Today I saw on the state's website that my real estate company is finally registered.

It is GEEK REALTY LLC

To see my website click here

School is out here in Polk and Hillsborough counties.

It is now the holiday weekend.  For the last two years, this weekend has been a slow real estate week for me.  But the next week has been VERY BUSY!

We shall see!!!

Currently the market is a little flat in Plant City.  Sellers have finally begun to drop their prices a meaningful amount or taking their houses off the market entirely.

Those that are dropping the price are typically those that have already moved out of the area and are feeling the pain of two mortgages.  Those that are removing their home from the market are those that did not have to sell, just wanted to.

Then there are those with dollar signs in their eyes.  Many of these people still have their home listed at last years prices and if they sell, it will be a miracle.  But, if they keep them listed long enough, maybe the market will catch back up with them.  History indicates that this will happen, the question is "When?".

But with this full blown buyer's market, there are still exceptions.  There was a house I was working with a buyer on and we were thinking he could get it for something less than list, when out of the blue another buyer stepped in and bought it for $182,000 and the house was only listed for $175,000.

One problem with buyers now are that they are afraid that prices are going to go down more and they don't want to buy until they can convince hemselves the deal they are getting is the best they can get.  This is causing them to want to look at more homes and sometimes, like the situation above, by the time they decide to act it is too late.  And maybe too little.

Call volume has been sporadic lately with some weekends going by without a single call.  This is unusual, but is allowing me to catch up on a lot of things I have been putting off. :)

What do you get when you call most anyone in business and ask a question?  Usually a dry monotone answer.

That's what you get when you call most real estate agents and ask about a home you see advertised.  Dry, monotone, the house is 3500 sf with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, a two car garage on a large lot with fruit trees and established landscaping.  All this for only $279,900.

As a seller, is that how you want your house described?  I think not.  I think you want a Realtor who likes what he or she does and is passionate about it!

And the poor buyer prospect who called for the information!  Some thoughts the prospect may have had:  What, does the Realtor think I can't read?  Most of that information was in the ad!  I told him I was looking at the ad.  I want to know something new, something that will help me decide if this is a home I am interested in actually going to see.

I think a Realtor should make your home search or the selling of your home, his or her passion!  Get passionate about advertising.  Get passionate about staging.  Get passionte about getting the price right.  Get passionate about searching the MLS and other listings every day.  Get passionate about the home search!  Get passionate about selling that home!

Don't just sit back and wait for things to happen.  Make getting results for your customers YOUR PASSION!!!

I am a geek!  I have been a geek all of my life.

When I was in school, I was always the kid with his hand up trying to get the teachers to call on me.  I had studied and I knew the answers.

In school, this didn't make me popular.

But, now at age 48, I have a lot of experience at studying and knowing the answers.

In 1981, I started a career in Information Technology (back then it was called Data Processing) as a computer programmer.  In 1984, I started my own consulting company,  which I successfully ran until 2004.

I have a lot of experience with helping many businesses, large and small, grow through the use of technology.

Selling Real Estate is a business.  Some agents don't approach it like it is a business.  They may have had a certain amount of success because they were able to get enough business from the friends and relatives in their first year or two.  Or maybe they work for a broker who is generating buyer and seller leads and giving them to these agents.

But, in the long run, what does it take to be successful?  You have to approach Real Estate as a business.  That means studying the market. Finding out what works and what does not.  Watching for trends that may cause problems down the road.

GEEKS ARE GREAT AT ALL OF THESE THINGS!

I love to measure results.  If I have been advertising in a particular magazine and not tracking how many calls, sales, website hits, etc... developed from that advertising, how do I know if it is money well spent?  But being the geek that I am, every inquiry I received is tracked and then on a monthly basis I can tell where I should reduce advertising, where I should increase it and maybe even where I should stop it all together.  For you, as a client, this means I will be able to sell your home as quickly as possible and for the most money, without having to raise my commission rates.

I love technology.  Websites, micro websites, Talking House, blogs, etc...  If I can justify the cost by showing that a technology produces results, I will use it.  At the same time, if a technology is not proving itself, then I am able to reject it quickly without wasting more money on it.  Again, this is because I am measuring results.

If you agree and would like a GEEK to help you sell or buy Real Estate, I am waiting for your call.  Please be prepared to identify how you found me so that I can track the effectiveness of this blog.

