For Sale By Owner Tips

One of the options available to home owners who need to sell is to do-it-themselves.  There’s nothing wrong with that!  And sometimes, For Sale By Owners are successful.  If you’re thinking of selling your home yourself, we at Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties will even help you . . . some.  But there are realities that you need to consider before you put that ‘By Owner’ sign in your yard.  Here is a short video that will help in your planning and decision making process:

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

What is ‘Full Service’ in Real Estate?

Consumers intuitively know what ‘Full Service’ in real estate means:

  • Expertise/Consultation (preparation for sale, pricing, planning, staging)
  • Marketing (which might include MLS, Internet, Open Houses, advertising, signs, flyers, etc)
  • Representation/Negotiation (weighing offers, avoiding mistakes, anticipating next steps)
  • Transaction Processing/Problem Resolution (making sure everything is done properly, handling problems as they arise)

The problem is that almost everyone in the business – traditional percentage-based brokers, discount brokers, flat fee brokers, fee for service brokers and so on – claims to do all of those things! The only brokers who might admit to NOT doing some of it would be self-described ‘Limited Service’ brokers or ‘MLS Only’ brokers.

With so many different kinds of brokers laying claim to ’Full Service,’ the term becomes meaningless . . . except that consumers don’t realize this.

In the muddled mess of real estate company marketing, they have come to believe that ’Full Service’ must also mean ‘Full Commission.’

>>>(and therefore, less than full commission means less than full service)<<<

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

If your less-than-full-commission offering is based on a better, more efficient business model that enables you to be profitable while charging people LESS . . . then the debate is not about the level of service, it’s about how much the consumer wants to pay to sell a house. And here’s a news flash: s/he wants to pay as little as possible to get the job done quickly, efficiently and effectively.

At Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties, we charge LESS because our business model is more efficient. And even though we charge LESS, we don’t cut corners when it comes to service.  In fact we do everything our old-style competitors do – and more.

So if you are ready to sell, and you want to do it the modern, efficient way (and save thousands in the process, contact us at (808) 593-8811.  We’ll get the job done and leave you with a ‘WOW!’

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

Tips for Home Sellers

Selling your home is a big undertaking. There are a lot of things to consider, decisions to make, action to be taken. This short video can help you in this process.

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

How To Choose Your Real Estate Broker

barYou want to sell your home.  You know it’s going to cost you something to accomplish this and you’re hoping to keep that expense as low as possible.  That’s probably why you’ve come to Hirealestateblog.com and Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties.  We specialize in getting the job done while saving home sellers thousands of dollars over what they’d pay an ordinary real estate broker.

But beyond savings, let’s talk a little about what to look for and what to expect when you hire a real estate broker.  I believe that most home sellers are looking for help in four broad areas.

First is advice.  They need an expert to advise them on things like pricing, preparation for selling, staging, evaluation of offers, estimation of net proceeds and so on.

Marketing.  Exposure to the largest number of potential buyers through a broad range of media:  signs, flyers, advertisements, the Internet, open houses, networking and so on.

Expertise – or know-how.  The ability to solve transaction problems as they arise – and they will.  This is so important and it only comes with experience.  The agent who has sold a significant number of properties recently is much better equipped to handle transaction issues than one who has only sold a handful.

Communication – someone who is readily available, who answers your questions and responds to your calls.  Someone who keeps you updated on progress – even if there is none – and who explains the process in a way that ensures your comfort.

At Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties, we exceed expectations in all four of those areas . . . every day.  our track record is evidence of that as are the numerous client testimonials we receive on a regular basis.

If you’re thinking of selling, you owe it to yourself to find out how we’re able to delight our clients while saving them thousands in  real estate commissions.  All it takes is a phone call to (808) 377-1200

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

*Savings are calculated by comparing actual fee paid with a typical 6% real estate commission.  Real estate commissions, whether percentage or set fee are always negotiable between the seller and the real estate broker.

 

Is It Time For A Real Estate ‘House Cleaning?’

