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Lock in Your 1% Listing Commission Rate*
How do you lock in your 1% listing commission rate? Just give me a call/text @ 303.520.8700 or click this link to send me an email. Simple as that.
Why 1%?
Home sales prices in the Metro Denver area have sky rocketed in the last few years, but that doesn't mean you should have to pay more. Keep your equity where it belongs - in your pocket!!!
When I became a residential real estate agent back in 1993, things were quite different and very time consuming. When people inquired about buying or selling, I would have to get on a dot matrix printer and do the research. No pictures, just a dot matrix print out of homes out there. This was not even on a computer screen, but on the printer with a spooling system. At the end of my session, I would take all the pages I accumulated, use scissors to fit 3 to a page, photocopy them so they could be faxed and then fax the information off to the buyer / seller. Needless to say this was an exhaustive process.
Or, there were the old MLS listing books which were about 1/2 the thickness of phone books, but they had at least 1 black and white picture of the exterior so they were in high demand. Everyone that I was working with wanted one, so I would have to round them up and get them delivered to buyers or sellers - a lot of driving, but ultimately worth it.
To create a brochure of a home, I took a photo of the exterior with my 35 MM camera, went to the 1 Hour photo and had 30 pictures made. I then used (I think) a version of Microsoft Publisher to write the ad copy and finally, I attached 1 color exterior picture to the brochure using a glue stick.
That was how it was done 20 or so years ago, and as you already know, this is not the way it is now. Everything is so streamlined now that I can reach hundreds of thousands (if not more) people with my listing information in about 1/8th the time that it took me before (and I was never able to reach as many people regardless of how much I advertised in the papers, etc...)
On top of all of the new streamlined efficiency that the internet has afforded us, there has been a huge proliferation of real estate brokerage firms that offer real estate agents the ability to conduct business for a fraction of the cost that it previously has been. When I started back in 1993, I was paying 50% of my gross commission to my brokerage, plus other fees. I then moved on to a 0% model, but was still being charged a lot of fees just to conduct business. Now, I am settled in a firm where my overhead has been drastically cut allowing me to pass these saving on the people looking to sell their homes.
And, finally, I work alone. I want to be involved in all aspects of the real estate sale and just have never been able to delegate out any of the real estate work that is involved in every transaction. I do hire outside help for areas which I am not that great - for example, I have tried many times years ago to get great photo's of properties, but finally conceded that there are people / companies out there that are more skilled in certain aspects that I ever will be (see below regarding the HDR photographs that I offer as part of my services). What this ultimately means is that I don't have employees to pay so the money I save, I can pass along to you.
I have never been a real estate agent that charged an exorbitant amount anyway, but I just want to help people keep more or their money, so 1% is all I charge on the listing side of the real estate sale.
Take a look at the chart below to see the savings that you will receive versus a real estate agent who charges 6%. Some charge more, some charge less, but for what I offer (see below), I believe my fee is fair and equitable.
What Services Are Offered @ 1%?
The exact same services that I would offer if I was charging 7%.
1. I am reachable
In my mind, this is the #1 service I offer even though it may not technically be considered a service to all. When you are involved in a transaction, things happen quickly and you need information to make decisions. I understand this. If I don't answer my phone when you call, I will get back to you typically within the hour. Or, I will send a text letting you know when I am able to get back to you. I pride myself in being reachable and don't want to add to any stress levels by leaving you in the dark.
2. Market Report Page Customized for Your Neighborhood
Even before we start talking about pricing, I will customize a market reports page for your home in your neighborhood. What this will do is let you see the average prices, the average houses are selling for per square foot, and the average days on the market that it is taking for homes to sell. While this does not speak directly to your home, it does give you a solid feel of what to expect when your home is put on the market. Also, below all of that information, there will be links to all active, under contract and sold properties (last 6 months). This allows you to click on the link of a particular address and see all of the information related to this property and all of the pictures that were provided. In essence, you become wiser about all things real estate in your particular neighborhood all from the comfort of your home.
This will be customized to your home in your neighborhood. Here are a couple of examples using two different Highlands Ranch neighborhoods:
Highlands Ranch Golf Club Market Report
3. Pre-Listing Meeting
Even if you don't end up hiring me, this pre-listing meeting can be of great benefit to you. Before I conduct a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA), I like to walk the home and get a feel for all of the upgrades and love that you have put into your home. While doing this, I will comment on what I believe needs to be done to get the home in what I call "showing shape". While I am not a professional stager of homes, I have easily shown over 10,000 houses and know what looks good and what doesn't. Should I get rid of some furniture in this room?, add furniture to this other room?, paint?, upgrade this?, repair that? and a multitude of other things happen during this walk. Also, getting your home in "showing shape" makes the pictures of the interior pop and that helps compel people to want to take a look. This can last 30 minutes to a couple of hours depending on how in-depth you want me to get. Ideally, you want to put your best foot forward when you put your house on the market and this walk will go a long way to getting you there.
4. Competitive Market Analysis (CMA)
Within a day or two (faster if necessary) of the pre-listing walk through, I will provide you with a comprehensive market analysis of your home and let you know at what price I believe your home will sell. This is very detailed usually running in the ballpark of a 50 page PDF report.
