The Inside Scoop: Behind-the-Scenes of a Successful Home Sale!

Summary:
Ever wondered what it takes to sell a home in today's market? Join Joe Reitzug and Makayla Mast as they spill the beans on the secrets of real estate success. From getting your home ready to hitting the market with a bang, they'll walk you through the step-by-step process with ease. Get ready to learn the tricks of the trade and set yourself up for a smooth and lucrative home selling journey!

Episode Highlights:

• Unveiling the comprehensive process of getting a home ready for market, from initial preparations to launch day.
• Exploring the importance of customized marketing plans tailored to each property's strengths and weaknesses.
• Highlighting the significance of digital marketing assets, including digital magazines and Matterport tours, in attracting potential buyers.
• Discussing the role of neighborhood postcards and open houses in generating buzz and word-of-mouth referrals.
• Emphasizing the necessity of clear communication and proactive feedback for sellers throughout the selling process.

Are you considering selling your home? Don't settle for a mediocre selling experience. Partner with LivPortland to ensure your property gets the attention it deserves. Visit LivPortland.com to learn more about our proven strategies for selling homes in the Portland Metro area.

Thank you for listening to this episode. Stay up to date on the latest trends and insights by subscribing to our podcast and following us on social media.

For more information about buying or selling in the Portland Metro real estate market, please visit www.LivPortland.com or contact us directly.

We appreciate your feedback, so please leave a review and let us know what topics you would like to hear more about.

Transcript

00:00:08:05 - 00:00:21:09

Joe Reitzug

Welcome to off the record Talking real estate with Joe and Makayla. If you're interested in the Portland, Oregon real estate market and want the unvarnished inside scoop, you've come to the right place. Thanks for giving us a listen.

00:00:21:09 - 00:00:26:07

Joe Reitzug

Okay. Welcome, everyone. Thanks for joining us today. Hi, Makayla. How are you? 

00:00:26:07 - 00:00:34:17

Makayla Mast

I Am so good. The sun is shining, so maybe the spring is around the corner. We'll see. But it's a good day. I'm happy to be here.

00:00:34:17 - 00:00:35:22

Joe Reitzug

So here at the

00:00:35:22 - 00:00:37:03

Joe Reitzug

LivPortland,

00:00:37:03 - 00:00:39:05

Joe Reitzug

off the record studios,

00:00:39:05 - 00:00:43:06

Joe Reitzug

you may hear the sounds of spring, which is leaf blowers and

00:00:43:06 - 00:00:44:23

Joe Reitzug

power washers in the background. So

00:00:44:23 - 00:00:49:08

Joe Reitzug

if you're listening and you hear some of that, it just means it's a super sunny day out and

00:00:49:08 - 00:00:50:15

Joe Reitzug

people are getting after it. So

00:00:50:15 - 00:00:51:10

Makayla Mast

it is what it is.

00:00:51:13 - 00:00:54:03

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. We've got an exciting show today.

00:00:54:03 - 00:00:54:22

Makayla Mast

I know we have

00:00:54:22 - 00:00:58:23

Makayla Mast

lot of good notes, but we're totally winging this.

00:00:59:01 - 00:01:00:15

Joe Reitzug

Isn't that how we always do it? Yeah.

00:01:00:15 - 00:01:01:16

Joe Reitzug

We are better that way.

00:01:01:19 - 00:01:06:00

Makayla Mast

But we're excited because I think this is really good information and we

00:01:06:00 - 00:01:11:14

Makayla Mast

kind of just went through this on a couple different listings. So I think it's fresh in our minds and it is.

00:01:11:14 - 00:01:12:08

Joe Reitzug

And I think,

00:01:12:08 - 00:01:15:05

Joe Reitzug

warning this podcast contains

00:01:15:05 - 00:01:23:14

Joe Reitzug

a lot of really super real estate and nerdy stuff. I mean, we're going to get deep into things, but I think it's important stuff and I think people will find it interesting because,

00:01:23:14 - 00:01:26:06

Joe Reitzug

think the general public thinks,

00:01:26:06 - 00:01:27:22

Joe Reitzug

when you listen home with a broker,

00:01:27:22 - 00:01:30:19

Joe Reitzug

they just put it on the arm alarm, throw the sign up and away you go.

00:01:31:00 - 00:01:39:03

Joe Reitzug

And that may be the case with some brokers, but with professional brokers, that's not how it works at all. So we're going to go in depth into

00:01:39:03 - 00:01:41:15

Joe Reitzug

everything it takes to get a home ready

00:01:41:15 - 00:01:43:21

Joe Reitzug

to hit the market. And

00:01:43:21 - 00:01:47:03

Joe Reitzug

what that entails, because I think people will be very surprised at

00:01:47:03 - 00:01:50:04

Joe Reitzug

the amount of work that goes into it.

00:01:50:04 - 00:01:50:19

Joe Reitzug

And

00:01:50:19 - 00:01:53:06

Joe Reitzug

it's super interesting to understand,

00:01:53:06 - 00:01:59:22

Joe Reitzug

how you positioned a house to get sold fast. And for the most money, especially in our current marketplace, where things have softened a bit,

00:01:59:22 - 00:02:03:09

Joe Reitzug

average days on market is longer. So we'll go into

00:02:03:09 - 00:02:04:19

Joe Reitzug

how a listing is launched,

00:02:04:19 - 00:02:07:20

Joe Reitzug

from two weeks until launch, one week until launch,

00:02:07:20 - 00:02:09:01

Joe Reitzug

the week of the launch.

