IF YOU'RE PAYING MORE THAN 3.9% TO SELL YOUR HOME, YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH!

Real estate brokers collected $42 Billion last year in commissions. But it could've been much less if all sellers used a program similar to Homeowners Concept. It's a statement we can make with certainty having sold upwards of 23,000 properties since 1984.

Our program has been proven unequivocally, to be extremely successful and actually work better than paying a 6% commission. There have been hundreds of instances over the years that the lower commission made the difference in the sale of the home. The thousands in savings and with no administrative fees at closing have helped considerably. Couple the savings with all the expertise we bring to the table (only full time, seasoned, incredibly knowledgeable Realtors that sell 3 to 4 times more homes per year than the average agent) and one can see that paying more than our top of the line 3.9% program is a pure waste of someone's hard earned equity.

SHOULD ONE REMODEL BEFORE SELLING?

One of the biggest questions sellers ask agents when selling their home is: should I remodel my home before I sell?

You may have heard a number of stories about people who were able to command top dollar for their properties because they remodeled them. Although remodeling can, in fact, yield a higher asking price for your home, you must be careful when spending money on remodeling projects, as you may not always see sufficient return on your investment.
Generally a remodel will pay off but don’t assume that you will recoup all of your expenses, or even that you will see any of your investment returned to you. An experienced agent will be able to guide you on this (stick with experienced agents such as the ones employed by Homeowners Concept).
Below are some common mistakes to avoid when remodeling your home for sale:

• Remodeling to suit your tastes – When remodeling, think like a buyer. In other words, you are remodeling to suit them, not yourself. Don’t remodel with taste-specific components; instead, keep it simple and neutral, thereby attracting the largest audience of buyers.
• Overpricing yourself out of the area – You must pay very close attention to the high end of prices for your neighborhood. You will not be able to get any more money for your house, regardless of what improvements you have made if you go over the price ceiling. Before remodeling, look closely at recently sold properties and the updates they had. This will provide you with a good gauge when deciding which remodeling projects to undertake and how much to spend.
• Emphasize kitchen or bathroom(s) remodel – Bottom line: the most important rooms of a home in today’s market are the bathrooms and the kitchen. These rooms have been shown to have the biggest influence on the price of a home; so, if you're on a budget, consider spending your remodeling dollars to update these rooms. They will yield higher returns on investment, provided you don’t go overboard in your remodeling efforts.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS, the savings was our bonus. Testimonial

When we decided to sell our house in this somewhat challenging housing market we knew we were taking a risk, however, after our first meeting with Mary Skanavis from Homeowners Concept we knew we were going to have a knowledgeable and experienced professional by our side.

From the beginning Mary gave us straight-forward facts about our home sale. Unlike some of her competitors, she wasn’t telling us what we wanted to hear; she gave us a clear understanding of what our house was worth and how best to get the maximum price for the home. Together we came up with a “game plan” for how we were going to tackle our home sale. We also felt very comfortable after finding out that she is in the top 2% of agents as most of her coworkers are.

Like a good coach, Mary had almost daily correspondence with us informing us how showings went, how other houses in the market were doing and advice on how we could improve the success of selling our own home. Through that dedication we were able to sell our house remarkably fast and we sacrificed very little in the process. I cannot stress enough how thorough and involved Mary was, especially with answering all of our questions.

When it came time to buying our new house the decision to use Mary as our buying agent was an easy one.We ended up buying the house of our dreams and she negotiated the price saving us a substantial amount of money.

Working with Mary goes way beyond her expertise in the real estate industry. You can easily tell she enjoys her job and the challenges that come with it. She is very encouraging and charismatic and I would encourage anyone to work with her for buying or selling a home and the savings in commissions was a bonus.

Lisa and Mike G.

Sold in Wauwatosa/Bought in Pewaukee Using Homeowners Concept

THE ADVANTAGE OF AN EXPERIENCED AGENT!

About 15 months ago, our agent Kathy Spencer had done a market analysis on this home at 1133 Burr Oak in Waukesha. The market analysis had shown that this home would sell between $175 and $185k. Seller was not happy with the very extensive and realistic market analysis that our experienced agent Kathy did and had other Realtors out. In what usually happens in these cases, another agent either suggests a higher price to get the listing or is not competent enough to perform a proper market analysis (usually the case, as most agents sell less than 5 homes a year!).

Needless to say, the seller put the home on the market with Ogden at $209,900 with this listing:
 

$209,900
1133 Burr Oak Blvd
Waukesha, WI 53189-7201
Expired / 1230775  

Property did not sell and subsequently listed the home with RE/MAX and even relisted with another RE/MAX agent and with different MLS numbers. Here are the additional listings:

$199,950
1133 BURR OAK BLVD
Waukesha, WI 53189-7201
Expired / 1266057 

 

$197,900
1133 Burr Oak Blvd
Waukesha, WI 53189-7201
Expired / 1274490  

$188,900
1133 BURR OAK Blvd
Waukesha, WI 53189-7201
Expired / 1276916  

$187,950
1133 BURR OAK Blvd
Waukesha, WI 53189-7201
Expired / 1292071 

Frustrated but wise, the seller called back and listed with Kathy just a couple of months ago. Kathy priced the home at$180k, staged the home properly and the home sold within a week on the market!

