Spencer Manlove Prudential Montana Real Estate

By
Spencer Manlove

Prudential Montana Real Estate

www.spencermanlove.com 

Only for the rare few sellers, simply placing a “For Sale” yard sign on the front lawn creates a line of traffic filled with potential buyers. If you want buyers to see your home, you’ve got to find them.  The key is marketing.  To get the most exposure for your home, you should have a marketing plan with clear objectives and specifically outlines the resources that will be used to reach potential buyers.

Each marketing plan should be designed around your property and capitalize on its most desirable features.  Therefore, you need to be honest with your real estate professional about the condition of your home, and the final price you are willing to accept for your home. 

Next, you need to determine what marketing options work best to reach your desired audience. Generally there are two audiences you are trying to reach—home buyers and other real estate professionals.  Make sure the plan includes action steps on how each audience will be marketed to. 

Seldom is the successful marketing of a property the result of a single activity. Your strategy should include a variety of marketing activities. Using only conventional marketing strategies such as Open Houses, newspaper ads and direct mail can limit your outreach. Most homebuyers now begin their home search online. Having a presence on your real estate professional’s Web site and other gives you worldwide exposure. Besides the increased exposure, online listings also allow buyers to get a sneak peek of your home. Therefore, you may want to complement the listings with plenty of photos and a virtual tour, which allows viewers to get a 360-degree preview of your home without leaving their computer.

Also, don’t forget the power of email. Sending email flyers or electronic postcards are easy and cost efficient.

Work with your real estate professional to determine the best options for your market.

Besides identifying marketing tools, an effective marketing plan will also spell out specific dates for the marketing activities.  It should leave room for unscheduled events such as following up with sales professionals or brokers who preview or show the home.

Make sure the marketing plan includes checkpoints, possibly at the 15-, 30- and 45-day marks, to review activity on the home and determine if changes need to be made to the marketing plan.

As the home seller, you should be kept in the loop on activity of your home. The marketing plan should state how you will be communicated with (mail, phone, email, in person) and the frequency (daily, weekly, etc.).

Of course these are just guidelines, but can give you an idea if the marketing plan your real estate professional has proposed to you has to be refined.  You need to be comfortable with the marketing strategy for your home.  An effective plan will not only put you at ease, but also give your home maximum exposure to increase your chances of a quick sale.

These days, it seems that many home buyers are choosing to forego the many benefits of using a buyers broker to help select and negotiate the purchase of a home.  Instead, they are calling only listing agents to view properties of interest to them.  As one who lists a lot of properties, I really don’t have a problem with that but my concern is that it is not always in the buyers best interest to do so.  Here’s why:

Under most circumstances, a listing agent can legally and ethically only function in 1 of 2 capacities: 1) as a sellers representative, exclusively or 2) as a dual agent.

In his or her capacity as a sellers representative, the listing agent is, among other things, obligated to act solely in the best interest of the seller, disclose all relevant material information to the seller and safeguard the seller’s confidences.  Notice that no where does it say that the listing agent is obligated to act in the interests of the buyers or safeguard their confidences.  In fact, there is no expressed or implied confidentiality between the listing agent and the buyer.  The listing agent’s only responsibilities to the buyers are to deal in good faith and disclose any adverse material facts.

This may all seem trivial and inconsequential and it may very well be if the home the buyers are previewing is not one they are interested in purchasing.  If they are interested in the home, however, things get a little more complicated.

When it comes time to write the offer, keep in mind that the listing agent can only function as a seller’s agent or a dual agent.  Furthermore, there is no requirement in law or custom that all parties in a real estate transaction be represented.  If the listing agent acts as a sellers agent exclusively, the buyers have no one to look out for their interests; they are on their own. Under these circumstances, having the sellers agent draw up a buy/sell agreement and negotiate it’s terms and conditions with the sellers means that those terms and conditions will necessarily favor the sellers, not the buyers.

 Should the listing agent elect (with the written consent of both parties) to shift roles from acting as a sellers agent to acting as a dual agent, things can get even more interesting. A dual agency relationship is created when a real estate licensee represents both parties in the same transaction. Dual agency in Montana is neither illegal nor unethical,  however it does pose some significant challenges.  For starters, consider this:  How can one person serve two masters with competing interests?  How can one licensee be equally obligated to both seller and buyer in the same transaction?  Perhaps this inherent conflict explains why the majority of consumer complaints filed with the Montana Board of Realty Regulation arise from dual agency relationships.

Finally, the most common justification I hear prospective home buyers use for dealing exclusively with the sellers agent is this:  “If I buy the home through the listing agent, I’ll get a better deal because the agent will cut his commission”  Don’t believe it.  Oh, I’m not saying it never happens but the amount of money that could possible be saved by the listing agent shaving 1/2% or even 1% off of the brokerage fee he charges the seller, pales compared with the savings and peace of mind gained from having a skilled and experienced buyers broker negotiating on the buyers behalf. To put an even finer point on it: If you want to save a little, negotiate over the brokerage fee.  If you want to save a lot, use a skilled buyers broker who will negotiate over the value of the home.

Welcome to Spencer Manlove’s Blog! This blog will provide you with valuable information, tips, and general insight into the real estate market in Missoula.