Inman News is a big real estate industry portal.  It’s not the National Association of REALTORS, but carries a lot of weight in Realtor circles.  Recently, Inman surveyed real estate brokers and agents along with a smaller group of “industry insiders” about the biggest challenges and opportunities in real estate.  

The results were strong enough that the published report bears the title:  Why and How Real Estate Needs to Clean House.  The respondents put much of the responsibility for the industry’s tarnished image on their own shoulders, citing lack of professionalism, ease of entry, part time agents, and poor supervision as issues.  

Here is a smattering of comments from respondents:

  • “Inexperienced and uneducated agents intentionally or unintentionally commit ethics violations and give the industry a bad reputation.”
  • “As technology becomes better and faster, the relevance of agents in the next three to five years could be in trouble.”
  • “Customers are already finding homes without agents, can process a loan online.  The next phase is title search, inspections, closings, etc., without leaving your desk.”
  • “Technology is watering down the personal touch consumers need to feel confident the agent is taking care of their need.”

I admit it:  I chuckled.  Not to downplay the professionalism issue (the industry could probably shed half or more of all licensees and better serve the public), I am amazed that nowhere in the report did anybody ever question the pricing structure of traditional real estate brokers!

There’s all of this chatter about consumers using technology to marginalize agents and yet no questioning of why they’re doing it. And yet the reason is so simple: real estate sales commissions are way too high. Consumers no longer see the value return for those high commissions and are opting to go it alone.

Over the past 50 years there have been huge changes in the way real estate professionals transact business.  Think about it!  We’ve got lock boxes and talking signs, websites and the MLS, Facebook, email and blogs, mobile phones and tons of technology that didn’t exist a few decades ago. Every bit of it has made real estate easier and less costly to sell.  But what has happened to commission pricing?  Nothing.  Traditional realtors charge home sellers exactly as they did 50 years ago:  6% (or 7% or 5% or any other %).  It makes no sense.

It made no sense a dozen years ago when I made the decision to become a Help-U-Sell broker, and stopped charging consumers like everyone else.  At Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties, we charge a Low Set Fee for our service and consumers save thousands of dollars over what they’d likely pay an ordinary Realtor.  It’s logical and fair;  and it’s like a breath of fresh air in a stuffy room.

Nobody has a problem with the service we offer because it is at least as comprehensive and complete as what our competitors offer (and in some ways it is far superior).  We don’t cut service.  We just charge differently and we charge less.  At Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties, the fee you pay is a bargain for the service you receive.  

You don’t have to be fed up with the poor service and high commissions typical of regular real estate to call us; you just have to be curious about how we can save you thousands when you sell your house.  Make the call today:  (808) 593-8811.

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties: NOT a Discount Service

I ran into an old real estate friend the other day.  We met at a training meeting years ago.  He had bounced from company to company, staying in one place for a year or two, then moving on to what he perceived to be a better deal.  I think he’d been with four companies in seven years.  He even got out of the business for awhile a few years back when the market was difficult.

‘What are you doing these days,’ he asked.

‘I’m still building my Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties office,’ I replied. ‘We get bigger and more productive every month.’

‘I don’t understand how you can do that!’ he quipped.  ‘I mean, discount brokers have their place, I guess, but you can’t be making any money and the harm you’re doing to full service Realtors is huge!’

I paused, letting the steam pour out my ears.  ‘I’m not sure I know what you mean,’ I finally replied.

‘Well, people don’t care too much for realtors anyway, and when you charge a couple hundred dollars to put a sign in the yard and the listing in the MLS – and that’s it – it just makes things worse.’

‘Is that what you think we do?’ I asked.

‘Well, sure.  I don’t mean you personally, but that’s what Help-U-Sell is famous for, isn’t it?’

‘I guess it depends on who you’re listening to,’ I answered. ‘If you pay attention to the chatter of traditional real estate agents – particularly those who are nervous about losing market share to Help-U-Sell brokers – I’m sure that’s what you’ll hear.  But if you talk with the consumers we’ve helped, you’ll hear a very different story.’

‘How so?’ he asked.

