Selling-Expanded

Selling Home in Chicago: Process

Step One: Why are you selling?

Is this an optional move or a mandated one? The Rubicon with respect to delineating this question is whether you could remain in your home, rent it, or must cash out to make the required move.

It is important for you to answer this question because there is not simply “a” price for you property but a pricing continuum which is a derivative of time and marketing services. This nexus influencing price will be addressed in latter steps.

Step Two: Price as a derivative of time

Each neighborhood and property type within a neighborhood has a historic appreciation rate that that can be expressed in multiple segments of time: months, semi-annually, annually, five years, ten years, etc. There is no guarantee that a historic pattern will extend into the present or future. But to ignore consistent historical trends in favor of unsupported conjecture is not a wise surrogate. So we are forced logically to look cautiously at the past for present guidance. If you can wait six months, it is logical and historically accurate to conclude that you can price your property higher and receive a greater net dollar amount than if 30 days were your outside selling imperative.

Step Three: Defining a Price Range:

As stated in step 2 – there is not a single price for a property. If a person “must” sell in 30 days or less, there is one range. If a person has 90-120 days to sell, there is a second range. If a person has up to or beyond 180 days, there is a third. A property must be priced to reflect how long a seller has to expose it to the market.

Step Four: Talking To A Brokerage Firm

Before you talk to any brokerage firm, it is critical that you have a general idea what your property is worth. Information about pricing can be gleaned from an array of sources: sold prices reported in local newspapers; the assessor’s office; local realtors’ newsletters; neighbors; open houses. It is critical that you are informed so that you can evaluate the integrity and usefulness of the information a realtor presents to you.

In pricing your property – it is important that you see it through a buyer’s eyes. What a buyer is normally paying for is a specific property type, in a specific location, consisting of so many square feet in a certain condition. By far the location of the property is the most significant factor affecting its value. Neighborhoods rise in value – not individual properties. Next in pricing importance comes physical size and then condition. When a realtor presents his/her “comps”, properties similar to yours in the broad areas defined above, it is important to question him/her about the validity of these comps. Are the comps within the true boundaries of your neighborhood? Are they physically the same or quite similar in size? Are they finished equal to, inferior to, or superior to your home? Are there any ancillary factors, such as lot size, zoning, quality of construction, or terms and conditions of sale that should be factored into the equation to truly arrive at the proper pricing equation?

Step Five: How to Hire the Right Firm

During the initial brokerage interview, it is critical to get a written guarantee from the agent and his/her firm about the marketing system they will employ that is independently verifiable by you. The marketing services performed in a systematic repetitive fashion will strongly affect the price you eventually get for your property.

As noted before, price must be viewed as a continuum. Every property has at least two major prices: wholesale and retail. Wholesale represents what an investor would pay for your property in cash today. Retail is the price a buyer will pay if fully informed about and given adequate time to see the properties that could fulfill his/her needs.

It is important to remember that there is not one buyer for your property but potentially many. The brokerage firm you hire must get information about your property to as many of these potential buyers as quickly as possible. Within the retail price range there are at least three values: low, medium, and high fair market value. How many of these potential buyers a brokerage agency can reach with information about your property, along with time, will determine which one of these retail values you will receive.

Step Six: A to Z

Make absolutely certain that the brokerage firm you hire will direct the marketing of your home from initial pricing consultation through the implementation of a guaranteed, written step-by-step marketing system that is independently verifiable by you, through all showings, contract negotiations, affirmation of inspection, appraisal, and legal approvals, to confirmation of financing and clearance to close.

Why list with Century 21 S.G.R., Inc.?

  We Will Effect The Outcome You Want!

Objective 1: To obtain the highest possible price.
Objective 2: To sell in the shortest time period which is practicable.
Objective 3: To sell with the least amount of inconvenience and encounter no legal liability before or after the closing.

THE CONTOURS OF OUR MARKETING SYSTEM

“The Plan” : The Categorical Imperative.
(The unconditional command of conscience)

We keep our eyes on your goals:

• Our marketing system and the professional competence of our agents and managers will give you, the seller, the greatest chance to realize all three objectives.

