Dear Rich:

We are most grateful to you for all of your efforts in both selling our property and increasing the rental income for our Sealoft unit in Sea Pines Plantation.  As we are not able to use the unit as often as we would like, having it rented really helped with the expenses incurred.  We are also most appreciative of all of the assistance you have given us with the recent improvement project on the unit.  It is most difficult to achieve a sense of confidence for such a project without being there, but your communication with us along with your recommendation of contractors has been remarkable. Thank you for going the extra mile, it has made all the difference.  We also would like to acknowledge the rest of your staff for the gracious and friendly attitude whenever we telephone.  It is a welcome change in today’s business atmosphere.

Kind Regards,

Sandra M. Heaphy – MHP Trust

Beverly, Massachusetts

Rich:

I just wanted to write you to thank you for sticking through the process of the sale of our house.  I realize that you did not make a lot of money on this sale, but I appreciate how you stuck with it.  Thanks again.

Sincerely,

Nathan & Kacy Stevens

Bluffton, South Carolina

Clean, Clean, Clean

First, prepare your home for the market. Maximize your home's appeal by fixing every little detail including chipped paint, leaky faucets, and holes in the walls. Next, prepare it for showing. Scrub your home inside and out, make it shine; be sure to concentrate on your kitchen and bathrooms. Buyers expect a used, lived-in home, but the brighter and more un-cluttered your home looks, the more appealing a buyer will find it.

Having A Marketable Listing

When listing your home for sale, you want it to appeal to buyers. You need to make it marketable. Three factors determine a home's marketability: price, financing, and time. If time is an important constraint, be willing to lower the price. When pricing, try an old retail trick and drop the price $10. It makes the difference look much bigger between $400,000 and $399,990, for example. Finally, offer attractive financing options, as financing can make or break a sale.

Pricing Your Home

Understand the market conditions to establish the best asking price. You don't want to set the price too high or too low. The value of a home is determined by supply and demand; a buyer's market has more homes for sale than buyers, and a seller's market has the opposite. To find out which one you're in, ask a professional. The final consideration for setting your price is realizing the exact amount you want to take home after all closing costs are paid.

Real Estate Marketing

Today's technology offers many new ways of marketing to give your home exposure to more potential buyers than ever. First, to maximize your potential for success, it is important to market to three tiers: brokers, neighbors, and buyers. To effectively target all three tiers, hold open houses, make flyers, advertise in newspapers and magazines, send e-mails, and utilize the Internet.

Offer Incentives

Offering a higher commission for the sale is a little-known tactic useful for quickly selling your home at a higher price. Losing an extra 1% to add to commission is a 14% raise for your agent, and that looks really attractive to agents bringing buyers to your home. You can also offer allowances for buyers, such as a kitchen remodeling allowance (allowing a buyer to select one of your given remodeling packages), a new carpet allowance, or a new appliance allowance.