Agents – Tell Your Sellers that Real Estate Has Changed

Carl Medford recently published a piece with InmanNews about how real estate has changed. Medford, along with a companion piece suggested by Nicole Solari, suggests that agents bring their sellers up-to-date about today’s real estate market.

Here are Medford’s suggestions:

1. Tell your sellers that buyers now know what they want. They’ve already “looked” online and “looked” at properties on HGTV.
2. Sellers now have 7-10 seconds to sell their home. Smartphones and HD Internet connectivity have completely changed the game. People now have the attention span of gnats. If they don’t like what they see on their phones and screens immediately, they move on to the next
3. Buyers no longer need to see the house in person. Thanks to com, Trulia, Zillow, List Hub, etc. buyers have instant access to property data, 3D home tours, automated evaluations, historical facts, school and neighborhood information, etc.
4. Groups of buyers have changed. Today, those groups of buyers include “top tier” buyers who are willing to pay premium prices for “move-in-ready” homes that have every imaginable amenity; “mid tier” buyers who used to look for houses in “original” condition so they could get good prices and fix up those houses themselves – the problem with these mid tier buyers is that they are disappearing…they want move-in-ready homes too because they are less capable of doing the fixing-up themselves; and “bottom tier” buyers, mainly contractors and house flippers who expect homes needing upgrades to be priced as bargains.
5. Present Tense Seller Needs
   1. Sellers need agents NOW, not later. Agents can help sellers maximize the house’s potential because agents know what buyers are looking for AND agents can connect sellers with trades and pros who can do the job right the first time.
   2. The more the seller does to make the house move-in ready, the better. Sellers may not get an ROI of 100% but they will get a sale. The more the seller does to get online photos to pop, the more potential buyers will walk through the front door.
   3. Open houses make it easier for potential buyers and neighbors who might know a potential buyer to actually get inside the house to see it in real time.
   4. House signs need to be close to/on the property. People have GPS now…they know where they’re going.
   5. Buyers know when something is overpriced. They’ve done their research online. Plus, now with more inventory available, buyers migrate to good values/deals.