Michael Thornton

Michael Thornton's

Free Real Estate Information

I entered into real estate sales in July of 2005. I was told by several other real estate agents that it did not matter what I knew. "It is all about who you know." Well I found out that who you know helps but the public was so desperate for an agent who did more than just put their house on the MLS that it was clear; It did matter what I knew. I knew marketing and I knew that thinking outside of the box was critical in real estate.

Outside the box included my odd auctions. I had auctions that started at $40,000, had over 100 people attend them, had 20 to 30 bidders, and of the 8 auctions, only one high offer was not accepted by the home owner. He had termites and we had few bids. Of all my $40,000 homes, my highest sale was $205,000 but we did get an offer for $225,000 which was contingent upon the buyers selling their home.

The other agents Hated my auctions. They were not the usual way of doing things and I noticed that unusual helped me in selling but made my competition jealous of my fame.

I was the first real estate agent in my area who offered a full website for my listed houses. I sent full color postcards to surrounding homes advertizing the listed house. I listed my house not only on the MLS but also on every real estate website that I found. I had the local grocery stores and restaurants pass out color flyers of my listings. I used the newspaper but I knew that that was not much help. In these times of easy information. Few used the paper and almost everybody used the internet.

I hit the internet as hard as I could. the main websites ranked high in the search engines. A typical FSBO would list on a FSBO website and their homes got hardly seen. Mine were listed on the first page of a search of the home town or if a searcher typed in 'Real Estate for sale in..." I had them.

Of all the homes I sold, only one was because of the sign in the yard and one was because of the newspaper ad. Three were sold by other agents who found it on the MLS. The rest were because of the postcards or the internet.

I did very well. During a time when selling over a million was great, I did 3.2 million my first year.

I eventually got my Broker license in 2008 and learned what the other Brokers failed to learn.

In Illinois it is required to only get a 70% on the real estate agent test and then only 70% to get the Broker license. Many agents take the test over and over until they finally pass.

I passed the school's Agent test with a 92%. There were 5 Broker tests. I got from 89% to 94% on those 5 tests. In my defense; I got the 89% on a day when my temperature was 102 degrees and I was trying to pass out from flu.

I am not boasting to win your business. I am no longer an agent and will never do that again.

When I started to get notoriety, other Big agents started to want me to vanish. I had two different agents tell me that they overheard two different Big agents talking about me. One used the words "something needs to be done about him".

The real estate business is very political. An agent just about has to join the Realtor association and must join a local real estate office or start one new. An agent Must learn to work well with the other agents. Those other agents show the properties listed by every agent regardless of who has them listed. Having one overlook certain properties would be bad for a new agent's business as well as those property owners.

Early on I learned that some agents might have cared more for commissions than the love of the job. It is actually illegal for me to say that agents skip over low commission properties or that agents have a preference to show their own listings before showing another agents, even if it is a better choice. Illinois has laws that require agents to show all properties that fit the needs of a buyer even if that property pays very little or is listed by another agent. Clearly all agents follow that law. (gag me)

After three and a half years I had enough. Too many stories and too many bad agents to work with in that time for me to bear any more.

So why am I telling you this?

It is my personal opinion that few people need a real estate agent.

Yes they tell you that they will get your house in the paper every week until it sells and you Must be listed in the MLS to sell.

Poowee!

Here is what you need:

