SpencerBarron.com

The linear thinkers in Real Estate 2.0 seem to believe that by appointing themselves ’mayor’ of their suburb they will rule the roost in their real estate market.  It’s an interesting concept.  A new spin on the old school real estate newsletter that could put an agent on the map.

This is how it would work.  You would pick some area that seems ripe with a financially viable, tech savvy group of people in need of information and hopefully a new home.  What type of information would you feed them?….oh…everything of course.  You see, you would figure out everything your ‘peeps’ are interested in and pipe it to them fresh by blog and RSS feed.  High School player bios, the latest track results, and who’s cat had kittens….people love that stuff right?   All the good stuff.  They wouldn’t be able to get enough, so they would come back without having to be prompted by other means.  Of course you would go neighborhood viral worse than like little Johnny fresh out of kindergarten.

 People would stumble across the site on Google and many others would find it on flyers/mailing that would eventually be phased out once the web presence took over.  Then,  your constant craving for the information I have would keep you coming back like some sort crack head.  You wouldn’t be able to get enough.   Of course all the while I would be subliminally establishing myself as an expert in your area.  The perfect person to sell  your home and the best resource for a buyer.

While all of this sounds great, my gut feeling on this is that it’s not quite possible/likely yet.  I personally am not pursuing this approach to blogging locally.  I am working on some approaches to this but an online newsletter it shan’t be.  I can imagine a client being a little put off by the fact that you just decided that your going to insert yourself into their lives.  I’m on record as saying I don’t think you jack black bencasino gratuites frcasino island blackjackblack jack daveycasino bonus de bienvenueregle jeu roulettewww traiteur casinobonus gratuitsjeu roulette casinojouer video pokerbonus gratuites de casinojack black spider mancomment gagner à la roulette en ligneregle de la rouletteslot machine gametelecharger jeu poker texasjouer seven card stud gratuitesle poker en ligne en françaispoker en ligne bruelentrainement poker gratuitesjouer au poker sans telechargerle poker apprendre à jouerpoker le jeujeux de poker sur internetpoker gratuites sans telechargementworld poker gratuitesjeu de pokerjeu poker freewaretelecharger poker holdpoker en ligne argent virtuelpoker holdem gratuitesjeu de carte pokerjeux poker tour en lignepoker online argentjeux 7 card stud gratuitespoker en ligne francaistour de pokerjouer au poker onlinejeu javalogiciel poker texas holdemjeux pokerjouer poker en ligne gratuitementtournoi texas holdemtelecharger jeu poker gratuitesstrip poker gratuitementpoker sans internetle jeu du pokersalle poker onlinepoker source onlinepoker texas gratuites can be a successful hyper-local blogger unless you live there, have kids, grew up there or have some other attachment that people can use to relate to you on a personal level.  Maybe you should open your office there.

I have some concerns about the hyper-local approach because it seems to be a house of cards built on a card table. 

The card table is the premise that you are filling a need.   The idea that people will continue to choose area experts since everyone charges the same.  The idea that an agent that sells in one subdivision is not qualified to sell in another.    Can you imagine the tedium involved in putting this together?  Tedious as it is, it is possible it could pay off.  Especially if you’re making the comparison to established agents who are using the old fashioned methods successfully but will that transfer well to the Internet? 

Here’s a few more random thoughts, questions and observations that should be considered before starting down this path.  I wouldn’t say you shouldn’t attempt this approach, but rather, I would attempt to resolve these conflicts or plan ways to address the potential issues early in your development process.

1. Brokers need the people,  but people don’t need you.  Is what you got fresh enough to be news to them?  Would they even care to read your stuff?
2. There’s a small matter of trust and privacy. “I don’t want you taking pictures of my kids or anything.”
3. Who Voted you Mayor?  Would they feel you need their permission?
4. This sounds like an incredible amount of work.   Is it sustainable?
5. Will this create a steep barrier to entry?
6. Who is better positioned to do this same job?  Will they take you out at the knees next year?
7. Will the shrinking real estate margins crimp your projected profit?
8. Will this work if you’re competing against an established farm agent?
9. Where do people currently get the information you will offer?
10. How much will it cost to market the blog or will you rely on Google to deliver people to you from the subdivision you’re targeting?

