Before meeting our real estate sellers, some think about selling their home through For Sale By Owner.  Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that founder and former CEO of ForSaleByOwner.com, Colby Sambrotto, had to use the services of a local real estate professional in order to sell his New York apartment, because he could not sell it on his own as a For Sale By Owner (FSBO).  Sambrotto, who is considered the founder of the concept of selling your home without the assistance of a real estate agent, has failed!  After much reluctance to work with a Realtor on his own personal residence, Sambrotto paid a full 6% commission in order to get his home sold.  In today’s market, Mr. Sambrotto, like many By Owner sellers, learned the hard way that selling your home without a professional is not the best way to move your home for top dollar in the fastest amount of time.

Let’s now look at a couple myths that Mr. Sambrotto, like many do it yourself home sellers, experienced:

Myth #1 – You Will Net More Money By Selling On Your Own

Most FSBO sites claim that you can save money on the commission by selling on your own. But, what happened to Mr. Sambrotto be shocking:

From the WSJ article:

“The broker, Jesse Buckler, said he told Mr. Sambrotto the apartment in the Lion’s Head building on West 19th Street near Sixth Avenue was priced too low and wasn’t drawing the right buyers.

By May, it went into contract, he said, after attracting multiple offers. It closed in the last few days for $150,000 more than the original asking price.”

Myth #2 – You Can Sell Your Home Alone Using Just The Internet

With the plethora of  real estate websites on the Internet, hiring a real estate professional is not a necessity.  Read below, to see what happened to Mr. Sambrotto, Mr. FSBO guru, after only depending on the Internet to sell his home:

From the WSJ article:

“Looking to move his family to the suburbs, [Mr. Sambrotto] said he carefully staged his apartment for sale himself, and put it on the market. But after using a mix of websites to publicize his apartment, he said he had only ‘middling success’ and switched to a broker because many buyers were so reliant on brokers.”

Bottom Line

The Real Estate Profession has been around for centuries for just this reason!  If you are truly looking for the best service and to net the most money, then please interview top Parkland or South Florida Realtors.  Your home is one of your largest financial assets.  As a result, consult with a true professional, like us, that will guide you throughout the entire selling process, ESPECIALLY in today’s real estate market.

Know the neighborhood. Know the value. Know your hometown agents: The Parkland Parrot Real Estate Team. If you are interested in buying or selling in Parkland or South Florida and are looking for experienced local Realtors, please do not hesitate to contact the Squawk at 954-609-0591 or send us a message here.

Related Posts:
Seller Makes $15,000 More By Using Parkland Parrot Real Estate Team Over By Owner
AVOID 10 Biggest Mistakes When Selling Your Parkland Home
If I Sell My Parkland Florida Home – How Much Money Will I Net?

There were 37 total single family sales for the month of December, 2010 ranging in price from $175,000 to $2,150,000. Last month, there were 20 total single family home sales. There were 17 more Parkland single family home sold in the month of December than in November, 2010.

Among the 37 sales for the month of December, 15 were distressed sales (bank foreclosures or short sales).   The Parkland real estate market saw a large spike in sales for the month of December.  Let’s hope the trend continues in the first quarter of 2011.

We are receiving more and more buyer inquires about the City of Parkland which is great news for the overall real estate market.  We expect the market to pick up in the coming weeks and month as more and more people are attracted to the many features and benefits in Parkland, Florida.  Curious to know why Parkland is such a popular place to live and raise a family? Read our recent post: What Is The Parkland Florida Lifestyle?

If you are thinking about selling your Parkland home or would like to receive a monthly update on the current real estate trends in your particular community, please feel free to give us a call at 954-609-0591 or email us at: Michael@ParklandParrot.com

We know the numbers, we analyze the market, our clients make better decisions. If you are interested in buying in Parkland or South Florida and are looking for experienced local Realtors, please do not hesitate to contact the Squawk at or send us a message here.

To stay updated with all Parkland real estate information, receive our blog posts via email by subscribing here. After registering, you must activate the subscription in a followup email.

Related Articles:
Parkland Reserve Video Tour Of Preconstruction Townhomes
Our Featured Heron Bay The Colony Luxury Estate Listing

When a seller or buyer works with us, our relationship goes beyond the basics of the real estate transaction, and our client relationship does not expire after the sale is completed.

