Wow, do I feel for you! It is REALLY hard to find a good Listing Agent/Realtor… anywhere (not just Virginia).

How do I know? Because I’m going through it right now! I’m helping my brother pick a Realtor to sell his house in Texas (yep not doing FSBO since I want him to net more).

Overcoming his hesitations are EXACTLY like customers here. It is HARD to cut through the BS. Here are some typical questions he had and my answers. (He was amazed that I had a blog post for everything. Also I apologize for jumping around.)

1) I taught him to not fall for the oldest trick in the Realtor book… the Buying a Listing Trick (recommend a high price to win the listing, just to drop later, which nets the client even less). He got that, so he warned the agents he was talking to that he wanted real pricing and he would NOT pick based on the highest price.

2) When he mentioned staging, one Realtor’s reply was “Sure we can do that, or we can list, wait two weeks and then stage it. That might save you some money.“

What! Boy did this tick me off. Made me want to pull my hair out and look like I did before my hair drug medicine (see actual photo of me).

Any good marketer knows that you have one chance to make a great impression. You want all marketing efforts to peak at the same time (even down to the exact best day to list, which I think is Thursday). 80% of your visitors will see your vacant stale house? No way. “Run from that Realtor!”

But doesn’t it sound so good? “to save you some money.” Everyone wants to save money!! Even though that might “cost” you tens of thousands. Here is a video on staging costs (specifically granite) and calculating your return on investment (staging ROI)

3) Realtor and Stager in one? Some might be offended by this, and go ahead and call me a “Brainist.” I don’t think those with a degree in design can do staging full time AND be a full time Realtor. They are completely separate parts of the brain. (I messed up here, I initially had him talk to a combo stager/Realtor, but he got the sense that the combo‘er, not to be confused with a comb-over, was not a numbers person. The combo’er said, “my Realtor friend Sally thinks we should price it at XYZ.” That isn’t what a seller wants to hear.)

Also it is hard to find a good stager/redesigner. Some even lie! And you know I’ll call them out on it. See: Stager Caught Lying About “17 day avg” Results!

4) Find a great stager 1st and you will find a great Realtor. (kinda sounds epic?)
(shameless plug… earmuffs… If you are looking for a listing agent in Northern Virginia, MD, DC, then you can skip this step since you already found us… end shameless plug.)
Whenever I jump into an abyss (non DC area) to help a college friend, or a relative find a Realtor… I first find a great stager (I use ActiveRain). I ask the stager “Who uses you frequently and always uses super wide angle photos?” Man of man this eliminates 97-99% of the Realtors and leaves me with some great options. I’m sorry, while it won’t guarantee anything, if I find a Realtor that requires all of their listings be staged, I am 99% confident they will not be a Sucky Listing Agent. Ask Dave and Bill, they were thrill when their houses sold in a down market for over what they were expecting.

5) Another Realtor wanted to hurry and list the property in 48 hours.
I told my bro, no fear… I have a blog post for that too. THROW-UP listings. Do it “RIGHT,” Not “RIGHT NOW!” I consider this to be a trick. Some Realtors go to some brain-washing Realtor training programs (you know who you are) and they push: #1 GET THE LISTING SIGNED. And “How many listings did you sign up this week, did you make quota.” They don’t really care about getting their client top dollar. They just wanna crank through a mass quantity of deals. Fast, Fast Fast. Sorry, it takes time to do it
right, and doing it right, nets the seller MORE!

6) Another hesitation from my brother: “But I want the Realtor that sells everything in the neighborhood.” While there can be some benefits, I know some VERY sucky agents that do a crapload of business.
Here is their secret… They spend $100,000 (yes 5 zeros) sending out postcards endlessly. The postcards look like they are trying to sell somebody’s home. But the inside scoop (which you only get on this blog, so make sure to sign up) is they are NOT marketing the home at all (postcards don’t sell homes, especially “sold cards”). They are MARKETING THEMSELVES NOT THE PROPERTY!
They spend a boat load of $ to get you to call them. That in NO WAY correlates with them being any good at getting you the highest net.
Why don’t I get into that business? If the $100k pays for itself, why not? Because it disgusts me. I’ll just blog and save a forest. I love flipping through those 4-color magazines in grocery stores. With full page ads “selling” homes. That does NOT sell homes, that sells the Realtor and lets them say “look I will put you in this glossy magazine” that no buyers look at. They instead use the interweb.

Other BS.
7) Don’t fall for the guy that uses in his pitch “Google XYZ area and look, I’m #1.” Like above, that just means they know how to do Search Engine Optimization by hiring a firm in India to write mini articles to get their ranking up. Search engines do NOT sell your home, but it might get you to contact that Realtor. Sure sounds powerful doesn’t it? If he can market himself, he can market my home. Yes logical. But no, it is not correlated.
As part of that Realtors’ (NOT MINE) “10 questions to ask a Listing agent”
“How many Buyers are you working with currently? Everybody knows the more buyers your listing agent is working with, the better your chances of selling your property quickly. It will also
affect price because a listing agent with many buyers can establish an auction-like atmosphere where many buyers all bid on your home at the same time.”

