Why Hedging an Offer in a Bidding War is a Bad Idea

Q.  What do you mean by Hedging an Offer?

o   We cannot keep up with the inventory below $400,000

o   Many agents who put in offers knowing they face a bidding war will use a tactic called an Escalation clause – 

§  I’ll pay $1000 over the highest offer up to X”

§  The idea is that the strategy ‘saves’ the buyer money so they don’t have to pay the MAX price they are willing to pay.

Q. Why these Hedge offers or you call Escalation Clauses are a bad idea

o   Several reasons – let  me give an example

o   It puts doubt into the seller’s mind that the buyer is willing to pay that price

o   Its contingent on the behavior of someone else’s offer – which the agents do not know

o   Often buyers will bid a peak price that is above what an appraiser would approve – causing potential contract failures when the appraisal comes in low.

Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

  Q. Barb: I know you have handled the sale of many homes that foreclosed, what do they do in this situation?

·        Yes, we have handled hundreds of them.

·        They do not accept these escalation clauses that are contingent on someone else’s offer up to X.

·        Typically when they receive multiple offers, they give an offer deadline of another day or two for the buyer to bring their ‘Best and Highest Offer”

 Q. What are some offer clauses that win bidding wars?

·        #1 would be for the buyer to make their best offer

·        If they have some extra cash – offer an appraisal guaranteed

o   One recent sale which we received multiple offers had several offers that used an Escalation Clause. That meant to the seller one of the offers could not be accepted as written and needed write a counter proposal to lock in the price. That puts the deal in doubt for the seller. That home sold for $10,000 over asking price.

 Q. How do people thinking of buying a home get in touch with you?

·        Call our office at 719 301 3900

·       http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

·        To Get Insider Access to Not found on Zillow or other websites:

o   Private Facebook Page: Coming Soon Colorado Springs
 Offered by: Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado

7660 Goddard Street Suite 213, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Search: Barb Schlinker Real Estate for more information

Why do Some Listings Expire in a Hot Sellers Market

Q.  Why do Some Listing Expire / Unsold in a Hot Sellers Market?

 o   Usually there are 3 main reasons

§  Price

§  Condition

§  Marketing

o   Price sellers control

o   Condition sellers control

o   Marketing agents control

Q. How Could Marketing affect a home seller?

o   The #1 Reason is bad pictures – iphone pics

o   The #2 Reason is poor preparation for pictures – clutter

o   The #3 Reason is lack of appropriate exposure

§  Rex story

 Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

  Q. What happens if a listing expires / un sold? 

o   The big surprise for most home sellers is they and their family members get pounced on by desperate real estate agents

o   There are websites out there which agents can track down phone numbers of them and all of their family members

o   They will knock on doors as well.

o   We do not knock on doors or call people that took their home of the market.

o    We use direct response marketing.  We place ads and home sellers are compelled to reach out to us for services.

 Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

Offered by Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado

Why We Market our Listings on Social Media and other sites

Q.  Why do you market your listings on Social Media and other websites?

o   There have been many times when people have told me…we were not planning on buying a home but we saw it online and HAD to have it.

o   Scope of social media:

§  Facebook 244 million in us

§  Linked in 65 Million in us avg income $108K

§  Twitter 48 Million in us

§  Instagram 119 Million in us

§  Pinterest 250 million per MONTH in us

§  YouTube – 2.1 Billion per month of which US is 15% = 300 million users per month – my favorite

§  Search Barb Schlinker or Colorado Barb and I have created over 175 videos in the past year

Q. Why is Social Media and You Tube a Great Place for People that Market?

o   We market our listings

o   We provide real estate education

o   Drive traffic back to our website or

o   Obtain inquiries about our listings

o   Great way to attract buyers

Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

 Q. Why so many different social media platforms? 

o   There are different people on different platforms.

o   Facebook now considered more of a middle age or older group

o   Instagram is more for younger age, there are using some that I’ve never heard of. Too.

o   Linked in is more job seekers and professionals

o   You Tube covers a much wider age demographic

 Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

Low Inventory vs Pricing

Q.  Does a low inventory market indicate home sellers should price their homes higher?

 o   Some do and it works but in most cases it does not.

o   Pricing is a fine art and a very important decision

o   A majority of buyers are getting financing so home sellers should price their home so that an appraiser will concur its worth what the buyer is willing to pay.

o   We’ve had quite a few issues lately with appraisals coming in lower than the sales price.

