While selling your home right now may not be something that everyone just jumps at the chance to do. It may be in your best interest, if you want to take advantage of the great buying market thats out there.  While most sellers right now have become ‘realistic’ as to where the market is at, they still need to understand a few things.  Selling a home in a declining market starts with a proper attitude and finding the right agent who is optimistic and knows the right sales techniques in this tough market.  Its an unprecedented time we are in right now and it calls for creative aggressive agents.

1. The key to successful selling in a ‘declining market’ is pricing your home at today’s market value, having your home in tip-top condition and being able to work with a prospective buyer on financing needs and terms. Don’t let your ego or pride get in the way when determining a price for your home. And remember the buyers bank is going to need to appraise it at the agreed on purchase price.  These days appraisals can kill deals.  So be realistic.

2. Put your buyer hat on when you look at your own home.  Often times we are more critical of other peoples homes than we are of our own.  I tell my sellers “this is not your home any more, its an item for sale and we have to treat it objectively.” More easily said than done.  Take a leisurely walk through your home jotting down the little things you might do to spruce it up. New carpeting, a fresh coat of paint, new light fixtures, mirrors, etc., are items that will give your home more emotional appeal and does not cost too much. Put away the clutter throughout the home and organize your closets! Rooms free of clutter will appear bigger and the new buyer can visually ‘move into’ your home much easier. Remember, new buyers are not buying your furniture. Don’t forget about the outside! Curb appeal to a new buyer is a very important and is many-times overlooked.

3. Finally, be patient. The real estate market has changed considerably since the last run-up where homes sold in hours or days. We are now experiencing a more “normal market” where homes take 90-120 days to sell. Remember, inventories are at an all-time high right now. Bank foreclosures are all around you and many buyers will have difficulty qualifying for a new loan. Lenders also have very strict guidelines now and consumer confidence is very low. Allowing for a normal marketing period will do a lot to alleviate your impatience when you have few showings of your home or a lack of offers to review.

Contrary to popular belief, buyer are out there and they’re waiting to buy.  They’re the first time home buyers.  Once they start buying, it will be a ‘trickle up’ effect and will reach the upper price ranges.  If you’ve got a home that is perfect for a first time home buyer and your not sure if it could sell, give me a call. I’d love to give you my no obligation opinion of condition and price.  Take advantage of this buyers market.  You’ll be happy in 5 years that you did.

Its that time of year where the market opens up its gates and the houses start popping up everywhere.  I was on Realtor tour today, turned down a street and saw 5 houses all for sale. Yikes!  I’d hold some group open houses if I were those agents.  We are in the start of our open house season.

So that leads me to discuss the ever so big question of, “do open houses work?”  I get asked this question a lot.  All across the board I think you’ll find agents come up with different answers and different reasons for those answers.  I think it depends on what the agents ultimate objective is.  Are they looking for buyers to represent?  Are they looking to actually sell the house they’re in?  Are they looking to get as much foot traffic in the house as possible? As a seller, you’ve got to ask yourself would it work in my neighborhood?  Is it worth me being kicked out of my house on Sunday?  Here are a few commonly asked questions regarding open houses.  Every agent is going to have a different story probably depending on their market.  Afterall, all real estate is local and trends in every neighborhood are different.

1. Do open houses sell the house that is open? Directly- usually not.  Indirectly-  possibly.  I know that’s a wishy washy answer, but its a complicated question.  Rarely does a person walk into a house, never having seen it before fall in love with it and buy it.  Sometimes they see it online, go through it with their agent and then go back through it at the open (bringing their friends, family, etc) and then end up buying it (or the order of that could be reversed - go through it, see it online and go back with their agent).  As buyers agents, open houses are nice because some clients are fine checking them out on their own on Sundays and letting you know which ones would work or not for them.  The 2008 NAR study of buyers and sellers says that 15% of buyers found the home they purchased from a yard sign or an open house sign (I wish they would break that statistic down further).  So, its a good idea to have them, it just shouldn’t be your only marketing effort to sell your house.

