1. Quality, Quality, Quality. Nobody in this region outdoes the quality job of marketing that we do for our clients. We will not just put a sign on your property and forget about you. When the housing market is slow you especially need top quality marketing. Our marketing plan will make your property look as good as it possibly can.
  2. Exposure. The more people who are exposed to your property, the better chance you have of selling it. You also stand a greater chance of getting a better price for it. We will give your home far more exposure than you can by trying to sell it yourself. We will also give your home far more exposure than most other agents in the region do. Read on to see all we do for our clients.
  3. We will do professional quality photography to present your property in its best light. We own very expensive state-of-the-art digital photography equipment, and we know how to use it. We shoot all our own photography and often use manual settings to get the best exposure possible. Your photos will not be under or over exposed. We like to have the photography sell your property before people even drive up to it. We typically take 150-200 photos of your property to be able to select 15-20 that we like best.
  4. We will place a good quality yard sign on your property. It will have a brochure box attached.
  5. We will provide a constant supply of full-color brochures printed on heavy card stock for your box. Unlike most other agents, we use card stock so they do not slump down and wrinkle in the box. Flier Example
  6. Your property will be listed in 2 different MLS systems—Colorado Springs and Pueblo. We post 15 or more photos on each MLS site.
  7. Your property will be posted on our CoolColoradoHomes.com website with 15 or more color photos that anyone can print on their home computer anywhere in the world. We believe our website is the highest quality real estate website in this region.
  8. A full 2-page printable pdf spec sheet about your property will be posted on CoolColoradoHomes.com. The spec sheet will give detailed information such as lot size, square footage, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, garage type and size, which rooms your home has, individual room dimensions, and much more. Spec Sheet Example
  9. A printable plat map of your property from the county records will be posted on our CoolColoradoHomes.com website. Plat Map Example
  10. A printable roadmap showing people how to get to your home will be posted on our CoolColoradoHomes.com website. Roadmap Example
  11. We will do a virtual tour of your property. We shoot all our own scenes for your tour. The tour will be top quality. (It will not have the dizzying "fisheye" effect that many competing virtual tours have.) We produce it entirely ourselves. It will have narration that explains each scene of the tour. We know of no other agent in the entire region who has a room-by-room narrated virtual tour. We do not know of anyone anywhere who produces a virtual tour with better audio and video quality than we do. Links to your tour will be posted on CoolColoradoHomes.com, Realtor.com, Rawhide.net, the Pueblo MLS system, and the Canon City MLS system. Virtual Tour Example
  12. We will produce a cd that will have the virtual tour of your home. The cd will be designed to automatically run on a computer when it is placed into the cd drive. The cd will have a color photo of your home on the label as well as your home's address and our contact information. cd Label Example
  13. We will provide visitor packs to leave in your home for potential buyers and other agents to take with them when they tour your home. These visitor packs will include the cd of your home so that buyers and other agents can view the virtual tour on their computer when they get home. The packs will also include the full-color card stock flier and the spec sheet giving detailed information about your home. We will also include our business cards. These visitor packs will help buyers remember your home.
  14. Your property will be posted on Realtor.com, which is the top nationwide real estate website. It is viewed by millions of people worldwide. In addition to the basic single photo many agents use on Realtor.com, we pay for enhanced service which allows us to post 15 or more photos plus headlines and additional text. That site will have a link to our CoolColoradoHomes.com website for people who want more photos and more information about your property.
  15. We regularly mail about 12,000 postcards. These are mailed to residents of Pueblo West and to about 500 contacts in our database. These postcards are designed to get people to log on to our CoolColoradoHomes.com website where they can see your home and learn details about it. Postcard Example
  16. We have a jackpot drawing from those postcards. We give the winner a $50 gift card for some local restaurant or business. If the jackpot is not claimed, we add another card each mailing until there is a winner. The jackpot has gotten as high as $700.