‘First off, we’re not discounters,’ I responded. ‘A discounter takes the ordinary cost of a good or service, cuts it and makes a corresponding cut in the good or service to offset the price cut.  Maybe widgets are selling for $2.00 apiece.  The discounter will find a way to make them for less – probably with inferior materials – and then cut the price to, say, $1.5o.  People who shop price and don’t care about quality will often gravitate toward discounters.’

‘What’s that got to do with real estate,’ he asked.

‘A real estate discounter would look at what most other brokers are charging – say, 6% of the sale price – and then find a way to charge less.  For example, maybe the discounter would charge 4% but provide a minimal or limited service.’

‘Yeah,’ he came back, ‘That’s what you do, right?’

‘No,’ I said, ‘We’re not discounters. We don’t charge a lower percentage of the sale price for our services. Our pricing model is completely different.  We charge a set fee to sell a house, just like your dentist does when he fills a tooth.  Everybody pays about the same thing.  But we do everything traditional brokers do – and actually more.  There is no reduction in service.  We are absolutely a full service real estate company.  We just have a different business model – a much more efficient model – that enables us to charge differently, and charge less.’

‘Well, that sounded like somebody’s script!’ he quipped.

‘It’s not a script,’ I answered, ‘It’s the truth.  When a seller lists with us, we put a sign in the yard, create professional fliers and a website with dozens of photos and a virtual tour.  We put the home in the MLS and market it aggressively to other Realtors.  We put the listing up on dozens of Internet real estate portals including Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com.  We hold open houses, screen buyers for financial capability, show our listings, help our sellers weigh the good and bad of offers, calculate anticipated net proceeds, coordinate inspections and all details, solve problems when they arise and look out for our clients’ interests all the way through closing.’

‘And how much extra do your home sellers have to pay for that additional service?’  he asked. I was getting perturbed.

‘Jim, are you listening to me?’ I asked. ‘That’s what we do for all of our listings and we do it for a low set fee instead of a big percentage based commission.  There’s nothing extra, no additional fee for any of our services.’

‘If what you’re saying is true,’ he came back, ‘Why wouldn’t everyone sell with Help-U-Sell?’

‘Well, of course, everyone should!’ I answered. ‘But do the math:  there are about a million traditional real estate agents and brokers out there – just like you – and there are just a few hundred of us in the Help-U-Sell system.  We have to reach a lot of consumers before most people begin to understand how we are different and better.  But we’re doing it!  little by little, every day.’

‘Ok,’ he said, ‘Fine; for now.  Just do me a favor and stay out of my area, ok?  And next time the market tightens up and it gets harder to sell real estate, I expect you’ll be closing up shop anyway.’

‘Jim, old pal,’ I began.  ‘I have a listing appointment in a few minutes so I’ll have to cut this short, but let me remind you:  I was here before the market went down seven years ago.  I did ok when the market was in chaos and real estate companies were closing right and left . . . when you left the business, in fact.  And I’m still here, making more and more Oahu consumers happy with our service every month.  Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties isn’t going anywhere except up!’

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

How to Keep More of Your Equity When You Sell

Medical professionals are reporting a new malady that is spreading so fast that it has reached near epidemic status on Oahu!  Symptoms include ulcers, sudden crying jags, loud vocal outbursts and occasional acts of violence on pens, papers, vases and other ceramics.  The name of this malady:  Real Estate Commission Sticker Shock!

Could you be suffering from this?  If you’ve ever looked down at your closing statement and gasped when you saw the commission amount, if you’ve ever become agitated or begun to sweat when your real estate broker quotes his or her commission rate, you could be at risk.  Thankfully, there is a quick and easy cure and a way to avoid this epidemic all together:  List you home with Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties instead!  Here, you’ll get an exceptional, professional, full service real estate experience . . . for a fraction of what an ordinary real estate broker might charge.

At Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties, we charge a low set fee for our comprehensive services, so everyone pretty much pays the same thing, and you can save thousands in real estate commissions. No, we’re not a Do-It-Yourself company, nor are we a stripped down, discount version of a regular real estate company. We are a full service real estate agency, doing all the things other real estate brokers do – and more – but charging a set fee for our services.

