heyen real estate

A VALUE PROPOSITION FOR SELLERS

ALEX HEYEN OWNER/BROKER HEYEN REAL ESTATE [email protected]

Are you building another home and you only want to move once in order to reduce incurring additional expenses?

Do you need to sell your home fast in order to be able to move or close on a new house?

Are you willing to put money into your home in order to get top dollar on the sale of the house?

Do you NEED to sell your home or do you just WANT to sell your home?

All of these things need to be taken into consideration when putting together a marketing plan and pricing structure for your house. Please rate your motivation for selling your home on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being I will only sell if I get a ridiculous price and can retire on the profits and 10 being extremely motivated, I am willing to live in a van down by the river in order to sell my home.

Understanding Your Objectives

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The first thing that you as a homeowner need to decide when selling your home is your ultimate objective. Most people would say that’s selling their home for the most amount of money possible, but there are other factors to consider here as well.

Selling a home is something that you will only do a few times in your life. It can be an emotional pro-cess for home owners and buyers alike and is often a time consum-ing endeavor. I see it all the time with inexperienced agents - when you don’t know what you are do-ing it can take a simple transac-tion and make it infinitely harder. Add to that the emotional aspects from a buyer and seller and you can have a very sticky situation if things don’t go perfectly.

An agent is there to manage the emotional aspects of the party that they represent and to keep things moving towards the end goal, closing. They are also there to help you with paperwork to make sure that you are protected in the sale of your home as well as manage all of the tasks that need to go on between the time that a contract is accepted and closing.

Before your house actually sells, your agent has pictures taken, ad-vertises your property, and gets it loaded into the local MLS. If they

are a good agent then they pro-mote your listing to other agents and their own pool of buyers who may be interested. Most impor-tantly though, they act as a liaison between you and potential buy-ers by scheduling showings, an-swering questions, and following up for important feedback. This may not sound like rocket science, but imagine trying to field these calls and inquiries while you are at work, at your kids’ sports activ-ities, or just while trying to man-age your day to day schedule.

Chances are, even if you decide to list your home yourself, the buyer for your home is likely going to be represented by an agent. Showing a home that is for sale by owner is not as convenient for two reasons. One is that the agent has to nego-tiate any buyer’s commission with you before they show the home and two is that they are not always able to get a hold of you. Unfortu-nately, agents don’t always have more than a few hours to sched-ule showings and if they call you during a workday and can’t get

ahold of you then your home sim-ply doesn’t make the list. Perhaps the buyer sees their dream home that day and never even makes it to your house because there was not someone there to answer our calls during business hours.

Many buyers also don’t feel com-fortable looking at a home when the seller is present. I have been on showings where the sell-er followed us around talking about the house. Although this may seem helpful in that you are pointing out all the great things about the house, it doesn’t give the buyer the opportunity to take an honest assessment of your house on their own terms. This can often rule a house out com-pletely for a buyer.

Finally, you do not get the same exposure as a for sale by owner as you do by being listed which means your buyer pool becomes smaller. The fewer potential buy-ers who see your home, the less likely it is that you will sell your home for the price you want.

DO YOU NEED AN AGENT?

Choosing an agent is hard. Many real es-tate agents are completely ego driven and will skew statistics to make it seem like they are a bigger deal than they actually are. Take for example the concept of be-ing the #1 agent. I know that I can list ten people off the top of my head that claim to be the #1 agent. Realistically, depend-ing on what metric you use they might be accurate, but the point is that it doesn’t re-ally matter. Unless everyone is using the same statistics to measure against one another, then it is a completely arbitrary metric so don’t get wrapped up in working with the #1 agent.

The other big trend right now is to adver-tise huge teams of people and suggest that they will all be working on your list-ing. The reason that most of these huge teams truly exist is so that people can make money and so that they can claim to be the #1 team. 90% percent of real estate teams don’t operate as a team at all. They have been formed to defraud the public

with fake stats on how many homes they sell. Of course a group of twenty-five peo-ple sells more homes than a lone agent or a team of two people.

