Jack Ma Real Estate Team - Top Producer® Website · 2014-12-11 · Jack Ma Real Estate Team...

Jack Ma Real Estate Team

909.610.5188 | [email protected]

HOME SELLERS GUIDE

PRESENTED BY

THE JACK MA TEAM



Three Main Factors Buyers Consider When Evaluating Your Home

1. Location

Location, location, location is what everybody always says in real estate. If you’ve got a great location then you’ve got the first thing taken care of, and you don’t have to worry about it. If you have a location that is not as desirable or has some inhibiting factor about it then we really have to study what best qualities we can present about your location.

You have no control over your location. It is what it is.

2. Presentation Quality

If You Want to Know Why John Smith Buys What John Smith Buys, You’ve Got to See the World through John Smith’s Eyes

There is one very important thing for you to understand when trying to sell your home: how you currently choose to live in the home, and how you stage the home for maximum reward may be two entirely different things.

When staging your property to sell, there are three main things you need to do to put the home in its most saleable condition...

1. De-personalize

• You want the buyers to feel as if they could move right into your house without changing a thing. Any personal pictures or artifacts left out will make it more difficult for the buyer to begin envisioning themselves taking ownership of the house, because they are being constantly reminded of the current owners.

2. De-clutter

• Any clutter left on kitchen countertops, tables, bookshelves, etc will cause your home to feel smaller than it really is.



3. Neutralize

• Why is it that if you walk into the model home of any large successful builder today, you will find almost all neutral colors? Because builders are professional homes sellers, and they know what causes homes to sell!

• It is common for sellers to think “I shouldn’t change the paint or flooring because the buyer will want to choose their own colors.” In reality though, buyers buy on emotion, not on logic. They will walk through your home and either have great feelings about it or not. Yes, there are buyers out there that can see past paint colors, but the majority of buyers don’t have the same personal tastes as you do and they don’t have the vision to see beyond the colors. You will be turning away 80% of the market that only want homes that are ready to move in.

Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Have I done everything that I can do reasonably to put my home in the presentation quality that it needs to have the WOW factor for that buyer as they walk through the door? • Is the house neat and clean? • Have I addressed any issues that I need to address as far as making the house look good and smell good?

• Do I have deferred maintenance that I need to take care of at this point in time? • Do I have anything that is a significant issue with regards to housekeeping or the yard?

You have direct control over your presentation quality.

3. Price

How to Price Your Home to Net You the Most Money

The market is a moving, fluid entity and no one can predict with 100% certainty what a house will sell for. However, there are some very good techniques that can be used to help in predicting what the market will reward you with.

Many people limit their market analysis to looking at comparable sales in their neighborhood. This is a big mistake, because looking at sold data does not tell you anything about the current market with respect to how many buyers are in the market today (demand) and the other homes currently on the market that will



be your direct competition (supply). We always begin our pricing analysis by looking at this critical factor.

Here is an example Supply / Demand Analysis for Madison County...

This chart tells us that in Madison County on December 31, 2007, there are enough houses on the market at that moment in time for 6.3 months worth of buyers. In other words, if buyers keep buying at their current rate of 513.7 per month, and no new homes came on the market (which of course they will), it would take 6.3 months to run out of housing. A neutral market is defined as 5 to 6 months of inventory. A sellers market (hot) is 4 months of inventory or less. A buyers market (slow) is 7 months or more. When we do this analysis for you, we will zoom in on your specific neighborhood or area to get a more accurate picture.

Now that you know how many other houses are out there that you will be competing with, and at what rate they are being bought, you can decide where to position your home in the marketplace. If there is a low supply of houses available on the market relative to demand, you can price your home a little higher to seek maximum reward. If there are many houses on the market and a low number of buyers, then you will need to price your house accordingly so that you will be one of the best op- tions available when you come on the market.



How to Interpret a “Comparative Market Analysis”

Many people look only at sold data when doing a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis), but there are actually six important categories to look at.

