Tag Archives: MLS search site

It Takes a Team to Win a Super Bowl

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It takes a team to win a Super Bowl. This weekend America will tune in and watch the two best football teams square off in the Super Bowl. Fans will be rooting for their team.  Others will be watching for the commercials, and others just love a reason for a party.  Super Bowl weekend is one of the biggest party gatherings of the year.  There’s just something in it for everyone.

It Takes a Team to Win a Super Bowl

It Takes a Team to Win a Super Bowl

Winning a Super Bowl is a lot like a winning real estate transaction.  All football teams start pre-season, endure a grueling season, and the most successful teams at end of year have a chance to compete for the grand prize.  Sure, you can make some mistakes along the way.  You don’t need a perfect record during the season, but you do once the playoffs start.  One setback will end your season and its game over.

In real estate, the pre-season is interviewing and selecting agents if you’re a seller.  Having the perfect agent doesn’t matter if your goal is to win some and lose some.  If your goal is the grand prize, which is selling the home, then you can’t make mistakes during the playoffs.

If you’re a buyer, the pre-season is casually looking for homes on various online sites or visiting open houses just to see if anything catches your fancy.  You’re not ready yet, and that’s OK.

But then something happens to buyers and sellers, and they decide now is the time to take that leap.  Not the Lambeau leap, the real estate leap.

Have you ever noticed that certain football coaches tend to win more Super Bowl’s than others?  In the last 15 years it tends to be the same coaches over and over.  Have you also noticed most NFL coaches never win the Super Bowl and they get fired?  It’s true.  That’s because they can’t bring home the trophy.  They might have a winning season, but lose in the playoffs when it matters.  This get’s us back to the original goal.

Is your real estate goal to have fancy brochures and a high price so you can tell all your friends what your home is worth?  Or is it to actually sell?  Brochures are nice, and they don’t sell homes.

Systems Key to Victory

Hall of fame coaches have systems in place that work.  Winning coaches exhibit the same common traits.

  • Accountability
  • Team of professionals coaching the players
  • Evaluate talent at a high level
  • Call the right plays when the situation demands it
  • Make the tough calls.  Calls other coaches are sometimes afraid to make
  • Study their opponent
  • Do their homework
  • Preparation
  • Work long hours

This is the difference between obtaining the goal and settling for just looking good. All coaches are not the same.  Neither are real estate agents.  The traits of a good coach listed above sound a lot like the traits of a great Realtor.

All Agents Are Not the Same

Agents do not advertise the same.  Many don’t have the experience to get your home from pending to sold.  Some agents never make it out of pre-season because they price the home wrong to begin with. Agents sometimes recommend taking the wrong offer, or not waiting for a better more qualified offer.  These are all mistakes agents make that can cost a seller thousands.  It can even cost you the sale.  You might say these are rookie mistakes, but not always.  These could be seasoned agents that are decent.  They’re just not trained as well as a Super Bowl winning coach. They don’t have that level of experience.

Experience matters when hiring an agent, just like it does when hiring a coach.  If you’re a NFL general manager and your owner wants to win it all next year do you hire a coach like Bill Belichick or Tom Coughlin, or do you pay less money for a less experienced coach?  Remember, the big prize is the goal, and anything less is not acceptable.

The cost of losing exceeds the cost of winning.  Losing can be life changing.  So can winning.  If you’re looking for experienced, world class Realtors who have been the Top agents in Lee County many times, you should call the Ellis Team at Keller Williams.  You’ll be glad you did.

Ask for Sande or Brett. 239-489-4042 ext 4 or visit our MLS Search Site and find your dream home.  If you’re a seller, you can get market reports and home values for your home Free!  Now that’s a winning combination.  Enjoy your Super Bowl party!

And don’t forget, Spring Break is just around the corner.  We though you might enjoy watching the Cincinnati Firefighters put on their daily show courtesy of the News Press and the current Spring Break schedule for 2017.

