While working as a Massachusetts Realtor over the last twenty five years one of the questions that always seems to come up is whether or not a Realtor is obligated to disclose a murder, suicide, haunting or other type of paranormal activity that may have occurred in a home or other Real Estate.

Wikepedia defines a haunted house as a home or other Real Estate often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in the building’s past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide.

Disclosing Murder, Suicide, and Haunted Homes in Massachusetts

This is one of those topics that I would be willing to bet at least half the Realtors polled would get the answer wrong. I am sure most Real Estate agents would say that they are required to disclose a haunted house or if someone died in a property by murder or suicide. They would be dead wrong:)

One of my beliefs is that every buyer should be entitled to know anything that could materially effect the value of a home or the ability to sell in the future. This in fact is one of the articles in the Real Estate code of ethics.

In Massachusetts anyways, a Realtor is not required to disclose these kinds of events in a property. Apparently lawmakers do not feel these kind of events are worthy of Real Estate disclosure. I suppose in the case of a haunted home it would be much harder to prove the actual existence of ghosts.

Many states require full disclosure of violent crimes such as murder and any other event that may stigmatize a property before it is sold. Not the case in Massachusetts!

Below is the excerpt from the Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 93, section 114 that discusses Real Estate disclosure for alleged haunted homes, murder and suicide:

The fact or suspicion that real property may be or is psychologically impacted shall not be deemed to be a material fact required to be disclosed in a real estate transaction. “Psychologically impacted” shall mean an impact being the result of facts or suspicions including, but not limited to, the following:

• (a) that an occupant of real property is now or has been suspected to be infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus or with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or any other disease which reasonable medical evidence suggests to be highly unlikely to be transmitted through the occupying of a dwelling;

• (b) that the real property was the site of a felony, suicide or homicide; and

• (c) that the real property has been the site of an alleged para psychological or supernatural phenomenon.

No cause of action shall arise or be maintained against a seller or lessor of real property or a real estate broker or salesman, by statute or at common law, for failure to disclose to a buyer or tenant that the real property is or was psychologically impacted.

While this is the case in Massachusetts you can not assume that in other states it is alright not to disclose known events such as a murder or haunting.

I find it kind of interesting that disclosure of a person who had AIDS was lumped into this kind of stigmatization. It does not seem all that similar of a disclosure issue?

If you are a Massachusetts Realtor another thing to pay careful attention to is purposely deceiving someone. While non disclosure may not be an issue, blatantly lying to someone certainly could be. If you are marketing a home that is well know to be suspected of being haunted and a buyer ask you a direct question about it you should always be truthful of what you know.

Other Real Estate articles worth a look:

Massachusetts seller’s disclosure statement

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on disclosing murder, suicide and haunted Massachusetts homes was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 25+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Hopedale, Mendon, Upton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, Natick, Worcester and Douglas.

Realtor interview Questions

Carefully interviewing a Realtor should be one of the most important things any home seller does when considering selling their home yet many do not.

Having been in this business for almost twenty five years I have found this to be pretty fascinating. There are lots of folks that will make contact with a Realtor from any number of sources including seeing a for sale sign in their neighborhood, visiting an open house, getting a post card in the mail or maybe even from a recommendation from a friend or relative.

One of the problems I have found is that many consumers think that all Realtors do the same things to sell homes. This could not be further from the truth!

In most businesses 80% of the work is done by 20% of the people. The old 80/20 rule. In Real Estate it is a mind boggling 94% to 6% ratio! That is just an amazing statistic. Given these figures is there any wonder why there is so much dissatisfaction from consumers? It is really easy to get stuck with a Realtor who does not do much business or have a great work ethic.

Unfortunately getting into the Real Estate industry is very easy. Take and pass a Real Estate test and you have made it. It shouldn’t be that easy but that’s the way it works.

So how do you avoid getting stuck with a poor Real Estate agent? Ask great Real Estate interview questions! Trust me when I tell you, these questions will make an unskilled Realtor very uncomfortable.

There is no better recommendation than a track record of success. As a home seller you will be paying a Realtor quite a bit of money to sell your home. Why not work with a top producing agent? There is a reason most agents continue to be successful year after year.

In most circumstances it does not cost you anymore to work with a terrific agent than someone who does very little Real Estate business. The interview questions below will go a long way in determining whether you are hiring a pro or not!

Time in the Real Estate business and production level

• How long have you been selling real estate in Massachusetts?

Experience is important but does not necessarily mean that a newer agent couldn’t be a rising superstar. Many of the other Real Estate interview questions below, however, will help determine this.

• How many homes did you sell last year as a seller’s agent?

This is a very important question! Do you want to work with an agent who sells 5 homes a year or someone who sells 25? Do be fooled by the agent who does very little business telling you that you will get better personal service. That is a bunch of hogwash! There is a reason why they only sell 5 homes a year.

• Of the homes you sold last year, again as a seller’s agent, what was the average number of days from the original list price to the accepted offer?

This is a very telling statistic because it speaks to how well the agent did their job from day one when they recommended a list price to you. Don’t get caught with an agent that gives you an inflated value just to get your business. “Buying a listing” is a very common thing that agents do when competing with other Realtors.

• What was the average ratio between the listing price and the selling price?

This question boils down to two things. Pricing the home correctly from day one and the Realtors negotiating skills.

• What kind of market share do you and your company have?

