COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA REALTOR

Open House Tips

2010-08-27T11:01:00.000-07:00

Tips for holding an open house and talking with potential buyers.

If you're selling your house, an open house is a great way to increase its visibility and bring in people who might not have made an appointment for a personal visit. Your real estate agent, assuming you have one, should take care of many of the tasks described below. In fact, your real estate agent will probably suggest that you spend the open house hours away from home. Whether you stay for the open house or not, however, here are some important ways that you can help.

1. Hire a babysitter or dog-walker. Even if you plan to stay home during the open house, your children and pets should not. Children may be underfoot or blurt out something that you'd rather a prospective buyer not hear. Arrange for them to visit a friend or relative during open house times. And although your pets would probably charm some visitors, they might also scare some or cause allergies. Worse yet, pets might escape through doors and windows that visitors leave ajar. Best to find a friend or a dog-walker to take them for a few hours.

2. Advise your immediate neighbors (ideally, a few days in advance). They'll no doubt appreciate knowing that a herd of cars and people are about to fill your street. Better yet, you can invite them to the open house. More visitors adds an air of excitement. Besides, if your neighbors like what they see, they may pass the word to friends whom they'd always wished lived near them.

3. Add final touches to make the house look its best. In preparation to sell, your house should already be cleared of extra clutter and clean as can be. Now look at it with an extra critical eye. Throw open the curtains, turn on lights, wipe off any recent dust or dirt, add a vase of flowers to a dark corner, and clear out any oversized furniture or extra knickknacks that scream of your own personality or make the space look cramped. Tidy up outside, too -- especially in the front, where potential buyers develop their first impressions.
For more tips on how to make your home look its best, see Preparing Your House for Sale.

4. Put out open house signs. (This advice is just for FSBO sellers -- those with real estate agents can count on them to take care of this task.) Putting up several signs -- six or so -- on the major streets and intersections near your house is crucial. Make sure the signs are visible and either point straight up a road leading directly to the house or lead people to another sign that does. (You don't want to send drivers on wild-goose chases, uncertain of where to go next.)

5. Prepare any customary or required paperwork. Again, your agent, if you have one, will take care of this, but you can make helpful suggestions. At most open houses, the agents will offer prospective buyers a flyer with attractive photos of the house plus a summary of its features and price. The main purpose of this is to remind them of the details when they get home (they're probably visiting several homes in one day). Custom in your area may also dictate having the results of a pest report or other disclosures or inspection results on hand. And you can always offer additional materials to get buyers excited, such as recent press coverage about restaurants, community events, or other great things about your immediate area.

6. Anticipate buyers' questions. Think about buyers' practical needs and probable questions, and advise your real estate agent of the answers before the open house. For example:
Estimate the walking or driving time to important locations like grocery stores, schools, or nearby commute train or bus stations. Buyers may want to know important facts about the house, too, like the last time the water heater was replaced or whether there's insulation in the attic. Make sure you or your real estate agent know these details.

Go through your home with a view toward its potential -- for example, adding a room in the basement, remodeling the bathroom to add a stall shower, enclosing the porch, or whatever might strike a buyer's fancy. (But never, if you have personal discussions with buyers, make any claims about the feasibility or cost of such improvements.)
Understand your legal obligation to disclose material facts about the property. This may mean having copies of pest or inspection reports ready. (For more information, see Required Disclosures When Selling Property.)

7. Be ready a little early. People will probably start arriving as soon as they see the first sign or as soon as the appointed hour strikes, whichever comes first. You don't want to keep your public waiting.

8. Have a sign-in sheet ready to accompany your property fact sheets. Remember, you are exchanging facts with your visitors. If they have the right to enter your house and learn things about it, you have a right to know who they are. A sign-in sheet will also help you evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising. Your real estate agent may prepare such a sheet for you. If not, you can prepare your own sheet, asking visitors to provide their:
name
address
phone number, and
how they learned about the house.

9. Be prepared for people who aren't serious buyers or worse. You're bound to attract some "lookie lous" who just go looking at houses for the fun of it when they have no intention of making a purchase. Then there are the "nosy nerds" -- neighbors who look at houses in their immediate neighborhood, in order to pat themselves on the back or console themselves concerning their own homes -- even though they have no intention of selling in the near future. The good news is, if they like your place, they may call a friend who's house hunting.