Correct me if I’m wrong, I’ve seen lots of attempts at local blogging but haven’t seen anyone suggest that they’re ‘killing’ it with this method.  A deal or 2 here and there doesn’t deem the method an absolute success.  Even the most successful national bloggers don’t put up numbers that match top farm agent numbers.  While there might be 20 agents makeing the high 6 figures in a big city, the big time local bloggers aren’t among them.   It makes me think the hyper-local approach is over-hyped and merely a new topic for a real estate conferences to ponder and theorize about. 

I personally have researched many of the agents locally that blog as their primary rain maker and it really isn’t that impressive.  It’s a living.  It’s not a surprise really,  I feel they get a fair return on their invested time and money but I’m personally willing to trade money for time if it gets me to the same point or better.   

  The method doesn’t approach the numbers that standard farming brings in.   I’m left with the thought, that if you don’t have any ideas to generate business and you have a very limited budget, this can’t hurt.  I’m sure there are tons of agents out there that have the time to focus on this.   The 2 biggest problems with this is that the Internet hasn’t achieved a true hyper-local capability yet though I would expect that to change.  Second,  I’m not convinced that people would be any more likely to use you than the other guy that got some face time with the potential clients. 

As for the house of cards analogy, once you have it all built and up and running, people using you and all…how easy would it be to knock down.  Will you be able to keep up or will competition take over where you left off.

  Here’s a tip.  Your clients probably Googled you.  Blogging is key to your business because people use the Internet for research.  Especially so when it comes to real estate.  You have a chance to create your own spin, your own buzz.  Potential clients get to know you anonymously  and make decisions about your expertise and qualifications prior to making contact.  Even after meeting you they may want to learn more about you.   

 Just a few thoughts.  Here’s some further reading on the subject:

• Seth’s Blog - Advice for real estate agents (quit now!)
• Jeff Brown - House Agents — Wanna Start the New Year Kickin’ Ass? Here’s How  - My apologies to Jeff for not getting back to the subject sooner.  I had to ‘wrap my mind around it’ some more.
• Life that Pops - Everything new is old

 There is a lot said there and in the comments that might trigger some new thoughts on the subject for you. 

I know what your thinking,  HQwho?  Don’t fault yourself for not hearing of it.  I’ve been working with them for about three years now during which we’ve (notice my team approach) implemented many changes to improve the overall direction and marketing presence of the company.  Since some of the others in our company are just warming up to the idea of blogging, I’ll get to be the first to discuss what we are doing.

HQHomes.com implemented a new website that has one of the better IDX solutions (just shy of a custom solution) available for searching for homes in the area.  We feel that real estate search is the cornerstone to any long term success for a real estate website.  Considering what our search looked like originally.  This is a huge step up.   One of the features I find the most useful is an RSS feed for the paticular search that you want.  We hope our clients find that this search is better than any currently in use by a competing brokerage.

HQHomesBlog is going to be the outlet for much of our statistical research on different Denver neighborhoods.  We also plan to let this be our up to date platform to give our view of the markets.   We have been delivering a newspaper to some parts of Denver with some good response but find  that most people don’t have the time or desire to open a good old fashioned newspaper.  By the time they look at it, it’s out of date.  The blog will hopefully fill this gap while decreasing some of our costs. 

One of the better side effects of blogging, besides traffic to the website, is the fact that readers and those interested in our company can get a better feel for the neighborhoods they’re interested in and the agents that work in those neighborhoods.  

I’ll be a frequent contributor on the site.  Feel free to stop by and give your opinion of what we are doing.

“That’s too expensive.”  The words have the sound of an excuse to me.  I would respond better to, “That appears to be an inappropriate purchace considering current trends and the inability of the product to add real value to our enterprise within our time constraints.”  At least it would show me that they thought it through.

Expensive usually means that something costs a lot.  That is a really bad definition.

I remember trying to talk my parents into buying me a pair of Nike shoes way back when. All they saw was the cost.  I saw opportunity.  The Nike shoes would obviously make me run faster, jump higher and inevitably propel me into an improved social circle.  Certainly the $50 price tag might have seemed a little pricey to the untrained observer but as any ten year old could tell you, sometimes you need to “just do it.”

Most children can see the big picture.  They see the benefits the product brings to the table at least in terms of the instant gratification they’ll get.  They understand how the product will affect the complex social interactions of junior high and why they need to have it now before it is too late.  By the time they turn into full grown business managers though, they’ve lost their vision.  Adults slowly beat it into your mind that price is the most important thing.  “How much money will the purchase take out of your pocket?”

I try to think of it differently.  “How much money will the purchase put in my pocket.”

