The Savvy Synopsis

Do open houses help sell homes? Whether you’ve walked through an open house while looking for a home or just as a nosy neighbor, you may wonder: do those really work? Angie answers this question along with two others from the mailbag this week.

When you are getting ready to sell your home, you want the best and most effective marketing tactics in place. So, are open houses a worthwhile marketing strategy? Angie shares her thoughts on open houses, buying a home as a single person vs. married, and what sets her team apart from the competition on this episode of the Savvy Realtor Podcast.

Blair from Fayetteville is feeling ready to buy a house but wonders if her chances of getting a good loan will be better after she gets married. Right now, she’s single but thinks she might be engaged sometime in the next year. What should she consider when it comes to the timeline?

Angie says it all depends on your credit, income, and debt. If you’re married then your spouse’s financials will also be included in that process. There isn’t a better way, they are just different and it depends on when you are ready to buy a home. If now seems like the time, Angie and her team have recommended lending partners you can work with and even a mortgage lending app.

Does an open house help sell a home? Angie says this is a common question among sellers. Typically, an open house helps a real estate agent pick up new potential buyers, but it is not as likely to sell the home from the open house. It depends on your area and the price point of your home though, so in an area that might receive a lot of foot traffic or a lower price point it does have better luck.

What makes Angie’s team unique compared to other real estate agents in the area? The biggest thing is the marketing strategy. Angie and her team bring a detailed marketing plan between signage, pre-marketing, social media, targeted ads, radio broadcasting, and a sizeable database of contacts to reach out to. Not only that, but the team is incredibly active in the market to guide you through the home buying process.

Are you ready to market and sell your house? Listen to the full episode or click on the timestamps below to hear Angie’s answers to this week’s questions from the mailbag.

0:38 - Mailbag: Not married yet but feeling ready to buy a house, is it easier to buy a house now or wait?

2:10 - If you are thinking of purchasing a home, get an idea on what you would be pre-qualified for.

3:43 - Mailbag: Are you a believer in open houses to sell a home?

6:35 - Mailbag: When deciding between Angie and another Realtor, what makes Angie unique?

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The Host:

Angie Cole - Contact - Call: 919-538-6477

Show Transcription:

Note: This is an automated transcription. Please forgive the robots as they tend to make some (a lot of) mistakes...

Speaker 1: (00:02)
It's time for the savvy real tour podcast. I'm Walter Storholt alongside Angie Cole, the owner and broker in charge of acole Realty serving you throughout the triangle, teaching you about the ins and outs when it comes to buying or selling a home. You can find the team online by going to eight Cole realty.com that's a C O L E realty.com or by calling nine one nine five seven eight three one two a that's (919) 578-3128 and now it's time for one of the top real tours in the triangle. Angie Cole and the savvy real tour podcast. First on the docket today is Blair from Fayetteville, and Bellaire says, I'm not married yet, but kind of ready to buy a house. Will I have a harder time getting approved for a loan and buying a home as a single person instead of married? I think I might be engaged in about a year, so I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and buy now or if I'd be better to wait.

Speaker 2: (00:58)
Well, you know, Blair, if a, your spouse has horrible credit, that actually can hurt you. So I can't say that one way is better than the next. Yeah, I know that's a prerequisite, right? So it really, I mean, it, it, there's not one way that's better versus the other, right. You know, whenever a lender, uh, runs, um, your kind of report and qualifies you, they will look at your income. They will look at your debt to income ratio. So what type of revolving debt do you have? And then they will of course, pull your credit score. Now, if you have now your spouse that's involved and you can buy a home without being married, two people can buy a home. But you know, just always use your caution because both have to agree to sell if you ever decide to sell. But you know, if both of you decide to then buy a home together, of course they can look at both of your incomes, but then both of your debts and both of your credit scores as well. So there really isn't a better way to go about it. Um, so if you're at the point you're ready to buy a home, you want to start that process. I mean go for a girl and go ahead and let us connect you with one of our preferred lenders. Get that prequalification underway and then we can take it from there with your home search.

Speaker 1: (02:10)
Yeah. Blair, there's a cool mortgage app that you might find helpful as well that Angie and her team have put this app together for folks. It's very useful and helpful to anybody who is especially going through the process for the first time. You went to us a bit more about what that app's all about, Angie.

Speaker 2: (02:24)
So if you are thinking about purchasing a home and you want to get an idea of how much home you can purchase, you know, and you want to get pre-qualified because that's definitely the first step. When you are starting that search, you can download his mortgage app. It's just one of those applications that a lot of us have on our smartphones, right? We have all different apps we can buy from the app store, but this one's free. So if you would like to receive a his mortgage app and put it on your phone. From there you can get pre-qualified, you can look at interest rates, you can do all sorts of things. But to receive that app, just text the lending to the phone number five five five eight eight eight and from there we'll send you the link so you can download the mortgage app. So once again to receive the mortgage app and put that on your smart phone to utilize it throughout the home buying process. Just text the word lending to the phone number five five five eight eight eight.