Many agents hate questions about their commissions.

Not me, I love them!  I suppose that if you felt like you were not worth what you are being paid, you would not relish justifying them to your clients.

Commissions are driven by two main factors.  Competition and cost of doing business.

To be successful, every agent has to realize that their business is not operating in a vacuum.  If they charge a commission that is significantly higher than the competition, getting business will be difficult.  If they charge a rate that is too low, they will lose money.  No matter how hard you try, if you are losing money on every deal, you can't make up for it with volume.

Every customer should ask the agent about the commission and what the agent is doing to earn it. 

On the listing side, there are many obvious expenses associated with listing and marketing a house.  Things like signs, advertisements, open houses, flyers, direct mail, etc...  If the list price of the home is competitive with the market and the commission rate is high enough that I can make a profit, I will take the listing and market the heck out of it.  Otherwise, I don't want the listing.

Buyers should question the commission too.  The agent is likely to reply that the seller is paying the commission.  This is false.  The transaction is paying the commission.  If it were not for the commission, it is likely that the seller would have accepted less for the property.  If I were the agent representing a buyer who came to me knowing exactly what they wanted and my effort expended was less than normal, I would be inclined to make a concession on the commission, as long as I could do it without violating any lending laws.  But, if I have been driving the buyers all over town for three months, I would feel justified in accepting the entire commission.  You never know if you don't ask!

At the end of the day, the buyer, the seller, the listing agent and the selling agent all have to get what they want and need or the deal is not a success.  Agents who realize this fact prosper while those who do not, do not.

Everyday I receive several (maybe dozens) of email flyers from builders offering truly wonderful deals.

One recent example offered a 1827 SF 4/3 with 2 car garage for $217,990 with 8% being paid towards buyers closing costs.

Another offered a 1632 SF 3/2 wih 2 car garage for $197,990 with 8% paid towards buyers closing costs.

These are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are literally hundreds of homes for sale by builders with these kinds of deals.  Some are offering no payments until 2008.  Deals are being made and homes are being bought!

It is the perfect time to buy a new home.  If you are a buyer and you would like more information, just give me a call at (813) 494-2640.  It will cost you nothing, my commission is paid by the builder.

As a Realtor I hear what buyers say almost every day.  Sometimes what they say makes sense and sometimes not.

But, whether it makes sense to me or not, to the buyer, it definitely will influence their buying decision.

For example, you would not believe how many buyers will rule out a home because they don't like the color of a wall,  the style of curtains, a bedspread in the master bedroom, etc...

None of these items should cause a buyer to rule out a particular home, but many times, these are the kind of objectiions they raise when asked about a home.  As a Realtor and trusted advisor I have to tactfully point out that most of these items will not even be left with the house and the others can be easily changed.  Sometimes they volunteer these comments during the showing and other times, these objections only come out at a post showing discussion.

What does this mean to a home seller?

Well, first of all, paying attention to staging and cleanliness is of prime importance.  Obviously, you cannot stage a home so that everyone will like the colors or the drapes or floors or whatever.  But you can certainly try to make the home as appealing as possible to the largest audience possible.  This is where I can help.  My exposure to many homes on a daily basis has given me a kind of "eye" for what works and what doesn't.  I can give you many tips on things to do to make the house appeal to as many people as possible.  In fact, whether you are listing with me or not, you can email and ask for my "Geek Staging Tips" and I will send them right out to you.

The second thing this shows to potential sellers is the value of having an experienced agent showing their home to potential buyers.  If these buyers were looking at your home and they objected to your choice of drapes, do you think they would tell you this is the reason they are ruling out your home?  Probably not, that would be rude.  So they just make some excuse about needing to think about it and then they never call again.  You are never given the opportunity to point out that the drapes are not staying anyway, or maybe even offering a drapery allowance to them to sweeten the deal.  An experienced and creative agent would be able to hear the objections and come up with many different ways to handle them, depending on the situation.

