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Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #07-01: Kelly Etheridge RE/MAX Preferred #2: You don’t get a second chance at a first impression

July 8, 2017


Automated: Welcome to Ready, Set, Sold, with your host, Bryan Vogt. Are you wanting or even thinking about selling your house but don’t know where to start? Good thing you’ve found Ready, Set, Sold. Now, real estate broker Bryan Vogt.
Bryan Vogt: Hello, Everyone. Happy Saturday. Thanks so much for joining us. I am your host, Bryan Vogt, the host of Ready, Set, Sold. A little background of how this show got going. Very simply, I wrote a number one best-selling book called, “Ready, Set, Sold”. 12 proven steps to sell your house fast and for top dollar in St. Louis Metro East. The radio station, 1260, The Answer, heard about it. They contacted me and they said, hey, how about doing a weekly program about your book and the 12 steps. That’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re going step by step on the process of being able to get your house sold, not only for top dollar, but for a fast sale.
Right now, this week, we’re on step eight. We are going to be going backwards a little bit so we’re not always going to be in order of which direction we’re going to be. We’re on step eight, which is called Catch them at the Curb. It’s not just a catchy phrase. Let me go back a little bit further than that. I told you how we got onto the radio station. What was the reason, I get asked this all the time, of why did I write the book? What it boils down to is this. There’s so much, I’ll say mis-information out there.
There’s 25-30, how to sell your home programs. They’re all based on the east coast, west coast. Many times, the information they have there on those programs actually cost people serious money. They make upgrades. They make changes that they never should have done. We’re not talking just a couple hundred dollars. We’re talking about thousands, sometimes even tens of thousands of dollars.
The third thing is, look, this is your biggest asset, for most people, their biggest investment. Everything’s riding on this. We’ve had senior citizens say, this is it. This is the amount of money that they’re going to get. This is all there is and that’s okay. Maybe life didn’t’ turn out the way they wanted it to but they need to get top dollar and they need to have a fast sale. This book is for them and for anybody looking to have that. It’s 12 proven steps. It isn’t theory. It isn’t conjecture. It’s actual proven steps that sellers have used and had fantastic success. It’s important you get the book. Many people have already done it. I thank you for that.
I think anyone that’s even thinking about, even in the next year or so, thinking about selling, this book is for you. No strings, no hidden agenda here. You’re just getting the book out. Go to Readysetsold.org, not dot com. Readysetsold.org, not dot com, and pick up the book.
With that, a little background from me also. I’ve been in real estate for over 16 years. I run a very, very successful real estate teams that has an experience level of over 30 years. I’ve lived in the metro east my entire life. I’ve lived in Shiloh now for over 20 years. Today I have one of my team members here. That is Kelly Ethridge. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Kelly Ethridge: Thanks for having me.
Bryan Vogt: You’re doing great today, I hope?
Kelly Ethridge: Absolutely. Thank you.
Bryan Vogt: Yes, Saturday’s are always a great day, right? Always good. Having said that, Kelly, again, is our super star. The thing that I love about it is, is that Kelly had just a passion.  That’s not uncommon. That’s not a problem. We can make that work. She went full-time in January and to give you an idea, before I ask Kelly this question, most agents that are considered successful agents, and I’m talking about very successful agents, sell between 20 and 25 houses a year. Kelly, how many houses do you have going to close right now?
Kelly Ethridge: In the next 30 days, I have ten that will be closing.
Bryan Vogt: Ten houses closing. Okay, in one month, she has tooken half of what a quote unquote, I shouldn’t say quote unquote, a successful agent has done. One of the things that we’re really very proud of is coaching people up of having simple systems, simple, simple, simple, of helping people with their big decision of buying their dream home or selling their home, either way. Kelly has been, well, she’s been a rock star. It’s been a great-
Kelly Ethridge: I’ve had a great coach.
Bryan Vogt: Well, thank you. It’s about time you said something. All this stuff I’m giving you.
Kelly Ethridge: All this fluff, yes.