Speaker 1: (03:19)
Again, that's a lending is the word that you text to. Put that in the message. L, E N D I N G lending. Text that to the number five five five eight eight, eight and we'll text you right back the link to download that app on your phone. Very easy to do. If you want to find out about the latest mortgage rates, mortgage news, even get pre-qualified from the app. You can do it all. Just text the word lending to the number. Five five five eight eight eight. All right, let's get a question here from Stefan. Stefan is in a or could it be Steven? Interestingly, spelled Stephan province. Stephan maybe not Stefan, but Stephanie, I don't know. I love different spellings for names. So I'm a fan. Sorry Stephan. Stefan or Steven if we're mispronouncing that, but a cut us, cut us some Slack here. We didn't get the phonetic spelling. Are you a believer? He says and having an open house to sell a home.

Speaker 2: (04:09)
I love that he asked this question because this is one that I discuss. I feel like at every listing presentation for the most part, and open houses not going to sell your home and sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Um, but we might sell one or two homes a year from an open house. Um, typically it's a time that a buying agent can sit on site Olmos and pick up new potential buyers. You know, it's a great way to meet people, but the likelihood of actually selling the home from the open house is so minimal. And the reason being is it's really determined on your location and your price point. You know, if we are trying to host an open house on a home that is way out in a rural area, there's not much drive by traffic, we more than likely won't have anyone come in through our doors except for maybe a nosy neighbor.

Speaker 2: (04:59)
So if we are to host an open house as far as a marketing tool to help get your home sold, we want to make sure that your home is in a highly, you know, like driven area. So we are seeing a lot of, you know, foot traffic. Also. Typically we find homes that are at a lower price point. Um, normally I would say 300 and below they tend to get more walkthroughs as well. Um, I think the reason being is at a higher price point. A lot of those buyers are probably second time buyers or third time buyers and they've already made the connection with a real estate agent and they prefer a private viewing. So they are not zipping through open houses. So, um, you know, an open house can work, but it's definitely not something that we really highly talk about when it comes to talking about everything we do in regards to marketing.

Speaker 1: (05:49)
It's certainly not the first tool in your tool bag. Right?

Speaker 2: (05:52)
It is not. It is probably the very last tool in our tool bag to be honest. You

Speaker 1: (05:57)
okay? Gotcha. So, uh, if, if you're meeting with an agent who's suggesting to do that right off the bat might be a little bit of a red flag or there needs to be a really compelling reason for why that would be the choice.

Speaker 2: (06:08)
I, I just, you know, not that, not that I'm totally against it, but what other marketing options are we doing? What other, what are the great things that we're doing to drive traffic to your home? Because you know, if putting it in MLS and hosting open houses all in ages doing for you, your home's going to sit

Speaker 1: (06:25)
[inaudible] really good questions. Stefan, thank you for asking that one to us today. So hopefully that gives you some good guidance on open houses and kind of the skinny behind those as well. Andrew, we've got a good question here from Sean and Shauna's in wake forest and says I'm evaluating you and others as a possible real tour to sell our home and buy our next one. What makes you or your company unique compared to others? What do you consider your defining difference maker as a company?

Speaker 2: (06:53)
Yeah, most definitely. Um, so great question Sean. Um, the biggest thing that stands out about our team is definitely our marketing and you know, I always love going on listing presentation and at the end of the presentation the sellers look and say, wow, you know, we, we've met with other real estate agents and their marketing, you know, plan is nowhere near as detailed as yours. So you know, we do everything from, you know, signage, text riders, pre-marketing and coming soons we do a lot of social media. We do targeted ads, really placed in your home, in front of buyers that would be buying, are interested in your home. We have radio. I don't know if we've already mentioned that where we get to broadcast. I'm here on the radio show. We have a database of over 25,000 plus contacts. We're sending your home out to them and we just have so many more little ideas and tips and suggestions to really push your home into the front of the most potential buyers to get as many showings as possible to get our offers quicker and to get you a higher price point.

Speaker 2: (07:55)
So our marketing really stands out above and beyond our competition. And beyond that, of course we are super active in the market. I know I've said it on here and I'll say it again. I mean we are on target to help 310 clients closing a home this year. So we have the backing, we have the experience, we are super knowledgeable in the market and so we're able to guide you throughout the process, get you top dollar if you're looking to sell your home and also make sure that it's a speedy and smooth process. So if you are thinking about selling your home, Sean, um, it sounds like you might be in that current situation. Um, or anyone out there who is thinking about selling their home. Typically they want to get an idea of what their home is worth in today's market. Um, and we have a really cool tool we can share with you.

Speaker 2: (08:40)
So if you are thinking about selling your home and you want to get an idea of what your home is worth in today's market, you can just text the word listing to the phone number five five five eight, eight, eight. So once again, if you're thinking about selling your home and you want to get an idea of what your home is worth in today's market, just text the word listing to the phone number five five five, eight, eight, eight. And from there we will send you back a text. Make sure that you click that link, you input your dress. And from there we can then send you back what your home would be worth in today's market.

Speaker 1: (09:17)
You've been listening to the savvy real tour podcast. I'm Walter store Holt alongside Angie Cole. She's the owner and broker in charge of Aiko Realty here in the triangle. And if you have questions for Angie, we invite you to go online to a Cole realty.com listen to past podcast episodes on the website, read the blog and all the great information, including the option to find a home right there on the website. That's a Cole realty.com and you can also call Angie with your questions. (919) 578-3128