Monday, December 31, 2007

Agent Takes Control of Her Listings

(Ft. Pierce, FL) - Dale Sorenson Real Estate agent Deborah Lyon was tired of watching her sellers get taken to the cleaners with unrealistic buyer demands. So she decided to do something about it. Require her sellers to disclose everything about the home up front with a recently launched program: Certified Pre-Owned Listing™, found at www.certifiedpreownedlisting.com.

Today, buyers come along making lowball offers on listings that are almost stale because of the current market conditions. Sellers in these instances are extremely motivated and accept because they want/need to sell. The seller is happy because they have sold their home at long last.

Or so they thought. Enter the buyer’s inspector. Those minor issues with every home like leaky faucets and cracked tiles are suddenly major problems. The buyer then brings the report to the seller to renegotiate the already accepted contract.

The seller has just realized that they have accepted an offer with contingencies that they now know could have been easily dealt with before a contract was ever accepted. Traditionally, this is what most agents have encouraged their sellers to do. But in a buyer’s market, this can be suicidal.

Michael Rowan, CEO of Certified Pre-Owned Listing™ has spoken to numerous agents and all have come to the same conclusion: Agents today can no longer rely on traditional methods to market and sell their homes. Not conducting a pre-listing inspection in today’s market is a disservice to your sellers.

The local CPOL-approved inspector, Pete Campbell, has seen how the program works for everyone first-hand and partnered with Lyon to conduct the first Certified Pre-Owned Listing™ inspection in the Ft. Pierce area.

The home inspected passed the rating system and now appears on the website as a Certified Pre-Owned Listing™. Agents and sellers are emailed leads for all potential buyers who view their listing documents. A sign rider and buyer’s binder are also part of the program.


“A $500-600 inspection done now, will save my clients thousands in contract renegotiations or repairs later,” said Campbell. “I am proud to offer this service to agents and excited to help them regain some control in the market conditions today.”