• At the core of our system is the agent. He/She is the quarterback whose primary job is to effect the results you want by executing the S.G.R. marketing system on your behalf.

• Every one of our agents is among the best trained in the industry. It normally takes an S.G.R. agent two full years to achieve associate status with the firm because of its rigorous curriculum and production standards.

• The training program involves extensive classroom exercises and field activities. Full associate status is only attained after an agent has achieved the CRS, CRI, and ABR designations, or they may substitute the CRB or CCIM for one of the above, (These designations are fully explained in Appendix A). Less than three percent of all realtors in America have earned all three of these coveted designations.

• Not only do these designations indicate a level of professional training unsurpassed in the field, but they also manifest a level of production that places our associates within the top 10% of industry-wide production standards as a group.

• To earn the CRS designation an agent must have closed at least eight million in sales in any two consecutive year period. By contrast, The Chicago Association of Realtors in 2003 and 2004 recognized a member as being in the top 10% of its production rankings with a single year volume of three million or above. As a group, our associates easily meet and exceed CAR’s elite production status.

PRICE AS A DERIVATIVE OF SERVICES AND TIME

No one in advance knows where the buyer for a particular property will come from. All we know is from what sources they have come from in the past. This is why a full service plan must be executed.

Sources of Century 21 S.G.R.’s
Listing Sold: 2001-2004

By targeting all these buyer sources we effect the highest sales price in the shortest period of time by increasing demand. There is a strong positive historical correlation between buyers awareness of a property’s for sale status and the price it can and will demand in the market place. While the positive correlation coefficient is not a perfectly linear relationship as expressed by a +1, the correlation, when tested, is in excess of +7, which is high. (A correlation coefficient is a number from -1 to +1 that mathematically expresses the degree to which one phenomenon is linked to another).

• If you theorize that every property for sale has a potential pool of 100 buyers, it is the brokerage firm’s job to constantly get information about your property to this potential pool. That is why every marketing stratagem detailed in the Sources of Sales Chart must be employed, and not employed just one.
• Real Estate has a sixteen day marketing cycle where from the moment information about a property is disseminated and reaches a buyer it is largely forgotten in little over a fortnight. The marketing cycle must be repeated until sale and close to create top of the mind awareness in each potential buyer’s consciousness: those who may already be in the buyers’ pool and those who might be entering this pool a week or month later. To repeat this cycle to sale and close takes an enormous commitment of time, money, energy, perseverance, organization, skill, and dedication.
• The greater the number of potential buyers a brokerage firm can reach with information about a particular property, the greater is the likelihood that the price the seller will receive is top dollar fair market value as opposed to middle or lower fair market value or even something less.
• This simple statement is nothing more than a restatement of the law of supply and demand. The greater the demand, the greater the potential pool of buyers bidding on a property, the greater will be its price.
• Century 21 S.G.R., Inc. prides itself on obtaining the highest net dollar value of any firm in the industry by consistently executing all marketing services available to it on a sixteen day repetitive cycle.
• By doing so, invariably the end result is that the seller walks away with the highest net dollar amount at the closing. The extra dollars paid in commission are more than made up for by the higher price received.

Increased Demand Produced by Century 21 S.G.R., Inc. Comprehensive Marketing System Ineluctably Produces the Highest Possible Price Within Time Constraints Set By Seller, More Than Offsetting Any Commission Differential or Concession.

Net Dollars to Seller: The Categorical Imperative

Minimum Service Broker: Price $300,000 – 4% commission ($12,000) = $288,000 net to seller.
Limited Service Broker: Price $307,000 – 5% commission ($15,350) = $291,650 net to seller.
Century 21 S.G.R., Inc.: Price $312,000 – 6% commission ($18,720) = $293,280 net to seller.