Teams can be great for you as a consum-er if they actually function as a team, be-cause it means more people are keeping an eye on what is going on with the sale of your home. If you decide to list with one of these big teams, I challenge you to call two different people on the team and ask them about your house. Chances are that unless they were the ones who went on the appointment they don’t know any-thing about your house. That’s because the agents are actually operating individually on their own business and not as a team. Additionally, teams are often full of inex-perienced agents who join the team to pig-gyback off of the team leader’s success and name in exchange for giving that person a portion of the commission. Unless you list your home with the team leader, they will NEVER step foot in your home.

CHOOSINGAN AGENT

GOLDEN RULE OF REAL ESTATE IF AN AGENT HAS NEVER STEPPED FOOT IN YOUR HOME, THEY WILL BE OF NO VALUE TO YOU DURING YOUR HOME SALE.

Along the same lines, many agents stand be-hind a company name to make it seem like they are the best option to list your home. I have had people ask me before, “The last agent told me Blank Realty was the biggest and best, why would I list with your compa-ny?” The thing to remember when you are listing your property is that only two people really matter. The agent and the broker.

State law in Nebraska says that all listings belong to the broker. Often times when list-ing with a larger brokerage the contract is be-tween you and a person you have never spo-ken to, nor will you during the course of your transaction. If for some reason you are not getting the level of service you thought you were going to receive, it is ultimately a com-plaint you have with the broker. Keep in mind that the broker has never seen your home and probably has little knowledge about what the agent promised you when they were sitting in your home giving you a presentation.

If you work with me and have a complaint about something going on with the sale of your home, the buck stops here. I am the bro-ker and the agent. At the end of the day it is not just about me as an agent, but also about my company. I can guarantee that I will do everything I can to maintain your satisfaction because I want to continue to create a great reputation of excellence for my company.

DOES THE COMPANY NAME MATTER?

SO - WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING AN AGENT?

» The Marketing Plan » Communication Skills » Ethics » Are They a Full Time Agent?

This is the single most import-ant aspect of choosing the right agent because this is what an agent is going to do to get your home sold.

The MLS: It’s the 900 lb gorilla and is almost every agent’s primary means of broadcasting your home for sale to other agents as well as syndicating your listing across lo-cal and national websites.

National Websites: Make sure that the agent who you hire has control over the national portals and what information is displayed. For ex-ample, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Ambassador Real Estate, who I worked for before starting Heyen Real Estate, controls your listing when it is broadcast and puts their relocation director’s phone number next to your listing instead of the actual listing agent. This means that when someone sees your listing on an affiliated website, a woman who has proba-bly never seen your home or never will, is answering questions from perspective buyers about it.

Heyen Real Estate: Although there are many great sites out there,

I believe in providing services to my clients and part of that is making sure that I have my own comprehensive website that buy-ers can use to search for homes. This is powerful for both our buy-ers and our sellers.

For buyers my website provides them with real time updates on properties in the area and a comprehensive search that makes it easy for them to find the home of their dreams.

For sellers I have a huge data-base of buyer’s that I can pro-mote your home to when it goes live. In addition, the 3D tours are a prominent portion of the list-ing on my site, which encourages interaction and keeps people en-gaged. I also work to make sure that my website is highly ranked in Google for many neighbor-hoods and long tail searches which means more traffic is be-ing driven to your listing.

YOU WANT THE AGENT/BROKER who has seen your home, that you hired, fielding the questions from buyers not a random agent at the office or a relocation agent who has never seen your home before.

THE MARKETING PLAN

I have established relationships with both of these websites in order to make sure that you are getting the most out of your home being listed on them. As noted before, I am the only agent listed on the list-ings so when a buyer finds your home and wants to get more information, that request comes to me. This means that potential buyers are getting rele-vant and valuable information from someone who knows about your home.

