Real Estate Do’s & Don’ts
When it comes to buying or selling a home in the greater Plymouth, Northville, Novi, and Canton real estate market, the game has truly changed – very dramatically, and quite recently. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Approximately 90% of all buyers now start their home search on the internet.
- Google is the dominant search engine, and with YouTube rising to become the #2 ranked search engine, it’s all about getting great Google and YouTube rankings.
- Many newspapers have gone out of business, and the overall effectiveness of print media continues to diminish; many perceive print media as being on the edge of irrelevance.
Truly, we are in the midst of an historic, radical transformation in terms of what sells house today vs. what sold houses even two or three years ago.
You must truly understand this new paradigm in order to maximize the market value of your home.
With that being said, now more than ever – with all the dynamic changes impacting how homes get sold – it is critical to start with a good list of “do’s and dont’s.”
Here is the list we think you should consider:
DO: List Your Home with an Experienced, Full-Time Pro or Team with a Demonstrated Record of Success:
If you’re like most, your home is your most valuable asset. Why entrust its sale – where the difference between success and failure is often measured in thousands if not TENS of thousands of dollars – to anyone other than a proven professional? Click here to read our “12 Questions You Must Ask Your Next Agent” to help you with this important process.
DO: List Your Home with Professionals Who Understand and Leverage Technology:
As already noted, nearly 90% of all buyers search for home on the web. YouTube is now the #2 search engine worldwide.Print media is nearly extinct, and almost everything in real estate marketing is web-based. Video is the next big thing. Real estate today looks and works almost nothing like it did even a few short years ago. Techniques that once were very effective have been rendered ineffective, and new methods have arisen that many have failed to embrace. And this overall “trend toward technology” just keeps growing year after year. You simply MUST list your home with an agent with a proven record of expertise in technology, preferably in terms of a website with solid Google rankings and quality video on YouTube. This is very, very important.
DO: List Your Home with a Pro that Provides Professional Service Alternatives:
Now more than ever, “one size does NOT fit all” when it comes to real estate services. With so many in financial distress, and with technology and the internet allowing people to do more on their own, Realtors must be flexible not only in terms of the levels of service they provide but the “financial creativity” with which they provide those services. We offer a number of packages that save you money while still providing the highest quality service in the industry. Any agent or team who does not offer you multiple listing scenarios and multiple price points is an agent or team to be avoided.
DO: Watch and Learn from the Videos Here:
This is just a partial list of all you should know before engaging a real estate professional. We would implore you to watch the videos that we’ve created on one of our YouTube channels that were designed specifically to help you make good decisions when it comes to obtaining truly professional real estate representation.
DO: Contact Us for a Free 15 Minute Consultation:
If you have any questions about the process, feel free to contact us. Even if you decide not to use Professional One, we’ll be glad to share our experience and knowledge with you. It’s a zero-obligation opportunity…
DON’T: List Your Home with Anyone Who Pressures You to Make ANY Decision Quickly:
Many agents make a great living by using a
variety of pressure-and-emotion-based tactics specifically designed to force clients into making quick decisions – Realtors are actually TRAINED to do this. The real estate industry has a poor reputation – a recent Harris Poll indicates that Realtors AGAIN rank as the “least-trusted professionals” – and this is one of the reasons why. We suggest that you DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE: TAKE YOUR TIME, DO YOUR HOMEWORK and list your home with an agent or team that deserves your business and your trust. Don’t fall for anyone’s pressure tactics. Professionals give people time and space to decide. If you feel ANY pressure, that should be your signal to keep interviewing more agents.
DON’T: Sign a Long-Term Listing Agreement Without a Guarantee of Satisfaction:
Many agents make a great living by coercing people into long-term listing agreements and then providing poor service. It’s a numbers game based on simply having as many listings as possible, and then doing as little as possible to support those listings, so that the agent can go on to get more listings…and so on. A REAL professional will stand by the commitments that they make. And that means they allow clients to rescind contracts if they aren’t pleased with the level of service provided at NO COST to the client. Some agents will let you out – for a price. There should be no cost associated with this. Insist on this!
DON’T: List Your Home with an Agent or Team with Too Many Listings:
While you should list your home with an agent or team with plenty of experience, there is a fine line between having experience and having so many clients that you cannot possibly service them all properly. Find out how many listings the agent or team has, then divide that by a theoretical 50 hour work week, and that’s the hours per week per client that agent or team can realistically give you (and this admittedly simplistic method doesn’t take into consideration the number of hours that agent may be devoted to his or her buyers, who often take up proportionately more time than an agent’s sellers do). And then think this thought: is that enough to provide great service to ME?
DON’T: Assume the Agent with the Most Sales is a Great Agent:
MAKE NO MISTAKE, real estate done properly requires great care and attention to detail particularly now, when every deal is subject to falling apart at the last minute for any number of reasons. Agents obsessed with selling the most are typically focused far more on their income than on you. Our experience suggests that the best agents tend to be the ones that sell in the 70% to 80% quartile, NOT the ones with the highest sale volume. Right off the top, we would advise you to categorically avoid any agent that claims to be #1 in a given market or company. A real pro places their clients interests above their own – period.
DON’T: Be Unrealistic:
The worst mistake sellers make is ignoring market realities with regard to pricing. Overpriced homes languish on the market and ultimately sell for less than they are worth. We realize how hard it is to sell for less than you want – but understand there is a cost to this approach. Homes are investments just like stocks, and market conditions dictate market value – not what you paid for your home or what you’ve put into it. This is a harsh reality – but it is a reality nonetheless.
We hope this information is of benefit to you! Good luck in selling your home…
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