Selling your Home

You should be selling your home all the time. This doesn’t mean you need to boast about it or work it into every conversation you have. Just serve as its advocate at every opportunity.
Here are some things you should think about doing and not doing.

Do’s

Be proud of your home. Speak to its assets when informing people of your planned sale. I tell my clients what 5 major characteristics to promote in conversation and this typically proves helpful in stimulating interest whether someone is in the market for a home or not.

Ask you friends, family or coworkers if they know anyone who is in the market. You would be surprised how often this type of dialogue drives interest from someone who knows someone who knows someone who wants to buy.

Maintain the yard and the interior of the home as if you were having guests from out of town over every week. Yes, this may sound a little laborious but brokers bring their clients through homes all the time on short notice and having your home tidy and neat almost all the time during the sale is important to knowing it looks its best for the right client.

Don’ts

If you are moving because of a relocation or sudden change in your financial status do not blurt this out to every neighbor, friend, coworker or buyer you run into. If I had a dollar for every time I heard an agent or seller say they were “motivated to sell” or “had to sell” I would be rich. Once the price of your home is set feel confident about it. Once your home is listed remain confident about it selling expeditiously. Anything less and you are asking for someone to low ball your price. As long as you have priced your home correctly the buyers should come

The Cost to Sell

If you decide you need to negotiate with an agent over his or her commission do so but be aware of the pitfalls.

Agents who negotiate down their commission on a sale can do a number of different things to the detriment of the client.
For example, take an agent who agrees to a 5% commission on the sale of your home. Standard practice in Oregon is that the selling (buyer’s agent) receives 2.7% of the sale price and the listing agent receives 3.3%. If that agent who agrees to 5% then splits the commission or short sells the buyer’s commission, realize it can be to the detriment of your sale. A good broker earns every penny of their commission. If a broker with a buyer sees a listing which has a reduced commission which translates to losing thousands of dollars to that agent, that agent may be less than interested in promoting the purchase of that home. By reducing another agent’s pay because an agent wants a listing, that agent has not completely acted in their clients’ interest.

My job is to get my client’s home sold within a set of conditions that makes them comfortable and I do so without ever reducing the buyer’s side commission. Because the best market for buyer’s is targeting other agents I am not going to make a decision which impacts another agent’s bottom line and may discourage them from promoting my client’s home to their clients.

The other example which you should consider which may be to your detriment upon negotiating down a broker’s commission is a loss of enthusiasm or ethics. If you took your car in for an oil change and the standard cost is 30 dollars but you negotiate the price down to 20 do you think that may impact the attitude of the person servicing your car? It may or it may not. The reality is it may impact the attitude and when selling your home you need to know your agent is completely vested in the marketing, advertising, duties related to the sale.

PREPARE your home, PRICE it appropriately and expect a thorough MARKETING campaign which will SELL your home for the best price in the appropriate amount of time.