8) I got this from a blog reader today, “Jake” thought I’d like to highlight the BS. This came from a Realtor he was getting a newsletter from (he betrayed me I guess):

Are you kidding me? See pulling out hair photo above. This is such BS. And if it isn’t, make sure you are not hiring that agent as a buyer agent, because she just admitted she is going to screw you if you buy her listing. (Meanwhile I tell buyers NOT to buy my listings)

Wish me luck with my brother, and a blogger loves his commenters, even if you say “hi, thanks.”
Sign up for more progress reports on my brother’s listing.

Written by Frank Borges LL0SA
Broker FranklyRealty.com
Owner FranklyMLS.com

Please report typos.
Brain photo by Gaetan Lee

Our listings NET sellers more (not buyers). Many agents will tell the sellers, “I can get you top dolla‘ “ (or they BUY a listing) and then turn around and tell buyers “this is a great ‘deal’!”

Well, you can’t have it both ways.
Is it a good deal for the seller or the buyer?
(like this 2 faced Realtor commercial)

Am I worried that this post might turn away buyers for our listings? Nah.

1. Does anybody really read this?
2. People buy from the MLS, not blogs
3. 3rdly (is that a word) they know I’m exaggerating (a little).
4. Lasterly (now that I know is not a word) the buyers will be compelled in our trance, like bugs into a zapper, and this post won’t matter. They will love the place and still HAVE to have it.

(shameless ad coming on..) FranklyRealty.com is the only Real Estate Company in Virginia (and probably the USA) that requires staging for each listing. All part of our slogan Excellence Comes Standard TM.

Do we lose business from it? You betcha. Not only do we lose clients that want to just throw it up on the MLS, but also agents that were considering joining but were scared to lose clients. (His current listing should have been staged, it wasn’t, and now it just sits).

I also lose watching a deal that we “lose” and watch it sit… and sit… and sit.

Why require this? Because:

1. It works and
2. So few do it.

Upon reviewing 400 homes in Arlington Virginia from $350k to $800 on the MLS.

• Over 400 homes
• Only 7 had 30 photos (our MLS’s maximum) and of those
• Only 4 of those had staging.
• 75% (3) of those were our listings. (see them here)

Still wanna go with the big boys? If you do, pick any of the them that did a great job on the 393 listing.
Quantity matters right?!

Hello! Wake up! We are in a “buyer’s market” with competition from dumpy bank listings, it is a no brainer.

(sidenote: Buyers, we should get you a smelly bank place and make it look like nicely staged place. Or save $15,000 buying a photoless listings)

Now I would rattle off stats offered by the staging world about selling for 6% more, but I don’t believe in stats. Instead I see as a buyer agent, that only 1 in 30-50 properties are staged (and only 1 other non-Frankly listing out of 400 was staged and had 30 photos) and my buyers love them (but I prefer they get the stinky unstaged home).

And when I do my listings, the buyers at open houses comment “do those drapes come with the house.” You shouldn’t be looking at drapes when you buy a house… but people do! I even had one buyer look at a listing and fell in love with the décor in the bathroom and subsequently bought the townhouse.

I recently sold my Mom’s house and I did more than staging (about 60% of our clients do more than just staging). Here we did about $17K in redesign on a 27 year rental (I hate construction, so it was 100% outsourced). If I didn’t believe in staging, would I still have required my Mom to do it? As I mentioned in my “best ever” post: Frankly CRA, we got:

My best friend in Chicago wanted to sell his place and needed advice. He is the “Frank tell me exactly what to do” type. I believe in staging so much, I
src=”http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i18/franklyfrank1/th_ad67de7c.jpg” align=”right” />worked backwards. I went to a top stager in Chicago and said, “Got any tech savvy Realtors that stage?” He recommended Eugene Fu (A year later featured as a top agent under 30 in Realtor magazine). Sold in four days for $10K over list.

My sister is about to sell in Seattle. What do I beat into her? Staging (she was already sold at Hello after seeing my mother’s house transformed).

While “staging” is the minimum that we require, more often than not there is some more serious re-designing needed. Sometimes granite, sometimes new appliances, chair rails, etc. Usually not new cabinets or new windows. Not just your $25 staging book and a box of hodge podge junk from Kmart (so yes, even staging has levels of service).

So why require it? Because (warning, cheesy line coming up!) my clients are like family*. (Told ya! * Yes that was a joke, I don’t talk like that)

No seriously if I make my best friend, mom, and sister stage, how am I going to let a client say, “Nah, just put it on the MLS and see what happens?”