1. Active – These are the homes that are currently on the market. Some of

them may be new to the market, and others might have been on the market a long time due to overpricing. This category shows you exactly which homes you will be competing against. Look at these homes carefully for things about them that are more attractive or less attractive than your property to a potential buyer. Try to determine what will make you the most attractive opportunity on the market in terms of price and value.

2. Backup – A contingent property is one that is under contract, but has contingencies that can let the buyer cancel, such as financing, home inspection, and having another home to sell. Until a property closes, the sales price is not public information so you may or may not be able to accurately use these properties as comparable for your home.

3. Pending – These properties are under contract, and all contingencies have been removed. Like contingent properties, the sales price is not always known.

4. Sold - These are the winners! Sold data is the most solid information

because it tells you exactly what the market was willing to reward sellers with. By looking very carefully at these homes, you should be able to get a fairly good value range of what the market might reward you with.

5. Expired – These are the losers, the properties that were rejected by the market, and did not sell before the listing period with their agent expired. All of these properties were priced above what the market determined their value to be. You can use these to see how NOT to price your own house.

6. Withdrawn – Most of these were also rejected properties, and were pulled off the market before listing expiration because they were not getting any showings.



Three Things Can Happen When Your Home Goes On the Market

There’s No Sense Fishing With Your Bait Out of Water!



The #1 Most Common Mistake in Selling a House

The most common mistake made by many home sellers is to try to “test the waters” by pricing their home high at the beginninXZg, and reducing it a few weeks later if it hasn’t sold yet.

As the chart above shows, the very most important time in marketing your house is the first 30 days, because that is when the buyers that have already been in the market for a while will look at your house and make a choice whether or not they think it is a good value. These buyers are motivated, have already seen everything that is available for sale, and are waiting for something new to be listed. If they reject your price, the first impression has already been made, and there is a very high chance that they will never consider your property again.

Another reason why overpricing at the beginning will net you less money is that the longer your home sits on the market, the more “stale” it will become. Potential buyers may wonder why it has been on the market so long or if something is wrong with the property, even after you lower the price. You may even have to settle for less than market value. A house takes on a reputation surprisingly fast, so don’t wear out your welcome on the market.

Sellers whose Home was on the Market for:

All

Sellers

Less Than 1 Week

1 to 2 weeks

3 to 4 weeks

5 to 8 weeks

9 to 16 weeks

17 or more weeks

Sales Price to List

Price Ratio 98% 100% 100% 99% 98% 97% 95%



Every Home Has Three Prices

1. Tax Assessment

• The tax assessment value has nothing to do with the actual value of your home. The assessment office updates values annually, and it is based on a formula in your area. They don’t know anything about the specifics of your home, and they don’t keep up with current market trends.

2. Appraised Value

• Although what an appraiser says your home is worth is not true market value, it is still very important. If the appraised value is lower than the true market value, you will more than like- ly have to adjust your price down to the appraised value in order to close, unless the buyer is paying cash and is not getting an appraisal.

3. True Market Value

• Definition: what a buyer is actually willing to pay for your property. • No appraiser, Realtor, neighbor, friend, family member, or tax assessor can tell you what the true market value of your home is unless they are actually backing their price up by putting down money to buy your property.

You have 100% control over your price.



Is Your Price On Target?

The “OFFERS” part of the target represents market value. Your will get offers when the buyer perceives your home to be a great value compared to the other homes they are seeing. You have won the pricing war and the beauty contest

PRICE IS 2-5% TOO HIGH Symptom: “Showing but no offers”

If we have lots of showings, but no offers the buyer is clearly making a statement about the price compared to other homes they sre seeing. Buyers will walk through your home and give feedback that sounds like this, “Well, it was really nice but it was too small, or it didn’t have a dining room, or the backyard is too small.: These issues will be things that you already know as a seller, but can’t fix, except by reducing the price. What the buyer is doing is giving you neutral answers and they’re crossing your home off the list. Most buyers find a home in about 2-4 weeks, and they are going to find the best priced house that meets the size, condition and location that they’re looking for. In other words, they are going to buy the prettiest home for the lowest sale price. We want that to be your home.