00:02:09:01 - 00:02:09:21

Joe Reitzug

And then

00:02:09:21 - 00:02:11:03

Joe Reitzug

what that entails

00:02:11:03 - 00:02:13:17

Joe Reitzug

from our end of it and what sellers

00:02:13:17 - 00:02:16:15

Joe Reitzug

are asked to do, because I think that's an important piece of it as well.

00:02:16:18 - 00:02:33:00

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I agree. I think this is a fun little look into the life of a realtor behind the scenes. Yeah, whenever I work with friends, they're always like, you. There's a lot of steps that go into this. This is, you know, quite the process. So I think it's fun to encapsulate it in one piece. Yeah.

00:02:33:00 - 00:02:34:13

Joe Reitzug

So let's start off with,

00:02:34:13 - 00:02:41:07

Joe Reitzug

you know, we'll just call it two weeks out from launch. And launch means your home is active on the market,

00:02:41:07 - 00:02:45:13

Joe Reitzug

active in our MLS. It's up on all of the websites,

00:02:45:13 - 00:02:47:22

Joe Reitzug

marketing's going out, everything else that

00:02:47:22 - 00:02:49:02

Joe Reitzug

we'll talk about here

00:02:49:02 - 00:02:50:11

Joe Reitzug

along this podcast. But

00:02:50:11 - 00:02:54:02

Joe Reitzug

usually about a week to two weeks out. And it depends on everyone, right?

00:02:54:02 - 00:02:54:18

Joe Reitzug

We have

00:02:54:18 - 00:02:58:17

Joe Reitzug

some clients of ours right now that we're about three weeks out, but

00:02:58:17 - 00:03:02:20

Joe Reitzug

we just kind of customize this plan. But for right now, we'll just say two weeks out,

00:03:02:20 - 00:03:04:13

Joe Reitzug

what goes into getting

00:03:04:13 - 00:03:05:08

Joe Reitzug

the home ready?

00:03:05:10 - 00:03:13:19

Makayla Mast

Yeah, I like that. It's kind of like the sped up process. If someone were to call us and say that they want it on in two weeks, which is not usually the case, but

00:03:13:19 - 00:03:16:06

Makayla Mast

kind of a good enough timeline, right?

00:03:16:06 - 00:03:19:09

Makayla Mast

exactly. We can't put it on tomorrow, but. Right. A little bit of time.

00:03:19:10 - 00:03:23:21

Joe Reitzug

So this is the point of the process where we've met with the owners of the home.

00:03:23:21 - 00:03:29:21

Joe Reitzug

we probably interviewed with them. Who knows if there was other brokers involved, but they said, Yep, we want to go with you.

00:03:29:21 - 00:03:33:16

Joe Reitzug

We want to get this process going. We're going to put the home on the market in about two weeks.

00:03:33:18 - 00:03:58:09

Joe Reitzug

So what we typically will do is get copies of the listing agreement and send fill out as much as we can in there and then send it to them for them to have a copy of it. Because I'm a big fan of giving people as much information as possible so that they're comfortable with it because the last thing you want to do is send a document over to someone for signature when they haven't had a chance to read.

00:03:58:09 - 00:04:03:09

Makayla Mast

It, right? Totally. For the listener who might not know what is in the listing agreement, could you give us a quick

00:04:03:09 - 00:04:06:03

Joe Reitzug

Sure. So there is

00:04:06:03 - 00:04:10:12

Joe Reitzug

it's one of the shorter documents we have. Actually, it's only three pages and

00:04:10:12 - 00:04:17:11

Joe Reitzug

it goes into depth about what services you're going to get, rights, responsibilities. You're giving us the right to market, the property.

00:04:17:11 - 00:04:18:16

Joe Reitzug

talks about whether,

00:04:18:16 - 00:04:21:10

Joe Reitzug

how the earnest money is going to be disposition. The price

00:04:21:10 - 00:04:22:06

Joe Reitzug

commission

00:04:22:06 - 00:04:25:01

Joe Reitzug

and some legal jargon.

00:04:25:01 - 00:04:26:04

Joe Reitzug

Right. And

00:04:26:04 - 00:04:26:21

Joe Reitzug

that's about it.

00:04:26:21 - 00:04:28:14

Makayla Mast

Yeah, well, that's first step.

00:04:28:16 - 00:04:33:00

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, that's the first step is to kind of get that out there. We give people time to review that

00:04:33:00 - 00:04:34:05

Joe Reitzug

and then at some point,

00:04:34:05 - 00:04:36:03

Joe Reitzug

after they've had a chance to review,

00:04:36:03 - 00:04:45:01

Joe Reitzug

will send a sign over to get their signatures on that and get everything official. Once everything's official, then we can jump into hyperdrive and really start,

00:04:45:01 - 00:04:47:15

Joe Reitzug

checking some of these boxes of the things that we're going to talk about.