In the worst case, however, your house may be visited by people whose only interest is to pocket some silver, cash, keys, prescription medications, or your ATM card. Hide or lock away all valuables.
10. Be prepared to talk with potential buyers. If you'll be at home during the open house, make small talk about neutral subjects, such as family and neighborhood. Don't go overboard praising your house or its amenities. Too much praise may seem phony. Many people look at hundreds of homes; others check out houses as a hobby and don't ever really plan to buy one. If one person doesn't seem clearly interested, concentrate on someone who does.

11. Don't volunteer personal information that may be used against you. If you'll be personally interacting with buyers, don't tell them things like, "I'm hoping to get this sold in time to start my new job out-of-state," or "The great thing is, I bought this place 12 years ago for cheap." Instead, listen carefully to buyers' questions and comments, which will offer clues to their underlying interests. For example, if prospective buyers seem intent on verifying district boundaries of local schools, they obviously have or are planning to have children. Focus your discussion on the school district and other child-related attractions, such as a nearby park or day care center.

If you plan to sell your house in California without the assistance of a real estate agent, see For Sale by Owner in California, by California Real Estate Broker George Devine (Nolo), which gives you detailed information on things like how to list your house for sale, prepare your home, hold an open house, and negotiate with buyers. And for buyers in other states, Selling Your House in a Tough Market, by Ilona Bray and Alayna Schroeder, includes advice on open houses, working with and without an agent, and much more.

Market Recap for July From Troy Ott

2010-08-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

Columbia SC Homes for sale have taken quite a hit since the tax incentive ended April 30th, 2010. Smart Buyers however are taking full advantage of this lull to cheery pick the best bargains among Columbia SC homes. Our market is unique nationally with the lowest average home sales price in the nation, $134,000, couple this with a population center with of well over 250,000 people and a major university downtown with 30,000 under grads and the largest military training depot in the country and you have the recipe for one hell of a value market. One principle roadblock for Columbia SC home sales continues to be the inability of potential out of state buyers to sell their primary homes located in other markets where home sales have really suffered, like California, Arizona, Nevada, and the entire Northeast and Midwest area of our country. Columbia home sales will invariably increase as these out of town buyers are able to unload their primary homes and take full advantage with their remaining equity of the best buyer market in the country. Columbia homes are my speciality whether it is investment, primary, are secondary purchase you need an advocate who will take care of you throughout there entire process, making sure your interests are protected and served in full, look no further. Call or email, troy@troyott.com or visit me today at http://troyott.com

McWIFI...a sign of the times!

2010-08-11T13:36:00.003-07:00

The internet is now part of McDonald's. In over 11,500 restaurants, McD's has decided that WI-FI is an important decision in where people dine. The companies website explains it this way...

"With free Wi-Fi at more than 11,500 participating restaurants, customers can access the Internet using their laptops or PDAs at no charge. So grab a McCafé Latte and log on...it’s on us! Just one more thing to love about McDonald's."

To see if your local McDonalds is ready for you to drop by with lap top in hand...CLICK HERE.

Social Media, Facebook and Twitter, Today's Third Party Endorsements

2010-08-04T03:04:00.001-07:00

Third Party Endorsement
Solicited or unsolicited recommendation or testimonial from an entity (usually a customer or user) other than the manufacturer and seller of a product or service.

Many of us today are shocked over the growth of social media---Facebook, twitter and the like. Facebook, for example, has over 500 million users or more than the entire population of the US. How did something grow this big, this valuable, essentially overnight?

I think one of the main reasons at least from a marketing perspective is this idea of the "third party endorsement." Let's face it. We no longer live in a geographic community. We shop on Ebay and Amazon. We go online and buy things from literally continents away; its shipped in on UPS and we have it in our den all without leaving our house. That is our modern world.

So, from a business perspective and a customer perspective, the social media sites now fulfill the "old reputation void" that used to be present in small town life. Every businessman knows that a disparaging remark on your Facebook page or a negative response on Ebay can literally kill your business. So, we as clients now demand this "accountability loop" or third party endorsement to insure accountability from the businesses we deal with.

Is your business engaged in social media for its marketing efforts? If so, let me know how its working for you and whether is helping you build a better business. If you want more information, contact me, Todd Hunnicutt, at todd@realinternetsales.com.

Blackberry OS 7...The Apple of RIMS eye?

2010-08-03T03:42:00.000-07:00

Blackberry 7 operating system out today. Keep in mind that Blackberry (Research In Motion; $59.13) has 15million corporate subscribers whereas Apple runs about 1-1.2 million corporate accounts.

The early reviews are extremely positive on the operating system. With recent hiccups on the I-Phone 4, could this spell problems for Apple ($261.80)? Yep, I think so!