This is not extremely critical but you should at least be working with someone who has some general knowledge of the area and has sold other local homes in the past.

Personal service to the seller and testimonials

• Do you have a personal assistant?

Busy Real Estate agents have a hard time doing everything well on their own. When a Realtor invests the money to hire their own staff member you know they care about personal service. A Realtor can’t be in two places at once. A helping hand and good team work says a lot about a skilled agent.

• Can you provide me with at least 3 recent references?

A good Realtor should be able to provide you with references that you can call. Of course every Realtor is going to want to give you a hand picked list that they know the client will say wonderful things. Instead ask them for the last three homes they sold and look up the owners names and call them. This will give you a better picture of the clients satisfaction level.

Internet marketing and advertising

• I have read the Internet is an extremely valuable tool for selling homes. How will you market my home online?

This quite possible may be one of the most important questions you ask the Realtor! You want to align yourself with a Realtor that has a strong understanding of both online and social media marketing. Over 90% of all buyers find their home online. The Realtor you choose should be marketing your home EVERYWHERE!

• Do you have your own personal Real Estate website for marketing homes and if so does it come up in competitive Real Estate searches such as State, City and the worlds Real Estate or homes?

This is a very important consideration when hiring a Realtor. A great agent will invest in having a great website that not only looks fantastic but more importantly attracts buyers for local Real Estate searches. Most consumers will type things like the city, state, and the words Real Estate or homes for sale. As an example Hopkinton MA Real Estate.

You want your home in the spotlight which can be achieved when the agent you hire understands search engine optimization (SEO) and gets their site on the 1st page of Google for keyword searches buyers most often use.

• Do you have a Massachusetts Real Estate blog to market your clients homes and if so is it ranked highly by Google? Do you use your blog as a marketing tool to drive traffic to my home?

Like a website, Real Estate blogs are great vehicles to promote properties. You can create entire blog articles about a single home that promotes their best attributes using multiple photos and descriptions.

• Do you use social media marketing sites such as Facebook and Twitter to reach a wider net of Realtors and potential clients?

Sites like Facebook and Twitter are becoming remarkable tools for a Realtor to use to cast a wider net to reach potential buyers and sellers. With Facebook you can have your own business page to promote your business including properties you may be marketing.

• Do you use video and virtual tours to market your homes?

Video is another important medium that has really caught on in recent years. Buyers love to see a video tour of a home they may be interested in viewing. A video tour can be especially helpful to a relocation buyer. The tour used be the agent should be quick to download. Another consideration would be syndicating the video tour to Youtube which gets quite a bit of traffic.

• Is my home “enhanced” on the most visited Real Estate websites such as Realtor.com, Trulia.com and Zillow.com?

This is an extremely important interview question. Real Estate marketing is all about presentation and standing out from the rest of the competition. It is not enough just to be included in the most visible Real Estate sites.

The agent should be presenting your home with numerous photos, detailed descriptions highlighting your homes best attributes, and an embeddable virtual tour. Survey after survey says that buyers looking online skip the homes with a couple of photos and no descriptions. This is a huge piece of the marketing! Make sure the agent shows you exactly what your home will look like online. It is obvious that many sellers do not check on their agent. Trust me folks, you would be flabbergasted if you knew what a poor job some Realtors do marketing homes.

• Do you have a good camera?

Not only is having lots of photos important but the quality can not be overlooked. You should be looking for an agent that has a good camera with a wide angle lense.

Preparing and staging a home for sale

• Can you show me how to make my home more marketable?

A Realtor should be able to give you some simple advice on how best prepare your home for the market.  Things like whether or not it would be worthwhile to make an improvement or properly staging a home for sale. The general rule on improvements is to make them when they are really going to enhance the saleability or give a large return on investment.

Communication and feedback throughout the home sale process

• When a buyer calls on my home will you ALWAYS be the one they speak with?

It makes sense that the Realtor you hire is the one who speaks with the buyer when an inquiry is made. At many Real Estate offices this is not always the case. Often times there is an agent who answers the phone and they get the lead. This is not ideal if the agent has never seen the home before and the buyer is asking specific questions about the property.

• How will you communicate with me regarding your efforts?

One of the biggest complaints against Realtors is a lack of communication. You will want to nail down how the Realtor will keep in contact with you. It it by phone, email, text? A Realtor should be flexible and work however the client desires. Above all else there should be regular communication. See Realtor communication skills.

• Do you have a feedback system and if so, how does it work?

Anyone that I know that has ever sold a home wants to know how the showings go. The Realtor you hire should be prepared to call the buyers agent after the showing to find out what the level of interest there is and the buyers general thoughts.

• How readily accessible will you be? Do you have a cell phone that I can reach you on when I need to?

Real Estate is a business that people should be able to reach the person they hired to sell their home. A Realtor who has a phone that can receive email is a real plus.  You want to make sure your agent will be taking your calls as they come in. For some reason many agents never answer their phone. This is not a good sign!

• Once the offer is accepted will you be attending all the inspections on my home?

A full service Realtor should be at the home inspection, bank appraisal, etc. You are paying this person a lot of money. Make sure they earn it! They are your fiduciary.

• How will you verify that the buyer is qualified to buy my home?

The Realtor should be verifying the the buyer is qualified by making sure that there is a legitimate pre-approval letter accompanying the offer and speaking with the buyers lender.

• What are your fee structures and why?

