For Sellers
Selling real estate in the Dallas area
Pay ONLY for services received
Our listing fee is 1% of the sales price plus a $250 transaction fee (min. of $1000 applies), payable at closing. If there is a "buyer agent" involved (from another agency) ,then you pay 3% to that agent, for a total of 4% commission. Approximately 30% of our transactions are made without another agent involved, which means that you pay only 1%! If you buy your next home through us, we will REFUND 1% of the lesser amount of the two transactions which means we could sell your home for FREE! We also offer "buyer rebates" if you are not currently listed with us.
As much as agents try to baffle you with smoke and mirrors, their "scoreboard" (a comprehensive list of their recent sold homes) is all that really matters! A red flag should go up if an agent cannot show at least 100+ "Solds" per year, for the last several years. If that is the case, then they are either not very effective at marketing listed homes, or they are most likely a "buyer's agent" who only occasionally lists homes. Why take a chance with an agent who is "part-time" or a "free taxi service"?
At Central Realty, we don't do "tea parties" or other things that only entertain non-producing Realtors. Here are some of the things we have done and will continue to do for you:
* We have now saved over $6.4 million in seller commissions!
* Use technologically advanced marketing and communication methods
* Strong negotiating skills
* Member- National Association of Realtors, "ZERO" Complaints!!
* Ranked #8 out of 8300 metroplex agents in SALES
* Over 97% of our listings SOLD
* SOLDS average 98.99% of list price
* 2 Agent team...someone ALWAYS available
* NTREIS Multiple Listing Service (DFW Metro Area)
* Member BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU, "ZERO" Complaints!!
* Your home on over 350 web sites/links!
* Top 1% of HOMEGAIN agents in UNITED STATES !!!
* NO BROKER HAS BETTER RESULTS- and we LOVE to PROVE IT
Marketing your home - What works best
The two primary factors that determine if and when your home will sell are exposure and price.
Exposure that counts is exposure that reaches buyers who are the most willing, ready, and able to buy. Exposure to people who are not in the market or cannot afford to buy is meaningless.
Setting the right price is crucial because under-pricing is just like giving money away, while over-pricing is simply a waste of time. After all, nobody buys over-priced homes.
The best possible exposure is MLS and the corresponding website, Realtor.com. This is where the vast majority of buyers are looking for homes, and where the buyers are the most ready, willing, and able to buy. MLS and Realtor.com ARE the real estate market.
All homes available for sale on MLS and Realtor.com
All "For-Sale-By-Owner" homes for sale, including all listings from all FSBO websites combined.
Realtor.com
Realtor.com allows the general public access to see all the MLS listings. It has revolutionized the home search process, because homebuyers are no longer at the mercy of Realtors to see what homes are available on MLS. Ninety percent of all homes for sale nationwide are on Realtor.com because MLS is ninety percent of the market.
Buyers use Realtor.com because it has the best selection, it's easy to use, and it has lots of other useful information, too. For example: Go to Realtor.com, enter your search parameters, and pick any listing. Click on "See listing details", then scroll down and select "Get neighborhood information". Click on some of the other options to see all the information available. You can get everything from the average prices and ages of homes in the neighborhood to crime statistics and average SAT scores of students enrolled at the local high school.
Online shoppers
The internet has become the primary search tool for most homebuyers today, and more than half of them use Realtor.com. Of all online shoppers, 98% use MLS information websites, predominantly Realtor.com
84% Search primarily on Realtor.com
14% Search primarily on other MLS listing websites2% Search primarily on non-MLS websites, such as FSBO websites
Realtor.com's dominance in the market makes it an essential ingredient of any home marketing campaign.
74% Real estate agents and MLS information websites, primarily Realtor.com
10% Yard signs
8% Newspaper ads
3% Friends & Relatives
5% Other
Comparison of Marketing Alternatives
MLS & Realtor.com
The majority of buyers still use real estate agents when buying a home, and 99.99% of all real estate agents use MLS. But today, more than half of all buyers are finding houses on Realtor.com and telling their agents about them, instead of the agent solely making selections from MLS. The agent then shows the buyer the houses that the buyer has selected. The bottom line is that, whether a buyer comes to look at your house because his agent found it on MLS or because the buyer found it on Realtor.com, it is still the result of an MLS listing, and you must have an MLS listing to be on Realtor.com.
Yard Signs
A simple sign on the front lawn is a cheap and effective advertising tool, and should be part of any home marketing plan. If you have time and are patient enough, you can, eventually, sell your home by doing nothing more than putting a sign in the yard. The average time period for a house to sell using only a yard sign is 6-9 months and will vary based on the amount of traffic on the street and the price of the home.
Newspaper ads
Newspaper ads can get expensive, and sellers who are not interested in owner financing will have to weed out unqualified buyers. The majority of homes sold with newspaper ads are by professional investors. Newspaper classified ad columns tend to be filled with investor ads with headings like "$0 down", "Owner financing", "Lease Option", "Bad credit ok", "$3000 down, $900/mo.", etc. Investors typically inflate the home prices and give the buyer/tenant (who can't qualify for a loan) a lease option. Credit challenged buyers gravitate towards newspapers because of the prevalence of these kinds of ads, and because they know they would be expected to qualify for a loan if they dealt in the MLS/Realtor.com market.
Open house
The value of holding an open house is vastly over-rated. People who go to open houses are typically just looking, and any serious lookers would have seen and called the phone number on the yard sign anyway. Realtors like to hold open houses because they have a chance to meet prospective buyers (who may be in the market at some point in the future) and prospective sellers from the neighborhood (who are planning to put their house on the market). Holding an open house is also a great way for Realtors to give their clients the impression that they are actively marketing the home when they are really just promoting their own business.
Free Real Estate Magazines
Commonly found on the racks of supermarket and convenience stores, these publications exist to either promote a real estate company or sell advertising. They contain very little useful information for buyers, and, due to the time lag between printing to actually being picked up and read (minimum 6 weeks), the listings are already out of date before they are ever seen.
FSBO Websites
For-Sale-By-Owner websites get an insignificant amount of traffic from buyers. Buyers who do take a look get quickly discouraged by the limited selection and the lack of a response from sellers when they try to make contact. Many of the ads are outdated and the homes are off the market, so sellers often don't respond.
Miscellaneous
There are various things Realtors will tell potential clients to get a listing. Some of these things sound good, but they accomplish nothing more than promoting the real estate company. Example: "We'll send out 300 mail pieces to all the homes in your neighborhood!" This is a way for the real estate company to advertise their company and generate listings. Neighbors are more likely to become sellers than buyers. Plus, if a neighbor or somebody they knew were interested in buying your home, the yard sign would have already grabbed their attention.
Another unproductive method some agents like to tell their clients about (as though it had value) is mass emails to other agents informing them of a house for sale. Agents have access to the MLS and don't need to be spammed with such information. To most agents, it's just an annoyance. The first thing the typical agent does when checking emails is to delete the "House for sale" spam emails from other agents.