2. Why do most agents hold Open Houses? 2 reasons: 1. to get traffic through and hope that a buyer will walk through the doors or 2. for the agent to find prospective (unattached) buyers.  The latter is usually the main reason agents hold open houses.  They want to pick up buyers.  So to my sellers I always suggest to hold it open right at the beginning of the listing.  Get the momentum going and get people talking about your house.  Also do them at price reductions, or if significant changes are made. You don’t want to hold your house open every weekend.  It becomes shop worn… If my sellers insist, I will do them, I just let them know up front not to expect a lot.  Its a very passive way of marketing.  These times call for something more aggressive.

3. What is an Broker Open House? This I find is the real way to get your house sold (if you’re going to go with open houses - I’ve sold a couple just from Agent tour).  Its called Agent/Broker tour.  Its not always popular everywhere, but where I work all the agents are extremely tour conscious.  Here in Cincinnati, every Tuesday agents can hold open their listings (or upcoming listings) for other agents to view.  Many Times we have lunch or things to entice agents to make it to our home.   This is a great way for Agents (who are in contact with MANY buyers) to see your home and possilby come back with clients.  Or maybe you don’t have a client yet, but when you do, you can remember that you’ve been through it and recommend it.

4. Open house activity doesn’t correlate with potential buyer activity: Many times (especially as the weather gets nicer) people who aren’t even looking to move will spend their Sundays going to open houses.  Its a nice free way to spend the afternoon.  As the trees bloom so do the ‘tire kickers.’  Make sure your agent knows how to spot the difference between a looker and a keeper.

Over all, Open houses should still be apart of a marketing strategy, but it shouldn’t be the only one.  If that’s all your agent is doing for you, you may want to consider a new agent. On occasion I have been known to coordinate a ‘neighborhood wide’ open house.  Where every agent held their home open at the same time so that buyers could go through them all at once.  Each time I’ve coordinated it, I’ve actually sold the house I had listed.  It wasn’t your average open house, so its not going to produce average results.

What are your thoughts?  As buyers/sellers do you find open houses helpful or not?

I saw a startling statistic last week that prompted me to write this post.  It said that “58% of all Cincinnati agents sold 3 homes or less in 2008.”  YIKES!  That means over half of the agents out there are not working full time?  They’re only doing 1-3 deals a year.  How on earth are they paying their bills?  Real Estate isn’t that bad as to only allow 3 transactions a year.  It is a signal to me that there are many part time agents out there.  Would you want your surgeon to only have done 3 surgery’s before he works on you?  Absolutely not, then why would you want to trust someone with your largest financial decision that doesn’t have the experience or the qualification?  I think there are still a lot of part time agents out there.

I won’t bore you or try to sell you one me (of course my business partner and I completed 46 transactions last year…) but I do want you to think about who you are choosing and why you are choosing them.  As a seller or a buyer you should be prepared to ask your agent questions and make sure they’re qualified to handle your transaction from start to finish.   Here are a few things to make sure of:

1. Be sure that your agent and all parties involved are full time -  I’m currently trying to hammer out a deal where the LOAN OFFICER is part time and doing my client a ‘favor’ as a friend.  Not having someone who has dealt with many different scenarios in the business has been a trying time for both myself and my client.  I just hope we make it to closing…Of course some agents will tell you anything to get your business, but you can ask to see results and references.

2. Make sure they know the area - This would apply more on the listing side than on the buying side of the transaction.  A buyers agent can pull up comparables of any area to make sure a buyer isn’t paying more than the area/neighborhood demands.  For the listing side, you want to make sure that the agent is well connected or willing to engage in the community where possible when listing your home.  We recently spoke to a seller who was willing to go with a particular agent because they were really nice and helpful, but they had never sold in the neighborhood/market area nor do they know anyone in that market segment… it didn’t make sense to me.

3. Don’t just pick an agent because they have the lowest price - the old ‘you get what you pay for’ motto is around for a reason.  I’ve had friends choose discount brokers to ’save money’ and then they get no help on the pricing, contracts, or anything.  What motivation does an agent have if you cut their price down to nothing?