What do we mean by customer service?  Below, please find just a few examples of how we took care of some of our recent clients:

• One of our Pine Tree Estates’ seller was out of town and put a neighbor in charge of the care of her three dogs.  Unfortunately, the neglectful neighbor forgot to walk the dogs for an entire day.  We arrived to the home and found poop in the main living areas of the home.  We quickly cleaned up the problem and used air fresheners to disguise the smell before the perspective buyers arrived.
• An elderly client needed help moving boxes to the garage in order to stage the home for the pictures.  Rosy and I personally rolled up our sleeves and helped move dozens of heavy boxes in order to get the home ready to show.  As a result of our efforts, the home sold in under a week.
• A few times this year,  our team had to extend our services to house cleaning.  As a result, we had to make beds, pick up dirty laundry, wash dishes, and sweep floors to make the house show at its best!
• We got a call from a neighbor at one of our vacant homes under contract that stated that there was a leak at our listing.  We immediately took action and met a plumber, while our clients were out of town and unavailable.  As a result, the leak was fixed before it became a huge problem which would have resulted in the home not closing.
• We have coordinated and met landscapers, pool service companies, roofers, and other repair companies while our clients were out of town or at work in order to fix issues.

A great book that I am currently reading entitled, “People Buy You” (written by Jeb Blount) says: ” Going the extra mile sets you apart from 90 percent of your competitors.  There are no traffic jams on the extra mile.” Our team strives to always go beyond our clients’ expectations in each and every transaction and become their lifetime real estate agents.

The Parkland Parrot Real Estate Team is also a proud sponsor of this year’s Concerts In The Park Series at Pine Trails Park.  The next Concert In The Park is October 9, 2010, where Don’t Stop Believin-Journey Tribute Band will be performing all of your favorite Journey’s Hits!  Please don’t forget to stop by our booth to say hello and receive our free giveaways.  We look forward to meeting more Parkland residents and enjoy great music! To view the complete schedule of concerts, please visit: City Of Parkland Concert Series

If you are interested in buying or selling real estate in Parkland or South Florida and are looking for experienced Realtors, please do not hesitate to contact the Squawk at or send us a message here.

To stay updated with all Parkland real estate information, receive our blog posts via email by subscribing here.  After registering, you must activate the subscription in a followup email.

In the following video, Realtor Michael Citron of the Parkland Parrot Real Estate Team at RE/MAX discusses the top 7 of the 23 most important questions all potential sellers should use when interviewing the right agent for the job of selling your home. Watch the video below:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Please visit the following link to view the rest of the 23 questions:

23 Questions Sellers Must Ask When Interviewing A Realtor

Price Your Home Accordingly From Day One And Don’t Ride The Real Estate Roller Coaster

After closing our recent Pine Tree Estates home located at 6213 N.W. 63rd Way, Parkland, FL 33067 last week, I thought about how this particular seller rode the real estate roller coaster for the past few years.  He had gone through three top-producing local Realtors, before our team listed and sold his home in under 50 days!  He told me that they had an offer a year and a half ago for 1 million dollars, which he did not take!  As a result, he ended up selling his home in the $800,000’s, which is top-market price today!

I performed some further research using the 33 single family homes that sold in December, 2009. On average, each home ended up selling for approximately 25% less than it was originally listed for.  Of course, some sellers had their homes on the market in 2005 and had unrealistic expectations.

But, many of your fellow Parkland neighbors decided to ride the Parkland real estate roller coaster.  Unfortunately, the price of the ticket costs tens of thousands of dollars!

We recently went to contract on our listing in North Pine Tree Estates located at 6920 N.W. 66th Ave, Parkland, FL 33067.  We provided our sellers with this useful information about proper pricing.  Fortunately, both of our recent sellers had their homes under contract in under 50 days!! Best news is that they did not have to ride the Parkland real estate roller coaster.

As home values continue to settle this year, sellers need to understand that pricing is imperative in today’s real estate market.  It is very important to interview the right agent for the job of selling your home who is looking to actually SELL your listing and not just take your listing! Or else, you, your family, and your Realtor should be prepared to buckle up and ride the real estate roller coaster! Are you afraid of heights?

