Not Terms of Endearment
The remarks in the MLS listing sheet said:
24 hour notice to show. No lockbox. Can only be shown on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11-6. Cash only considered. Bring your pickiest buyers.
The commission to the buyer's agent was 2%, which is less than the normal 2.5-3% offered. There is only one picture of the property online taken of the front of the home with a cell phone camera. My clients want to see this home because it's in a neighborhood they love. My guess is the seller and their realtor know this is a sought after community with good schools and freeway accessibility so they phoned in the terms.
Here's the thing with terms: the more restrictions there are to showing and purchasing the home, the fewer interested buyers there will be. In this online information era, buyers look to the internet websites like Realtor.com or Zillow to preview homes they'd like to see. If there is only one picture, and it's substandard, most will likely go onto the next. But if they are persistent, like my clients, it's up to me to navigate the troubled waters of terms for them. And terms aren't listed on these sites, so our clients get excited about a property that is then barricaded in with terms and want us to make sure they get to tour it.
24 hours notice to show: It is understandable that sellers might need some time to get their home in showable order before we come over with our clients. A good realtor has already made her/his clients aware of the fact that accessibility is key to selling their home quickly at the best price and has created the sense in them that the home needs to stay picked up and ready to be shown. I know some sellers still want lots and lots of notice, but they need to understand that term on the listing sheet will cause some realtors and their buyers to pass on the property. (It also creates the possibility with poor realtors to just show up at your door, ringing the doorbell endlessly, hoping to get in despite the stated notice parameter. Don't think that doesn't happen...like...all the time.)
No lockbox: This means that in order to see the home, the realtor for the sellers must meet you and your clients at the home. This obviously puts another barrier up as now I have to not only arrange my schedule, the schedule of my clients, but also the schedule of the seller realtor. It decreases the ease with which I can manage the schedule of the tour, too. Some homes are walk in walk out, others are interesting and my clients want to stay a while and feel the home, discuss where their furniture will go or see what they might want to change to make it theirs. If we are late or early to the home with no lock box, the buyer realtor must keep the waiting seller realtor updated. This isn't a complaint so much as an understanding of why the lock box destroys a barrier.
Can only be shown on certain days: This is, of course, done for the convenience of the home owner. But if I can't get in on those two days with my clients who work until six every evening, that home is not an option for us. This barrier is almost insurmountable and makes buyers a little cranky...cranky enough to say: "To heck with that one."
Cash sale only: This is not a usual term on the MLS. If there is no home warranty and it's condition makes an appraisal out of the question, then the seller might want all cash. By the way, with an all cash offer, there if often no appraisal necessary since the bank doesn't own the property and the buyer hasn't gotten a loan that needs to be paid off. Investors often purchase these kinds of properties for all cash and flip them for a profit. Most people, however, don't have all cash. This term will exclude most home buyers.
Bring your pickiest buyers: We realtors usually associate this line with a home that is in great condition with upgrades galore. The barrier with this particular home is that all the other terms of the MLS showing would tell me just the opposite. There are no pictures except the shadowy image of the exterior. They want cash only. Hmm. Why? What's wrong with the home? That's where my realtor radar goes up. If I see gorgeous pictures of an amazing home and the terms are creating opportunities instead of barriers to the viewing and ultimate purchase of the home, then I'm happy to bring my pickiest buyer to the property.
2% Commission: Some realtors won't even consider showing a home with a 2% or less commission listed. Why? It's not always greed. What does this commission say about the realtor? 2.5% - 3% is standard, so this realtor is offering a lower than usual commission to the buyer agent so that she could acquire the listing, perhaps. It's leverage, for sure. But I've been involved in at least one transaction where the commission was actually 6% and the realtor offered 2% and kept 4%. My client and I discovered this by accident when the realtor said too much at the home inspection. That was it for my client. She felt that was so unfair she quit the transaction and we found another place. The process of helping clients buy and/or sell a home is multi-faceted, complicated and stressful for realtors. I know that's hard to believe, but we take your sale or purchase seriously, doing all the mounds of paperwork necessary for the sale to run smoothly, setting appointments for termite, inspections, appraisals and even for stagers and contractors, and negotiating for repairs on the property as well as being involved in the process. We are the middle men and women who take the pressure off with lenders, escrow and sellers or buyers. I've been involved in difficult transactions where I have taken much of the pressure because the other realtor is taking only 1.5% and has no real motivation to do an excellent job. Our commission should reflect the excellence with which we perform. Taking less can look like we aren't worth it. I've had potential clients ask me many times, and very often in open houses, how much of my commission I'm willing to give back to them at close. Not only is this rather insulting, it shows they don't really understand all I do for my clients.
Bottom Line: The most efficient way to sell a home for the highest price in the shortest amount of time is to make the terms for showing and for the sale as barrier free as is humanly possible. Each roadblock is an opportunity for the buyers to bypass your home for the one they can access most easily and purchase with the greatest possible ease. Commission is important, too. Don't forget that having an excellent realtor who has your back, who works hard and is always available to you and who understands the ins and outs of the process is worth every penny he/she earns. Would you be comfortable with your bosses asking how much you are going to give back to the company at the end of the month for doing such a good job for them? It's a question asked of realtors on a regular basis and perhaps it's because we haven't done a good enough job of letting our clients know how invaluable we are to their process.