Net Dollars to Seller: The Categorical Imperative
Minimum Service Broker: Price $400,000 – 4% commission ($16,000) = $384,000 net to seller.
Limited Service Broker: Price $409,000 – 5% commission ($20,450) = $388,550 net to seller.
Century21 S.G.R.: Price $419,000 – 6% commission ($25,140) = $393,860 net to seller.

S.G.R.’s Marketing Plan In Detail

• MLS

Every Century 21 S.G.R., Inc. listing is inputted within 48 hours or acceptance to MLSNI. Through this database, which extends through out Northern Illinois, realtors can find out about the availability of your property and, in turn, inform their buyers. While the MLS is still a significant marketing component, it importance has increasingly diminished as the internet has eroded the exclusivity of this information reservoir.

• Sign Call

Buyers first buy a location and then a suitable property within that location that satisfies their housing and investment needs.

Signs calls often lead to sales because the caller has already bought the location and exterior of the property. The interior-layout, traffic flow, room sizes, condition, and appointment are the remaining obstacles to an offer, along with price. An appropriate Century 21 S.G.R., Inc. sign which conforms to local ordinances and neighborhood custom will be installed within 72 hours of execution of the listing.

• Direct Marketing Pieces and Calls (when permitted)

These market pieces normally consist of property highlight sheets or property brochures mailed into the immediate vicinity of the listed property. Together with follow-up calls, this synergistic approach is intended to facilitate buyers’ awareness of a property through the auspices of friends and family members already living in the neightborhood who are scouting the area for them.

• Website

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  • 70% of the United States population is online.
  • % of those who used the web to find real estate information
    • 2% in 1985
    • 78% in 2001

Within 48 houses of listing, your property will be on the following sites:

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      • www.century21.com

Winner of 2001 Outstanding Website Award

Century 21.com Traffic

• Century 21.com is the most visited real estate brand on the web:
• Most visitors access it directly. No search engine required with the power of the Century 21 brand name:
• 1.4 Million users sessions per month
• Over 200,000 listings
• Over 22 minute user sessions
• www.century21espanol.com
  Winner of 2002 Outstanding Website Award

• REALTOR.com®: #1 Destination for Real Estate
  • Property Marketing Report Capabilities
    • Know the exact number of page views for your home
    • Monitor activity changes from week to week
• XLerator™ Prospecting Tool:
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    • Enables us to contract consumers shopping for homes in your area on REALTOR.com®
    • If a consumer opens your listing we can contract them to provide more information or arrange a showing
    • Super Targeted Marketing
    • www.century21sgr.com
    • The finest company website in Chicago.
    • Always at or near the top in any engine driven search
    • Most listings displayed in virtual tour format
    • Updated daily
    • Highly informative with subject matters explained in a layered approach from basic to highly detailed narratives.
    • www.chicagotribune.com

• Referrals/Brand Name Awareness

Eleven percent of our listings sold in the last three years were from buyers who were either referred to us from other Century 21 offices around the world or called our office because of brand recognition. The facts concerning referrals and brand awareness are as follows:

Referrals

• Century 21 is the largest sales organization in the world with 110,000 agents in 6,300 offices in more than 30 countries.
• The sheer size of the organization generates a massive number of referral buyers to our office.

Brand Awareness

• Century 21 spends over 50 million dollars a year in national print, television, and radio buys to promote brand awareness.

Results:

Conclusions:

• What all this means to you (the seller) is that we have more buyers who seek our help because of size and brand awareness (trust) than any other firm in the industry.
  • More buyers typically translates into a quicker sale at a higher price.
  • Direct CallingOur direct calling campaign is primary aimed at co-broker agents who have a proven history of selling property within a given neighborhood. In some neighborhoods, as few as 8% of the agents sold 92% of the properties last year.Our office compiles a list of the top 10, 25, 50 top selling agents per 78 distinct Chicago Neighborhoods and every sixteen days sends them an E-Mail and a direct marketing piece about your home. Additionally, every fourteen days a designated S.G.R. Agent calls each and every one to elicit feedback, solicit showings, or inform them about an upcoming public or brokers’ open house.A property must be kept fresh in co-brokers’ minds in order to maximize showings and offers. This direct calling and mailing to fellow agents takes place throughout the entire marketing process, whether that consist of one, two, three months or more.