If I spend $200 on marketing that doesn’t bring me any business.   That’s expensive.

If I spend $20,000 on marketing that makes my phone ring off the hook, marketing that nets me $100,000 or more, that’s not expensive, that’s shrewd business.  A great deal.

Somewhere along the line you need to make assumptions and projections in order to determine if there is going to be a benefit that is worth your investment.  Return on investment (ROI) is only a certainty after the fact.  There is no certainty but if you can find that childlike vision you used to have, maybe you can get past the price and look for the benefits.

Greg over at Blueroof.com did,

Instead of creating well-designed websites that offer real value to the consumer, agents usually either get a cheap  template just to have a website or they pay a technology company (Trulia/Realtor.com/Zillow) for leads. I understand why- it’s a lot easier and much less expensive to build a custom site. Custom websites can cost a lot. I spent well over six figures on BlueRoof.com, and it’s tough to pay that kind of money, especially if you have no experience converting online leads and have no idea what sort of return (if any) on your investment you’ll get. But help is on the way.

… I closed over 100 homes in 2007 from buyers and sellers we met through my website (of course I have a team of buyer’s agent also). These consumers all felt as though they were given value on the website and they used the website and contacted us because of it. If you want a better brand of business and want to build your team and business in 2008, stay tuned in January- when I discuss a new system that I think will offer more value for agents, and more value for the consumer. - Greg at Blueroof.com

That sounds like a deal to me.  I look forward to seeing what’s in store.

Have agents made so much money in the past that they need not be concerned with details?  Most of the ancillary services offered to Realtors have a common thread.  Good enough is good enough. 

• Websites don’t need to look good, you just need to have one.  “Get a template.”
• Standardized direct mail marketing.  Hey we all say the same thing right?  “Don’t forget to put your picture on it.”
• Lead providers that still collect names in popups online then sell it to Realtors for hundreds of  dollars.  “Hey you only need one right?”
• Newspaper advertising that marks the prices up for a Realtor ad.  “You have the money.”
• The showing service that is inadvertantly rude to my clients and other agents.  “They’re really busy.”

That’s just the short and local list.  The local Realtor associations push their poor quality products down your throat with little or no choice for alternatives.  The Denver MLS that we pay for by the minute is incredibly slow.  Realtor.com,  … I think that says enough.  When will there be actual quality services for real estate professionals that just want to focus on their business?

$1 dollar.  That should get the ball rolling.  I wonder how often marketers abstractly anchor us at a higher price even though they know they can accept much less.

A while back I had a discussion about pricing over on the Sellsius blog.  The author suggested that you could get a better price by not actually anchoring the final value by putting a list price on the home.  Let the market determine the price.  In our discussion in the comments, he pointed out a study that he says supports his approach.  I disagree with the 1$ listing as much as I disagree with range pricing, but the study is actually a good one.

It shows how much people are influenced by arbitrary factors when deciding what they would be willing to pay.  If I read it right, arbitrary factors would include something as meaningless as a suggested retail price. 

I noticed that many builders have inflated their abstract pricing on their inventory in order to offer better incentives and offer ‘dramatic’ price cuts so that buyers feel like their getting great deals when they buy a new home.

 I recently sold a home in the Village at Centennial  near the Denver Tech Center where the builder was offering the same home at $505,000 even though they hadn’t sold a home like it for more than $450,000.   In fact, the majority of the similar home sales were around $425-$440k.  This method has helped the builders maintain their net in the face of foreclosures appearing on the market.  In fact, it actually helps keep the lenders from pricing their homes to low.  The BPO (Broker Price Opinions) usually include price of homes that are currently for sale.  So even though the foreclosed homes are trashed out, they are priced just under what  the builder will accept new.  And of course, the buyers leave like they’re getting a great deal.

I talked to the sales rep in the office about their current inventory and he admitted that he had the ability to move as much as 15% off of the list price depending on the ‘read’ he got off of the customer.  That’s the sort of thing that doesn’t bode well for the current homeowners that may have paid too much.  Especially when they get in a need to sell situation like a job change.  It also tells me that most unrepresented buyers are like deer in headlights when they walk into the sales office.

Funny part is, most buyers still fall for the ‘base price’ system where they hook you with a lower price while showing you a better product in the model.  They then either raise the price or act like their giving you a deal by offering you incentives in upgrades. 

When a builder is offering $50,000 in upgrades, it makes you wonder, how did they arrive at that number?

