Tag Archives: Ft Myers Beach

Does It Matter Which Agent I Hire to Sell My Home?

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Aren’t all agents the same?  Isn’t it just a matter of posting my home on MLS and someone will sell it? Does It Matter Which Agent I Hire to Sell My Home?

These are common questions sellers have.  The answer is choosing an average agent could cost you thousands, and choosing the wrong agent could cost you even more.  You can be legally responsible for the actions of your agent, so choosing an experienced knowledgeable agent can make the difference between selling and not selling, or even a lawsuit.

Does It Matter Which Agent I Hire to Sell My Home

All agents do not work the same.  In fact, some agents don’t even work much.  Some agents treat real estate as a business and don’t have any other jobs.  Their sole income is derived from working with buyers and sellers.  Some agents even invest money into their business by advertising more, sending out mailers, online advertising, etc.  Sure, sometimes the broker pays for this and splits up the services amongst all their agents, and sometimes the agent pays for all this.

Some agents attend seminars out of town to learn from top agents throughout the country, and others stay home and listen to agents in their office complain.  Education is an investment back into the business that can pay dividends for your clients.

Some agents take their broker provided advertising and that’s really all they do, while others spend their own money and really promote their listings.  Some agents hire assistants to help out with tasks that could bog a busy person down freeing their time up to close more sales while some agents spend time doing tasks that are not a productive use of their time.

Some agents get a better price for their sellers’ homes because they are better negotiators, and because they expose the home to more buyers.  Some agents over-price homes just to get the listing ensuring the property sells for a lower price later on versus a higher price sooner into the listing.  Sometimes the over-priced home doesn’t sell at all.

Often times we generate multiple buyers for a property.  Choosing the best offer usually takes an experienced agent to evaluate all the fine details of the offer and read into the situation.  Wisdom and experience are invaluable at this stage.  Less experienced agents many times accept the highest price without regards to whether the buyer can actually close and what pitfalls might be involved rather than asking questions and perhaps countering the stronger buyer.

When asked the following question “Can hiring the wrong agent cost a seller money?” I think it was Shakespeare who replied “Let me count the ways!”  OK, so maybe Shakespeare didn’t answer that question but if he did that answer would have made sense.

There is a big difference between the skills of agents, and there is a remarkable difference in the ways agents present homes to the public.  I remember sitting through a class taught to Realtors on how to convince sellers that advertising doesn’t sell homes.  Today I came across a website by a local broker and he was stating those same reasons on how advertising won’t sell your home, presumably because he doesn’t invest much in advertising.

We’re currently tracking dozens of sellers who listed with less experienced agents, sometimes at inflated prices, and their homes are still on the market.  They’re locked into listing agreements and they regret their choice.  The time to really ask questions is upfront, and make sure you ask probing questions to seek answers, not to hear what you want to hear.

Everyone likes to choose people based upon who makes them feel good, but in real estate feeling good is best defined at the closing table, not who lists the home at the highest price or tells you what you want to hear.

If you list your home and go to the bother of keeping it clean so people can march through your home at anytime wouldn’t it make sense to work with someone who can shorten that process and get you top dollar, not bottom dollar after the market has rejected your home because it was over-priced?

If you have a home to sell, give us a call.  We’ll give you the facts so you can decide, and we’ll get your home sold for top dollar!  Not Peter Pan money, but real money!

If you’re considering buying or selling in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Estero, Ft Myers Beach or anywhere in Lee County Florida, give us a call. 239-489-4042 or visit our website www.Topagent.com

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SW Florida Real Estate Market Changing? Let’s Analyze

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Is the SW Florida Real Estate Market Changing? Listing inventory rose slightly in Fort Myers and Cape Coral real estate markets in February from 6,192 single family homes on the market in January to 6,271 last month. Listing inventory typically peaks in January and declines slightly in February before Declining rapidly in March due to so many seasonal sales occurring. This year inventory actually rose in February and internal numbers we’re tracking in March show they’ve risen slightly again.

SW Florida real estate market single family home inventory

This may be a sign that sellers have been a little too ambitious pricing their home and buyers have backed off bidding up prices. Prices typically peak in season then level off or decline a little bit the rest of the year. This is because most of the higher priced sales occur when we have the most visitors, but if that trend is peaking it will be interesting to see where the market heads from here. New pending sales in February are down 10.6% from last year. New listings are up 5.4% over last year. So we have increasing inventory and declining pending sales in the height of season. We’ll be tracking March numbers very carefully. It’s still possible March and April could be great as Easter is late this year but the pending numbers we’re looking at don’t bear that out plus we see rising inventory.

SW Florida real estate market new pending sales and Cape Coral, Estero, Fort Myers Beach single family