4. Don’t be afraid to ask to see results or ask how their marketing differs from the competition.  Everyone can put your house on the internet, not everyone can get a contract and keep the deal together.

5. Your agent should be a professional.  Don’t just work with a friend because they’re your friend.  Make sure they’ll do the job you want them to do.  Whenever a friend asks me to list or help them buy, I always have the ‘lets keep business, business and friendship friendship’ I don’t want business to interfere with our friendship and I lay specific ground rules for keeping it that way.  I always want to help a friend out and make sure they get the best service possible.

Essentially, do your homework.  If you’re going out to purchase a car or buy the next gadget, you’re probably doing some research ahead of time.  Make sure you do it with your agent.  The best place to start is just by googling their name…

Press Release

Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors®

October 24, 2008

Contact: Karen Schlosser, President, 489-5440 (office), 702-6285 [cell]

Gene Snavley, Executive VP, 543-2211 [cell]

1,637 Homes Sold in September;

Nearly 15,000 Sold First 9 Months

The gap in year over year home sales — comparing the most recent two months — has improved, reports the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors. Sales in September totaled 1,637, down by 4.4% over the same month a year ago. In August, sales were off 18.8% a year ago. Accordingly, the sales gap last month improved by 14.4%

—– Number of Home Sales Variance —–

August 2008 vs. August 2007: -18.8% (1,767 sales compared to 2,176 a year ago)

September 2008 vs. September 2007: - 4.4% (1,637 sales compared to 1,713 a year ago)

Improvement: 14.4%

The gap in average home sale price also improved. September showed a 4.73% price reduction over the same period a year ago. For August, it was a 6.61% price reduction.

—– Average Sales Price Variance —–

August 2008 vs. August 2007: -6.61% ($165,166 avg. sale price compared to $176,859 a yr. ago)

September 2008 vs. September 2007: -4.73% ($156,639 avg. sale price compared to $164,419 a yr. ago)

Improvement: 1.88%

For the first nine months of the year, 14,796 homes were sold. That compares to 13,144 homes sold through August. “We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Karen Schlosser, president of the Cincinnati Area Board of Realtors. “But buyers are still buying. The numbers prove that – there were 14,796 buyers the first nine months of this year…and 14,796 sellers.” Nationwide, September home sales seasonally adjusted rose 5.5% from August. From a year ago, nationwide sales are up 1.4% and the median sale price of $191,600 declined by 9%. Mortgage rates remain attractive. Locally, a fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.55% last month. Yesterday it dropped to 6.49%, while earlier in the week it was higher.

September Home Sales

Summary of Single Family and Condominium Sales

Multiple Listing Service of Greater Cincinnati

Cincinnati Area Board of REALTORS®

September Monthly Home Sales

Closings Gross Volume Average Price

Sept. 2008 1,637 $256,418,131 $156,639

Sept. 2007 1,713 $281,650,413 $164,419

Variance -4.4% -8.96% -4.73%

Year-to-Date Home Sales

Closings Gross Volume Average Price

Jan-Sept. 2008 14,796 $2,461,878,015 $166,388

Jan-Sept. 2007 17,571 $3,087,307,553 $175,705

Variance -17.11% -21.44% -5.22%

30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage (local)

Sept. 2007 (average) 6.55%

Sept. 2008 (average) 6.34%

Current (Oct. 23, 2008) 6.49%

# # #

Picture yourself as a home seller. You’ve endured the first stages of preparing your home for market, you’ve scrubbed, decluttered, painted, staged, etc.  Next you’ve put up with the showings, the agony of packing up the pets, kids and enduring countless hours away from your house while total strangers opened your cabinets, critiqued your furniture and ultimately decided that they don’t like your house as much as you do.  It can be a very stressful time for sellers.

