The truth about how homes are sold in the Twin Cities! (1st of a series)

In life it can be said it is best to be the 1st born son, the 2nd wife, and the 3rd Realtor!

As good as my team and I feel we are about helping sellers properly condition, price and market their homes, we still are feeling the sting of the sluggish market, and Sellers are demanding answers and action!

Extended market times are testing the patience of sellers and their agents (and we are no exception!)

When a client’s home is not selling these are some of the things that come up:

 

 

Has your Realtor done a Realtor’s Open?

 

Has your Realtor advertised in the newspaper?

 

Has your Realtor done “Networking” with other agents?

 

How many Open Houses has your Realtor done?

 

What “Outside the Box” ideas has your Realtor come up with?

 

What about Craigs List?

 

 

 

Agents that are proposing these marketing concepts are doing so because that is what they were taught to say by their broker, because not only is it good market exposure for the Broker, they can be good prospecting sources for the agent to meet other buyers & sellers who really were not going to buy your home anyway.  Statistics & data show that these do not sell homes…

If another agent or company can prove me wrong, I’m all ears, but when interviewing other Realtors, ask them how many of their own listings they sell with their “unique methods”, or have them prove that it wasn’t MLS that actually procured the buyer in some manner!!!!

 

 

 

Here is a fact about how homes are sold in the Twin Cities.   The Twin Cities has one of the oldest and yet most sophisticated MLS systems in the US, perhaps the world.  Cooperation among Brokers in showing & selling each others Listings is unprecedented compared to other markets.  Over 95% of homes are sold because of them being listed on the MLS.  This is because the MLS is the “backbone” database that all Internet reciprocity sites (Realtor.com, Yahoo, Edina, Remax, etc…) pull data from.  So, a lot of buyers are first seeing the homes they buy because of the MLS, even though they may have selected and are working with an agent.  In addition, over 90% of homes in your price range (under $200,000) in St Paul are sold with what is called a co-brokerage, or Coop sale, where each party to the transaction (buyer & seller) have their own agent, and the buyer and the property got matched up because of the MLS, and the commission is split between brokers and their respective agents.  This means that 10% of homes or less are sold by the listing agent doing open houses, newspaper ads, etc…and I don’t believe it is even that high when you take new construction out of the mix.

 

 

 

If another agent or company can prove me wrong, I’m all ears, but when interviewing other Realtors, ask them how many of their own listings they sell, or have them prove that it wasn’t MLS that actually procured the buyer in some manner!!!!

 

 

 

So what I am saying is this:  I believe in making your home look as good as possible on the MLS because that is where the buyers & agents are ultimately are seeing your home.  Professional photography and virtual tours are a must!   Do you know any other Realtors beside me who have invested in their own equipment and been trained in shooting professional photos and virtual tours, and how to use them and link them on the Internet?

 

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