While the housing market appears to be warming up, it is still important to set your listings apart .
The key to turning a listing into a closed deal is to have your seller change their thinking. If you can get the seller to think like a future buyer, odds are good that you can turn your listing into a paycheck quicker.
Getting the seller to think like a buyer starts with helping them understand how buyers search for and find homes to purchase. Once a seller realizes the importance of not only having a top-notch real estate professional with a strong marketing plan, but also recognizes the value of properly packaging the property, they are beginning to understand that the buyer is a crucial part of the process.
A Strong Marketing Plan
Experienced real estate professionals will provide a comprehensive marketing plan and will help their sellers understand that the days of putting a house in the MLS, sitting back, and waiting for it to sell itself are over for the foreseeable future. After all, how do buyers find houses? Today, buyers find them through a number of different places. Traditional marketing, like the MLS, sign, and open houses are crucial. In addition, they might find a house on Craigslist or Facebook.
A Warranty
How are you going to make your listing competitive so a buyer makes a compelling offer? While there are a number of ways that a house can be made more attractive, one of the best ways to add value is to offer a home warranty.
A home warranty provides coverage on most of the home’s major systems and appliances. If a covered item breaks, the warranty company sends out a service provider and pays for the repair*. This is one of the benefits listing coverage provides. Very few sellers realize when they purchase a home warranty when the home is on the market, they are covered as well. With closings costs and the cost of buying a new home, no seller wants to incur additional charges while their home is on the market.
Homes with a warranty sell for a higher price for two reasons. The first—they include an additional valuable feature. The second reason is subtler. A warranty can give the home an implied higher degree of quality and could potentially be a smarter and safer buy than one without a warranty. On average, warranted homes sell for 2.2 percent more than unwarranted homes. At a median housing price of around $200,000, this means that a warranty adds $4,400 in value, which is much more than the actual cost of the warranty.
