Posted on 30. October 2009 13:36 by Kevin Flaherty
Welcome to my real estate blog. My name is Kevin Flaherty. I have been a licensed Realtor since 1988 serving the Peel, Dufferin, and Wellington areas of Ontario. The purpose of this blog will be to provide quality information that will assist buyers and sellers with the purchase or sale of a home. Some of you may already be familiar with my services. If you are not familiar, I will provide you with some introductory information that should immediately separate my services from that of other Realtors.
In today's real estate market, over 90% of buyers in Canada will find their next home on-line at www.Realtor.ca or www.mls.ca which are the same thing. At this location on the web, the buyer in Canada can search all MLS listings. For those of you in the US, I recently read that the National Association of Realtors (NAR) produced a statistic indicating that over 96% of buyers will start their search on the Internet. What the buyers do next is part of what I call the real estate secret. A secret because many Realtors are hoping that sellers don't know what I am about to tell you. Buyers shortlist which homes they are interested in right on-line. That means that the Internet representation of your property is absolutely critical! Not, important or nice, but CRITICAL! If you are a buyer, think about what you do and chances are you will see my point. My services offer a custom web page of the sellers house which includes the following.
1) A professional video narrated tour of the entire listing
2) Professional floor plans
3) Professional photography
4) Satellite images of the subject property and surrounding area
5) All the listing details, maps, and much more
I have yet to encounter an on-line representation that in my opinion is better than the one I offer. I know the world is a big place, so if you have seen one better, or if you are a Realtor who feels yours is equal or better, please feel free to provide us with a sample of your tour. If the rest of the world is anything like the Realtors in Ontario, I strongly suspect I wont have any challengers. Below are some samples of on-line representations for homes I sold this month.
1) http://flahertytours.ca/72baybrook.htm
2) http://www.flahertytours.ca/18Dewridge.htm
3) http://flahertytours.ca/19767Main.htm
Now you may be asking yourself why other Realtors don't want sellers to know this. Quite simply, tours like the ones above a very time consuming and expensive to produce. Further, many Realtors may simply not have the skills required to produce such on-line representation. I should also indicate that my fees are not higher than that of other Realtors in my area.
As for results, #1 above sold for 101% of the asking price in just 8 days. #2 also sold for more than the asking price in less than a week. #3 was on the market for 14 months with another Realtor just prior to me taking the listing...YES, 14 months! I again sold the property in less than a week for 99% of the asking price. These results are not years ago, not months ago, but this month. Many Realtors have stories upon stories of what they may have done in the past, but you need to know what they are doing on a regular basis. In-fact, most sellers simply don't know what to ask Realtors. Available FREE on my web site is a list of questions agents hate at http://www.flaherty.ca/agent_questions.asp This list of questions will help sellers know they are selecting a Realtor that offers quality services in many areas of importance, not just the quality of on-line representation.
Future blogs will touch on the importance of Realtors communication technologies, prospect generation, database management of contacts, insured transactions and much more. Until next time.
Kevin Flaherty
Direct: 1-877-352-4378
e-Mail: Kevin@Flaherty.ca
Web: http://Flaherty.ca
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