The company you choose matters!

Real estate companies don’t all sell homes the same way. Their close rates differ because of that. I’m defining close rate as the percentage of a company’s listings they actually get sold. So who you choose matters.

It’s about knowledge, not name recognition. In general the big companies are mediocre. Some of the smaller companies are a lot better and some are a lot worse.

Below are Close Rates of established companies — the percentage of various companies’ normal listings (not short sales or foreclosures) they actually got sold since 1/10/2007 (the date I started doing things differently) in Hillsborough County. Because it’s a percentage, the size of the company doesn’t matter. Close Rates are calculated (Sold/Listed) using the following MLS specs:

Property Type is ‘Residential’
Status is one of ‘Canceled (WDN-U)’, ‘Withdrawn Conditional’, ‘Sold’, ‘Expired’
Special Sale Provision(s) is not one of ‘Auction’, ‘Bank Owned/REO’, ‘Short Sale’
County is Hillsborough
Listing Contract Date is 01/10/2007–12/31/2024

These are companies that have been around as long as we have. We can run the numbers on any company you’d like — just ask!

In residential real estate marketing doesn’t matter because most sales happen when the Realtor from one company sells their Buyer the listing of a Realtor from another company. Usually they don’t know each other. The listings are all in the same database — MLS. It has nothing to do with web sites. I don’t even use a web site any more. And getting the price right is the most important part. If it’s too high no one will look at it. If it’s too low you’ll have multiple offers and you’ll have to say no to a lot of people.

I appraise every house before we put it on the market — Price it Right and You’re Done! You pay the appraisal fee ($590 and up) up front. I take it off the commission when we sell it. You have skin in the game and we have a good number to base pricing on. If you price too low, you’ll have many showings and offers. It’s a lot of extra hassle, plus you have to say “No” to a lot of Buyers who have their hopes up. I like to price it a little higher that the appraised value (within 5%). That keeps the traffic and number of offers down.

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