Tag Archives: Shawnee Listing Agents

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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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