9 Small (But Mighty) Home Updates Agents Recommend Before Listing
Why Top Realtors® Use Curbio in a Seller’s Market
With Curbio, agents can help their clients sell for more, faster. But in a strong, seller’s market (like the one we’re in now), homes are selling like hotcakes. As a result, many agents are asking us, “Why use Curbio if it’s just going to increase the number of days before we hit the market?”
It’s a valid question that we’re happy to answer.
In a seller’s market, Curbio enables you to offer your own pre-listing home improvement solution to remain competitive and win more listings. Our solution can also help you achieve the right price, maximize the value you get from every listing, and elevate your brand—and we’re excited to explain how!
Win more listings
At the end of the day, when homeowners consider selling their homes, they care most about two things: time and money. In a highly competitive, seller’s market, any agent can promise a quick sale at a great price. So, how do you differentiate yourself? You add value.
Get more listing appointments
While there are quite a few home improvement solutions that offer a pay-at-closing model, many agents are still not promoting them to sellers. But we’ve spoken with numerous agents who have found success in promoting Curbio to help them get listing appointments.
One agent, specifically, looks for homeowners who have been in their home for 20+ years, and targets them with a postcard explaining how working with Curbio can help them get top dollar. After testing the waters, this agent plans to partner with Curbio to update 10 homes in 2021. Based on averages and a 2.5% seller’s agent commission, using Curbio would increase his income by around $25k this year. This process has helped him win a few listings including one for which the homeowner had been receiving Realtors’ post cards for years. This particular homeowner’s interest was piqued by the value that his agent was able to bring the table by working with Curbio.
By providing a service others aren’t and switching up the messages homeowners are used to seeing, you’ll capture their attention as well—and win more listing appointments as a result.
Increase your close rate
In a seller’s market, most agents will take the easy route: pitch with a high, but achievable sale price, and explain that now is the perfect time to sell because it’s a strong, seller’s market.
You should go the extra mile: Go in with options. Start by asking the homeowners what their goals are for the sale of their home.
If they want to sell as quickly as possible, recommend a few basic repairs and touchups to get the house market ready. Explain that while this will take 1-2 weeks, it will help attract more buyers, increase the sale price, and help avoid any issues with the inspection—which would ultimately cost more time.
Tell them that you know of a company, Curbio, that is the expert in pre-listing home improvements, has streamlined the home improvement process to reduce project timelines (and time to market) by 50%, and defers payment until closing with no fees or interest—meaning they can get these repairs done quickly without worrying about freeing up cash or sacrificing speed to market.
If they want to maximize their sale price to move on more comfortably, recommend taking a look at everything that can be done to maximize their profit from the home sale. Explain that you partner with a company, Curbio, that is the expert in pre-listing home improvements, manages and executes the entire project, and defers payment until closing with no fees or interest—meaning they don’t need any upfront cash to significantly increase their profit when they walk away from the closing table.
By providing a tremendous value-add that you can cater to any sellers’ needs, your close rate will skyrocket.
Achieve the right price
When inventory is low and buyer demand is high, bidding wars that result in multiple offers above asking are not uncommon. But high demand isn’t the only factor that goes into sale price, is it?
You may receive offers well above your asking price because buyers are competing for the few houses on the market. If the property doesn’t appraise for the same price as the offer you accepted, however, you may face some costly hurdles. And even if the appraisal does come through, your sellers could have sold for more—if they made some updates before listing. In order to ensure that your sellers achieve their target sale price, updates may be required to raise the value. Make sure to do your research and work with Curbio to determine which updates will actually raise the value of the home enough to get the price right.
Maximize the value of every single listing (including your commission)
As an agent, you want to help your clients sell for more, so they’ll be satisfied and provide you with a lifetime of referrals. But increasing the sale price of homes also means increasing the commission you get from selling. By increasing both your chances at a referral and the commission you get from each listing, you can maximize the full value you get out of every single listing.
Now, the referral part of this is easy to understand. Provide the best service to your sellers and help them profit more from their home sale. As a result, they’ll leave the sale happy enough with their experience to provide you with a lifetime of referrals from their network.
Imagining the potential increase in your commission isn’t so easy. We provided some math around an agent’s expected increase in income based on projected Curbio’d listings above, so let’s visualize a couple different examples—again, based on averages and a 2.5% seller’s agent commission.
Now, take into account the following:
- Curbio costs you $0 to use
- Your Curbio Project Manager, a full-time Curbio employee, manages the entire project from the proposal to the punch list
- Even in a seller’s market, updated homes are in higher demand, so they will sell faster
- Taking on home improvements before listing will reduce the number of issues that could come up on an inspection report
By working with Curbio you’re not only listing better, you’re also going to maximize the value of each listing and make significantly more money each year.
Elevate your brand
As an agent, you should aspire to list better properties. This will help you elevate your brand, which will then attract more clients and help you increase your market share. Many agents have reported wanting to break into a higher price point or a new neighborhood. By elevating your brand with better listings that sold at the top of the comps, you’ll be better able to show the quality of listings you can handle and the value you can bring—swaying homeowners to list with you rather than the go-to neighborhood Realtor.
Of course, there’s more to your brand than the quality of your listings. We’d suggest starting with completing a brand audit—starting with a good, hard look at your listings’ digital curb appeal.
Top agents already use Curbio to grow their businesses in a seller’s market, and now it’s your turn. Get started by requesting a free, same-day estimate.