My company is the only brokerage in town offering 3D tours and now Zillow and Trulia are promoting them as well. Since the 3D tours have gone live on my listings, they have started getting 4x as many views as listings without the 3D tours. More interaction with your home online means that the buyer pool for your property is growing. I always say real estate is simple; the more people who see your home on-line, the more showings you will get and the more showings you get the more offers you will receive.

ZILLOW AND TRULIA

PHOTOGRAPHYReal estate photography has evolved over the years from a simple photo of the outside of the home to vivid rich pictures that really show off the house. You want to make sure that the agent you hire either a) has the proper equipment and knows how to use it, or b) hires a professional pho-tographer that has experience photographing properties. This is crucial in making sure that you get the best exposure for your home online where 99% of home-buyers begin their search.

Heyen Real Estate raises the bar to a new, unseen level with 3D mod-els. In our 3D models a buyer can virtually browse every room of your home looking side to side, up and down and “walking” through your house at their leisure online. This is unmatched locally. Having this as a seller does several things for you:

• Increases the quality of buyer who walks through your door• They already know they

love the layout, that the kitchen and baths work

for them, etc. before even stepping foot inside.

• Increases interaction with your home online and sets your listing apart• No other agent is offering this

technology to their listings.• Decreases the inconvenience

on your family• By showing buyers EV-

ERY aspect of your home you only have people who are truly interested in your home coming through. This means that you don’t have to leave for looky-loos and people who don’t like where your laundry room is!

If your home has unique fea-tures or something that just can’t be explained via pictures - this is perfect for you! If you have a split-level, but want to show how spacious it is – this is perfect for you! If you believe that a buyer

could benefit from seeing a floor plan rendition of your home sim-ilar to a new build online – this is perfect for you!

A good way to gauge how serious an agent takes this aspect of a listing is to look at his/her other active listings.

Getting Your House Ready To List: Part of making sure that your pic-tures and tour turn out awesome, is about getting the space ready for the shoot. Before I have pic-tures taken, I work with all my clients on ways to increase the perceived value by doing minor repairs and staging.

This is a free service that I offer, because we are both working to the same end goal. The more of my insider knowledge I can share with you from years of experience, the quicker your home will sell.

BAD PHOTOS

GOOD PHOTOS

SOCIAL MEDIAIn the last couple of years social media has taken the world by storm and it is the perfect plat-form to get excitement building about your home. I have over 15K twitter followers, a widely viewed Facebook page, google+ and in-corporate paid social media ad-vertising with all our listings.

Think about it like this – 95% of people begin their home search online and of those people most of them probably have some sort of social media account. When I post articles, 3D tours, and pictures of your home online I drastically increase the exposure and excite-ment regarding your home. In-creased engagement will directly affect the amount of time it takes your home to sell.

I recently did a promoted post on a 175K listing. With a lit-tle bit of money behind it I had over 10,000 paid impressions, several shares, and hundreds of likes. This means that total, the post was exposed to tens of thousands of people. Were all of them looking for a home? No, but that increased exposure directly led to the sale of the house.

Craigslist: In addition to social media I also find power in sites like craigslist. Each week I will post a listing about your house directing potential buyers to a listing of your home and the 3D floor plan and tour. This helps increase traffic and just gives us another outlet to increase online exposure.

SIGNAGEA for sale sign is a for sale sign to a degree. You will want to make certain of a couple of things that may seem obvious - If you call the number or numbers on the sign who answers? If it’s not the agent you listed with, or at least someone who has seen your property then potential buyers are reaching someone who is not educated on the details of your home.

When I had our signs made I wanted them to be bright, easy to read and look different than other signs out there. I feel that our signs directly reflect our goals of being an innovative, integrity driven company.

PROPERTY FLYERSFlyer boxes are extremely important – if a buyer is serious enough about their search to be driving by your home you want to make sure that they can access information about your home quickly and easily. I create captivating and professional looking flyers that give buyers a great first impression of your home. In addition,v I have a link to the 3D tours displayed on the flyers to encourage buyers to take a look at it online as well.

