How to Sell your Home Fast in 2019
The National Association of Realtors is one important organization! Among many other things, they do extensive research on the real estate market and produce amazing reports. One of those fantastic (and very long) real estate reports I read every year spells out exactly how homes sell across the country. It gives us clear insight into what makes a home sell.
What will make your home sell?
According to the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers 2018 report:
- 95% of buyers will use the internet to find their next home. (This is why as a top 1% seller’s agent in Portland, I pay extra to the major real estate websites to feature all of my listings so they are viewed more often and sell faster.)
- 87% of buyers had a real estate agent represent them in the sale.
- 7% of buyers found their next home by going to an open house or seeing a yard sign.
- 3% of buyers purchased the home from a seller they knew (think family sales).
- 1% of buyers found they home they bought through any type of print advertisement, be it newspaper, magazine, postcard, or flyer.
5 things a Top Seller’s Agent can do for you:
- Pay extra to the top real estate websites. (Click here to see the top 10 list.) We pay extra to 4 out of the 5 five real estate websites, so our homes rank higher in the search results or are branded better – ultimately to generate more views per listing online. The more views you have the more showings you get, the more offers come in. It really is that simple when 95% of home buyers are using the internet as their primary tool. These days the home buyer directs the buyers agent, more often than not, to what they want to see – based on what attracted them online. We provide unparalleled exposure.
- Pay extra for professional photography, media, design consultation, and more. It would not be a good business model to pay extra to all the real estate websites for more views and then display poor photography. We always pay for real professional photography. We also always offer a free consultation from a licensed interior designer, so that your home will show in the best possible light when photographed. Depending on the needs of the home we provide every sort of media, 3D modeling, aerial videos and pictures, video tours, comprehensive upgrade brochures, garden brochures, and more.
- Have a system in place to respond within 5 minutes to online inquires on your home. We make sure each home we sell is seen tens of thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of times online. It would be a travesty when someone inquired on that home (say filled out a request for information on Zillow.com or Realtor.com) and then after all that marketing effort, we dropped the ball. So we have a system in place for live, real response in less then 5 minutes to all online inquires on our homes 24/7. There are many, many research articles written on the importance of quick response, in this case, to keep interest on your home. According to Drift.com the chance of connecting with the person who inquired (home buyer in this case) drops 10X after 5 minutes, with a close to zero percent chance after 15 minutes.
- Hold open houses that are advertised online. Open houses (also throw in Broker’s opens here) and yard signs are about all that is left that a real estate agent can do for you in terms of marketing your home, simply because the internet has taken over. Of course, we are part of the largest local network of real estate agents for a reason, and it certainly helps to have good relationships with all the buyers agents out there, but ultimately the sellers agent’s ability to market your home in the internet will have the biggest impact (by far) in selling your home fast and for a good price. (The longer it takes to sell the more likely the home will sell for less.) Open houses still have an impact for less pricey homes and Broker’s opens still have an impact in selling pricey homes.
- Provide you with skilled representation. Of course, you also want someone who has negotiated a lot of home sales and has plenty of experience to guide you through to the closing at escrow. I’m honored to have closed over 1,000 sales locally so far in my career (licensed in 2003) and have my team ranked as one of the top in the country.
Real Estate Agents are not all the same.
Selling your home is one of the bigger financial decisions of most people’s lives and choosing a friend or family member to do that for you might not be your best choice! Also relying on a recommendation from someone who had one good experience, doesn’t mean you will have a good experience. Look for a real estate agent that has experience, knows their stuff, and isn’t afraid to spend money (a lot) on your behalf – to sell your home.
Finally, honestly, make sure the sellers agent’s internet marketing is the best it can be. We’ve done everything we could think to sell your home online in the best possible fashion, by paying more for more online views, paying more for better online media, and setting up a system to connect immediately with online buyers – never dropping the ball along the way. Let us know if we can help you or a loved one today!