If you hesitate to reduce your price, You will end up selling your home below market place because when you started too high and chase the market down rather that getting ahead of it, you end up selling at a price actually lower than market value. Your best chance to make a price adjustment, is in the first 30 days.

OFFERS!

Showing but no offers

Drive by only

Drive Ups & Low # Showing



PRICE IS 6-10% TOO HIGH Symptom: “Drive ups only & low number of showings”

If you are excessively overpriced, the next circle is 6-10% too high which means you are completely out of the market. You have buyers who see your home online and choose not to make an appointment to physically see your home. Or they make an appointment and they don’t come in, they drive by or they even pulled into your driveway and the buyer say “This is ridiculous, were not even getting out of the car.” You are not going to make a buyer get out of the car and look at something if they don’t want to nor will you make a buyer searching on the internet make an appointment to see a home unless they perceive real value, so that’s what I call an internet only showing or a drive-up only showing. They saw it on the internet and clicked “next”, or they drove up and drove away.

PRICE IS MORE THAN 10% TOO HIGH Symptom: “Drive by only”

The drive-bys only happen when the buyer has some information on the home from their agents, they drive by and say, “Wow, can you believe that price for that house,” and thy don’t even call. They just discard the information. Or the agent sees the new listing in the MLS, they look at it and say, “Not possible, it cant be possible that this price is for this house, the square footage, this acreage.”

What we want to do is price the house in the center of the target in order to get offers, wouldn’t’ you agree? If we have missed the market when we list the home for sale, the best thing we can do is reposition your home as a possible by reducing the price quickly.



7 Critical Responsibilities of a Real Estate Agent... Make Sure Yours Does These 7 Things Better Than Anyone Else

1. Create Awareness That Your Property is Now Available For Sale

The agent you select must do everything he or she can to be sure that the consumer is made aware that you are now available by the methods they are looking to find you.

Where Buyers First Learned About the Home They Purchased

From the 2009 National Association of Realtors Profile of Homebuyers and Sellers

There are some low-impact marketing methods some agents still use such homes magazines, newspaper ads, and open houses. There’s nothing wrong with choosing an agent that uses those marketing methods in addition to high-impact methods, but make sure that the agent you hire invests heavily in and understands how to use the high-impact marketing mediums in the chart above, which are: 1. The Real Estate Agent Community, 2. The Internet, and 3. The Signage on the Property. These three account for 84% of all sales. Newspaper ads



and homes magazines only account for 2% combined. TV and radio ads don’t even make the chart.

2. Promote the Specific Benefits That Your Home Brings to the Market

Awareness level is not enough. If awareness level were enough, you could put a sign in the yard yourself and you could do whatever minimal advertising it took to make the consumer aware you were here. And they would come to your door, automatically. Well that’s not quite the way it happens, because there’s a selection process and an evaluation process by which a consumer will select a property to go look at or a real estate professional will select a property to present. That process is based on information given and an understanding of why that property is a better opportunity than its direct competition.

That’s my job. It is to educate the consumer and the real estate professional of the benefits that your property brings to the market over any of its direct competition. That’s why it is so important that we go through and do our homework properly on your home to be the most educated people about your house second only to you, the homeowner. You’re looking to me as your prime person to go out into the marketplace and make people understand that you are the best opportunity. I must be able to speak with great authority and great wisdom about your home so that there is no question if they are making a consideration between a competing property and yours, that they have more information, more understanding, and a feeling that this is the better opportunity based on my presentation of information about your house.

My job is not only to create the awareness level, it is to take it to the next level and really promote the benefits that your property has and educate both the consumer and the real estate professionals working in your segment of the market.

3. Defend Your Equity

When you hire a real estate agent to represent you, that individual starting day one becomes the primary defender of your equity. The individual you choose should have the strongest negotiating skills that you can find in the marketplace to protect your interests.

It is my job to put the best contract terms and the best price on the table for your benefit.