The Realtor should be making sure they explain to you how they get paid and what exactly they do for the money earned.

• As far as production goes if I called the owner of your company would they tell me you were one of the top producing agents in the company or a middle of the road agent?

In life you get what you pay for. Why not hire the best if it costs you the same!

• Will you allow me to terminate our contract if I am not completely satisfied?

This is an important question because a Realtor that is confident they will get the job done should have no problem with this clause.

There are some truly great Real Estate agents out there. It just takes a little bit of time and effort to find them. Don’t settle for any Realtor that walks through your door or you will end up disappointed.

Related Real Estate articles:

• Massachusetts Realtors are not all alike
• Picking the wrong Massachusetts Realtor

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on how to interview a Realtor with great questions was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Upton, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, and Douglas.

One of the realities of being a Massachusetts Realtor is that I often encounter folks that are going to need to sell their home due to a divorce.

The divorce rate today is higher that it has ever been. It is just a fact that people do not stay together for better or worse like they used to.

The divorce rate of course opens up the opportunity for Realtors to be helping those that need to sell what usually amounts to their largest marital asset.

Purchasing a Massachusetts home together can represent a significant outlay of funds for one or both members of the divorcing party. When it comes to a divorce both members are going to have have an active interest in ensuring that their part of the investment is protected whether there was a cash outlay or not.

Divorce can often times be a highly charged emotional event. Even in an amicable divorce there could be times when discussing the sale of the home could lead to rash decisions. Keep a close lid on your feelings and make sure that you are not led by emotion into a bad decision. You will need to keep in perspective that this should be a smart business decision.

There are typically three scenarios when selling a home in a divorce:

• One spouse keeps the home and buys out the other parties interest.
• One spouse keeps exclusive use for a specified period of time, typically when the youngest child turns eighteen, after which the home can be sold.
• The home is sold immediately and the profits are shared amongst each spouse.

Both parties should really be thinking about what it is that they would like to do. Does one party want to sell and the other would like to keep the home? Is it financially feasible for one party to keep the home? In the event one party does keep the home how will the other party be compensated?

For purposes of this article I will focus on some of the considerations when selling a home during a divorce.

Possible Tax Benefits Selling a Home During Divorce

There are many that do not realize there are tremendous tax benefits when selling a home due to the Real Estate capital gains tax law that went into effect in 1997 known as the Tax Payer Relief Act of 1997.

The current capital gains tax law when selling your personal residence allows for an exclusion of up to $250,000 in profit if you are single and $500,000 if married!

In order to be eligible you must have lived in your home for two of the last five years. The home must be your personal residence and can not be an investment property.

In a nut shell what this means is that the parties could get a tremendous tax break if the home is sold while you are still married. Selling the marital home will allow up to $500,000 in profit to be excluded from federal capital gain taxes. A couple may apply for this tax break if they file a joint tax return. If you choose to file separately, each partner can still claim up to $250,000 on their tax return, provided that they still meet the two-out-of-five years in the home qualification.

If the parties have owned the home for a significant amount and there has been a large equity growth this can amount to a significant tax savings. If one party chooses to remain in the home but plans on selling in the near future there could be quite a difference in tax savings.

Can I afford the home after the divorce

One of the unfortunate things I see a lot in a divorce is one parties desire to “win” at all costs.

There have been occasions where one spouse insists on keeping the home even though it is not a prudent financial decision because they see it as winning a large battle.

If they end up keeping the marital home there are times when they later realize that maybe taking on such a large debt and all the expenses that come along with home ownership was not such a good idea.

When going through with a divorce and keeping the marital home you need to make sure you can afford the mortgage payments. So many couples getting a divorce underestimate what it’s going to cost them to live once the divorce is finalized. One of the things that should be done when contemplating keeping the home is to develop a comprehensive budget before you lock yourself into a divorce settlement.

The emotional side of things should also be considered as well. Does the home have treasured memories shared together or is it a place you would rather forget about. Going back to the part about “winning” is what clouds many peoples judgments when it comes to both financial and emotional decisions.

Selecting a Realtor in Divorce

When couples go through a nasty divorce selecting a Realtor is something that most are not going to do as it will more than likely be court appointed.

When the relationship is amicable however, selecting the  Realtor to work with is an essential part of the process. Just like any other Real Estate transaction you should be looking for a Realtor who has a strong track record of success.

Given that over 90% of all buyers today find their homes online you want to work with an agent that is going to provide dominant internet exposure. The agent should have their own website that comes up on local internet searches, as well as placing your home in the most traveled consumer sites for looking at properties.

I should emphasize though that it is not enough to just place your home in the popular sites. This is what the average agent does.

You should work with a Realtor that is going to spend the time adding great photography, expanded descriptions of your home, as well as some kind of video tour.

These are the type of things that make a difference and help your home stand out from the competition.

Above all else in a divorce you are going to want to work with a Realtor that has great communication skills.

Given there are two parties involved who might not be sharing the same roof anymore, you are going to want to work with someone who understands the nature of divorce and all the feelings that come along with it. The agent is going to have to have a certain level of patience as all communications will more than likely be repeated multiple times.

Selecting a Realtor is a process that should be done together. What I have witnessed 1st hand over my twenty four years in the business is that if one party selects who they want to interview, the other party may feel slighted in the process. The natural instinct is to feel that the Realtor is going to play favorites.

