Omaha Real Estate Blog

On behalf of all the fantastic agents at Alliance Real Estate we would like to take this time to say thank you and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We have had a tremendous year and without our clients none of that would be possible. 

Thank you,

David Matney, CRS,GRI

Alliance Real Estate

Omaha Real Estate         Contributed by David Matney with Alliance Real Estate

Here are some example photos of one of my listings that were staged by Tori Ross of Ross Designs.

Before: (This was the actual picture on the published on the MLS with the other company) Can you believe the TV was on? 

After:  This was the photo after staging. This was the photo that was in the MLS when it was SOLD by Alliance Real Estate.

Before:  This was the photo of the home when it was listed with the "big" company.

After: (This was the photo that was on the MLS, when it was SOLD with Alliance Real Estate) 

The just one of the examples of staging, some of the changes are very slight and other are quite obvious.  However, there was a HUGE difference in client satisfaction.  Sometimes the difference between a successful transaction and one that goes south can be only a slight change.  It is puzzling that agents spend a TON of marketing dollars on print advertising but it is one of the least effective forms of marketing.  Staging is actually part of internet exposure because if a client is turned off by a photo they are on to the next home.  80% of homebuyers begin their search for homes online, that is why it is important to have the best photos as possible.  Staging can help you achieve this.

David Matney,  CRS,GRI

Alliance Real Estate

Omaha, Nebraska     Reprinted with permission by David Matney with Alliance Real Estate.

This article originally appeared in the Focus Newsletter for the Omaha Area Board of Realtors.  Tori Ross and I have worked together for well over a year.  Tori is a professional home stager and she stages almost all of my listings.  She does a FANTASTIC job in helping prepare a home for sale.  As of December 1, of 2006, I have SOLD 42 homes and Tori has helped me slice my average market time to 32 days in Omaha's buyers market.  I am proud to have her as a member of my team.  I asked her permission to reprint this article.

Stage your Home to Sell

            It's a cliché, but it's true. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. This especially applies when buying or selling a home.  An appealing presentation of the home is critical to obtaining that positive first impression. This is where home staging can be a home seller's best friend.

            Home staging is the professional preparation of a home for sale that uses interior design and organization strategies to make that home as appealing to as many buyers as possible. It does this by neutralizing a home's décor and demonstrating the best use of square footage. While this may sound like home decorating, it's not. Home Staging is marketing. Keep in mind these two statistics: Only about 10% of potential homebuyers can visualize themselves and their own furnishings in a home for sale; 90% of buyers will put their furniture in exactly the same place as the previous owners. 

Effective home staging helps the buyer realize the true value of a furnished or vacant home. The goal of staging is to increase mass appeal and justify the current asking price.

FURNISHED HOMES: While many Home Staging techniques are specific to the home's décor and style, there are a few basic principles that can be used by all home sellers to increase their appeal:

•-          De-clutter!  Remove all items from the refrigerator; take all items off your ktichen counters that are not used every day; keep all personal items off your bathroom vanity and store under the sink.

•-          Pack it up! Remove clothes from closets that are off-season to maximize available closet space; pack up family photos and other décor items that may put-off potential buyers (not every buyer will agree with the crucifix in the entry way or the rock posters in the bedroom or the beer signs in the basement).

•-          Curb appeal brings them in!  Do everything you can to make your home look well cared for and updated from the outside.  Re-paint front door and doorframe, use a nice welcome mat and perhaps a silk greenery arrangement in a colorful pot near the door and hang a tasteful (and seasonal) wreath.

•-          Help them SEE the value!  Clean all windows, inside and out.  The best way to add light to a room is to clean the windows.  Clean windows tell a potential buyer that the seller pays attention to detail, which usually means the house has been well-maintained.

VACANT HOMES: An empty room will often appear smaller than an appropriately furnished room.  For vacant homes, especially in a highly competitive price range, short-term rental of furniture and accessories is arranged for key areas. Many of my vacant and staged homes had been on the market for months (one as long as twelve months!) with no offers.  After I brought in furniture and accessories for key areas, many of my sellers accepted an offer within weeks and closed less than 30 days later.

Keep in mind: The fee for home staging is less than your first price reduction. Give your listings the best chance to make a positive first impression today and see what a difference home staging can make.

For more information or for a consultation, please call:

Tori Ross   402.490.3244

Ross Designs, LLC

Omaha, Nebraska.       Contributed by David Matney with Alliance Real Estate

The Omaha Area Board of Realtors Member Services Forum has announced the beginning of a City Wide Tour for Omaha Realtors.  Starting January 2, 2007, members of the Omaha Area Board of Realtors will be able to put homes in the MLS for the tour.  The tour will take place every Tuesday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and this will allow Omaha Realtors from ALL different companies to see the inventory on the market.

I am excited to see this development and our many of our agents are looking forward to participating in the tour.  The tour will take place on every Tuesday, and will give MLS members a chance to market their homes to other members as well as gaining feedback from fellow agents. 

