Tag Archives: Kansas City Listing Agents

Have a home repair, service issue or update needed and need a contractor recommendation?

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The Jason Brown Group

The Jason Brown Group works every day with the best contractors, vendors and salespeople in the metro area. We have an army of help at our side that ensures we’re able to quickly get our clients with the right people to help get their homes ready to go on the market, deal with issues that arise while on the market and help navigate through the real estate inspection process with home buyers. We only recommend companies who consistently provide our clients with honest and reliable work at competitive prices.

We can point you in the right direction for virtually any issue you face or any need that may arise with your home… From the interior of your home to the exterior, from contractors who do the work to vendors who provide services. In almost all cases, we’ve had another client already go through whatever you may be dealing with and we have someone who’s ready to help you. It’s difficult to get on our vendor list but easy to be removed… We have strict requirements to get on our list and only vendors who are able to satisfy our past clients remain on our list… And satisfaction is determined in many ways, a few of those ways being honesty, reliability to timeliness and price.

We have recommendations for all of the following and more aspects of a home… Acoustic Fabric Finishing, Appliance Repair, Appraisals, Architects, Attorneys, Business Services, Cabinets, Carpet, Carpet Cleaning, Carpet Stretching, Chimney Repair, Concrete, Decks, Dirt work, Drainage, Drywall, Electricians, Engineers, Estate Sales, Fencing, Financial Advisor, Fireplace, Foundation Repair, Garage Doors, Garage Door Openers, General Contractor, Glass, Granite, Guttering, Handyman, Hardwood Flooring, Home Cleaning, Home Clean Outs, Home Inspections, Home Staging, Home Design, Home Warranty, Homeowner’s Insurance, HVAC, Lawn Care, Landscaping, Lighting, Locksmith, Mirrors, Mold Remediation, Mortgage Lender, Moving Company, Mudjacking, Painting, Pest Control, Photographers, Plumbing, Pool maintenance, Property Management, Radon Mitigation, Roofing, Security Systems, Septic Systems, Sewers, Sprinkler Systems, Stucco, Shower Doors, Sump Pump,  Surveyor, Tiling, Title Company, Tree Maintenance, Trim Carpentry, Windows, Window Cleaning, Window Treatments, Wood rot, Water Remediation, 1031 Exchange Services.

If you need a home repair, have a service issue or are thinking about making an update to your home, click the link below to let us know and we’ll send you a recommendation to a local contractor or vendor that we trust to work on our own home and who can help you…

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Selling Your Kansas City Area Home? Where It’s Advertised Is More Important Than Ever

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

Knowing where your home is going to be advertised is a critical part of the home selling process. We go to great lengths to promote our sellers homes because we know home buyers aren’t just using the same old methods to locate homes. Knowing which sites are most popular with home buyers is very important and what’s popular today may not be tomorrow. So we’re constantly studying the trends to help our sellers maximize their real estate investments.

Over the past several months, there’s been a lot of fluctuation among the most popular real estate sites. When I had a seller tell me another listing agent told them the only places their home needed to be advertised were MLS and Realtor.com, it took just a few minutes to show them how severely they’d be limiting themselves if they relied solely on that marketing plan. Though Realtor.com is still a popular site, it’s no longer #1 in home buyer’s hearts. That distinction falls to Yahoo Real Estate. In fact, Zillow is now consistently ranking ahead of Realtor.com so you can see the importance of having a thorough marketing plan.

You may be surprised to hear that if you add ALL three of these top sites together, they still only account for 20% of the market share. This means that even if an agent is marketing your home in ALL three of the most visited real estate sites online, you’ll still be missing out on 80% of the market share if nothing else is done. Real estate has really changed in recent years and I’d look forward to sitting down with you and showing you where the other 80% of home buyers are searching for homes.


Posted by Jason Brown

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90% Of Kansas City Home Buyers Will First View Online The Home They Purchase

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

In today’s buyer’s market, Kansas City home sellers need to be sure they hire a listing agent who’s up on current real estate trends and prepared to market a home in the places buyers are looking. If you’ve interviewed a Kansas City listing agent recently and the Realtor told you that open houses are going to be a prime basis for getting your home sold, that’s a farce. Open houses sell between 1 to 2 percent of homes and agents who are doing them are looking to turn the tire kickers into buyers many months down the road. That’s just the reality of open houses.


