62% Of Homeowners Say 'I don't Care'

I think it is safe to say that actions speak louder than words, and when we look at how most home sellers hire a real estate agent, the words they have been screaming with their actions for many, many years sounds like "I don't care!"

I know that home sellers really do care, but it is time for them to wake up and realize that the real estate agent (and more importantly, the real estate company) that they select to market their home for sale is an incredibly critical decision.

Back in April, I wrote a blog which explored a recent survey of home sellers which reported that most home sellers do not put forth much effort into researching the real estate agent and real estate company that they plan to employ to sell a home.

I just find this incredible, even though I’ve seen survey results like this for my 20 years in the real estate business. Is it any wonder that roughly 60% of home sellers are failing to sell their home? The survey contained the following very scary statistics:

• 62% of home sellers only interviewed one agent before listing their home.
• 19% of home sellers talked to three agents before they selected one.
• 22% were more interested in determining the list price that would make their home competitive than any other service a listing agent would provide.
• 1% thought professional designations were important when picking their agent. The other 99% didn't see the value to be of consequence.
• 3% found picked their agent by walking in or calling a real estate office and speaking to the agent who had floor duty at the time they called.

I believe that we are facing a tougher real estate market today than ever before (even worse than before the beginning of the Homebuyer Tax Credit) and that home sellers need all the help they can get. Rather than just hiring somebody they know with a real estate license, they should utilize the tools that can be found on the internet and select an organization that will get them results.

When we look at the current trend of success rates for home sellers, we see the market turning south again. The Homebuyer Tax Credit brought us up from a 30% success rate to a 43% success rate, but we now are going to be falling again. The number of solid buyers in the market has been thinned by many factors including a struggling economy, fewer loan programs, and the loss of buyers now to the previous period where the tax credit motivated them to purchase early.

*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.