Actually even my mom said that. I said, “nope, all or nothing.”

So while it might lose us signed listing agreements, at least our stuff sells faster and for more.

Like what you read? Subscribe via email (upper right of blog) or forward it. Don’t like it? Then comment.

- Written by Frank Borges LL0SA- FranklyRealty.com

(Disclaimer: Now don’t get me wrong. You can’t just wave a staging wand and it is sold automatically. Other things matter, like proper pricing (not under pricing) and (see entire blog section on listings) sometimes a staged place won’t sell, but it works enough to require it.)

Photcredits: Don’t buy by WhatWhat, Chicago by Laffy4k Bug light by Lara68 , sit by naraekim0801 , Wake up by galapogos

When I say “Buying a Listing,” I’m not referring to the actual act of buying a home. Instead I am referring to industry agent to agent jargon. It refers to an unethical trick where some listing agents will inflate the recommended list price in order to win the deal.

I have referred to my mother several times in my blog. I’ve learned more about real estate from her than anybody else, oftentimes from her mistakes. She was never an agent, but sold several homes over the last 20 years. She would frequently fall for the “Buying a Listing” trick. She would interview 3 agents and inevitably pick the agent that would promise her the highest price. But her homes would sit and drop. Only after being on the inside did I learn that this was a technique used to win business.

So now when I meet a seller, I don’t give a price recommendation! Pretty counterintuitive heah? And you might be thinking, “I thought that was the #1 value you brought to the table. If not that, what the hell are you good for anyway?” This is why I don’t:

1. Picking an agent based on their list price recommendation is ultimately the worse choice you can make. I’ve said before, “So they told you $640,000? What if I told you $675,000, would you hire me then?” And the answer is frequently YES!, with a hint of saliva glimmering from the corner of their mouth. Well that is EXACTLY why I won’t tell you a price!
2. Many agents will spend only 20 minutes printing out a list of recently sold homes, and they come up with a range. (sidenote: I don’t get ranges. Everyone wants and expects the TOP of that range, right?) But more importantly, it can take upwards of 5 to 10 hours to come up with a price and that is done WITH the client (maybe another post will detail this process). So, I won’t spend several hours on a listing, if I haven’t even been hired yet. You get my full attention… after you hire me.

I also don’t like the agent vs client mentality. It is counterproductive, when it should be more of a collaboration.

Once I went to a “large” real estate company meeting to teach them about blogging. The broker ended the meeting with a pep rally style, “Now go out there and get some price reductions!” Are you kidding me? It shouldn’t be a battle between the agent and the client, but instead the agent fighting to NET the client more. Being a partner in the process, not a smug know-it-all looking after the agent’s best interest.

If you pick an agent based on the highest recommended list price, be prepared to SIT, DROP and NET less.

Written by FranklyRealty.com Broker Frank Borges LL0SA, and I approved this message.

(please report typos, and follow the comments at blog.FranklyRealty.com)

The question that I still have is:

If you have a home for sale that is “ready” (a fully staged Arlington Virginia Home), are you better off waiting until January 1st (or Spring) to list your house?

LIST TODAY (Dec 1st) PROS:

1. Inventory is lower, less to choose from for buyers.
2. Everything seems stale and leftover. Maybe put a hot listing on, and those that are actively looking will jump on it, even in December?

LIST TODAY CONS:

1. Fewer buyers. There are 2x the # of buyers (lookers) in Jan Vs Dec.
2. Source Google Trends: MLS HOMES
3. The more Days on the Market, the lower the price tends to go. You have a better chance of selling your house the first week it is listed, especially if you can get 2 interested parties.
4. A TON MORE LISTINGS in Jan. Yes there is more demand (buyers) but there is a TON MORE SUPPLY.

I looked at all homes in Arlington that were listed on 12-1-06 through 12-10-06 (Dec Listed) and compared how they did to listings that were put on the market 1-1-07 through 1-10-07 (Jan Listed), this is what I found:

This shows me:

• There are 20% more new listings in Jan vs Dec. (vs 100% more traffic from buyers)
• Homes sold 30% faster in Jan
• Homes listed in January were 40% MORE likely to sell within 2 weeks.
• BUT The actual % of Original Price was only .3% difference ($1,500 on a $500k place).
• The Median price was $100k off, that doesn’t mean homes went up 20%, just the type of home was a little different. I pretty much ignored that number.

Based on these numbers, with most weight placed on the % of list, I think it doesn’t really matter when you list it. I’ve said this about Market Timing for buyers, I guess it applies for sellers too.

Supply and demand already works itself out, I still don’t believe you can BEAT the market. (ie more buyers, and more listings).

But Frank, you said Dec was better for buyers!

Yep, my Market Timing for buyers post says that you shouldn’t time the market, but if you find yourself in Dec, you might get a better deal since there are fewer buyers. I guess that might NOT be true after all. Sorry about that.

