Barb Schlinker The Real Estate Voice

At the break you mentioned the average buyer searches over 12 different websites when they search for homes… why is that?1)      Yes, it's very true.  Buyers typically look at as many as a dozen or more websites because they are seeing different listings on different sites.  According to industry experts… national websites are NOT your best options…Let's start with my favorite…Zillow.a.      Buyers are very quick to figure out that Zillow has every address whether available or not on their site.  Zillow will not indicate that homes offered for sale - have accepted a contract usually meaning they are unavailable.b.      Pre-foreclosure sites – most homeowners facing foreclosure do not want to speak with anyone.  Although they could represent good deals, most owners in this situation are trying to work it out…all the way until it forecloses.  Typically these homes do not come available until the note holder (the bank that forecloses) re-sells them months later.c.       Agents that call themselves “are

Why Hedging an Offer in a Bidding War is a Bad IdeaQ.  What do you mean by Hedging an Offer?o   We cannot keep up with the inventory below $400,000o   Many agents who put in offers knowing they face a bidding war will use a tactic called an Escalation clause – §  I’ll pay $1000 over the highest offer up to X”§  The idea is that the strategy ‘saves’ the buyer money so they don’t have to pay the MAX price they are willing to pay.Q. Why these Hedge offers or you call Escalation Clauses are a bad ideao   Several reasons – let  me give an exampleo   It puts doubt into the seller’s mind that the buyer is willing to pay that priceo   Its contingent on the behavior of someone else’s offer – which the agents do not knowo   Often buyers will bid a peak price that is above what an appraiser would approve – causing potential contract failures when the appraisal comes in low.Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuye

Top Questions To Ask Before You Hire A Real Estate AgentQ.  What are some of the questions a home seller should ask when hiring an agent?o   Picking an agent is one of those issues that can cost you or save your thousands!o   The first question is:  What makes you different – why should I list my home with you?§  Our #1 answer is we have buyers…that would be another great question.§  Even though the market is heated up, an agent that uses their smart phone to take pictures could costs the sellers thousands!  Meadowland story…Q. What about marketing – is that a question a home seller should ask?o   Yes, absolutely.  If the answer is I put it in the MLS and hope another agent brings me a buyer – you should keep shopping.o   You’d be surprised to hear that most agents do the minimum, Stick it in the MLS and maybe pray for a sale.o   If that all they do then a home doesn’t need us!Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit www.BarbHa

How to Be 100% Prepared to Buy a Home FinanciallyQ.  How do Home Buyers Get Prepared to Buy a Home?o   Homes under $400,000 sell really fast and buyers often have to compete against another buyer to get home.o   #1 Hire the right agent – Jennifer’s story§  Agent should be scheduling all the appointments and taking the initiative to show homes §  Most agents just sent them a link to hope they ask to see homes.§  They should be looking daily.  Here is why:·        Market is hot – especially homes priced under $400,000· The Biggest complaint we hear from other agents buyers is ‘by the time I found out about it, it was already sold!”§  We have selling systems in place for our home sellers, so the buyers have about a week to schedule to see a home. Most agents put a home on the market, and submit the first offer comes in within a few days. Potentially leaving the best offer off the table because that buyer did not have time to get in to see it. Its great for the buyers and great for the sellers.  Galley storyQ. Wh

Best Ways to Prepare for a Home InspectionQ.  Why do home sellers need to concern themselves with home inspections?o   Sellers must know that in the state of CO inspectors do NOT have to be licensed or certified.  So there could be surprises. You do not want to find those things out in the midst of closing and moving.o   Inspectors check: roofs, furnaces, water heaters, included appliances, electrical, plumbing, sewer or septic and many times cosmetic stuff like paint and caulk.Q. Do You Find That Home Sellers Know all About the Condition of their Homes?o   Typically no!  The roof conditions is the most common surprise because people don’t go up on their roofs every day.o   Some other items include small electrical issues, sewer lines are a big one. Its not a common maintenance practice to have the sewer cleaned out or checked out with a sewer scope unless there are issues.  Both roofs and sewer repairs can be big ticket items.o   Recently met with home seller whose roof is 10 years old.  I referred them to o

Why Hire an Agent When You Buy New ConstructionQ.  When people go to buy new homes, should they have their own representation? o   There is nothing more exciting than building a new home.o   There are a lot of great builders in town.o   But you do not want to be denied representationo   Title Insurance Story Q. What Have you Experienced that Cause Concern for not using an agent?o   Once I bought a new home and at the next big snow storm my tenants informed me it was snowing in the unfinished. Closed basement. There was a facia board missing at the top of the foundation wall. The builder fixed it fortunately.o   Mostly they view the buyers as their clients and often leave the agents out of things like the interim inspection walks and color selection. There are some agents that do not care and just want to get a contract and collect their check when the house is done. That is not our team.o   The best part for buyers, though it taking  your own representation does NOT cost the buyer more money. We are here talk