Does it work?  Since September of 2011, we’ve sold 535 homes on Oahu and saved our home sellers more than $6 million in commissions!  Our average home seller saves more than $11,000 over what an ordinary real estate broker might charge, and we’ve averaged just 28 days to sell our listings!

If you’ve been in your home for awhile, you’ve worked hard to build equity in your property. That’s your nest-egg, your ticket to your next great home. Don’t just give it away to some real estate agent because that’s the way it’s always been done! Step up to the new way to sell your home and save. Step up to Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties.

“Kiddie” Loans are not Just for Kids!

The FHA has a wonderful program for parents of children going off to college.  Faced with housing expense in addition to tuition, parents sometimes seek alternatives.  Unfortunately, they often miss one of the best options out there:  The FHA Kiddie Condo program.

The program allows the parent and child to own a suitable home in the college town together.  The parent’s income and credit are used for qualifying purposes and though they won’t be occupying the property, they can still buy it with as little as 3% down.  The co-signing child occupies the property and can even rent out additional bedrooms to other students, offsetting the monthly payment. And, by the way, despite the name, the property doesn’t have to be a condo. Single family homes are fine, too.

At the end of a four year (or more) college stay, the property can be sold; and often it will have appreciated to the point of turning a nice profit for the owners, potentially offsetting some of the other expenses of college or providing a down payment for the graduate’s next home.

FHA maximum loan amounts vary by location and that must be considered when looking at this type of program.  For example, in Honolulu County, the maximum FHA loan is $721,050.  A student attending the University of Hawaii could certainly find suitable housing for that.  But a student attending, say, Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon would have a maximum loan limit of $299,000.  Quite a difference! But remember, the median home price in Corvallis is about $288,000, so that maximum is workable.

Now here comes the interesting twist:  the program also works at the other end of the spectrum.  If you have elderly parents living on a fixed income, you may use this program to co-purchase a home for them.  Again, you’d have to qualify for the property and you’d both be on the deed.  By taking title to the property as Joint Tenants, you allow for the property to pass to surviving owners upon the death of others, outside of probate.  That could be a very nice benefit!

The difficult part of this program is finding a lender who understands it and knows how to get this kind of mortgage approved.  Thankfully, we have several lenders with whom we work who can guide you through the process, so give us a call if this sounds like a program you could use!

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

Investing, Hawaii Style

It’s been a wild week in the world of finance.  The stock market has been in ‘correction’ mode and everyone is trying to stay calm.  I don’t think the recent drop is a precursor to cataclysm, rather a reaction to prices climbing too fast, and I don’t think it will continue down to the depths. However it does make me think about money and where to put it.

The past five years have been stellar for the stock market.  Take a look:

 

stocks

 

Even after last week’s drop, it’s a 65% gain over 5 years.  Pretty good.  Now, here are the previous five years of Oahu Single Family Home Average Sale Prices:

real-estate

 

Unfortunately we don’t have the 2015 average yet, but I can tell you that Average Sale Price has fluctuated a bit this year but is currently running about 11% ahead of last year.  This graph shows about a 25% increase between 2010 and 2014.

I know that looks like a strong case for the stock market, but consider this:  The Dow lost 53% of its value from October 2007 to March 2009.  That was the big financial crisis.  During the same period, Oahu home prices fell just 13.8%.

Big gains in the stock market are very appealing but they come with a rather large level of risk. At any time, your investment can take a strong hit based on events occurring almost anywhere in the world.  Meanwhile, Oahu real estate remains relatively steady.  Since 1985 we’ve enjoyed an average appreciation rate of just under 5% per year.  We have had downturns, but they have been relatively mild.  If you are deciding where to put your nest egg, you need look no further than your own backyard.  And when it comes to purchasing a property that will steadily grow in value, there is no better help on the island than Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties.

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

The DANGER Report

The National Association of Realtors is out with a serious report about the real estate industry that insinuates that huge change is coming soon. The study, prepared by an outside consulting group, compiles information gleaned from interviews with 70  real estate industry experts and insiders.  The group’s predictions for the industry were so tumultuous that the report itself is entitled, ‘The Danger Report.’  While there were sobering predictions in a number of areas, a few jumped out at me, specifically:  

Real estate commissions paid by American consumers are too high.  

