What Type of Seller Are You?

"What type of seller are you?" You may think it's an odd question, but almost every home seller in Loudoun County can be categorized into one of four personality types when it comes to selling their home.  The criteria for determining what category a seller will fall into is predicated on four things: time availability, real estate knowledge, cost-savings requirements and technological comfort level.  To make the categories easy to understand, I have created a profile and description of the typical seller in each of these categories. I have also included information on the necessary level of understanding and expertise they must possess in order to be successful in their respective category.

Mr. or Ms. FSBO

This home seller comes in two varieties.  The first is the Investor.  He or she has done this before.  They have bought houses to be fixed up and flipped or they have rental properties that they buy and sell with some frequency.  At one point in time, he was probably in the business as an agent or lender.  By handling the listing himself, he is trying to increase his profit margins.  He also is aware of market conditions and is probably in a sellers market.  This makes it a lot easier to get the home sold in a reasonable amount of time.  He is very commission sensitive.

The second Mr. FSBO is the Reader.  He has seen and read about other people who go the FSBO route and now that he needs to sell his home he thinks he can do it also.  Usually, the Reader has bought several books about selling his own home as well as some on buying homes with no money down and real estate investing.  Although sometimes this need to sell the house himself comes from necessity (house is worth less than when he bought it), most of the time it comes from a combination of too much time coupled with disenchantment with the real estate profession.  The thing he has in common with Mr. Investor is the need to reduce commissions.

Mr. or Ms. In-the-Know

This person is a very experienced home seller that either doesn't have the time or realizes that the current market is not conducive to FSBO's.  At one point in time, he or she probably handled a FSBO and now realizes just how time consuming the process is.  They are aware of the added benefits that come with using an agent, to include the use of a lockbox, a larger professional yard sign, and most of all, access to the Multiple Listing Service.  They are aware that being easily accessible to all agents and advertising to these agents will be reflected in the sales price as well as the length of time spent on the market.  In today's market, Mr. or Mrs. In-the-Know is well aware of agents with lower commission models that offer access to these services to experienced and knowledgeable sellers.  Mr. In-the-Know doesn't need advice or information.

Mr. or Ms.  Tech

The majority of the sellers in Loudoun County can placed into this category.  We are a very tech savvy region with many companies in the high tech fields of telecommunications and software development as well as government contracting firms focused on programming and technology.  High speed Internet connections are the standard as well as cell phones, Blackberry's, PDA's and laptop computers.  Because of this, most sellers will do a considerable amount of research online regarding the real estate market in the area.  They will research specific homes in their neighborhood, prices reported on recent sales and will investigate the web presence of agents they are considering using to list their home.  They will create a list of agents to interview based on referrals from friends and co-workers, agents who have sold homes recently in their area, and Internet exposure on search engines.  They will interview 2 or 3 agents and go with the one that they feel will do the best job.  In their research they will have come across articles about commissions and they will ask each agent they interview whether or not their commission is negotiable.

Mr. or Mrs. Traditional

Mr. Traditional is the "old school" home seller.  They found their current house after seeing an Open House advertisement in the local paper.  They went to the open house on a Sunday and called up their agent that they have used 3 times before.  It is now time to sell and either downsize or invest in vacation home down south.  They are aware of the internet, but not too sure of its effectiveness.  They have relied on relationships in the past and will continue to do so into the future.  In their minds, nothing can replace face to face contacts, inkprint on a newspaper and handshakes at an open house.  Full service real estate at a full service commission rate.

A lot of times, a seller with one level of experience is in a category that does not fit their know-how or another seller who is expecting a certain type of marketing finds themselves using an agent that does not provide these services.  These are the instances that invariably lead to agent dissatisfaction, lost opportunities, wasted time and botched sales.