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Brown - Bickler Home Seller Consulting Services

Brown - Bickler & Co. is proud to offer home sellers a new line of services that allow you a potentially significant saving over the traditional way homes have been sold.

In today's world, where home sellers are in many instances far more sophisticated than in the past, why be forced to pay a premium price just to sell your home? Now you can have access to those services, and the kind of help, that you really need without having to pay exorbitant commissions.

Why is selling a house so expensive?

The Real Estate industry is organized in a manner that encourages what economists call "Free Riding". This forces Realtors into "Cost Shifting". "Free Riding" means that a lot of people get services from Realtors without paying for them. A consequence of "giving" services away "free" is that those who receive services they don’t pay for (The proverbial "Lookie-Loos", etc.) will take as much of a Realtor’s time and effort as they can get. After all, it doesn’t "cost" them anything. So an awful lot of a typical Realtor’s work is completely wasted and uncompensated. It also means that someone else must get stuck paying for the services the Realtors gave away "free". This is the "Cost Shifting" part of the equation.

Given the conventions of traditional Real Estate, these un-compensated "Costs" are "Shifted" onto you when you sell your home. That’s right, the big checks that you write at the close to your Realtor, and to your buyer’s Realtor, are paying them not just for the work they’ve done for you but also for all the work that they decided to "give" away "free" to a lot of other people. As an intelligent home seller we’re sure that by now you want to tell the Realtor that you’re not interested in paying for work the Realtor decided to "give" away "free". It only makes sense that they should charge the people who received the "free" services for that work, not you.

As if this isn’t bad enough, it gets even more bizarre. Since Realtors work on a "Contingency" basis they don’t get paid anything - not even for money they spent marketing a home - until the close, sometimes many months after the deal is negotiated. These old-fashioned Realtors never know when, if, or by who, they are going to get paid so you and your buyer are also paying substantial "Risk" and "Time" premiums as well to compensate them for all this uncertainty, risk, and commitment of money.

There has to be a better way!

There is a better way!

At Brown – Bickler & Co. we offer a better way to meet the needs of informed home sellers. We are taking a new approach to help you achieve substantial savings without sacrificing the important services you need from a professional Realtor. By charging one reasonable fee, paid in advance by everyone we work with, we avoid the huge costs other Realtors have to charge to be paid for what they "give" away "free" to others and for the risks they take. We’ll also ask you to do some of the more manageable work yourself. You’ll still get all the important benefits of being represented by a professional Realtor:

Your house listed on Multiple Listing Service ("MLS"):

Brown - Bickler will put your home on the Westchester / Putnam "MLS". This puts your home before the 4,000+ realtors who are members of the "MLS". This gives your home a marketing presence not otherwise possible. Realtors search their "MLS" programs for listings that meet the requirements of their potential buyers. With your house on the "MLS" it will come up every time someone wants to buy a similar home. With an "MLS" listing your home will have exposure to the entire buyer's market. We'll also put your home on a number of Websites, including the ever-so-popular www.buywestchesterhomes.com,  www.realtor.com, and www.cyberhomes.com. This will provide you with even more exposure as many sophisticated home buyers now use the Internet extensively to find their new homes.

Comparative market analysis:

Brown – Bickler will do a "Comparative Market Analysis" for your property to show you what it is worth under current market conditions. This will involve researching recent sales of similar homes in your neighborhood. This will help you to be sure about your pricing and that it will be exposed to the maximum potential market for your property.

A properly priced house is important to your ability to attract potential buyers and negotiate a sale. If your home is overpriced, real potential buyers (At your home’s proper price) will never see it as Realtors will not bring people to homes priced above what they can pay. If your house is priced too low you won't be getting as much for your home as is possible. You'll end up selling it before the right buyer comes along with the best offer.

Verify the accuracy of information about your house:

We will go to your local City or Town Hall to verify the accuracy of the various particulars about your house that appear on the "listing sheets" produced by the "MLS". Brown - Bickler will provide you with listing sheets to give out to potential home buyers who view your home.

Hosting a Broker's Open House:

We will host a "Broker's Open House" for you that will acquaint local Realtors with your home. We will be there with you while they go through your home. This is a very effective way of getting Realtors to bring their clients and customers through your home. When they've had a chance to view it before hand they will think of your home when potential home buyers come to them. They won't even have to go to their computers to find your home.

A sign for your front yard, a lockbox for your door:

Brown - Bickler will put one of its signs in your front yard that will call attention to your home and generate calls from interested potential buyers who pass by. Using a Realtor's sign provides an advantage over a "For Sale By Owner" sign in that many Realtors are reluctant to bring potential buyers to homes with a "FSBO" sign on their lawns. A great many home buyers don't feel comfortable dealing directly with the home seller and prefer to deal through a Realtor instead. This widens your potential market exposure as many more potential buyers will be brought to your home. The lockbox will allow you to have your home shown by Realtors when you're not there.

Putting your home in salable condition:

Based on our experience as Buyer Brokers, we can advise you about what you can do to put your house in its best condition to make it as attractive as possible to potential home buyers. We'll give you an analysis of your home highlighting its strong points, and also where you may want to improve it to make it more appealing to buyers.

Ongoing advice:

Brown - Bickler can provide you with advice, where you are uncertain, and when you feel you need it. The advice you receive will be based on our extensive dealings in the real estate market representing both home buyers and home sellers throughout their efforts to buy and sell homes. We will also advise you about the best ways to market your home and about what advertising you may want to do.

Negotiating on your behalf:

Negotiating with bidders is another part of our Home Seller Consulting Service. While many people initially feel that they can do this on their own, many eventually discover that it is often something best left to someone with experience in real estate negotiations. Selling a home is very personal and it is often difficult to separate these personal feelings from what needs to be done during negotiations to successfully reach an agreement that results in a satisfactory sale. We provide that buffer for you and bring to bear substantial experience with negotiations so that you won't fall into any of the traps that can cause you trouble. There is a lot more to negotiating than just price.

Qualifying potential buyers financially:

It is important that everyone who bids for your home is financially qualified. Unfortunately, many potential buyers aren't able to demonstrate their financial qualifications when they bid for your home. We have contacts with reliable mortgage brokers who can qualify potential buyers and give you the assurance you need to be confident that the sale of your home won't fall through at the last minute. Without a financially qualified buyer you don't know whether or not you are wasting your time with one prospective buyer, while you are turning away other buyers who may be better qualified to buy your home.

Provide access to professionals:

Through Brown - Bickler's Home Seller Consulting Services you can be put in touch with the Attorneys, and other professionals, whose services you may need throughout the process of selling your house. While there are many things that you can do on your own, there are also many things better left to professionals in the field.

What we don't do for you:

You can sell your home yourself (Through non MLS sources) without owing a commission to a "selling agent". With most standard Real Estate listings even if you find the buyer yourself you still have to send that buyer to your listing agent, who will then collect a commission for being the agent who produced your buyer.

You are responsible for scheduling and arranging showings of your home by Realtors. We’ll show you how.

Since you will be getting an "MLS" listing, you will have to offer compensation to any Realtor who produces the ultimate buyer of your home. This compensation normally runs 2.5% - 3.0% of the price of your home. As Realtors are still stuck using the outdated methods we’ve described above, we can’t, as yet, save you this expense – But we’re working on it!

You can do as much, or as little, advertising as you feel is needed. Brown – Bickler is able to provide you with access to advertising available only to Realtors, such as Harmon Homes, and Homes of the Week in the Journal News. We can frequently offer you discounts on the cost of running your ads. We’ll write the copy for you and handle the placement of the ads.

References:

We will be happy to provide you with references for our fee based services upon request.

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This page last updated: Saturday, September 01, 2007 12:54:27 PM