Popular Real Estate Gimmicks And Tricks
The Savvy Synopsis
As with any sales-related fields, realtors have a bag of gimmicks and tricks they might pull from to help sell a home. Angie evaluates these common advertising tactics and determines whether they're realistic.
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Featured Foundations:
Gimmicks And Tricks.
- 1:28 - We've all heard the "Coming Soon" sales pitch. Certain companies say they can advertise homes before they even hit the market. It's actually a great strategy as it enables you to receive offers before your house is on the market. Furthermore, it helps you to gain visibility as well as valuable information about potential buyers. The "Coming Soon" tactic helps to build the excitement surrounding a house.
- 4:08 - If a home is listed as "Coming Soon," sellers must agree not to let potential buyers enter the home. As it's not yet on the market, doing so would give early buyers an unfair advantage. However, you're allowed and even required to go ahead and list the home in the MLS database. It's a great way to start digitally marketing a new home.
- 5:10 - We strategically don't post interior pictures of homes that are "Coming Soon." We want to make sure the seller is ready for professional photography before we post interior photos. It's best to make sure you have your high-quality photos ready before you activate a listing.
- 7:00 - You might have heard the "We'll buy your home if it doesn't sell" guarantee. This is definitely more of a gimmick. It doesn't mean it's not true, but it's definitely more of a marketing tactic to get listings. The contract you sign when you do that sets tight guidelines for you as the seller, and it doesn't always work to your advantage.
- 8:00 - As an example, you might agree to reduce your asking price if your home doesn't immediately sell. Of course, this gets your home to sell, but it hurts you as a seller, and it doesn't help you get the best price for your home.
Neighborhood Spotlight.
- 11:18- We travel to Carlton Pointe in Rolesville.
- Take Hwy 401 North until it turns into Rolesville Bypass. From there, turn left on Jonesville Road. Finally, turn right into the neighborhood.
- They are still actively building in this neighborhood. Construction started in 2013.
- Carlton Pointe features single-family detached homes.
- The neighborhood features a pool and a clubhouse.
- Price Range: $310,000 - $475,000.
- Size: 2,000 square feet - 4,000 square feet.
Mailbag.
- 14:56 - David just had a renter move out of his home, and he'd like to sell the home later in the year. He wants to know whether he should find another renter until it's time to sell.
Get In Touch:
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- Get answers questions on home inspections. Click Here!
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The host: Angie - Contact - Call: 919-538-6477
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Show Transcription:
PODCAST 033 - GIMMICKS AND TRICKS - ANGIE COLE.mp3 (transcribed by Sonix)
It's time for The Savvy Realtor podcast. I'm Walter Storholt alongside Angie Cole the owner and broker in charge of A Cole 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 A Cole Realty dot com that's A C-O-L-E Realty dot com or by calling 9 1 9 5 7 8 3 1 2 8 that's 9 1 9 5 7 8 3 1 2 8 and now it's time for one of the top realtors in the Triangle. Angie Cole and The Savvy Realtor Podcast.
Well Angie gimmicks and tricks is the headline of our next conversation here on The Savvy Realtor. It seems like some real estate companies out there like to advertise what I call gimmicks and tricks and a lot of these advertisements have catches in the fine print.
Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they're good strategies you'll tell me if they are. Or maybe they're great strategies but they're not the only ones able to utilize that tool even though the agent makes it seem like I'm the only one that has access to this when really all agents can do those things it's just in how they advertise it. So even though things might appear one way we're gonna kind of uncover the curtain a little bit to see what's the truth in the real estate world. So let's talk about some of these advertising gimmicks that you might see shed some light on what's really happening there. And Angie if I'm wrong on any of these you know call me out on it and say no this is this is legitimate helpful thing. The first one is the coming soon pitch. In fact our neighbor just had their house go on the market and it had it coming soon sign on that listing some companies really play up this mantra that they have special access to homes they can advertise them before they even hit the market. First of all is that actually even all that effective in the first place. And second of all is that something that's exclusive to one particular agent or do all you guys have access to do that.