My group’s marketing plan is extremely thorough and goes far beyond the traditional marketing methods most home sellers have come to expect. We know that 90% of Kansas City home buyers will first view online the home they end up purchasing. Many agents have started putting their listings in a few prominent places, but we put our listings in ALL of the prominent places. I tell sellers to check a few weeks after we have their homes listed and let me know if they see anywhere important that we don’t have their home listing. I can go months without hearing any suggestions from home sellers and that reinforces that we’re marketing our listings well.

Whenever a home seller does have a suggestion, we thoroughly review it and make a decision on either adding it to our marketing plan or explaining why it’s not worth the investment. One of the reasons we’re so organized is because we have one marketing plan for our homes. We don’t blow in the wind and do ineffective print advertising when the occasional seller asks about it. Every moment and dollar that we’d spend on such things would take resources away from doing the things that truly get homes sold in today’s real estate market. This means that we provide the same marketing plan whether the home is a $100,000 home or a million dollar home. So the next time you speak with a listing agent be sure the agent isn’t basing their marketing plan on ineffective marketing methods like open houses, print advertising and relying on the MLS as the only real tool for getting your home sold.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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No Amount Of Marketing Will Overcome a Grossly Overpriced Kansas City Real Estate Listing

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

There’s no amount of marketing I can do to overcome a grossly over-priced home. In the past 15 years as a land developer and Kansas City real estate agent I’ve sold more than 1,000 properties. In all of those home sales, I don’t recall ever saying to myself, wow that marketing just got us an extra $10,000 out of that home!  I’ve heard agents claim that their marketing generated such excitement in a home that it led to multiple offers, a higher sales price, etc… OK, maybe. But I’ll debate that the multiple offers were made because the home was perceived to be a great deal once the buyer’s viewed the home, rather than because of the home’s marketing plan.

I’m not saying marketing is unimportant. It’s critical in getting buyers interested in a home and I believe less than 5% of Kansas City real estate agents can compete with the marketing I do for my sellers. So I obviously find it important. But I’m not so naive as to think that knowing the how, when and where to market a home is going to get the home sold. It can get a buyer interested but from there buyers will be analyzing several critical factors in determining whether it’s the right home for them. The first thing most buyers ask themselves is whether the location is great. By location I mean the part of the city the home is located, the part of the home community the home is located, the direction the home is facing, what’s behind the home, etc.

From there, buyers start looking closely at the functionality of the home… by that I mean the size, layout and curb appeal of the home. If all of the works, buyers start eying the condition of the home more closely. Usually a home has to be in poor condition for a buyer to rule the home out if it’s met all the other factors.  Besides, that can be overcome by the factor I’ve yet to mention… the most important factor of all… price. Pricing of a home is absolutely THE most important in getting your home sold. Price must factor in everything I’ve mentioned plus the current market conditions. You see, if a home is priced 15% above comparable homes in the area, it won’t matter if the home is located on a cul-de-sac lot, if it’s the largest home in the neighborhood, if the home is completely updated with appealing decor, etc.

So, the progression most buyers will go through in buying their home is…
1. Marketing.
2. Location.
3. Condition.
4. Functionality.
5. Price.

But, if you asked me to rank them in order of importance, the first and last factor are flipped…
1. Price.
2. Location.
3. Condition.
4. Functionality.
5. Marketing.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Receive Kansas City Home Community Updates Emailed To You From The Kansas City MLS

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

If you’re thinking of buying or selling an area home and have narrowed things down to a particular community, you should get set up to receive automatic market updates on the community. This will allow you to receive an automated email whenever a new listing comes on the market, when a home goes under contract and even when a come closes — thus allowing you to see the sales price of the homes! Everyone likes to know what homes are selling for in the neighborhood they’re considering buying or selling in, so let me help you stay current on the local market.

