What Sells Homes?

Everyone has an opinion on this subject.  If you have listed your home for sale and it hasn't sold, simplified it is one of two things, Marketing and Price.  I know this for a fact!  I don't have to wait for someone to tell me when my house didn't sell.  I lived with the hope of a buyer, yet none came.  My family needed me to help them and I was living in another state.  I listed my home with an agent that sold my neighbors.  I figured they knew the neighborhood. They sold my neighbors for a fair price so why not mine?

I look back and now as an agent and broker I know the difference.  Sticking a sign in the yard and running a few ads is not going to sell a home. (you could get lucky!)  But for the most part this does not work or everyone would be in real estate, if it was that easy.  Anyone can stick a "For Sale" sign in the yard and get the same result as a real estate agent.  Marketing is the key.  Multiple marketing methods are needed to give property maximum exposure to buyers.  Marketing will not help sell an over-priced property.  It will get buyers to look at the property.  Marketing sells properties faster and for a higher price.  My sister, who lives some distance from me, listed her property with an agent who stuck a sign in the yard, listed the property on the MLS and ran a few ads and that was that.  Nothing happened.  Ads have to be run in the right magazines, listed on the INTERNET with high traffic count, use cable TV where available, have a full color brochures, virtual website tours and lots more.

Selling takes a plan specific to the property being sold.  The plan must take into consideration the area where the property is located.  Schools, culture, traffic and amenities like shopping, doctors, hospitals, schools, entertainment and other issues like the neighborhood itself.  What are similar homes being listed at and what are the selling prices?  How long are the homes on the market?  

If an agent does not have a specialized Marketing plan for your property you will not have a quick sale.  If the agent does not believe in multiple marketing approaches to sell homes faster your property will languish on the market and all the agent will say is we have to lower the price.  That is all the agent can do is wait on you to become frustrated and do anything to sell.  Not much of a plan is it.  If it had not happened to me and family members before I was an agent I would not understand the anger, frustration and anxiety selling causes when agents do not have a Marketing and Selling plan.

I would like to know your situations so others can benefit from your experiences.  My clients know how I have a specific marketing and selling plan before we list any home or property for sale.  I just can not put my clients through the anxiety of not selling.

How did you finally sell or did your listing just expire and your home taken off the market.

 Thanks for reading the blog.  Your comments are always welcome.

Sincerely,

Gary White
Associate Broker