- Written by Frank Borges LL0SA- Broker FranklyRealty.com (please report typos)

Also see Jeff Royce’s Taking Your House off the Market for Winter?

How about the bastard cousin: “If you hurry up, expect to wait.”? Not as catchy?

Anyhow, the fastest way to sell a house is to slooooooow doooooooown and do it right from the beginning. A rushed job will NET you less and take 3 times longer to sell.

A month ago I was contacted by a seller that wanted their house on the MLS tomorrow!

In one day! Could I have done it? Could I have thrown it up on the MLS? Sure, but it would look like throw up, and that doesn’t sell… slowly. And no you can’t just put it up quickly and make it better later (I’ll explain later). So, I had to send her elsewhere…

Time and time again, the seller wants to have it sold yesterday. I don’t blame you! The process is pretty stressful, and the faster you can unload the property, the better, right? Here is where the counterintuitive part kicks in… you sell it FASTER if you give your agent, stager, and sometimes painters and photographers the proper amount of time to get everything done perfectly straight out of the gate.

• Put all of your efforts behind the first weekend LAUNCH!

The best way to sell a place is to have 2 offers. Yeah, maybe a bidding war will occur, but I’m talking about getting that extra nudge to make 1 of the 2 interested parties put in an offer.

The best way to do that is to:

a) have a delicious product.

b) compress most of your efforts into the first “launch” of your product.

Microsoft doesn’t release a new big software and THEN advertise slowly. They are like a fireworks display in reverse. They start with the grand finale. They have a HUGE media blitz up front. You need that for your home. (this is also one of the reasons why it hurts you to “try it” FSBO for a couple of weeks, you deflate the parade, read: Go FSBO! Save $20,000! Realtor Tells All!)

• List EXACTLY on Wednesday night or Thursday.

If your Realtor says “so when you think you wanna have your listing thingy up?” Please fire them and go to the phonebook and pick the first alphabetically listed agent, chances are, they will be better.

Why Wed/Thur? Email alerts for new listings are automatically sent around midnight to home buyers that have signed up through various MLS searching services. If you list on Friday at noon, everyone getting alerts at work will see them on Monday. After your “weekend launch!” If you list on Monday, the lead time is too long before the exciting weekend. You might have some interested parties, but why not compress the interest to a few days and make your house seem more appealing? Also sometimes you can kill your chances for a bidding war as those fast buyers tend to give Thursday deadlines, before the weekend push. So yes, given the choice to rush a listing in on Sat, versus waiting until the following Wed, I think waiting will sell your house faster! (Ok, maybe I’m a little too into the psychological science of selling, but I have seen it work)

Here are some made up stats of mine:

• 80% of your visitors will see your place in the first 10 days.

At any point in time there are a certain number of buyers waiting on the sidelines for a home to go on the MLS in a certain zip code. They have MLS email alerts set up. Once it hits, that backlog of buyers will see your house within the first 10 days. These are the best buyers since they probably have been looking for a while and are ready to act on the perfect house.

After those 10 days, traffic will tank. You might first blame the agent thinking that they have slowed down their marketing efforts, but that probably isn’t the case. Now you have to to wait for newcomers into the market. And the longer it sits, the higher the chances it will sit even longer!

• You only get 1 chance to impress!

If you throw up the listing and it has no photos, only a couple of photos, ugly photos, unstaged photos, the potential buyers will see your place and hit the delete button. Maybe only to reconsider you again when the next alert hits, your price drop (alerts are sent out for new listings and price drops).

• Sidetip: Never list “freshly painted” in your remarks.

Also people don’t like places that appear fixed up just for the sale. Why would you highlight “this place used to be a dump and a rental.” Instead, just let them come in and in their mind think “wow the former owner was meticulous.” Which scenario gives you a better warm and fuzzy? A good agent and stager will manipulate that feeling to the seller’s benefit. (all part of our master plan)

• Staging takes time! (see Bidding Wars? It’s The Staging Stupid!!)

While I used to think staging was swinging past Target and picking up $100 worth of junk and plastic flowers, it is so much more (and now I’m learning that there is a huge difference between a 2-day certified “stager” and a design degreed professional. It makes a difference, that difference nets you more. Blog coming soon.). Actually we recommend taking staging a step further and oftentimes undergoing light construction and repainting. Each house is different, but it takes time to do it right. Expecting designers to work their magic in one day would overflow mental institutions across America!

It takes some time to get things down right. Maybe a week, maybe two weeks or more, if we need to coordinate a team of workers to work on your house. Maybe one day there will be a drive through MLS service that can get the stager out to the house within the first hour, and the construction crew out by hour 3 and photography etc etc. (Sounds like a reality show to me: “Ready to Sell in 4 hours!”)

Oh and that seller that wanted the “rush job,” her place is still for sale, and she has already dropped her price $10,000.

