Comparative Market Analysis

Paramount to all of the meaningful counsel that your sales associate will provide to you is the setting of a price for your property. To do this thoughtfully, a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) will be prepared for you, which will take into account a number of factors:

• Recently sold properties in your area, including pricing and the length of time they were on the market
• Current listings that are competitive to your property, and what advantages/disadvantages they may have
• Pricing trends — an analysis of price adjustment activity on both current listings and recent sales
• Key attributes of your property, such as square footage, lot size, special features, and overall condition

By analyzing the current state of the market, and how your property measures against it, a fair and realistic price can be determined that will garner the highest reasonable price in an efficient period of time. When developing a pricing strategy, it is important to be mindful that overpricing a property can be a serious misstep. If a property is perceived by the market as being unrealistically priced, it will likely sit for a long period of time with little to no activity. Eventually, in order to create a renewed sense of interest, the price will need to be adjusted down — often below the level where initial interest would have been greatest. Careful market analysis helps to avoid such pricing pitfalls and facilitates the efficient marketing of your property.

Your sales associate will also keep you informed of market conditions once your property is listed, helping you to keep current with any fluctuations and changes.

Seller Disclosures

At the time that you list your home for sale, a detailed disclosure statement will be prepared, identifying such things as prior improvements, repairs, renovations, and other potential concerns. While this can feel somewhat challenging, the disclosure statement is actually intended to create trust with potential buyers and avoid misunderstandings.

Showing Your Property At Its Best

First impressions, as the saying goes, last forever. It is vital, then, to make sure that everything possible has been done to enhance the qualities of your home before it is shown to prospective buyers. Depending on its condition, this may require more or less work ... in any case, you can be certain that it will prove beneficial.

Here is a list of common things to consider that help potential buyers to visualize themselves in your home — your sales associate will develop a list specific to your property:

Exterior

• Keep driveways and walkways clean and free of clutter, and clear from snow and ice if necessary
• Lawns and landscaping should be trimmed and groomed regularly
• Pay particular attention to the front door, repainting or staining if needed
• Clean the exteriors of glass doors
• Touch-up or repaint exterior trim and siding where necessary
• Check fences for loose posts and hardware

Interior - General

• Clean all windows, paying particular attention to those with views
• Keep window treatments and shades open as much as possible
• Check light bulbs — use the highest possible safe wattage in each fixture
• Have carpets cleaned and wood floors polished
• Remove excess furniture (place in storage if need be)
• Carefully clean any pet stains — remove odors as thoroughly as possible
• Make sure that all beds are made
• Clear children's bedrooms of clutter and loose toys
• Organize and clean closets
• Paint rooms and hallways in bright, neutral colors
• Touch-up or repaint trim as needed
• Organize garages and basements
• Fix little things — loose hinges and doorknobs, torn screens, cracked windows, leaky faucets

Interior - Kitchen and Bathrooms

• Remove magnets and pictures from the refrigerator
• Clear kitchen counter tops of clutter
• Clean kitchen appliances thoroughly inside and out
• Clean and organize cabinets
• Check and repair caulking around bathtubs, showers, sinks, tile
• Clean and polish bathroom fixtures

Attracting Buyers To Your Home

The foundation of our ability to attract a large, qualified audience is our offering of comprehensive homeownership services — Buying, Selling, Mortgage, Title & Closing, Relocation, and Home Warranty. By presenting this breadth of service offering to potential home buyers, we enhance the power of our brand for our home seller clientele; experience has proven to us that the stronger our brand is, the greater the intrinsic value it brings to our clients' homes, as it distinguishes them from others in the market.

It is important, then, that we have in place a brand strategy that creates awareness and equity. We also need to drive consumers to our websites, as this is the preferred place for them to gather information. By utilizing a variety of mediums — television, direct mail, magazines, email marketing — on regional and national levels, we can accomplish both simultaneously.

The advent of the internet has had a profound effect on the processes of selling and buying real estate. Newspapers, once the powerhouse of real estate advertising, have become far less important today, and have but a small percentage of the impact they once enjoyed. Today, it is not to newspapers but to the internet that people first turn to for information.

As this shift has become widespread, the demand for robust websites that are rich with useful data and powerful tools has grown, creating an open environment where detailed information about properties for sale is shared with and accessible to anyone. We believe that this progression is a positive influence on the market. Greater access to information creates a more informed client for us, with whom we are capable of having a deeper, more valuable relationship.

Our website provides a comprehensive suite of online tools, including mortgage calculators, automated email notifications to buyers of new listings and open houses, as well as wireless features for cell phones. It also allows prospective buyers to search and analyze every property we have listed for sale, as well as all MLS-listed properties. Each listing shown on our sites includes a detailed description and an array of photographs — together, they provide the user with a thorough understanding of the property.

A meaningful online presence, though vitally important, is but one of a group of advertising and marketing tools that, in combination, help us to reach the broadest audience of prospective buyers. More and more, the traditional role of the newspaper in real estate advertising is being overtaken by a variety of other, more popular mediums. Some of these have a very direct relationship to an individual listing, while others are less tangible, speaking to the buyer audience with larger, more 'big-picture' messaging — all are indispensable.

Tools We Use To Market Your Home

Local

• Direct Mail
• Email Marketing
• Broker Open Houses
• Consumer Open Houses
• Yard Signs

Regional

• Company Homes Catalog
• Direct Mail
• Email Marketing
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Television
• Wall Street Journal

National

• DuPont Registry
• Luxury Homes Report
• Magazines
• Online Advertising
• Realtor.com
• Television

Relationships We Leverage To Market Your Home

Local

• Sales Associate Contact Base
• Community Networking
• Local MLS Brokers

Regional

• GMAC Franchises
• Sister GMAC Company Owned Real Estate Divisions
• Regional MLS Brokers

National & International

• GMAC Franchises
• Sister GMAC Company Owned Real Estate Divisions
• GMAC Relocation Services

© 2008 GMAC Home Services
Site Map | For Our Associates | About Kinlin Grover | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
Cape Cod Real Estate | Links | Real Estate Offices
Equal Housing Opportunity, Equal Lending Opportunity