REAL ESTATE TERMS THE PUBLIC SHOULD UNDERSTAND

REALTOR^®:  A Real Estate Professional that is required to have additional training in

Ethics; and holds active membership in a local real estate board that is affiliated with the

National Association of REALTORS.

FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY:  Responsibilities that a Real Estate Professional owes to you their client; such as non-disclosure of material facts, your financial information and any and all information that you say is confidential.

CUSTOMER:  A person who is talking with a Real Estate Professional, but has

not signed a Buyer’s Representation agreement or an Exclusive Listing Agreement.

A third party that a Real Estate Professional will provide some level of information to.

CLIENT:  A person who has signed either a Buyer’s Representation Agreement and/or

Exclusive Listing agreement with a Real Estate Professional; which means that agent has

a fiduciary responsibility to you.

FACILITATOR:  A Real Estate Professional who acts as an intermediary between a buyer and seller, who assists both parties in the transaction with the paperwork and formalities involved in a real estate transaction.

All Real Estate Professionals take an oath to treat all customers and clients with honesty, truthfulness and integrity.  We do not just walk into the TN Real Estate Commission and

ask for a license.  We have to take 90 hours of classes and pass the state exam; in addition,we have to continue our education every 2 years and continue to uphold the oath to represent ourselves with honesty and integrity.

If you have ever come across an agent that has not acted in a professional way, please

do not hold it against all Real Estate Professionals; the dishonest and unethical agents are very few and far between.

Cindy Brooks, Realtor

Exit Realty of the South
1227 Lakeview Drive, Suite 1
Franklin, TN 37067

615-499-9445 (cell)

615-550-5555 (office)

CindyBrooksRealtor@gmail.com

http://www.CindyBrooksRealtor.com

Getting Past the Emotional Value of Your Home

As a listing agent one of my biggest hurdles with Sellers is getting them to price their house based on market value and not Emotional Value.  I understand as a homeowner myself the emotional tie you have to your home and all of the blood, sweat and tears that you have put into it.  This is why it is so important to separate your Emotional tie to the house once you decide to sell and why it is so important to have a licensed Real Estate Agent list your house.   

A good listing agent will have a complete marketing package for you when they meet with you.  They will do a comparative analysis for your neighborhood and should be able to give you a list price that will enable a quick sell using only the actual market value of your house and not the Emotional Value.

How to cut that Emotional Value Tie- 

The First and Most Important thing to do before listing your house is decide if this is REALLY what you want to do.  When I receive a phone call from a homeowner and they tell me they want to sell their house, my first question is always “WHY”.  This may seem like a crazy question to some sellers, but it’s very important to think about.  Do you have to sell for financial reasons, or because your job is moving, or you want to downsize or upsize, or are you JUST INTERESTED IN SEEING WHAT IT WILL BRING.  Really think about the WHY in selling.  Once you have established the answer and you are content with that answer then it is time to move forward; or not move at all. 

  

The next thing to do is no longer call it your “home”, you should refer to it as your “house”.  This will help cut that emotional tie; then you should decide what you want to take with you from this house; remove those items; such as a door casing that you have written a growth chart on for your children; a special stain glass window that belonged to your great-grandparents or a mantle that one of your close friends craved out of an old tree that you climbed in when you were a child.  Get all of those items out of your “house” and replace with ones that you have no emotional tie to what-so-ever.

 

Then box up family pictures, and nick-knacks.  All of that china that was handed down from your grandmother, and is proudly displayed in your china cabinet needs to be packed away.  Basically “De-Personalize” the house as much as possible.

Finally the most important thing to remember is that a lot of the improvements that you made to your house over the years will not necessarily “up the value” and this is when it is so important to listen to your Real Estate Agent.  If you truly want to sell your house, take their advice, again they are giving you the price based on what the market will bare financially and not emotionally.

Cindy Brooks, Realtor

Exit Realty of the South
1227 Lakeview Drive, Suite 1
Franklin, TN 37067

615-499-9445 (cell)

615-550-5555 (office)

CindyBrooksRealtor@gmail.com

http://www.CindyBrooksRealtor.com

Call or email me if you are thinking about listing your house, or if you just have some questions.  I am always available and will be happy to help you.

Strike Three, You're Out!

STRIKE THREE YOURE OUT

As a Listing Agent, Strike Three, You’re Out -- Don’t Sell Yourself Short!

This is for all of my fellow hardworking Real Estate Agents.

I love selling real estate, but it is one of the hardest things that I have ever done.  My

husband and I have our own renovation company that we started over 11 years ago, and

I thought dealing with home owners concerning renovating their home or getting them to pick out a paint color for a room was difficult; now I know that selling real estate is 100 times harder.

The first sellers I ever worked with had a beautiful home, they had put several years of

hard work into it; wonderful custom cherry cabinets, gorgeous flooring, an addition that

was awesome, every miter cut in the crown molding was perfect; on a scale of 1-10, I gave it a 10.  The one thing they didn’t do was update one of the main bathrooms and they left the original front foyer, main hallway and dining room light fixtures in place.  These sellers had spent tens of thousands of dollars on all of the remodeling and the addition, but refused to change out 3 light fixtures and update a bathroom.

During the original listing presentation, I commended them on all of the work and how wonderful everything looked.  I asked them why they had not included that bathroom and light fixtures in the remodel.  Their response was that they didn’t think it would make that much of a difference.  I explained that the light fixtures were in the area of the house where prospective buyers would enter, and they would notice…you know, the “5 things counted in the sub-conscious mind when you enter the house” theory; but these sellers were very insistent it wouldn’t matter; this was Strike One! 

Then we discussed the price, and since they had done all of the work themselves, literally

with their own hands, they felt it was worth 3 times as much as the other houses in the neighborhood; Strike Two!

As we were discussing the listing agreement, one of the sellers said they would not pay more then a total of 4% in commission, because after all, they had the house in perfect condition and all I would have to do is put a sign in the yard, put it in MLS, hold Open Houses, take phone calls from prospective “lookers”, show it, and none of that was very time consuming; was it?  “STRIKE 3.”   I’M OUT!!!!  I should have walked away at that point, but NO, not me!  This was going to be my FIRST listing, come hell or high water!

After months and months of being on the market; guess what?  It didn’t sell!  Why, because the light fixture in the foyer caught every prospective buyer’s eye the minute they walked in and the bathroom was always a topic of conversation; but of course, the biggest reason was the price.  If the seller had invested a little bit more money into their house for the light fixtures and bathroom and had listen to not only myself, but all of the other agents that looked at it and said it was priced too high; it would have sold, since I didn’t go with my gut and insist they complete the work and drop the price, I had no one to blame but myself; I was right on my original assessment, but who cares- the goal was to sell it with a home run; and I didn’t do that.  It was a great lesson that as a listing agent once you get to “Strike Three, You're Out! in your own mind during the listing presentation, YOUR OUT! Take your ball and bat and find another team to play with.

As a Listing Agent, never sell yourself short.  There are too many sellers out there to limit yourself to the “3 Strikes, Your Out” kind.  Have enough faith and confidence in yourself to know when to call this game and move on to the next one.

Cindy Brooks-

Cindy Brooks, Realtor

Exit Realty of the South
1227 Lakeview Drive, Suite 1
Franklin, TN 37067

615-499-9445 (cell)

615-550-5555 (office)

CindyBrooksRealtor@gmail.com

http://www.CindyBrooksRealtor.com

www.cindybrooksrealtor.com