Situation
M & M originally from Holland have lived in Canada for about the last 20 years. They have purchased one or two homes ‘for sale by owner’ and their first inclination was to try and sell this home on Gladstone Crescent in St Albert the same way. M talked to a few customers and coworkers she knew at the garden centre where she worked, but no buyers were forthcoming. Indeed, I met M for the first time at the garden centre whilst I was purchasing a Christmas present for my wife. I overheard her talking to the customer in front of me about the house she wanted to sell. When it was my turn to pay, I offered M my card and to send her some market stats, plus our unique and exclusive Home Sellers Guide. M gratefully accepted the offer and we kept in touch. Over the course of a few months M realized she was not going to be able to find a buyer on her own. Equally M & M wanted to avoid expensive “Remax” fees as they put it, if possible. The flat fee program offered by Ambergate Realty Advisors was the obvious choice. Note that due to Covid 19 and because we were especially interested to represent vacant homes (M & M had moved out of the home) I gave them a further $1000 discount off our Extra Value + flat fee program.
Result
I convinced M & M to be more ambitious with their asking price. They wanted to ask $345,000 and they were prepared to accept in the region of $340,000. I suggested that due to the lack of competition and in order to select a powerful “bridge” price, $350,000 was a better choice as it would give us more exposure to the market. See this blog for more details: 2 Ways to Price Your Home to Sell.
Of course, it also gave a degree of price buffering that would allow us to negotiate and still get a number that would please M & M.
I set my team to work and the home was well marketed. In fact, as a team we follow a unique and exclusive 5 Phase Home marketing program. I wrote the advertising copy intended to appeal to our target market. A for sale sign was installed and we fitted a lock box to allow all REALTORS® to easily show the home. We brought in our professional photographer, we included a virtual tour (a crucial marketing tool during Covid 19) and the home was extensively advertised on social media including Facebook and Instagram plus more than 2500 other real estate websites including REALTOR.ca.
We identified a high-quality buyer.
Here is a synopsis of the results.
Average days on market for St Albert at the time the home was being marketed was 62 days. I got M & M’s home under contract in only 55 days. M & M’s goal was to sell for $340,000. I negotiated $342,500.
If M & M had gone the expensive “Remax” route, their total commission for buyer and seller agent would have been $14,275.
The total commission in this case was $11,638.
This was broken down as follows.
$4500 for our listing services (discounted by $1000) from our normal rate) and
$7138 for the buyer’s agent.
M & M chose not to take my advice, which was to offer a simple flat fee to the buyer’s agent and instead to pay an expensive “Remax” rate due in part to the quality of the offer I had negotiated. That is, we negotiated more money than they were hoping for and no conditions to the sale.
To conclude:
I sold the house 7 days faster than was typical at the time.
I shaved $2637 off the cost of my clients commissions.
I negotiated $2500 MORE for the sale of home than M & M were at first willing to accept.
Do you think my clients were happy with our work?
You can read more about the author of this blog by clicking this link – Stuart Neal Broker Owner & REALTOR®.
Want more information about our full-service FLAT FEE home selling programs? Please feel free to call our broker owner Stuart Neal at: 780-760-2014 or visit our home sellers page www.FlatFeeRealtyAdvisors.ca
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