Price it right. Get the prices of like homes in your area. It doesn't matter what houses sold for. It only matters what is for sale right now. A buyer looks at 3 or 4 other homes and will pick the best of them. Buyers do not look at sold listings...ever. If you cant sell your house for the best price because you owe too much, stop talking about selling at all. Sit tight for two more years until you pay down some debt and let your house increase in value.
Go see other homes for sale in your price range. If yours isn't the best choice, lower the price until it is.
Get a website on your house. I am not talking about listing your house on Ebay, or FSBO.com, or FSBOLocal.com. I am talking about actually getting a website that lists your home alone. Get a domain name that people can remember. I used the zip codes of the towns I sold in. I used 62298House.com and 62012Acres.com and many like those. If you can not design a website, have somebody do it for you. It will be the best $200 you will ever spend.
Pictures. If you can not take the best pictures in the world, hire somebody to take pictures of your home. There should be no less than 30 pictures to be used on your website. You need high quality pictures for the postcards and flyers too.
List your house on every free real estate website that you can. There are dozens. Just search for real estate web sites. Zillow.com is fantastic.
Get a nice sign for the front yard and for any cross streets. If you are not on a main road, then you need signs that drive people to you. If you have city laws that prevent you from displaying signs on city property during the week, then put them up on Friday night and take them down on Sunday night. Put your phone number on all of them. Put your fantastic price on the one in your front yard.
Postcardsplus.com is a company that will mail postcards to 100 of your closest neighbors. you just upload your pictures and details and they mail them out. Those people will not buy your home but almost everyone of them knows another person who is looking for a house. They will pass out your cards to their relatives and coworkers. I sold several houses using postcards.
Flyers work. Add pictures and post them in every grocery store, drug store, and beauty shop in town.
Newspaper ads are the last thing to do and don't do it often. the cost much more than they are worth. Do them on the weekend and never more than once per month. Do not use a picture. Use the classified ads and just mention the town, bedrooms, anything special, and the price.
Open houses are great for real estate agents. Agents use the open house to lure buyers in. Those buyers do not know a thing about the house they are entering. They just follow the signs thinking it will lead them to their dream house. It almost never does but a good agent uses this opportunity to impress those buyers and try to get them to hire them as a buyer's agent. That agent uses the open house to sell a house, just not the open one.
MLS is the Multiple Listing Service. That is a computer program used by agents to tell the other agents about their listed houses. This is a must have for agents but is not required by the house owners. If you follow the steps I have offered here, you will never pay another agent again.
The contract is something that any lawyer or title company can give you. you must also get any legal disclosures from them for your buyers.
Surveys and appraisals are almost always paid for by the buyers. Do not pay for these before you have a buyer.
Run these marketing techniques, take the calls, show the house, ask for a commitment.
Commitment is when the buyer hands you a check for $500, signs your contract, and tells you that they will be calling their bank in the morning.

I offer you this information for free because I no longer have a thing to gain by keeping these secrets to myself. I have no reason to help the other agents. I genuinely loved working with the home owners and feel that I owe them something more. Please take this gift and pass on the money you save to the buyers you meet.

A Few Horror Stories About Agents

I listed a house once. The owners were broke and the most they could pay on the MLS was $500 for the buyers agent. I got a call from an agent who showed it. She said her clients loved it. She asked me if the $500 was a misprint and if it was meant to be $5000. I said that it was right and that was all they had to pay. That agent said; "Oh! Well we will see how much they like your house in the morning."

I took a listing once. The owner told me that the last agent charged her $100 just for giving her house a value. It was not an appraisal. It was just her opinion for $100. That agent's opinion was that the house was worth $170,000 and no more than $175,000. I listed it for $189,000 and it was later sold for $183,000.

I had a listing once. Another agent called to see it on a Thursday at 9am. Well she showed up on Tuesday morning instead. My client was asleep in bed (nude). Luckily he didn't wake up when she walked in on him.

In Illinois it is illegal to suggest that agents break the law. In Illinois it is illegal to "buy the listing". This is a term used by agents for the practice of telling the house owners that if listed with a certain agent, that agent can get more money than another agent could. Ok if it never happens, why is there a branded term for such a practice?

I heard from a house owner about this next story. They listed their home on the advice of the agent for $319,900. After two years on the market she finally got an offer for $177,000. She told the owner that he should take it because that was all the house would get. Ok then why did she tell these poor people that they could get $300,000 if they listed with her? This was long before the real estate melt down and most other agents knew that this was not a $300,000 house.

If you have other great stories, please send them to me. If it is great, I will post it here.

Michael Thornton

WeekEndSale@msn.com

Federal Law Requires That You Pass Out This Flyer To Any Person Who Buys Your Home If It Was Built Before 1979 http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/426.pdf