The single most important question to ask your listing agent
April 1st, 2008 - Categories: Dothan area Real Estate Market information, Selling a home in the Dothan area
By: Charles Woodall
http://www.dothanhomesearch.com
What is your plan for getting potential buyers into my home?
That?s it in a nutshell. Job one for a listing agent is to get your home in front of as many potential buyers as possible. Everything else a real estate professional brings to the table, such as negotiating skills, taking care of closing details, or years of experience, are useless until a buyer is found.
If you aren’t getting foot traffic, then one of two things is wrong. Either your home is overpriced, and potential buyers are eliminating it, or enough buyers aren’t seeing it, which is a marketing problem that lies at the feet of your agent. If the problem is price, then an independent appraisal will tell you if it is priced competitively. If the problem is marketing, then a look at how your agent is marketing your home is important.
A full 84% of homebuyers search for homes on the Internet. Doing a Google search of your address will give you a good idea of how easily your home is found on the web.
Here are a couple of examples of comparable listings and how readily they are found on the Internet.
- 100 Clam Gulch ? 94 search results
- 107 Clam Gulch ? 28 search results
- 471 Pat Wells Road ? 54 search results
- 151 Pybus Road ? 9 search results
The same percentage of buyers list a real estate professional as an information source when looking for homes. Ask how your agent is going to market to other REALTORS. Agent open houses are one idea. Input in the MLS is a given, so don?t let them use that as the end all, be all of their marketing plan.
Logic says that your REALTOR should include a heavy emphasis on marketing to these two sources. Of course there are other important marketing avenues, such as a yard sign and various print advertising. These are further down the list though, and a good listing agent will have the first two covered.
You don?t know what their plan is until you ask.