  17. We are agents who pay attention to details and have a wealth of experience in working with people.
  18. Communication is important: We will communicate with you by phone, email, or ground mail at least once a week to keep you up-to-date on the progress of the sale of your home. We will send you weekly reports from realtor.com showing the number of people who are looking at your property on that site. That report will also indicate how serious the interest is by showing the number of "hits" who go on to look at your virtual tour. Realtor.com Report
  19. We will promptly make at least 3 efforts to contact every agent who shows your property and will email or phone you a brief summary of that agent's comments about your property, whether good, bad, or indifferent. (We do not edit or "spin" that agent's comments. We feel it's important to "tell it as it is" whether the agent's comments are good or bad.)
  20. Your property will be posted on Rawhide.net, our brokerage website.
  21. You will have a great company behind you. We admit we are prejudiced, but we believe our company, The Rawhide Company, is the best real estate company in the Pikes Peak region. It is one of the oldest and largest independent real estate companies in the area.
  22. We will promote your property and give color fliers to the 25+ Rawhide agents at our regular sales meetings.
  23. We will place two electronic lockboxes on your home—one to allow Pueblo agents to access your home and the other to allow Colorado Springs agents to access your home. That means that many more agents can conveniently show your home. These electronic lockboxes offer much more security than the cheaper old style combination lockboxes. This latest technology system allows our broker to check which agents have accessed your home and when they did so. Only agents who have an electronic key will be able to obtain your key from this lockbox. Their electronic key must be updated daily and is password protected. This offers security you cannot have if you try to sell your home yourself.
  24. We have a 24/7 "Showing Line" to set appointments for other agents to show your home. Many realtors can only set showings during office hours. Your home can be shown while you are at work or away on vacation. More showings mean a greater probability of finding someone who will love your home.
  25. Your home does not have to be expensive for us to be willing to market it. We market top quality homes in every price range, as you can see from the properties on our CoolColoradoHomes.com website. However, we do insist that our sellers do everything they can to make their home look the best it possibly can whenever it is shown. If you have browsed our website, I am sure you have noticed that our listings are way above average. We do not accept every listing. Experience has taught us that if someone does not care enough to have his/her home show well, it will be difficult to sell that home. When buyers see the quality of our virtual tours, they expect the home to look like that when they see it. If it is not, they are disappointed, frustrated, and even upset. It must be a team effort. If we do top quality marketing for your home, then we expect you to have your home in top condition when buyers see it. If you are unwilling to do that then, quite frankly we are not the agents you want. Our reputation is at stake. We are unwilling to work and spend money to advertise your home if it is not going to look great when it is shown.
  26. You may be considering trying to sell your home yourself. If you are, what is your motive? Usually people try this to save money. They do not want to pay a commission. They say, “Think how much more money I will pocket by selling it myself.” However, when buyers look at homes that are “For Sale By Owner” they usually think, “cheap.” They conclude, “Since the seller is not paying a commission, I can reduce my offer by the amount of the commission plus an additional bargaining amount.” Consequently, they usually make a lowball offer that is way below what the seller wants. It has been proven statistically over and over that your best chance of getting the highest “take home check” even after the commission is paid is by using a Realtor. By giving your home top quality marketing and top exposure Realtors consistently more than cover the cost of their commissions. By listing your property with us you essentially hire every Realtor in the region to find a buyer for your home. We increase the competition. The more people you have competing for your home the better price you are likely to get for it. Statistics also show that even when people start out trying to sell their homes themselves they most often end up eventually listing it with a real estate professional. Why waste precious time? Take a short cut and list it with us from the beginning so you can move forward with your plans more quickly.
  27. There are many potential pitfalls in selling your home, and we can help you avoid them. The Colorado sales contract alone is about 12 pages long. There are half a dozen other forms that must be used for every Colorado real estate transaction such as square footage disclosure, seller’s property disclosure, and lead based paint disclosure. There are many other details such as home inspections, financing, and title insurance that we professionals deal with every day. Making a mistake on any of them, overlooking any of them, or missing a contract deadline could cost you thousands of dollars. And did you know that you can still be held liable for such errors for years after your sale has closed? You might be thinking, Why so many contracts? Every line of these contracts was written because someone tried to cheat someone else. Let me repeat that. Every line of these contracts was written because someone tried to cheat someone else. There are people who would love to cheat you. Even if you have previously sold a home yourself without a problem, that is no guarantee that the next buyer will be honest. Professionally well-written contracts protect you.
