A Case Study In How Whitelaw & Sons Achieves Superior Results For Our Clients
While my focus on quality service over quantity helps to set me apart, it is only the starting point. I tend to do things differently than other real estate agents. I measure my success by paying close attention to the only real measurements of success that buyers and sellers should care about. It really boils down to:
- Sales Price
- Days On Market
- Terms And Conditions
In this case, I listed a beautiful home on Finley Ridge in Morgan Hill. I took time out to review the process so that I can see what lessons can be learned, review my performance and decide what new strategies worked well. The results I managed to achieve in this case really show that focusing on those things that matter to my clients most, paid HUGE dividends for them! So lets take a look.
Days On Market
Getting their home sold quickly and with minimal fuss is the goal of just about every seller. Whenever I list a home, we review all the latest data on home sales in that community. Here is what we started with:
| Average Days On Market – Since 1999 | 139 Days |
| Average Days On Market – 12 Months Prior To This Sale | 238 Days |
| Fastest Home Sale In Community History | 11 Days |
As you can see, the Finley Ridge community faces some challenges in terms of getting homes sold quickly. The key to selling more quickly is to reach as many potential buyers as possible. Since all the homes in the community are entirely off the grid, it takes a special marketing strategy to get the attention of those buyers most likely to be interested in these kinds of properties. As I do with all of our listings, I created marketing campaigns that were tailored to this specific property and what it had to offer, By focusing on all of the niches that would most likely already be comfortable with off grid living, I optimize the results for our clients. In this case, I generated a list of topics that applied and created marketing assets for Facebook, Google and many online sites that specifically cater to people most interested in those topics. The results were spectacular. Overall, we had 6 buyers indicate they were interested in making an offer on the property. While that is an AMAZING number of buyers for that market and in such a short time, what is most amazing is:
Only 2 out of the 6 interested buyers found the property through the MLS!
That is virtually unheard of. In most cases, the MLS dominates in terms of how buyers find a home. That means that 4 out of the 6 buyers, or 66% of them, found the property through my customized advertising campaigns! The more interested buyers you have, the higher the chance of getting sold quickly and for the highest price possible! So what was the net result? How quickly after listing did we get an offer?
OUR DAYS ON MARKET RESULTS:
I secured multiple offers on this property in just
7 DAYS!
Breaking ALL previous records!
That’s right, I was able to secure a solid and OVER asking price offer in just 7 days! That is 132 days FASTER than other real estate agents when compared to the entire history of the community. It is 231 days faster than what the market was seeing over the previous 12 months. It is 4 days faster than any other property had EVER sold in the community! Definitely the kind of results that sellers hope for!
Sales Price
Probably the number one goal of a seller is to get their list price or better. So lets take a look at the historical performance that we see in the Finley Ridge community relating to sales price.
| Since 1999 | 90% |
| Last 12 Months | 90% |
| Highest In Community History | 100% |
Even under the best circumstances, homes in the Finley Ridge community tend to sell for asking price or less, but usually for about 10% below asking price. The key to getting a better sales price is very closely linked to the marketing. The more qualified buyers that see your property, the greater the chance for multiple offers that will result in a sales price that is above asking price. So how did my marketing do in terms of sales price?
OUR SALES PRICE RESULTS:
Our Home Sold For
102% of asking price!
Breaking all previous records! AGAIN!
Nobody has been able to achieve those kinds of results for a seller in Finley Ridge – EVER! But it gets even more amazing. While we accepted a great over asking price offer – in this case we did not accept the highest offer! If we had accepted the highest offer, we would have gotten 104% of asking price! You might ask yourself why in the world would a seller accept an offer that was not the highest. That is a good question, and it fits nicely into our next subject.
Terms And Conditions
High priced offers are great, but none of it matters unless the loan comes through and escrow closes! Huge amounts of time can be wasted by accepting offers from buyers that may not be able to perform. Those delays can even leave you missing the hottest part of the market and force a re-evaluation of your asking price. Not to mention that if the seller has moved out of the home, they still have those holding costs to cover! This is complicated by the fact that in most cases, the seller will NOT be able to recover any deposit funds to compensate them for the frustration and potential expenses and costs relating to lost time. That is where making smart decisions regarding the terms and conditions of an offer come in.
While the offer we accepted was not the highest, it did include terms and conditions which gave us a much higher confidence that the purchase would actually go through. So to broadly summarize, some of the common conditions that can stall a transaction were NOT included – there was no appraisal contingency for instance – along with other items that made the deal we ultimately accepted have what we felt was the highest probability of actually closing. Our instincts really paid off.
Within about a week of accepting this offer, a fire started on July 4th that came very close to the Finley Ridge community. While it did not directly effect the property, it was something that might have scared off some buyers. Given the terms and temperament of the buyer, we were confident that this event would not be an issue, and we were correct. Despite the challenges of selling a home completely off the grid, we were able to over achieve in every measurable way for this transaction. I am particularly excited about how well my customized marketing was proven to have delivered results in this case.
We don’t do cookie cutter marketing and we strategically evaluate offers and that attention to detail for each and every client yielded amazing and measurable results that managed to break every single record in the community!
