Trust The Process And Invest

If your real estate agent is telling you they have a buyer for your property and you won't need to spend any money on advertising, there are a few things you need to know.

If a real estate agent came over and said they could guarantee that they could give you 30 days of sunshine during your marketing campaign, would you believe them? No. Because they do not control the weather. They also do not control if a buyer is going to buy or the price they are going to pay. They do not control the market. At best they can influence the market. The market sets the market. As agents, their job is to get buyers to look at your property, to get them to fall in love with it and to then create competition. Competition wins gold in the Olympics and competition and compression selling creates top dollar in real estate.

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"...compression selling creates top dollar in real estate."

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Their job in fact is not to be a valuer, their job is to outline a business plan process.

You need to know this, that it is the process and not the promise of a price that will get you top dollar.

There can be two stages of the marketing process. The first phase is what can be known as an undercover sale or pre-launch campaign. This is where it's not launched to the market yet, however your agent has the change to contact prospective buyers to create FOMO (fear of missing out). It can work wonders in some cases however, there must be certain factors involved to determine it's success.

If you're willing to try this method, your agent should be able to show you a list of the interested buyers they currently have looking and who they are going to contact. Some agencies will say they have a database of 50,000 buyers. This has probably accumulated over the past 10 years with none of them actually qualified or legitimate prospects.

During this short phase, either your home will sell or you will be gathering feedback and current intel on what the buyers are thinking about your property. This can help gain a price point at which to launch the property at. Your property is only worth what the market is willing to pay. It might go for 3 days, 5 days or 10 days but you don't want it to drag on for weeks.

If it hasn't sold, that's okay. It's all part of the process. The second phase is to launch onto the public market and move on to a broader marketing campaign. This is where you need to allow your agent to advertise and sell hard.

Do you think companies like Apple, Coca-Cola and McDonald's are stupid when it comes to spending advertising? No, because they understand, it's not the best product that wins, it's the best marketed product that wins. Your agents job is to out-market other homes. You see, your home is on the market not on it's own, it's actually on the market in competition. No different to what McDonald's does. The Big Mac isn't the most favourite burger to eat, but it continues to smash it in sales because of the law of product. It in not the best product that wins in the market, it is the best marketed product that wins. Do not sell your home in isolation, but in competition.

Real estate agents are in fact in the product business. It is launching products into the marketplace. So they need to act like they are product manager. One listing is one product. And each product needs a launch and management. This means you also have to start thinking about your home as a product as well as how you're going to brand and market it. This can involve creating a themed aesthetic for the home, making it feel inviting, spacious, clean and maintained. Don't give your buyer any room to negotiate you down on price. If you want to achieve the best possible sale price for your home, you need to be willing to invest in the preparation and presentation. There are tools available for vendors such as home improvement financing which gives you the funds you need to do it up until the property is sold and the funds can be paid back on settlement.

One of the questions you've got to ask yourself is this, whats more important to you? The risk of over-marketing by $5000 or the risk of underselling by $50,000. Do not undersell the biggest asset that you own. There have been owners lose tens of thousands of dollars at the time of sale because they became a bit 'thrifty' with $1000 at the time of listing. Every day in real estate, we see many homes sell for lower than what they could of because they were a secret. A secret agent sold a secret property. You've got to stand out to win out.

Side Note...

While we're on the topic of investing in your home and marketing, I do not believe in agents who offer 'no upfront marketing fees'. I understand that some homeowners are not in a position to outlay thousands of dollars on advertising. However, I do believe in homeowners having an invested interest in their agent and a level of accountability and trust.