips that they could use to command the highest price for their home?
