Marketing & Negotiating the Yin & Yang of Home Sales

Both marketing and negotiating will be uber-important to have in the broker or agent you choose to list your home and get it sold.

Marketing

Some might see marketing as the most important because, to put it plainly, if your home is not exposed widely and aggressively to prospective buyers, you'll never have the buyer viewings and offer(s) that must come in for you to even be faced with the high-class problem of negotiating the price and terms of a sale.
However, I don't see marketing skills as the requirement so much as your listing agent having a clear, comprehensive marketing plan that he/she is able to present to you with case studies of marketing that they've done for recent properties somewhat similar to yours. It's critical that an agent's marketing plan for your home include details such as:

• how they would help you prepare or stage your property for sale;
• what their plans are for listing the property on the local multiple listing service(s) and publicizing it to other brokers;
• what on-site marketing they would recommend (i.e., yard signage and/or open houses); and
• how and where they would place your home's listing online, down to which sites they'd list it on and how many pictures they would include.

Negotiationg

But negotiating is essential too -- especially if you're very concerned about being bullied or taken advantage of.  Ultimately, though, when it comes to negotiations, you're going to be faced with making the ultimate decisions about what your bottom-line price and other terms are, including whether you're able to offer incentives like closing-cost credits or whether you can afford to contribute to any repairs the buyer's inspectors require. What I suspect you want is to feel like you're protected, which will come from having an agent you trust who's "got your back," but also has the experience and knowledge of local standard negotiating practices and buyer psychology that comes only with experience -- and I mean recent experience getting homes sold in today's market climate. I cannot emphasize enough that one efficient method of finding such a listing agent is to get referrals! Look to any family members, friends, work colleagues and neighbors whose homes are on the market now and ask them if they would strongly recommend their agent, and why.
If it's tough to get referrals, go into the various online real estate websites and their local discussion boards, and see which local agents are giving sensible, knowledgeable answers to consumers' questions in those forums. During your interview process, ask for references -- and call them! Speak to their recent past seller clients, to see how happy they were with the agents' service.

From previewing homes to the closing table and all the fun in between

Taking clients out and looking at houses can be quite fun but what happens after they find something they like? It's time to get down to serious business. This is the time where you have to buckle down and write up a contract which is a daunting task but must get done...and quickly.  Why quickly you ask well there could have been ten other showings that day and you want your offer to be the first on the table.  You have an obligation to your clients to move quick because after looking at 10,20 maybe even 30+ houses when they find the one they love it's up to you to make sure they get it.  This is important for two reason, one reason is the contract is a legal document and if you screw up you can get sued or even worse lose your license.  If you are lost make sure you have someone to ask because just winging it will get you nowhere but trouble.  The second reason is your clients are depending on you so prove to them why you are a good agent by being competent and quick to submit their offer....probably on their dream home.  After the offer is submitted and you come to terms with the other party now it's time to get ORGANIZED!!  You are gonna have so many dates and deadlines coming at you if you're not organized  you won't know which way is up.  What I did was to put all the deadlines into my phones calender with alerts, so when something did come up I was on top of it. First thing in the morning I hear an alert and I already know what I need to get done for that particular day.  Take it from someone who has always been unorganized; with all the paperwork you are gonna need and send if you don't figure out a system to become organized you will drown in all the paper work. If your clients catch wind that you are failing at their deal you can forget any referrals that they will give to there friends and family about you.  If you know anything about real estate we live and breath off of referrals so keep organized its just not that hard.

DEAL OR NO DEAL

Where do I even start about my first Real Estate deal it has had more ups and downs than an elevator.  I am so happy that I have a great mentor because without Elizabeth San Miguel my 1st deal would have been dead a long time ago.  Know matter how crazy  your first or any deal is just realize there is always someone that has been through all this before so don't be afraid to ask.  It's is important to surround yourself with these people that have experience under their belt because most likely they have seen and done it all.  When finding a mentor/colleague's make sure that you have similar personalities.  What I mean by that is if you are an aggressive person you want your mentor to be aggressive so you both can approach a deal with the same mind set.  Or if you are more passive person surround yourself with mentors/colleagues that go about business in that same way.  This will help you be comfortable with the advice you are getting that makes a deal go that much smoother.  I won't get into details about my first deal but after looking at 30+ houses and having two houses fall through the only one to keep me grounded was my mentor.  She gave me the right advice and kept my mind focused on the bigger picture instead of getting frustrated with bad agents. One should never lose focus on what the bigger picture is which are your clients and that's the only people that should matter.