Bottom line is, we understand that you want to sell it as fast as possible, but lets take a moment, breathe and do it RIGHT, Not RIGHT NOW! And net you more, and faster!

- Written by Frank Borges LL0SA- Broker/ Realtor FranklyRealty.com

America was lured in by the… 20 year long regurgitated story “Attack on the 6% Realtors” and comments about “saving thousands.”

After watching such a biased infomercial, of course Redfin seems like a no-brainer. Well my blog readers have a brain, so here it goes…

Sidenote: Normally I’m not a fan of NAR, but I did agree with most of their comebacks (click to see).

I have written extensively on my bias opinion on the pros and cons of rebating and discounting including:

• For Buyers: Realtor Rebates. Free Money or Expensive Savings?
• For Sellers: Go FSBO! Save $20,000! Realtor Tells All!!

I would like to focus on the “savings” comment put forth by 60 Minutes’ case study.

“WE SAVED $27,000″* NOTE THE ASTERISK!

After they were done laughing and giggling on their couch about how they saved $27,000 and how they could spend it on their wedding, they made an under-the-breathe comment that they sold their place for…

“$10,000 under what Redfin recommended that we list it for.”

In this comment I see two things to question:

1) “$10,000 Under List”

2) “The list price recommended by Redfin.”

So let’s start with the latter…

If some of their agents do as many as 8 closings a week, might it be remotely possible that they might have a strategy of listing low in order to sell fast? I’m not saying they do, but would that make sense to anybody besides me?

And for the “$10,000 under list,” while I oftentimes say that “Many Listing Agents Suck” See RealtyTimes article or my blog, one has to wonder if another motivated agent that had more time to devote to the listing might have:

1. Landed them full list ($10,000 higher)
2. Started higher and ended higher ($15,000+ higher)
3. Got a bidding war going, resulting in a much higher net ($32,000 like our Realtor Megan’s listing, see blog).

In my biased opinion, the best way to get the most for the house isn’t to find one buyer, but to find at least TWO buyers. I don’t believe in pricing low to start a bidding war, but I do believe in getting as many buyers into the process as possible. A process that can take an extra 8 hours in one day for one agent, while netting the client another $32,000.

Back to the “$27,000 total in savings,” that was for buying and selling. If we assume that they bought a bigger place, they probably “saved” $12,000 on the listing and “saved” $15,000 on the purchase.

I’m confident, and I have references to back me on this, that I can consistently do at least $12,000 higher than a discount agent. I wish there was a way to prove this with statistics, but they would just be manipulated.

Instead I can only give real world examples:

1. Megan, with FranklyRealty.com, had a recent listing (See Bidding Wars? It’s The Staging Stupid!) The initial discussion regarding the starting price at the listing appointment was roughly $550,000 (seller’s opinion). After staging, light remodeling and further research, and many hours of work, the starting price was set aggressively at $570,000. The end result was 3 offers and a ratified contract $13,000 higher. While I’m confident in these number being an example of hard work, Redfin might also find an example of an agent that did a similar great job. And if that person was so great… I would hire them and pay them double, because they are worth it. (think about that for a second, if you could offer value way beyond discounting, wouldn’t you start charging accordingly?) 

   Sidenote: ZipRealty, another discount firm (some disagree with that term, see blog comments/debate), according to one blog is full of disgruntled, newer, and underpaid agents that are overworked. External blog: What’s Wrong with zipRealty

    

2. FranklyRealty.com Saves Client $152,000 should be the next 60 minutes update.

The above is actually a true story. It was a hot seller’s market, and with proper marketing and about 10 stressful non-stop hours the $499,000 listing was bid up to $601,000. One thing is to bid it up, another is to actually close at this price. Especially after several attempts to renegotiate, and appraisal issues. Yeah sure, I got a few bucks for the incremental difference, but that is nothing compared to the unexpected $102,000 in their pockets. Sure they could have “saved” and sold it fast FSBO, but they wouldn’t have been able to get anything near wha
t I got them (their words).

Then on their purchase, they loved a house that was getting 8 offers. At FranklyRealty.com we don’t write normal looking offers, and that sets us apart immediately. Each offer is different. I can’t publish all my tricks here, but when was the last time that you saw a contract that put the Realtor’s ENTIRE commission on the line as a promise that we wouldn’t renegotiate the offer? That is powerful. Also we run a CRA ™ Comparative Realtor Analysis report (see it here on RealtyTimes.com) amongst many other systems that net our client more.

A good agent should approach buying a house like an acquisition of a company. Thus winning contracts for less. In this case the 8 offers were bid up to approximately $800,000. Why in the world would somebody take our lower offer? Well because money is not the only motivating factor. When we got that house for only $750,000 my clients were in shock after just getting approved by the lender to get bid up to $800,000. They saved $50,000.