David Matney, CRS,GRI

Alliance Real Estate

What if you had a prospect that drove by one of your listings and they were actually interested enough in the home that they called you to get information and you were unable to field the call?  How many agents spend money on "home" magazines to offer homes to folks who go to the store to buy milk?

So many agents in our market underestimate the power of the flyer box.  Here is a gizmo you can reuse, guage the effectiveness and market yourself and the property.  In a way you are handing them your business card with every flyer they pull.  It can be used in many ways, neighbors ALWAYS pull a flyer.  So, by having a flyer box I am marketing myself to the neighborhood.  Neighbors for the most part are interested enough to at least pull a flyer.  Why not market yourself on the back or outline your marketing plan or perhaps other listings? 

But I WANT the calls....

I want the calls as well, except I want to talk to folks that have looked at the flyer and are STILL interested in the home enough to call me.  This will weed out the truly curious neighbor that just wants to know the price.  The same neighbor will also remember the price and now can take something with them to maybe tell their friends.  I also have given them something to drive traffic to my website.  Now, if they are not interested and the flyer ends up on the back seat and they clean out their car two weeks from now, all of a sudden I come back to top of mind consciousness because they have to look at the flyer again before they throw it away.

How about the seller, who insists on pricing the home too high.  Flyers can be used to obtain a price reduction.  Mr./Mrs. Seller we have gone through 100 flyers and no one wants to see your home maybe the market is telling us something. I log the flyers I distribute on a data sheet that way the seller can see how many we have gone through and when they were last filled.  If flyers are disappearing and no showings then that could indicate the price is too high.  If no flyers are being taken that could also be saying something about the price as well.

But I don't like to refill the box when it is empty ....

You mean you distributed ALL marketing materials and you don't want to give any more out?  What about when you drive to refill the flyer box you take a different route and knock on some FSBO doors.  Now, you are taking the activity and moving it to a prospecting activity.  The FSBO's that ONLY put a sign in the yard are really just asking to be listed, and now you were able to talk to them FACE to FACE.  When they drive by they will also see that you care enough to actually keep the flyer box full.  This also adds to your professionalism, or simply say hello to the neighbor that is out mowing the yard.

If the flyer box is empty that reflects on you as well.  An empty flyer box is worse than no flyer box at all.  That really makes some buyers even MAD, it will also make sellers mad as well.  I let my sellers know that selling their home is a TEAM sport and I WANT them to call when we are running low. 

Flyer quality.  Produce a quality flyer and keep it updated.  Once you have a template it is fairly easy to make a new one. It HAS to be in color and their has to be more that just the one photo.  Poor flyer is a reflection of you as well.  A plain generic MLS flyer looks cheap.  The PRICE has to be on the flyer.  No price just makes people MAD.  Everyone makes mistakes, if you make one don't let the flyer runout before you replace them.  Replace them immediately.  You don't want you marketing materials being circulated with a mistake. 

These are just a few thoughts on why I like to use a flyer box.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,

David Matney, CRS,GRI

Alliance Real Estate

Omaha, Nebraska.  Contributed by David Matney with Alliance Real Estate.

We have all heard these questions.  Why isn't my home selling?  Then there is but the home down the street sold just like mine 2 months ago for $140,000 and now you want to lower the price to $135,000?  I  don't want to "give" our home away.

It is not good enough to just look at comparable sales.  That is like driving down the freeway and looking in the rear view mirror to determine where you are going.  In a buyer's market you have to look at the TREND in the pricing.  I believe this is extremely valuable in looking at the TREND in the price and should be a PART of your listing presentation in helping a seller.

Determining the TREND is taking a look at SUPPLY and DEMAND or ABSORPTION RATE.  What do I mean when I say absorption rate?  Let's look at an example for a fictional subdivision - Happy Acres.

First, look at how many homes were SOLD in Happy Acres in the past year.  Over the past year 24 homes sold in happy acres.  That means on average 2 homes sell per month. 

Now, you look at how many ACTIVE homes there are for sale in subdivision.  In Happy Acres there are currently 12 homes on the market.  You calculate the absorption rate by taking the current number of active listings and divide by the number of homes absorbed in the market.  12 divided by 2 = 6.

That means there is a 6 month supply of homes on the market, or you can say that it will take 6 months for the market to absorb the current inventory.  Keep in mind, no market is static and there are homes entering the market.  Some homes will NEVER sell.  Because they do no represent the best VALUE in the eyes of the consumer.  No amount of marketing, open houses, or networks can sell a OVERPRICED home.  In fact, PRICE is part of the marketing. 

By looking at the absoption rate we can look at the supply and demand in the market and better help our sellers with pricing the home.  In our scenerio, maybe the number of homes available in July was different then now so the price has to be adjusted accordingly.  Absorption rates vary from subdivision to subdivision and even among different price ranges of homes, and of course, city to city.

