Kimberly Brandon, CRS,GRI,SFRBroker/Owner
390 S Tyndall Parkway
Suite 103
Panama City, FL 32404
Phone: (850) 819-0995
smartmovesre@gmail.com
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Seller's Corner
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Moving to a new military base? I can help you find more information. If you are relocating to a new military area, and would like information about the housing market and real estate agents in that region, Click here
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Unconditional Satisfaction Guarantee
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You need to sell your home. What is your biggest fear when you list your home with a real estate agent? You worry about being locked into a lengthy listing agreement with potentially a less than competent real estate agent, costing you time and market exposure for your home.
Well worry no more. I take the risk and the fear out of listing your home with a real estate agent. How? With my Unconditional Satisfaction Guarantee…
When you list your home with me, you can cancel your listing at any time. No hassles.
I have strong opinions about real estate service. I believe that if you are unhappy with the service you receive, you should have the power to fire the agent. If for any reason I do not provide 100% satisfactory service, just let me know, and I promise to remedy the situation within 24 hours. If you are still not satisfied, I will release you unconditionally from the listing agreement with no further obligation.
It takes a strong belief in the quality of one’s service to make this kind of stand. But I never settle for less than the highest professional standard from myself. I am confident you will be happy with my service and the results. That is the simple truth. I will always stand behind my service.
This program reflects my confidence and my ability to do the best job possible. This is a confirmation of my genuine commitment to service and to my clients.
Call today to find out more about how this unique service can make all the difference in your piece of mind while I sell your home!
In the mean time.................
Did you know there are only 4 things that determine when a property will sell? I’m sure you know the first one:
………Location, Location, Location! This may sound trite but it really is the number one factor in real estate, from saleability to value. Good schools are must for families with school age children. Those who relocate often also know that good school zone means steady appreciation and good resale potential. In a quiet neighborhood is good. Busy streets are bad. You get the idea.
Number two is easy if you watch HGTV. How many shows do they have on about the condition of the property? Designed to Sell, the Un-sell-ables, Get it Sold, etc. All these programs address the condition of the home. If you watch ‘House Hunter’ and listen to the buyers, none of them want to paint, repair or do much besides just move in. They are typical buyers. The Condition can make or break you. It will be the difference between top dollar in the least amount of time to no offers ever regardless of what other efforts are in place to get your property sold. At a bare minimum, clean and de-clutter. When I say clean, I don’t mean a quick dusting and a run through with the vacuum. I mean a deep, spring cleaning, scrubbing on your hands and knees type clean. When I say de-clutter, less is more. Remember you are moving, why not start packing early. Please don't just move the boxes to the garage. The garage is an important asset too. I strongly urge you to rent storage for this in between time.
Now, this is probably the hardest exercise I can ask you to do…go for a drive, when you come back pretend you are a buyer considering your home to purchase. Start at the street, just like a real buyer and try to see your home through their eyes. If you can do this and be objective you will be well ahead of the process. I’ll also help you with staging by conducting a walk through from the street through the entire house with you.
Number three is usually the most difficult for most sellers, especially if they have never sold property before. Price. Things that have NOTHING to do with the current value of your home are: How much you paid for it, How many improvements you have done to it (contrary to ‘How much is my Home Worth’ on HGTV…I didn’t say I agreed with all of their programs), and How much you need/want to get out of it, well, you get the idea. So how do appraisers determine the value of your home? They look at what similar homes to yours, within a 1 mile radius have sold for in the last six months. What will surprise most sellers is what is considered similar. Is the heated and cooled square footage within 200-400 sq ft? Is the age of the homes close? Is the number of stories the same (best to compare single stories to single and two to two etc.)? Does it have pool? (Again best to compare pools to pools) How many car garages (again compare one car to one, two to two etc, if possible)? Note here…you usually reduce the value of your home if you convert your garage to living space. Things like ‘I’m leaving the custom drapes.’ , 'We just painted the entire house', 'We just put a new roof on'.,May add saleability points to your home, but it does not add a dollar value. (Note 2 – I’ve really simplified this process – there is a bit more to it), but now you have an idea how the appraiser will do his job, but how should you determine a listing price?
We would consider the most likely sales price (what the appraiser would come up with) compared to what your competition is asking, and how long they have been on the market, and compare that to what homes that did not sell were asking and how long they were on the market before they gave up. With this data I will use my professional judgment and my interpretation of the current market conditions, whether it is still moving down, stabilizing or starting an upward trend, and I will be able to help you come to a competitive list price.
Lastly is Marketing. Marketing depends on where the buyers are coming from. It may surprise you to learn that buyers are not coming from the same source they were just ten years ago. As you can see from this pie chart created from the 2008 NAR Buyer survey, the Internet and MLS/Realtors are the main source.
This really isn’t surprising when you consider as little as10 years ago, the only way the consumer had to find out what was for sale was to drive around looking for sign, check the Sunday paper or Home magazine and finally get the courage to talk to REALTOR®. Now at that time the Multiply Listing Service (MLS) was just a book printed periodically. All the different companies would turn in their listing to the REALTOR® board and once a quarter or once every six weeks (time period depended on the board of REALTOR®) the MLS book came out. Now here was the advantage to listing with a company with a lot of agents, the MLS book has just come out, and you just now listed your property – the only agents who are going to know about are the agents that work at the same company as your agent. The process at that time was when a buyer came in - you hoped he would like one your personal listings, if not then one of your company’s. If he didn’t like one of your company’s you’d pull out the MLS book and start calling other agents in different companies, “is that home still available – do you have anything else listed”. Wow! What a process…
Things have changed, (Thankfully). It has progressed in steps to today’s amazing MLS which is available to the entire world in real time 24 hours a day. The minute your listing is put in the system by the REALTOR® of your choice, it is available to all the local agents and the world through most of their sites, and the local board of REALTORs® site. Sites like REALTOR®.com pull a feed and update usually once a day. Other sites updated accordingly.
Today, why would a buyer bother with print ads when they can sit down at their computer (or blackberry) and get the most current information possible complete with virtual tours! Also now it does not matter how many agents the company you list with has. One agent or one hundred, every REALTOR® in the board will know all about your listing just as soon as it is put in the system. And perhaps more importantly, every buyer looking for your type of home will know about it! So now more than ever it is extremely important how your home is written up in the MLS and how many pictures does it have. A well worded listing with lots of photos is best. Make sure all the data is correct. In computer geek lingo, garbage in garbage out. I took a listing that had been listed with another company for six months. It was in a great area and priced really well. I did not ask the Seller’s to lower the price. With me it sold in a week. What was the difference? I entered the property’s location correctly in the MLS!!!
I hope you have found this point paper helpful. I have another point paper called from ‘For Sale to Sold’ that I usually give sellers in a pre-listing package. If you would like this just let me know , just check 'For Sale to Sold' and if you want it mailed please include your address.
So what is the point of all this? I’d like to be your REALTOR®. I would like to help you sell your home or any other property you may need to sell. I hope you have found this information helpful.
Would you like to know your homes value? Find out!
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