Gig Harbor, WA

Is Your Marketing Plan Getting Your Home Sold?

Most past sellers ask me what makes a good marketing plan. What should ask the Realtors? These are very valid questions. Marketing a home has changed dramatically in the last 3 years. You can’t put a “for sale sign” up and enter the home into the MLS and know that a buyer is going to call tomorrow to put in an offer. It takes work to get a home sold in today’s market. There is so much competition out there your home has to stand out on many different levels. The number one question you should ask is

“What is my home worth?”

This is a huge step in determining if your Realtor is out to buy your listing or be honest with you. This is another reason it is important to interview at least 3 Realtors. If two are close in price and the third is way out in left field, you know something is up. The next question should be:

“How will you market my home?”

If you hear crickets then you need to end the meeting soon. They are wasting your time. In this real estate market you MUST have a marketing plan. This isn’t just putting the “for sale sign” up and printing some flyers. We’re talking you should have went to college and got your marketing degreekind of stuff. If they aren’t using the internet to market your home then you shouldn’t hire them. 95% of the buyers who are looking for homes are looking online. They are making their next decision based on the pictures they see. Does your Realtor have a professional photographerto take the photos of your home? Do they use QR Codes? Do you know what they are? These are a few things that you need to have yourself armed with when you are interviewing Realtors.

Contact me today and I can give you the interview questions for FREE so that you are prepared for those interviews. Just make sure that I am THE REAL ESTATE BROKER YOU CHOOSE!

Have you had your home on the market and your home hasn’t sold? Do you know why this is? Has your Realtor told you what needs to happen to get your home sold? Has your Realtor marketed your home well? Have you Google’d your address lately to see what your Realtor has been doing to market your home?

If you have answered NO to most of these then you need to re-evaluate your home selling plan. What made you choose the Realtor that you did? This is one of the first questions I ask when sellers come to me after their home has been on the market for a long time and it hasn’t sold. Most of the time they say it was a referral from a friend or family member or they found them on the internet. This is a great way to find a Realtor, but you shouldn’t choose the first one that comes your way. Don’t get me wrong, I do most of my business by referral, but I still think it’s a good idea that you interview at least 3 Realtorsbefore making your decision.

Even though you had a referral it’s not necessarily going to be the case that this Realtor is going to be the right fit for you. Yes, that person obviously got the home sold and obviously did a really good job with your friend or family member, but there are other things to think about.

You must be able to communicate well with your Realtor. This is the biggest complaint I get from other sellers that their Realtor didn’t fill them in on what was going. Sometimes they wouldn’t hear from them for weeks sometimes months. Communication just isn’t about frequency; it’s also about how you talk to each other. I am sure you all have had a situation that no matter how much you talk to someone they just aren’t getting you. You need to make sure that your personalities click. A lot of people forget to think about that when they are looking for their Realtor.

Once you know that you are able to communicate well with your Realtor then you get down to the nitty gritty of how they are going to get your home sold.

Stay tuned for more on how to choose the right Realtor to get your home SOLD!

So… you are thinking about selling your home.

You have lived there for several years and it has become your pride and joy. Your reasons may be you would like to move upor downsize. Or you got an amazing new joband you have to move. Whatever your reason may be it’s also a great time to sell your home. If you are planning on buying a home once yours sell’s then you will see what all the fuss is about with it being a buyer’s market.

Sure you may not get as much money for your current home as you thought you might, but add the savings to your next home purchase and that is too good to pass up. I have had many sellers ask me about selling their home and they continue to say they are going to wait. I say… “What are you waiting for?”A lot of the times you get so focused on selling your home that you forget to see the big picture.

One huge reason you shouldn’t wait is because the interest ratesare going to go up. It is inevitable that this will probably happen by the end of this year or sooner. If you are thinking about selling your home this is important because when the interest ratesget too high, we see the buyers get less and less. The same reason of interest rates also goes if you are planning on buying a home after yours sells. You don’t want to sell your home for less than you thought and then have to pay high interest rates.

Another reason is home prices. In the four county areas King, Pierce, Snohomish, & Kitsap we have seen the home prices stay steady. In addition, the inventory has come down as well. This creates a perfect storm for the home prices to start ticking back up. Do I think our market is going to be what it was? No. Do I think it’s a great time to buy? Yes.

But, more importantly I also think it’s a great time to sell!

Gig Harbor Snow Storm January 2012

So we are on day 6 of this epic Northwest snow storm and there is an end in sight, but it just seems to be getting pushed back further and further. Tonight was the first time I left the house and it was glorious, but very hard to get up our hill. I always bragged about my Honda Accord having amazing powers to get anywhere in the snow. Today the snow and ice won! We had to put chains on Bessy for the first time! We finally made it up our hill and are safe and sound and we now have power. That has been touch and go all day too. This snow storm has made a mess of things, but there is much beauty in what it has left behind.

It's supposed to finally be gone tomorrow and I am ready for this to be over. I always get excited for it's appearance and then very excited when it is time to go. This is one of the worst snow storms I have ever seen here! I hope this is it for the season.