08/12/2018
My Mouth in today's Danbury, CT paper...
The News-Times | newstimes.com | Sunday, August 12, 2018
SOUND OFF by Jean O'Neill
What are some reconnaissance tactics Realtors can use?
Realtors do many things to
assist sellers in preparing
and marketing their property
for sale and to show buyers
their options, a given property’s
likely value and the process toward
purchase.
A large part of what empowers
agents to provide relevant information
to buyers and sellers is
knowing what’s going on historically,
currently and subtly in the
market in which they are working.
It is important to be familiar
with the competition, how that
competition fared and why a
neighboring house received multiple
offers when this house lingers
on the market. It goes far
beyond that online guesstimate.
Value is driven by the buyer’s
perception of value and at the
end of the day, they bring the
money to the table.
Our goal for sellers is to price
and prepare their home to appeal
to the widest possible buyer pool.
We know from working day in
and day out with buyers and
sellers what will likely go quickly
and what the average buyer in a
given price range will expect
and/or object to.
The nuts and bolts of value
have to do with location, condition
and square footage. The
equalizer is price. In our area,
single-family properties are far
from uniform — 63 percent of
houses in Connecticut were built
prior to 1970. This adds to the
necessity of knowing the lay of
the land: specifics of any given
town, areas within that town, as
well as buyer trends.
For both buyers and sellers,
the work we do includes the
tangible: researching and previewing
properties, routing
viewings, opening doors, preparing
market analyses, clearing
counters for photography, getting
the sign in the ground, preparing
advertising, working with town
offices on permit issues, spelling
out legal steps to buy and sell,
covering 11th hour mishaps and
that list goes on. But equally as
important are the intangible we
do all day, every day: taking in
the nuances in the local market, a
shift in regional news, where the
rates are going, and essentially
the word on the street.
Listen. We are glad to tell you.
Jean O’Neill,
William Pitt Sotheby’s
International Realty,
203-796-7700 office,
203-300-2332 cell,
[email protected]