THEN, you get that much anticipated “second showing.”  You get excited, but try not to be too excited about the possibility that this buyer could be the one!  Then waiting with baited breath, you get that phone call from your agent “I’ve got an offer coming in!”  Your heart skips a beat, maybe you can buy that house you just saw online after all.  You start planing your move, where your kids will go to school, what color to paint the family room, what flowers you’re going to plant in the back yard and then your jerked back to reality when you realize that you don’t even know the details about the offer coming in.  What if its not enough money to get you where you’re going?  What if they can’t close until 60 or even 90 days later?  What if the house doesn’t appraise?  What if their financing falls through?  What if they change their minds? 

This is just a little bit of what goes through sellers minds when they get an offer to purchase their home.  Unless you’ve bought and sold real estate multiple times, it can be a very nerve racking experience.  Most people will be involved with only a handful of real estate transactions in a life time.  While professional real estate agents will be involved with hundreds of transactions in their life time. 

Here are a few helpful hints I can give to sellers faced with a purchase contract:

1. Don’t expect too much.  After all, when you go to purchase are you going to make it as easy as you can on the sellers?  Of course not!  You’re going to try to get the house as cheaply as you can and negotiate the best terms you can.  You’ve got to realize that that’s what buyers are doing to you!

2. ALWAYS COUNTER OFFER.  In this market many sellers are faced with “low ball” offers.  Some buyers out there still think that every seller is 20% over priced and they are all desperate to sell.  This is not the case in the Cincinnati Real Estate Market.  Sure buyers have more bargaining power because there are more of them out there.  Its a buyers market.  But most of the real estate in my area has already adjusted their prices for current market conditions. 

3.  Have your agent run comparables of recent solds in the area.  If there are recent comps that show the buyers offer is good, work with it.  Know that even if you think you’re taking a hit on the selling side, if you’re buying you’ll make it back (especially if you’re buying up).  You also need to realize that your house will need to appraise.  Appraisers look at the same thing we do when it comes to pricing your house.  If your agent can’t find a recent sold to justify the price you want, then chances are the appraiser won’t either.

4.  Don’t count your blessings until you get through the inspection contingency.  This is where many deals are lost.  Its amazing to me how many people are willing to let deals fall through over small things in inspections.

5. Take the emotion out of it.  A lot of times when sellers are faced with an offer lower than they expected, they get offended and start taking things personally.  Remember when you put your house up on the market, it is no longer your home.  It is something that is going to be sold to someone else.  Its essentially not yours anymore.

Of course you can’t prepare for every home selling situation.  There are so many variables that it would be impossible.  But if you take some of this to heart and really listen to the agent that you have, chances are you’ll move into that new house before you know it!

I recently ran into someone at an open house who was checking out the neighborhood and similar houses to his because he wanted to sell his house.  I thought GREAT, I can help you accomplish just that!  However, much to my surprise, he proceeded to tell me that real estate agents don’t do anything and that the title company does all the work.   WHAT? What, do you think I’m doing right now? working??  I just let him keep talking and asking him questions; I love a challenge and thought maybe I could dissuade him from trying it on his own.

No such luck, a few weeks later his sign is up in his yard and the house is in tip top shape.  I’ve kept in contact with him over the past few weeks and he is as optimistic as ever and absolutely CERTAIN that he has priced his home competitively.  (In my opinion, its probably about $50,000 over market value.)  “When I replaced my roof, I put a top of the line 30year roof in and didn’t go with the cheaper 20 year, blah blah blah…”, he would say to me, after I would question his price.  Does he realize that the buyers of his home probably don’t really care if its 20 or 30 years?  Most likely they’re not going to be living there that long and as long as they don’t have to replace it, they’re okay.  Its great that you want to fill your house with top of the line items, but you don’t ALWAYS recoup ALL of the money out of them.

After about 1 month since his sign went up, I wonder how my FSBO (for sale by owner) friend is doing now and how much time and money he has spent trying it on his own.  What is your time worth away from your family on Sunday afternoons showing houses?  What happens if you have someone who wants to buy your house, but has a house to sell?  Can you help them with that?  Are you going to write up a contract yourself and take all of the liability for something going wrong?  Are you going to hire a real estate attorney to make sure your contract is legit?  If something comes up with financing or inspections, are you trained on how to really hold a deal together?  Where are you going to advertise? How much does that cost, etc???