When I am hired to represent a couple in a divorce I want them both to be present for any interviews that take place. I want them to know that I represent both of them equally. The goal is always to get the best terms and conditions in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of headaches.

Creating an atmosphere of trust where either party can call me at anytime is very important. Getting a divorce is stressful enough as it is. Adding a home sale on top of it can make you feel like your life is totally upside down. Making the home sale process go as smooth as possible is always one of my missions.

Related Real Estate articles:

• Realtor communication skills
• Top Producing Metrowest MA Realtor
• Handling offers selling a Massachusetts home
• Preparing a Massachusetts home to sell
  

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on divorce and selling a home was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Hopedale, Mendon, Upton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, Worcester and Douglas.

As a Realtor, knowing how to market your services as well as a clients property online can be very powerful. In the Real Estate field it can certainly be the difference maker in whether or not a client chooses to hire you or NOT!

It is not that hard to figure out that Realtors are a dime a dozen. Picking the wrong Realtor can get ugly. In most industries 80% of the business is done by 20% of the people. In Real Estate the ratio is 94% and 6%! It is easy to see why there is a lot of dissatisfaction within our ranks.

Unfortunately, there are very low barriers to entry for becoming a licensed Real Estate agent. Pass a test and you are in business. When the market was booming every Tom, Dick, Harry and Mary wanted a license into the promised land of easy money. They came in droves expecting to be living the life of luxury.

Then Real Estate markets around the country changed. The 3 P’s of Real Estate no longer worked. Put a sign in the yard, put it in MLS, and pray. This marketing strategy used to work for many agents when the Massachusetts market was booming.

From the mid 1990′s to 2005 Real Estate was Easy Street. Multiple offers and home values rising by the month. There was much less marketing skill involved in the Real Estate business. Commission checks were rolling in and there were smiles everywhere. The life and times of a Realtor were rosy!

Heck you could price a home improperly and a few months later it wouldn’t matter because the market would have caught up to your mistake. An inexperienced Realtors blunders could suddenly turn into genius. Those were the days.

The Real Estate market today is much different. Terms such as auctions, short sales, mortgage meltdown, and foreclosure,  are all common things we deal with on a daily basis. There are no lines forming at the door to the division of Real Estate licensing anymore.

In fact the Real Estate industry has gone through a consolidation. Many of the agents who didn’t realize that you need to invest a serious amount of time and energy in actually working your tail off are getting out just as fast as they entered.

There is also another set of agents that have managed to hang around but  don’t have a clue about what you need to do in order to be successful in a challenging market. Up until a few years ago, a Realtor that entered the business in the last ten years had not seen a down Massachusetts Real Estate market.

Times have changed and so should your thought process about picking a good Realtor to sell your home!

If you were looking for skill sets of the best Realtors it would be those that know how to price homes accurately, have a strong grasp of online marketing and communicate well throughout the home sale process.

The Internet has grown by leaps and bounds as a tool to sell homes. Survey after survey says that almost 90% of all buyers find their home from an online search! If you are considering selling your home it makes sense to be aligned with a Realtor who provides a dominate online presence for their clients. Not an agent that is not going to tell you what you want to hear in order to get the listing!

Using Google as an interview tool can be very important of selecting a great Realtor to work with!

There are lots of Realtors that love to talk a good game about how much online marketing they provide. Here are three tips that will expose the online pretenders from the internet savvy Realtor. Google the agents name you are considering hiring and also ask them for an address of a home they are marketing. Lastly, Google the town you are located in, state and the word “Real Estate”. As an example Hopkinton MA Real Estate or Framingham MA Real Estate.

You should Google all of them. If the Realtor has any grasp on social marketing there should be pages upon pages of results for their name! You should be able to quickly get the picture as to whether or not this agent is Internet savvy.

When you Google an address of a home they are marketing, you will be able to see all the sites that the home is being marketed on. Think about this for a moment…if you Google a homes address and don’t come up with anything other than Zillow or Realtor.com you have found a Realtor that follows the 3 P’s of marketing. Run for the hills Amigos this is not what you want!!

The most competitive search terms to rank for online are the city, state and Real Estate combined. Everyone vies for the 1st page of Google for these terms because buyers will use them to search for property! An agent that is on the 1st page will see an exponential difference in Real Estate traffic to their site. Obviously this is what you want as a seller.

Besides Real Estate, one of my passions is SEO (search engine optimization). When a client hires me to sell their home it will be found everywhere online. My clients property becomes front and center for those buyers who are looking in my market area. A good Real Estate professional understands the importance of implementing a social media strategy into their marketing plan.

The goal is to provide the greatest exposure to my Real Estate listings, while also generating worth while hyper-local, geo targeted content that can be found through the search engines. So how is this accomplished? Well 1st let me tell you it now takes days to get the marketing set up for my clients homes.

The 1st thing that is done is getting the listing into my website that covers Real Estate sales in Metrowest Massachusetts. This website is highly indexed by Google and will usually come up on the 1st page for anything related to Real Estate in the towns I cover.

This is important because if the site can not be found what good is it? My knowledge of search engine optimization has allowed me to have a top ranked Real Estate site. One of the best features of my website is the ability to syndicate the listing to some of the most heavily traveled Real Estate sites at the click of a button. Click the link to see all of my Metrowest MA Real Estate marketing. There is not another Realtor in the area that provides this type of Real Estate exposure.