From a general standpoint, I think that it is im-portant that you know exactly what is going on with your home. I provide weekly updates with what marketing is being done, showings, feed-back I have received, and anything else going on with your listing. I want you to have confidence in the fact that I am proactively working to sell your home and that you have your finger on the pulse of your home sale as well.

From a sales standpoint – this is even more crit-ical. All too often I see agents whose communi-cation skills seem to have the wrong objective. A common misconception about our business is that all real estate agents need to work togeth-er and be buddy-buddy. My opinion has always been that my job is to get the highest price for

my seller and represent my seller to the fullest. Just because you are going through a divorce, need to sell for a job, or are willing to take less than what you are asking, does not mean that every agent needs to know that before they show your home. I can show you hundreds of examples where agents put things like this in the agent remarks – or say that to other agents when they set up a showing on a property.

I promise to represent you as a seller with the objective of selling your home for the most money in the shortest time possible. Anything you tell me about your situation will remain confidential and I will not put my relationship with other realtors above my fiduciary responsi-bility to protect your best interest.

COMMUNICATION SKILLSTHERE ARE TWO THINGS I FEEL ARE CRITICAL HERE – ONE IS FROM A GENERAL STANDPOINT AND THE OTHER ONE IS FROM A SALES STANDPOINT.

#ListWithConfidence

Although I have touched on this before, I want to reiterate that as a real estate agent I have a fiduciary responsibility to represent you and put your interests above my own. I will treat all parties involved in a transaction fairly and honestly, but I work for you, the seller and will not put my relationships with other real estate agents, title companies, mortgage companies, etc. before that responsibility.

I feel that the ethical thing to do is have a negotiated commission upfront and not attempt to make additional money in the form of fees, kickbacks, and affiliated business agreements. Anyone I suggest to use is because I feel that they are the best person in their field and offer competitive prices. Additionally, if I see evidence of these things on the buyers side of a transaction I always bring it to the sellers attention so we can address it.

ETHICS

A good way to check if your agent is ethical is to check the Nebraska Real Estate Commission website, www.nrec.ne.gov. Click on license and applicant search and put in your agent’s name to see if they have ever had any disciplinary action. You can also check their broker.

ARE THEY A FULL TIME AGENT?In my opinion real estate is a business, not a hobby – if you are hard working and good at it then you don’t need another job to supplement your income and “pay the bills”. I think about it like a tile layer– wouldn’t you want someone who knows what they are doing, does the work everyday all day and invests resources in their business to do the work? With the alternative being someone who only lays tile on the weekends, has subpar tile laying tools, and is pretty good, but obviously not the best.

What clients get from me, as a full time agent, is someone who has knowledge about the process, the most recent rules and regulations, and who can truly bring value to a transaction. Does that mean that part time agents are bad? Not on purpose, but yes. If an agent can’t answer the phone between 9-5 everyday because they are at their day job that is a hindrance to your home sale. It could mean lost showing opportunities, missed sign calls, and even expiring offers.

THE ART OF PRICING

People ask me all the time, “Well, if you have such great marketing shouldn’t you be able to get MORE for my house?” The way the world is today with the internet and the vast information that is available to all consumers – marketing plays a smaller role in the price that a home sells for. The marketing is there to create buzz about your home, attract potential buyers, and get your home sold quickly for fair market value.

Take for example milk. We all know roughly what a gallon of milk costs. However, if someone took a gallon of milk and danced around it with a sign, put

out commercials and billboards about it, and made a spectacle of the gallon of milk -would you be willing to pay $8.00 for that same gallon of milk?

Additionally, the banks have checks and balances in place now to avoid homes being “over-sold” compared to other similar homes. This is to protect the banks and potential homebuyers from finding themselves underwater on a property. Even if I could sell your home for more, it is likely we would find ourselves in a situation where the bank did not appraise the home for more than its perceived value in relation to other homes in the area.