Things sure have changed. A couple years ago, a broker could miss pricing a home by 5%-10% and the market would rise to the price within a 6 month listing contract. Of course, if they priced it at value they would receive more than one offer. It was one of those you-really-couldn’t-screw-it-up markets. Here’s the basic ideas that I’ve found to help guide my pricing and sell homes faster than the market average.

1. Think like a buyer. What do the majority of buyers want? That’s the question you need to ask yourself. Be realistic. If the house you’re competing against has a remodeled kitchen and you don’t, you better have an ace up your sleeve somewhere else in the house. A buyer will buy the best house they find for the money within their price range. Most buyers look for homes within 25% price range. If your home isn’t the best home for the money, don’t expect it to sell. You can either improve the house or lower the price.

2. Comparable home sales have never meant much. All that comparable homes sales exist for is to make people (buyers, lenders, etc..) comfortable with the idea that they’re not paying too much or accepting too low of an offer (sellers). Right now, the only thing comparable sales might suggest for pricing is the approximate price range a home may sell in and justifying the final sales price. Actually getting offers for your home is something completely different.

3. Your current active competition is your best guide. Take a look at the competition. The competition is on the market but hasn’t sold. That says a lot. Theoretically, if your home was exactly the same as the other homes on the market, you can expect similar results. Pricing above or at the competition won’t sell the home any faster than the time they’ve been on the market. If your home is comparable to the active home that’s been on the market for 200 days at the price you’re thinking of listing at, don’t waste your time at that price. It won’t sell.

So what is your competition? Some homes in your price range aren’t competition and some are. That’s where experience comes in. A broker/agent needs to be out looking at the competition if they want to sell the listing. For me, I put myself in the mindset of a buyer and rank the competition in my mind based on which one the majority of buyers would find most appealing. I then price my home to fit in with what was observed. Make the price spread enough that differences between the property are properly justified in the buyer’s mind. Sometimes this lets you actually push the price up and sometimes you’re a little lower than some comps. Just remember though, the buyers have probably never saw the comparable sales on the inside so they really don’t matter.

4. Brokers/Agents - Don’t take an overpriced listing. If you can’t price well against the competition for whatever reason, you may want to think twice about taking the listing. Sellers have the right to hold out for whatever price they want. There’s always the chance somebody who hasn’t seen the competition would buy the home and pay more than what the majority of buyers would pay. I try to determine the probability of selling at a price. I won’t take a listing with a 50/50 chance of selling. It’s up to you as a broker to decide if it’s going to be a waste of time or not. The seller knows he can find somebody out there to list their home at their price. For me, I’m running a business, not a public service.

My rule is I take a listing if it’s within my farm area and not more than 10% higher than what I feel the value is. This usually depends a lot on how flexible on price I feel the seller will be if the time comes to adjust the price. It’s not too strict of a pricing rule just because of the benefits that come from having listings in your farm. If it’s outside my farm, I only take the listing within 5% of my target price. In the Denver area, MLS statistics suggest you won’t even get an offer unless you’re within 5% of value and the average listing that sells original list price is within 10% of the final sales price. Incidentally, there is still a spread of about 20% between the average active list price and the average sold price for the current month.

Pricing within the 5% rule helps me sell most homes in about 1/3 the time of the current market average. If my sellers want to ‘test’ the market at a slightly higher price, I used to take the listings, but I’m getting away from that. It’s hurts to spend thousands on listings that don’t sell. I find that most sellers always think of the price drop as money lost. In reality, their home was never worth the higher price. But in the end, you always seem to hit a wall on price that’s above what the home is worth even though they might have been agreeable to pricing it correctly if you helped them to be realistic upfront. In the end it’s rarely worth taking an overpriced listing.

It’s quite tempting to want to write about everything that’s going on. I mean, isn’t that where the majority of good blog fodder comes from? But to be fair, I realized that if the agents that were on the other side of the table were anything like me, I would want to watch what I say. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be tipping my ‘hand’.

I’ll admit it. I love to research. I don’t like surprises. I want to know everything I could possibly find out about the agent I’m dealing with and his or her client. How much business do they do? Is the agent busy or just faking it? What’s their style, what’s their office like? Do they need the money? How long have they been in the business? Do they have any listings? What have they sold? What’s their target market, if any? What does the buyer currently own? Are they selling anything? Where does the buyer work?…oh it goes on and on. Anything on Google?

