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Cleveland, OH

Think Outside the Box

Chris Olsen Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate: Real Estate Agent in Cleveland, OH

Think Outside the Box

Think Outside the BoxThis is such a cliché eh?

I am not a fan of slogans, and whenever I hear this particular phrase, it makes me think of Taco Bell’s: Think Outside the Bun. This slogan has been so overused – remember: Push the Envelope?

The converse slogan of: When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

I do happen to like this slogan as it seems that real estate agents are viewed by most consumers as commodities and essentially do the same thing.

Have a home to sell? Quick, I’ll come over and:

  • Put a sign in the yard
  • Put it in the MLS
  • Place an ad – print, online
  • Put photos online

And other new fangled marketing techniques like social media sites, video tours perhaps and other “new and improved” ideas.

But…how does this differentiate you from the other kazillion real estate agents in your marketplace? Don’t they all do relatively the same thing?

There are a few leveling mechanisms at play here as well as the “exposure” concept that work as a disadvantage to the individual listing agent to distinguish themselves in the marketplace:

  • Public websites and the Internet. Consumers can go to one of thousands of websites to search for homes. They don’t care who has the listing
  • Exposure. Whether a buyer learns about your property via some syndicated website from your MLS, Realtor.com, your individual or company website, or the via Twitter, Facebook or ActiveRain, one of the main tenets of market value is exposure and an element of exposure is time. The more time a property has been on the market, the more exposure (theoretically speaking) it will have with buyers, within limits.

Since most real estate companies, and even many MLSs provide for “real estate syndication” of listings, chances are, regardless of what you do marketing wise, a consumer will find it in short order.

So…what causes a home to sell? Is it your wiz-bang marketing / Web 2.0 strategies, your catered-lunch broker’s open house that at least in our marketplace is often paid for by a lender and title/escrow company, or your extensive marketing techniques?

What do you think really causes a home to sell?

I would argue it has very little with most of this stuff.

Why?

Some homes sell quickly even when an agent bungles the marketing of a home. Why? The simple fact is, some homes are just easy to sell and in fact practically sell themselves. Either the location, price, condition, amenity or some combination thereof makes the home a strong draw.

Some homes at the opposite end of the spectrum need a lot of help to overcome “obstacles” to selling. Usually relating to price, condition, location, lack of demand that makes a property beg for ingenuity sometimes.

Going back to the When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail slogan reminds me of the common real estate agent’s response that if buyers aren’t biting, lower the price to stir demand. While there is logic and truth to this statement and sometimes it does need to occur, this option should not be main and only option pursued.

Which leads me back to the original point: How do you think outside the box for your clients?

Thinking outside the box doesn’t need to mean you are inventing a previously unheard of concept, or your approach is so novel that it creates an “ah ha” moment. Quite the contrary, sometimes, it is the application of something that has been tried and tested many times before but might not rise to the surface of something that is intuitively obvious, while upon some reflection, may seem basic and not worthwhile of serious attention.

It is at this point where the analysis can break down quickly and an agent reverts back to the tried and true.

I’ll use my eight year-old son and his friend in a real life example. A few weeks ago on a warm late-Fall day, my son and his friend had been playing for several hours. They are normally pretty creative kids and don’t need much (most of the time none) intervention from adults.

They gel really well together, but after several hours of playing, my son came up to me and said:

Dad, we’re bored, there is nothing to do.

I looked at them for a few seconds, and I could have easily reverted to structuring their next move and relied on many things, such as:

  • You must be hungry, do you want me to make some lunch for you? – I knew they weren’t starving as I know them quite well and they just ate quite well just a few hours ago and they could easily play another 1-2 hours before they wanted to stop if they could find something engaging.
  • Want to play a board game, game of cards, video game, TV show?
  • Etc.

Instead, my feeling is that kids lives are way too structured today and over-monitored, with too much intervention. With the advent of organized sports, music lessons, play dates, video games in the car, life is just one huge organized and structured distraction for kids. When I grew up, as long as I was home for dinner, I was free to roam the neighborhood and we invented and did many things all on our own, all day long. While I wouldn’t let my kids have the level of freedom today I once enjoyed (sad commentary indeed), I replied to my son and his friend:

Just relax for a minute and I bet you will find something to do.

That was NOT the answer they were looking for.

I went back inside and was discreetly observing when next thing I know:


they are trying to slide down a far to gentle and small slope in our front yard with a snow inter tube. They were jumping on each other and having a blast. They did this for a looooong time.



It got me to thinking, am I this creative for my clients? This is not to imply that creativity is an override or replacement for doing the basics really well, it’s not.