00:04:47:15 - 00:05:04:10

Makayla Mast

next on the list we get with our title escrow officer, and we order title and neighborhood information just to kind of give us a little background on the property and see if there are any red flags right off the bat, which usually isn't the case, but

00:05:04:10 - 00:05:05:00

Makayla Mast

it's good to know.

00:05:05:04 - 00:05:10:15

Joe Reitzug

Yep. And we get our mailing list from the title company and we'll talk about why that's important here in a second. But

00:05:10:15 - 00:05:11:08

Joe Reitzug

we also

00:05:11:08 - 00:05:12:14

Joe Reitzug

try to schedule a visit

00:05:12:14 - 00:05:13:18

Joe Reitzug

to the home with

00:05:13:18 - 00:05:15:02

Joe Reitzug

the entire team. So

00:05:15:02 - 00:05:16:13

Joe Reitzug

you, me, Stephanie,

00:05:16:13 - 00:05:17:07

Joe Reitzug

Laura

00:05:17:07 - 00:05:22:00

Joe Reitzug

We try to get over there so that we have eyeballs on the home and everyone can have some input into

00:05:22:00 - 00:05:27:02

Joe Reitzug

what preparation we need to do for photography and talk about showings and everything like that.

00:05:27:02 - 00:05:28:08

Joe Reitzug

And I think it helps people,

00:05:28:08 - 00:05:31:11

Joe Reitzug

have some confidence in what we're doing to see that

00:05:31:11 - 00:05:37:03

Joe Reitzug

we are a group that works together and we're there for them and we're here to help them through the process, right?

00:05:37:03 - 00:05:57:12

Makayla Mast

I think that is singlehandedly the most important piece of this. And yeah, and my favorite, honestly, I feel like we just get to walk through every inch of the house, which is what the client likes to do and sometimes are so nervous about the silliest things like do I leave soap on my counter for photography? And we're just able to answer all those little questions like,

00:05:57:12 - 00:06:02:06

Makayla Mast

can I put things in my garage or are you going to take pictures of my ranch or should I touch up this?

00:06:02:06 - 00:06:05:21

Joe Reitzug

Paint the answers. Yes, you can put soap on your counter.

00:06:05:23 - 00:06:10:03

Makayla Mast

But just random questions. And I think it really helps

00:06:10:03 - 00:06:11:07

Makayla Mast

ease the client and

00:06:11:07 - 00:06:16:01

Makayla Mast

helps us kind of get a head start on staging and giving any advice you need in there.

00:06:16:03 - 00:06:18:09

Joe Reitzug

And we also talk during that visit, we talk about,

00:06:18:09 - 00:06:23:14

Joe Reitzug

protocol for showing, you know, should we be at the house? Probably not. You want to give the buyer some

00:06:23:14 - 00:06:27:21

Joe Reitzug

space for them to envision the home as their own, and that's super difficult

00:06:27:21 - 00:06:31:02

Joe Reitzug

for them to do if you're standing right there. The other thing is,

00:06:31:02 - 00:06:32:10

Joe Reitzug

personal pictures and everything.

00:06:32:10 - 00:06:35:20

Joe Reitzug

Everyone thinks, I need to take all that stuff down. Well, yeah,

00:06:35:20 - 00:06:39:17

Joe Reitzug

but not all of it. I mean, you're still living in the home. It's still your home.

00:06:39:17 - 00:06:48:07

Joe Reitzug

But trying to create an environment where people can imagine it being theirs, it's helpful to have less of the personal stuff.

00:06:48:07 - 00:06:49:15

Makayla Mast

Yeah, absolutely.

00:06:49:15 - 00:06:52:00

Joe Reitzug

And then we also get keys to make sure we can,

00:06:52:00 - 00:07:05:08

Joe Reitzug

have access to the lock box. Lock boxes are great. It's all secure, it's digital. They talk via Bluetooth. So we see exactly when a broker enters and leaves, we get all their information,

00:07:05:08 - 00:07:06:10

Joe Reitzug

can follow up with them.

00:07:06:10 - 00:07:07:15

Joe Reitzug

just a great way to go.

00:07:07:15 - 00:07:09:17

Joe Reitzug

as far as the marketing plan,

00:07:09:17 - 00:07:25:02

Joe Reitzug

I'm the one that usually puts that together and we will get an outline of everything that goes into the marketing plan. And that's a whole nother probably episode to talk about what good marketing in real estate is, right?

00:07:25:02 - 00:07:27:02

Makayla Mast

Yeah. And it's different for every property.

00:07:27:02 - 00:07:33:10

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, it is. It really depends on what the strengths and weaknesses are and how we can best highlight

00:07:33:10 - 00:07:34:02

Joe Reitzug

the home,

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Joe Reitzug

put it in its best position to,

00:07:36:14 - 00:07:41:09

Joe Reitzug

get people's attention and show people why it's a great spot for them.

00:07:41:09 - 00:07:52:19

Makayla Mast

couldn't agree more. And then we head into the photo shoot that which is of course laid out in the marketing plan. But that's obviously where we start first, is either photos, video, both

00:07:52:19 - 00:07:56:18

Makayla Mast

and sometimes even a Matterport 3D floorplan view of the property.