§  Viero story

 Q. How Does a Home Seller Make a Good Decision on Pricing?

o   When you sit down with your agent you should consider similar sales in the area

o   An appraiser will use the same type of building (ranch to a ranch), similar square footage w/in 20%, sold in past year.  If you cannot find any we have to go to a different similar neighborhood

§  Maitland story

o   One thing out of a seller’s control is an agent’s selection of recent sales.

§  We recently sold a home in which another agent suggested a price $35,000 less than what my team sold it for because we know how to help a seller select the right sales price.

 Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

 Q. What other factors are considered on pricing? 

o   Things like condition

o   Level of updating

o   Views – buyers will pay a premium for view

Q.  How do home sellers know if they got pricing right?

o   Typically if there is buyer demand soon after it goes on the market, that is how they know.

Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

Why Hire an Agent When You Buy New Construction

Q.  When people go to buy new homes, should they have their own representation?

 o   There is nothing more exciting than building a new home.

o   There are a lot of great builders in town.

o   But you do not want to be denied representation

o   Title Insurance Story

 Q. What Have you Experienced that Cause Concern for not using an agent?

o   Once I bought a new home and at the next big snow storm my tenants informed me it was snowing in the unfinished. Closed basement. There was a facia board missing at the top of the foundation wall. The builder fixed it fortunately.

o   Mostly they view the buyers as their clients and often leave the agents out of things like the interim inspection walks and color selection. There are some agents that do not care and just want to get a contract and collect their check when the house is done. That is not our team.

o   The best part for buyers, though it taking  your own representation does NOT cost the buyer more money.

 We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

 Q. What about inspections on new homes? 

o   I have seen several builders discourage buyers from getting an outside inspection because they believe that their superintendants and regional building inspectors will catch every issue.

o   Not true, I re-sold one 5 year old home where the structural support was not properly configured. The builder did come back and fix it but it should have been caught by both the builder and regional building.

Q.  Are new homes more expensive than existing homes?

o   Typically yes, and there are some costs that most buyers do not budget for like landscaping and window coverings.

o   Also that is why appraisers will not use a new construction home as a similar sale on an existing/re-sale homes.  Many new homes are priced based on the cost of constructions and often have upgrades, chosen by the buyer that may exceed market value.

Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com
Offered by: Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado
7660 Goddard Street Suite 213, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Search: Barb Schlinker Real Estate for more information

In this hot market. The average days from the time the home goes on the market to the time the home goes under contract is under 30 days. Yet not every home sells in under 30 days. I'm Barb Schlinker with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado and I help home sellers sell their homes fast and for the most amount of money. And at the end of this video I'll be sharing with you how to get a free special report on getting the price you want and need. So what are the reasons a home is not selling? Number 1, usually it means the price is too high. Number 2 or the home may not be properly marketed. Number 3, the home may not be properly exposed or there are some condition issues. If the reason is the home is priced too high, sellers should consider making a price adjustment sooner rather than later.

And here's why. Buyers worry if a home sits on the market too long. They're concerned that there may be issues with the home and they could be reluctant to make an offer when a home sits on the market unsold for a long period of time. The other reason is that according to the national association of realtors, if a home seller prices their home optimistically, they price it too high and then they slowly walk the price down. On average, they net less money when it sells, they're better off pricing realistically. So what are the indications that a price adjustment may be necessary? The first one is if there is no showings, obviously it's too high. The second one is if there's plenty of showings but no offers. So what does that mean Plenty of showings? You know most agents that don't sell a home, many homes don't know that, but we do because we sell a lot of homes.

