Exposure - Will Your Buyers Find Your Home?

If you've been reading along, by know you know that Price is King. Those of you who enjoyed a fairy tale or two as a child are no doubt wondering who the Queen of our story is. I believe the throne belongs to exposure. Exposure is the second most important factor that determines whether your home will sell or sit.

All else being equal, a home that's fully exposed to the market will sell more quickly, and at a higher price, than one that isn't. We believe this helps to account for that favorite statistic of the National Association of Realtors®, that for sale by owner homes command a price that averages 20% lower than the price of a home sold through a Realtor®. It's not that Realtors are magic negotiators (if we were, I'd be out selling five dollar bills for six dollars). However, there is simply no substitute for the enormous exposure that one gets simply from an MLS listing that offers a fair commission to the buyer's agent. Moreover, if your listing agent is worth her salt at all, she's going to work hard and spend a pretty penny of their side of the commission to make sure your home is prominently exposed both to other agents and to the general public.

We think, too, that the recent popularity of the discount brokers is partly fed by consumers who think all agents are alike when it comes to exposure. Yet in fact, discount brokers make their money precisely by cutting back in some way on the exposure of your home. Here are several popular ways that discount brokers limit their costs by limiting your home's exposure:

• They have sellers pay the cost of ads / yard signs / etc.
• They don't show your home for you, but leave it to you to hold your house open, meet with buyers, etc. (For most folks that don't mind tying up their weekend, this tradeoff may be acceptable. However, many homes are sold to serious buyers during business hours).
• They don't list your home in the Multiple Listing Service, or,
• If they do list your home in the Multiple Listing Service, they discount the commission paid to the agent bringing in the buyer.