Hi
Anna,
While I don’t know the particulars of your situation I can
give you a brief descriptions of all the things going on behind the
scenes of getting a home ready for listing.
Weeks
before a listing there is an initial walk through of
the home by you and your Realtor®. This would give your real estate
agent the opportunity to familiarize themselves with your property,
take notes for the listing information (types of appliances, gas or
electric services, counter top type, general condition etc,) Your
agent will also use this opportunity to get an idea about general
condition of homes and how it compares to other homes either active
on market or recently sold in the area. This will help them prepare
the CMA (comparative market analysis) that they will present and go
over with you as a guide to pricing your home for the market.
Also
at that time you should be discussing what you, homeowner, may want
to do to get the home in showing condition. This is sometimes a
touchy subject with homeowners because we (home owners in general)
are proud of our homes, as we should be. In the vast majority of
cases homes are where we live. Depending on family makeup day to day
living is not as it is always portrayed on TV shows and in movies.
On
any given day I know exactly what someone walking into my home may
face. Kids cloths in strange places, dishes in places that no one
remembers eating at, things stuffed into couch pillows, napkins that
the dog got a hold of and has torn apart. As you all know the list
can go on and on. This is what a welled live in home sees every day.
Now
comes time for listing a home. If your real estate agent does not
have the knack they may bring in a professional “stagger” to
assist. The idea is simple make the homes first impression to
prospective buyers pop. They might suggest removing “Clutter”
from a room This is a catch all phrase – Too many pieces of
furniture that may be cluttering a room to the 50 nick knacks on the
book cases that hold personal value and memories to you and your
family. Every room in a typical home has clutter typically so don’t
be offended with these suggestions and by all means every suggestion
does not have to be acted on.
You
have always heard “remove all personal photos”. In some homes
there are walls of family photos from years of traveling and events.
These photos are meant to remind the homeowner of all of these
wonderful times but to a prospective buyer coming through the home
they are a distraction. You don’t want them concentrating on your
vacations because then they are not going to remember the home. This
is my opinion why your photos need to be removed and stored for your
next home. Yikes once you take down the photos you may have faded
walls where the photos are, would suggest a quick coat of paint over
that wall.
So
we go room to room and make suggestions,, rearrange furniture, maybe
remove some pieces to make rooms bigger, check out conditions of
carpets and floors. Caulking around Bath tubs, weather stripping on
doors, missing lights (or ones that don’t work) walk around outside
looking for things a buyer might see. Wood rot at window sills,
exterior caulking that is deterioration, missing shingles, overgrown
bushes, trees that may need to be trimmed. As you can see there is
potentially a lot of work that may need to be done.
Once
you can get a list together it is easy to go through and estimate
costs, see what you the homeowner can do on your own etc. A lot of
the things are just deferred maintenance that we all get too busy to
do at times.
Personally
I have for clients, power washed decks/drives, cleaned windows,
landscaped whenever I think I can lend a had to the appearance of a
home. We do this so that the property makes a good 1st
impression. And we all know that 1st
impressions are very important.
Then
the photo session! So since there are so many people starting their
search on line your photos have a lot to do whether a potential
client wants to see your home or not. We have all been on line
looking at something, Houses, cars, cloths, jewelry and you know
there are just some photos that don’t make things appealing. The
agent in most cases will hire a professional photographer to come in
and shoot your home. Most people cant believe it is there home when
they see it presented on line but all of the weeks of hard work will
now be rewarded.
OK
next is the paperwork setting terms of the listing, how to handle
showings (appointment with realtor/homeowner) call 1st
then go, how to handle comments by other agents/buyers, homeowner
filling out a complete sellers disclosure. The key here is
DISCLOSURE, DISCLOSURE. Disclose any issues you are aware of old or
new.
So
after all this the home goes into MLS or your locale way of listing a
home. Sign may or may not go up and the showings start. Your realtor
will then be requesting feed back from those who are showing your
home (usually asking the other realtors for feedback of theirs and
their clients). Some clients want to see every comment on the
property regardless if pro or con. Some clients just want to know if
they are going to make an offer. I had one client say don’t “never
show me negative comments I am not doing any more work!” So it all
depends on how it was discussed during the previous strategy sessions
over the weeks coming up to listing.
Also
during all of this there most likely is a separate marketing campaign
going on that you don’t always see. Today there is a lot of online
buyer looking for property so agents are busy posting your home for
sale on any various sites. There is no one set way of market strategy
most agents have had success in many different ways and they do what
they think best for a property by property basis. There is also
online and personal networking with other agents in your area. All of
these things in combination of a local listing service are very
minimal actions your agent is taking behind the scenes. Of course
there are ads that may be appropriate for locale or regional
publication that need customizing and have deadlines so the main
story here is there are lots of things going on behind the scenes.
I
am not sure what is going on with your case Anna, every situation is
different, but this outline above catches about 80% of the tasks
required (I am sure I missed a few minor tasks that are automatically
done) to successfully get a home listed and presented to the
marketplace. I am sure other Realtors® reading this will have
slightly different processes or maybe some follow similar process but
the end result is getting your home presented to the market and
making the best 1st
impression possible.
There
is nothing like the feeling that a homeowner/Realtor® experience
when a buyer comes to your home because they liked what they saw on
line. Stays at your home for an hour or more and writes you an offer.
I
wish you luck in the sale of your home. I would suggest if you have
not heard from your agent that you call them and ask them if they
could communicate any activity, comments (good or bad) and let them
know you need a little more involvement in the process.
If
you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me
Mobile/Text:
512-922-4922
Regards
Bob
Kenney, Realtor®
When Michael and Shae Reilly 
