20 Questions to ask your realtor
As
a Realtor who has worked with hundreds of sellers, I've found that
those homeowners who take the time to find the right agent are
consistently happier with their home- selling experience than those who
don't. It's the first and most critical step in selling your home.
As a general rule of thumb, you're looking for an agent who:
- Has the experience, qualifications and abilities to sell your home for top dollar.
- Has in-depth knowledge of your area and the market in general.
- Will work hard on your behalf.
- Has resources to support the sales effort.
- Will keep you well-informed during the process.
- Has a personality you are comfortable with.
By asking the following questions, you can dramatically improve your odds of saving a successful home-selling experience:
- How long have you been an active, full-time Realtor?
- What professional designations do you have?
- How many homes have you listed in the last 6 months? The past year?
- How many homes have you sold in the last 6 months? The past year?
- What's the average amount of time one of your listings is on the market before it sells?
- How does your average sale price compare to the original list price?
- How
many homes are your currently marketing? (A successful top producing
agent may be more effective at managing many listings than a less
experienced agent.)
- What can you tell me about your share of the marketplace compared to other Realtors in the area?
- What percentage of your business is based on referrals?
- Do
you have a personal staff? How many are licensed? (A Realtor who has a
support team to handle office chores and routine details can usually
devote more time to the business of serving a client's highest priority
needs and getting the home sold.)
- How will you market my home?
- Do you have your own personal website? How many hits daily?
- How will you stage my home?
- How will you keep me informed?
- What listing price would you recommend for my home? How did you arrive at it's price?
- What's your pricing/marketing philosophy 30/60/90 days down the road?
- What is your commission on a sale? What if I sell it myself?
- Can you provide me with references?
- Do
you have any personal marketing materials I can review? (The quality of
a Realtor's own marketing pieces is a good indicator of how well he/she
will represent you and your property.)
- Am I comfortable with this person? (This question is not for the agent-it's for you!)
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Don't list your home until you have read this
The
specific agent you choose, not just the company, makes all the
difference in whether or not your house sells, and it can also affect
the net proceeds from the sale. Take a minute to read the following
comparison between The Dunn Team and other agents, and you'll see all
the benefits you receive from The Dunn Team's Innovative Real Estate
System.
What Most Agent's Offer |
What the Dunn Team Offers |
| Availability
Once
you have listed, they contact you occasionally-if at all. Sometimes you
call and leave a message, but don't get a return call.
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Availability
The
Dunn Team's professional staff works strictly for you and is available
to you Monday through Friday. We are familiar with your property and
transaction, so we can always answer your questions. Benefit to you:
Availability! You can always get in touch with someone who can answer
your questions.
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Service After Showings
No calls or follow-up after each showing.
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Service After Showings
Our
Listing Manager monitors each showing. We request feedback about your
home from the showing agent and mail a written report to you once a
month. In addition, you receive updates about the real estate market
and about our marketing efforts for your home. Benefit to you: You are
kept up-to-date on the marketing of your home. You are never left in
the dark because you are a high priority to our team.
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Staff
Single
agents try to do everything to manage the sale of your home, or they
enlist the help of a very limited staff. Many times agents use SHARED
office staff and then claim the staff is a part of their team, even
though the staff works for every agent in the office.
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Staff
We
have chosen a select group of professionals with expertise in many
different areas to work exclusively for you. We watch out for your
interests and negotiate on your behalf. Your interests become our goal
and that means we work our hardest to sell your home quickly, for the
most money and with the least amount of hassle. Benefit to you: Several
real estate professionals working for you for the price of one.
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Advertising
The
agent may throw a classified ad in the newspaper. Their office chooses
the media and which houses will be advertised. They may type up a
feature sheet, or worse yet, copy an interoffice form to advertise your
home.
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Advertising
The
Dunn Team advertises your home in a monthly print publication and on 12
websites on the internet including Realtor.com. Your home is also
marketed with brochures, flyers, interoffice Hot Sheets, and more! In
addition, we professionally print a feature sheet with a photograph of
your home for those agents and buyers that view your home. Buyers can
also call a 24-hour message center that records the call so that we can
follow up with details about your home. Your home is marketed around
the clock! Benefit to you: Your home receives much more exposure and
calls are responded to by professional sales people whose goal is the
same as yours-getting your home sold!
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Signage
The agent places a sign in the yard.
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Signage
The
Dunn Team provides you with a sign and a brochure box that is tended to
weekly by our team courier. Your brochure box contains beautiful,
full-color picture brochures on your home. Benefit to you: Your home is
advertised to anyone who drives by your home or any of our listings and
wants immediate information.
