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Myth 1: It doesn’t matter which real estate agent you list your home with.
Reality: It is critically important which agent you select to market and sell your home.
There are two major reasons why selecting the right real estate agent is so important in getting your house sold at the highest possible price with the least inconvenience to you.
- First, the real estate market is highly competitive with many sellers competing for those few available, qualified buyers. Did you know that less than 65% of the homes put on the market actually sell? Many inexperienced agents just list a home by putting it in the Multiple Listing Service, then pray someone else will sell it for them. At Kahan O’Neill Realty, with our proactive marketing plan, we target those few buyers who are actually ready, willing and able to buy. Hire Kim, an expert at marketing properties, and you can feel confident she’ll get the job done.
Kim’s biggest strength, as told by most of her clients, is her uncanny negotiating skills. With over 20 years of negotiating experience, she has knack for convincing prospective buyers to pay the highest and best price for her properties. That is why most of her listings sell so close to their listed prices.
- Secondly, it’s important to pick an agent with a high level of education and an abundance of experience and know-how, to anticipate any problems before they occur. Avoiding problems or if need be, handling them quickly in a professional manner is imperative. Believe it or not, about 20% of the contracts written never close. Although the anatomy of every sale is the same, no matter what, it’s the knowledge and service of your agent here that can make all the difference. Problems often arise after the contract is signed which is when many little things that can go wrong. Many sellers who think they’re moving and may have even begun packing, find that the sale collapsed leaving them in a terrible predicament. If, however, your home is picture perfect, and you’ve priced it below market value in a strong market and you’re lucky, you can probably list with anyone....or perhaps feel you don’t need a Realtor at all, but why would you do that anyway? If a problem does arise, you still want to be able to have an agent who knows how to solve issues and still get you moving. That’s what you’re paying for! Service does make a difference and you should base your decision on finding an agent who values trust and integrity and who will be honest with you, even if it isn’t necessarily in their best interest. At Kahan O’Neill Realty we value and hold trust and integrity at the highest level. Kim has a highly successful track record.
Myth 2: Kim and Jim sell a lot of real estate. Perhaps they’re too busy to pay attention to my listing.
Reality: You wouldn’t pick an open heart surgeon, base on friendship or because they had extra time on their hands would you? More likely, you would select a surgeon based on their expertise and results. Kim has assembled a top flight staff to assist her with the routine, but critically important details, in order to free herself and Jim up, to devote their time and attention to selling your home successfully. Kim and Jim have built their business one satisfied client at a time. And their goal is for you to be another satisfied client who is happy to spread the word about how well you were served and treated.
Myth 3: You should select the real estate agent who says he/she can get you the highest price.
Reality: No... always select an agent based on their credentials. Market value is a separate issue.
Overpricing a home to get the listing is the oldest scheme in real estate: just faltter the seller and compliment the home just to get the listing, then 30 days later start asking for that price reduction because it was intentionally priced too high to begin with. You should always insist on a written, well-researched, detailed computerized market analysis to determine the realistic value and a price your home will bear in today’s market, then price it accordingly. Remember Kim, a tenured appraiser for 15 years, is very experienced with properly pricing homes, since value is not only determined by both the buyers and seller, but the lender and appraiser for the bank as well. So first, select your real estate agent based on his/her credentials, then decide on price. Never select an agent based solely on the price they recommend, they’re usually the ones least likely to get it.
Myth 4: All I really have to do to sell my home is to put up a FOR SALE sign in my yard and an advertisement in the newspaper.
Reality: The yard sign and newspaper ad, while somewhat effective, actually account for a very small percentage of “qualified” buyer activity.
Only seven percent of qualified buyers come from yard signs and only eight percent from newspaper ads. That’s why the failure rate for “For Sale By Owner” is so high. Most qualified buyers are generated by real estate agents through referrals, past customers and clients, and various proactive marketing activities. In other words, most buyers are generated from a pool of buyers who have been professionally nurtured and developed over time.
That’s why it’s so important to engage the services of an agent who has developed a substantial and successful business over the years. You can greatly improve your chances of getting the highest price from the most qualified buyers by working with the most successful realtor…Kim Kahan.
Myth 5: Pricing a home is a mysterious process.
Reality: Your home will sell for whatever the market will bear ... market value.
Your home will sell within a range of what similar homes have sold for. And because every home is unique, your home will probably sell either on the high or low end of that range, depending on its condition. At Kahan O’Neill Realty, we always do a computerized market analysis collecting data to help you decide where to price your home. It’s not an easy process, but it shouldn’t be mysterious either.
Myth 6: It’s not a good idea to list with a real estate agent who has a lot of listings, especially if some of them are in your own neighborhood.
Reality: Actually, that can sometime be to your advantage!
Many sellers mistakenly feel that if an agent has other listings in the area this will hurt their selling efforts because that agent may divert potential buyers to those other homes instead of theirs.
Actually, what really happens is that all of those competing properties generate a higher level of buyer activity for all of the properties which benefits everybody. Some buyers looking at other homes will also be introduced to yours by their agent. This is a tremendous benefit to you. Buyers very seldom buy the home they first call in on. Every listing is another “billboard” which generates valuable buyer calls which is the first step in developing a good working relationship between the agent and the buyer. As a result most qualified buyers are working with real estate agents who have the larger personal listing inventories. This is a major benefit to all of the sellers listed with those agents.
Reality: One major advantage of listing with Kim Kahan is that every call generated by a sign, ad, or special marketing promotion goes directly to Kim instead of being answered by whomever happens to be on “floor duty,” which is what typically happens in most real estate offices. No one knows your property better than the agent who listed it. Kim Kahan’s seller clients are confident that all inquiry calls are much more likely to be converted to a sale this way.
Myth 7: Brokers who “discount commissions can do an adequate job of selling your home.
Reality: You get what you pay for!
Your home is in competition with all of the other homes on the market for the best and most qualified buyers. There are generally more homes on the market than there are buyers. That’s why such a high percentage of the homes that go on the market don’t sell. You need an aggressive, proactive real estate agent to get your home sold and for the highest net price to you.
Promotional costs such as photos, brochures, websites, ads, MLS inserting fees, printing, direct mail, signage, etc., are vital to getting the results you want, but they are all expensive. Kim Kahan invests heavily into the marketing of your home. Will a discount broker offer a complete marketing campaign? Probably not! Most of these “discretionary” expenses are the first to be eliminated when the brokerage fee is negotiated downward, although most of the time without the knowledge of the seller. These “discretionary” investments are some of the most important for getting the desired results. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish!
Also, does a discount broker have a staff to personally attend to your specific needs? Does he/she have a proven track record of success, or is he/she using the discounted commission to win your business? Does he/she have the expertise to guide you through problems that may develop during the closing process? We think not! And remember, you only pay a commission when your property sells successfully. You owe nothing if Kim Kahan does not get results, which is highly unlikely.
There are a lot of Myths going around about selling real estate, but the Reality is that Kim Kahan and the Kahan O’Neill team get results. Put them to work for you!
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