Top Selling Real Estate Agent in Syracuse - Sells His Own Home in Only 12 Days!

Oct. 28, 2012 - PRLog -- I had the pleasure to interview for the 3rd time this top selling real estate agent that operates in the Greater Syracuse New York area. You can learn more about Bob McTague and his team by visiting this past article:

http://www.prlog.org/11766349-top-real-estate-agent-in-syracuse-new-york-sells-more-syracuse-ny-homes-than-the-competition.html

These are the questions I asked Bob McTague to find out how he sold his own home in only 12 short days:

How did you sell your home in only 12 days, when I hear the average days on market for homes in your area is 120+ days?-

Bob McTague: The average days on market in the Syracuse NY area is about 160 days. However, this is for those sellers that are not listening to the market. In other words, the market is not negative for my clients that listen to me about how to price their home. Most of the homes I market, sell in 30 days or less. This is not due to underpricing the homes, it is a combination of market value pricing combined with good marketing. So, I employed the same techniques on my own home that I do for any of my clients homes.

What are those "special techniques?"-

Bob McTague: They involved my Exclusive listing syndication system, which markets homes to over 60 websites, including video sites as well. Market value pricing. Great photos and descriptions, and making sure the home is saleable.

What do you mean by "Saleable?"-

Bob McTague: We do not market and list every home we are presented with. We are very selective. The home must be saleable, in order for us to have success for our clients. When I was selling my own home, I applied the same principles. I made sure our home was decluttered (I rented a POD and cleaned out the house and placed everything in the storage bin) I depersonalized and took down any family photos and re painted about 50% of the house to match what most buyers are looking for, and cleaned up the interior trim. I deordorized the house and made sure there were no odors. I semi staged the house with use of my own furniture and spent about $200.00 on other home goods. I changed some carpets. I cleaned up the curb appeal attending to landscaping. Most importantly, I had a pricing strategy. I decided to reduce the price by $5,000 to $10,000 each week to my bottom range price until it sold.

Wow! That is an aggressive pricing strategy? Some would say that you were a discount seller? What was your price range?

Bob McTague: I was not a discount seller and I did not give my house away (I hear many sellers make this statement) My final listing price was $347,000 ( this price bracket has a perceived average days on market of over 120 days ) and after 5 showings in less than 2 weeks we had an offer less than 3% under the asking price.

Is this typical in your neighborhood and area?

Bob McTague: Well at the time we were selling, there were 4 homes on the market in my neighborhood. I was the only one that sold. Some of them took their home off the market after 4 months. Another one could not sell and rented their home.  There is a for sale by owner that has still not been able to sell to this day after 6 months!!!

All of these sellers are not listening to what the market is telling them. All of these homes were either overpriced or were not "saleable," in my opinion. There are buyers out there. Today, it is a buyers market but stable. Buyers are smarter and more careful with their money. Typically, if you purchased a home from 2005 to 2011, you will not see any appreciation in most areas... regardless of what you may have done to the house. We are now back to 2005 pricing models. For the areas that do have positive appreciation, the rates are about 2-3%. To learn how I would price your home visit one of my websites: http://www.SyracuseCMA.com

Bob, I appreciate your honesty and think you have a great strategy...

Bob McTague: Thank you. Yes, it is all about being direct and honest.