You Get What You Pay For — Or Do You? November 29, 2006
Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Long Island, Marketing, New York, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling Your Home.4 comments
There is more and more discussion in the real estate community of late about discount brokers damaging our reputation as an industry, while offering consumers what appears on the surface to be a real bargain. In order to understand just exactly what you’re getting when you hire anyone to represent you in the sale or purchase of a home you have to ask questions.
I will start by saying there is no such thing as a free lunch. Therefore, if someone tells you they’ll market your home as extensively for a bargain price as the full service broker, generally speaking it simply isn’t so. We all face certain fixed costs and we allocate dollars from every sale to keep our businesses running. To be successful for ourselves and for you, we’re constantly looking for new and more effective ways to attract buyers for our homeowners.
Recognizing that most of us in the business have no trust funds and have families to feed, when commissions are discounted, something has to give. Unfortunately when there is not enough money in the coffer, the clients suffer. Nobody can run a business successfully without making a profit. Given a choice of diluting those profits or reducing costly marketing, the loser is more often than not the seller.
There is nothing wrong with opting for a lesser service for a lower dollar amount . . . as long as you understand the rules of the game. I just sold a home in which the owners knowingly chose a flat fee listing broker. They paid simply to have their home in the MLS (multiple listing service). They understood that all the showings, ads, open houses and negotiations were their responsibility. After four weeks they were tiring of giving up their weekends to wait and hope someone would show up at their open houses. They got to experience, as we do, the tire kickers, the pseudo buyers who express great interest only to disappear into the ether, and the nosy neighbors.
Fortunately for them, I had the perfect buyer for their home so their discomfort was short lived. Had they continued with the process as most people do in the current buyers’ market, I’m not sure they would have been happy campers. I must say though, unlike the experience most people have had in their circumstances here, their limited service broker stepped up to the plate more than once when they had concerns about the progress of the transaction.
Even though I’m tempted to say the obvious, “you get what you pay for,” I’m stymied by the occasional maverick like Greg Swann, a staunch proponent of a discount pricing model who refuses to lower his outstanding level of service and who manages to make it all work. I’ve yet to meet his counterpart on Long Island however.
Wanna Be On TV — Apply Here November 22, 2006
Posted by Geri in HGTV, Home, Real Estate, Selling Your Home, TV, family, feelings, love, television show, wedding.add a comment
After having a hearty laugh over at Marlow Harris’ blog, I felt compelled to bring it on over here. There’s no limit to what some people will do for their 15 minutes of fame. Recruiting now, HGTV is looking for a young couple just about to tie the knot, but without a plan for the wedding’s execution. Seems a little short sighted to me since the show proposes to have three designers vie for the chance to create the perfect backdrop for this lucky couple this winter. Designers’ Challenge happens to be one of my favorite shows but . . . So, if you’re thinking of popping the question, now might be a good time –that is if you have friends and family in or near Los Angeles to share your big day.
On a more practical note, if you have a house on the market in Los Angeles or Chicago that could use a facelift, you might want to contact HGTV to have the Designed To Sell team work their magic and turn your property into a showplace. Now if they’d only come to Long Island.
To apply online, visit www.pietown.tv
How EZ Is It? Ask Eppraisal or Zillow October 31, 2006
Posted by Geri in General, Internet, News, Real Estate, Selling Your Home, Uncategorized.3 comments
With Zillow sitting in water hot enough to reach a rolling boil, another online appraisal service breaks the surface of the market in its beta stage. If one of Zillow’s problems was offering a finite price in their determination of value, Eppraisal with its huge range could be just as problematic. Zestimates were found to be so far off in many cases as to be worthless to a naive public. Eppraisal, on the other hand, based upon some observations on a very local level, is indeed in the ballpark when it comes to suggested valuations, but the ballpark is Yankee Stadium. It’s a little like trying to buy clothing for a woman, being told she’s somewhere in the range of 6 to 16. What size would you buy?