Cincinnati Firefighters Show

College Spring Break Schedule

Feb 25

Michigan

March 4

Dayton

Ball State

Florida Gulf Coast University

John Carroll

Michigan State

Penn State

Queens

Stetson

Florida

Georgia

South Carolina

March 11

Florida Southwestern State College

Georgia State University

Indiana State

Indiana

Iowa

Iowa State

Ohio State

Purdue

Kentucky

Notre Dame

North Carolina

Minnesota

Valdosta State

March 18

University of Chicago

Miami of Ohio

Wisconsin

Ask to join our Ellis Team Seller’s Club.  Next week we’ll be releasing vital year end statistics for the 2016 Southwest Florida real estate market.  If you’re a buyer or seller, you’ll want this information before other buyers or sellers receive it.  We’ll email you the video when it’s done.

 

Agents React to Shift in Local Real Estate Market

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A few months ago we informed readers about a possible shift in the local SW Florida real estate market.  Agents were calling complaining that their buyers didn’t have a sense of urgency and just weren’t responding to seller’s counter offers. Today agents react to shift in local real estate market.

Times have been tough for agents lately.  Season is the time agents can make it up if the rest of their year has been flat, but this year things were different.  Our sellers did fine as we saw the changes coming and recommended strategies to get our client’s homes sold.

Agents who read this article or study the market the way we do also made changes, but many agents didn’t and are hurting today.  Some are leaving the business, while many more are getting into the business.

You might question if some are getting out why would others be getting in?  Truthfully, it’s happened before.  A whole new crop of newbie agents don’t know what’s happening in the market, and that’s a good thing.  It’s not good that they won’t know the market, but it’s good that they’re not listening to the doubters as you’d never make it in this business if you listened to negativity.

And besides, there’s always room for good people no matter what the market is doing.  This business isn’t easy.  Buyers and sellers need good quality agents to guide them, and these shifts in the market can help weed out some of those agents.  Agents who didn’t make it on their own will flock to teams, which is maybe where they should have been to begin with.  Teams spend lots of money generating leads.  Capturing today’s buyers and sellers isn’t free and newer agents just don’t have those resources to spend and stay in the business.

Agents React to Shift in Local Real Estate Market

Agents React to Shift in Local Real Estate Market March Home Sales
March 2016 Home Sales and Dollar Volume

 

It’s always been said that when prices rise sales naturally fall, and you typically make up for the slower sales with increased volume.  With fewer sales, this means some agents won’t be getting a piece of the pie, but the agents that do will have larger pieces.  But what if that wasn’t true either?

I pulled up unofficial statistics for March and noticed home sales were down 18.74% from last year.  I looked at total dollar volume and it’s down 25.65%, even more than the drop in sales.  This tells me prices have dropped, or sellers have dropped their prices.  Total dollar volume has dropped through a combination of fewer sales and lower prices.

I expect average prices to drop in March and quite possibly median prices too when numbers are released later this month.  I did not study median prices for purposes of this article.

The news is not all bad.  This doesn’t mean prices have fallen 25%.  It means that if a seller was listed too high their home didn’t sell.  Perhaps it was 5-10% too high.  In any event, the market rejected it.  If enough sellers are 5-10% too high, number of sales fall and so can sales volume.  If all the sellers out there reduced their price to where the market really is, number of sales might be the same or better.  Sales volume might be slightly lower because prices are 5-10% below last year, but you wouldn’t see declines of 25%

Not all real estate is lower.  Some prices are appreciating while some are taking a break from recent peaks.  It pays to hire an agent who has experience and can guide you through these market shifts.

And if you’re an agent who is struggling but feel you have what it takes to succeed in real estate, perhaps consider joining a team.  Yes, your splits may be different, but you’ll actually have business and profit because you have leads and guidance versus wallowing with few leads and little coaching.

If you’re a buyer or seller, you can search the market and do market research at our MLS Search Site. You can always call us at 239-489-4042 and one of our agents will be happy to guide you through the market.  And if you’re a good agent that needs some help, call us too.