The only requirement I have for setting you up to receive these Kansas City MLS updates is that you confirm you’re not already tied into an agency agreement or other agreement with another Kansas City real estate agent. I won’t ask for any commitment at this time to using me as your buyer’s agent or listing agent.  If you think I might be a great option to help you buy or sell a home, please email me your name, email address, the home community you want to receive updates on and also let me know whether you’re considering buying or selling in the neighborhood.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Thinking Of Taking Your Kansas City Home Off The Market For The Holidays?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

It’s that time of year! The leaves are down. It’s getting really cold outside. And the holiday season is here! For home sellers who didn’t get their homes under contract before December, showings typically slow down heavily this time of year. Many sellers analyzing their situation decide it makes sense to take their homes off the market for 30 days or so. Others simply pull it off the market completely and choose to restart in the early spring. Some will wait 90 days so the days on market starts over on their listing. But savvy Kansas City homes sellers will consider all the factors when deciding whether to take their home off the market.


Remember, there may be fewer home buyers out shopping this time of year but there’s also typically far fewer listings – one of the reasons being the sellers who pull their homes temporarily off the market for the holidays! Less competition of course means higher prices for Kansas City home sellers. Probably more important to me, the buyers who ARE out looking are likely not just out kicking tires. If they’re going to be out looking in 20 degree weather, I’m betting they plan to buy a home very soon. The buyers I work with during the holiday season are usually in a great mood too, thinking about family and excited about the prospects of getting into a new home.

Kansas City MLS stats show the month of December is great for sellers in regards to volume of new listings compared to home sales. Corporate transfers are also in the works at this time of year and usually remain abundant through the month of January. As far as the inconvenience, don’t let it be. There’s nothing wrong with picking a day or two – or even a week – during the holiday season where you won’t permit showings. Most people understand it’s the holidays. While taking your home off the market is never ideal, it can be a good compromise to taking your home off the market for a longer period of time.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

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Is Your Overland Park Realtor Using Quick Response Barcodes On Their Marketing To Get Your Home Sold?

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

With more than 4, 5… 10 months of inventory on the market in some of our local areas, it’s important that sellers are choosing agents who understand and make use of today’s technological advancements. 87% of home buyers are currently finding their homes online, before they ever step foot in the door. So your home better be in all the places buyers are looking for homes — and be memorable once they find it.

Some of the best buyers are the ones who have narrowed down the area they want to live and are spending time driving through a particular neighborhood. When that happens, does your agent provide home brochures at the yard sign? Probably 3/4 of the listings I see do NOT have brochures. That amazes me. Print advertising such as newspapers are dying out, but one type of print marketing that is still a very effective means for marketing a home are the brochures a listing agent puts at the yard sign. When buyers drive by our listings, we provide color brochures on glossy, water-resistant paper. We want to be sure they take something valuable with them to help them remember your home by later. We also want them to be able to get more home details and more photos than can be put on a brochure.

If we can get a home buyer to go and view your home online, we know that they’ll benefit from the mapping features online, get to view a virtual tour of your home, ask any questions and schedule a showing on your home. So how do we get buyers to our listings online? We were one of the first Overland Park Realtors back around 2005 to provide each of our listings their own domain to take potential home buyers straight to the listing online — rather than having to navigate through our home page or featured listings to get to the client’s listing. We still advertise a unique web listing domain for each of our listings. For example, here’s the domain for an Overland Park home we listed this week… http://16044.JBPRealtyGroup.com.

We’ve more recently piggy backed on these web domains through the use of Quick Response (QR) Barcodes on our brochures. This allows potential buyers to use their smart phones to snap a photo (with the camera in their phones) and a bar code application on their phones will take them straight to that home’s listing online – without ever typing anything! Most new phones come with a scanner app already included. If you have an older Blackberry, iPhone or Android a couple of good FREE applications are ScanLife and NeoReader.  The most important thing you can do when listing your home is hiring an Overland Park real estate agent who is on the cutting edge when it comes to marketing their real estate listings.


Posted by Jason A. Brown

Don’t Be Confused About How Seller Paid Closing Costs Work When Selling Your Leawood Kansas Home

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

I had a Leawood Kansas home buyer sheepishly tell me they were hoping the home seller would pay their closing costs. I told them it was no problem to ask a seller to do so, but that we should avoid going down that path if possible. Any time a seller pays a buyer’s closing costs, the price of the home is artificially inflated by the correlating amount — and this could potentially create problems when the appraisal comes in later.  Despite the risks, it made sense for this buyer because they didn’t have enough money saved to cover both the necessary down payment and the closing costs too.