Because ordinary real estate commissions are usually a percentage of the final sales price of the home being sold, the size of commissions consumers pay their agents has increased to stratospheric levels.  Consider that a typical Oahu homeowner selling a $950,000 home and paying an ordinary broker, say, 6% commission would pay $57,000 in commission . . . and I think the point is well made!  

But, beyond that, here in the United States, our real estate commission percentages are out of step with much of the rest of the world.  For example, in the UK, real estate commissions average 1%-2% of the sales price; in the Netherlands, 1.5% – 2%; in Austrailia, 2% – 3%; and in Germany, 3% – 6%.  Here in the USA however, commission percentages hover between 5% and 6%.  

Commission sticker shock was one of the things that led me to become a Help-U-Sell Broker way back in the late 90’s.  I figured if I could find a better way to do the business that saved consumers money on commissions, I’d have a winner.  The Help-U-Sell Low Set Fee pricing model proved to be that better way, and today, 16+ years later, we are still saving consumers many thousands over what they’d pay an ordinary broker.  

The next item that caught my attention was this (and I’ll quote the headline directly from the report):

The real estate industry is saddled with a large number of part-time, untrained, unethical and/or incompetent agents.  This knowledge gap threatens the credibility of the industry.  

Real estate has always been a fairly easy business to get into.  It requires completion of a course of study, the passing of a State exam, and a few hundred dollars in licensing fees. But knowing how to do the business and to look out for your customers and clients in their transactions is another matter.  It is something you learn through doing with expert coaching on the side, not something you learn in order to pass the real estate exam.  

I am proud to say the team at Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is full time, experienced and well able to deal with the problems that arise in any real estate transaction. .  We have helped thousands of home buyers and sellers successfully navigate the difficult waters of a real estate transaction, AND we have saved them many thousands of dollars.  We are education junkies and often find ourselves in classes aimed at increasing our knowledge and improving our skills.  

As dark as The Danger Report seems to be, I am excited and proud of where Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties stands relative to it.  We are the low cost alternative to the ordinary real estate model – a model undergoing tremendous upheaval as it works to become more like . . . well, us!  

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

 

A Banner Month For Savings!

June was a pretty good month for Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties!  We helped 14 buyers and sellers realize their housing dreams.  Most important, though, is that we saved home sellers almost $125,000 in commissions compared to what they might have paid an ordinary real estate agency.*

Savings is a key part of the Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties experience.  Our low set fee pricing enables us to save every seller with whom we work thousands over what they might have paid for real estate services.  And our sellers save without sacrificing service; we are a full-service real estate company.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here are just three of the listings that sold in June and the savings each of those sellers realized:

ss1

 

 

 

This home in Makakilo sold in just 14 days.  It had great coast and city views and a mother-in-law suite.  With 7 bedrooms and 3.5 baths, it was an updated gem!

 

 

ss2

 

 

 

This Kalihi Valley home sold in just 4 days.  It is on a quiet 21 home cul-de-sac, has 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a 3 car garage.

 

 

 

33

 

 

This fixer upper in Hawaii Kai’s Koko Head Terrace area has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and a large lot.  It was a great opportunity and sold in just 10 days.

 

 

 

 

I am excited about our June activity and pleased as can be that we were able to save sellers so much.  But I have a hint for you in July:  so far this month we’ve saved sellers almost twice as much!

If you think it’s about time you started saving on high real estate commissions without giving up service, Call Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties!

Help-U-Sell Honolulu Properties is a full service real estate company that provides exceptional service while charging less than ordinary Realtors.  We’ve been successfully helping buyers and sellers all over Oahu for more than 12 years and we’d be delighted to help you achieve your housing dreams.  Contact us at (808) 593-8811, or visit our website.  

*Savings are calculated by comparing actual fee paid with a typical 6% real estate commission.  Real estate commissions, whether percentage or set fee are always negotiable between the seller and the real estate broker.