I have been wanting to write a post about this for some time now. As each day goes on, I seem to find more and more Austin area home sellers that are "in the dark." Sometimes I mean literally since the pictures of their home were taken in the dark! Most of the time meaning that the seller has no idea how their home is being marketed, if it is being marketed at all. I have found that most Austin Realtors are giving their clients the Five P Marketing Plan and this truly saddens me since all of these people are trusting their Realtor to handle one of the biggest sales they may ever have in their lifetime. This Five P Marketing Plan includes:
- Putting a sign in your yard
- Put an ad in the paper or in a magazine
- Put a very uninformative ad on the web
- Put your house in the MLS
- Then Pray it sells!
Obviously this marketing plan doesn't work out to well unless your home is severely under priced and the home is located in one of Austin's hottest neighborhoods. During an appointment to list your home, most of these agents will make it seem like they could sell ice to Eskimos. Usually that isn't the case and I would highly suggest that you ask your Realtor a ton of questions BEFORE signing on the dotted line. You must be extremely proactive before and during the listing process or your home will sit on the market and it will not sell. The truth of the matter is a lot of Austin agents are blaming the challenging market on why a certain sellers' home is not selling. These agents are well aware that the national media makes it seem like real estate all over the country is in the toilet and that homes are not selling. This makes for the perfect scapegoat when having to answer their clients' questions. In actuality, homes in the Austin area that show well, are priced fairly and are being marketed aggresively are selling and they are selling quickly.
I have come up with the five most common issues I see in the Austin real estate market along with great solutions that will help sellers avoid the common Five P Marketing Plan referenced above. These are the issues I see every day and I truly believe these are the issues that are causing many homes to stay on the market without selling. Feel free to see what a 14-Point Austin Home Marketing Plan looks like for one of Austin's top Realtors and also take a peek at the commitment I make to ALL of my Austin area seller clients.
- Issue:Too often I see MLS listings that have empty information fields. These fields are EXTREMELY important to fill out and only take minutes to do. For example, if the agent has not indicated that the home has a fireplace, every buyer searching online for a home with a fireplace will miss your listing...so will the agents! These fields are there for a reason and they are very important!
Solution: Ask your agent to send you a copy of the entire MLS page as other agents see it. This is easy to obtain and I recommend every seller to ask for it. You also want to make sure the information on there is correct.
- Issue:On the MLS, your listing is mapped for other agents and potential buyers to look at. I see two HUGE problems here. One is that newer homes or subdivisions are not usually mapped so when a buyer goes to see where your home is, the map that shows up is usually in an entirely different neighborhood. Another issue I commonly see is when there is a street close to a busy road or some sort of undesirable building or object. You can't tell if the home would be the one backing to this issue or if you are safe and on the other side! The simple way to fix both of these common problems id for the agent to take a few minutes to correctly map the property. This can be done and usually isn't since it is an additional step.
Solution:Ask your Realtor to send you a link to your MLS page or you may use my Austin Area Home Search and make sure your home is mapped properly and also look to see that the arrow is actually on your home...not just on the street leaving buyers to wonder which home is yours.
- Issue: When my clients and I are viewing a home together, I can't tell you how many times they have told me that the home seems too small when the home was one of the biggest on our home tour for that day. I also have been told many times that a home didn't seem "homey" or that my clients couldn't see themselves living there. Many times these have been great homes that have received this kind of feedback.
Solution:It's no secret that the Austin housing market has slowed down a little. It still remains one of the nation's best but a home still needs to show well to sell. I can't stress enough how important it is to have at-least minimal "staging" done. This can be done by the Realtor to some degree but it's even better to have a professional home stager come out and prepare the home to appeal to the most amount of buyers. I personally send a stager to meet with all of my clients as well as take care of the basic costs associated with that service. I think in today's market, that needs to be offered by all Realtors.
- Issue: I would say for every ten homes I show in the Austin area, three agents representing those homes will either call or email me in order to get feedback from myself and/or my clients. This is truly sad. A great listing agent will make their best effort to contact the showing agent so that they can possibly overcome any obstacles with that potential buyer or those in the future. That is what great agents do.
Solution: Ask your agent to make sure he/she is requesting business cards from agents that come through your home. If you are still living in the home, ask the Realtors to leave a card for you when they call to make an appointment to show the home. You then know that your home is being shown and to expect feedback from your Realtor at least once a week.
- Issue:On the MLS, there are limited pictures or the pictures that are up do nothing to showcase your home. The Austin area MLS allows for 12 pictures AND a virtual tour. These pictures and especially the virtual tour allow potential buyers and agents the opportunity to look inside your home and make a decision on whether or not they would like to view it in person. I can't tell you how many times I see only one picture on the MLS or maybe three that were taken in the dark. I also think every listing should have a virtual tour. This allows the buyer to "virtually" walk room to room without leaving their own house. If your Realtor doesn't mention this as one of the steps in marketing your home, find one that will!
Solution:Ask your Realtor at the listing appointment if he/she plans on including a virtual tour in their marketing. You may also ask for a link to your home's MLS page so that you can make sure that all 12 picture slots have been utilized and that the pictures that were used are a true representation of your home. Hint: Have the pictures done after the staging is complete. This will help to ensure that the pictures turn out even better!
I only had to go through a few listings to find some great pictures of various homes that are currently on the market in the Austin, Texas area. These pictures are great examples of photos that I would venture to guess the seller has no idea are posted in order to showcase their home. Keep in mind that the average sales price for a home in Austin is a little over $200,000 and all of these homes shown below are over $300,000!
Please make sure you ask the agent you are interviewing a ton of questions. Homes are selling in the Austin area if you have the right Austin Realtor representing your best interests. If you are curious to see what your own home may be worth and would like to see what other similar homes in the neighborhood are selling for, feel free to visit my website to obtain a FREE Austin Area Market Snapshot. You may also contact me at anytime with any questions you may have concerning real estate in Austin!
Sincerely,
Richard Cain