Most FSBO’s (roughly 70%) after having tried it themselves usually end up going with an agent.  They realize that we are worth something and that we do have value.  How much is your time worth?  When you’re selling a house, people call you at all hours wanting to see it and usually want to see it at that very moment.  Are you ready to take on that kind of job?  What happens if the deal falls through?  As a FSBO what are you going to do?  Do you know how to handle it and try to keep it together?  Deals are lost all of the time in the real estate business.  In fact yesterday I lost 2!  One because of inspections and the other because of financing.  I still have these buyers and they’re still going to find something eventually that they’ll like and end up purchasing, but the FSBO will have no one in his pipeline to fill, if something like that happens to him.

As real estate agents, we just don’t stick a sign in the yard, put the house on MLS and walk away, counting our millions.  We actually work hard to get your house sold! There are a few of us out there who give the good hard working ones a bad name.  As a home owner, do your homework.  Find someone who has a good reputation, who you like and who will actually work to get your home sold!  We will even do everything for free, until it closes.  So, all the initial work I’ve put into my 2 buyers (driving them around, writing contracts, counseling them, walking through inspections, etc) I have done without seeing a single penny!

If you’d like some help with your home or are in the market to purchase, give me a call.  We can discuss what’s happening in your area and devise a marketing strategy that will fit and get your home sold fast!

Everyone knows that wet basements aren’t attractive features when trying to sell your home.  Especially if its a lot of water.  If there isn’t much and its only in heavy rains, then you are probably okay.  When I bought my house several years ago, my agent didn’t tell me this.  I was just excited about buying a home!

Well here I am a number of years later, a real estate agent AND I have a wet basement.  YIKES.  The funny thing about water is that once it starts coming into your home, it doesn’t stop, it actually starts getting worse over time.  So, after Tuesdays Monsoon I’ve decided to try and fix the problem once and for all. 

I’m currently in the process of interviewing several basement and foundation people.  I had my first company come out today.  Jim Cook with Cooks Foundation and Basement Repair (or something like that).  He is a fellow Norwoodian and I wanted to give my home town guy a try :) 

Great guy and very knowledgeable.  He was actually recommended to me by my investment friend who has used him several times.  He came out and took a look at the problem areas and quoted me on a couple of different solutions.  One for the full basement and the other for just the wall where the leaking is occurring.  They can do everything on the inside of the basement (which is evidently more cost effective and less messy than digging around the outside of the house) and he said that it is warranted for life and transferable when I sell.  GREAT!  Then came the price…. Ouch…

Lets see how next weeks guy goes.  I met him last night at the Cincinnati Home and Garden Show.  He claims they have the newest most secure basement waterproofing technology around http://www.basementsystems.com/.  Lets see how he goes.

Does anyone have any recommendations on getting my basement dry?  Any horror stories?  I’d love to hear them and share them.

If you’re trying to sell your home or want to sell your home and you have a wet basement.  You definitely need to get it fixed.  A wet basement sends red flags to any potential buyers.  On www.basementsystems.com they do a great job on educating you how water is getting into your basement:  I found this picture on the website and thought of myself.

Wet basements can cause a multitude of problems.  Not only can it lead to long-term foundation problems, it can also cause people to suffer from allergies due to dustmites and mold.  Having a dry home can cause a lot of these allergens to go away.

 A dry home is a happy home.

I know I’ve written on this subject before, but it comes to my attention once again in lieu of an interesting article on foxbusiness.com, entitled “Is a Broker Necessary to Sell Your Home?”  The study by B. Douglas Bernheim and Jonathan Meer, both of Stanford University, concludes that there is “no evidence the use of a broker leads to higher average selling prices, or  significantly alters average initial asking prices.” The one possible benefit is “those who use brokers sell their houses more quickly.”

