Seller's Information

Agent-skill should be the main determining factor in your decision of choosing an agent.

There is no doubt that you might already know several agents in town. Rather than selecting an agent based on a personal relationship or a commission structure, choose an agent that best represents your property. Nothing impacts your property sale more than agent skill. After all, potential buyers do not care if the listing agent is your favorite golfing buddy or if the agent sold x-million in 2006; buyers only care about the homes that fit their needs.

Bryan Short has the talent and work ethic to make his client’s listings stand out from the competition. He believes that each property is unique and deserves the highest caliber of representation. By writing magazines style advertisements and combining them with stunning photos his website has become the undisputed leader in Internet advertising. Simply stated, no one else provides this kind of quality and content to the consumer.

If you truly want top dollar for your home please brief yourself with the following information. There is no doubt that if you use the ideas and tactics below you will ultimately increase the final sales price of your home. To view testimonials please click here: www.bryanshort.com/page.php

Tips for Sellers

The listing agent’s job is to promote the property and demonstrate how this home measures up to the competition. Unfortunately, the majority of material that agents make available for buyers hardly gives them any useful information. Traditionally, the focus of property descriptions relied on numerical figures like square footage, price, and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. While these figures are good general indicators of some of the home’s features they do very little justice to the actually qualities of the home and neighborhood.

Prior to the Internet taking over as the primary way people search for a property, agents used to leave out certain information in each advertisement so they could generate phone calls. This tactic is still very much alive, yet it is fading fast because it no longer works. Instead it just annoys the consumer and forces them to find the information elsewhere, in today’s market consumers pick up the phone as a last resort. The majority of consumers would rather have the beginning stages of their search anonymous, most feel that they can gleam plenty of information from the Internet.

Whether in print or online, photographs are the first way that buyers differentiate and choose which homes they would like to see in person. High quality photographs are the most effective tool to increase interest in a property. Thanks to computers it is easy to see consumer’s habits and how they interact with photographs. High quality photos taken in good weather stand out above the rest, and receive roughly 90% more click thru’s on Internet sites than average photos. Here is an easy test to tell if a photograph will be effective; show it to someone that hasn’t seen it before, if they stare at it for a while it is working if they don’t the photo is not good enough. Photographs should evoke emotion. In order to be competitive a listing must appeal to as many of the buyer’s senses as possible.  

Every advertisement should have its own website, here is why. After the consumer finds a photo attractive enough to draw them in they will read the description to see if it fits their general parameters. If they read this in print they will attempt to see more photos online. Doing this can be a bit more daunting than you might think and in many situations the listing agent does not have their own website or additional photos. Now the consumer is challenged to find this listing among the 7,000 others available. Assuming that they’ve succeeding in doing this they are typically disappointed because the information they find online is a exact copy of the information they already read in the print publication. Many times a consumer will disregard this particular listing because the marketing material was not sufficient enough to convince them that this home deserves any additional thought.

Print publications drive consumers to the Internet. The Internet is your one chance to provide a large amount of information and content to help the consumer choose your home. Websites with a “Login Required” are largely avoided by consumers, and for good reason. Among computer programmers, and those unfortunate enough to experience a computer virus, they understand that a website “Login” is synonymous with SpyWare, Virus, DataMining, and Spam.

BryanShort.com typically receives 280-350 unique users per month. When this website was beta-tested with a “Login” the number of users decreased by 95%. Consumers prefer that all the information regarding the property be available on a simple fast-downloading website. Linking to other websites for mapping functions is time consuming and pointless. Maps can be presented just like photos, easy fast download and no chance to input errors.

Most advertising descriptions are poorly written, and like numerical figures they provide very little information for the buyer. Just think for a minute how many times you’ve read something like this:

“Gorgeous 4bd, 3ba home in desirable neighborhood with nice backyard, granite, master suite, truly a must see to believe, call now.”

How in the world is a buyer supposed to differentiate between this home and the 37 other homes described with the same verbiage?

The reality is that the buyer cannot do so, especially the out-of-state buyer. In 2005 roughly 50% of buyers in the Coeur d’Alene area were from out-of-state. Many agents write ads as if everyone in the world has local knowledge of the area. Just imagine a person sitting in front of their computer, they’ve got a cup of coffee, a few real estate magazines, and a worn out highlighter. They’re practically ready to scream “WHERE IS IT, HOW MUCH, WHERE ARE THE INTERIOR PHOTOS, AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY COUGAR GULCH?…I HAVE NO IDEA IF THAT’S AN ANIMAL OR A BUILDER’S NAME.

