SMART AND HAPPY SELLERS/BUYERS!

So excited for Leslie & Jeremy Staver! They sold their Waukesha house & saved almost $5,000 in commissions! Also they used their skilled Homeowners Concept agent to buy the house of their dreams & negotiate on their behalf in Pewaukee. Have fun at your new house Staver Family!
http://www.facebook.com/Homeowners-Concept-Realtors-87984633557/

HOW SHOULD ONE USE ZESTIMATE?

   Zestimate® or Guesstimate?

Zestimate…loved by home buyers because it gives them a dollar value on a property…hated by real estate agents because it’s so inaccurate.

When used properly, a Zestimate is a useful tool; when misused for things such as contract negotiations and pricing real estate, it causes problems. Let’s look at what a Zestimate is, and how it should be used.

What is a Zestimate?
This definition of Zestimate is from Zillow’s website:

“The Zestimate® home valuation is Zillow’s estimated market value, computed using a proprietary formula. It is not an appraisal. It is a starting point in determining a home’s value. The Zestimate is calculated from public and user submitted data; your real estate agent or appraiser physically inspects the home and takes special features, location, and market conditions into account. We encourage buyers, sellers, and homeowners to supplement Zillow’s information by doing other research such as:

• Getting a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent
• Getting an appraisal from a professional appraiser
• Visiting the house (whenever possible)”

Let’s break Zillow’s definition down and see what it tells us:

1. It is not an appraisal; it is a starting point. This statement is telling you that Zestimates are not meant to be accurate measures of value. Rather, Zestimates are meant to give you a ball-park idea of the value.
2. (It) is calculated from public data. This informs you that Zestimates pull data from county assessor’s records. These records are used to calculate your property taxes, and are notoriously inaccurate measures of market value. Depending on the municipality and when the last re-assessment was performed, many assessments can be way off (up or down) than the sales price. Most taxpayers want the assessed value as low as possible so they pay lower taxes.
3. Get a CMA from a High Volume real estate agent. Zillow says “your real estate agent physically inspects the home and takes special features, location, and market conditions into account.” Not to mention recent sales and homes currently on the market, and the home’s condition. Zillow can’t know a house has a remodeled kitchen or smells like cat pee.

How to Use Zestimates
Use Zestimates as a starting point to determine the general price point of a neighborhood. In other words, houses in the neighborhood are mostly $250,000 or $350,000. You can also use Zestimates to compare one house to another, which will tell you if a house is generally higher priced than others around it.

How NOT to Use Zestimates
The biggest misuses of Zestimates are negotiating the purchase price of a house you want to buy, and setting the price of a house you want to sell. For these tasks, you must get a market analysis from an experienced real estate agent (as all of Homeowners Concept agents are). You need an up-to-date, accurate number based on research conducted by a qualified Realtor who is knowledgeable about pricing, not a computer program using inaccurate data.

HOMES ARE SELLING VERY FAST - FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, WHY PAY 5% or 6% COMMISSION?

You're probably aware that homes are selling in a matter of days on the market and many homes are getting 2 or more offers and overbids. It's true, particularly in the suburbs. Our Realtors are busy and our expertise shows on how we handle the offers to maximize the price to the seller.

The question that comes to mind though is WHY do sellers continue to throw away thousands of dollars more in commissions by paying 5% or 6% AND most likely use a mediocre agent in the process?

People are not stupid but they have been BRAINWASHED to just pay 6% when programs like Homeowners Concept are EXCEPTIONALLY SUCCESSFUL (for 30+ years!). Some sellers used the slow market of the past as an excuse to pay more commission assuming that somehow paying more, those agents will "push" the home and make it more attractive to buyers. Before internet one could make that argument (although it was still a real stretch, given our great record) BUT NOW? REALLY?

These days, 96% of the buyers are on the web finding and previewing homes, especially on Zillow and Trulia (and WE'RE ON those sites unlike some 6% agencies). GONE are the days where agents would tell buyers which homes to look at. Now, buyers tell agents which properties they want to view or they go view them on their own. IT'S COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT which company a home is listed with or HOW MUCH commission the seller is paying. If the buyers like a home they'll use the agent they're working with or an agent from our company to write contracts, negotiate, etc. Agents have ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL which home a buyer buys. Think about it: If you are the buyer, do you care how much commission a seller is paying? Of course not! As long as there is a skilled agent in the mix to handle negotiations, contracts and closing, a buyer will go forward and purchase.

With as hot as the market is today, it's even more astonishing that some sellers choose to pay more commission AND get less of an experienced agent (our agents sell 4 TIMES more homes than the average agent and have many more years in business - 19 vs 6). At closing most sellers also pay hundreds of dollars in administrative fees which WE DO NOT charge. As some of our clients have expressed: "If only people knew and TOOK THE TIME to find out more, they will NEVER, EVER pay 5% or 6%".

YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT SAVING THOUSANDS? There are plenty of great charities (or churches) one could DONATE the thousands of dollars in savings. The charity and YOU will feel good about it for years to come!

UNLIKE MOST COMPANIES, WE DO NOT CHARGE ADMINISTRATIVE FEES!

The vast majority of real estate companies charge extra fees usually as an administrative fee at closing. Homeowners Concept DOES NOT charge any extra fees (including any upfront or end fees)! The administrative fee charged by high commission brokers can run as high as $600 at closing. THIS is above and beyond the 5% or 6% commission one pays.

Unfortunately, most sellers knowingly or unknowingly pay these extra fees on top of the commission. These sellers either do not know any better or they are in a frame of mind of paying over $13,000 in commission for the average priced home in Greater Milwaukee that they figure, what's a few hundred dollars more. It's a shame that high commission brokers have imposed or increased this additional fee over the last few years. But as long as sellers blindly keep paying these fees, brokers will continue charging them.

Bottom line: a few hundred dollars on top of the thousands ONE SAVES BY USING HOMEOWNERS CONCEPT adds up to a substantial amount of money. Furthermore, one not only saves thousands in commissions and hundreds of dollars in administrative fees but they ALSO get to work with one of our many highly skilled Realtors who are top selling in Metro Milwaukee (we only employ full time agents that sell at least 4 times as many homes per year as the average agent and have been in business for at least 5 years or longer!). In the current environment of fast sales we're in, there is no excuse for sellers to pay 5 or 6% commission and having to pay an administrative fee on top of that.