24 hour notice to show. No lockbox. Can only be shown on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11-6. Cash only considered. Bring your pickiest buyers.
The commission to the buyer's agent was 2%, which is less than the normal 2.5-3% offered. There is only one picture of the property online taken of the front of the home with a cell phone camera. My clients want to see this home because it's in a neighborhood they love. My guess is the seller and their realtor know this is a sought after community with good schools and freeway accessibility so they phoned in the terms.
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| Remove all obstacles in your way |
Here's the thing with terms: the more restrictions there are to showing and purchasing the home, the fewer interested buyers there will be. In this online information era, buyers look to the internet websites like Realtor.com or Zillow to preview homes they'd like to see. If there is only one picture, and it's substandard, most will likely go onto the next. But if they are persistent, like my clients, it's up to me to navigate the troubled waters of terms for them. And terms aren't listed on these sites, so our clients get excited about a property that is then barricaded in with terms and want us to make sure they get to tour it.
24 hours notice to show: It is understandable that sellers might need some time to get their home in showable order before we come over with our clients. A good realtor has already made her/his clients aware of the fact that accessibility is key to selling their home quickly at the best price and has created the sense in them that the home needs to stay picked up and ready to be shown. I know some sellers still want lots and lots of notice, but they need to understand that term on the listing sheet will cause some realtors and their buyers to pass on the property. (It also creates the possibility with poor realtors to just show up at your door, ringing the doorbell endlessly, hoping to get in despite the stated notice parameter. Don't think that doesn't happen...like...all the time.)
No lockbox: This means that in order to see the home, the realtor for the sellers must meet you and your clients at the home. This obviously puts another barrier up as now I have to not only arrange my schedule, the schedule of my clients, but also the schedule of the seller realtor. It decreases the ease with which I can manage the schedule of the tour, too. Some homes are walk in walk out, others are interesting and my clients want to stay a while and feel the home, discuss where their furniture will go or see what they might want to change to make it theirs. If we are late or early to the home with no lock box, the buyer realtor must keep the waiting seller realtor updated. This isn't a complaint so much as an understanding of why the lock box destroys a barrier.
Can only be shown on certain days: This is, of course, done for the convenience of the home owner. But if I can't get in on those two days with my clients who work until six every evening, that home is not an option for us. This barrier is almost insurmountable and makes buyers a little cranky...cranky enough to say: "To heck with that one."
Cash sale only: This is not a usual term on the MLS. If there is no home warranty and it's condition makes an appraisal out of the question, then the seller might want all cash. By the way, with an all cash offer, there if often no appraisal necessary since the bank doesn't own the property and the buyer hasn't gotten a loan that needs to be paid off. Investors often purchase these kinds of properties for all cash and flip them for a profit. Most people, however, don't have all cash. This term will exclude most home buyers.
Bring your pickiest buyers: We realtors usually associate this line with a home that is in great condition with upgrades galore. The barrier with this particular home is that all the other terms of the MLS showing would tell me just the opposite. There are no pictures except the shadowy image of the exterior. They want cash only. Hmm. Why? What's wrong with the home? That's where my realtor radar goes up. If I see gorgeous pictures of an amazing home and the terms are creating opportunities instead of barriers to the viewing and ultimate purchase of the home, then I'm happy to bring my pickiest buyer to the property.
2% Commission: Some realtors won't even consider showing a home with a 2% or less commission listed. Why? It's not always greed. What does this commission say about the realtor? 2.5% - 3% is standard, so this realtor is offering a lower than usual commission to the buyer agent so that she could acquire the listing, perhaps. It's leverage, for sure. But I've been involved in at least one transaction where the commission was actually 6% and the realtor offered 2% and kept 4%. My client and I discovered this by accident when the realtor said too much at the home inspection. That was it for my client. She felt that was so unfair she quit the transaction and we found another place. The process of helping clients buy and/or sell a home is multi-faceted, complicated and stressful for realtors. I know that's hard to believe, but we take your sale or purchase seriously, doing all the mounds of paperwork necessary for the sale to run smoothly, setting appointments for termite, inspections, appraisals and even for stagers and contractors, and negotiating for repairs on the property as well as being involved in the process. We are the middle men and women who take the pressure off with lenders, escrow and sellers or buyers. I've been involved in difficult transactions where I have taken much of the pressure because the other realtor is taking only 1.5% and has no real motivation to do an excellent job. Our commission should reflect the excellence with which we perform. Taking less can look like we aren't worth it. I've had potential clients ask me many times, and very often in open houses, how much of my commission I'm willing to give back to them at close. Not only is this rather insulting, it shows they don't really understand all I do for my clients.
Bottom Line: The most efficient way to sell a home for the highest price in the shortest amount of time is to make the terms for showing and for the sale as barrier free as is humanly possible. Each roadblock is an opportunity for the buyers to bypass your home for the one they can access most easily and purchase with the greatest possible ease. Commission is important, too. Don't forget that having an excellent realtor who has your back, who works hard and is always available to you and who understands the ins and outs of the process is worth every penny he/she earns. Would you be comfortable with your bosses asking how much you are going to give back to the company at the end of the month for doing such a good job for them? It's a question asked of realtors on a regular basis and perhaps it's because we haven't done a good enough job of letting our clients know how invaluable we are to their process.
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