00:07:56:18 - 00:08:04:22

Joe Reitzug

And drone is an important part of it too. So people can kind of see all aspects of the property. If it's a larger property drone says super important.

00:08:04:22 - 00:08:15:18

Joe Reitzug

The 3D Matterport is very popular as well and we have a listing coming up in McMinnville and McMinnville is a surprising place for a lot of California buyers.

00:08:15:18 - 00:08:16:13

Makayla Mast

This year.

00:08:16:14 - 00:08:17:01

Joe Reitzug

Right?

00:08:17:01 - 00:08:24:18

Joe Reitzug

They want to be just outside of the Portland metro area, but still close enough to be able to come into town and do different things and enjoy kind of the

00:08:24:18 - 00:08:28:04

Joe Reitzug

small town feel, but also be able to come in to to Portland.

00:08:28:04 - 00:08:30:03

Joe Reitzug

But the Matterport is great

00:08:30:03 - 00:08:32:18

Joe Reitzug

to do a 3D walkthrough. If you haven't seen

00:08:32:18 - 00:08:35:09

Joe Reitzug

a Matterport tour, go to LivPortland.com

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Joe Reitzug

and just check out some of our listings.

00:08:37:11 - 00:08:43:12

Joe Reitzug

There's there's bound to be one in there that has a Matterport tour or you can go to Matterport dot com

00:08:43:12 - 00:08:50:14

Joe Reitzug

see some examples there but you can literally do a 3D walk through through a home from your computer. It's pretty.

00:08:50:14 - 00:08:56:16

Makayla Mast

Cool. I love when I'm working with a buyer and they have one of those in the listing. They can just text to him. It's so helpful.

00:08:56:16 - 00:09:00:14

Joe Reitzug

The next thing amenity sheets. You Stephanie and Rica

00:09:00:14 - 00:09:03:14

Joe Reitzug

do a fantastic job with those, and I am

00:09:03:14 - 00:09:05:06

Joe Reitzug

ever so thankful

00:09:05:06 - 00:09:08:03

Joe Reitzug

that you guys leave me out of that process.

00:09:08:11 - 00:09:12:04

Makayla Mast

Because it's tough. And I think it's. Yeah, it's fun. I think it's,

00:09:12:04 - 00:09:14:04

Makayla Mast

again, different for every property, but

00:09:14:04 - 00:09:16:20

Makayla Mast

it could be something as cool as like

00:09:16:20 - 00:09:23:05

Makayla Mast

video, you know, movie theater room. And if they have a flat screen, you know, we lay out the details of the flat screen and

00:09:23:05 - 00:09:26:23

Makayla Mast

whatever is in there and what might be staying with the property, what might be leaving.

00:09:26:23 - 00:09:31:03

Makayla Mast

it just depends. Sometimes we have a lot to say and sometimes we don't have as much. But it's a nice

00:09:31:03 - 00:09:32:22

Makayla Mast

place to be able to put everything and,

00:09:32:22 - 00:09:35:05

Makayla Mast

give the information right away rather than

00:09:35:05 - 00:09:38:06

Makayla Mast

waiting for people to have questions about that item.

00:09:38:08 - 00:09:39:15

Joe Reitzug

And that's a great

00:09:39:15 - 00:09:43:23

Joe Reitzug

piece of information to be able to attach to the listing and ARM allows because ARM allows,

00:09:43:23 - 00:10:02:14

Joe Reitzug

many of you seen our have seen our MLS listings, it's just a bunch of data with some pictures. Right. And that doesn't always tell the entire story, especially with some of the properties we represent. You want to be able to tell that story of why this home is incredible, why it's a good fit for them and being able to have an amenity sheet.

00:10:02:14 - 00:10:03:10

Joe Reitzug

And also,

00:10:03:10 - 00:10:06:22

Joe Reitzug

property features is incredibly important. And we've had some

00:10:06:22 - 00:10:09:11

Joe Reitzug

some properties that we've listed recently where we get,

00:10:09:11 - 00:10:19:15

Joe Reitzug

three, four or five pages amenities. Yeah. And that's just information that you're not going to be able to get in to our MLS or into Zillow, Redfin,

00:10:19:15 - 00:10:25:20

Joe Reitzug

Realtor.com, all of those places. So having that online, but then also having it at the property.

00:10:25:20 - 00:10:27:20

Joe Reitzug

So when someone's looking at the home,

00:10:27:20 - 00:10:28:23

Joe Reitzug

they can also

00:10:28:23 - 00:10:32:10

Joe Reitzug

get the full picture because a lot of times there's so much to process.

00:10:32:10 - 00:10:39:19

Joe Reitzug

If you didn't have that amenity sheet, it would be difficult to really take in everything that properties have to offer, right?

00:10:39:21 - 00:10:59:23

Makayla Mast

I think another good thing to highlight in those is your utilities and if you've made any major updates in systems like we just listed a home today where it's within city limits, but it has a well which is super rare. So I just put all the information about the well and attach it to the listing so that people don't have this fear around it.

00:10:59:23 - 00:11:03:15

Makayla Mast

But that's great. Yeah, I think those are really, really important.