But…how if the basics aren’t working for many homes in today’s market, then what other options are you doing that aren’t cookie-cutter, but which may exist at the individual property level that requires taking a fresh look at what the challenges a given property might face and be presented as objections buy buyers?

Personally, it requires a solid understanding of what is selling, what is not, and why particular properties are selling.

For example, there are many homes on a given street that have gone unsold for well over a year, when a given seller approached us on this street to sell their home. We quickly saw that this property would be one of the many homes on the street that would not sell if we didn’t spruce this home up quite a bit, and do it in a hurry to take advantage of every decreasing buyers in the as the strongest part of the selling season was behind us and was starting to wind down. We quickly got this home spruced up and showed exceptionally well and priced it to sell out of the gate and it did.

Another home we sold this year had a home right next door that was in serious disrepair while the home we were selling was a true gem, quite a contrast. While we couldn’t make the home next door disappear (I called David Copperfield but he never replied), we could have simply thrown up our hands and said we will have to wait until the right buyer comes along who doesn’t care. We suggested extending a solid 6’ fence on one side, nice blinds on a few key windows that filtered and/or blocked the offending view and a few other minor items.

Sometimes, the answers lie in nuance, the small details, that when taken together, combined and implemented properly, can be a direct cause of why a property to sells.

The answer can lie in:

  • The condition aspect still doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves in today’s marketplace. Home staging, re-design, home maintenance repairs and even minor to moderate renovation can make a measurable difference in a home seller’s net financial bottom line. While this approach is not relevant for all homes and sellers current financial constraints, it’s one tool in the toolbox that gets left inside the toolbox far too often.
  • Detective. Sometimes it takes a careful analysis of a home to really pin-point what buyer objections will most likely be and if it is something that can be changed and resolved BEFORE it becomes an issue, can you identify it? Know how to cost-effectively remedy it?
  • Being pro-active. Anticipating challenges and problems before they occur and solving them before they gain traction.
  • Home Staging. Let’s face it, the overwhelming majority of home today on the market could benefit from this and listing agents as the point person, often don’t understand the benefit, know how to do it themselves, have an exceptional home stager in their back pocket to recommend.
  • Renovation. What is the overwhelming majority of homes that are selling are either bargain-basement priced homes or renovated homes and your home (like most) that you may list is in the middle and needs serious updating. Would you know how to create an “Extreme Makeover” with your own recommended and cost-effective contractors in a quick time-frame to get a home on the market?
  • Negotiation. This is widely touted but in my humble opinion, not practiced enough.
  • Candid Conversations. Are you willing to have that hard conversation with a seller that their home faces challenges in today’s market and offering solutions to address it
  • Listening. Really understanding what a client wants and needs can be akin to peeling back the layers of an onion. Asking open-ended questions like “Why’s That?” and then really, really listening to what they are saying, how they are saying it and what is really important to them can go a long way from having a mediocre experience for a client versus exceptional.

While each market is unique and faces it own unique set of issues to confront, we as REALTORS owe it to our clients to maximize their position in a sale or purchase.

I’m not comparing the details of the complexities and balancing act of selling a home versus an eight year-old being creative, but it does (at least to me) beg the question on how can we really add value to your clients.

How do you think outside the box and what is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

It's time to check out your credit score if you consider to buy a home in Cleveland

Svetlana Stolyarova,Local-n-Global Realty, Broker: Real Estate Agent in Mayfield Heights, OH

It's time to check out your credit score if you consider to buy a home in Cleveland OH or anywhere in the United States in few months, so you can still benefit from Home buyers tax credit.

Monitoring and reviewing your credit reports is a good idea for everyone. According to Equifax,

  • more than 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years
  • only this year about 500,000 people will be robbed by identity thievs
  • there is likely to be a "mass victimization" of the consumers within the next two years
  • it may take six months to two years to recover from identity theft.

Even if you get pre-approved by the mortgage lender and If you are going to buy a house within next few months, it might be wise to monitor your credit in order to avoid unwilling surprises.

Consumers are entitled to receive one free credit report every 12 months from each of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Free credit report can be requested through the website https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp.

The addresses for the credit reporting agencies are listed below:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, Georgia 30374

Experian
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, Texas 75013

TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834

Happy Thanksgiving Day from Cleveland OH!

Svetlana Stolyarova,Local-n-Global Realty, Broker: Real Estate Agent in Mayfield Heights, OH

Happy Thanksgiving from Cleveland OH.