    For those agents who sell an occasional property in a specific neighborhood, Real Mark flyers highlighting your property are hand delivered to their individual office mail boxes once every two weeks.

  • Cross SellingCross Selling is a marketing tool which has been perfected by Century 21 S.G.R., Inc. Its origin is an outgrowth of the fact that the firm is a marketing and investment company. When the firm is marketing one of its new developments, of which there have been hundreds over the past decade, its partners often have a joint investment/marketing role. This dual function permits the partners to allow their new construction team members to sell in-house inventory other than the specific developments if it is not suited to a consumer’s needs who visits that sales center. Agents are encouraged to match consumer with product.Statistically, 95% of all consumers visiting a new development sales center will not buy that product. Many are just lookers. Of the true buyers, most reject the product because of delivery issues, price, location or amenity concerns. While most sales teams by contractual agreement with a developer cannot engage in outside sales beyond that development, Century 21 S.G.R. agents are not normally impaired by these limitations, due to the partners dual marketing/investment roles.The partners of the firm encourage their new development agent teams to match prospective buyers with existing inventory. Last year this ability to match visitor with inventory led to the sale of 8% of our existing listing inventory and the sale of 18% of all the company’s transactions.
  • AdvertisingBeyond the fifty million dollars plus spent by Century 21 International to create and maintain brand awareness, Century 21 S.G.R., Inc. spends over 12% of its operating budget on advertising compared to the 4.2% spent by your typical firm. In fact, Century 21 S.G.R., Inc. per capita (per agent) spends more on advertising than any other brokerage firm in metropolitan Chicago.All our listings appear at least weekly in the Chicago Tribune in our multi-colored full page display advertisement until sale. In addition, ancillary print media are used which are most appropriate to a given property either because of its location or property type. More importantly than this constant broad and targeted print exposure is how every ad call is tracked by computer, logged, and recorded so management can review how calls are being handled. Each agent every month is evaluated as to their call conversion ratio: number of advertising calls converted into contracts on in-house inventory. Only agents whose call conversion to sales ratio is in excess of 12% are permitted to continue with floor duty.
    • Ancillary Marketing Components: Open houses, brokers’ open houses, office caravans, reverse prospecting, human resource department referrals, and other marketing segments.

    While these marketing components combined for less than 17% of our listings sold last year, if your home sold because a buyer emerged from one of these fields, that represented the only marketing segment that meant anything to you. You, as a potential seller, would not want your brokerage firm to overlook or dismiss any marketing service that could produce “the perfect buyer” for your home.

    Open Houses: Often dismissed by the casual, passive agent as not helpful. Nothing could be further from the truth. To visit an open house is the next step most interested buyesr choose after identifying a property on the internet. These buyers at least initially are looking to inspect properties in an impersonal, almost ATM like manner. For many of these buyers if a property is not being held open, they just simply move on. While we could directly trace 9% of our listings directly sold last year because a buyer visited a specific open house, we believe the true number to be significantly higher for a variety of interlocking reasons that your agent can explain.

    Referral-Human Resource Department: This marketing avenue has proven to be extremely viable for our West Loop office and we believe it would be similarly beneficial to our new South Loop office. Both of these offices are surrounded by huge public and private institutions, especially hospitals, universities, and research facilities, where there is a high turnover of professionals as well as the desire among many of these professionals to want the quality and simplicity of the true urban experience, that is, to live within reasonable proximity of work. We constantly send those listings that we judge suitable for this clientele to all human resources departments within reasonable proximity to any listing.

    Office Caravans: This tour gives our very top agents the chance to preview new listings and offer helpful marketing tips to their peers. It has often times led to a contract after an agent realized that the property they were previewing was the perfect one for their client.

  Why list with Century 21 S.G.R., Inc.?

• Superior agents – training and productivity.

• Superior marketing system.

• Superior results: best possible price with the fewest hassles and no attendant liability.