00:11:03:15 - 00:11:07:16

Joe Reitzug

So that's about two weeks out when we gather all of that information,

00:11:07:16 - 00:11:08:10

Joe Reitzug

which is a lot.

00:11:08:10 - 00:11:12:18

Joe Reitzug

But one week before we launch, we're usually finalizing marketing,

00:11:12:18 - 00:11:16:02

Joe Reitzug

copy and our MLS remarks. And

00:11:16:02 - 00:11:25:01

Joe Reitzug

there's a skill and a kind of an art form to that. And Makayla and I and Stephanie always go back and forth on, you

00:11:25:01 - 00:11:32:02

Joe Reitzug

the look and feel of that, and then we get it in front of the, the owners of the home to make sure it's representing how they want the property to look right.

00:11:32:02 - 00:11:32:22

Joe Reitzug

And then there's,

00:11:32:22 - 00:11:34:20

Joe Reitzug

the remarks in our MLS

00:11:34:20 - 00:11:35:18

Joe Reitzug

now there's

00:11:35:18 - 00:11:48:06

Joe Reitzug

I don't know how many characters you can put in there, but it used to be limited very limited to how many words, characters you could put in the arm. Alas, now they've given us a lot more leeway so you can really get into it and describe a home.

00:11:48:08 - 00:11:52:19

Joe Reitzug

But getting that final marketing copy put together can be difficult.

00:11:52:19 - 00:11:55:15

Makayla Mast

Yeah, sometimes take some trial and error.

00:11:55:17 - 00:11:57:12

Joe Reitzug

Trial and error and,

00:11:57:12 - 00:12:00:18

Joe Reitzug

getting it so that the description of the home fits

00:12:00:18 - 00:12:04:02

Joe Reitzug

what you're trying. The story that you're trying to tell with it can be

00:12:04:02 - 00:12:14:12

Joe Reitzug

very difficult. But you got to get that done because all the marketing assets, especially the the print assets that we order in that one week until launch, all of that depends on that.

00:12:14:12 - 00:12:17:15

Joe Reitzug

So we got to get that done so that we can get our,

00:12:17:15 - 00:12:18:16

Joe Reitzug

our fliers

00:12:18:16 - 00:12:22:20

Joe Reitzug

will do look books as well and all that copy has to go in there.

00:12:22:20 - 00:12:38:07

Makayla Mast

Right. And I think yeah, that time's up really quick because we have to finish listing and then we love to send out like postcards to all the neighbors and we like to have that in their mailbox. The day that we go live with the property. So there's just a lot of talk about it bringing more attention.

00:12:38:07 - 00:12:40:10

Makayla Mast

So yeah, that's important timing wise for sure.

00:12:40:15 - 00:12:41:07

Makayla Mast

Yeah.

00:12:41:09 - 00:12:43:11

Joe Reitzug

And then once we have that marketing copy,

00:12:43:11 - 00:12:48:07

Joe Reitzug

we can set up the digital marketing assets, including our digital magazine, which I just mentioned, our

00:12:48:07 - 00:12:50:22

Joe Reitzug

we'll have if you go to LivPortland.com

00:12:50:22 - 00:12:52:18

Joe Reitzug

and click on our podcast

00:12:52:18 - 00:13:02:14

Joe Reitzug

on this page, we'll have a couple of examples of the look books that we do for properties. They're fantastic and we're able to text them, email them, send it as a link,

00:13:02:14 - 00:13:07:16

Joe Reitzug

and it really puts all the properties we represent in their best possible light.

00:13:07:17 - 00:13:12:02

Joe Reitzug

We also print those out and have them in the home because a lot of times,

00:13:12:02 - 00:13:17:21

Joe Reitzug

people are looking at three or four or five sometimes more homes in a day. And

00:13:17:21 - 00:13:26:11

Joe Reitzug

if at the end of the day they remember your home and then have that booklet and can be able to look at it and say, yeah, and go through it, usually that's

00:13:26:11 - 00:13:34:12

Joe Reitzug

I've never been to a property where I've seen booklets nicer than what we do and that's, that's the image, the lasting image that they have of the property.

00:13:34:14 - 00:13:36:05

Joe Reitzug

That's a great place to be. Yeah.

00:13:36:07 - 00:13:37:06

Makayla Mast

I couldn't agree more.

00:13:37:06 - 00:13:39:17

Joe Reitzug

So final CRM to help with

00:13:39:17 - 00:13:41:07

Joe Reitzug

getting the list price set.

00:13:41:09 - 00:13:43:00

Makayla Mast

That's a big one. Yeah.

00:13:43:05 - 00:13:43:21

Joe Reitzug

Our marketplace

00:13:43:21 - 00:13:46:11

Joe Reitzug

moves so incredibly fast that sometimes,

00:13:46:11 - 00:13:47:17

Joe Reitzug

know, we might say,

00:13:47:17 - 00:13:54:10

Joe Reitzug

we think the price is 800 and the seller agrees. And then two weeks later, before we go live,

00:13:54:10 - 00:14:03:14

Joe Reitzug

two homes in the neighborhood of sold for 825, 840. And it's like, well, let's see where we should go now, right?