The process of a seller paying a buyer’s closing costs at closing is not all that complicated. Generally, on homes over $300,000, I rarely see a buyer ask the seller to pay any of the buyer’s closing costs. On homes under $200,000 I often see buyers ask the seller to pay some portion of their closing costs. In most cases, a seller won’t reject this request and they’ll instead just view the amount asked for in seller paid closing costs as a buyer asking that much less for the home (than what they offered in way of the offer price). Consult with a Kansas City mortgage lender to find out what percentage of the purchase price a seller would be allowed to pay of the buyer’s closing costs and still have the buyer qualify for the loan program.

If a home is listed at $200,000 and a buyer offers $195,000 and asks for NO seller paid closing cost, they’ve made an offer very similar to a buyer who comes in and offers $198,000 and ask the seller to pay $3,000 of the buyer’s closing costs. Both would equate to a $195,000 sale price overall. The biggest difference is the seller may have to pay a real estate commission on the $3,000 higher sale price in scenario two. If they did, $3,000 times a 6% commission would leave the seller paying $180 higher real estate commission. Pretty minor in the big picture. But even that rarely happens because most listings are advertised to buyer’s agents as the commission being paid on the NET sale’s price – meaning the seller wouldn’t have to pay the commission on that $3,000 anyhow.

In our current market, the appraisal should be a consideration in whether seller paid closing costs for the buyer should be part of the deal. If an appraiser determines the seller paid closing costs have inflated the home price by that amount (they have, haven’t they?), then it’s not out of the question that the appraisal could come in lower than the sale’s price. If so, we have a problem Houston. For this reason, it’s always best to avoid seller paid closing costs if a buyer has the money to pay their closing costs. But in a situation where the buyer can come up with their 3.5% FHA down payment but doesn’t have enough for the closing costs, then it could make sense to have the seller pay some of the buyer’s closing costs.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s important that a buyer understand they aren’t really “saving” the amount the seller is paying in closing costs. They just don’t have to pay it up front. They are no doubt paying more for the home than would have if they hadn’t asked for the seller paid closing costs and they also will be paying interest on that amount since it has been financed into the home loan (by way of the higher sale price on the home). And when you sell the home later, what you net on the home sale will be that much less, because a buyer isn’t going to view your home as worth $3,000 more just because the seller agreed to pay your closing costs (and you were willing to pay a higher sale price to make it happen). But, in many cases, seller paid closing costs can make sense for both a buyer and seller and be what it takes to make a deal happen.

Posted by Jason A. Brown

Be Sure Your Listing Agent Sends You A Link To Your Home’s Kansas City MLS Listing

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

There are lots of reasons that top Kansas City listing agents have their home sellers closely review the MLS listing after it goes Active. I believe it’s absolutely vital that buyers and buyer’s agents are given accurate information on a property. Buyer’s are certainly basing their purchase decision not just on their visual inspection of a home but also on the information being provided about the home. I’ve never had it happen to one of my clients, but I’ve heard a lot of stories of mistakes costing sellers or listing agents several thousands of dollars. The old story of, I’m sorry but the Seller’s Disclosure said the refrigerator was staying should keep every Kansas City real estate agent  working hard to present accurate property information.

In addition to giving accurate information, it’s important that a home’s features aren’t overstated in a manner that’s deceiving or understated in a way that prevents buyers from getting excited about scheduling a showing on a home. Personally, as soon as one of my listings goes Active, I send my sellers a link to the MLS listing, a link to the listing on my web site and an attachment with their home brochure. I give them time to review this info before we produce any further marketing pieces. Our information is usually spot on, but if we have indicated a wrong elementary school serving an area or missed checking that a home has a humidifier present, it’s important that we correct this immediately.

A good listing agent prides themselves on taking quality photos and allowing the seller to review the photos early in the process. Having another set of eyes – especially the people who know the home better than anyone else – look things over is never a bad idea. It’s BOTH the seller and listing agent’s job to present accurate info, so I really can’t imagine a seller NOT reviewing their MLS listing for accuracy. It really is a shock to me that so few agents take this step.

