Texas RockStar

Group

Rocking in Real Estate Since 2004

Preparing for a Successful Home Sale

Hello,

I realize that you have a choice when hiring an agent to help you sell your home and I truly appreciate the opportunity to present our proven approach and the results we have achieved for our clients. As your agent, there are several services you can expect our team to provide, including:

• Accurately pricing your home for the market.

• Enhancing the perceived – and real – value of your home, enabling you to command a higher asking price. • Providing unmatched marketing including professional staging, photography, video and custom property websites.

•Securing a qualified buyer within your specific time frame.

•Helping you avoid the two main reasons sales fall apart – low lender’s appraisals and problems with the home inspection.

Regardless of the price of your home, when you hire the RockStar Group as your Realtor, both you – and your home – will be prepared for a successful sale.

Warm Regards,

Debbie MialiListing SpecialistRockStar Group

Before joining the field of Real Estate, Debbie spent 15 years as a practicing Paralegal in Litigation Law, in San Diego, California. Her experience and skill set as a Paralegal has molded her for her position as a Listing Specialist and Realtor. Debbie has been a Real Estate professional in Houston, Texas since 2013.

She presents vast levels of professionalism, business ethics, enthusiasm, and energy. Debbie is dedicated to putting every ounce of energy, knowledge and experience to work for each one of her clients. She focuses on delivering a personalized approach, offering the best service possible. Debbie exhibits excellent interpersonal skills, and multi-tasking abilities.

With her extensive background as a Paralegal, she has an exceptional attention to detail, is organized, dependable, and a self starter. Debbie brings passion to every transaction, working with absolute honesty and attention to detail throughout the process. She looks at each transaction as if it were her own, treating clients like family. Debbie’s proudest accomplishments though, are being a proud Mom to her daughter, a blossoming teenager, who is a soaring high school freshman in the Klein ISD. Debbie truly values her family and being there for others. One of the reasons for Debbie moving to Houston, Texas was to allow her daughter to live closer to her family, who moved to Houston, Texas many years ago from San Diego, California.

About Debbie

About Our Team

Jake Johnston – Lead Buyer Specialist

Jake joined the RockStar Group in January of 2015 and brings 6 years of real estate experience. Originally licensed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming after graduating from Texas Tech, Jake moved home to Austin to partner up with his brother. Jake loves finding the needle in the haystack for our clients. Let Jake know what you are looking for and he gets the job done. Jake is proud of the money he has saved our buyers when they are purchasing a property.

Kristen is our new Rockstar, and joins our team as our Executive Director of Excellence. She is well aware of the primary goal , rolling out the red carpet for all of our clients and customers. She has a great background in office management and has several years building client relationships. Her superior organizational skills will benefit the entire team, keeping us all focused on our main objective, exceeding your expectations. You will hear from Kristen throughout your transaction process

Kristen Fernandez– Director of Excellence

About Our Team

Ryan Tatusko – RockStar Buyer Specialist

Ryan is our latest acquisition on our team, and brings a tremendous enthusiasm with him. Ryan comes to the Real Estate World from the world of professional baseball. His level of professionalism will help you navigate the many properties available for your family to buy. He is highly motivated and focused on helping you find a great home, and with the technology available to our team, he can help you save big money on your next home purchase.

Marce comes to the RockStar Group with 3 years of real estate experience and is excited to show off her skills, helping others accomplish their dream of finding a perfect home. She has always had an interest in real estate and through the encouragement of a lifelong friend, she has focused on helping others through real estate. Marce's mom would say she is honest, outspoken and dependable, and her father would say she is trustworthy, responsible and punctual. Her friends describe her as generous, determined and committed. She describes herself as a ready to work girl.

Marce Banks– RockStar Buyer Specialist

Testimonials

Rick has been an outstanding agent for my wife and I. He's helped us through two transactions so far and we couldn't imagine using any other Realtor. Our last transaction was selling our home. The house went on the market a week after Hurricane Ike, 3 weeks later the stock market crashed and we still sold our home by Thanksgiving. He calmed us down when we needed it, provided great advice that we took in getting our house ready for market and did all the little things that make a huge difference when selling a house. We sold in a difficult housing environment and got the money out we wanted. All because of Rick's efforts and strategy. I've always found Rick to be an honest and fair minded man and can't wait to do business with him again.