So how do we know what's the right number of showings? Well, here it is. Homes priced under $400,000 you should be getting at least 10 to 20 showings a week. We can not keep up with the inventory. Homes price from $400,000 to $600,000 you should be getting 5 to 7 showings a week and then homes price from $600,000 to $800,000 you should be getting 3 to 5 showings a week and homes over $800,000 you should be getting 1 to 3 showings a week. Here are a few rules of thumb that indicate to a seller whether or not they are on target with the asking price if they're at home. First of all, if there's absolutely no showings in 10 days, the price is probably too high or if there's 10 buyers that came through your house, 10 showing appointments and no offer, the price is probably too high. Also, if you are getting offers and let's say it's not an offer that you want to work with, that's a really good indication that you're on target. You just have to wait until the right offer comes along

The seller decided not to accept that offer and soon after we got a great offer. And last but not least, when it's time to make a price adjustment, you need to know how much of a price adjustment would be appropriate to sell this home for the most amount of money. You know, I recently sold a home where they were having tons of showings but no offers and it was priced to under $400,000 so it only took a tiny price adjustment to go from no offers and plenty of showings to 2 buyers bidding the house up and they got full-price. Having a great experience real estate agent that can explain the best way to get the home sold for the most amount of money is the only way to go. And unfortunately, home sellers don't have access to the data about similar home sales or what's currently under contract, what's currently pending. A great agent will be able to choose the right recent sales to help you get the most amount of money. To receive your free report, getting the price you want and need visit http://www.GetAskingPriceReport.com or call me, I'm Barb at (719) 602-6200
Offered by: Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado
7660 Goddard Street Suite 213, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Search: Barb Schlinker Real Estate for more information

How Does a Seller Know to Make a Price Reduction

Q.  How Does a Seller Know When its Time to Make a Price Reduction

o   It depends – Seller Motivation and Timing

o   Sellers must keep in mind: Buyers worry about homes sitting on the market too long

o   I have seen instances where it was not price but bad marketing

o   Generally, these are some good signs a price change is needed:

§  No Showings

§  A reasonable amount of showings and no offers

Q. What is this market like and how does a seller know if they are off-base in their pricing?

o   On Fire under $400K – Biggest issue is bidding up over where an appraiser agrees it worth that much…Alpine Story

o   Above $400K competition increases with price increase.

§  Examples: Jan home from $300 - $400 K

·        153 new on market in Jan, 318 sold

·        Cannot keep up with Inventory

§  Homes from 400K – 500K

·        197 new on market in Jan, 108 sold..55% selling or about 2 months of inventory – still a sellers market

§  Homes from 500K – 600K

·        137 new on market in Jan, 57 sold..41% selling or about 2.5 months of inventory – still a sellers market

§  Homes from $600k - $800K

·        120 new on market, 42 sold

·        35% or about 3 months of inventory

§  Homes for $800K - $1mil = 27% sold or 4 months of inventory

§  Homes between $1mil and $1.2 mil, only 3 out 48 sold. Less than 1% or 16 months to sell a home in that price range

 Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

 Q. Barb: How Do Sellers Know to Move Their Price? 

·        We use a couple of rules
 1) 10 days without showings, especially after on market for more than 2 weeks, price at least 6% high

·        2) 10 showings, 10 sets a buyers through and no offer, anywhere from 1-5% high depending on price range

o   Quail Glen Story - $399 – 1%

o   Kershaw story - $844 – 5%

·        3) If you are getting offers you in the ball park

o   Townhome Story: Got a low offer, that means stay at the same price. Got a full priced offer soon after.

Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

Offered by: Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado
7660 Goddard Street Suite 213, Colorado Springs, CO 80920
Search: Barb Schlinker Real Estate for more information

Buyers for Your Home and How to Get Access to Them

Q.  We have all heard your slogan…Barb Has The Buyers…What does that mean?

 o   We know that it only takes 1 buyer to sell a home, however

o   The more buyers that are interested in your home drives up demand so we market to get buyers to call or register with us

o   The most recent count is 22,308 buyers in our database, that have given us their contact info and are searching for homes

o   In pretty much any price range we can find a large number of buyers that would fit almost any home

 Q. Why is having those buyers important?

o   Once you authorize us to bring buyers through your home we will reach out to those buyers. They are the first to know your home is available and

o   We make every effort to match our buyers to your home

o   Buyers want houses. The biggest frustration for buyers is that by the time they find out about homes they are already sold.

o   The available inventory of home is down by almost 30% from 1 year ago. That means fewer homes on the market for buyers to choose from. They want to work with us because they get access to our home sellers.

o   So,when we meet with our buyers we do more that just give them homes listed in our Multiple Listing Service.  We reach out to potential homes sellers that have indicated to us they plan to sell their home.

 Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

 Q. Barb: How to Home Sellers Get Access to Your Buyers? 

o   I have two people on my team that their sole job is to follow up with buyers in our database to meet with our agents so we can get started finding them a home.

o   So once the home sellers gives us authorization to bring buyers through they will get access to all of our buyers and especially the ones that are a high match to their home.

 Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  http:www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

How Many People Are Involved with Selling a House

Q.  You would not normally think a lot of people would be involved with selling a house how many are there?

 o   On average anywhere from 15 – 40 different people and trades need to be involved – for all you project managers out there – that is a big part of what we do.

o   Starts with Home Sellers who need…

§  Agents, Handymen, Carpet, Painters, Plumbers, HVAC folks, roofers, stagers, photographers. Our amazing in-house staff people, we have Virtual Assistants that do a lot of our online marketing, graphic designers, videographers, title companies, lenders, inspectors, closers, HOA service providers and so on.

Q. How does your team bring them together?

o   Many of these people, home sellers do not use very often, so many will rely on our recommendations of trusted vendors to get the different roles done.

o   We carefully vet those contractors and tradesman and only recommend ones that do a good job for our clients.

Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

 Q. How does a home seller know what is going to happen next? 

o   We have detailed contact management systems in place, our team all have jobs to move the client through the process and notify the home sellers along the way what is going on and what to expect next. We also take great notes on the process to coordinate the entire effort from start to finish.

o   Our goal to create Clients for Life whom we can be their trusted advisors for these services as well as real estate into the future.

Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

Offered by Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado

House Talk System and Hot List of Coming Soon Homes

Q.  I see you have a Marketing System here called House Talk – what is that?

o   This is a system exclusive to our team, that provides buyers information about homes 24/7.

o   The typical behavior of a buyer is:

§  See it online if they like what they see they drive by

§  But they are NOT always ready to talk to a scary real estate sales person so…we give them info about the home 24/7

§  They text a number and enter the ID specific to that home and they get all kinds of great information.  Including pictures descriptions, price, etc

§  We can even market this on Facebook

Q. Why Is it Important to Use this System?

o   Not all buyers are ready to make calls.

o   Younger generation doesn’t like making calls at all

o   Because we give info 24/7 though ultimately we get 3 times as many calls.

  Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.  

 Q. It Looks Like You Have Some Great Properties Coming up…tell us about them.

o   7240 Prairie Wind, Mid $300s views!

o   1949 Summernight Terrace, Under $300K, 4 bed 2 car

o   3623 Mesa Grande Dr, $274,999, 4 bed, great area

o   2850 Rossmere, $799,999, Stunning Mtn Shad Ranch

o   560 Thames Dr, $459,999, Beautiful home in Broadmoor

o   3249 Blackwood Dr, Mid $500s, Stunning Pine Creek

 Q. We are here with Barb Schlinker on the Real Estate Voice show,  if you are thinking of selling your home and want to get the MOST amount of money when you sell Call Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit  http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com

Offered by Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado