In my travels around town I keep my eye out for Real Estate signs. You know the sign post in front of a home that show that the home is for sale and who to contact at what agency.
After a few weeks I notice that the sign will change, meaning that the home owner has changed firms. I really don't believe that this is so uncommon, when I was selling my home a few years ago I changed agents more than once.
My reason for changing brokers was because the agent put a sign in the ground and never did any marketing. The agent would have an open house but we all know that open house is for all the other agents not really for the public. Sure my listing agent took a few photos of the home, one outside and two inside. Not a very good representation of any home.
After a few weeks our agent came to us and wanted to lower the listing price of the home. I'm sure this is a common thing to happen to everyone trying to sell their home. We knew that we had listed our home under market value to begin with because we were ready to sell. When our agent (both agents we listed with did this) asked us to lower the listing price by $20k to $50k we flipped out.
The reason for my posting? Well, as a virtual tour photographer here is what I suggest. Anytime you get ready to sell your home don't let the broker run your listing. Ask the agent what is the marketing plan short term and long term. How long will you have to sign a contract with this agent? Of course you will have other questions and be sure to have your list ready, don't hire the first agent you meet.
Lastly, hire a virtual tour photographer. Get your tour on a CD and have the listing agent post it on the web. Keep up to date of the status, ask to see how many hits you get on that tour, know what your agent is doing with your listing. After all they make 6% of every dollar your home sells for, make them work for it.
I don't want to paint a grim picture of brokers and agents, but if you don't keep up to date of what they are doing with your listing - WHO WILL?
The virtual tour you have done - that you pay for will be a huge asset for you. You get to watch the hit status and know what is going on with your home for sale. If you decide that after your contract has run out with your agent, you can now take your home for sale to another agency of your choice and have them post the tour for you on their website. You keep in control of how the home shows, what the price is and the marketing.
If you are in the Northern Nevada area and need a professional HD Virtual Tour, I would be happy to provide you with one. Not only will you be able to post this tour on Facebook, Youtube and all the other social networking sites but you will be able to let the agent post it to his website. Should you decide to change agents (for what ever reason) you still have the home posted out there, you give the new agent a copy of the tour and your back in business.
I'm easy to find, call or email me for more information.
