Thursday, June 19, 2014

Another Way To Bash The Competition

If you are looking to get your home sold, you need to keep in mind that other homes for sale in your area should be treated as competition. No one else does. Your agent wants to sell a house today, but doesn't care if it is yours or another of his/her listings. It's up to you.

I constantly remind sellers to keep this approach in mind. Be watching the news and your favorite online sources for ways to be able to bash the competition.

Here is another example. A web site, clearly with plenty of time on their hands, developed criteria and put together a list of "the most boring towns" in Illinois. (At least this is the one I came upon this morning.)

As expected, most people just laugh this off, and maybe tease someone they know who lives in one of these communities.

My point here is that if you are looking to sell your home, THIS is the type of story that could be promoted in your favor.


http://www.movoto.com/blog/top-ten/most-boring-places-in-illinois/


Suppose you live in a neighboring community and your home is for sale. And the community that you live in is NOT among those listed here.

If that is the case, you should be e-mailing and sending this story to everybody you can think of. You have no idea of how many potential buyers might be considering your home, and how your home could be up against a similar home in the "boring" community nearby.

Even if for a few moments, you can give them the chance to see your home in a more favorable light. Maybe you can point out that your home is in the "more exciting community of ......" and show the link.

Of course, if you don't live in a nearby Illinois community, this blog is still for you. You need to be on the lookout for any story that could give your home for sale an edge over other properties in the area. Yes, you!

Your real estate agent is NOT going to do this for you. Don't even bother with him/her. Why? Because they don't want to risk offending a current or potential future client by 'bashing' their community. That is understandable.

The point is that he/she also does not see these other homes as competition to yours, since he or she makes their living selling houses. Note that is plural. You have the much greater interest and urgency to get your home sold than they do.

Look for any and every edge you can!


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Using Business News Toward Selling Your Home

It's another example of why sellers with active listings, as well as realty agents, need to monitor the local business news and be ready for news items which could benefit their sale attempt.

A news story in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn got out today which has absolutely nothing to do with home sales. At least directly.

One of the avenues I point out to sellers and agents (and is discussed at length in my book) is about looking for ANY possible advantage toward getting your home sold.

This news story is about how this suburb is about to undergo a roughly 50% increase in energy costs beginning this August (less than 60 days away). The Village of Glen Ellyn did nothing wrong, by the way. It's just that city officials were not able to generate any bids lower for their next electricity contract, with the current one expiring on August 1st and a significant cost increase looming.

How does this help anyone selling a home in Glen Ellyn? Frankly, it doesn't.

However, if you (or your client) is looking to sell a home NEAR Glen Ellyn (and there a several suburbs within 10 minutes), this is what I refer to as "news you can use".

In all honesty, I have no idea if neighboring communities have already faced this large of a rate increase or are facing one later this year. But I don't see that as important. This story about Glen Ellyn facing the price increase is out TODAY.

Thus, if I am trying to sell a home nearby, I'm going to relay this news story to as many people as I can, especially any potential buyers. All you need to do is send out the link to the story:


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/suburbs/glen_ellyn/ct-aggregation-glen-ellyn-tl-612-20140610,0,679038.story

Of course, with a note saying that "If you are still considering Glen Ellyn, it's going to cost you even more to live there". You can do that without spending any time (or money) to investigate further. Your time is spent in gathering the e-mail addresses to send the story and your comment to. It is more important that you get this done within 24 hours, while the story is still fresh and current.

If you want to be more aggressive about it, you could investigate where your nearby community is on this matter. Maybe your local rate increase won't hit until next year. Perhaps your increase has already hit, and it costs less for electricity than it soon will in Glen Ellyn. You could find out all you can, and then use any and all favorable "facts" to your advantage. Even if you can't find anything to use to your advantage, you can put out this "news" story to others and be find that hardly anyone is going to take time to investigate this in detail like you may have.

Either way, mission accomplished. You have been able to smear the competition and do something to make your home look at bit more appealing, even if it is a few dollars per month.

You never know. A potential buyer could be considering your home up against one in Glen Ellyn, and now you give them a reason to doubt Glen Ellyn, even if for a few minutes.

Obviously, the majority of you do not live close to, nor are looking to sell a home, near Glen Ellyn IL at the moment.

My point is that if you are trying to sell your home right now, you should be checking the local business news on a regular basis. You could find your "Glen Ellyn" attack story at any moment. Make something negative about a neighboring community a positive for the potential sale of your home.

On the other hand, if and when there is positive news about your community, even if it has nothing to do with your home, point it out to others in this same way.

Don't forget that if you are looking to sell your home, you are selling against competition. Potential buyers are looking at a number of properties and using a number of factors. You need to think of your sales effort as if it is a political election. You want to get that "vote", and finding anything that casts your opponent(s) in a negative light is going to be used.

In the case of being near Glen Ellyn, every type of light will cost more there. Show that!