4. Price Your Property Using an Accurate System that Nets You the Most Amount of Money

It is common for agents to look at three “comparable sales”, and come up with a price for your home. While looking at comparable sales is indeed important, it does not give the complete picture of the market you are in and where your home needs to be priced in order for it to sell.

We use a three step pricing system. First, we look at the supply vs demand in your immediate area. That tells us if we can afford to push the envelope on price, or if we need to concentrate on being the best deal out there. Second, we look at the comparable sales, and establish a value range that an appraiser could put your house in. Third, we look at your competition and answer the question “Based on the type of market you’re in, where do you need to be inside the appraised value range, among your competition, to ensure that you sell for the most money in a reasonable amount of time?”

5. Analyze Your Property’s Performance in the Market on a Weekly Basis

The agent you choose should have a pro-active approach to getting their listings sold. Most agents utilize the “3 P’s” method of selling homes... 1. Put a sign in the yard 2. Put it in the MLS 3. Pray

We don’t. For us, the day we put your home on the market is just a starting point. On a weekly basis, we are evaluating how your home is faring among its competition. We are looking at how many inquiries we received from potential buyers, number of showings, feedback from those showings, homes you were competing against that have now sold, and new competitors on the market. Once a week we are asking the question “If we continue down the same path we’re on right now in terms of marketing, presentation quality, and price, can we anticipate an offer coming in?” That’s a yes or no question. If the answer is no, then we need to figure out how we can get positioned correctly. We will be going over that data with you once a week.



6. Follow a Business Model that Supports Your Goals

There are two main types of business models that real estate agents choose from....

1. Take as many listings as possible whether they think they can sell them or not. Use those listings to generate buyer leads. The majority of income comes from buyer transactions in this model.

2. Take listings and actually get them sold. The majority of income comes from selling their own listings.

An easy way to find out which business model an agent is using is to ask how many listings they have right now, and how many of those are currently under contract with a buyer. If the percentage is less than the market average, they are the type 1 agent. If their percentage is better than the market average, they

are the type 2 agent. We get very uncomfortable if we ever have less than 30% of our listings in escrow. Most agents that carry a lot of listings usually have around 5% - 10% of their listings under contract.

When choosing your agent, make sure they view your home as their main source of income and not just an advertising link to buyers for other homes.

7. Tell You What You Need to Hear, Not What You Want to Hear

This seems so simple, but it is not. The greatest temptation a listing agent has is to tell people what they think they want to hear. This is true before an agent is hired and after the agent has been hired. Before they are hired, the temptation is to tell potential clients they can get the price they want, even if it’s above what the market looks like it will pay. And the temptation after being hired is to try to not be “offensive” and tell people when there is a problem... whether with the presentation quality of the home or with the price.

The best way to tell if an agent is always truthful with their clients is to look at their track record for getting homes sold. If they are not selling homes faster and for more money than the market average, chances are that agent is telling their clients what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

We promise to always tell you the truth, not just what we think will make you happy.



Seller’s Market (0-4 Months of Inventory; Price Moving Up)

Initial Price Correct Initial Price NOT Correct No Price Change

Initial Price NOT Correct Price Change MADE

Pri

ce

Pri

ce

Pri

ce

Time

Time

Time

$

$ $

Neutral Market (5-6 Months of Inventory; Prices are flat)



List Price

List Price List Price

Market Value

Market Value Market Value

Buyer’s Market (7+ Months of Inventory; Prices Moving Down)



List Price / Market Value List Price

Market Value Market Value

$

List Price

Pri

ce

Pri

ce

Pri

ce

Time

Time

Time

Pri

ce

Pri

ce

Pri

ce

Time

Time

Time

$

$

Market Value Market Value Market Value

List Price

List Price

List Price

SOLD SOLD SOLD

SOLD SOLD NOT SOLD

SOLD NOT SOLD SOLD

Jack Ma Real Estate Team - Top Producer® Website · 2014-12-11 · Jack Ma Real Estate Team...

Documents

Transcript of Jack Ma Real Estate Team - Top Producer® Website · 2014-12-11 · Jack Ma Real Estate Team...