So what are some the of the most irritating and ridiculous things I’ve seen as a Kansas City Buyer’s agent? A pet peeve of mine is when a listing agent puts the words “see Mapquest” under the directions portion of MLS. Seriously? I don’t understand how anyone could be so lazy as to skip over the directions to the home – without getting people to the home, you have NOTHING.

Another of my favorites is the one photo listing. I don’t care if the listing is a bank foreclosure, every home should have tons of photos.  Photos sell homes and it’s apparent to me that many foreclosure listing agents don’t care about getting top dollar for their listings and they know the seller (the bank) won’t even realize it doesn’t have lots of photos. NO photos are worse than bad photos because just imagine the visions running through a buyer’s mind when there are NO photos present.


Posted by Jason A. Brown

Housing Still Viewed As Safe Investment, But Upper Bracket Kansas City Home Sellers Beg To Differ

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Checking The Pulse Of The Kansas City Real Estate Market

I’ve spoken with many upper bracket Kansas City home sellers who are holding out for a market rebound so they can sell their homes. But we just aren’t seeing signs of that happening. Most upper bracket sellers who purchased their homes in the last 5 years are faced with losing money, if nothing else then on the real estate commission, title insurance and other costs associated with selling a home. I remember back around 2005 home sellers were NOT happy if they couldn’t sell their homes 2 years after buying, make enough to cover the costs of selling AND still profit $10,000+ on the home sale.Ah, the good old days of skyrocketing real estate appreciation. Well, those days are gone and the reality is that I don’t see home prices rebounding like the gains made back in the stock market – at least not for several years. Even though real estate isn’t what it used to be it is still one of the safest investments in our unstable economy and, eventually, Sellers will get back to earning a modest yearly appreciation on their investments. I know, I know… try telling that to the homeowners facing foreclosure. Caution is certainly advised but not getting back into real estate could be a serious mistake. Real estate has historically been one of the safest investment strategies around and since we all need a place to live, real estate will remain the investment choice of many.

In fact, a Fannie Mae survey done just this year asked Americans what they viewed as a safe investment. The results may surprise you… 70% felt putting their savings in their home was a safe investment, second only to the old favorite money markets – which 74% found safe. You may be surprised – I wasn’t – that only 17% viewed stocks as safe. Seeing as just about everyone lost 50% of their stock portfolios, that is certainly a risky place to invest.

Being an upper bracket home seller in our current real estate market can be downright nerve-racking. I didn’t have to do an in-depth study to know it’s a struggle out there. But I wanted some facts, so I decided to take a 10 year look at home prices in 10 random upper bracket home communities. I only wanted to consider subdivisions that were in existence 10 years ago and I jotted down the following subdivision names… Falcon Ridge, Nottingham By The Green, Nottingham St Andrews, Pavilions, Royse, Windsor Hills, Whitehorse, The Hills Of Ironhorse, Nottingham Forest South and Fairway Hills. Here’s the results for all these subdivisions combined into one…

Combined Average Sales Price By Year
(total number sold in parenthesis):
2000 = $421,000 (465)
2001 = $444,000 (400)
2002 = $451,000 (346)
2003 = $456,000 (362)
2004 = $478,000 (376)
2005 = $511,000 (369)
2006 = $535,000 (258)
2007 = $503,000 (150)
2008 = $478,000 (171)
2009 = $472,000 (144)
2010 (partial year) = $453,000 (41)


Even before getting to the average sale’s prices, I was caught by surprise by just how far the raw number of home sales is falling each year. There were 2/3 less sales in 2009 when compared to 2000. That’s astounding really. The average sales prices also provide an interesting look inside our real estate market over the last 10 years. Home prices continued to increase until 2006 and then began a free-fall over the next couple years. It was promising to see the average home prices held their own in 2009 (compared to 2008) but with only 144 total homes sold in these 10 Kansas City home communities, I have a feeling there’s going to be a lot more Kansas City home sellers standing pat for the time being.

Posted by Jason A. Brown