If you are not in my coverage area and need a Realtor this is the type of Real Estate marketing you should be looking for! Of course an agents track record is also an important consideration. Here are some great interview questions for listing agents to help you make a great selection.

Related Real Estate articles:

• Picking a top producing Metrowest MA Realtor
• Communications skills for Real Estate
• What kind of Massachusetts Realtor do you want
• Massachusetts for sale by owners

_________________________________________________________________

About the author: The above Real Estate information on picking the wrong Massachusetts Realtor can get ugly was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Upton, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, and Douglas.

In Massachusetts when you are marketing a seller’s home and you procure a ready willing and able buyer to purchase a property you have hopefully started your journey to a successful closing.

One of the things that Realtors are required to do is change the status of the property when we have a signed contract between a buyer and seller.

Realtors are given one of two options in the Greater Boston Multiple listing service (MLS) when you have a contract. You can either mark the home “under agreement” (UAG) or “accepting back up offers” otherwise known as (BUP).

It is up to the seller on which way they feel makes the most sense. In most circumstances  trying to decide which way to mark the status will usually come down to what the Realtor recommends.

There are a number of Realtors that just flat out tell their clients to mark the home as accepting back up offers. This is down right foolish! I am in the camp that does NOT give this advice and here is why.

9 times out of 10 when a buyers agent sees a home in the MLS marked as accepting back up offers they are not going to show the home anyway. This makes perfect sense. Why take the time and effort to show a home that for all intents and purposes is really under agreement? The only way a buyer could actually purchase the home in a BUP status is if the 1st buyer backs out. Most Realtors don’t want to get a client excited about purchasing a home that more often than not is already going to be sold.

The second reason is even more important to the seller. When you mark a home as accepting back up offers the status of the property is technically still considered “current” by MLS standards. What this means is the days on the market continues to elapse when in the BUP status.

The Realtor is also required to put the reason why the status is marked as accepting back up offers. Some of the most common reasons include the signing of a purchase and sale agreement, home inspections, or the buyers financing commitment.

So here is the rub. Lets say the Realtor marks your home as accepting back up offers (BUP) and gives the reason as the buyers financing commitment.  Lets also assume your home has been on the market for 45 days.

Generally speaking the time needed to get a mortgage commitment from a lender is around 30-45 days from the time the lender takes the buyers application. What happens if the sale falls apart during the time frame it is marked BUP?

The unfortunate answer is that when your home comes back on the market the days on market will include all the time that is was marked BUP. It will show in Multiple Listing Service (MLS) like your home has been on the market for quite a long time!

This is NOT the case if you had marked the home as under agreement. When a home is marked under agreement the days on market clock stops! So in the above example if the home was marked UAG and came back on the market the market time would read 45 days.

Why is this so important? I have never met a buyer in my twenty four years in the business that did not ask “how long has the property been on the market”. Every buyer wants to know this because it will give them an idea what their leverage will be when making an offer! When a home 1st comes on the market a seller is in the drivers seat. As the market time grows the seller loses their negotiating leverage.

After a certain time period buyers will start to mentally ask themselves why has this home not sold? Am I making the right decision purchasing this property?

If two similar homes are on the market and one has been on for 14 days and the other for 200 days which home do you think a buyer will feel like they can negotiate a better price on?

Believe me I ask myself all the time why some Realtors give the advice they do on various Real Estate subjects. This one is a real puzzling to me. Is it just the heard mentality? Is it a lack of confidence in their ability to keep a deal together? Is it the seller telling them this is the way they want it to go and the Realtor just says “OK” without explaining the disadvantages?

Inquiring minds want to know!

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on marking a property under agreement or accepting back up offers was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Upton, Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, and Douglas.

It is a fact that 90% of all home buyers start their search for a home online. The days of buyers using newspapers and magazines as a viable means to find a home are over!

Keeping this in mind, the goal of any Realtor that is worth their commission is to make darn sure the vehicles they are using to market a clients property come up in Google for local keyword searches. This would include a well indexed website and Real Estate blog!

If you are selling a home in the Metrowest Massachusetts area the kind of search terms you can expect a buyer to use to find property are the city, state, and the word Real Estate or homes for sale.

For example here are a few highly competitive Real Estate search terms you could expect a buyer to punch into Google:

Ashland MA Real Estate

Holliston MA Homes for sale

Hopkinton MA Homes

Metrowest MA Real Estate

These are the types of the most competitive search terms for Real Estate. There are companies that pay optimization experts thousands of dollars to make sure they are on the 1st page of Google for these search phrases.

Why? The reason is simple….this is how consumers search for homes! This is why when you do a Real Estate search you are going to find all the national players such as Realtor.com, Trulia.com, Zillow.com, Homes.com, Yahoo Real Estate, ect. These people pay big money to get onto the 1st page!

When an individual Realtors website gets onto the 1st page guess what happens? That Realtor generates quite a bit of consumer traffic!

It makes a lot of sense to hire a Realtor that is going to give your home massive amounts of exposure online!

Take a look at the video below and see how powerful my website (http://www.sellmyhomeinmetrowestma.com) covering all of the Metrowest area and beyond has become in Google and other search engines.

There is not another Realtor in the area that provides their clientele the kind of internet exposure I do!