Yeah. Great question Walter. So first of all with it coming soon to me it's a wonderful idea. It's silly for an agent not to take advantage of that status that we have in our MLS database because when a home is listed as a Coming Soon we often can get sight unseen offers and go under contract before we even hit the market. We for example we just closed one this past week in Wake Forest where we had a sight unseen offer on a home and we actually negotiated back with that client and we got them to pay five thousand above what the original listing price would be just for us to accept and to take the home off the market and I can disclose that now because it has now closed but originally the home was going to be listed at one hundred twenty five thousand. We said hey if you pay one hundred thirty thousand today and other little terms but you know we will go ahead and put the home under contract. So yes marketing as a coming soon is a great way to get visibility. It's a great way to go ahead and start collecting names and numbers of potential buyers that are inquiring and interested in the home. So once we do go live and on the market hopefully we'll be flooded with showings we'll go ahead and get multiple offers and get a higher price point than if we just. Here we go. It's on the market today. So it allows us to do some pre marketing it's not so much to try and get the home.
I mean it happens when you can get the homes sold before it even goes to market. But the real strategy is to build the interest so that when it does go live you've got multiple offers coming in all at once.
Exactly and you know sometimes we receive offers sight unseen when it's in the coming soon state and we declined those offers. And we say you know what. Hang tight. We want to actually activate this listing and then at that point we'll respond to your offer. So it depends on the home and the situation and that's where I come into play as far as giving guidance on you know what we should take this offer and run with it or you know what. Now we should wait until we activate the home because I truly think that we'll get more offers and get you a higher price point.
How does it work with coming so you say sight unseen. So are you not able to post pictures of the inside of the home can you only post pictures of the outside and what's what are the rules there.
Yeah. So I can post all I want so with it coming soon The great thing about that is I can start actually marketing the home. So what that means when it's coming soon at the sellers must actually sign an addendum stating they will not allow anyone to enter the home. OK. The reason being is it must be fair to one buyer and then the next buyer. We can't allow one buyer to come through the home and not allow the next. So neither myself nor the seller can actually allow someone to come through the home and visit the home and tour when we're in the coming soon or temporarily off the market. Stage is what it's called. But we can start marketing it in MLS which we're actually required to. Could we start to market the home at all. It must be listed in MLS as well for all agents to be able to find it. We can go ahead and put signage outside. We can do social media marketing marketing as an entry only on Zillow. And so we can do all different types of marketing and we also we can post pictures online too if we want.
So the digital presence really is the same as if it's a real listing. Yeah people just can't go in the home is really the limiting factor.
Exactly we we kind of keep it a little bit secret of them. Whenever we list a home as a coming scene we only post an exterior photo. We do not post the interior. And the reason being is we line it up for when the seller will be ready for professional photography. So we like to just mark the date as a coming soon and start marketing it that way about 10 to 15 days prior to us taking professional photos. So we prefer not to post interior photos because a seller is not ready. We want to hang tight until we have the best photos. And then at that point we then activate the listing and just remember coming soon status that's something that we now have here in our Triangle area. It's not something that's necessarily available at all MLS is in locations and states. So you need to look in your specific market to see if that's even available. But it's something to that. Like you mentioned a lot of firms or agents might really talk it up as something that they do above and beyond and it's specific you know to their marketing. That's not true here in the Triangle. Any agent can market a home as a coming soon. And we work it into our marketing plan as well. And it's just something that we can do above and beyond which you know maybe the average agent won't do but it's available to any agent to market that way.
So that one falls into that category of good strategy. But all agents can do it.
Yeah great great strategy. I mean wonderful strategy and you know if your agents not doing it I think that really can hurt you but it is not something that you know only I can do that's special you know so I won't pretend like it is a great one that's a gimmick number one or trick number one which we won't call it a gimmick or a trick will move that off the list.
It's a good strategy. Good to know. So just be aware of you know how it's being advertised I guess is the big question there. All right Angie here's another one. This is the we'll buy your house if it doesn't sell guarantee. I hear this one a lot out there a lot of companies make this claim that if they can't sell your home and X amount of days we'll buy it from you. How good does that sound. This just screams too good to be true to me. And it is right. There's some fine print here. We've got to be aware.