~Paul and Meg Dixon

Rick always goes above and beyond his duties as a realtor. When we purchased our home, he was honest, and always kept our best interest at heart, even if it meant passing on a good number of houses before we found the perfect one for us. He was so knowledgeable about all the different neighborhoods and schools, and was an invaluable part of our decision making. He made the home buying process a very pleasant experience. Good, honest, realtors who put your interests first are hard to find, and we were lucky enough to find one in Rick! Next time we buy a house, we are definitely going with the Rock Star!

~Ryan & Valerie Cooper

“From staging our home, to handling challenging contract negotiations, Rick demonstrated attention to detail, responsiveness, professionalism and a focus on getting us to closing. In spite of today’s challenging real estate market, he helped us sell our house quickly and helped make the process as smooth as possible.”

~ Spike & Rosanne Tinsley

Testimonials

Rick did a wonderful job in helping us sell our house. His professional knowledge and experience made the process painless and successful. He is honest, straight forward and always there if you have a need. We would highly recommend the RockStar Group and will use him in any of our future property needs.

~ Lisa Staggs

Rick Raanes is truly a knowledgeable and honest real estate agent. He has been our realtor for over 5 years and we have completed multiple successful transactions, thanks to his hard work and dedication. He is always looking out for his client’s best interest. We highly recommend Rick and his team for your real estate needs

~ Valerie Cooper

Everything went so smoothly with the purchase of our new investment property. Rick and the RockStar Group are top-notch and we love his knowledge of the real estate market. We are very pleased with our new property, and the team secured a new tenant quickly for us. Thank you Rick and the RockStar Group.

~ Melanie Bell

Rick and Vanessa were amazing. They put together a game plan for us 6 months before we put our house on the market. During that time, they helped us with the perfect blend of contractors to get the details just perfect. From Staging the home to photography, to closing, everything was just perfect!

~ Tom & Barbara Fiorenzi

I want to thank you for your outstanding professional service as our listing agent for the sale of our property in The Woodlands. Your help on the front end, helping us prepare our home, setting the stage, to setting the price, helped us get multiple offers for our home. Your experience was invaluable as we walked through each of the offers selecting the one to choose. Your negotiation skills saved us money we didn’t expect to save. You are always fun to be around, pleasant to work with, and professional throughout the process. It made our experience like no other transaction.

~ Dave and Judy McCleary

How Homes SellUNDERSTANDING HOW BUYERS EVALUATE HOMES

The Marketing I will do to promote your home has only one purpose – to increase awareness among potential buyers leading to in-person showings.

Once buyers reach your front door, the job of marketing is over.

Your home must now compete with other homes in two areas;

FEATURES AND PRICE

If your home has more features that appeal to buyers – or your home is priced lower than the comparables homes- your home will stand out as the better value.

Conversely, if your home lacks the features that potential buyers desire, your only option is to compete on price.

To be effective, your home should stand out as one of the top two to three best values in your immediate market place.

PricePRICING YOUR HOME FOR A SUCCESSFUL SALE

Pricing your home accurately is the most effective way to ensure a successful sale. Allow me to repeat that – pricing your home accurately is the most effective way to ensure a successful sale.

No amount of marketing can sell an overpriced home.

Many sellers are tempted to list their home with the agent who quotes the highest price.

Please keep in mind, the agent doesn’t set the price, the seller doesn’t set the price – the market will set the price, or value, for your home

Factors that Influence Market Value

Supply & DemandEconomic ConditionsAsking & Selling Prices of Competing homesYour Home’s ConditionBuyer's perception of Your Home

Factors with Little or No Influence in Market Value

The price the Seller Paid for the homeThe Seller’s Expected Net ProceedsThe Amount Spent on Improvements

PriceProfessional Appraisal

The most effective method of pricing your home is to have a professional appraisal. When you list – and close – your home with our team, we will suggest a pre-listing appraisal to be completed by a respected appraisal firm.

Benefits of having a professional appraisal:

You receive an unbiased, third party opinion of the market value of your home by a trained professional

You are positioned to quickly recognize and respond to a market offer.

You are positioned to effectively challenge a low lender’s appraisal of your home, maintaining your higher contract price. A lender will consider a well-known appraisers valuation – they will not consider an estimate provided by a real estate agent.

You avoid the common practice of a real estate agent “buying your listing” by suggesting a higher price than can be achieved. Because the agent would then be reluctant to suggest a price reduction early in the marketing process, you lose valuable time during those critical first several weeks on the market.