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Technology
The agent places your listing in the Multiple Listing Service computer
and keeps their fingers crossed that someone brings them a buyer.
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Technology
The
Dunn Team advertises themselves and their innovative real estate system
on the multiple internet sites so that your home can be selected from
an international market as well as locally through the Multiple Listing
Service. Benefit to you: Your home gains maximum exposure to local,
regional, national, and international buyers.
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Pricing Your Home
Most
agents offer pricing of the home that is too high in order to get your
attention and your listing. But the agent doesn't usually stand behind
the price for very long, eventually relying on drastic price reductions
in order to get the home sold.
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Pricing Your Home
The
Dunn Team assists you in pricing your home correctly in the beginning.
Buyers are precious, and overpriced homes drive them to other
prospects. We give you market updates regularly and, through feedback,
adjust the price on your home only if necessary. Our knowledge of local
and national trends allows us to accurately advise you of when and when
not to adjust the price. Benefit to you: You receive the highest price
for your home in the shortest time with the least amount of hassles.
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Aggressive Sales Attitude
Most
agents hope other agents will sell the home for them. They don't
aggressively sell it themselves because they either don't have enough
buyers themselves or don't have time to show the home.
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Aggressive Sales Attitude
The
Dunn Team takes your home directly to the buyer through their
dedication to pro-ACTIVE sales. Their sales program includes
telemarketing, direct mail, magazines, and an inter-connected brochure
box marketing system. In addition, The Dunn Team matches buyers to your
listing via our unique computer program. We search for listings that
meet each buyer's specific criteria and then set showings for those
properties. The Dunn Team also includes "Buyers' Partners" who are
dedicated exclusively to helping buyers and showing properties. They
are not bogged down trying to list properties as well, so they are able
to devote their full attention to showing your home properly. Plus, a
full- time staff responds to incoming calls and sets appointments, so
when ad and sign calls come in, the Buyers' Partners are always ready
to show your home and get it sold quickly. As you can see, it is our
goal to show our own listings first. But we don't stop there-we also
call the real estate community to see if they have any buyers looking
for your type of home. Using telephone technology, we can pro-actively
market your home to any and every buyer who inquires about the features
of your home. This guarantees a professional salesperson can
effectively follow through with any inquiry about your home. Benefit to
you: Your listing receives aggressive sales attention from an entire
staff of professionals with one goal in mind-the sale of your home.
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Aggressive Marketing Plan
If you are lucky, the agent may attempt a marketing program, but it is
usually short-lived and from the hip. Most agents have no real
experience in marketing.
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Aggressive Marketing Plan
The
entire Dunn Team follows a detailed, aggressive marketing plan. Sales
do not happen because of an "idea of the week." They require detailed
planning that is aggressively executed by a professional staff with one
goal in mind-the sale of your home. The team adheres to a strict
business plan just for the sale of your home. And at all times, each
member of the team knows exactly what is happening with each aspect of
your transaction. You can be assured that we have an organized,
aggressive plan to sell your home. Benefit to you: We don't wait for
things to happen-we make them happen. This type of detailed planning
ensures the most money for your home in the least amount of time. No
hassles. . .no kidding!
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Negotiation Skills
Most
agents need to make a sale so they can get paid. Therefore, they do not
negotiate in your best interests-they negotiate in their best interests
. . . the sale.
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Negotiation Skills
The
Dunn sells over 70 homes each year! Closing a transaction that is not
in your best interest is not in their best interests. Why? Because The
Dunn Team wants their clients to come back. And they do! The Dunn team
has been negotiating real estate contracts for over 23 years. You can
count on their experience and expertise to structure a contract that is
in your best interests. Believe us, there isn't anything in a real
estate contract The Dunn Team hasn't seen or negotiated. They have the
ability to solve problems and put together a contract for you that will
hold up through closing. Benefit to you: You receive the highest price
in the shortest time and a contract signed by all parties that goes
through in closing.
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Continuing Education
Many agents try to attend a few classes here and there, but they don't usually network or attend any seminars.
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Continuing Education
The
Dunn Team has attended numerous educational classes that other agents
never bother to attend. Not only do they gain the benefit of on-going
education, but they also network through these classes nationwide.
Thus, through their extensive networking activities, The Dunn Team
knows and shares ideas with hundreds of realtors on a regular basis.
This means that relocation buyers are sent to The Dunn Team
continually. Benefit to you: The Dunn Team is always up on new
developments in the real estate world, and relocation buyers from
across the nation are exposed to your home. One might be your buyer.
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Before you decide, there is one more thing you should know!
