Secret #1: Stay ahead of the market when you price a listing
In a rising market, you start out high and then wait a bit. The market catches up with you. You can ladder down from a high starting price.
In a down market, it works in reverse. You should start low. Very low. And hope for multiple offers. Start high and you'll sit on the market, waste your time and your seller could lose the house in foreclosure due to your ineptitude. Sorry, just telling it like it is.
Secret #2: Gear everything to financing
It's all about getting the buyer funded. What good is a selling price that's high, if the buyer's lender says no deal?
Everything you do has to be geared not to just finding a buyer, but finding a buyer who can get the loan funded.
Secret #3: Take 30 day listings
Get your brain engaged in 30 day listings. Then it's, how will I sell this house in 30 days? You'll find a way (and I'll share some ways with you in this article.)
Don't have listings that just sit there...not when prices are falling 1 or 2 percent every month!
Secret #4: In pricing, it's what's sold that counts, not what's offered for sale
The only comps that count are deals that closed, not houses that are being offered. Remember that: only closed deals count when it comes to pricing.
Secret #5: Nobody cares what your seller "needs to get"
Okay, so your seller has put in a new kitchen or redid the bathrooms. Or the seller has two loans that equal $300,000. Does anyone care? No. Pay no attention to the "need to gets".
Secret #6: Pull out all the marketing stops
Sure, list it in the MLS. But now your work really starts.
Signs should be placed throughout the neighborhood and they should reflect the value that is to be found.
Email blasts through your title company rep to all the Realtors within 5 miles can be very useful.
Get real hardcopy flyers created and dropped to all those same Realtors within 5 miles.
Knock on doors as that presents a fine opportunity to generate interest.
You can't do too much in terms of marketing -- assuming the house is priced lower than all the other similar ones in the area.
Secret #7: Follow up with every Realtor who shows the property
Use your lockbox data to follow up with whoever shows the house. Call them and chat with them. What you find out could help you in a big way to sell the house.
Secret #8: Create an event out of selling the house
Now with Secret #8, we get into what may be the biggest and best of all for Realtors and here it is.
Key point: It's must easier to publicize something if you make an event out of it.
There are two events you can create. One is a properly conducted free lunch open house for brokers. Second is a single inspection period weekend using the 9 day house sale method where you do a round robin on Sunday night and end up with several people bidding against each other.
Learn these techniques and use them...
Secret #9: Master the Short Sale
Forget everything you've learned about short sales. They are actually easier to do than regular sales. The seller doesn't care about the purchase price, for one. And you can offer the house at a very low price if you know what you are doing.
Short sales are the wave coming on right now. Ride that wave. It's a slam dunk to make a lot of money in short sales if you
Secret #10: Don't listen to what people tell you unless they've done 20 short sales in the last 6 months
I get more garbage I hear from people on short sales. Myths:
* You must miss payments to do a short sale
* So-and-so (name any lender) doesn't approve any short sales now
* Short sales will ruin your credit
* You have to pay all the money back to the lender
* You will owe a huge tax bill to the IRS
on and on and on. None of these are necessarily true.
Get your own information. Become an expert in this topic of selling distressed real expert. I have additional and more detailed information for you on how you as a Realtor can make money in this falling market, doing Realtor short sales and handling short listings at 10 Realtor Success Secrets for a Falling Market
Sales is about solving other people's problems. Today's problems are huge. Your income can be huge if you master a new set of skills and help homeowners today solve their huge problems.