5. Real Estate Net Sheet
Before you put your house on the market, don't you want to know how much you will walk away from the closing table with if you get 'X' price? While this can never be 100% accurate (unless I am lucky) due to not knowing the exact day of closing, I will be very close depending on how everything shakes out with the inspection, title report and appraisal.
6. Preview the Competition
Let's take the CMA one step further to help us determine the exact price for your home. In this step, we put ourselves in the shoes of potential buyers and assume they will be looking at homes that are similar to yours so we go out and see what they will see. Depending on market conditions, we will hope to see 4-6 homes in a couple of hours. Based on what we see, we will then be able to really hone the price for your home to give you the best initial shot of getting and offer.
7. Listing Contracts
Depending on the age of your home, there are between 8-12 different documents that need to be signed prior to your home being put on the market. Most of these documents are required by the Real Estate Commission and a couple of other documents I believe are important, so I include them. I will walk you through them so you have a solid understanding of what you are signing. This can be accomplished in person, or on your computer (see #8 below).
8. CTME Contracts
I subscribe to a service called CTME contracts. This allows me the ability to email all contracts to you and then go over them at your convenience on a computer, laptop, tablet, or phone. You have the ability to E-Sign which makes this whole process smooth and easy. You can save these contracts to your files, or access them any time on-line by clicking a link. Also, many other agents in the Denver Metro area use CTME, so it makes getting all the signatures that are needed for a transaction convenient and easy.
9. Centralized Showing Service
Centralized Showing Service (CSS) is the service that I use to set all of your showings. Depending on your situation, it can be as easy as a "go and show". Or, all the way to having the showing service confirm the appointment with you as you may have little ones napping at certain times, or dogs that may need to be removed. We'll discuss options and set this up with CSS to make this as convenient as possible for you. You will be alerted when showing are scheduled via email, text, or phone call. Also, CSS provides emails to agents who have shown your home and allows for unfiltered feedback to come to you in the form of an email.
Do we need to lower the price on your home? The nice thing with CSS is that I have all email addresses / phone numbers of all agents who have shown the home and I can send an email blast letting them know to take a 2nd look if they thought the price was originally too high.
10. Professional Photographs (HDR Technology)
Once we are a go, I will hire a professional photographer to shoot between 25-35 pictures of your home using the latest HDR technology - a high dynamic range photography technique used to reproduce a greater dynamic range of luminosity than is possible with standard techniques. What does that mean to you? It means much better interior photographs where lighting can sometimes be tricky. Even in lower light, HDR photographs come out crisp and clean and this does make a huge difference in whether someone decides to look at your home or pass on it after seeing pictures on-line. The more eyeballs that we can get into your home, the more possibilities of offers - simple as that. I will also be provided a Virtual Tour and a QR code with the final pictures (see below for more information on this).
11. Virtual Tour
As referenced in #10, when I receive your photo's back, I will be provided with a virtual tour. I use this virtual tour in the MLS and this will syndicate to any other websites (ie. Zillow, Trulia, IDX, etc...) that allow for the viewing of virtual tours. I will also embed this virtual tour into your unique property website (see #19 below for more information on this item). Here are a couple of examples of what a finished virtual tour looks like: (Note - clicking on "Full Screen" will give you the best experience.)
10578 Parkington Lane #35-C Highlands Ranch, CO 80126
849 Ridgemont Circle Highlands Ranch, CO 80126
12. QR Codes
QR codes, or Quick Response codes, are a different way for potential buyers to access the virtual tour. This code will be on the brochure so if a buyer wants to see more pictures while standing in front of your house, they can just use the QR code reader app on their phone and easily access more information. You do have to have a QR code reader app in order to access this information. Here is an example:
13. Create Compelling Ad Copy
Pictures are worth a thousand words and that does ring true when listing your home for sale, but you need to back those pictures up with compelling reasons for the potential buyer to come and look at the home. While I am walking through your home taking measurements and notes, I will also be thinking about how to accentuate all the positives of your home in powerful, concise ad copy. We need to create a story around the home and neighborhood which is why I will ask you to write down why you love the home, what you think are your home's strongest features and also what about the neighborhood you love - are you close to a park? close to entertainment?, and so on. Compelling ad copy and stunning pictures are the hallmarks of putting your best foot forward when listing your home.
14. MLS Exposure (Denver Matrix)
Denver Matrix MLS is the MLS system for the Denver Metro Area. They are currently in talks with other MLS systems to become the main MLS for the front range area, but nothing has been finalized yet. This is a huge piece of what is necessary to get your home sold, but other items such as pictures, ad copy, etc... have to be completed prior to being able to put the home in the MLS. As I have mentioned above, you want to put your best foot forward, so all of these items have to be completed before putting your home in the MLS. Homes listed on the MLS without pictures may get showings, but not nearly as many showings as homes with professional photographs uploaded prior to listing. The MLS is the hub from where all of the other ancillary real estate sites pull their information - if you input anything incorrectly in the MLS, this will populate to all of the other sites. An example, if your home is incorrectly mapped in the MLS, people looking in that area will not be able to see that you home is for sale and you will miss out on a lot of potential buyers. You want all of the information to be correct before hitting the market and after I input in the MLS (with an "incoming" status), I'll forward you a copy to review and approve before I activate the listing for all to see.