Of course this peaks my interest and gives me a chance to defend my profession.  Just like any service business, could you do it yourself? Sure, anyone can do anything they want.  They can even defend themselves in a court of law (like Heather Mills defending herself in her divorce battle with Paul McCartney)  But does that mean that its always a good thing to do so?  Maybe not.  Sure some people are able to sell their homes on their own but there are many who can’t (frustrated FSBO’s, who tried but didn’t succeed) or those who realize the value of letting an expert do the work for them.  In our busy crazy world, many times we would rather pay someone else to do the work, than to actually do the work ourselves.  I always ask my FSBO’s, “how many hours have you spent, marketing your home, finding a comparable price, learning the contracts, following up with all the leads, holding open houses, negotiating, qualifying buyers, etc??”  Their answer is always “too many” and can they really put a price tag on that?

With the increase of information on the web, our industry is becoming a service industry.  Sure you can pay $500 to have someone put your house on the MLS, but in today’s competitive market, you need someone who is going to “shop your product, be your advocate.”  Putting it on the MLS today is like putting it in the paper 10 years ago.  Everyone see it, but no one is helping it to stand out from the crowd.

According to the article, sellers get six benefits from Realtors: (all of which are very true, but their value not explained thoroughly enough).
1) promotional services
2) assistance with negotiations
3) screening of prospective buyers
4) access to multiple listing services
5) market information and recommendations regarding the asking price
6) assistance with paperwork and legal documentation

1. Promotional Services - Yes!  We will promote the heck out of your listing.  That’s our job!  Wouldn’t you agree that more promotion means more prospects which leads to more competition and higher sales price of your home??

2. Assistance with negotiations is a big deal.  Third party negotiations is standard business practice and it also works to your advantage because the agent is not emotionally involved in the transaction.  Where as you may be, and it may cost you on your negotiations because you don’t like the buyers, or what they want to do with YOUR house, etc…  We as agents try to keep the emotions out of it and work on an agreement to where both parties are satisfied.

3. Screening Prospective Buyers - Another HUGE reason.  Its hard enough for me, an agent, to get some qualified prospective buyers. How would you the seller know if the person who is looking at your house is qualified or not?  What if they had a house to sell before they could purchase yours?  How could you help them?  What would you do?  These are all things that come up frequently…

4. Access to the MLS - Yes we have access to a lot of information that the general public doesn’t have.  We know how the appraisal process works, we know how to run a highest price analysis on your home and we know market trends. All of which is invaluable. 

5. Market information and recommendations regarding the asking price - Once again, we have access and experience in the market and know the trends, the neighborhoods, etc.  This is our business and we know it well (a great reason you should go with a FULL time PROFESSIONAL Realtor and not Aunt Jane who sells houses on the side.) We help you put the deal together.  Experience comes in handy when writing offers and negotiating them.

6. Assistance with paperwork and legal documentation - this one should really be entitled “we keep you legal and take away liability from you.  Little unknown fact regarding agents - We carry error and omissions insurance, just like doctors and lawyers.”  We are trained how to fill out contracts and write in contingencies that will protect you.  As a FSBO would you want to take on all the liability?  We also have experience in dealing with all kinds of situations that arise when selling a home.  If a problem arises during inspections, are you equipped to handle it on your own?  If there was a problem with your title or the buyers loan, who would you turn to for advice and council?

The last thing I would like to cover that this article talked about is the 6-7% commission the sellers are trying to keep in their pockets.  And how the authors of the study didn’t think the price tag was worth the value.  What they didn’t mention is that most FSBO’s are willing to pay a co-op fee (a buyers agent of 3%).  Therefore the seller is really only trying to save 3-4%. 

Lets do the math: On a 100,000 house - 7% = $7,000.  The buyers BROKER and agent receives 3% or $3,000 and the seller BROKER and agent split the other $4,000.  Therefore the seller is willing to do all the work and take on all the responsibility and all the liability to save $4,000. 

To me its a no brainer, agents (the good ones) are definitely worth their money and more.  We live in a fast paced world with no time to spare.  Why not hire someone to do all the work for you?  Plus the great thing for you the seller is that you pay NOTHING…..until is sells.   If I don’t sell it, I do all the work for no money.  What a deal!

Call me today, I’d love to share more with you!