00:14:03:19 - 00:14:05:04

Joe Reitzug

Maybe bump it up and,

00:14:05:04 - 00:14:08:02

Joe Reitzug

sometimes there's times where that's the opposite and it's like,

00:14:08:02 - 00:14:15:09

Joe Reitzug

we thought 815 or, you know, 425 was going to be right. We probably need to be at three 399 right?

00:14:15:10 - 00:14:16:00

Makayla Mast

Yeah.

00:14:16:02 - 00:14:20:20

Joe Reitzug

So getting that information put together before you go live is, is always important.

00:14:20:20 - 00:14:28:06

Makayla Mast

And then we work on sending all of this information to our brokerage. So Cascade House and Sotheby's, they get a good review of everything. Let us know if we need to,

00:14:28:06 - 00:14:34:12

Makayla Mast

make any changes in the comments or send better quality photos to make sure that it looks great on their end of the site.

00:14:34:12 - 00:14:37:20

Makayla Mast

And then they help us get the order, the sign, and install

00:14:37:20 - 00:14:39:17

Makayla Mast

that sign that goes outside the property.

00:14:39:17 - 00:14:40:00

Makayla Mast

And,

00:14:40:00 - 00:14:42:09

Makayla Mast

that takes a couple of steps as well. They have to

00:14:42:09 - 00:14:44:07

Makayla Mast

sit City has to come out and make sure they're not going to

00:14:44:07 - 00:14:45:16

Makayla Mast

put the sign where there's any

00:14:45:16 - 00:14:47:10

Makayla Mast

sewer lines or anything like that.

00:14:47:10 - 00:14:52:19

Joe Reitzug

Yeah, everyone thinks, you just pop a sign and then the same day. But no, they have to go out there and make sure they don't

00:14:52:19 - 00:14:54:13

Joe Reitzug

pop a sign into your gas line.

00:14:54:19 - 00:14:58:01

Makayla Mast

Right. I would be really unfortunate.

00:14:58:03 - 00:14:59:14

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Although,

00:14:59:14 - 00:15:01:03

Joe Reitzug

they only started doing that

00:15:01:03 - 00:15:02:04

Joe Reitzug

five or six years ago.

00:15:02:04 - 00:15:02:18

Makayla Mast

Serious.

00:15:02:19 - 00:15:12:08

Joe Reitzug

Yeah. Locates Wow. For signs only about five or six I think five or six years ago. But when I first started in this business, now they just go out there and plop a sign in anywhere.

00:15:12:13 - 00:15:13:12

Makayla Mast

Free for all.

00:15:13:14 - 00:15:14:11

Joe Reitzug

Yeah.

00:15:14:13 - 00:15:16:22

Makayla Mast

There's got to be some liability there. That's insane. Yeah.

00:15:17:02 - 00:15:21:03

Joe Reitzug

Sorry about your sewer line.

00:15:21:05 - 00:15:25:16

Makayla Mast

And then a lot of times when we install those, we try to do it a little bit before we go live,

00:15:25:16 - 00:15:27:08

Makayla Mast

ideally like a week.

00:15:27:08 - 00:15:35:01

Makayla Mast

And then we do like a comingsoon writer at the top of the sign again to start creating some talk around the property before we're actually on the market.

00:15:35:01 - 00:15:39:01

Joe Reitzug

You mentioned the Comingsoon postcard that gets sent out to the neighborhood.

00:15:39:01 - 00:15:41:19

Joe Reitzug

It is amazing how many times

00:15:41:19 - 00:15:45:06

Joe Reitzug

word of mouth sells properties, right? So,

00:15:45:06 - 00:15:46:08

Joe Reitzug

we're selling

00:15:46:08 - 00:15:52:11

Joe Reitzug

Jim and Judy's place and their friend Paul, who lives three

00:15:52:11 - 00:15:55:19

Joe Reitzug

streets down, comes over. yeah, we're selling our home.

00:15:55:19 - 00:15:57:12

Joe Reitzug

And Paul tells his,

00:15:57:12 - 00:15:58:20

Joe Reitzug

friend Steve

00:15:58:20 - 00:16:00:23

Joe Reitzug

about this home that's coming on the market.

00:16:01:01 - 00:16:09:11

Joe Reitzug

I'm amazed at how often that happens where we get a phone call. Yeah, I'm Paul's friend and we're like, okay, how can we help you?

00:16:09:11 - 00:16:18:10

Joe Reitzug

And now Paul's friends with Jim and Judy and great. Got it. Okay, so getting that neighborhood postcard out, and especially when we're going to have an open house,

00:16:18:10 - 00:16:19:22

Joe Reitzug

that invitation of, hey,

00:16:19:22 - 00:16:22:16

Joe Reitzug

first weekend on the market, We're having an open house.

00:16:22:22 - 00:16:25:22

Joe Reitzug

We'd love to see you. Please stop by.

00:16:25:22 - 00:16:28:08

Joe Reitzug

And that first open house is usually

00:16:28:08 - 00:16:29:02

Joe Reitzug

a lot of.

00:16:29:02 - 00:16:47:20

Makayla Mast

Neighbors, a lot of neighbors, which a lot of sellers don't like. But and I get it totally. A lot of people are just it helps them inside of the house. Right. But it totally helps. So that word of mouth and we had a a stat one time someone that figured it out like what percentage of the time sales happen that way and it was shockingly high.