Conversely buyers are not looking for those oey goey descriptions that sound like you’re describing a scene from a Martha Stuart Series. Buyers want a genuine idea of what the home and area is like. Bryan Short ‘writes life’ into his advertisements because that is exactly what buyers are looking for. Each person wants to know “what would it be like to live in this home.” Descriptions should be as accurate as possible, in no circumstances should statements outweigh the reality and true characteristics of the property.

The reality is that most brokerages and agents do nearly the exact same thing as everyone else, that’s why so many listings look alike. When sellers are trying to choose an agent they typically interview one or two agents for the job. There is a much more efficient and accurate way to tell which agent will best represent your home, and with this technique you can interview as many agents as you want quickly and easily.

Pretend that you are looking for a home, pick up the main real estate print publications like The Real Estate Book. Spend some time flipping through the pages and when a home strikes your interest try and find out as much information as you can to qualify this home to see if it fits your needs. In a very short amount of time you should be able to answer these basic questions: where is it, how much does it cost, what is the size and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, what does the interior look like, what is the neighborhood like, and finally why should I pick this one over the others.

If you cannot find this information within a minute neither could another buyer looking at your home.  

Q: Tell me about your sales history.
A: In 2006 about 80% of my $5,000,000 sales volume was generated by representing out-of-state buyers. It is extremely important to understand the process and psyche of the buyer. Sellers are fairly easy to understand, they want top dollar as fast as possible; whereas buyers are a bit more emotional that think about everything from the neighbor’s barking dog to the color of the guest bathroom. By working with so many buyers I have been able to anticipate what buyers want and then adapt it into a format that works beautifully to promote listings.

Q: What’s your background?
A: I earned my bachelors degree in Anthropology from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. Anthropology is the study of human culture and interaction. I focused my fieldwork on reward and motivation in relation to understanding consumer behavior and anticipating market trends.

Q: How much do you charge?
A: In the majority of cases I charge 6% of the total sales price. Regardless of the commission structure 50% of the commission is split with the buyer’s agent. I never have or will share anything but 50% with the buyer’s agent. Keeping each side of the transaction equally compensated assures that every agent feels that they are rewarded for their part in the transaction. Working as a buyer’s agent I have received as little as 1% out of the 6% total commission. This left a distinct impression on me, and it made me think the next time I went to show another listing by that particular agent. A buyer’s agent showing my listings automatically knows that they will receive half of the total commission.

Q: How do you think of all those things to write in your descriptions?
A: I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to live out of the country for an extended time. In Ecuador I worked for a non-profit called Los Ninos de la Calle (The Children of the Streets). The program benefited homeless children, my position was to recruit businesses to participate and donate goods to the organization. Later I studied at the University of Seville in Spain focusing my research on the cultural dimensions of public and private space with an emphasis on space usage. These experiences have enabled be to understand how people interact with their home in a different way. I believe that you have to get outside of the traditional paradigms in order to look back and describe what you see in a meaningful way.

Q: If your website works so well, why don’t all agents have website’s that look like this?
A: Good question, that’s kind of like asking why don’t all television commercials look as good as they do during the Super bowl. Creating a custom website with quality content that is unique to each listing takes an extraordinary amount of time, effort and money. Getting my clients listings to look their best can involve multiple photo shoots, aerial photography, GIS mapping and of course a considerable amount of time writing and editing. It would be far easier for me to just stick the sign in the yard and wait for the phone to ring, but I’m not comfortable with that, I’ve never had a passive approach to getting what I want.  

Q: If I list with you will my home look like these?
A: Yes, I believe that I owe it to my clients to do everything I can to sell their property. Each listing deserves proper representation and will receive the full benefit of my skills.

Q: What is the most common mistake sellers make when selecting an agent?
A: You should only talk about price after you have picked which agent you would like to work with. Sellers are obviously more comfortable listing with agents who tell them a price they want to believe even if it isn’t realistic or attainable. Listing agents know this and unfortunately ‘pricing’ is still the easiest way for an agent to get a listing.

Additional tips and ideas about recruiting out-of-state buyers can be found here: www.bryanshort.com/page.php

Bryan Short can be reached at 208-691-5245 or HomeSeller@BryanShort.com