SW Florida Real Estate Market Prices

Prices did rise in February up to a median price of $185,000 from $180,000 in January. Average prices rose from $301,035 in January to $311,536 Has the market peaked? Markets rarely stay constant. It’s possible the market is taking a break until it figures out where it wants to go. Properties in the $250,000 or less range are still flying off the market. Homes priced higher than $400,000 really need to make sure they’re priced competitively in the market as inventory begins to build the higher the price. Interest rates are rising again and it has put pressure on buyers. We just received some good news on flood insurance which will help the SW Florida real estate market compared to what we could have seen had the President not signed HR 3370 into law this week. New buyers will receive the same flood rates as existing homeowners do. Rates may still climb, but there are caps to how much and how fast, and before the new law was signed, there was no grandfather clause when a purchaser bought a property. This should provide some stability to costs for buyers which does affect their purchasing power. We’ve had some excellent weather down here and the weather up North has been dreadful. 2014 might be the year many will vacation down here and put plans into place to move here in the coming months. A few companies are also bringing jobs to SW Florida in the next few years. If the economy improves, our real estate market has more room to grow. If it doesn’t, our market may stagnate and remain at these levels. Like I said, the market rarely stands still. Forces affect the real estate market. Rising interest rates affect it negatively. Jobs and the economy do affect the market as well. We’re not sounding the alarm that we’re at risk of a downturn. We are saying we’re watching the numbers and we have a few things to keep our eye on going forward. The continued trend of rising prices may still occur, or it may subside and take a breather.  If your plans depend on one outcome or the other this is information that may be useful to you. Nobody knows where the market is going exactly, or exactly when it will get there. If you’ve got a property to sell, give us a call and we’ll guide you through the market. If you’re a buyer, it pays to know what areas are hot and where inventory is building. We have the information. Let it work for you. 239-489-4042 or search the MLS at www.swfloridamls.Topagent.com Good luck and Happy Selling/Buying! If you’re considering buying or selling in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Estero, Ft Myers Beach or anywhere in Lee County Florida, give us a call. 239-489-4042 or visit our website www.Topagent.com Search the MLS View Larger Map Feel free to view our Virtual Tours . Visit our Google+ Business Page  

SW Florida Real Estate Brokers Find Buyers in New Ways

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The beautiful thing about advertising is that you’re free to choose which venues work for you.  Some people complain that newspaper advertising is dead and costly, so they quit years ago.  Others complain that Yellow Pages are dead and costly, so they quit that too.  Many brokers are in a fight to get their website ranked as highly as possible to avoid paying advertising. SW Florida Real Estate Brokers Find Buyers in new ways.

SW Florida Real Estate Brokers Find Buyers

We believe getting your website ranked highly is fantastic, and we’ve strived for that for years with good results.  In fact, we’re changing over our website right now in hopes it will achieve even higher rankings.  Mostly we want it to work for the consumer.  You can check on the progress at www.Topagent.com 

Online Advertising Report for CNN USA Today New York Times Search MLS Fort Myers

While getting ranked is important, search engines are adding more paid content to their front page, effectively squeezing out the free search results.  There are fewer and fewer spots left on front pages eaten up by paid advertising.

For those that believe newspaper advertising is dead, we can look no further than 2 weeks ago.  I wrote an article entitled “Thinking of Selling” That weekend we had over 130 sellers sign in to our website to find out the value of their home.  That’s quite a response.

People believe we’re foolish to take out full page ads in the Yellow Pages.  Yet each week we receive calls from buyers and sellers from the Yellow Pages.  Some are visiting in hotel rooms.  Others still use it at home.  The real advantage may be the online component of Yellow Pages.  Dex is a large advertiser that gets ranked on the first page of Google and Bing.  If you’re an advertiser in print, you’re an advertiser online.

The same goes with the Newspaper.  You’re not just advertising here locally as Gannett covers many papers across the US.

Our advertising philosophy can best be described as “Cornering the Market.” We use print, TV, Internet, radio, mail outs, etc.

The Ellis Team advertises our listings online in sites like USA Today, CNN, Trulia, New York Times, Fox News, and many more.  Relying on search engines is great if you’re looking to pick up a few buyers here and there on the cheap, but if you really want to market your seller’s property it’s worth spending money to reach buyers everywhere.

Advertising isn’t expensive if it works.  The newspaper still works.  It costs money, but if you’re consistent and don’t try to cram too much into a small ad it’s effective.  Yellow Pages work.  Radio, TV, Internet; they all work.  The trick is learning what’s effective.  Certain ads work.  You can’t blame the advertising medium if you post a crappy ad and nobody calls.

So when you hear an agent say they don’t advertise in the newspaper, or Yellow Pages, or whatever because it costs too much, ask yourself this question “If I buy a cheap cup of coffee and it tastes bad, did I really save anything by buying cheap coffee?”

When you’re interviewing real estate agents you have to ask pointed questions about where your home will be advertised and how often.  It’s not rude.  It’s your home and you’re paying the commission.  If the commission includes advertising it pays to find out how much exposure your home will have versus other brokers.  Many sellers assume all agents are the same when in reality brokers advertise differently.  The brokers who advertise more may be better negotiators too because they’re spending more money on your home and they need to be.

If you have a home you’re considering selling in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Estero, Ft Myers Beach or anywhere in Lee County Florida, give us a call. 239-489-4042 or visit our website www.Topagent.com

Search the MLS

View Larger Map
Feel free to view our Virtual Tours .

Visit our Google+ Business Page

 

 

March 2009 Ellis Team SW Florida Real Estate Current Market Index

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Current Market Index-SW Florida Real Estate-March 2009
Current Market Index-SW Florida Real Estate-March 2009

The March 2009 Ellis Team SW Florida real estate Current Market Index covering Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, Estero, Ft Myers Beach, Sanibel and Captiva Islands, and Lehigh Acres Florida improved again as sales activity has really taken off in the past 6 months.  The Index now stands at 4.41 for Cape Coral and Fort Myers, and stands at 5.07 for the entire Lee County Florida.

Inventory levels countywide hade dropped to just slightly over 13,000 while pending sales have shot up to 2,567, and increase of 22.53% since last month.  The market is absorbing new inventory.  This 2009 season has been as good as predicted.  remember, the Current Market Index is a forward looking indicator, and home sales have been bearing that out each and every month as we’ve been reporting.

Cape Coral again leads the way.  The CMI numbers for Cape Coral are 3.45, the best in SW Florida.  Condo numbers were down to 10.90, down from 13.08 in February, another positive sign.  We do see some serious trouble on the horizon for the condo market in SW Florida we’ll be reporting on later.