You're right. And I would say that this one's more of a gimmick not that it's not true there is actual legal documents that you are signing as a seller and that the listing agent is selling to that if they don't meet their end of the deal they will indeed buy your home. But it is definitely more of a marketing tactic to get listings. And the reason why estate that is the documentation and the addendums that you're signing as being a seller you have really tight deadlines on price brackets that you must meet within a certain timeframe. And I wouldn't say that that's always to your advantage as far as being a seller. Example OK if we do not have any offers within the first week you agree to do a 1 percent reduction in price. If there is no offers by the second week you agree to do an additional 2 percent price reduction and so there's many different dates and requirements in order to had this agreement that hey if we don't sell your home for example in 90 days as the real estate agent we're going to buy your home as far as any agent that offers this I'll be interested in knowing how many times I've truly bought a home. I would say maybe once because once again I know that there is a tight just timeline in requirements for this agreement and there is no reason why any agent couldn't get your home sold if you know within Hey I don't have say 80 days. You know a total of 11 percent reduction. Right. Right. So to me or I think to anyone it's more of a gimmick in order to get more listings. But is it truly getting the seller the best price for the home. I don't agree with that. I don't think that it is.
It's probably a fit for you if you don't care how much your home sells for and you just want buy 90 days to be gone then. Okay fair I guess.
Yeah I mean but my thing is who falls into that right. I mean you know there are many sellers that I meet with that are their motivation is timeline. You know they want to get the most for their home but they're more on a time constraint where you know hey I must get this home sold. But my thing is is price it right from the beginning you know if that's what your goal is let's make sure we actively market it you know to the best available. But yeah this you know hey if it doesn't sell we'll guarantee to buy your home back. I'm not a fan. So if you are thinking about selling your home and you want to understand the true value of your home a great way to get started is you can text the word listing to the phone number 5 5 5 8 8 8. So once again if you are thinking about selling your home before you sign one of those you know we guarantee to buy it if we don't sell it in 90 days go ahead and check out what the value of your home B in today's markets you can text the word listing to the phone number by 5 5 8 8 8.
Again all you have to do is text that word listing on your cell phone to the number 5 5 5 8 8 8 will send you a text write back that has a link on it and you just click that link and put in your homes information and voila you could find out the value of your home. That's probably a better first step to take than falling for the will buy your house a gimmick is to find out an estimated value of your home. That's a great starting point. Then that can be the spark of the conversation of OK. This estimate is lower than I thought. Why might that be the case. Now you can start investigating that or hey that's a lot higher than we initially thought we'd be able to get for our home. Well that's an exciting feeling and we can make sure that then that is accurate and a true representation of your home's value.
Great first step to take all you have to do is text the word listing to the number 5 5 5 8 8 8 and that will allow you to find out the value of your home one more time just text the word listing to the number 5 5 5 8 8 8. The gimmicks and tricks of the real estate world will continue talking about them coming up a little bit later on today show. This is the savvy real tour with Angie Cole
Let's shine a little light on some of the Triangle's best areas right here on the neighborhood spotlight.
Time for the neighborhood spotlight here on the savvy real tour we feature a great area here in the Triangle tell you all about this particular nook and cranny of the triangle and information that you may need to know or just maybe you'll learn about a new place here in the Triangle.
Always one of my favorite parts of the show here. So Angie tell us about this new spot. What's this week's neighborhood spotlight.
Yes. So we're headed to Roseville. I feel like we haven't mentioned a neighborhood in Roseville so that we get to a new city truly a new nook and cranny for you and Roseville is just north of Wake Forest and the neighborhood spotlight is Carlton Point. Point is ending with the E. So Carlton point. So if you're headed on for one north which will then turn into Roseville bypass you'll take a left on the Jones bill road and then right into the neighborhood. So Carlton point is pretty much as soon as you get into the Roseville town or city it's right there a little bit about Carlton point. So they are still actively building in this neighborhood. They started their first term back in 2013 so they've been going strong for about five years now. So there are resales and there are still new builds depending on what you prefer. All of the homes in Carlton point are single family detached homes. They arrange it in price point from about three hundred and ten thousand up to four hundred and seventy five thousand. They arrange an eight square footage from around two thousand square feet to 4000 square feet. Many different builders in this neighborhood.