Besides my website here is all the other sites I market on as part of my Metrowest Massachusetts Real Estate marketing. In 2010 which was generally regarded as a very tough year for Real Estate, I was ranked the #3 RE/MAX agent in Massachusetts. Part of this success was attributable to the online exposure my website and multiple Real Estate blogs provide.

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on picking a dominant online Metrowest MA Realtor was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Upton, Hopedale, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, and Douglas.

If you look at any of the National Real Estate surveys the number one complaint from consumers against Realtors who are representing home sellers is the lack of communication skills.

There are countless stories of sellers signing a listing contract and then never hearing from their Realtor again unless they initiate the contact.

Obviously if you are a Realtor and your are harder to catch up to than The Road Runner, you are going to gain a poor reputation pretty quickly!

As a Massachusetts home seller how do you avoid picking the wrong Realtor? How do you know when the Realtor you are about to choose is going to do an effective job of communicating with you?

While it is impossible to know for sure, there are some clues that may help you determine if the Realtors communication skills are going to match your expectation levels.

Before you even meet the Realtor you are going to consider choosing you should pay careful attention to how quickly they respond to either your initial phone call or email. If they do not get back to you for hours after your initial attempt at contact that could be a red flag.

If you have indicated in your message that you are interested in selling your home  most Realtors will be highly motivated to make that return call immediately! Most tech savvy Real Estate agents today are going to have some kind of phone that allows them to check or receive their email instantly. A Realtor with strong communication skills is more than likely going to have that phone/Blackberry attached to their hip and checking it frequently.

You would also expect that they would be checking their voice mail as well. In Real Estate you never know when a call may be coming in so a good agent knows they should be checking it at regular intervals.

There will be times that an agent just may not be able to respond such as when they are already in some kind of business meeting or with other clients already.  You may need to cut the Realtor a little bit of slack but you also need to make sure this is not a pattern that will constantly be repeated.

When you set the appointment with the agent you are considering hiring they should be  on time or even slightly early. Communication skills and placing a value on someones time usually go hand in hand.

Another key trait of a Realtor with effective communication skills is the ability to listen. The listing interview should not be dominated by the Realtor telling you how great they are. While it is important to choose someone with a good track record, the agent should possess the ability to determine exactly what the clients goals are in the transaction. This often times will include the motivation for selling and where the clients want to end up upon the completion of the sale of their current home.

One important consideration is finding out how a client likes to interact and following that preferred method. While most people today like to communicate by email or even text messaging there are some folks that would just like you to pick up the telephone and call. A lot of older folks are not tech savvy and don’t use email regularly if at all. A skilled communicator will be able to adapt to the clients needs.

An important thought for anyone selling their Massachusetts home should be finding out how the Realtor is going to let them know how things are going with the sale and what buyers are thinking about the property. Simply stated what is the buyer’s feedback?

There are a number of different ways this can be done. Personally, my preferred method is to call the buyer’s agent and find out exactly what they and their buyer client thought about the property. I can ask specific questions such as the buyer likes and dislikes as well as how they thought the home was priced compared to other homes they were viewing.

One of the things my seller clients love it the fact that I give them a feedback report. They actually access this information by visiting a password protected website. The client and I are the only ones that can see it. After every showing the feedback is entered and the client can see what the market is saying about their home. Of course we are looking for patterns so advice can be given on how to improve the chances of a timely sale.

In Massachusetts there is a system that many Real Estate companies use called MA Pass which is a showing appointment scheduling service focused on the real estate industry. After the showing is completed MA Pass sends out an email to the buyers agent. It is an automated showing feedback system. Personally I don’t think it does a good job unless the agent changes the standardized questions that are asked. Most agents do not take the time to do this.

For example a question like “what did the client think of the exterior of the home” with answers you can check that says good, average, poor does not give a lot of information the client can use. It is far too basic! Getting substantial feedback can go a long way in helping to give sound advice and MA pass will not cut the mustard without customization.

As always, I would recommend asking good Realtor interview questions when trying to assess if the agent you are considering hiring will get the job done or not. Asking for some addresses of homes the agent is currently listing and calling the sellers to find out how the communication has been would be a great idea. If the agent starts to squirm with this inquiry there could be a problem!

Related articles: What kind of Massachusetts Realtor do you want?

• Top producing Metrowest MA Realtor
• Picking the wrong Massachusetts Realtor

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on Realtor communication skills the number one complaint was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Upton, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, and Douglas.

Every week on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) you see countless homes that come up “expired”. For those that are not familiar with the term, an expired listing is a home that did not sell. When looking over the possible common denominators of why some homes do not sell the reason is usually pretty easy to spot.

In most cases the reason is very simple. The home was improperly priced. In a very competitive Real Estate environment, the price that is set on a home can be more  than 75% of the marketing!

What the hell do you mean by that Bill? Very easy… if you come on the market at the wrong price, the best Realtor in the country with the most sophisticated marketing will not be able to get a home sold.

As the graph above shows, the further you get from market value, the percentage of buyers dwindles.

So who is to blame when a home comes on the market at the wrong price? Tough question to answer but most of the time the fault lies with the Realtor. How so? The Realtor is the one who does the market evaluation on the property and gives the seller a suggested list price and probable sale price. I know there are some that are probably thinking that is all well and good but on many occasions sellers think their homes are worth more than the suggested value and insist of the home being listed for a higher price.

