{"id":2317,"date":"2016-06-13T15:15:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T22:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2016-06-10T21:04:56","modified_gmt":"2016-06-11T04:04:56","slug":"home-sale-secrets-only-real-estate-agents-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/06\/home-sale-secrets-only-real-estate-agents-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Home Sale Secrets Only Real Estate Agents Know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">What do the formula for Coca-Cola, the subject of Carly Simon\u2019s classic song \u201cYou\u2019re So Vain,\u201d and selling a home have in common? They all involve secrets. Although we don\u2019t have the inside scoop on the first two, we did manage to find some real estate agents who are happy to share some trade-secret real estate tips. So read on \u2014 but shh, don\u2019t tell!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>1. Staging changes from season to season<\/strong><br \/>\nThe concept of staging was once a secret. That cat\u2019s been out of the bag for a while now, but the practice of staging homes continues to evolve \u2014 and it can be much more complicated and elaborate than simply creating a cozy conversation area in a living room. For instance, did you know that it\u2019s better to use shorter furniture during summer months? \u201cIt makes the room feel bigger, longer, and in the potential buyer\u2019s mind, a better fit,\u201d says Brian Pickler, president of Nadeau \u2013 Furniture with a Soul. Another staging secret is to play soft background music during showings to make a home seem cozier.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>2. People love a healthy lawn<\/strong><br \/>\nWho can resist the smell of freshly cut grass? Apparently, buyers can\u2019t. Bryan Clayton, CEO of GreenPal, knows one Nashville, TN, real estate agent\u2019s secret: \u201cShe uses our platform to order last-minute lawn mowing before every showing. I\u2019ve seen her get one home\u2019s lawn mowed three times in one week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>3. Pricing-strategy bands are important<\/strong><br \/>\nSetting the right price so your home will sell is not a secret, but have you ever heard of pricing within \u201cbands?\u201d Don Tepper, a Virginia real estate agent, explains: \u201cBuyers who want to spend $340,000 on a property may look between $325,000 and $350,000. If that\u2019s the seller\u2019s target market, then pricing a home at $351,000 will result in a lot of potential buyers missing the listing altogether.\u201d So what\u2019s the secret solution? Tepper says to price the home at $349,000. If you price it at $351,000, you\u2019ll get people looking at the band between $350,000 and $375,000. \u201cThose buyers probably want something fancier or nicer than a $351,000 house,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>4. You can negotiate your agent\u2019s commission &#8230;.. <em>but should you?<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s still a secret to many sellers that they can negotiate their agent\u2019s commission. But it might be a mistake to do so just because you can. \u201cOften it\u2019s the bad [agents] who offer to discount their commissions. They are doing this to try and win the business,\u201d says Thomas Miller, a Washington, DC, real estate agent. In other words, as with many things in life, you get what you pay for. \u201cA truly excellent [agent] who executes the transaction quickly and flawlessly and sells the house at a good price is worth every penny,\u201d says Miller.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>5. Black holes exist in real estate listings<\/strong><br \/>\nPeople can\u2019t see black holes; no light gets out, making them invisible. If your listing falls into a real estate black hole, no one will see it either. \u201cMost cities have listing black holes \u2014 times when listings get lost to weekends of sun, family vacations, and nonbusiness topics,\u201d says Matt Parker, a Seattle, WA, real estate agent. If you list right before people go out of town, such as before Memorial Day or the Fourth of July, your listing may get buried before potential buyers see it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>6. Exaggerations in listings only disappoint<\/strong><br \/>\nPeople on dating sites often fudge their age or post a photo that makes them look more athletic than they really are. This works in the short term to capture attention, but when the face-to-face meeting happens, those exaggerated online claims often lead to disappointment. The same happens with real estate listings. \u201cIf your home is located near a tiny pond, don\u2019t describe it as if it\u2019s this huge, luxurious waterfront lake desirable to all,\u201d says Chantay Bridges, a Los Angeles, CA, real estate agent. \u201cTake what you do have and describe the best features of it. Otherwise, buyers may be turned off and disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>7. A listing can\u2019t sit too long<\/strong><br \/>\nIn a hot market, \u201ctoo long\u201d for a house to sit unsold is three to four weeks, max. \u201cThat\u2019s a sure sign [the house] is overpriced,\u201d says Miller. If you don\u2019t want to appear desperate by dropping the value, price the home realistically from the start. \u201cIt\u2019s much better to be in a position where the seller has multiple offers than to get greedy trying to obtain an unrealistic price \u2014 only to reduce it later,\u201d Miller adds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>8. There is a home-buying month<\/strong><br \/>\nMany real estate agents mark February\u2019s Presidents Day weekend as the unofficial start of the housing season, which runs through September. There is then a steady decline in activity until the next year. But there\u2019s one month during housing season that consistently performs better in sales than all the others. Can you guess this secret month? If you answered June, you would be correct. Housing sales in June are typically 29% above average.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/money\/realestate\/8-home-sale-secrets-only-real-estate-agents-know\/ar-AAgNGRT#page=1\" target=\"_blank\">Home Sale Secrets Only Real Estate Agents <\/a>Know by Laura Agadoni | MSN Real Estate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What do the formula for Coca-Cola, the subject of Carly Simon\u2019s classic song \u201cYou\u2019re So Vain,\u201d and selling a home have in common? They all involve secrets. Although we don\u2019t &hellip; [<a href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/06\/home-sale-secrets-only-real-estate-agents-know\/\">read more<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-estate"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Home Sale Secrets Only Real Estate Agents Know &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.roryc.ca\/blog\/2016\/06\/home-sale-secrets-only-real-estate-agents-know\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Home Sale Secrets Only Real Estate Agents Know &#8226; Rory C Real Estate | Oakwyn Realty\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"What do the formula for Coca-Cola, the subject of Carly Simon\u2019s classic song \u201cYou\u2019re So Vain,\u201d and selling a home have in common? 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