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| 14 Mar 2008 04:54:27 pm |
 How To Prepare Your House For Sale |
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This article was first published by the lovely Elizabeth Weintraub, in About.com
This is a step-by-step procedure listed rationally and in an easy to follow way.
Prepping and staging a house
Every seller wants her home to sell fast and bring top dollar. Does that sound good to you? Well, it's not luck that makes that happen. It's careful planning and knowing how to professionally spruce up your home that will send home buyers scurrying for their checkbooks. Here is how to prep a house and turn it into an irresistible and marketable home.
Difficulty: Average
Time Required: Seven to 10 Days
Here's How:
1.Disassociate Yourself With Your Home.
- Say to yourself, "This is not my home; it is a house -- a product to be sold much like a box of cereal on the grocery store shelf.
- Make the mental decision to "let go" of your emotions and focus on the fact that soon this house will no longer be yours.
- Picture yourself handing over the keys and envelopes containing appliance warranties to the new owners!
2.De-Personalize.
Pack up those personal photographs and family heirlooms. Buyers can't see past personal artifacts, and you don't want them to be distracted. You want buyers to imagine their own photos on the walls, and they can't do that if yours are there! You don't want to make any buyer ask, "I wonder what kind of people live in this home?" You want buyers to say, "I can see myself living here."
3. De-Clutter!
People collect an amazing quantity of junk. Consider this: if you haven't used it in over a year, you probably don't need it.
- If you don't need it, why not donate it or throw it away?
- Remove all books from bookcases.
- Pack up those knickknacks.
- Clean off everything on kitchen counters.
Put essential items used daily in a small box that can be stored in a closet when not in use.
Think of this process as a head-start on the packing you will eventually need to do anyway.
4.Rearrange Bedroom Closets and Kitchen Cabinets.
Buyers love to snoop and will open closet and cabinet doors. Think of the message it sends if items fall out! Now imagine what a buyer believes about you if she sees everything organized. It says you probably take good care of the rest of the house as well. This means:
- Turn coffee cup handles facing the same way.
- Hang shirts together, buttoned and facing the same direction.
5. Rent a Storage Unit.
Almost every home shows better with less furniture. Remove pieces of furniture that block or hamper paths and walkways and put them in storage. Since your bookcases are now empty, store them. Remove extra leaves from your dining room table to make the room appear larger. Leave just enough furniture in each room to showcase the room's purpose and plenty of room to move around. You don't want buyers scratching their heads and saying, "What is this room used for?"
6. Remove/Replace Favorite Items.
If you want to take window coverings, built-in appliances or fixtures with you, remove them now. If the chandelier in the dining room once belonged to your great grandmother, take it down. If a buyer never sees it, she won't want it. Once you tell a buyer she can't have an item, she will covet it, and it could blow your deal. Pack those items and replace them, if necessary.
7. Make Minor Repairs.
- Replace cracked floor or counter tiles.
- Fix doors that don't close properly and kitchen drawers that jam.
- Consider painting your walls neutral colors, especially if you have grown accustomed to purple or pink walls.
(Don't give buyers any reason to remember your home as "the house with the orange bathroom.")
- Replace burned-out light bulbs.
- If you've considered replacing a worn bedspread, do so now!
8. Make the House Sparkle!
- Wash windows inside and out.
- Rent a pressure washer and spray down sidewalks and exterior.
- Re-caulk tubs, showers and sinks.
- Polish chrome faucets and mirrors.
- Clean out the refrigerator.
- Dust furniture, ceiling fan blades and light fixtures.
- Bathroom towels look great fastened with ribbon and bows.
- Clean and air out any musty smelling areas. Odors are a no-no.
9.Scrutinize.
- Go outside and open your front door. Stand there. Do you want to go inside? Does the house welcome you?
- Linger in the doorway of every single room and imagine how your house will look to a buyer.
- Examine carefully how furniture is arranged and move pieces around until it makes sense.
- Make sure window coverings hang level.
- Tune in to the room's statement and its emotional pull. Does it have impact and pizzazz?
- Does it look like nobody lives in this house? You're almost finished.
10.Check Curb Appeal.
If a buyer won't get out of her agent's car because she doesn't like the exterior of your home, you'll never get her inside.
- Keep the sidewalks cleared.
- Plant yellow flowers or group flower pots together. Yellow evokes a buying emotion. Marigolds are inexpensive.
- Make sure visitors can clearly read your house number.
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Category : General
| Posted By : richardbrazil |  Comments[0] |  Trackbacks [944] |
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| 04 Feb 2008 09:35:30 am |
| Issues in Real Estate |
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When we speak of the real estate economy, we use national statistics; on the other hand the stock market is based on the national or even the world economy. The real estate markets are based on local or even micro-local economy. What is happening in LA may not directly affect what is happening in Toledo.