Low Inventory vs PricingQ.  Does a low inventory market indicate home sellers should price their homes higher? o   Some do and it works but in most cases it does not.o   Pricing is a fine art and a very important decisiono   A majority of buyers are getting financing so home sellers should price their home so that an appraiser will concur its worth what the buyer is willing to pay.o   We’ve had quite a few issues lately with appraisals coming in lower than the sales price.§  Viero story Q. How Does a Home Seller Make a Good Decision on Pricing?o   When you sit down with your agent you should consider similar sales in the areao   An appraiser will use the same type of building (ranch to a ranch), similar square footage w/in 20%, sold in past year.  If you cannot find any we have to go to a different similar neighborhood§  Maitland storyo   One thing out of a seller’s control is an agent’s selection of recent sales.§  We recently sold a home in which another agent suggested a price $35,000 less than what my tea

Why We Market our Listings on Social Media and other sitesQ.  Why do you market your listings on Social Media and other websites?o   There have been many times when people have told me…we were not planning on buying a home but we saw it online and HAD to have it.o   Scope of social media:§  Facebook 244 million in us§  Linked in 65 Million in us avg income $108K§  Twitter 48 Million in us§  Instagram 119 Million in us§  Pinterest 250 million per MONTH in us§  YouTube – 2.1 Billion per month of which US is 15% = 300 million users per month – my favorite§  Search Barb Schlinker or Colorado Barb and I have created over 175 videos in the past yearQ. Why is Social Media and You Tube a Great Place for People that Market?o   We market our listingso   We provide real estate educationo   Drive traffic back to our website oro   Obtain inquiries about our listingso   Great way to attract buyersQ. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb

Why do Some Listings Expire in a Hot Sellers MarketQ.  Why do Some Listing Expire / Unsold in a Hot Sellers Market? o   Usually there are 3 main reasons§  Price§  Condition§  Marketingo   Price sellers controlo   Condition sellers controlo   Marketing agents controlQ. How Could Marketing affect a home seller?o   The #1 Reason is bad pictures – iphone picso   The #2 Reason is poor preparation for pictures – cluttero   The #3 Reason is lack of appropriate exposure§  Rex story Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.    Q. What happens if a listing expires / un sold? o   The big surprise for most home sellers is they and their family members get pounced on by desperate real estate agentso   There are websites out there which agents can track down phone numbers of them and all of their family memberso   They will knock on doors as well.o   We do not knock on doors or call peop

In this hot market. The average days from the time the home goes on the market to the time the home goes under contract is under 30 days. Yet not every home sells in under 30 days. I'm Barb Schlinker with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado and I help home sellers sell their homes fast and for the most amount of money. And at the end of this video I'll be sharing with you how to get a free special report on getting the price you want and need. So what are the reasons a home is not selling? Number 1, usually it means the price is too high. Number 2 or the home may not be properly marketed. Number 3, the home may not be properly exposed or there are some condition issues. If the reason is the home is priced too high, sellers should consider making a price adjustment sooner rather than later.And here's why. Buyers worry if a home sits on the market too long. They're concerned that there may be issues with the home and they could be reluctant to make an offer when a home sits on the mark

House Talk System and Hot List of Coming Soon HomesQ.  I see you have a Marketing System here called House Talk – what is that?o   This is a system exclusive to our team, that provides buyers information about homes 24/7.o   The typical behavior of a buyer is:§  See it online if they like what they see they drive by§  But they are NOT always ready to talk to a scary real estate sales person so…we give them info about the home 24/7§  They text a number and enter the ID specific to that home and they get all kinds of great information.  Including pictures descriptions, price, etc§  We can even market this on FacebookQ. Why Is it Important to Use this System?o   Not all buyers are ready to make calls.o   Younger generation doesn’t like making calls at allo   Because we give info 24/7 though ultimately we get 3 times as many calls.  Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty on the Real Estate Voice show, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.c

How Many People Are Involved with Selling a HouseQ.  You would not normally think a lot of people would be involved with selling a house how many are there? o   On average anywhere from 15 – 40 different people and trades need to be involved – for all you project managers out there – that is a big part of what we do.o   Starts with Home Sellers who need…§  Agents, Handymen, Carpet, Painters, Plumbers, HVAC folks, roofers, stagers, photographers. Our amazing in-house staff people, we have Virtual Assistants that do a lot of our online marketing, graphic designers, videographers, title companies, lenders, inspectors, closers, HOA service providers and so on.Q. How does your team bring them together?o   Many of these people, home sellers do not use very often, so many will rely on our recommendations of trusted vendors to get the different roles done.o   We carefully vet those contractors and tradesman and only recommend ones that do a good job for our clients.Q. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your H

