7 Tips To Help You Avoid Choosing The Wrong Home Selling Plan

So many people get off on the wrong foot when they first launch their home selling plan.

The National Association of REALTORS claims that 64% of homeowners hire the first real estate agent that they speak to, and the hiring decision is based upon two simple factors:

1. Do they like the real estate agent? and
2. Do they like the price the agent gave them for the value of the home.

At face value, that seems relatively harmless, but if you dig deeper to understand the way a modern home selling plan works, then you will quickly discover what more than 50% of all home sellers find out the hard way.

Demand Proof That The Home Selling Plan Works

In today's tough housing market, fewer than half the homes that come onto the market actually sell.

Think about it ...

64% of home sellers hire the first agent they like, and they don't even take the time to find out how successful that agent, or more importantly, the success rate of the home selling plan of the real estate company.

The biggest mistake that they make is that they do not explore the home selling plan, and they assume the agent that they hire will succeed.

The real estate graph above shows that the home selling plan success rate for the past five years has fluctuated between 30% and 47%. If sellers knew this before they got started, perhaps they would endeavor to understand the home selling plan of each company that they interview.

How To Analyze A Home Selling Plan

You do not need to be like the majority of home sellers who fail in their first few attempts at selling a home.

If you follow these 7 tips, you will hire the right real estate company on your very first attempt, and you will sell your home.

7 Home Selling Plan Tips

1. Find out the success/failure rate of each company that you interview (like graph above).

You only have 1 home to sell, so you don't care how many homes that agent or company has sold. You should be more concerned with the success rate of their home selling plan, rather than just the raw number of sales that they completed. For example, maybe they are "#1" in the number of homes sold, but what if they are also "#1" in the number of homes that failed to sell. Do they just list properties and hope they sell?

2. Find out how many people will "handle your file."

Beware the "I do it all agent," because no agent could come close to delivering my progressive home selling plan. It takes more man-hours in a day than any three people could handle, let alone some "super-agent" who also has to deal with other customers, other customer inquiries, and the multitude of tasks most real estate companies dump on their agents.

If an agent tells you that you "hire an agent, not a real estate company!," they are really telling you that the company that they are affiliated with does nothing to help the agent sell the home. This is VERY COMMON in our industry. I often see homes sell for 10 to 15% less when an overwhelmed agent tries to "do it all" and does not have the means or knowledge to execute a progressive home selling plan.

3. Get them to show you their list marketing plan.

This one is huge. If they are telling you that they will "expose" your home on websites they do not own, then they most likely have no idea about how listing marketing is used to expose home buyers to new real estate listings as the basis of a targeted home selling plan. If they are successfully using this modern home selling plan process, they should be able to show you several thousand people (real time information) that are currently looking to buy a home in your local housing market.

This group of people will be shown your home in the first 4 days of being on the market, and it is the list that should already contain the buyer for your home. It does not take months to sell a home, and that should be important to understand in a market where values are falling. The sooner you sell, the more money you will receive.

4. Find Out Their Daily Marketing Efforts On The Internet

Here's the way you find out what the value of the company (behind the agent) really is. What are their daily marketing efforts, take a close look at their keyword-rich real estate blog that is driving traffic to a property search tool that has ALL of the homes in the MLS, but gives preferential treatment to their customers (your home). If you cannot find hundreds or thousands of articles on their site, then you can be sure that Google doesn't know that they exist, and that means targeted traffic will not be sent to your home.

5. Interview The Real Estate Agent At The Real Estate Office

This might seem to be an inconvenience for you, but the reality is that the meeting location dictates the mood of the meeting, the focus of the discussion, and whether or not you will expose their true home selling plan.

If I were to meet you in your home, I could get you talking to me and telling me about all the wonderful experiences and memories you have in your home. This would create a warm rush of endorphins that would likely serve to help me win your business ... even if I have a poor home selling plan. Remember, 64% of home sellers hire an agent because they like them, not because they are going to get the home sold!

6. Hire The Real Estate Company Before You Determine The Value Of Your Home

The one common thing that all homeowners think is that their specific home is unique. Sure it is.

But so are the thousands of homes that they are competing against. When it comes to the value of your home, you should understand and concede that ...

It is what it is

I can teach a monkey how to figure out the value range of a home, but getting a home sold when more than half are failing is entirely another thing.

Home buyers are going to get the best deal they can, on the day they make a buying decision. Your home will either be in the running, or it won't. Don't let a silver-tongued agent trick you into believing they will make your home worth more.

Once you understand that great real estate companies get you the top dollar for your home by creating chatter with a sound home selling plan, you will then understand why you should choose the best company first, so that you aren't tempted to let somebody win you over with a "high price bid." It's not like the agent is going to buy your home, right?

They should have an incredibly sophisticated, hard working, daily home selling plan designed to get your home sold. You'll eventually choose an asking price based upon current buyer behaviors, just make sure you choose the best home selling plan and real estate company first.

7. Do Your Homework Before Deciding Which Companies To Interview

Referrals from your friends are great, but you are getting ready to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get your home sold. You know that buyers are using the internet to find a home to purchase, so shouldn't you log a few hours in Google to see what they are finding.

Do some searches and see which real estate companies dominate your local market, because it is most likely that they have the best home selling plan. Most real estate companies charge the same amount (or close to it), so why not take the time and get the company that will really get you top dollar for your home?

I hope these 7 home selling tips were useful for you, and you can always dig deeper into our site for additional information.

If you want to discover the benefits of a progressive home selling plan, just drop me a note and we can schedule a time to discuss your particular situation and what a smart plan can do to get you on your way (the first time!).

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Joe Manausa Real Estate is a brokerage company headquartered in Tallahassee, Florida. Its unique business model provides specialists to both home sellers and home buyers, and the results speak for themselves. JMRE has significantly more 5-star reviews on google than any other local competitor. Joe Manausa Real Estate is a leader in internet marketing and utilizes search engine optimization, email marketing, social media and data analytics to get their clients’ home sold faster and for more money than any other Tallahassee brokerage firm. For more information, visit www.manausa.com or call us at (850) 366-8917.