My response would be the Realtor doesn’t have to take the listing! The problem in our industry is that for every overpriced home there was a Realtor who was willing to take it. There are some agents that have the hardest time walking away from potential business.

Then there are the Real Estate agents that always tell sellers what they want to hear in order to get the home listed, especially when the agent knows they are in competition with other Realtors. Shocking but true. Buying a listing in this industry has been going on since the 1st Real Estate companies went into business. Tell em what they want to hear, get a signature on the contract and then beat em over the head for price reductions. So unprofessional but it happens a lot! Some agents don’t care because they use a listed home to generate buyer calls which can turn into future business.

How do you avoid this? When you are sitting down with Realtors to go over the value of your home you should be getting some kind of appraisal report preferably with pictures that show other like homes that have sold. The homes being compared to yours should look similar. If they don’t a red flag should be going up in your head. Likewise, if the homes do look similar yet the agent is telling you a much higher price for your home there should be a rock solid explanation of why that is the case.

Remember fair market value is what other similar homes have sold for. Not what you need or want to sell your property for. Buyers could care less what your perceived needs are. All they care about is paying the right price.

Over and over again statistics show that homes priced properly out of the gate sell for more than those who believe a higher list price leads to a higher sale price. As the days on market grows for any property on the market so does the gap between the original list price and final sale price. Ask any buyer which home they feel they have more bargaining power on…the one that has been on the market for 200 days or the one that has been on 20.

The second biggest part of the equation to having a successful home sale is picking the right Realtor.

Over the years this has been the one thing that really baffles me about the Real Estate business. Selling a home is a huge decision yet on many occasions there is so little effort that goes into picking a Real Estate agent to work with.

Unfortunately, some folks mistakenly believe we all do the same thing to sell homes. This could not be further from the truth! Choosing a top producing Realtor should be an important criteria yet it does not always work that way.

In most industries when you want a hire someone to do work for you the persons track record and qualifications are of the utmost importance. From what I have witnessed 1st hand, a fair amount of time this does not enter a sellers mind when putting their home on the market. Instead they pick someone they think has a good personality or again tells them something they want to hear.

In most industries there is an 80/20 rule where 80% of the business is done by 20% of the people. Most people do not realize that in the Real Estate industry 94% of the business is done by 6% of the agents! While that is mind blowing, it also is easy to see why there can be a lot of disappointment amongst consumers with their agents.

So much goes into being a successful Realtor and an entire article could be written about it but some of the important traits you should be looking for are a past track record of success, a powerful marketing plan centered around the internet,  excellent communications skills, and brutal honesty. If a Realtor possesses these four traits you are more than likely going to have a very pleasant experience selling your home or condo.

Asking some good Real Estate interview questions for Realtors always goes a long way in making better decisions.

Other obstacles to a successful home sale include making it difficult for people to get into the home and not presenting the home well. In a competitive market you want your home to shine not stick out like a sore thumb. It is awfully tough to sell homes when they look like the pits and equally as difficult when potential buyers can never get in to view it.

Related Real Estate articles:

• Staging Massachusetts homes to sell
• Public open houses are a waste of time
• Value range pricing Real Estate
• Massachusetts assessed home values vs fair market value

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on how not to sell a Massachusetts home was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Upton, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, and Douglas.

In the Metrowest Massachusetts area where I am located it is pretty rare to see an accompanied showing. In towards Boston it becomes much more common place. Some areas around the country have them and others don’t.

Why? Who knows but more than likely it has to do with tradition. I am glad the policy has never caught on in my neck of the woods.

Frankly an accompanied showing is a waste of a listing agents time and does nothing to facilitate a sale.

There is a long standing misconception amongst some folks that Realtors “sell homes”. Folks I have rarely ever “sold” a home in this sense of the word to anyone. Homes are an emotional purchase. They are not something a Realtor talks  somebody into buying. Realtors can be guides and give advice but homes sell themselves. Sometimes when a buyer walks into a home you can just feel that it is perfect for them and they will end up purchasing the place. This happens because of human emotion and attachment. It has very little to do with a sales pitch.

In twenty four years I have never talked someone into buying a home! This is where some sellers have misguided thoughts about the purpose of an accompanied showing. For some reason people think if a buyer does not notice some feature about the home and it’s  not pointed out,  it would cause the sale not to happen. Sorry this is not the case. Pointing out the nitty gritty is not a difference maker to most buyers.

The fancy security system, beveled edges on the the granite counters, and cherry inlay on the dining room floor will not be the reason for someone buying a home. Even in million dollar homes that have every conceivable feature and amenity it is not a listing agent waving a red flag in front of a buyers face that is going to seal the deal. Emotion sells, people do not at least not in Real Estate.

While the need for accompanied showings is rare they can actually be a detriment to the seller for a number of reasons. We use lock boxes here in Massachusetts for a reason! A lock box allows a Realtor to easily gain access to a property without hindrance.

When a seller requires an accompanied showing they are now adding the possibility of scheduling conflicts.

I for one am a very busy Realtor. If I have to try and coordinate my schedule with another Realtors, the possibility exists there will be a missed showing for the seller. A missed showing is a missed opportunity!

There have been times over the years where I have not been able to work my schedule around another agents and the buyer ended up purchasing something else before ever rescheduling to see the missed home.

If more Realtors educated their clients on why accompanied showings are a big mistake, instead of worrying that they won’t get the listing without complying with the sellers demands, sellers would much better off.

