Comments for SpencerBarron.com

Comment on To the agent that just sent me a low-ball offer for the home I just listed, by Ted Amenta

Ted Amenta — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:52:33 +0000

40MB scan? I am not sure my email account would take this! Anyway, it sounds like the Denver market is not that different from mountains. We are constantly seeing very low offers which do not have much of a chance of even getting a counter. But there are realistic Buyers out there and the good listings do sell. In 2009 Summit County had about $600 million in real estate sales. I hope that the Denver market does well in 2010 because what happens there effects us…

Comment on Stop looking at the list price! It doesn't really matter. by Nashville TN Real Es

Nashville TN Real Es — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:16:42 +0000

The listing price of a home is just that the Asking price. In todays market prospective buyers should not be so focused on the list price of real estate

Comment on Stop looking at the list price! It doesn't really matter. by Spencer Barron

Spencer Barron — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:11:19 +0000

Rudy, not sure where you were going with that but I think you’re missing the point. The whole point is to maximize the value of a property. A listing agent can exploit the list price to anchor a value a little higher than what the market might support or to motivate buyers to move quickly. The best list price is the one that places your property arguably, in the top 2 or 3 in the neighborhood. Otherwise, you aren’t selling to today’s market but to some future market you can’t predict.
Many agents tend to think of the list price as a representation of value but it’s simply a starting point to a negotiation. The actual list price rarely represents an accurate value as your comment about ‘upholding’ a value illustrates. A savvy buyer’s agent should learn to ignore the list price and avoid the potential of being anchored to it as a starting point for an offer.

To be clear, I’m not talking about giving property away. The “right thing” to do is whatever your client wants you to. What I’m talking about in my post is maximizing value while meeting a time frame expectancy. Now if you’re selling lender properties and have been directed to hold your listing prices up while selling other properties, that’s fine too. But most agents should try to avoid this situation. Asset managers are keeping records of performance and tend to cycle fresh brokers in when previous brokers records start to look poor.
By all means sell the property for as much as you can but I would avoid trying to ‘uphold’ prices. In the end, you’ll have an unsold property, a pissed off client, a poor sales record and possibly a reputation that says your listings don’t sell.
Price the property appropriate to your current market, otherwise you’re just wasting everyone’s time.

Comment on Stop looking at the list price! It doesn't really matter. by Rudy McCormick

Rudy McCormick — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:18:41 +0000

Luck + Greed = End of Luck, plain and simple.

List prices matter to the people who are not required to sell their homes, so realtors should try to uphold the values of the lenders they represent. Just because the lender may be willing to give the dang thing away doesn’t mean that is what the “right” thing to do is.

Comment on Update on Renter's rights when rental is foreclosed by Ken Flaspohler

Ken Flaspohler — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 11:37:07 +0000

This is good information. These questions come up a lot. An agent asked me simply what happens to a lease after a simple transfer of ownership so having good information for the public is great.

Comment on Selling your home? Better Photo's = Faster sales… by Tyler Pettis

Tyler Pettis — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:17:32 +0000

Been doing this for years for high definition virtual tours Glad to see your professionalism going above and beyond the majority of “real estate professionals” Nice job! Here is an example we took for an Alabama real estate company. It was under contract in 15 day and sold in 40 days (last month) for just shy of asking price. Did I mention multiple offers?
NextStep Real Estate
Pictures are worth a 1,000 words Keep up the great work!

Comment on Selling your home? Better Photo's = Faster sales… by Sarah Monahan

Sarah Monahan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:57:31 +0000

I love your photos. We had the same discussion with our client, http://thepalmira.com/ They had some really nice shots of the subdivision, but there were some in there that we just kind of blah. It didn’t help there was a drought in San Antonio, so there was no green grass. But we thought it was better to have less photos that were beautiful than lots of photos that were just average. When they start building houses, I’ll make sure they follow you advice! I know a good photo makes it or breaks it for me. When we looked for a home to buy, we didn’t even bother looking at anything that didn’t have photos.

Comment on Stop looking at the list price! It doesn't really matter. by Joel Carson

Joel Carson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:05:51 +0000

Although the listing price of a home is a great starting place — in many cases the actual value of a home is exactly what people are willing to pay for it. There are so many variables involved that it can be difficult to determine what that price is. Guess that’s why we depend on CMAs to help us find a place to land. Smart investors know the tricks. Others are likely to miss out on a nation-wide clearance sale!

Comment on Selling your home? Better Photo's = Faster sales… by Bill

Bill — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:41:08 +0000

Very nice stuff! Really makes the image stand out. The photos make a huge difference to be sure and your technique really goes above an beyond. Thanks for the info.

Comment on Stop looking at the list price! It doesn't really matter. by Spencer Barron

Spencer Barron — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 20:44:30 +0000

Wes, that can be frustrating. I think there are a lot of people that think they’re investors. Truth is, they may have just been lucky in the past. Now they’re greedy. They spend most of their time looking for that ‘home run’ deal. Real investors treat it like a business. They understand that some deals will be the ‘bread and butter’ deals that keep them and their people in business. It’s much better to be busy making something than bored making making nothing.