The biggest question I get these days is “how much is my home worth now that the market is going down?”  This is a good question and it involves a lot of research.  Any real estate agent will come in and do a FREE CMA on your home.  Most of the time they’ll pull recent solds and active listings in the area similar to your home and property and base it on that.  A skilled agent will go even further in a down market, they’ll pull the recent expireds similar to yours as well and they will  preview the surrounding actives in your neighborhood.  If you invite an agent over to list your home and they haven’t been in the houses that they’re comping, watch out.

As an full-time real estate agent working in Cincinnati I preform my listing appointments in two segments.  My first appointment will be to go and preview your home, meet you and see what condition it is in.  When I leave I will go and really do my research and preview other homes in your area and see how they compare.  The second appointment will be to show you my marketing plan and also give you a price for your home.  Its so hard to price a home these days without having been in it to see how it compares with others out there.

When going to list your home, just don’t go with any agent.  Find one who is working full time and takes the business serious.  If they work hard for you before you even decide to go with them, then they’ll work even harder for you after you list!

If you’d like more information on the selling process or would like me to come and preform a FREE CMA on your home.  Please give me a call!  I’d love to work hard for you.

I met a few different people at an open house last weekend who were interested in listing their home, but they were under the impression that realtor’s don’t do anything and that they were going to try listing it themselves.  If you want to try FSBO (for sale by owner) then go ahead.  But like many areas of our lives we think we can do it ourselves, but soon realize that we really do need a trained professional.  For example; I can muddle through my own taxes and probably do a decent job at it, but how many EXTRA hours is it going to take me and if I pay a professional to do it for me, they could probably get me more money in the long run…

So, these encounters got me thinking.  I need to make a list of reasons why to use a Realtor.  Below is just a sampling of what I’ve come up with.  I’d love to hear from you to see if you agree or disagree or have some ideas of your own!

Also, if you’d are thinking about listing your home in the Cincinnati area I’d love to speak with you and show you how I can get your home sold, even in this market.

Enjoy…

1. I have extensive knowledge of neighborhoods.  This is my full-time job.  I’m working hard to know the area and previewing as many homes as I can per week.

2. I have knowledge of recent comps – What has sold, how much for and had previewed the home while it was on the market.  Often times you know the inside scoop on particular homes in the market and the reasons why they sold for what they sold.

3. Access to all MLS data.

4. I often have inside track access to properties that have not yet hit the market – “pocket listings”.

5. I know how to price and justify the price of your home. Home owners may know what one or two homes near them have sold for, but they don’t have the access to the wide number of comps I do or the market knowledge to adjust pricing.

6. I can sell your house for more money. According to the 2003 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, the typical FSBO home sold for $145,000, compared to $175,000 for a salesperson-assisted home. This means that even if FSBOs pay you a 6-percent commission, they will realize $164,500.

7. I know how to market your home using the proper selling procedure.  I don’t just put a sign in the yard and walk away.  I work to set up a strategic marketing plan, fit to sell your home.

8. I will generate and create excitement with other agents in my home office.  I will be your cheer leader, advocating for your property every chance I get.

9. I understand how to structure your deal.  No two deals are ever the same and each one needs expert care and advice.

10. I have methods of screening buyers.  I don’t work with buyers who aren’t qualified and will not accept a contract from buyers who have not been pre-approved to purchase your home.

11. I work hard so you don’t have to.  Often times, homeowners don’t recognize how many actual hours a realtor spends on just their home, working from listing to closing.  I know ways of working the sales process effectively and efficiently, so that you don’t waste or loose time.  I work hard so you don’t have to.

12. I know how and when to step in when there are buyer financing problems

13. I have experience dealing directly with buyer’s objections and complaints (including shielding you from personal interaction with buyers). All owners have emotional attachments to their homes and will emphasize the features they consider most desirable during a showing. However, as a trained professional, I am more attuned to the buyers’ needs and able to highlight the home’s features that have the most appeal to each buyer.

14. I have methods of dealing with buyers agents directly and professionally.

15. I have motivation to keep buyers on their closing time-line.

16. I know the best ways to keep the closing on track so that we have a successful and easy close.