I for one would love it if sellers actually placed a recorder in their home to hear what some listing agents say as buyers are walking from room to room.  I am not kidding! Things like “here is the kitchen”. Really? If there was not a dishwasher, stove and cabinets I never would have known. Thanks for being here to guide me. This may sound funny but I am being completely serious. There is no value in this.

I know for a fact based on my experience that most buyers and their Realtors do not want a listing agent at a showing.

It creates an uncomfortable atmosphere where the buyer can not speak freely about the property with their agent.  The situation can actually  become unbearable if the listing agent is giving a hard sell. Buyers absolutely hate this. It is actually only slightly better than the seller being there and following you around like a puppy dog.

As a great compromise to some sellers who really want an accompanied showing, I suggest it is done if there is a 2nd showing and only if the buyer does not mind. A second showing of course is an indicator that there could be more than just casual interest. The interest level can usually be confirmed by speaking with the buyers agent. Some buyers at this point may not have a problem with the listing agent being there especially if they have some unanswered questions.

Remember Real Estate is a numbers game. Don’t let an accompanied showing get in the way of selling your home.

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on why accompanied showings in Real Estate are a big mistake was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Hopkinton, Milford, Southboro, Westboro, Ashland, Holliston, Upton, Mendon, Hopedale, Medway, Franklin, Framingham, Grafton, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Northboro, Bellingham, Uxbridge, and Douglas.

If you are an avid reader of my Massachusetts Real Estate blog you probably have guessed that one of my passions is to help out those that are in need of completing a short sale.

Massachusetts home owners struggling to make mortgage payments are often turning to doing a short sale as a means of escaping their debt.

If you are not familiar with the term, a short sale is when a bank or mortgage lender agrees to discount a loan balance because of a financial hardship on the part of the borrower. The home owner sells the mortgaged property for less than the outstanding balance of the loan, and turns over the proceeds from the sale to the lender.

One of the most important considerations when pursuing a short sale of your Massachusetts home is to make sure that the debt has been canceled!

As a Massachusetts Realtor that has been representing a number of home owners in a short sale, I can tell you there is always a sense of great relief when a short sale approval comes from the bank. Often times it is months of waiting and the uncertainty can wear on anyone that has gone through the process. Short sales are anything but short!

For the past few years I have been successfully completing short sales all over the Metrowest Massachusetts area. So far the success rate has been 100% for short sale approval. Given the fact that nationally the success rate is very low, this is an accomplishment I am proud of.

All of my short sales are completed with the help of a local attorney who works with me during the short sale process. The relationship has been tremendous and my seller clients have been the beneficiaries of our team work.

One of the things I have been able to count on is the fact that the attorney has gotten a release of debt from the lender.

This point is crucial for you to understand because there are lots of Realtors out there who are representing sellers in short sales that do not know anything about debt removal.

What has been coming to light recently is that a number of lenders are selling unpaid mortgages to collection agencies which in some states have years to come after you for a collection of this unpaid debt. Some of these collection agencies have been able to win court judgments where they can collect through repayment plans and even garnish your wages if necessary!

Can you imagine hiring a Realtor to get a short sale approval for you only to find out years later that there was no release of your debt. I am sure you would not be a happy camper!!

These short sales where the debt has not been released is opening up opportunities for companies and investors that specialize in preying on people who did not know any better. This is big business and is known in Real Estate circles as “scratch and dent”.

There is some relief in sight for some folks under the new Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) that started April 5th. This new short sale program aims to prevent banks that hold second-lien loans from pursuing collections from homeowners after the short sale.

Under this HAFA program sellers will receive notice that their service company has steered part of the sales proceeds to secondary lien holders in exchange for release and full removal of their liens. It is important to understand however, that this release would apply only to short sales done through the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program. Not all lenders will be participating in this program.

Above all else if you are doing a short sale make sure your representative gets the lender to sign off on a complete removal of debt on your property!

If you are considering a short sale here are some other short sale articles I have written that would be worthwhile to read:

Massachusetts Short Sale Realtor Mistakes to Avoid

Massachusetts Short Sales

Questions to ask a short sale listing agent as a buyer

Stop Making Mortgage Payments During a Short Sale

Do you need to complete a  short sale of your home or condo in Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.  Get in touch I would love to interview for the chance to represent your best interests.

I am successfully completing short sales through out the Metrowest area. So far, knock on wood, I have a 100% success rate for short sale approval.!

If you are not in the Metrowest Massachusetts area and need to do a short sale please feel free to contact me and I would be happy to refer you to a Realtor in your location that handles short sales and knows what they are doing!

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About the author: The above Real Estate information on Massachusetts short sale debt removal was provided by Bill Gassett, a Nationally recognized leader in his field. Bill can be reached via email at billgassett@remaxexec.com or by phone at 508-435-5356. Bill has helped people move in and out of many Metrowest towns for the last 24+ Years.

Thinking of selling your home? I have a passion for Real Estate and love to share my marketing expertise!

I service the following towns in Metrowest MA: Ashland, Bellingham, Blackstone, Douglas, Framingham, Franklin, Grafton, Holliston, Hopkinton, Hopedale, Medway, Mendon, Milford, Millbury, Millville, Natick, Northboro, Northbridge, Shrewsbury, Southboro, Sutton, Wayland, Westboro, Whitinsville, Worcester, Upton and Uxbridge MA.