So more custom builders including Murdock and Gannon construction ICG homes 3 6 builders capital city homes Brandywine homes. And I might be missing some but many different builders and styles to choose from depending on your likings. We do have the Minis in Carlton point. So there's a pool there's a clubhouse. So just a really nice subdivision and neighborhood to be a part of. Currently there are ten active homes there are available within the neighborhood. And once again some of those are resale some of those are new builds. So depending on you know what type of home you'd be interested in if you would like to get some information on the wonderful neighborhood of Carlton point which I'd personally I've both sold in the neighborhood and I've helped a buyer with buying within the neighborhood definitely don't hesitate to reach out to me. You can either call or tax myself the number is 9 1 9 5 3 8 6 4 7 7 once again 9 1 9 5 3 8 6 4 7 7. And I'd be happy to answer all of your questions about this neighborhood that is your neighborhood spotlight.
Carlton point in Roseville. You know Rosales really it's not far away. I mean it's really close and pretty easy to hop into rally right there on for a one very easy entry point into the big city so really good location in that area. Worth checking out that nook and cranny and based on some of the pictures I've seen Angie of that area really pretty neighborhood really nicely laid out that's just seems like a great spot in the Triangle.
Nice a diversity of homes as well. If you're interested in buying a home in that area and want to learn more about that neighborhood you can call or text Angie at 9 1 9 5 3 8 64 77. Again that's 9 1 9 5 3 8. Sixty four seventy seven this is the neighborhood spotlight on the savvy real talk more
It's time for the mailbag. We want to hear from you
David says we've just had a renter move out of our home. We're probably going to sell it later this year.
Do you think we should try to find another renter in that time. Or will it be easier to sell it without it being occupied. I hate missing out on the rent but we also want it to be an easy sale when we're ready.
David this is a great question and I actually just met with a seller who's in the same predicament they are tenant just moved out and they are ready to put it on the market. Of course days loss with collecting rent is not a positive thing. So our goal is to get it off their books just as quick as possible. You mentioned that you know you're looking to sell it later this year. My first question would be why are you looking to wait to sell it now is an awesome time to sell. So I would definitely take advantage of the strong sellers market and get it on the market A.S.A.P.. We are entering into those spring months but the great thing is there are still such low inventory in our market which means you will get a higher price point typically for your home. You know as far as the home be enlisted with a tenant living in the home I would strongly suggest like I mentioned listing now with it being vacant. Reason being first of all often we need to have the carpets replace the home repainted to make sure that the homes shows well whenever buyers are coming through your home. They really they tried to eliminate homes you know so they don't try to fall in love with the home they start just kind of knocking down a home as far as OK. What are the negatives what do we need to do to the home board to be ready to move in.
So if we can go and take care of all those little items that will be a positive it will help us to get it sold quicker and for top dollar. Another thing to whenever you have a tenant living in the home the lease agreement follows the home. So what that means trying to find a tenant who only needs a short term lease will be tough. Most tenants will want to sign a year lease and so if you have a lease that expires maybe in January of 2019 you want to put your home on the market and followed 2018. Whoever the buyer is for your home that you're sellin as like an investment they must continue that lease until January 19th. They cannot terminate that lease on that tenant unless they have a mutual agreement. So right there you are limiting the amount of people who will be interested in your property because if someone's looking for a personal item. Yeah exactly if someone's looking for it to be a primary residence and actually live in the home. Your home's not going to work for them. Only an investor would be interested in your home. So my thoughts David are go ahead and put it on the market now and get it sold and know marketed as being a vacant listing because you will get a lot more traffic a lot more inquiries and we'll get it sold and at Tom Price Point as well.
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 ACO realty here in the Triangle and if you have questions for Angie we invite you to go online to a call realty dot com. Listen to past podcast episodes on the Web site read the blog and all the great information including the option to find a home right there on the website. That's a call realty dot com and you can also call answer with your questions. 9 1 9 5 7 8 31 28.
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