UNIQUE COMMISSION STRUCTUREI have decided to revolutionize the way commission traditionally works in real estate by giving sellers the control over what they are paying for. I have talked extensively in here about what services I offer and what I do for my listings. Which include:

• Professional Photography• 3D Tours• Online advertising through Zillow, Trulia,

Facebook, Twitter, google+, craigslist and other syndicated sites

• Open Houses• Property Flyers• Staging help• Signage• Showing service• Weekly updates• Negotiations of contract• Handling of responsibilities from contract

to close• All paperwork regarding the sale of your

home

For the above I charge 3.5% commission. Period. If an unrepresented buyer were to buy your home, you would pay only 3.5% commission as I do not believe in dual agency.

It is your decision how you would like to pay out the buyer’s agent. You can choose between a percentage or a flat fee.

The Purpose of a Buyer’s Agent Commission

In a traditional real estate commission model, the selling broker pays a portion of the commission to the buyer’s broker for procuring a buyer for the property. This is the main reason that the MLS exists. Most of the selling agents do not tell you what they are offering to the buyer’s broker, thus the seller is paying for something that they have no control over.

In an effort to be transparent, I have broken down what our commission is and given you the control over what to offer potential buyer’s agents. Often times I am asked how much would I recommend paying out to a buyer’s broker? The answer to that is dependent on many factors:

1. The condition of the market. If there are numerous like properties currently on the market, I believe it is in your best interest to offer a competitive compensation to those properties that are similar to yours.

2. Motivation. If you need to sell your home tomorrow, you might be best to offer a little above what your competitors are offering to entice agents to push your property. If you have time to be patient you could get by with less.

3. Overall condition of the property. Some unscrupulous agents will try to talk buyers out of homes that pay less. This is obviously easier to do when a property has some

condition issues than one that is pristine.

4. In the event that a buyer’s agent has received a signed exclusive buyer agreement stating that they are due a specific commission then a buyer may not be able to purchase your home if they do not have the cash to cover the difference. These are not commonplace, but can be a factor for buyers when purchasing a home.

5. The amount you offer will have a direct impact on the frequency of showings from agents of cooperating companies and can also have an affect on the length of time it takes your home to sell.

Case Studies

14005 Jennifer Road. Sold in 6 days Full Price!

6073 Hillsdale. Sold in 4 days after attempting FSBO for Months!

7113 S 76th St. Sold in 2 days FULL PRICE!

13804 Glengarry Circle Sold in 1 day for FULL PRICE!

1812 S 172nd Plaza sold in 16 minutes for Full Price!

17602 Leavenworth St. Sold in Under 3 weeks for $2000 over asking price.

1532 Trumball Terrace Sold to a cash buyer after sitting on the market for

9 months with another Realtor.

2211 Calvin Drive sold in 7 days!

15458 Laurel circle. Sold for 16K more than another real estate

company had it listed for!

We want your home to be next!

QUESTIONSI think it is important to have the listing agent field all the calls from potential buyers on my home. Y N

I do not want to be charged a broker admin fee in addition to the com-mission I have agreed to pay. Y N

I want the freedom to choose my own service providers such as title insurance, home warranty companies, etc. based on service and price. Y N

I think that the additional exposure that I would receive from a 3D Model powered by Matterport would be beneficial to the sale of my home. Y N

I like the ability to choose how a buyer’s agent will be compensated if I am going to be the one paying for it. Y N

I feel that Internet exposure is the most important factor in the sale of my home. Y N

After reading this, I believe Alex Heyen with Heyen Real Estate has the most comprehensive and detailed plan to get my home sold quickly and for the most money possible.

Y N

Heyen Real Estate is a family owned company that was founded on the principles of doing business the RIGHT way. We hope to bring integrity, honesty and innovation into the industry, one deal at a time.

Alex HeyenOwner/Broker Heyen Real Estate

www.HeyenRealEstate.com402.403.3751

[email protected]

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