Internet Thought of the Day....THE 80% RULE

2010-07-29T07:33:00.001-07:00

Search is probably the single most important factor of your website. As a custom internet marketing firm, we see clients jump the track on trying to get the latest mapping or one more custom data return than their competitor; but as a practical matter, most of the time, it simply comes to being found first.

Realtors, an industry we work with a great deal, ought to have this sign posted somewhere in their office, over their refrigerator, on their bedpost. According to a recent survey, over 80% of the potential customers who use the internet to find a home (which by the way according to National Association of Realtors is OVER 90%) WILL STICK WITH THE FIRST SITE THEY GO TO (read that again). And out of this number, about 80% again will use the first agent they contact off of the web. So, the upshot is pretty simple. You had better be the FIRST WEBSITE someone sees...its the easy way to win.

Contact me, Todd Hunnicutt, at todd@realinternetsales.com to find out how.

Four Hour Work Week Realtor

2010-07-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys & Gals don't miss a great read with a lot of information that can be used in your business! This book can literally change your life (or at least your "life view")!

Control Your Brand Name, Searches and YOUR COMPETITORS

2010-07-27T11:17:00.001-07:00

Todays internet tip is control the use of your branding and name. In addition to this rule, a continuation if you would like, is to control the use and branding of your competitors. How big would it be for your business, if when the likely customer did a search for your competitor, your website came up?

Take charge of your search today and things like this can be accomplished. Call Todd Hunnicutt or email me at todd@realinternetsales.com to find out how!

Does your business own its search?

2010-06-17T12:52:00.001-07:00

Todays marketing tips centers on the Search Engine and URLS. BP recently purchased many domain names, and consequently caught a great deal of heat on the popular media, having to do with "GULF," "OIL SPILL", etc... Regardless of what you think of BPs other corporate communications (or lack thereof) during this period, the buying of URLs that "tell your message" (or almost as important, keep your competitors or adversaries from telling theirs) works, plain and simple.

Take the time today. Explore your business terms that are important to your brand and market perceptions---do you control these? Do you control the search terms if people head to GOOGLE or Bing and do a search?

If you need help in doing this, we can help. Define and dominate your search terms!

Todd Hunnicutt

Times have changed...

2009-02-21T16:37:00.000-08:00

As I watch CNBC and like programs, the "D" word is starting to be mentioned. I think in many ways it is at least a healthy sign that people are at least starting to see the scope of the issue. I think a great many more people will realize this over the coming weeks with the likely nationalization of Citicorp and Bank of America. I think the proverbial "writting is on the way." Regardless of the administrations statements about 'prefering a private banking system,' over the next few weeks, I think the scope of the problem will make it evident that the banks are flat broke. In addition, the moral hazard issues of people not paying their loans to get government deals will provide the final blows. I hope the resolution will come quickly as I think the biggest potential problem could be the 1930s type "run on the bank." I pray for calm and for good governmental leadership in this perilous time of our history. We are at a real cross road in our country's history.

Of Note from a Recent Realtor Meeting

2009-02-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Todd Hunnicutt here. Todd wants to tell you about a recent meeting with a major real estate firm in a major US market. Here is what I observed:

1. No Ideal of Social Marketing. I had an agent after the meeting come up and say, "Mr. Hunnicutt, what is FaceBook?" Now I am not poking fun here. But, the next evolution on the web is people using "confirmation loops" like FaceBook and my Space to confirm their online behavior. Keep this in mind...its important

2. Understand what a Blog is--but not working one. Again, a Blog will allow you to express more of your personal chemisty and thoughts. It helps define you...go to Blogger.com or somewhere like that and get started today.

If you encounter problems, contact me, Todd Hunnicutt at todd@realinternetsales.com. So Todd says, make these two decisions today---get on FaceBook and do a Blog. Class Dismissed!

New Years Thoughts for your Website

2009-02-08T15:26:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year when I get the call. The call always says "Todd Hunnicutt, What Can I do to increase my internet leads"? I have a few suggestions for all here:

1. Write some new content on your page--keep it fresh, new, short and relevent

2. Check some keyword buys at http://adwords.google.com. This is easy and Google will walk you through this. Like the stocks on the stockmarket, you can get a lot more bang for the buck right now

3. Ad some fresh pictures and tell your story in a new way!

This is Todd Hunnicutt...signing off and wishing everyone a happy New Year. For more information, contact me, Todd Hunnicutt at todd@realinternetsales.com