So it doesn’t matter if the market is hot, cold or you are buying or selling, an aggressive agent can save you much more, and do it in a way that all parties are smiling in the end.

Ok, I got sidetracked. The point is that what a great agent does can’t be compressed into 8 closings a week per agent.

So you have to pick one:

1. “save on commission” or
   
2. “net more.”

Bottom line is,

I used to rebate… but then I got… good.

Frank Borges LL0SA- Virginia Broker/ Owner FranklyRealty.com

Blog.FranklyRealty.com Featured in BusinessWeek, CNBC, WSJ etc.

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Keywords: Housing bubble? Arlington, Alexandria, mls, homes, Real estate, Virginia, Alexandria, 22201, 22314, Fairfax Va, DC Realty, Realtor

So, a buddy of mine in Chicago wanted to sell his place and he wanted my help deciding the best route to get the highest net.

He, like almost every person in the United States NEEDS that last $5-15k.

At first he wanted to “save” and sell it by owner. I, the oftentimes Anti-Realtor, told him NOT to take this approach (I guess I am more of an ANTI-SUCKY-ASS-AGENTS agent) read my Save $20,000 blog.

So I told him I’d find him a great Realtor (no I didn’t take a cut).

First I had him email me a couple agents that he knew of, and I did a stealth interview of the agent. There I was, an agent from Virginia, and this Realtor was still feeding me B.S.

Actual B.S. Ad:

Are you kidding me?

His marketing materials boasted that they put your house on 600 websites and they put your house in front of 700 million home buyers. I recently read in BusinessWeek that India now has 50 million internet users. Thank God they can all see my friend’s condo! I hate marketing that is just short of flat out lying and meant to confuse customers, or to play the “I have a longer checklist than yours” contest.

Realtor Trick: Do not fall for the “my checklist is longer than his” trick.

Oh and that 600 websites… as I suspected (after calling him out on it), he only puts it onto this thing called the “M” “L” “S” (ever heard of it?) and the 599 other websites pull from the MLS and rebroadcast the data (in other words all Realtor get on the same 600 websites).

So I was on my own. I looked to ActiveRain to get a good Chicago Realtor.

I didn’t care too much for the agents that were on here in Chicago (no particular reason, nothing stood out), so what does one do….

I found the PERFECT solution for finding a great agent! GO TO A STAGER!! I went to a top stager and asked him “Give me some names of agents that have used you. By merely using you, they are 99% ahead of the game and they ‘get it’, and they will help my friend net more.”

Blog update 5-2-07: “Somebody asked me, what is a stager.” Staging is a trademarked word, you can go to www.StagedHomes.com for more info. Staging can include anything from nicely laid out nick naks (my stager is gonna kill me if she saw that as a definition to what she does) to light construction. You know how the iPod and Mac’s use design to attract buyers? Kinda like that! Bottom line is staging makes buyer’s drewl and BUY!

Sure enough, I found him a GREAT Realtor, and my buddy got the property staged. The agent was young, but sharp, he got it. And low and behold…

it sold in 4 days for OVER what he wanted (net) to get FSBO and it got bid up $7k – $10k over what he wanted.

More CA$H = he couldn’t be more excited.

Thank you stagers! How do we get more customers to take a HANDS-OFF approach and just say “Do what you need to do” and not debate every $500?

Sellers, call their references. So few people do this. If they are a good stager and they say that hardwood floors will sell your place, do it. That $2k-3k will come back to you 3-5 fold.

- Written by Frank LL0SA Broker FranklyRealty.com Virginia

p.s. Good photography was also a requirement when I was checking out agents.

Here are some before and after’s of Megan’s staging. For about $10,000 this house was transformed! Our starting price was $20,000 higher than the initial price target AND it got bid up $13k higher. While looking at the photos one might initially say it looks like a simple clean up job, but it was so much more. New paint throughout (not just any paint, but color patterns that make it jaw drawdropping), upgraded kitchen with granite (not just ANY granite!! and stainless steel appliances) and Megan would have to list the rest of the changes.

First JetBlue left customers on the runway for 10 hours. After this disaster they came out with a JetBlue Bill of Rights.

Then a class action lawsuit was brought against C0ldwell Banker (Article) for violating RESPA laws for steering clients to profit-sharing "partners."

Before there is a further disastrous out lash from consumers against Realtors, we must adopt a new standard. All shadiness needs to be removed from the industry and excellence should come standard.

FranklyRealty.com will start in Virginia, DC, MD and I envision shortly other firms will subscribe to the "Frankly Client Bill of Rights" throughout the country. This is not trademarked, go ahead copy me. You'd be an idiot not to. 

Who will join us? Who runs a real estate firm that is willing to follow our lead and offer a new elite level of service and disclosure?

While I'm honored to be the first to come out with this, I'm also embarrassed at the same time that this isn't already the default. Consumers might read this and say "d'uh, seems obvious," I agree! But why is it that not one real estate firm in America subscribe to this? YET!