Buyers for Your Home and How to Get Access to ThemQ.  We have all heard your slogan…Barb Has The Buyers…What does that mean? o   We know that it only takes 1 buyer to sell a home, howevero   The more buyers that are interested in your home drives up demand so we market to get buyers to call or register with uso   The most recent count is 22,308 buyers in our database, that have given us their contact info and are searching for homeso   In pretty much any price range we can find a large number of buyers that would fit almost any home Q. Why is having those buyers important?o   Once you authorize us to bring buyers through your home we will reach out to those buyers. They are the first to know your home is available ando   We make every effort to match our buyers to your homeo   Buyers want houses. The biggest frustration for buyers is that by the time they find out about homes they are already sold.o   The available inventory of home is down by almost 30% from 1 year ago. That means fewer homes on the market f

How Does a Seller Know to Make a Price ReductionQ.  How Does a Seller Know When its Time to Make a Price Reductiono   It depends – Seller Motivation and Timingo   Sellers must keep in mind: Buyers worry about homes sitting on the market too longo   I have seen instances where it was not price but bad marketingo   Generally, these are some good signs a price change is needed:§  No Showings§  A reasonable amount of showings and no offersQ. What is this market like and how does a seller know if they are off-base in their pricing?o   On Fire under $400K – Biggest issue is bidding up over where an appraiser agrees it worth that much…Alpine Storyo   Above $400K competition increases with price increase.§  Examples: Jan home from $300 - $400 K·        153 new on market in Jan, 318 sold·        Cannot keep up with Inventory§  Homes from 400K – 500K·        197 new on market in Jan, 108 sold..55% selling or about 2 months of inventory – still a sellers market§  Homes from 500K – 600K·        137 new on market in Jan,

Most people are shocked to find out that 83% of homeowners will not go back and use the same real estate agent that they did previously. There are many reasons for this, but the number one reason is poor communication, but we survey our clients to gouge their level of satisfaction and we find that 97% tell us they would use our services again and here's why. We're on a mission to raise over $15,000 to serve our veterans through USO, USA Cares, Operation Care Package and Fisher House. We serve our clients so we can serve those who serve us and the great freedom that we enjoy here in the U.S. We have a great team, great systems in place so that we never run out of time to deliver second mile service to our clients. You see, our goal is to make you a client for life and help them and their friends and family invest in real estate over the years. As a proud Navy Veteran, it's important to me to give back to those brave volunteers who serve us. To find out more, visit http://www.YourReferralsHelpVet

Many people decide to downsize their homes because the homes are too big, there's too much space to clean or they need to move closer to family or maybe enjoy those wonderful grandchildren. Yet the task of downsizing can be daunting. I'm Barb Schlinker, owner of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado and I specialize in helping home sellers sell their homes fast and for top dollar. This video is about the Top 5 Things to Help you Downsize and Declutter. Before I get started, at the end of this video, I'll be sharing with you how you can get a free guide of all the valuable tips that will help you downsize your home and declutter.Here are the top 5 tips. Number 1, have an exciting vision of your next home and establish a plan. Write down all the spaces that you're going to need in your next home. What are your must has? How many bedrooms do you need? How many baths do you need? What is the floor plan like? What is the location? Is it close to family? Do you have access to medical care, s

To get the MOST amount of money when you sell your home, you need an agent that can bring buyers to your home and command the most amount of money when it sells.  I'm Barb Schlinker with Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty and I help people sell their homes fast and for Top Dollar. Ask one of our happy clients, Jackie Parker. Because of our marketing, Jackie  had 45 buyers through her home the first hour it was on the market, she received 7 offers and we sold it for $11,600 over asking price. If you are looking for a team to sell your home for top dollar, call me at 719 602 6200 or visit http://www.BarbHasTheBuyers.comOffered by Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty Colorado

“How Often Do Appraisals Come in Low” Q.  What are some of the options a seller can do when an appraisal comes in lowo   Depends on when and how they get notifiedo   If the appraiser notifies the listing agent its low they will often provide an opportunity for the listing agent to support in the price.  It may or may not change the appraisers mind though.o   We typically meet the appraiser and provide them with the best substantiation of price we can and tell them about buyer demand like # of offers, where the offers came in.Q. Have you seen some appraisals update their price?o   Yes, however it is pretty rareo   For govt appraisal like VA it could take months to challenge the appraisalQ. We are here talking with Barb Schlinker of Your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty, you can reach Barb at 719 301 3900 or visit www.BarbHasTheBuyers.com.   Barb:  What are the options if an appraisal comes in low?·        Do nothing.  I’ve seen this happen if buyer was putting enough down it did not matter·        High demand prope