What affects all real estate markets together are the interest rates. There is no single barometer to measure the entire housing industry in US.
So, while statistics calculations and economic factors are relevant, equally important is using one’s common sense. We must keep our eyes wide open and take a look around and see what is happening. Talking to real estate agents, investors and lenders in a particular area can be a big help to access a market.
These are certain issues one must consider while dealing in real estate.
One major issue facing corporate real estate managers is how to effectively manage the real estate assets in the current market environment.
Secondly, real estate agents provide information about utilities, zoning, schools etc. But two common issues a buyer faces while buying are-
i. Will the property provide the right environment we want for a home?
ii. Will the property have a good resale value when we are ready to sell?
Another importan issue that any buyer / investor faces is the legal issue. Real estate laws vary from state to state. One must consult an attorney licensed to practice law in the state in which the property is located.
At times, the property a buyer is seeking is available but not properly advertised. It may take you some time and effort to search for and locate the right property.
The important issue of finance. We must know our financial reserves plus our borrowing capacity. If we know about our current savings, income and debt, then we can take help from lenders; banks and mortgage companies, which offer some choices according to your financial capability.
In America, some real estate association and commissions have sponsored regulation that require all real estate brokers to provide a minimum level of services which forces sellers to buy services they do not want or need .
There is the issue of rebates on transaction fees. Some states in America allow rebates of commissions or fees on real estate transactions but some states have legislated regulations which prohibit rebates.
Next is the issue of consumer participation. The consumer federation of America released a study that real estate boards and commissions are dominated by real estate practitioners and they recommended greater participation by consumers; which is opposed by practitioners – this works against the interest of ordinary buyers and sellers.
Last but not the least, a lot of hoopla has been floating around in the news media about the ‘bubble’ theory of real estate and that the real estate market is going to burst – this may have a psychological impact on the potential buyer or seller. |
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Category : General
| Posted By : richardbrazil | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [1094] |
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| 15 Jan 2008 06:59:07 am |
| Customer Satisfaction Counts |
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This post is written by Maria Patterson and is the cover story on rismedia. I am republishing it because we can emulate the success story. 
Five years. That’s all the time it took for one company, GMAC Home Services, to reinvent the very meaning of the much-used, but often misused phrase, “customer satisfaction.”
In 2002, when John Bearden became the company’s president and CEO, he took a long, thoughtful look around the real estate industry. He didn’t care much for what he saw: an industry beset by plunging commission rates and consumers growing more fickle by the day.
Bearden was equally disturbed by what he didn’t see: not a single national real estate company providing comprehensive and meaningful customer service on a consistent and predictable basis.
Bearden decided that company would be GMAC Home Services. Simply put, he was looking for a way to serve up a consistently better service experience for the consumer, to help his brokers build the financial net income of their businesses, and to help agents cultivate more loyal and profitable customer relationships. In other words, to help differentiate GMAC Real Estate as a brand that stood for something tangible: day-to-day, transaction-to-transaction excellence in customer service. The kind of service that pleasantly takes customers by surprise and brings them back for future home-buying and selling needs, along with their friends and family members through positive word-of-mouth referrals.
Today, close to six years later, his team has completely integrated a customer-focused business plan and an unprecedented culture of customer service throughout the company’s four operating units, including GMAC Real Estate Franchised Operations, GMAC Real Estate Company-Owned, GMAC Global Relocation Services (see sidebar) and GHS Mortgage. The results have forced more than a few industry observers to sit up and take notice.
When Bearden and his team embarked on creating a new model for customer service, they were keenly aware of the challenge of accurately and thoroughly measuring quality service in the real estate and relocation industries. Quantifying customer satisfaction for many years had been a concept, but not a practice.
“Agents are notoriously independent, and that’s what makes them so successful and enjoyable to work with,” Bearden says. “But trying to persuade tens of thousands of these independent-minded entrepreneurs is very challenging at best. Looks good on paper, but reality is a much different story.”
Bearden and his executive team at GMAC Home Services knew that if they truly wanted to establish the company as the national leader in customer service, it would require an initiative like none other.
Premier Service: A New National Model
Thus, in 2002, Premier Service¨ was born.
“Through Premier Service, we set an extremely ambitious goal for GMAC Home Services,” Bearden explains. “And it was that we would become the sole leader in providing customer service, and the only national real estate company willing to measure, and then recalibrate as necessary, our performance by using an independent, third-party company to survey the customers we serve. We also set a goal of establishing Premier Service as the most comprehensive and effective customer-service initiative offered by any real estate company, bar none.
“There was a fair amount of skepticism in the industry about our plans, and especially about our claims for what we would achieve through Premier Service.”
Results That Speak (Loudly) for Themselves
When you look at the national awards the company has racked up over the past three months, it appears that GMAC Home Services might be getting the last laugh, and customers couldn’t be happier.
