When your selling your home, your dreams are at stake. You know it, and you have a lot to do. Even if you're moving locally, you've got movers to hire, cleaning to get done, and precious belongings to pack. If you're moving far away, it can be more exciting, but the challenges are even greater. What's the new area like? Will the kids fit in?

Naturally when it comes to hiring a Realtor(r), you want someone you can trust, with a proven track record of making sales happen, and great Internet marketing so your home will reach the most buyers in this very competitive market.

But there's just one little problem.

The problem is that everyone you interview for the job is a professional salesman. Now I don't know about you, but if you're anything like me, having four or five professional smile-givers show up at my door with three-month or six-month listing contracts in one hand and a ballpoint pen in the other isn't exactly my idea of a good time. (Believe me, as a sales manager and the guy who does all the hiring, I know how good these people are at negotiating!)

Try My Agents Risk Free for Fourteen Days

Our approach is different. We don't ask you to sign a three month or six month listing agreement up front, and I sure don't want to be the broker who won your listing by hiring the biggest arm-twisters in the business.

Above all, when you list with us, if our services don't meet your needs, I never want you to feel like you don't have a choice. That's why all I ask is that you give us fourteen days to show you what we can do. If you're not 100% satisfied at the end of this time with the job your agent is doing, or if my company didn't do everything your agent promised, you won't even have to cancel your engagement with us, because we put the fourteen day listing period in writing, right in the listing agreement.

Does that mean your home goes off the market in fourteen days? Not at all. When we take the listing we'll also provide you with two extension forms, one for three months more and one for six months more. This is a simple, one-page form. Once you are convinced that we're the right company to help you with your move, go ahead and sign whichever one you're comfortable with and we'll extend the listing for you.

(And by the way, if you're really in a hurry to move, we already will have discussed what you need to do to get your home sold quickly, and your home may already be in escrow at the end of fourteen days.)

Why Do We Offer a 14-Day Risk-Free Trial?

Why should we take our listings for only fourteen days, when every single training video and real estate seminar we've ever attended tells us we should try to convince our sellers to give us as much possible time on our listings as we can negotiate?

First, I'm confident that my agents will do what they tell you they'll do, and that you'll be happy enough with the job they do that you'll naturally want to extend your listing if needed.

Secondly, if that hasn't happened, for whatever reason, I want you to feel first of all that you don't have to continue if you don't want to. Equally as importantly, whether you're happy or not, I want you to know that the company you hired stands behind its services 100%. That's why I make every agent who works for me do two other things when they list your home with us:

• They have to give you my personal cell phone number, so if you ever have a problem or question about any aspect of your listing, or if your agent is busy and something needs to be done right away, you can reach a decision maker who will do everything in his power to answer your question or fix the problem. I will personally return your call within six hours. Typically it will be much, much sooner than that, but sometimes I get busy during the day and I never want to over-promise. (If you call late at night, please count on a response within ten hours).
• They have to make sure you have a copy of our feedback form, so you have another method of letting us know how we're doing.

We're Ready To Prove It To You

When I was writing the last section about why we offer a 14-day, risk-free trial, one idea kept bugging me. The idea was that the real question here is not "Why are we offering a service guarantee?" Obviously we're doing it because we really want your business. The real question should be, why is that so rare in the industry?

I think some brokers feel that some sellers might take advantage of a short listing period to get away without paying a commission. To me that misses two fundamental points. First, any seller that will take advantage of you on a fourteen day listing would do the same on a ninety day listing. More importantly, it misses the point that the overwhelming 99.99% majority of the folks we've met in our business have been basically honest people who don't mind paying for excellent service, but who want to make sure they've made the right choice.

Another reason that service guarantees are so rare is that many agents -- even very good ones -- don't fully appreciate the true value they provide when they pull out all the stops to make sure another person can move on with their lives and realize their dreams. They lack the confidence to back up their work with a risk free guarantee, and resort to various types of sales pressure to make sure they have listings to sell.

The truth is I believe in our customers, and I believe in my agents because I hired them and I watch how hard they work for our clients. My name is John Lockwood, and I believe in my agents enough to put my name on the company and to stand 100% behind my work and theirs.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Act today by filling out the form at the right to get a free on-site analysis of your home's market value and a no-pressure consultation about the sale of your home. Remember that if you decide to use us, you have 14 days to see for yourself if all this faith I have in my agents is justified. If it's not, I'd really love to know why, and you'll have my cell phone number if you want to tell me, but you're not obligated in any way -- you won't even have to pick up the phone to fire us!