00:16:47:20 - 00:16:48:07

Joe Reitzug

So

00:16:48:07 - 00:16:50:14

Joe Reitzug

I want to say it was almost a quarter.

00:16:50:14 - 00:16:51:10

Makayla Mast

I think you're right, like.

00:16:51:11 - 00:16:54:05

Joe Reitzug

21, 22%, something like that. Yeah.

00:16:54:05 - 00:17:04:00

Makayla Mast

Which, you know, everyone thinks, you just throw it up on Zillow, you know, again, like we're live in the digital age, but word of mouth goes really, really fast with data.

00:17:04:02 - 00:17:12:10

Joe Reitzug

So getting all the data and our M.S. is a pain in the butt. Yeah, but it has to be done and it has to be done right, because once you submit that

00:17:12:10 - 00:17:13:07

Joe Reitzug

and we just had

00:17:13:07 - 00:17:15:16

Joe Reitzug

a couple of pieces of land that we put on

00:17:15:16 - 00:17:18:11

Joe Reitzug

on the market and some of the information

00:17:18:11 - 00:17:19:19

Joe Reitzug

we ended up changing

00:17:19:19 - 00:17:22:02

Joe Reitzug

just for accuracy, purpose and different things.

00:17:22:02 - 00:17:30:08

Joe Reitzug

And it took forever to get Zillow and Realtor.com to change that information. Right?

00:17:30:10 - 00:17:38:20

Makayla Mast

Zillow and all those third party websites say that there should only be a 30 minute lag when we change things on our MLS. But I do not think that's true.

00:17:38:20 - 00:17:50:15

Joe Reitzug

I mean, what world does that happen right? Not in ours. So we try to make sure that the information in our MLS is accurate, right when we hit the market. And that means giving a proof to our

00:17:50:15 - 00:18:00:02

Joe Reitzug

our homeowners to say, Hey, here's what we're going to go live with, take a look. Let us know if you'd like to see any changes or edits or make sure everything's accurate in a way we go.

00:18:00:02 - 00:18:02:19

Joe Reitzug

Seller's property disclosure. You want to tackle that one?

00:18:02:19 - 00:18:13:13

Makayla Mast

Gosh, this is a beast. And it always, I think this tends to stress people out, but it shouldn't be a stressful as it sounds. But what is it? Six pages.

00:18:13:15 - 00:18:14:16

Joe Reitzug

Something like that.

00:18:14:16 - 00:18:15:08

Makayla Mast

But it's,

00:18:15:08 - 00:18:25:20

Makayla Mast

you're disclosing what you know about the property. So any material defects, unfortunately, fortunately, you need to disclose of them in this document,

00:18:25:20 - 00:18:27:16

Makayla Mast

most of it's pretty light. Like is there

00:18:27:16 - 00:18:31:08

Makayla Mast

insulation in the floors or ceiling or walls? And,

00:18:31:08 - 00:18:35:07

Makayla Mast

you share as much as you know about the house. And if you don't know, that's okay.

00:18:35:11 - 00:18:35:22

Makayla Mast

You just.

00:18:35:22 - 00:18:44:07

Joe Reitzug

Mark So it's a list of questions. Yeah. And they have yes, no unknown, right. And you just check in boxes on all these

00:18:44:07 - 00:19:06:03

Joe Reitzug

hundred million questions. And at the end of it there's a page for an addendum to say, okay, line 33 where it says, Has the roof ever leaked? You checked? Yes. But you want to add a comment to that to say, yes, It did leak in 2019, but we immediately had that repaired and it's been fine since.

00:19:06:03 - 00:19:17:19

Joe Reitzug

So you can go in and say, okay, line 119. Here's my comment about that roof leaking. So when a buyer's looking through that, they can go, the roof leaked and then they can go to the

00:19:17:19 - 00:19:21:03

Joe Reitzug

the addendum and say, okay, but it was taken care of right?

00:19:21:03 - 00:19:31:13

Makayla Mast

kind of a pain, but it's important and it does help. A lot of brokers will attach that to the listing and we found that it makes the world of difference to just share as much information as you know.

00:19:31:13 - 00:19:37:20

Joe Reitzug

And we actually ask for it to be included in the offer. So the buyer has reviewed it and signed off on it.

00:19:38:01 - 00:19:45:03

Makayla Mast

Just eliminates a step after the fact. Or hopefully you're in a situation where you're getting three or four or five offers on your home.

00:19:45:03 - 00:19:48:15

Makayla Mast

And yeah, we're we're already away with the important stuff.

00:19:48:17 - 00:19:49:00

Joe Reitzug

Yep.

00:19:49:00 - 00:19:53:00

Joe Reitzug

So the week of going active.

00:19:53:02 - 00:19:54:13

Makayla Mast

So all.

00:19:54:13 - 00:19:56:15

Joe Reitzug

The homeowners hard work of,

00:19:56:15 - 00:20:10:00

Joe Reitzug

everything they've done to go make their home as appealing as possible and everything our team has done to get everything put together, get it put together in a way that's going to reflect the home in the best possible light.