Thanksgiving Day is my favorite American holiday. Spirit of gratitude makes people better, more kind, more thoughtful, more connected.

In this season of gratitude and love I want to thank all my friends, my loving family, wonderful clients, reliable partners, our neighbors, our contractors and wish all of you you a happy Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Thanksgiving from Cleveland OH

Too good to be true? Too many advantages of buying Real Estate now? Just compare the numbers!

Svetlana Stolyarova,Local-n-Global Realty, Broker: Real Estate Agent in Mayfield Heights, OH

Can it be too many advantages of buying Real Estate now?

Why in the world people who need to buy the house in Solon, Mayfield Heights or anywhere in Greater Cleveland are still thinking and waiting for something?

Don't be confused - just buy Isn't it better just do it?

Simple list of opportunities for both first time home buyers and for moving up buyers is impressive.

  • Still a very good inventory of solid homes and condos
  • Still very attractive prices
  • More chances to do your due diligence - inspect the property, get it fixed by sellers if necessary
  • As a result, much better condition of the property
  • More qualified Real estate professionals working for you. It's not a secret that many part timers or agents who could not earn enough to support their family or lifestyle, simply left Real estate for other occupations
  • Up to $8,000 tax credit to first time home buyers
  • Up to $6,500 tax credit to existing home owners who move to the next home
  • Incredibly low interest rates!

Just compare the numbers!

Let's say, you decide to buy the $200,000 home in Cleveland OH.

You make enough money and you saved enough to put 20 % down.

You earned a high credit score, so you get perfectly qualified for conventional loan.

Using a simple mortgage calculator you can easily compare your mortgage payments and savings if you borrow at 4.75 % (available today) vs. very respectable 6.25 %, which many homeowners recently dreamt about.

Purchase price

$200,000

Down payment

$40,000

Loan amount

$160,000

30 yrs. Fixed Interest rate

4.75%

6.25 %

Monthly Principle and Interest

$834.64

$985.15

Interest to be paid over the duration of loan

$140,468

$194,653

Cost of not taking advantage of current low interest rate

$54,185

Why wait?

Any of home buyers' advantages listed above may vanish soon.

If you really need to buy or move up, just do it!

Call us today 216-548-4663 and schedule your free home needs evaluation session with Local-n-Global Real Estate consultants.

I'll Just Offer the Buyer a Credit

Chris Olsen Broker Owner Cleveland Ohio Real Estate: Real Estate Agent in Cleveland, OH

For crying out loud, if the buyer is interested in my home and they don't like: _______________________________________________________________________

then I'll just offer them a credit at closing so they can put it in and pick out the color/material they like.

Let's think about it: How many times as a listing agent have you heard that?

What is your response back to your seller?

A listing agent's goal should be to not simply respond with the pros and cons to this question at that point in time. The mere fact that the question has come up AND, here's the real important part:

If this is the first time you are addressing this with your seller, then in my opinion, you have let your seller down as this type of information can almost always be known ahead of time by:

  • Knowing how this business works
  • Having your pulse on the market
  • Working regularly with buyers and knowing what they want and prefer
  • Knowing what home staging is and its strengths and weaknesses
  • Knowing what is selling in your community
  • Knowing what is NOT sellling in your community
  • Knowing the financial impact to a seller's net financial bottom line by utilizing a seller credit to the buyer versus eliminating the issue in question before the home goes on the market

Granted, there are always exceptions when having this conversation may not be appropriate:

  • Seller is strapped for cash
  • Short Sale
  • Divorce -- Attorneys, Court-Appointed Receivers
  • Elderly
  • Health Issues
  • etc.

But...for the average seller who has access to capital, these issues should be identified, analyzed and cost-effective solutions offered before the home goes on the market. If the seller does not opt for this course of action, that's fine, but you have done your job in preparing them for potential negative market feedback.

Which leads back to the original question: Why can't I just offer the buyer a credit?

Many buyers will:

  • Not pursue your property because of these deficiencies and the only feedback (if you receive any) won't be that illustrative.
  • Only see what is right in front of them.
  • Not visualize the "to be", they only see the "as is."
  • Get so hung up on the negatives, that they can't see the positives, and thereby are already going through in their heads "cha chunk" with a lower offer for all the things they will need to do to your property to make it okay for them.

I'm not sure of the origin or if I have this saying right: forEwarned is forearmed.

Here is how this will normally play out (short answer):

  • The seller will end up netting less by not addressing the issue
  • The property will stay on the market longer
  • A property that stays on the market longer will cost more to maintain, operate, monthly payments
  • A property that stays on the market longer makes the seller have less negotiating power