$179,900
1133 Burr Oak Blvd
Waukesha, WI 53189-7201
Sold / 1302546 

Furthermore, the seller saved close to $4,000 in commissions and had no administrative fees paid at the closing. The expertise of Homeowners Concept agents is invaluable. Our agents sell considerably more homes per year (3 to 4 times more) and have been in real estate for many more years that the average agent (17 years versus 6).

29 YEARS OF SAVING GREATER MILWAUKEE SELLERS THOU$AND$ IN COMMISSIONS

A client recently commented of how impressed she was at the fact that we have been offering a reasonable alternative to the high 6% commission for such a length of time. Indeed, Homeowners Concept is celebrating its 29th year of operation in Metro-Milwaukee. Obviously, we are proud of our record, having sold tens of thousands of properties and saved well over $94 MM in commissions. That is $94 million dollars that Greater Milwaukee sellers are richer for not having to pay an average of 6% commission!

We have done this by providing more in marketing properties (covering ALL real estate websites, our own website with the most photos per home and our magazine, among others) and having highly skilled, full time, long term agents who are truly dedicated to real estate.

This is so different than the way traditional high commission real estate works. You see, the traditional 5, 6 or 7% commission office is like a revolving door. Agents enter and leave the business constantly (ever wonder why the larger offices have to continually hire and train new agents, even in down markets?). They count on each agent to at least attract a relative/friend or spend enough money of their own to attract a client outside their sphere of influence. It takes a lot of time and money for traditional agents to convince the consumer to pay the exorbitant commissions and to differentiate themselves from the competition. Sellers for the most part end up working with a mediocre agent and paying a hefty commission.

On the flip side, our agents are all full time, high volume with many years of experience before they even start at Homeowners Concept. We have become the company that not only saves the sellers thousands of dollars in commissions but provides exceptional real estate expertise. Our long term success speaks volumes.

UNLIKE SOME COMPANIES, OUR LISTINGS APPEAR ON EVERY WEBSITE!

Most sellers do not know that the largest real estate company in Southeastern WI excludes their listed properties from the top two real estate websites: Zillow and Trulia.

According to aggregate Web visit metrics compiled by Experian Marketing Services (formerly Experian Hitwise) as of 2/13, Zillow and Trulia continue to be the top destinations for real estate.

Inman News®

Rank	Website	Total visits	Visits share
1	Zillow	44.19 million	9.17%
2	Trulia	33.70 million	7.00%
3	Realtor.com	29.32 million	6.09%
4	Yahoo Homes	26.48 million	5.50%
5	FrontDoor Real Estate	26.14 million	5.43%
6	Homes.com	17.98 million	3.73%
7	MSN Real Estate	7.17 million	1.49%
8	Rent.com	7.12 million	1.48%
9	AOL Real Estate	6.56 million	1.36%
10	Apartment Guide	5.89 million	1.22%

The reason this local company and a few others nationwide have decided to not display their listings on the top websites is that they lose buyers to other agents who advertise alongside each property. By doing so though, they compromise their sellers' ability to get maximum exposure for their home and ultimately sell in a timely fashion and for the highest price. BOTTOM LINE, greed trumps ethics.

Home sellers think they're better off signing up with the largest local firm (as their TV commercials promote) but what they don't realize is that company size is irrelevant to the buyers. Latest data shows that almost 95% of the buyers find their eventual home on their own, primarily using any of the real estate sites above. So not having your home show up in the top 2 websites is definitely a disadvantage.

This is another example that Homeowners Concept's Full Service program at 3.9% provides more marketing than having to pay 6%.

STOP PAYING INFLATED COMMISSIONS!

We've proven beyond a shadow of doubt that using Homeowners Concept is an extremely successful way to sell a home and at the same time save on commissions (even our top tier of 3.9% saves a seller thousands of dollars on an average home). Just think about the stats for a minute: Homeowners Concept is celebrating its 29th year in business, we have sold upwards of 23,000 properties, saving sellers' close to $95MM in commissions. All that business was handled by top notch Realtors who've been in business much longer and do many more sales per year than the average agent. AND to top it off Homeowners Concept has maintained an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, unlike other large real estate companies charging 5 or 6%, which have not!