I mentioned above that I have an "eye" for staging.  As an after thought, I want to add that sometimes a "nose" for staging is what is needed.  Offensive and/or unidentifiable odors will turn a buyer off as quickly as anything else.  The lesson here is to scrub and clean the home to a state I like to call white glove and toothbrush clean.  If possible, move pets somewhere else during the selling phase.  Definitely remove them for the showing.  Smoking, same thing.  Get rid of the odor and stop smoing in the house to keep from reintroducing the odor.  If you have pets and/or smoke in your home and you feel like there is no odor, find someone you trust who has no pets and does not smoke to come into your home and give you their opinions.  This could make the difference between another showing with no result and an offer leading to a contract and ultimately the sale!

Today on the local MLS there were 56 expired listings.  So at least 56 people are wondering today, "Why didn't my house sell?"

There is only one thing that sells a house.  Nope, it is not a real estate agent.  New floors?  Nope.  Staging? Nope.  Landscaping?  Nope.

It's traffic...  Traffic you ask, How can traffic sell a house?  Well, how are potential buyers gonna see your new ceramic tile, kitchen counter tops, chandelier, or whatever?  They have to come out and see the house.

So without traffic, nothing else matters!

There are three things that generate traffic when selling a house.

1. Location.  This is something you can't fix about your home, so it is what it is.
2. Price.  If the home is priced too high, then prospective buyers will not even look at it.  You should set your list price very close to what you would be willing to sell it for.  The argument that you want to leave some wiggle room for negotiations may have kept buyers away.  If there were other houses on the market that were priced correctly and yours was priced too high, you would not even get any lookers.  Too low and you would have given some or all of you equity away to the buyer.
3. Marketing.  Whether you were selling you home yourself or you had an agent, marketing and advertising were important.  If people didn't know your house was for sale, they could not come see it.  To do this properly takes a lot of money.  The smallest classified ad you could get in the Tampa Tribune for real estate costs $100.  Then there are all of the "Homes Magazines", ie. Harmon Homes, Plant City Real Estate Guide, Neighborhood Homes, etc...  An ad in these magazines costs $200 or more per month.  Advertising an open house, another classified ad.  Then there is the cost of snacks or other goodies at the open house.  Another $20 - $50.  Yard signs, another $30 per listing.  Direct mail, another $200 - $300.  Posting your listing on all of the available websites.  This one is hard to put a price on.  It takes a lot of time and many of the websites charge an annual fee.  Who paid for all of this? Your real estate agent, out of his anticipated commission.  Or if you were selling it yourself, it came out of your pocket.

"Now what does this mean to me today?",  you ask.

It means that if you decide to try again, a lot of effort should be made to make sure the price is set correctly for the current market.  The price should be reevaluated at least monthly and adjusted accordingly.  This might mean changing the price, or taking the home off the market altogether.

As for the marketing, if you are selling the home yourself, the real estate magazines are probably not an available option to you.  The MLS and Realtor.com are not options.  So you will have to rely on newspaper, direct mail, yard signs, etc... 

If you were listed with an agent, then hopefully he was doing all of the above mentioned marketing activities and more.  If not, why not?  Was the list price too high?  Many agents will take any listing, even if it is priced too high.  Then the realization sets in that all of the money for marketing is almost certainly being wasted.  What happens then, they shut down the marketing, doing just enough to keep you from pulling the listing. 

What about the commission?  Was the commission rate negotiated down?  To cover all of the various expenses a real estate agent incurs while marketing a home, and still make a profit, he needs to charge a fair commission.  Did you know that, generally speaking, half of the commssion you agreed to pay would have went to the agent (and his broker) that would have represented the buyer?  So if you agreed to pay 4%, then your agent is spending money, out of his own pocket, to market your home, speculating that he and his broker will split 2%.  So, the lower the commission, the less likely it is that your home was marketed to the max. 

While talking about commission,  think about this.  If you were an agent with a buyer and you saw three identical houses on the MLS for the same price.  Two of them offer 2% commission to the buyer's agent and one offers 3.5%.  Which one are you likely to show first?  Which one are you more  likely to try a little harder to sell?  Now as agents, we have a legal and moral duty to do what is in the best interest of our clients.  But in this case, the homes are identical.  So who could fault an agent who tries a little harder to sell the one that brings in 3.5% vs. 2%?

With all of this in mind, look back and see if you can figure out why your home did not sell.  Was there enough traffic?  If not, why?  Was it the location?  The price?  Or the marketing?  Chances are, it was one or more, maybe all three.

A good agent should be able to look at your situation and tell you what went wrong and what to do to fix it.

I am a good agent!