One of the big differences I see is Eppraisal’s offer of some information with an orientation of connecting the consumer with real estate professionals should a real life transaction loom somewhere in the foreseeable future. I’m interested to see where their business model takes them — and us.
I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself October 28, 2006
Posted by Geri in Bloggers, Blogging, General, Marketing, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling Your Home, blog.3 comments
Under the category “I couldn’t have said it better myself . . .” is this post from Seth Godin. I sat down to share it two days ago but sheer exhaustion forced me to temporarily put it on the back burner. I’ve been spending weeks unexpectedly acting as a general contractor, getting a home ready to market, and shopping for the necessary accoutrements to stage it for sale. The house was stuck in a time warp, with flocked wallpaper heralding your arrival into it’s archaic past. This project is in addition to a full load of other business in various stages of development. However, in our stagnant market in order to really serve our clients, we have to be very creative in our approach to selling their property.
But I digress . . . Seth’s very straightforward comments about how we interact with our clients and the impact it has on both them and our business reminds me of a technique we used many years ago when I was vice president of a sales and marketing company. We ran seminars all over the country and Canada, showing CEOs how to maximize their marketing dollars. Before these meetings we would phone their companies incognito and record the conversations to demonstrate how important the person answering the phone was to the financial well being of that company.
Grown men sat, head in hands, listening to the most appalling dialogues between their employees and us, or worse . . . they sat shifting in their chairs as time ticked slowly away while we were put on hold. Astoundingly these pregnant pauses sometimes lasted for four or five minutes. Bill, my boss, would then take out a crisp one hundred dollar bill and dramatically set it on fire as they reached out in horror trying to put out the blaze. When the room was once again still he would quietly tell them, “this is what you’re doing to your advertising dollars if you don’t train your people.
That challenge was made at least twenty-five years ago and nothing’s changed. If we’re trying to generate business but haven’t figured out how to nurture it once we have it, we defeat everyone in the process. The old adage “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” certainly applies.
Selling On Long Island . . . The New Math October 24, 2006
Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, Changing Market, General, Home, Long Island, New York, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling Your Home, Uncategorized.1 comment so far
Your home is currently on the market or you’re just about to list it for sale. There are a few very important things you must remember if you want to keep it from languishing on the “failed to sell” heap. With ever increasing numbers of houses available, yours has to appeal to a buyer on one of several levels. They will either perceive it to be a real value, meaning it’s priced very well for what it has to offer, or it may be in a very desirable location. The latter can mean a beautiful view, waterfront, a lovely development or a gated community with great amenities. Sometimes it’s the home itself that pulls people in and makes for a faster sale.
You have but to drive down almost any street on Long Island to see multiple signs announcing to the world, “buy me.” Because of the increased length of time it takes to find a ready, willing and able buyer, you have to be realistic if your motivation is get your home sold. The days of multiple offers and bidding wars are a thing of the past and there’s a new mentality among the buying public. They very often and after much thought, proffer a price only to refuse to then play the game. It’s a one time offer and it’s not negotiable. And sadly it’s happening more and more. So think carefully before you feel insulted or turn it down out of hand, you might be chasing after them by next spring..
Sellers in Nassau and Suffolk counties who want to move on have to learn the new math. Don’t overprice and be willing to entertain all reasonable offers.
Snowbirds — What You Need To Know! October 22, 2006
Posted by Geri in Buying a Home, General, Home, Long Island, New York, Real Estate, Selling Your Home, family.add a comment
For many Long Islanders, especially as they grow older, winter and 
cold weather is something they’d just as soon avoid. In growing numbers they head south for the season, many to their second homes in Florida. It seemed the ideal solution when they purchased, offering the opportunity to remain near family and friends in the north for the greater part of the year and to enjoy “paradise” while we shiver, and where nobody’s heard of a snow shovel.
Because of the inequity in Florida’s tax structure, these snowbirds aren’t entitled to the homestead exemption, resulting in property taxes totally out of whack with year round residents who just might be their next door neighbors. Unless Florida does something to accommodate their winter population, they’re likely to lose revenue to other states in the sunbelt.