Unfortunately many sellers continue to waste money paying 5 or 6% commission all the while working with mediocre agents. The real estate industry has done an incredible job convincing people that paying more commission is necessary even though there is absolutely no data to support such claim. Would you buy or pay more for a home because the owner is paying more commission to an agent? Of course not. On any given day, hundreds of homes expire unsold in our local MLS that were on the market with any of the high commission companies. There is no shortage of unhappy sellers who were going to pay 6% and did not sell or sold at a much lower price than they were told. No reasonable person can argue that paying a high commission will give one an advantage over someone who's paying our 1.5% or 3.9% commission, considering the marketing and expertise we offer is at higher levels than the competition. Also our lower fee structure gives a seller flexibility in pricing his property better than the competition and selling quicker, if one so desires.

At the peak real estate years many sellers did not really care about the cost of the commission. When someone had a property bought years ago for $150,000 and they could get $350,000 for it, having to pay 6 or 7% was not as much of an issue (they were local companies charging as high as 8% in the mid part of this decade and YES people were paying that!). Nowadays though, the average seller has much less of a gain in the value of the house to play with, if any at all. So employing a company like Homeowners Concept makes so much more sense in today's market.

WHY A MORTGAGE LENDER IS BETTER THAN A BANK OR CREDIT UNION

The mortgage industry has seen major changes in the last few years. Underwriting standards have tightened up and seem to vary considerably between banks and other major lenders. As a result, when a buyer who is dealing with just one lender (be it a bank or a credit union) has no where else to turn should the underwriter of that institution come up with a rejection or conditions for the loan.

Mortgage brokers though, have a clear advantage in that they have multiple lenders/underwriters they can place the loan with. Interestingly, many times one can get 1/8 to 1/4% better rate with a mortgage broker due to the number of lenders competing. Homeowners Concept has had a great relationship with NetCentral Mortgage (NCM) for their extremely high reliability and smooth closings. It helps that Netcentral is located in the same building as our central office in Wauwatosa. If they EVER do not do what they promise, they will certainly hear it from all the Homeowners Concept agents and we do a lot of sales each year. In one recent case we had a buyer that was preapproved for 5% down with a bank but a few days before closing the underwriter demanded 20%. Buyer took the file away from the bank, placed it with NCM and was able to close with only 5% down. In another case the bank required the buyer to repair a major item on the property even though the buyer's downpayment was 30%! NCM got the loan approved with no issues.
Buyers, sellers and agents want a "close to 100%" probability that the loan will get approved and for the same rate and conditions as when it was originated. Our vast experience shows that mortgage brokers absolutely offer the best odds of getting a loan through and in a hassle free way. NetCentral Mortgage can be found at NetCentralMortgage.com

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SHORT SALES.

For a homeowner that owes more money than the home is worth and needs to sell now, short sale is the best route. In a “normal” sale, the seller has money left over after paying closing costs, proration of taxes, liens and the outstanding balance of any loans/mortgages against the property. This money is known as “net equity”. Unfortunately, there are a growing number of sellers who, due to a variety of reasons, find that they owe more on the property than it is currently worth. They are “upside down” or have “negative” equity.

There are two ways to handle “negative” equity. First, if the seller had the funds available, he could pay off the negative equity by bringing money to closing. This way the lender gets paid in full and there are no adverse consequences to the seller’s credit rating. The second way is with a “short sale”. The assumption here is that the seller does not have the funds to make up the deficiency. It is also often that a seller in this situation has stopped making payments on his mortgage(s) and is suffering from a degraded credit rating because of this. Foreclosure would be the end result, if neither of these options are available.

Foreclosure should be avoided as it is worse than a short sale for the seller and the lender. The short sale closing impacts the seller's credit much less than a foreclosure. FNMA guidelines require a minimum of 2 years before one becomes eligible for a mortgage with a short sale on their record. It is 5 years minimum with a foreclosure. For the lenders, selling a property short is better than foreclosure because of time and cost savings.
You might wonder why lenders are so eager to take such a huge discount, so you have to consider the nature of the banking business. Some lenders report that if the home goes into foreclosure by the time the home actually closes with the new buyer the lender will be lucky to have netted 50% of the original loan balance.

What‘s the bottom line from the lenders perspective? They are in the business of lending money, not owning homes. If they can accept a short sale offer and rid themselves of the bad loan AND net more versus the home going into foreclosure…they will do it every time. It‘s simply smart business for them.

There are a number of hoops however one has to jump through in order to get the short sale approved by the bank and ultimately close. For a successful short sale, it is necessary to employ a seasoned agent - as all the Homeowners Concept agents are. There is technical skill involved in knowing how to price the property, write the contract, and ultimately assemble and deliver a good “package,” providing all the information that the lender will need to make their decision. Each lender has a different “punch-list” of documents that they require. All of the agents at Homeowners Concept have been trained and are quite capable of short sales due to our high volume. There's definitely more work involved in a short sale but it is good for all: sellers, buyers and lenders.