Indeed, with more than 500,000 customer internal surveys already conducted, the company posts an extraordinary 94% customer satisfaction rating (with 82% of customers “very satisfied” and 12% “satisfied”).
What’s more, for the past two years, GMAC Global Relocation Services has received a perfect 100% customer satisfaction rating following a comprehensive survey of global clients that gave the company a Premier Service rating of excellent, very good, or good for “value received.” Also for the past two years, 100% of clients surveyed said they would recommend GMAC Global Relocation Services to prospective clients.
In addition, GMAC Global Relocation Services ranked “Highest in Transferee Satisfaction with Relocation Companies,” according to the J.D. Power and Associates’ 2007 Corporate Relocation Transferee Satisfaction StudySM.
There’s more. Through the company’s Premier Service program, GMAC Real Estate sales associates: Serve as their customers’ “trusted advisors” and partners in the truest sense of the phrases Seek, in all they do, to be their brokers’ partners in success As a result of a national survey released in 2007 conducted by the independent research firm Quality Service Certified (QSC), it found: In 2007, 94.2% of sellers were either very satisfied or satisfied with their GMAC Real estate sales associate. Also in 2007, 94.8% of buyers were either very satisfied or satisfied with their GMAC Real Estate sales associate. 850% of GMAC Real Estate sales associates have achieved 100% customer satisfaction (with every client being very satisfied or satisfied). Nationwide, two of the top three real estate companies for 2007, as judged by consumers participating in post-transaction customer satisfaction surveys, were GMAC Real Estate franchisees: Real Estate Professionals GMAC in Redding, California, and Vanguard Realty GMAC in Jacksonville, Florida.
One of the Industry’s Best-Kept Secrets
The company’s growing ranks of exceptionally satisfied customers might disagree, but Bearden says GMAC Home Services is one of the North American real estate industry’s best-kept secrets.
“Are we the biggest? No. Are we the best-known? No. Are we the best, especially in terms of satisfying customers and pointing the entire industry in a new, more positive direction for the future?” he asks.
“You’d better believe it. And next up will be phase two of our rollout plans for helping to transform the company and industry even more,” he says.
With the customer service component clearly in place and generating bona fide results, the second part of Bearden’s four-part plan to reinvigorate and push the industry into new areas includes: The launch of a new technology infrastructure like no other the industry has seen. The implementation of the technology desktop will make it easier for agents to manage their businesses, effectively track and manage leads and close more transactions while providing an unequalled experience for consumers. Additionally, the technology desktop has been specifically developed to provide leads to other service providers (such as mortgage, title, etc.), thereby creating new revenue streams. Less reliance on “brick and mortar” since Bearden believes real estate offices will have a greatly reduced role in the way real estate business is conducted in the future. As Bearden says, “If we know that 80 percent of consumers today are using the Internet to do their research, we need to be developing technology to work with them on their terms, not dazzle them with fancy and expensive offices.”
Bottom line: GMAC Home Services, whether in real estate, relocation or mortgage, is best in quality across the board. |
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Category : General
| Posted By : richardbrazil | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [245] |
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| 29 Nov 2007 10:33:18 am |
| Blogs about American Agent Online! |
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Just a note that many blogs are starting to happen about American Agent Online. One such blog is located at a prominent webstie called RISMedia. Here is the blog's URL: http://rismedia.com/forums/topic/are-customers-really-online
Check it out! Richard Brazil  |
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Category : General
| Posted By : richardbrazil | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [791] |
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| 01 Nov 2007 02:32:30 pm |
| American Agent Online Chatting Community |
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Blog written by: Larry Toliver "The Realtor Guy" October 11, 2007
http://larrytherealtorguy.blogspot.com/2007/10/american-agent-online-chatting.html
Finally, a site that both buyers/sellers and Realtors can chat about anything real estate. For Realtors, American Agent Online is a unique way to communicate with buyers and sellers. The setup is simple, easy, and FREE. You get one free zip code to work with any additional zip codes are $5 apiece. This is how it works you login, I suggest minimizing your screen. You will here a sound that will alert you that a person wants to chat with you. Now this person is located in a zip code you have chosen. It is a great way to network especially with potential clients. I say try it out. What do you have to lose? I give it two thumbs up. It’s free to sign up depending on the zip code you choose. There may be a surplus of buyer and sellers that need your expertise in real estate.
For consumers (both buyers and sellers) the first step you need to do is enter your zip code or list of zip codes that you might be interested in chatting with a Realtor about. If a Realtor is online in one of the zip codes you chosen, you can engage in a chat about all real estate affairs. www.americanagentonline.com is the way of the future I strongly endorse this site. There’s no pressure at all and your identity is confidential. |
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Category : General
| Posted By : richardbrazil | Comments[0] | Trackbacks [28393] |
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