I love to encourage conversation. Even aimless banter. I like the agents to like me and feel comfortable and confident dealing with me. They should; I wouldn’t do anything shady, illegal or even underhanded. But that doesn’t mean I’m not working for my client. If my client wants a certain goal to be achieved, that’s my aim and I work very hard to gain any ground I can.

Everyone gives up little clues about their motivations, but they don’t always know they’re doing it. That’s why I don’t want my sellers having any sort of contact with the other agents or their clients. It’s also why I don’t want my buyers being too interested in the site of the homeowners. Any sort of contact is compromising my power to negotiate. An agent should be insulation from these situations.

I think of real estate business like a high stakes game of poker. I can’t see the cards but I can read the signals. There are sharks out there while others are just minnows. I’m not a shark but I play one on TV. Which one are you?

While I think many Realtors in Denver probably already knew this, it seems buyers are coming out of the woodwork.

Denver Metrolist is reporting good news for buyers and sellers alike. While days on market have gone up significantly from last year, 14% over last year to 117 days, so did ’solds’. Sold listings for January were up almost 25% since this time last year. (statistics from Denver Metrolist for the month of January 2007) Good news for buyers? Well, prices were down a touch as well compared to last year at this time.

I like to think that activity in January is a harbinger of what the first half of the year will be like. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me. I’d imagine that many agents around Denver are breathing a sigh of relief if the same thing is happening to them. It’s almost as if the market was artificially supressed by poor media coverage. I haven’t heard anything horribly bad in weeks.

I’m not saying that all is warm and fuzzy. January’s DSNews (Default Servicing magazine) reports that Colorado’s foreclosure rate is 2.7 times the national average. Look out Douglas and Weld, you have a new contender for top foreclosure county. Adams County now tops the list with 1 foreclosure for every 132 households. But the truth is, this is actually an improvement from where it’s been.

My Real Estate Market predictions:

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that the job market and commercial office markets are healthier than they’ve been in years. Real estate will always be based on what’s going on locally. In particular, the job market has more to do with how the real estate market will do next year than interest rates will ever have. More jobs will mean fewer defaults on loans. And higher incomes mean higher home values. If buyers can afford to buy a limited supply of quality homes in desirable areas, prices will go up, and vice versa. So if there are jobs in Denver, I’d imagine home prices will remain stable or even show modest growth. Look for areas like Sunnyside, Berkeley, Bonnie Brae, DU, Cherry Creek, Cherry Hills Village, Greenwood Village, Englewood and Washington Park to see continued growth (1-3% this year), while areas like Highlands Ranch, Green Valley Ranch (Denver), Park Hill (Denver), Northglenn, Thornton and Southwest Denver will show some declines as high inventory and foreclosures put pressure on sellers to drop prices (2-5%).

Technorati Tags: Denver, Real, Estate, Statistics, Foreclosures,

Selling a home has gotten a lot tougher over the last two years. The Denver real estate market has really started to slow down. Buyers are gaining the upper hand in negotiations because there are many more homes to choose from. This means home sellers are going to have to pay attention to the feedback they get from their agents and from the public and make changes that will help them sell the home. I hear all sorts of things when I start calling for feedback. It’s amazing how useless most of it is. I mean, it’s rarely anything the seller and I haven’t realized but I push on waiting, building support for whatever course of action will eventually need to happen. I’ve come to characterize feedback in three types.

The first type of ‘feedback’ are things the homeowner already knows but the homeowner has refused to address. These are usually obvious and just a huge waste of time. These are things that should be addressed prior to sale. Either fix the problems or drop the price until the home you’re trying to sell is similar to the homes in the same price range, the homes your potential buyers are looking at. The huge waste of time comes in because these are things that are so obvious that I pointed them out as I walked through at the listing appointment. How many wasted opportunities to sell will you need before you take my advice and make changes?

1. Didn’t like the finishes. Paint colors, carpet, light fixtures, etc… This is pretty common and highly changeable. The problem is most sellers think that if the buyer doesn’t like it, they can change it. If you’re getting lots of showings and no offers, this could be the culprit. Usually it’s cheaper to make the changes than try to drop your price enough to get an offer. It’s the whole $2 will get you $10.

2. Home needs updating. If you haven’t remodeled recently and don’t have the latest and greatest finishes, you won’t compete anywhere near the same price of similar homes that do. Buyers usually don’t want to do any work. If your competition is nicer, don’t expect they’ll pick your home unless there is a significant price difference. Your only cheap options are staging the property well and making sure that it’s clean and bright for showings. Some paint usually goes a long way to help here too.

