Save Yourself a Lot of money and frustration

Here are some FACTS that will help you sell your property.

Don't advertise in out of town papers.

If you were looking for property in your town would you look in the New York times? Neither would anyone else.

Advertising will not sell your property !

Advertising only gets buyers for other properties for your listing agent.

agent will do what everyone of us do. LOOK IN THE COMPUTER at our MLS data where every single property available (except "for sale by owners") is at our fingertips. If your property is right for one of the several thousand inquires a day that cross paths with that system, depending on market conditions, you will have your buyer. One oEventually every buyer out here will wind up talking to an agent that is a member of the local MLS. That f the most valuable parts of that commission you pay is buying into that system of hundreds of agents all looking at the same data instantaneously while they're talking to a buyer who just called off an add for your listing. As they tell the person about your listing it will always become apparent that your property isn't just right for that person. But the agent is looking at many similar properties on the screen and

Your local multiple listing service will sell it.

All the properties in that system offer half the commission to any agent that brings a buyer for you. Having ANY agent, belonging to the local multiple listing service, put your property in that listing service, makes it available to the several hundred, or even thousand, agents that each have a couple or three buyers they are actively working with at that time. The chances of your agent having the buyer are slim to none, but multiply two or three times several hundred agents in your MLS and the odds are great there will be a more than one buyer who will pay fair market value (or two or three percent more) for your property.

The only selling involved in the real estate business is selling the seller !

Real estate "companies" are not companies

in the sense you may think. The only part that is a company is the owner, receptionist and other support staff the are salaried employees. The agents, whether one or one thousand, are all independent contractors who pay the "company" for services, desks, phones, etc., including the very expensive service of giving the illusion to the public that it is a big company.

The service you get will be no better than the individual agent you are dealing with regardless of which agency that agent is paying to help give the illusion that he or she is somehow a bigger "company" than the next outfit.

There are only two "companies" you should be concerned with. One, the individual agent, and two, the quality of the Multiple Listing Service the agent belongs to.

When one of us picks up a lead on a buyer (usually from persona referrals from years in the business, or from an add we placed for one of our listing to please the seller (because no matter how much evidence you present, seller just won't believe that advertising doesn't sell thier property. It just gets buyers for other properties for the listing agent

Realtors are forced to appeal to the misconceptions of the public, because intelligent, experienced sellers absolutely refuse to accept these facts.

1.) We don't sell real estate, it sells itself !  We just show it to the buyers and if they like it and thier qualified, they buy it.

2.) We don't sell buyers, we educate buyers !  We don't have to say a word. Just show the property and write it up.

3) We SELL the SELLER ! That's the only selling involved in the real estate business!

1.) Real estate sells itself, if it's in the Multiple Listing Service. Advertising only gets buyers for other properties for the agent. The chances your property will be right for one of the your listing agents half dozen active buyers are very slim. But the chances that the buyer you're looking for will be among one of the several hundred, or thousand, other agent's buyers are very high. That's why it's a tremendous disservice to the seller for the listing agent to put the property on "wavers" where it's not listed in the MLS where half the commission is offered to any one of hundreds of agents out there if the bring a the buyer.

Any one of the 840 members of our MLS can bring buyers to you home just as well as the next one.

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2.) We don't sell BUYERS, we educate BUYERS. You just listed you property with the most aggressive, in your face person who came to be interviewed and told you about all the advertising they do and how they are all hooked up to gather in thier office and sell all thier listing in the office.

A.) Advertising will not sell your home

B.) Every realtor in an office is an independent contractor who is competing with everyone in that office just as much as they are with the other hundreds who are not in that in that office

C.) Real estate "companies" are another appeal to the lack of knowledge of the consumer. The only thing that is a "company" is the receptionist and other salaried employees. Every agent buying services from that "company" is a company unto themselves. The service you get will be no better that that one person company you are dealing with. The organization you think of as a company makes a profit by selling services to all the agents that have hung thier licenses with the fantasy "company". The agents pay a hefty chunk of thier earnings to the "company" primarily for benefit of the public's fantasy that they are part of a big "company"

The realtor who will actually bring the offer on your property to your listing agent will be a very sensitive, intelligent, listener who appears to be almost passive and only telling the lookers negative things about your home. They may even sit outside while the buyers are inside looking. Unless you're there (very bad idea) and then they'll fake stuff to appeal to your inaccurate fantasy about selling. Many successful listing agents (they're the ones the make the big bucks you're heard about) don't work with buys because they can't. Buyers are offended by aggressive behavior and manipulative sales people who are good at getting listings. So would you.

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 3.) The only selling involved is SELLING THE SELLER ! Once that listing is signed, that's the last effective selling involved thru the closing. Your property goes into the MLS, one of thousands of licensees picks up a buyer off a sign (over 90%  of all advertising leads) in front of someone else's home or an add for someone else's  property. They search the MLS while the prospect is on the phone and finds several homes that fit the buyers needs. One of them is yours. Buyer is driven around to a short list. They walk into your while the agent holds the door. They are 90% sold in the foyer. Wise agent shuts up. Waits outside while couple talk in private. Says nothing about your home except to make sure they understand all the negative things about your home. They come out of your home and tell the agent sitting out side or standing in the kitchen that this is it ! This is a brand new agent that has never sold a property before ! The only thing that was necessary to sell your home was being listed in the MLS.

Every you Everything else was a waist of time and money. The case of color flyers goes into the trash unopened. The add in the Los Angeles Times only gets a couple of unqualified callers who the agent picked up for buyers for other properties. The thousands of dollars of advertising in the local paper only made the paper rich and got one other lead for the agent for some other property. That's the only reason the broker is will to waist that money other that the fact that it appeals to the sellers prejudices. Every one benefited from that advertising except you. Especially if you paid for any of it.

As far as benefiting you,

Now come the need for an experienced listing agent. Negotiations.

Successful listing agents put on a truly aggressive, in your face persona, because we understand the public carries a very inaccurate fantasy about sales people and selling real estate. When we are being interviewed by you we are doing the only real selling done in residential real estate sales. You are getting hit with a sepal we've developed to appeal to every inaccurate fantasy you have, the biggest one being that advertising will sell your property. You are truly being sold ! You may also be convinced if this person can sell you, they can sell your property. Wrong!

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This web site is designed to be of service to people considering buying real estate and to give them a sampling of the properties available. It's one of the ways we market real estate for people who have listed property with us. If you have real estate you want to sell, in Santa Fe, Santa Fe County and Northern New Mexico, or ranches anywhere in the state, please allow us to give you an overview of how we market real estate and how we can be of service to you. You may even find we have a buyer for your property. We've been very successful in listing and selling properties in this area for many years. We are members of the Santa Fe Association of Realtors and the Santa Fe Multiple Listing Service, the Realtors Association of New Mexico and the National Association of Realtors.

Jim Ratchford

Broker

For a free comparative market analysis (CMA), and information on how to sell your property, click on the "CONTACT US" link at bottom of page.

(505)   988-4100

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