Bryan Vogt: Yeah. No, if you’re interested, if you’ve thought about getting into real estate, the market, just so you know, is going fantastic. Now’s the time to get into it, whether that’s a part-time start. If you’re an agent already, that’s fine too. If you have a license, but if you don’t, that’s okay too. Go to bryanvogt.com, that’s B-R-Y-A-N-V-O-G-T dot com and just send us an email. You can always call us but if you wanted to just start with a conversation that way you can go to Facebook, Ready, Set, Sold. Send us a private message. We like to have a conversation. We’re always looking to add more people onto our team. We are rapidly growing.
With that said is, is what we talked about last week, which is really cool, and that’s the staging part. We talked about the lighting and the spacing is so important and giving the illusion or giving the mindset of having friends over to view your house. They’re going to see the bathrooms and they’re going to see the bedrooms, and how important it is to keep those things in mind. With that said is, is, so we’ve got the inside about staging, but staging the outside is just as important. That’s why we talk about catch them at the curb.
It really isn’t a catchy phrase. It really is true. Most of the times, most buyers judge that if the outside isn’t up to snuff, the inside isn’t up to snuff either. That may not be true. That may not be true but if they see things that they don’t like, they simply won’t go in the house.
Kelly, you’ve had that situation. Kelly works with buyers and sellers. You had a situation like that.
Kelly Ethridge: Yeah, I was taking some buyers out. We had a list of probably three houses that day, three really nice homes. We came to the second one and the lawn was not mowed, the bushes were not trimmed, the trees were overgrown and they said, let’s just skip this one. We’ll go to the next one. The illusion was there that the inside was going to look like the outside.
Bryan Vogt: Sometimes that’s true but sometimes it’s not. Sometimes people just tend to forget about it. I think that becomes really important. That becomes so important because it simply is next. There’s not a long discussion about it, right?
Kelly Ethridge: Right.
Bryan Vogt: It just doesn’t work. Not only do you have that when they actually drive to it, but I think it’s something like 60-65% of buyers now view all the homes on their phone, okay? You’ve got a very small, even if you have a larger phone, you don’t have much to look at. When they’re looking at that, they’re making some very quick judges with that home. Kelly, you’ve seen them do it. They always look on their phone, right?
Kelly Ethridge: Absolutely.
Bryan Vogt: Right, then it’s like Facebook. They just scroll up and down or whatever and decide what they want. If they can’t see it, then they just kind of move on. They’re making a lot of first impressions. You talk about the ultimate first impression, okay? You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. That picture, that front picture of your house, you want your house to pop, okay? Getting the shrubs in, getting them trimmed, getting the grass mowed, getting any, if you’ve got shingles. I said shingles, but the side-
Kelly Ethridge: Shutters.
Bryan Vogt: Shutters, that’s it, thank you. I could have been there for a long time. I’m glad you’re here. Getting the shutters painted.
Kelly Ethridge: The awning straight.
Bryan Vogt: The awning straight. You had a story about that too.
Kelly Ethridge: Absolutely. We had a house we walked up and the awning was crooked and the buyer said, do you think they just don’t own a level. That was the first impression, that everything was going to be crooked.
Bryan Vogt: Right and that’s an impression that tends to stay with them. That’s the bad part. If that’s not level, I have a crooked house. Who wants to buy a crooked house? It has nothing to do, again, I say this all the time, perception is reality in real estate. What they perceive, they tend to think it true, whether it is or not. Catching them at the curb becomes really important.
We’re going to go into the next segment, we’re going to go into even more about that. More about, not only the yard, but also the backyard and some tips that you need to know or need to start making sure you’re aware of that you’re taking care of it. With that look, we’re not going to cover everything in the book today. I wish we could but we just don’t have the time.
Go get the book. If you have any interest about catching them at the curb, but there’s other things about getting your house priced right, how the military buyers, you can get them to come knocking. There’s so much information in there, easy read, quick read. Go to readysetsold.org not dot com. Readysetsold.org not dot com. Many, many of you have already gotten the book. That’s been fantastic. My goal is to get everybody who’s even listening or anybody who’s even thinking about selling, whether they use me or not, I could care less. Just get the book. I am your host Bryan Vogt.

I will see you in a few minutes.

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