Ellis Team Featured Listings

Important Interview Questions Before You Sign Any Listing Agreement

Neighborhood of the Week – Reflection Lakes

Virtual Meetings Solves the Puzzle with Sellers and Buyers

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There is no greater pleasure we receive than to go out to a home and meet with potential sellers.  We preview the home and look at ways of increasing its value while evaluating it’s sales potential.  And, we get to meet face to face with the seller and speak with them about what they’re trying to accomplish.  We’re not here to just sell homes, we solve puzzles.

Selling a home is like putting a puzzle together.  You must uncover all the pieces, put the corners together, and identify if there are any missing pieces.  Once you’ve laid the foundation, you can make decisions.  Once sellers open up about what the goals are and we identify the obstacles, we can begin solving the puzzle.

Virtual Meetings Solves the Puzzle with Sellers and Buyers
Video Meeting

Sometimes there are multiple decision makers, and they can’t always be in SW Florida at the same time, or at all.  We can still view the home and communicate over the phone, but it loses that face to face, and getting everyone on the same call can be challenging too.

The Ellis Team has added virtual meetings to help.  We can meet with up to 50 people at a time, and we can communicate face to face even if we’re thousands of miles away.  A few years ago we sold a home to a couple from Dubai.  We didn’t meet them until months after the closing, but we met face to face regularly.

Not only can we meet face to face, but we can share with the entire group listing comparables on screen, ways we will advertise their home, and go over all the details of the listing right on screen.  If they have questions we can cover those line by line.

Virtual Meetings Solves the Puzzle with Sellers and Buyers

Virtual Meetings Solves the Puzzle with Sellers and Buyers-Pricing
Pricing Recommendations

This is really helpful when we have spouses in two different locations.  Many times one is leery of signing all the documents without going over it with their spouse.  Now we can all go over everything together.  We can show them their net sheet so they know how much they’ll get at closing and they can ask questions.  We can even present multiple offers and let the sellers choose the best one.

Buyers love this service too.  An Ellis Team agent can go over contracts line by line.  We can also view listings together and talk about which ones they like or not.  They key word is together.  Better communication helps buyers and sellers make better decisions.

We have all the technology and equipment on our end.  All the buyer or seller needs is a computer, Internet connection and a web cam if they want us to see them.  If they’re missing the web cam, we can still show them everything on our screen and have a conversation.

Most laptops, tablets, and smart phones have web cams, so that’s not really an issue anymore.  Yes, a buyer or seller can use their tablet or smart phone with our virtual meeting technology.

While the technology is just one more example of how we help our clients stay one step ahead of the competition, it really just comes back to improving communication.  Real estate is a communication business, first and foremost.

Some get lost in the glamour of selling exotic homes or meeting famous people.  For us, it’s all about connecting with people and solving puzzles.  If technology can help us do that better, then we’re all for it.

It’s not just the first meeting that counts.  Listing a home is a process.  Sometimes it’s necessary to meet to go over marketing strategy, shifts in the marketplace, evaluate new listings that enter the market, new solds that affect appraisal, or talk about inspection issues. Virtual meeting technology means we can meet just about anywhere, anytime.  We don’t have to get everyone to the same location.  It makes us more efficient, which means our clients can react faster and make better decisions.

If you’re looking to buy or sell in SW Florida, put our team to the test.  We look forward to meeting you face to face, and that can be in person or online.  Don’t worry about the details, we’ll take care of that.  Call us at 239-489-4042 or visit our MLS Search Site

Good luck and Happy House Hunting!

Last week we highlighted two listings we felt stood out for value and included them in our Bargain Listings of the Week.  We are happy to report both sold last weekend.  Today we have another another listing that stands out!

Ellis Team Bargains of the Week

Luxury Waterfront Home seconds to the river
Seconds to the river and just minutes to work in Downtown Fort Myers

31 Lagoon St-5 Bedrooms, 3 Baths-Pool.  Waterfront-seconds to River-Private dock