Any thoughts?

David Matney, CRS,GRI

Omaha, Nebraska - Contributed by David Matney with Alliance Real Estate

It is obvious to all agents in the industry of the value of a home warranty.  This may not apply to all markets but in the Omaha market you can get a home warranty with the choice of it being an EVALUATED or NON-EVALUATED plan.

With an EVALUATED home warranty, the warranty company visits the home to make sure the major systems of the home are operational and are in working condition.  Now, if the warranty company finds a something wrong like a "dripping faucet" then that particular item is EXCLUDED from the warranty coverage.  Therefore, if your buyer wants the faucet fixed then they have to fix it on their own and the repair is not covered under the warranty coverage.

Now, if you represent a buyer a better way to protect your buyer is to say in the contract, "the offer is contingent on the seller to provide a EVALUATED home warranty with NO EXCLUSIONS."  Now, your buyer is now protected IF during the evaluation the warranty company finds a dripping faucet.  The seller would have to fix the faucet because it was previously agreed upon that the warranty would have NO EXCLUSIONS.

The key to all of this is to understand the terms and conditions of the home warranty.  Every home warranty company is different and coverage varies from company to company and market to market. 

Any thoughts?

David Matney, CRS,GRI

Alliance Real Estate

http://www.alliancesells.com/

Omaha, Nebraska.  Contributed by David Matney with Alliance Real Estate

Here is a great idea that you can use to contact your past clients that is pretty inexpensive.  Let's say you helped some sellers last June.  Well, now that it is at the end of the year, they will need a copy of the HUD-1 for doing their taxes.  It is really easy to simply drop the copy of the HUD-1 in the mail at the first part of the year.  In fact, since the agency relationship is terminated after the deal closed.  You could send a copy to the buyer as well to that address as a courtesy. Nine times out of ten, the other agent will have abandoned that client relationship and you have the chance to differentiate yourself from the competition.

Better yet, when you do a transaction, make the extra copy of the HUD-1 at that time and file it so in December you are not digging around in 50 files for 50 different HUD-1 statements.

Thanks,

David Matney, CRS,GRI

www.AllianceSells.com

Omaha Real Estate     Contributed by David Matney with Alliance Real Estate

Some companies make it a practice to supply agents with a yard sign when they list a home.  Some agents feel that this is a neat benefit with a BIG company.  However, are you really gaining anything by this practice or are you losing business from practice?

Let's look at it from a different angle, pretend you are a buyer and you happen you pass a listing on your way to work.  Your running late and you only get a quick glance at the sign.  Generally, the yard sign supplied by the company has the COMPANY'S phone number in great big letters that are easy to read.  The listing agents number is usually on a rider and is generally smaller.  If you were running late which number would you call?  As that prospect drives by he sees the larger number and will typically dial that one first.  Now, here is the next problem.  That call goes to the "duty desk" and perhaps to an agent who might be less experienced or maybe that agent has not even seen that particular listing. 

Therefore, your lead is being fielded by someone who has not been in the home and is not able to build the sense of urgency necessary in order to motivate that prospect to see that particular listing.  Now, instead of a double bubble you have a potential buyer being frustrated by talking to an agent who knows nothing about the home and that prospect loses confidence in the agent and the company.  In our market, the top agents have only one phone number on the sign --the listing agent's number.  That way that lead is fielded and closed.

Some companies in our market actually use the "duty desk" as a recruiting tool?   If I were to have a "duty desk" at our company, I would have a mutiny from within the company.  Agents will go to the ends of the earth to put their name on a bus bench with their phone number but will readily give away leads because of the sign is supplied by the company.  Of course, from the company's standpoint there is the issue of branding.  You do not want 100 agents with 100 different styles of yard signs.  How about somewhere in the middle, branding with the ability to put only your website and number on the sign while maintaining the integrity of the company brand. 

Thanks,

David Matney, CRS,GRI

Alliance Real Estate

I can not believe the photos that some agents take of their listings.  Call me crazy but is it too much trouble to move your car when you take a photo of the home?  Not everyone is perfect but it seems pretty basic to close the garage door as well before you take the shot or move the trash cans.  Better yet, if the photo is bad you can always retake the shot.  Of course, you would have to LOOK at the photo first to make sure there was no dog yard leaving his business card in the front yard!

Some agents were so unprofessional they did not even remove themselves from the car to take the photo, how can you tell, the car mirror is the first clue.  To not have a photo at all is probably the worst offense of all.  Hard to believe a listing is on the market for 7 days and STILL no photo.  Gosh, I think even without air travel you can have a listing in Los Angeles, take a photo of a home, go to Disneyland and make it back to Omaha in seven days.  How about the Pumpkin in the yard for the listing in April or the leaves off the trees in the middle of the summer?  Is it too hard to retake the photo, or better yet PRICING the home so it would actually sell in the season you are in.

David Matney, CRS, GRI

Alliance Real Estate