If you are thinking about selling your home, or know someone looking to sell, please give us a call at 954-609-0591 or send a note to the squawk.

To stay updated with all of the current Parkland real estate home information, receive our blog posts directly to your inbox by subscribing to the squawk.

No matter if the agent is your friend or even an agent that you worked with in the past,  the current market is unlike any other!  As a result, the older agent that sold homes at the height of the market might not truly be the best agent for the job.   Read on …

Below is a list of suggested questions:

1. How long have you been selling real estate?
2. Are you a full-time agent?
3. How many homes have you sold this year?
4. Do you speak multiple languages and advertise your listings in Spanish?
5. Are you a top 1% Realtor in Florida?
6. Do you have a personal assistant, transaction coordinator, or buyers’ agents?
7. How many listings do you currently have?
8. Do you have a resume or personal brochure?
9. Do you have you own personal Website to attract buyers?
10. Do you market and sell homes in my neighborhood?
11. What are your average days on market for your listings?
12. What is your list price to sales price ratio?
13. What does your online marketing plan entail?
14. Do you provide sellers with a staging checklist to make their homes more attractive to buyers?
15. How much are you willing to spend on marketing my home?
16. Will you send flyers of my home to top-producing agents in my area?
17. Will you host a broker open and do open houses?
18. May I see a sample brochure of other listings you have recently sold?
19. Do you provide a home and neighborhood brochure for all buyers?
20. Do you provide a weekly email report to sellers on the status of their homes?
21. Do you have a marketing guarantee for my home?
22. Can you provide me with a list of past clients and their phone numbers to contact?
23. How accessible are you?  Will I get you on the telephone or will I speak mostly with your assistant?

If you are thinking about selling your Parkland home, please contact us at 954-609-0591 for a free comparative market analysis and customized marketing plan

To stay updated with all of the current Parkland real estate home information, receive our blog posts directly to your inbox by subscribing to the squawk.

While Browsing Parkland properties every day for my clients, I can’t help but recognize many Parkland homes put on the MLS for sale by Realtors with crappy pictures, no room measurements, no virtual tours, and on and on.

Here is an active listing in Ternbridge Estates currently on the market for $1,300,000 with ONLY two pictures that you would need a magnify glass to see.  Is at least a $39,000 commission not enough of an incentive to hire a professional photographer to to place the 16 picture limit on the MLS and then 25 total pictures on Realtor.com? 

Imagine if you were the seller of this property!  How many potential buyers in the past 5 months that the home has been on the market are not even thinking of looking at this property?  Would you want to see this property by the way it is portrayed on the MLS & Realtor.com?  I think not!

If you are thinking about selling your Parkland property, make sure to keep track of your Realtor.  Ask for copies or links to all online and print marketing.  Make sure to properly interview the right agent for the job of selling your home!  Or else, you could be on the market for 5 months or more and be totally oblivious to why your home is not receiving any attention!   But, one bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch.

To stay updated with all of the current Parkland real estate information, receive our blog posts directly to your inbox by subscribing to the squawk.

If you are interested in buying or selling real estate in Parkland, please give us a call at 954-609-0591 or send a note to the squawk.

Proper Parkland Pricing For Home Sellers

Many Parkland sellers are thinking in the past instead of the present when it comes to pricing their homes for sale!  I tell my sellers that it is better to price their homes competitively and closer to where the home should sell than overpricing and never receiving any showings.  No showings equals No offers. Period!

I hear the saying, “But Michael, we need to price our home higher to leave room for negotiating.” My response is that if you leave too much room, there won’t be any negotiating.  When a potential buyer finds the right property and writes up an offer, he/she then becomes personally attached to the home.  Before the offer comes in, their is no warm, fuzzy feeling from the buyer. With the real estate market in Parkland starting to show signs of life, sellers need to be realistic and NOT overprice their homes.  Imagine how many more sales would take place this month if more sellers of the less than 300 single family Parkland homes actually had their homes priced competitively?  Think about it!

To stay updated with all of the current Parkland real estate information, receive our blog posts directly to your inbox by subscribing to the squawk.

If you are interested in buying or selling real estate in Parkland, please give us a call at 954-609-0591 or send a note to the squawk.