Sell Your Home in Half the Time

Freeze frame on our nation’s economy. If no new houses were built, there are enough unsold houses to satisfy the needs of the majority of buyers for about nine months. In other words, if no new homes were built it would still take nine months to sell all the houses that are available for sale today.

According to Ziprealty.com one of the nation’s websites that track such figures, the month of January marked the first month in the past 18 months when the number of homes listed on the nation’s MLS totaled more than the month before. In fact January saw a 2.9% increase in available homes in the 27 major U.S. housing markets used to measure these trends.

And to top it off, they’re still building houses in my neighborhood. In fact workers just studded in walls and rafters this week on a new home being built on the lot adjacent to mine. Nation wide, 2010 new housing starts are projected to be down about half of their recent high of 1100 per month in late 2007. This means that not only are there more available homes than there are buyers for several months to come, new home builders are starting over 500 more new homes to add to the already glutted inventory.

Gloom, despair and agony on everyone… Right? Nope! I met someone this week with a track record to back up her claims to sell your home in half the time other Realtors take. How does she do it? Well I asked her to share some of her secrets and she didn’t even flinch. Like she didn’t care if other realtors (and even those folks who want to sell their homes without a realtor) knew how she did it.

“I sell my customer’s homes faster than other Realtors because of a few tricks of the trade, but really it boils down to the fact that I work harder than most other Realtors” Melodee said. By the way, her name is Melodee Dailey with Coldwell Banker Twin Rivers Real Estate, Inc. (melodee.dailey@coldwellbanker.com) So here is how she does it.

Trust. The seller has to know that they can trust that their Realtor will do what they say they will and actually do more than they say the will in order to sell their house. Melodee told me that in a typical week she attends at least 4 events that allow her to network with other business people and potential buyers. This week she’s crammed 7 such meetings into her schedule because next week she’s going on vacation. “My customers know how busy I am doing everything possible to sell their home in the quickest possible time. That’s why when I make recommendations of a few things they need to do to make their house stand out in the crowd, they’re receptive and in most cases do what I suggest” Dailey said.

Staging. Most sellers live in their home and have become accustomed to the way it “feels”. But a good realtor sees the potential in every home they list and know how to make that home look and “feel” the best it possibly can. “That’s why I have a full-time home stager working for me” said Dailey. “I can see the potential and I can sell that potential to prospective buyers; that’s my specialty. But my stager knows how to stage a home better than I do. We each use our strengths to do what the seller expects us to do…sell their house.”

Pictures. It’s the difference between the snapshots I would take at a family picnic and the portrait the professional took of my daughter at her wedding. The pictures used to present a home to potential buyers make a huge difference in whether or not the buyers actually decide to put that home on their list to see. “Again, I know how to spot a home’s potential and I know how to get that home in front of potential buyer’s eyes, but I’m not a professional photographer, that’s why I also have a full-time professional photographer who knows how to capture a buyer’s attention so they will put that home on their ‘must see’ list of homes” Dailey emphasized.

Internet. National statistics reveal that 86% of home buyers decide which homes to consider after first previewing them on the Internet. Dailey continued, “Home buyers use a variety of websites to preview potential homes, so it is imperative that a listing Realtor build a large base of websites on which to market each of their listings. And then they have to use these sights to aggressively sell their clients house”