Introducing the Frankly Client Bill of Rights:

#1 No ABA's, Affiliated Business Arrangements

We make our money on the commission, we don't need to make a few hundred bucks steering you. No "One Stop Shopping" filled with partners filling our pockets. (blog on ABAs)

#2 No Admin Fees

These $200-$400 junk fees were invented by large real estate firms for both the buy and sell side. No more having clients sign confusing disclosures unknowingly. We don't charge them, never have. (blog on Admin Fees)

#3 No Dual Agency

Dual Agency is ILLEGAL in some states. I wonder why? Dual Agency is when there is only one Realtor between a buyer and seller. A Dual Agency Realtor can not help both sides. So legally they are not allowed to represent EITHER SIDE, and instead "represent the contract" only. That makes the agent a mere worthless paper pusher. We don't do that. We will only represent our client, the buyer OR seller. In the case where a buyer comes without an agent, they will be an "unrepresented buyer" (like a FSBO) and will sign a disclosure saying who we work for. (new blog soon)

#4 No TELLING you what to pay

We won't tell you what to pay for a place. Ever! We won't even answer the "What if you were me" question, since… We aren't you! It is your money, and your risk tolerance. Instead of telling you a price, we will go over a ton of data to consider and conclude with our "VEGAS ODDS SYSTEM" on what the other side MIGHT do and separate it into three categories: Accept, Counter or Walk. Ultimately you decide how aggressive you want to be. (No "selling" blog)

#5 No Home Warranty Insurance Kickbacks

Even though it is illegal to receive a commission for selling insurance (unless you are a licensed insurance dealer), the Home Warranty companies have figured out a way to give agents and firms an "admin fee" of $60 to sell their goods. Why bother? We won't accept that commission as we feel that is illegal. Instead we will pass that "admin fee" to the buyer/seller. This might seem like a small amount, but the principle is what matters. Again we make our money on the commission, we don't need to upsell you to make another $60.

#6 No Buyer Agent Bonuses/Bribes

We outline our compensation up front in our Exclusive Buyer Agency Agreement (Don't Sign Them Yet blog). If there is a bonus to the buyer agent, the buyer gets that in a form of a rebate on the HUD1. We can't be bribed to push you into a particular listing. (blog on 10% agent bribes)

#7 20 Photos & Custom Domain Name Website Per Listing

It boggles my mind when a $900,000 listing posts 3 photos taken with a camera phone (see Sucky Agents) and then wonders why it didn't sell for 200 days. And this is from a "Top 3" large company, not a "discounter." They even allow agents to check a default button to allow the MLS to dispatch a high school photographer to take a free exterior shot. I call this the free drive-by shooting option.

Simple new requirement: Each listing must have at least 20 photos taken with a 22mm wide angle camera (like the v570) or from a professional photographer.

Each listing will also have their own domain name. No need to point prospects to "HugeRealEstateCompany.com" just to get lost looking at another 10,000 homes. Instead prospects can go directly to the photos of the listing with their own domain like: www.2001odyssey815.com

#8 Professional Staging

We won't list a house unless we can make it look better than a model home. Why? It works. It gets you more money and the house sells faster. (See Bidding War blog). Just yesterday we got 3 offers in 3 days for $20k over what other Realtors said would be the seller's top price (referrals available).

#9 You're High Tech, We're High Tech

How about 100% paperless transactions from start to close? No unnecessary "meeting to sign" papers or trips to Kinkos. We also use instant messaging, cell text messaging and of course email… from our phone. Prefer paper? We can do that too.

#10 Profit Guarantee

Bubble fears? Scared your agent will talk you into something bad to make a buck? There are few things more painful than losing money on a transaction. We want to lower your risk if you buy from us. If you need to sell your house within the next 5 days or 5 years, and we can't make you a profit, we will sell it for no listing commission. We make money when you make money. If you lose money on a deal, we'll help you out for free. (details coming soon)

Thank you for following Blog.FranklyRealty.com as we recalibrate the real estate industry! Sign up via for updates or email this to a friend.

Are you a buyer or seller? Print this out, have your Realtor sign the Frankly Client Bill of Rights? (Tell me how it goes)

Are you a Realtor with another firm that can't promise the above? Then switch or start your own, maybe I'll even help you!

Thanks for all the comments, keep em coming. And if you like this blog, please pass it on! Oh and tell me if you find typos, I don't like looking dumb.

Written by Frank Borges LLosa- The Real Estate Gadfly

Virginia Broker/ Owner FranklyRealty.com

Blog.FranklyRealty.com Featured in BusinessWeek, CNBC, WSJ etc.

p.s. #11 As with JetBlue, we also promise not to leave you on the runway for 10 hours.

On the one hand I’m pissed because their laziness adds to my workload 3 fold.
But then on the other hand their suckatude (level of suckiness) makes me look better I guess.

