Seller's
Special Report
Ten
Simple Steps You Can Take to Ensure Your Home
Sells at Top Dollar
- Emotional appeal. Make
sure your home looks, feels and smells
its best. You're competing with hundreds
of other homes for sale. Buyers buy on
emotion… let your home be the
cleanest, freshest and cheeriest, and
you'll have a much faster sale… at a
higher price.
- Read my "How To
Show Your Home" flyer very
carefully. If your home is logically
a good value, but a buyer doesn't feel
warm and emotionally attracted to the
home, it will not sell. Buyers buy on
emotion, not logic. You'll want lots of
people to say or think, "Wow! This
is nice! I would like to live here!"
- Lots of light. For
maximum effect, turn every light on, even
on a sunny day. Open all window shades.
Clean your draperies and curtains. Make
sure your windows are spotlessly clean.
Let the sun in and keep those lights on.
Leaving all your lights on for two hours
costs only 23 cents, and makes your home
look larger and more spacious.
- Weekly open houses. You
can't expect to sell a house quickly at
the top price unless you get lots of
buyers inside to see it. There are more
than 1,000 homes competing with yours for
attention. Your home must be exposed to
buyers regularly and repeatedly to get a
fast sale at the full price. Weekly home
showings are the key to the success of my
Hotline Tour of Homes, giving my clients
fast, full-priced sales.
- Constant exposure. Your
home won't sell unless buyers know about
it. To get top dollar, be sure to have
your home repeatedly exposed to
qualified, ready-to-buy buyers. Some
brokers charge you a discount commission,
then don't advertise your home. This is a
mistake. The $500 or $1,000 you save in
commission is more than offset by a sale
price of $4,000 or $10,000 less than what
you would have received if your home had
been properly marketed. Remember, buyers
can't know about your home unless you or
your buyer has a marketing plan to ensure
that your home is brought to the
attention of home buyers.
- Non-traditional
advertising. 83% of buyers looking
for a home in the $100,000 to $150,000
price range are first-time home buyers.
Many first-time home buyers don't even
know they can afford a home. They don't
know that owning a home costs less than
renting. They think that they need 20%
for a down payment, plus closing costs!
If your home is in the first-time
homebuyer price range, a substantial
portion of your marketing dollars should
be aimed directly at first-time
homebuyers. This means advertising and
marketing in areas other than the
"Homes for Sale" classifieds or
Sunday Open Houses in the Carroll County
Times.
- Education. First-time
homebuyers are more likely to pay top
dollar for your home. If your home is in
the first-time homebuyer price range,
make sure that your marketing program
shows first-time buyers the benefits of
home ownership and how affordable your
home is. Design a marketing plan to get
first-time home buyers to see the inside
of your home.
- Multiple signs. Many
home buyers don't even see traditional
"for sale" signs, because they
aren't actively thinking of buying. They
often don't realize that they can afford
a much nicer home. The strategy of an
additional sign in the yard shatters the
"advertising protection armor"
that every consumer wears. After testing
by REALTY WORLD - Unlimited in Eldersburg,
Maryland has proven that a second
"Real Estate Hotline", will
result in more inquiries, more showings,
a quicker sale, and a 3% to 5% higher
price for your home.
- Aggressive Target
Marketing. Lots of buyers will buy
your home for less than it's worth. The
secret in getting top dollar is to find a
buyer who is perfectly
"matched" to your home. Right
now, there are at least ten buyers who
would love to own your home, can afford
it, and would pay a fair asking
price… if only they knew about it!
Some of these buyers may not even be
thinking of buying yet, but if they knew
about your home would love it! It takes a
lot more than just a sign in the yard and
an ad in the paper to market a home
effectively. Aggressive target marketing
will find those buyers!
- Create urgency.
The Rule of Full Price states that if a
buyer feels the asking price is fair, and
has sufficient sense of urgency, he will
pay the full asking price. Example: My
weekly showings of my listings to more
than one buyer at a time creates a
feeling of urgency. Prospective buyers
feel an "auction effect"
because of other buyers showing interest
in your home at the same time. I have
found that the more buyers I can show
your home to at the very same time, the
higher the feeling of urgency. The
auction effect causes people to become
more excited and enthused about your
home, thereby creating a sense of
competition and urgency which results in
full price sales for 96.5% of my clients.
This report has been prepared
by Jim Blaney & Associates
A note from Jim:
I am not a salesperson, I am a marketer of homes.
As a free service, I am happy to
prepare a Marketing Plan for your home.
This Marketing Plan comes to you free of charge,
and without obligation. I'll show you the most
cost-effective places to advertise. I'll show you
how to slash your ad costs, while at the same
time tripling your ad response. I'll actually
prepare ads for you that cost very little to run,
and obtain results far out of proportion to
anything else you could try.
This Marketing Plan is yours to use even if you
sell your home yourself or list with another
broker. It comes with "no strings
attached" and absolutely no selling.
Why do I do this? Because I've found that helping
people like you market their homes for no
obligation brings me even more business.
When I help you, you will tell your friends and
associates about me. That brings more business to
me than I could ever attain by
"selling." It's all part of my personal
philosophy of helping, rather than selling. I
believe (and have experienced) that the more
people I help, the more business that comes my
way.
So, please, feel free to call me without any
commitment or obligation. Call me 24-hours a day
at (410) 795-3000 ext. #121.
The Jim Blaney Team
Real Estate Consultants
REALTY WORLD Unlimited
1036 Circle Drive
Eldersburg, MD 21784
410-795-5500
Copyright 1999-2000 James
M. Blaney, Inc. This document is protected by
international copyright laws. All rights
reserved.
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