00:20:10:00 - 00:20:12:04

Joe Reitzug

All of that comes together and,

00:20:12:04 - 00:20:16:05

Joe Reitzug

we get it. We get it live and hopefully it gets a great reception.

00:20:16:05 - 00:20:38:16

Joe Reitzug

But we we set up feedback on it on our digital showing platforms line and showing time. And so when I mentioned the lock box, when an agent views a property, they automatically get an email we have set up so they automatically get an email saying, Hey, we saw that you showed the property on, you know, Southwest 85th. We'd love to get your feedback on what you thought.

00:20:38:16 - 00:20:47:07

Joe Reitzug

And we have some customer questions in there for the home. They can just click on their phone. It's got a picture on it so they know exactly which home we're talking about

00:20:47:07 - 00:20:49:08

Joe Reitzug

and they can get feedback that we can pass along.

00:20:49:08 - 00:20:59:18

Makayla Mast

but that is really helpful because obviously the seller wants feedback right away. They were just hanging out at the coffee shop down the street for 2 hours. They'd like to know if that was productive or not. Yeah,

00:20:59:18 - 00:21:00:17

Makayla Mast

so it helps us get

00:21:00:17 - 00:21:02:01

Makayla Mast

info over right away.

00:21:02:01 - 00:21:08:22

Joe Reitzug

We also have our emails that we send out to the top brokers in the area. The top Sotheby's brokers

00:21:08:22 - 00:21:10:03

Joe Reitzug

get the word out that way.

00:21:10:03 - 00:21:14:03

Joe Reitzug

broker open house to area brokers and top producers. Well

00:21:14:03 - 00:21:19:11

Joe Reitzug

sometimes now they're not as popular as they used to be. But we'll do an open house just for the realtors in the area.

00:21:19:13 - 00:21:25:10

Joe Reitzug

And then also there's getting that the public open house is set up. And a lot of times we'll email to the area,

00:21:25:10 - 00:21:28:00

Joe Reitzug

letting all the neighbors know that we'll be having an open house.

00:21:28:05 - 00:21:30:07

Makayla Mast

And we post it on our social media.

00:21:30:07 - 00:21:33:00

Joe Reitzug

Yes, all of the social media is,

00:21:33:00 - 00:21:34:09

Joe Reitzug

which is great.

00:21:34:09 - 00:21:35:12

Joe Reitzug

Every Monday,

00:21:35:12 - 00:21:51:15

Joe Reitzug

each of our sellers will receive a online activity report where you can see all the different locations that people are viewing. Your property will be able to see how many clicks it gets and from where. It's always interesting to see where people are looking at the home from,

00:21:51:15 - 00:21:55:10

Joe Reitzug

Saskatchewan, Canada right now, 34 views.

00:21:55:10 - 00:21:57:08

Makayla Mast

It's like it's always surprising.

00:21:57:08 - 00:21:59:12

Joe Reitzug

Big following in Canada

00:21:59:12 - 00:22:03:07

Joe Reitzug

Tuesdays is when we communicate with sellers on activity and feedback and

00:22:03:07 - 00:22:09:16

Joe Reitzug

anything else we can provide to help them have a clear understanding of  where we're at in the process and what's going on.

00:22:09:16 - 00:22:22:00

Makayla Mast

Great. So that's the funny to end there. But that is the launch. We have to do a whole another episode about what happens after the launch, but I hope people find this helpful or interesting release.

00:22:22:04 - 00:22:23:17

Joe Reitzug

I think we can post this too, right?

00:22:23:22 - 00:22:24:20

Makayla Mast

Yeah, yeah.

00:22:24:21 - 00:22:43:07

Joe Reitzug

Put this on the website so you can kind of see everything that goes into it. It's a ton of work, but that's what gets properties sold fast and for the most money and if you're talking to a broker to sell your home, if they don't have a written plan, that's a red flag.

00:22:43:07 - 00:22:44:06

Makayla Mast

I couldn't agree.

00:22:44:06 - 00:22:54:05

Joe Reitzug

More. Make sure they have a written plan of how they're going to market your property, make sure that it's proactive, that it's aggressive, and that you're going to be getting feedback on

00:22:54:05 - 00:22:55:04

Joe Reitzug

how things are going.

00:22:55:07 - 00:22:58:21

Makayla Mast

Yeah. Also that they're just going to have clear communication with you because,

00:22:58:21 - 00:23:13:11

Makayla Mast

putting this on the market and then having your broker text you 100 times throughout the process to get all these questions answered is not going to make you feel at ease about this process whatsoever. So we can gather all the communication beforehand. That's always, always ideal.

00:23:13:17 - 00:23:14:17

Makayla Mast

Yeah.

00:23:14:19 - 00:23:16:09

Joe Reitzug

Okay. Well, that's it for today.

00:23:16:09 - 00:23:19:07

Makayla Mast

That's good. Yeah. Thank you.

00:23:19:07 - 00:23:21:09

Joe Reitzug

Thanks, Makayla. Have a good Day. Thanks for joining, everyone. Bye.

00:23:21:09 - 00:23:35:04

Makayla Mast

Thanks for joining us today. If you're interested in finding out more about Joe, myself or the LivPortland team, you can go to LivPortland.com. Thanks for giving us a lesson and see you next time on the Off the Record podcast.