On many of my listing presentations, people ask me how Assist-2-Sell has had so much success selling homes when, seemingly, many other agents and companies are struggling. I don't really know if that is true or perception, but we DO have a deliberate method to selling homes. Nothing about our approach is "hands off". Here are the keys to a successful home sale that we have learned over the last few months:

Use Price as a People Dam" - Your objective with your pricing should be to regulate the amount of buyers that cross your threshold - similar to the way a water dam regulates the flow of water. A price that is too high will result in a people flow that is too low. A price that is too low will result in a high volume of people coming to see you home. This will include people that are less qualified buyers and those who are not really serious about buying. Your home will probably sell very quickly, but you will leave money on the table. You want a steady flow of buyers of a certain number per week. Your agent should know what a good showing rate is.

Don't make the mistake of pricing your home for "negotiating room". The only real relationship between your asking price and your final selling price is that the asking price usually acts as the ceiling.

Don't price your house trying to recover everything you have spent on it. Listen, it is only a myth that everything you add to a house increases, or even maintains its value. Improvements to a house depreciate in value the same way everything else does. You should not expect to raise your house $20,000 over close comparables because you spent and extra $20,000 in improvements.

Market Aggressively - Sellers need to be involved to really understand how their homes are being marketed. This is the time to talk DETAILS. It really doesn't matter what company you use or what agent you use. Buyers don't shop for homes listed by XYZ realty or listed by Agent 123. But, there are certain marketing techniques that have PROVEN responses from buyers. Sellers need to ensure their homes are capitalizing from that research.

Know the Market - You have to watch the market each day and understand where you are positioned. The value of a home moves similar to the value of a stock. It is heavily influenced by the movement of other homes on the market. You need to have a real-time understanding of how competing houses are moving. You also need to know where your buyers are coming from. You need to know what your feedback is and how it relates to other information about your home.

This is the key to selling homes in this market. We find that when our sellers implement these principles consistently, the sell. When they don't, they sit.