  28. Why would you want to go through all the work, hassle, expense, and risk of marketing your home yourself only to end up with a smaller “take home check?” Do you really want to work harder when statistics say you are likely to “take home” less? Selling what is probably your most expensive possession is just not worth trying to do yourself.
  29. Sometimes sellers try to sell their homes themselves because they previously had a bad experience with a real estate agent. If that was your experience, please call us. You won’t have that experience with us. Many of our clients have been so pleased with our work that they said, “If you ever want a good reference, you can have people call us.”
  30. Finally, let’s talk about commissions. Even though our rates are very competitive, you can find discount agents who will list your property for a lower commission than we do. But think: If a discount agent is willing to give away some of his money just to get your listing, how quick do you think he is going to be to give away your money just to put the deal together? Furthermore, do you seriously believe that a discount agent is going to provide the quality and quantity of service that we provide? You may also have a realtor friend or relative who might be willing to discount the commission. But is that being "penny wise and dollar foolish"? Selling your home is a major business decision. Treat it as a business decision and do not allow loyalties to cloud your thinking. For something this important, you want top marketing. If your home sells for less because of inferior marketing, your "take home check" may be less than it would be by paying more to have our quality service. How many agents can you find who are willing to do all we do to market your home? Doing top quality marketing for your home takes major expenditures of both time and money. Advertising is expensive. Producing the virtual tour alone takes 10-15 hours of time. For an investment as expensive as your home, why would you want to settle for either less quality or less quantity of advertising? A better marketing plan is likely to sell your home more quickly and at a better price. That better price can more than cover the extra commission we must charge to provide the quality and quantity of advertising we do.
  31. Lowball danger: If you are comparing agents, watch out for a lowball danger. The agent who guarantees your house will sell in 30 or 60 days is not necessarily the best one to go with. To have that guarantee you might be agreeing to sell your home at a price below what it is really worth. If you price your home too low, you obviously lose money.
  32. Highball danger: On the other hand, there is also a Highball danger. When comparing agents, you will be tempted to list with the agent who claims he can get the highest price for your property. However, the agent who quotes you the highest value for your property isn't necessarily the best one to go with either. That agent may know it cannot be sold for that price and may only intend to get you to "sign on" with the intention of getting you to lower your price later when your home has not sold. We will not do that. If you overprice your home, people quickly lose interest in it. And even if you find a buyer, the deal usually collapses when the lender learns what the appraiser determines it is worth.
  33. We will do a free Comparative Market Analysis to help you determine what a realistic market value of your home is. The marketplace finally determines what your home is worth. It is influenced by these things:
    1. Market value is influenced by Both the national and local housing markets. They, in turn, are influenced by both interest rates and the national and local job markets.
    2. Market value is influenced by your home’s location.
    3. It is influenced by how well your home is marketed.
    4. It is influenced by how quickly you want to sell.
    5. It is influenced by how well your home shows, both regarding its overall condition and how neat and clean it is when shown.
  34. Appearance is Vital: Curb appearance is very important. Often when buyers look at homes, they decide not to even go into a home that looks bad outside. Interior appearance is just as important. Here are some tips to help your home sell more quickly.
    1. Fix up as much as you can.
    2. Put things into storage so your home will appear more spacious.
    3. Clean up. A home with dirty dishes in the sink and dirty clothes lying around leaves a major negative impression. Be ready to show your home whenever buyers are ready to look. Have it ready to show with 5 minutes notice. You may never get a second chance.
    4. Do a "Neatness Contract" with children.
    5. Having your property beautifully staged to be shown can make thousands of dollars of difference in your “take home check.” We will help you decide what to do to have your home in top showing condition. Ask us for a free booklet of practical tips for preparing your home to sell.

    Copyright© 2007-2009 by Wayne and Dianne Vogt

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