3. Home needs serious work - You can’t tell me the seller and the listing agent don’t already know this. Investors are your most likely buyer here and don’t expect to get more than 80% of what your home could be worth if it was fixed. Most savvy investors are looking for homes at about 70% of what they could sell it for fixed up.

4. Horrible smells - Many homeowners have an idea that their home smells but don’t know what to do about it. Others like to pretend they can’t smell anything. I know they know it smells though because they always ask. People whose homes don’t smell never ask visitors when they come in if they could smell the _____ (insert animal of your choice). People whose homes smell, usually do ask that silly question. Of what value is giving the feedback…”Yes, it’s horrible.” when the seller isn’t going to do anything about it. If it smells bad, don’t expect to get a fair price for your home. I’ve seen this knock $20,000 of the value of homes. Animal smells are the worst but food smells can be overpowering too. Suffer from hyposmia? Get professional help.

5. Home is overpriced - If you’re a seller, don’t expect helpful feedback from buyers when it comes to price. This is the most inaccurate feedback you will get. Most buyer’s agents will likely tell you it’s overpriced regardless of what the comparable sales are. Usually, the buyer’s agent has no idea about the home’s value; they only know if their clients liked it or not. Even if they liked it, they might say it’s overpriced. Who knows for sure? The only thing that is certain, the buyers didn’t want to pay the list price for the home. If all buyers that see your place would gladly pay your listing price, you’re probably listed too low. From an agent’s perspective, feedback on price is only useful for helping the seller feel comfortable about a price drop, unfortunate but often necessary. I , personally, don’t go by feedback; I start by looking at the competition and seeing how we compare. This dictates more than anything what your home should be listed at.

The second type of feedback we get are things that the home owner already knows about but can do very little to fix.

6. Poor location - Funny thing is everyone talks about location, location, location as being the most important factor in real estate. But to a seller, he can’t do anything about the location when it’s bad. You can expect that location alone will turn off many potential buyers even before they come in. Repeated canceled showings? They probably discovered the problem before they even went in. A seller can only try to divert attention to the property’s strong points while attempting to downplay the problems with the location. Backing up to a busy street? Play soft music inside and considering adding a water fountain outside. If you’ve got worse problems than road noise, you’re probably going to need to address it in the price of the home. These problems may include close proximity to factories, crack homes, shanty towns, tent cities, train stations, gang hangouts, prisons, public housing, or Rocky Flats; don’t act like your home is anything like the home that backs to a ‘green belt’ or fronts on Washington Park.

7. The home has a funky layout - Staging may help but If your home has a hodgepodge of additions over the last 80 years it’s going to effect the price.

8. Bad Neighbors - There’s very little you can do to get the neighbors to ‘get with the program’. I’ve seen homes where the neighbors had a junk yard in their back yard, rotted out cars and all. As you might guess, this is bad for the neighborhood. I once got a call from an agent that noticed there was an electric fence, the type used for horses, along the top of my client’s fence. The neighbor needed to keep the pit bulls from jumping the fence and getting into everyone else’s yard. Do the only thing you can do, file a complaint with the proper government agency and hope nobody finds out it was you.

Now for actual valuable feedback.

9. Doesn’t show well - This can mean anything really, but if you have dogs barking at the buyers as they walk through the home or they are stepping over underwear, I want to know. Homeowner doesn’t step out for the showing, laundry is everywhere and bread crumbs are all over the counters? I want to know how the seller is doing at keeping the place show-worthy. Trust me, these are things the seller doesn’t want to hear. They are at the root cause of why homes don’t sell even after they really are priced appropriately for what they are.
10. Home doesn’t show at all, the homeowner denied showing - As an agent, nothing is more frustrating than when you’re spending money to market a property and the homeowner turns down a showing.
In most cases, I know exactly why something isn’t selling. Feedback is an exercise to help educate the seller and build the seller’s confidence in what I’ve already said to them. I don’t try to get feedback so I’m better educated about the price or condition of the home. I’m an expert and if I need a second opinion, I’m not going to ask someone who has a motive to not tell me the truth. I get feedback to take to the seller and say ‘See, I’m not the only one that didn’t think blood red with a rag faux finish is a poor color choice for the bathrooms ceiling and walls.’

Technorati Tags: Denver, Real_Estate, Marketing, Feedback, Agents, Home_Repairs, Home_Value