Hiring a Real Estate Agent to Sell Your Home in Cedar Rapids? Does Your Realtor...

Before I became a Realtor, my thought process of 'Who do I choose to list my house' was probably not unlike yours.  Who do you know that has listed your friends, family members, or co-workers homes, and 'Did they do a good job.'

Now that I am a Realtor, and a darn good one, I would like to re-educate you on how to choose a Realtor.  Most would agree that 90% of us initiate our search for homes on the Internet.  It's increasingly becoming a powerful tool for buyers to locate properties, and educate themselves about the buying process.  However, the same can be said for sellers.  Increasingly, sellers are turning to the Internet because they know that homes these days are primarily marketed online, and those Realtors with a powerful online presence will expose their home to more "potential buyers."

Case in point, if you were going to contact someone to interview in order to market your home to sell, what criteria would you be looking for?  Would you go with the standard, "Well, my brother went with so and so, and he did a good job."  What if there was an alternative so convincing that you could not live without giving this Realtor a shot at marketing your home?  That Realtor is myself.  My name is Christopher Smith and I work for Traditions Real Estate.  We market 100% exclusively online and have the most powerful web presence of any Realtor/Brokerage in town.

I would always ask you to interview more than one Realtor for the job and if you do, please ask the right questions that will net you the most return on your investment.

Does your Realtor:

1. Take 36 full color, high resolution, wide angle lens photographs of your house and post them on his website and about 100 other websites around the country?
2. Offer a free virtual tour, stitching together all 36 photographs.
3. Advertise your property on his website 24/7 along with 100 other top Realtors in town's websites, 25 local, regional, and national websites?
4. Offer his company as a full service brokerage with flexible commission plans starting at 5%.
5. Blog about your property weekly on several top rated real estate blogs.
6. Shoot video of your home, your neighborhood, attractions in the neighborhood, schools, etc.?
7. Already have a list of buyers in your price range.  I already have a list of over 200 buyers in the first time home buyer price range of 75-150K.  I have almost 70 buyers in the 150-225K price range.  I have 43 buyers right now looking for homes in the 225-500K price range.  Does your Realtor?
8. Have a website on page one of Google for the #1 key search phrase in town: "Cedar Rapids Real Estate?"  My website receives over 100 visitors per day and around 500 first time visitors to the site each month.
9. Honestly discuss with you the price you can expect to receive for your home?  Any Realtor in town can list a home 5-10K above what it's worth in today's buyer's market.  Your house will then sit on the market for six months or more without any showings.
10. Get over 100 visitors per month that fill out search criteria specifically looking for homes in certain price ranges.  80% of those visitors are in the 75-150K price range.
11. Receive a text message when someone visits his site inquiring about one of his specific properties?  I do and I'm calling that person in the next five minutes.
12. Market your home 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?  My website, blogs, video blogs, showcase your house to more potential buyers than any other Realtor/Brokerage in town.
13. Promise to market your house on their TV show?  Your home is showcased on their TV show for 30 seconds.  I just reached over to change my babies diaper and missed it!
14. Promise to advertise your listing in the newspaper?  The Stefan Swanepoel Trends report for 2009 says, "Newspaper advertising for homes are dead.  More and more customers are turning to the Internet to initiate and captivate their home search."
15. Promise to do Open Houses weekend after weekend?  Open Houses invite 8 out of 10 people into your home that are not qualified to even purchase your home.  That same 8 out of 10 people do not even have a Realtor that they are working with.  6 out of every 10 people through your door still have a house to sell first, and it isn't even on the market yet!  Still want to have Open Houses?

The point I'm trying to make is, not all Realtors are created equal.  95% of Realtors don't know the first thing about marketing, and marketing sells homes.  Sticking a sign in the ground, accepting a seller's inflated asking price just to get the listing, and then ignoring the seller's needs is no longer an option in today's fragile economy.   Our marketing plan saves you thousands of dollars throughout the life of the contract, and even more so at closing time.   If I have made a convincing case to you and you would like for our team to visit your family and discuss your options further, we would be honored.  We take our job very seriously and it shows up in our results.   Have a fantastic week!

Christopher Smith

Traditions Real Estate

www.christophersmithrealtor.com 

christopher.smith.realtor@gmail.com 

319-329-5988

Licensed Realtor in the state of IOWA

"Success in real estate at the SERVICE of others" 

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