Finding amount of sales closed by a realtor

I've even never heard of people doing such things here ... professionally.

And selling a home is a more than just serious here, too.

Home staging - huge business now

http://www.stagedhomes.com/

Any way, I did the search recommended above and one of the sites showed my realtor as last selling in fall of 07 and selling one home per year prior. However, I figured it must not have very good information when it did not show my home as one of his listings.

I went onto the real estate company he works for main website. I searched for my realtor and it stated that he has sold on average 50 properties a year and that he is in the top 2% of sales in the country.

Now how can I possibly verify either one? I seem to be getting mixed info. This expert friend of our stager was supposed to look up on MLS his sales history in the current year - we have yet to hear back from her.

Home staging seems to be quite an American phenom.

Here you can take courses in "home staging" - but they're pretty much in the matchbox advertising category.

I noticed in Boomer's earlier thread that houses are viewed, and sold, empty in her area. You wouldn't be able to get anyone to seriously consider an empty house.

When I watch the British programs on home sales, it seems that the home-owners take potential buyers around their homes. Again, not a go-er here. It's a big production to get in to see a house that doesn't have pre-set viewing times, as you have to give a certain amount of notice to get into a home (and the home-owners aren't supposed to be around).

The whole home buying/selling thing has such different local customs as you travel around. Fascinating to read about.


(probably not so fascinating - more annoying if you're in the middle of it, and trying to make sense of it, and be successful at it)

Aha!

sounds like you're hot on the trail!




oh....re the steak knives....that was from that movie Glengarry Glenn Ross.

Really brutal film. the sales manager, Alec Baldwin is a real A-hole and during a sales meeting was talking about the big sales push.

The first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado, 2nd place gets (at this point he holds up some cheap plastic wrapped package with cardboard backing).....steak knives.

Third prize is, you're fired.

Watch this CLIP, really intense. Steak knife bit is at around minute 2.

I've seen this movie - I used to date a financial planner and this movie was like his real life in the office. Even the generalizations about the various ethinic groups rang true to them.

So now we got confirmation from the stagers expert friend. It seems she got similar info as the agency website stated. She said he has had over 25 sales this year.

Yes -it's certainly not a raging business here. Most people tidy up their homes, get rid of junk, excess husbands, that sort of thing. And then it goes on the market.

A friend of mine, who was previously a real estate agent (realtor in your language!), sold her home in the past week. As the place had been rented, and was now empty, she brought things from home to make it look almost civilised, beds, some furniture, etc. She certainly has an eye for showing the place off.

She says it's very difficult to sell an empty home - people just can't see how it will work.

I don't know how important staging is. Apparently, buyers can't visualize past the end of their noses and there has to be a bed in each bedroom, a table and chairs in the dining room, etc., or they can't twig to what a room is "for"!

Margo wrote "real estate agent (realtor in your language!)" However, there's a difference here between a Realtor and a real estate agent. From realtor.com: "Only real estate licensees who are members of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® are properly called REALTORS®. They proudly display the REALTOR "®" logo."

My grandmother made us all promise (at about age eight) that when we bought or sold property, we would only use a Realtor...