This month’s book, Home Seller Secrets: What Top Moving Realtors Already Know That Every Home Seller Should by B. Worthmoore, isn’t really a book for real estate agents; it’s for home sellers. Still, you may want to pick up a few copies anyway, because this is the kind of book that can help you prepare sellers for the realities of listing their home.
You won't find simple to-do lists here (“clean up personal items,” “plant some flowers”). The book explains to sellers why these steps are important and how they can help sell the home. And let’s face it: sometimes you need all the help you can get when working with stubborn sellers, especially if you're a new agent! Worthmoore’s book gets sellers to see the process from the buyers’ point of view, emphasizing the agent’s role as guide and expert in the process. I’ve worked with sellers a few times who needed this kind of advice, and I wish I’d had this book to give them.
You might find the exercises in the book especially helpful. One exercise suggests you take unrealistic sellers along as “buyers” to several comparable open houses. Then you can use a handy worksheet to help the sellers evaluate the homes as if they were buyers: How is the entry? What needs cleaning up? Does the house "flow," or is there clutter and too much furniture? Are there any odors or dirt? The sellers are then asked to evaluate their own home the same way.
Home Sellers uses a simple “stoplight” system (red for problems, yellow for things that need fixing, and green for selling points) that helps sellers prioritize the steps necessary to price their home correctly and prepare it for the market.
Underlying all of this is Worthmoore’s premise that the agent and seller should be partners in getting the home sold. Agents already know that a cooperative, realistic seller will make the process easier; after reading this book, sellers will know it, too.
Remember, Rockwell Institute is here to answer your real estate education questions.