15. 'For Sale' Signage
A well placed real estate sign lets everyone know that your home is for sale. It signals change in the neighborhood. Does a neighbor have a friend / co-worker who may want to move into the neighborhood? Not only does a sign advertise that your home is for sale, when coupled with full color brochures, it helps get buyers into the home. Should you run out of brochures, I always laminate a copy that I hang around the sign so buyers are able to see some interior pictures and read the ad copy that was input in the MLS. There is also a QR code on the flyers, so the buyers can access all of the pictures of the home. The brochures will also have your unique property website address so they can view all of this information on their phone, tablet, or at home. And, they can forward the website to friends, family, co-workers, etc...
16. Full Color Brochures
At this point, we have created stunning pictures, compelling ad copy, so let's continue with full color professional looking brochures. Let's continue the theme of putting your best foot forward with the brochures. The brochures that I create are full color 2 sided brochures. Here is an example:
17. Extensive Internet Exposure
Your home will be just about everywhere on the internet. If someone is looking to buy a home and looking in your neighborhood, they will find you.
First off, you will be syndicated to:
Zillow.com
Trulia.com
Homes.com
Realtor.com
DenverPost.com
All Major Brokerage Real Estate Search Sites
All Denver Metro Real Estate Agents utilizing IDX Web-Sites - IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange. This allows people who are looking to buy the ability to search for active (and in some cases, under contract and sold) listings. All properties that I have listed will syndicate to all of these thousands of IDX websites typically within 15 minutes of your home becoming active on the MLS. The more exposure to your home for sale, the more people we can get to set showings. As an example, here is a link to my IDX Real Estate Search Site.
18. Extensive Social Media Marketing Campaign
Social media dominates the majority of time that many people spend on the internet. Let's make sure that they know your home is for sale by regularly updating my social media sites, your social media sites, and the blogosphere. The intent here is to get as many visitors to your unique property website as possible (Unique Property Website - See #19 below). I will provide you the link to your home's unique property website and you can promote it as much as you want. I will also be promoting it to the following sites:
I'll also take this a step further and launch an aggressive FaceBook marketing campaign targeting people that have the ability to purchase your home. This is very effective as my FB ad's typically get a bunch of views and even if that specific person may not be interested, often times they like my post so it can be distributed and seen by all of their friends. This is a solid way to get your property circulating among the masses.
19. Your Unique Property Website
Typically, it's as simple as youraddress.com (123Main.com) In essence, this is a digital brochure of your property with the vibrant pictures, compelling ad copy an embedded map showing exactly where your home is located. The idea is to get as many people as possible to look at this website in the hopes that they will ultimately set a showing. There are also many options for viewers of your home's site to share with major social media outlets with the click of a button.
A few examples:
20. Just Listed Postcards
These just listed postcards are not sent to your neighbors. They are sent to neighborhoods where there is a good likelihood that potential buyers may come from. Let's say you are selling your home for $500,000 - sending just listed postcards to your neighborhood won't be as effective because people are already living there and in a home that is most likely in the same ballpark price-wise as yours. In this example, let's target people in the $375,000 - $425,000 neighborhoods who are more likely to want to upgrade to your neighborhood when they decide to sell. Or, they may be currently on the market waiting for your home to come available. There is no set numbers on how many postcards are sent out, but typically it is between 500-750.
21. Consultation / Negotiation of Offers
As I have mentioned before, I am a full service real estate agent. Now that we have an aggressive marketing plan in action, I will continue marketing your home in this manner until we receive an offer. Upon receipt of the offer, a new round of work begins. Is the buyer solid? I will call and speak not only with the other real estate agent presenting the offer, but I will also speak with the buyer's lender to make sure that if this offer does pan out that you have a viable buyer for your home. Are you attaining a fair price? Do the dates in the contract meet your needs? Is there anything else that the buyer is trying to hide in the contract? I will read a contract at least 3 times and make copious notes of what I want to explain to you in regards to what may or may not happen. No contract is ever 100% rock solid (even cash offers), so I will explain everything in detail as to what to expect.
Throughout the "under contract" process, I will make sure that all the contingency dates are met and that all of the ancillary documents required by the real estate commission are completed. I will keep you apprised with what I call your "next steps". In essence, what do you need to do next to keep this contract moving forward. Again, I am available if you ever have any questions.
Ultimately, closing day will arrive and you will have sold your home. While I can't guarantee that there won't be a little stress along the way as no two transactions are ever the same, I can guarantee that I will be there every step of the way lending my 20+ years of experience to make this as smooth as possible.
Interested in locking in your 1% Listing Side Commission? Just email me here. Or, call / text to 303.520.8700.
* All Commissions are negotiable. 1% Refers to Listing Side of the transaction. This amount does not include the co-op commission for the buyer's agent. 2.80% is the most common co-op broker commission that I've seen in the Metro Denver area. There are no Standard or Traditional Commission Rates.