Market your house professionally.

I will hire a professional photographer (at my expense) in order to provide the best pictures for the listing.
This is very important and often overlooked by inexperienced or unskilled agents. The photographer should take lots of photos, 20 or more, with high quality equipment, not a cell phone! You should, personally, review and approve each photo and don’t be shy about rejecting some or all of them (you are the boss). The photos should accurately represent the appearance of the property. Wide angle lenses distort the image and are sometimes used to make rooms or yards appear to be larger than they actually are. You don’t want your prospective buyers to be disappointed when the find out that you have distorted the property’s appearance with the photography. Having a lot of high quality pictures that show off all of the attributes of your house are extremely important. Reject photos that are overly “Photo Shopped” since they look unprofessional and fake. Since about 95% of buyers search the internet for houses, these pictures are essential in attracting buyers and making them want to take a close-up look at your property. Use photos from every room in the house and all around the exterior of the house (don’t use photos of the toilets). Get any needed painting done and remove clutter and personal items from the walls and rooms before having the pictures taken. Having some nice furniture is good but don’t over do it. Take a look at the photographs used in listings and you will get the idea. There are lots of poorly done photos and some that are really beautiful. The cost of using a professional photographer is between $75 and $250. The return on this investment will be tremendous. If your agent does not want to have this done, the way that you want it done, or doesn’t want to pay for it, consider getting another agent! This is a vital part of marketing your property and it is what agents get paid to do.

You need a great, attention grabbing, property description for your listing.

This is very important and many people just put the same old drab and tired descriptions that do not show off the unique points of the house and do not grab the buyer’s attention. Therefore there are forgotten quickly and easily. Remember, you are trying to Sell Your Home. You are creating an ad so use words like Gorgeous, Beautiful, Spacious, Awesome where they are appropriate. Point out the unique attributes of the house that make it special like “Cul-de-sac”, “3 Car Garage with Tripple Wide Driveway”, “by the Third Tee Box”, “Waterfront Lot”, “Reserve located in back”, “Freshly Remodeled”, “Granite Counter Tops”, “New Stainless Kitchen Appliances”, etc. and include professionally done photos that show off these things. This statement should allow the potential buyer to visualize your property in a positive way.

This is a good example: “Gorgeous 4 bedroom single story home, freshly remodeled kitchen and baths, granite countertops, double ovens, gas cooktop, new carpet, stone fireplace, and sprinkler system. New stainless kitchen appliances included. Less than 30 minutes to the Medical Center or downtown” With proper photos, this one sells itself.

This one Sucks: “Good starter home for first time home buyers. Good neighborhood. One of the least expensive homes in the area” and it had 7 crappy photos. Good luck with this one!

Listing Your House for Sale

Now You’re Ready to Get it listed.
I will list your home on the Houston Multiple Listing Service (MLS), as soon as you, and your property, are ready. I will go over your listing agreement with you and make sure that you understand, and agree, with the terms. Your property will automatically appear on HAR.com, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and every other listing service, once it is listed as Active on the MLS.

I always use a showing service to arrange for and schedule showings for your house.

You determine which days and times that you want to allow REALTORS® to show your home to potential buyers. You also determine how you want to approve showings. You can approve each showing through text or phone calls, or allow them to be approved automatically by the showing service to save time and encourage more showings. The service is cheap and very worth while. I use Centralized Showing Service, to help control scheduling and access to your property. I also use a secure, electronically controlled, lock box called Supra Key, by General Electric Corp. A person must be a REALTOR®, and member of the Houston MLS, in order to gain access to the Supra Key scheduling service and to open the lock box to remove the key. REALTOR® access is recorded on the Supra Key website and can be reviewed, as needed, to see who, and how many, the day and time, that agents have entered your house. The service also controls access times so you can decide which days and times that you don’t want anyone to show up at your house to show it to prospective buyers. Each REALTOR® will be asked for feedback from the buyers that may help you decide if something needs to be changed or repaired, or if they think that the price is too high.

Plan to be somewhere else during showings.

You don’t want to be the one negotiating price and terms for your house. That is your agent’s job. You don’t want to put yourself in a potentially bad situation by being alone in a house with strangers. REALTORS® are finger printed and have had background checks before getting a license issued from the state but they may know very little about their clients. Set the allowable showing days and times so it is convenient for you deal with. You may have people in your house every day, all day long. You can determine what days of the week and times of days that agents will be allowed to show your property.

Be safe!

• Don’t ever allow anyone in your house without being accompanied by an agent and without having an appointment.
• Appointments should be scheduled, through a showing service, between 9am and 7pm, unless you specify otherwise. You can block certain days, or times, that you don’t want showings to occur in case you are having repairs made, or a family event, etc.
• Never open the door to let any one in even if they say that they are a REALTOR®, Inspector, Surveyor, Appraiser, or anything other profession. Your REALTOR® should notify you ahead of time about anyone that is scheduled to come to your property. If you have any questions, call your REALTOR®.
• Make the REALTOR® get the key from the lock box and open the door themselves and unlock the door.
• The fact that your house in on the market can be seen by anyone and can generate the wrong kind of interest. Electronic boxes are pretty secure. The agent has to be a member, in good standing, with the local MLS and has to have a password protected application on their cell phone in order to open the lock box. Their identity, and the time of access, is recorded on a website that your agent has access too. each time that they attempt to access the key.

 

Stay on top of market conditions and sales in your area.

I will schedule daily or weekly marketing reports to be sent to your email that will keep you up to date on sales in your area. This will allow you to see which properties are selling and alert you to the possibility that you need to make some changes, if your house is not getting attention and not getting offers from buyers.