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Most Agents' Closing Percentage
Most
agents close 30% of the houses they have listed. In fact, that's the
national average. Of the contracts they write, only 80% continue
through to closing. Will your home be the one they actually sell? Will
your contract be one that goes through to closing?
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The Dunn Team's Closing Percentage
The
Dunn team closes 98% of the houses they list. Why? Because of all the
strategies listed above and because we have full-time Client Care
Managers dedicated to watching every due date and each aspect of your
transaction all the way to closing. We call the mortgage company weekly
for updates, communicate with the appraiser and inspector, and
negotiate on your behalf. We even work with contractors to mediate all
inspection items. The end result is the quick sale of your home for the
most money with the least amount of hassle. Benefit to you: Sit back,
relax, and enjoy yourself. We've got you covered!
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Our commitment to you
Today,
you make a choice. When we meet to discuss the sale of your home,
you'll have to choose whether to trust us with the sale of the single
most important asset you own. In the attached information and in our
marketing presentation, we will provide you with enough information
about the market, our qualifications, and our marketing program for you
to make an informed decision about who will best represent you in this
important business transaction.
Results-that's
what we promise you. Our objective is to provide you with accurate and
timely information about the real estate market in our area so that you
can make intelligent decisions regarding the sale of your property. We
will tell you what you must hear and not what we think you may want to
hear about the market and the value of your property. We acknowledge
that we may periodically lose business because we are truthful with
clients in this regard, while some of our colleagues will tell you what
you want to hear to temporarily get your business. But we will
absolutely substantiate all of our recommendations and conclusions with
the factual data that we have extracted from the Multiple Listing
Service.
Ultimately, it may be
that you will also want to get an opinion from another agent, and
that's fine. However, you should know that all agents have access to
the same information. Therefore, the determination of your home's value
should be nearly the same. Remember, no agent can affect market
conditions. If an agent suggests that you can sell your property for
other than what the market indicates, it is a disservice to you, only
prolonging the sales process and, according to National Association of
REALTOR's statistics, resulting in a lower net proceeds amount.
Select
your REALTOR based on experience and results. While past performance is
not necessarily an indication of future success, what else can you go
by? If you truly want to sell your home, you must be willing to sell it
for what the market will bear. If you are not willing, that's perfectly
okay; and perhaps we can help you in the future when, and if, the
market changes in your favor. But if you want to sell now, no one will
provide you with more candid feedback and factual information. In
addition, we will thoroughly explain our marketing program to you and
provide factual data on how it has worked for others in the past. We
will also gladly provide you with names of several individuals with
whom we have recently worked so that you can discuss our credentials
with someone who has first-hand knowledge of the way we work.
This
is our commitment to you. As professionals in every sense of the word,
we will provide the best possible service available so that your goals
are met in the shortest time frame. Our goal is to meet your
expectations and hopefully exceed them to accommodate your real estate
needs.
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What You Can Expect From The Dunn Team
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SUPERIOR SERVICE FROM OUR UNIQUE TEAM
- Two full-time assistants and Two full- time buyer specialists are
dedicated to servicing your needs. They help handle every detail from
listing to closing. This allows The Dunn Team to focus their efforts on
effectively marketing and selling your home.
IMMEDIATE MAXIMUM MARKET EXPOSURE - We will provide your home with immediate exposure through:
- Placement
in a state-of-art real estate listing database, making your home
available to every REALTOR in the area as well as neighboring cities.
- Clean, attractive signage with an internet address.
- A property profile and a professional color flyer of your home with interior photos.
- A brochure box flyer with interior photos and information for sign.
- The appearance of your home's details and pictures in the widely distributed publications.
- A target-market mailing piece with a color photo of your home.
- The
placement of details about your home, along with photos, on the
internet at www.REALTOR.com, our personal websites
www.lakeannahomes.com and www.spotsylvania- homes.com and numerous
related websites.
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MARKET UPDATES
- Updates sent to you monthly that will inform you about the present
status of market activity-in particular, what is selling and for how
much, as well as any new listings which may be competition for you.
Feedback
reports sent to you weekly regarding your home's showings, letting you
know exactly what the agents and buyers are saying. This allows us to
make educated decisions on any changes necessary to make your home more
sellable.
Weekly contact
made by a team member to inform you of anything pertinent to selling
your home, to check your supply of marketing materials, and to ask if
you need any additional service.
STATUS REPORTS WHEN YOUR HOME GOES UNDER CONTRACT -
Regular progress reports sent from a team member as to status of
purchaser's loan, contingency removals (home inspection, radon
inspection, etc.), bank appraisal coordination with settlement
attorney, termite inspector, well and/or septic certifications, etc.
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