Ok, what am I ranting about?

Here is one example: I just got a reply email from a listing agent selling a $1.5M home in Virginia. I have a client looking to buy a home that is specifically on a golf course backing to one of the holes. Max price is $4M (yes I dropped that irrelevant piece of information just to impress you).

You would think it would be easy for me to find with all my tools. Just do a Matrix search (back end Realtor search) for View= Golf Course. Problem is, if the listing agent doesn’t check that box, then it won’t magically appear in my search. That agent was either too lazy or too inexperienced (did I say the listing was $1.5M!) and doesn’t know how to fill out a simple MLS listing.

And it doesn’t end there.

He had only one photo on the listing! You are selling a $1.5M place? I even got ticked off enough that couldn’t hold back and I had to ask him directly:

• “I gotta say, that a house like that with no photo on the MLS, you are doing a TON of harm to your clients. I almost didn’t write because of the lack of photos. Can you help me understand why some agents don’t use photos? I don’t get it. It only costs $12 through keystone [our MLS].”

His reply was:

• “I do not understand your e-mail. There is a picture on MLS listing and further information on our website.”

Um. Thank you for lowering the bar so much that I look like Javier Sotomayor (the world record holding high jumper, A Cuban like me). Yes there was one photo, I meant why did you have only one photo! Not only was it a pain to go to his website and find the listing (that is why the MLS was invented so that all the info could be in one place), it still only had one photo. that is what you call “more information?”

I once had to hire somebody to drive 2 hours to take photos of a $5m mansion because the listing agent only had like 4 photos. He took 100. Actually I do that for every home that I see with a client, I take about 100 photos and I make an online mini album for them to remember each listing. Does your buyer agent do that? And I digress… Back to sucky listing agents…

The secret about MLS photos

If a Realtor is too lazy to take one photo, for free they can have the MLS take one. This entails the MLS paying a high school photographer to literally do a drive by shooting. They slow down the car and grab a shot and hurry on to the next house, a drive by shooting. You can tell if your Realtor opted for that if the full MLS listing says “Photo Option: VIC Exterior Only”

And then to upload 6 photos it costs a whooping $6, and the super rich will splurge and pay $12 for 20 photos!

That isn’t the end.

How frequently does this occur? I did a sample search in my building.

8 active listings:
* 4 had no photo at all, not even the free drive by.
* 3 had the free one drive by photo
* 1, only 1 spent $12 and uploaded 6 photos
(full disclosure: The stats aren’t ever this bad, this is unusual. I’ll get you full stats later)

No wonder some were over 260 days on the market. Yeah the market is slow, but having no photos doesn’t help. And one even offered a special $5,000 extra bonus for the agent? Why not have your client save $5,000 and market it well, no, that would be asking too much, how about just not suck.

SOON I WILL POST HERE THE % of homes in ALL of Arlington with and without photos.

What about Virtual Tours? I guess they are ok, but I don’t like them personally. They tend to crash my computer and some annoyingly force you to watch the “tour” with romantic zooming in and rainbow transitions with Celine Dion in the background, to add to the mood. Just give me 20 photos, so I can click on the next listing. I’m busy, lets get on with it. Is it that so tough?

When picking an agent, ignore the 4 inch binder that costs $250 to produce and is standard issue from their office (including a group shot of 100 agents, as if that somehow will help sell your house) to win your business. That binder won’t sell your listing. Ask him right there in real time to pull up their last 2 listings. See if he ordered the free drive by photographer service. See how many photos they have posted (and he better not trick you into showing you photos on their website or firm website, that is hogwash, nobody will see it, make sure it was on the MLS and that they paid the $12). And then take that binder and keep it in your car trunk. They work great when you need something heavy to put under your tire after parking on a steep hill in the winter.

Oh and if any of my competition is listening, when you put up a listing, you might want to have your photos ready and upload them that night. Why? Well the following morning will be your most important listing day? Why? Because your new listing is sent automatically (not spammed) to a ton of people that specifically signed up for email alerts in your listing’s area. If you put in your photos a day or two later, guess what? Your NEW and exciting new listing will have “photo coming soon” and will oftentimes be trashed.

Also did you know that a listing with multiple photos gets seen exactly 6 times more frequently online? I hate stats, but I believe these. Who wants to waste hours at work surfing and looking at houses if there are any photos?

So my main issue is a lack of photos on the MLS, secondly I have issues with an agent that won’t fill out important details on the MLS. Those two might not seem like major things, but they are early indicators to future problems and other laziness.

How hard is that agent going to fight to get you that last $10,000 if they can’t do something as simple as market your property with multiple photos?

Update: You need to see Norm Fisher’s blog about “The Unbelievably Bad Real Estate Photography Hall of Fame and the virtual tour!

>- Written by Frank Borges LL0SA-