Having a pre-listing appraisal not only helped us sell faster, but we saved over $40,000 by using our appraisal to successfully challenge the low lender’s appraisal. That savings more than covered the broker fees.

~Dave & Judy

ConditionPREPARING YOUR HOME FOR A SUCCESSFUL SALE

With the typical agent, you only discover potential deal-killing repairs after you are already under contract – when the buyer hires a home inspector to scrutinize every aspect of your home.

Discovering and repairing problems early in the marketing process places you in control, eliminating the stress of making repairs on the buyers schedule. Having your house in move-in condition also helps you avoid delays to closing and demonstrates to buyers, agents and the buyers’ home inspector that your house has been very well maintained. WE want buyers to focus on how they would live in your home – not what they would have to repair.

Additionally, your house will stand out from the competition as a better value and command a higher price.

I will also recommend trustworthy, professional contractors to address any repairs that are needed. The extent that these repairs are made will directly affect your listing price. You have the ability to command a higher asking price, and substantiate it, when your home is in top condition.

63% of buyers responded that they would pay more for a house that is move-in ready!!

ConditionHOME STAGING

Once we have your home inspected and the necessary repairs have been made, we will focus on presentation. You will only get one opportunity to make a positive first impression with potential buyers. Well staged homes look better, photograph better, show better, and sell faster than non-staged homes.

When you list – and close – your home with the RockStar Group, we will pay to have it staged by one of the areas most experienced professional stagers.

Home staging is not decorating. Decorating appeals to the person living in the house; staging is positioning the home to appeal to the psychological needs of buyers by creating a series of impressions that build an emotional connection to help buyers imagine living in the home. A recent poll revealed that 87% of respondents said home presentation make the difference in most residential sales.

Also, while many listing agents overlook the presentation of your home and push for price reductions, the problems, whether perceived or real, still exist.

Rick recognized that our lack of a usable back yard and our location on a busy street would not appeal to buyers seeking privacy and a place for children to play. We followed his suggestions and redesigned the landscaping. An equivalent price reduction would have had no effect at all. We sold a few weeks later for our full asking price.

ConditionHOME WARRANTY

While your home is listed with us, it will be covered by a nationally-recognized home warranty from First American Home Warranty for the duration of your listing.

The benefit of having your home under coverage is that many of the normal day to day repairs are covered under this plan while your home is listed with us.

When you list your home with the RockStar Group, we will pay to have a First American Home Warranty listing coverage policy.

By advertising a comprehensive warranty for your home, we increase buyer confidence in your home and we set you apart from the competition.

MarketingMARKETING YOUR HOME FOR A SUCCESSFUL SALE

Your home is now priced accurately and looks great.

Let’s show it off!

The marketing of your home will reflect an established history of how buyers search for, and purchase, homes.

95% of buyers use the internet during their home search.

85% of all home sales in the Houston MLS are co-brokered. This means there is a listing agent who represent you, the seller, and another agent who represents the buyer of your home. As a result, marketing to Realtors is our most productive activity.

The most effective way to get the attention of productive agents and buyers is through accurate pricing and great photography

MarketingPROFFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY

After your home is staged, I will pay to have your home photographed by a professional real estate photographer, using the latest techniques in High Definition Resolution (HDR) photography.

Over 90% of home buyers are using the Internet to search for homes, and professional photography is essential to any comprehensive marketing plan.

As you know, more people will view your home online than will ever visit it personally. Getting, and holding, their attention online with professional photography is one way to increase the probability of in –person showing.

“Buyers perceive homes with professional photography to be worth, on average, 12% more than the actual price.”

The Wall Street Journal

MarketingHI DEFINITION VIDEO

In addition to professional photography, the RockStar Group will create a superior compact high-definition video of your home, showing off your homes best features. A well produced video will give potential buyers an emotional feeling for what living in the house could be like, long before they make a personal visit.

Video enables us to “tell a story” about your home – why you loved living there – making that emotional connection for buyers to come and visit your home. We are able to address the emotional needs for comfort, family relaxation, family fun and more than photos alone cannot communicate.

MarketingINTERNET MARKETING

Your home will be prominently featured on several major websites, like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, and over 500 others. And just so you know, It is also on our website too.

MarketingINTERNET MARKETING

Your home will also be featured on our Keller Williams web site where is can be seen by thousands of daily visitors.

Your home is also directly accessible by more than 600 leading real estate broker websites that serve over 32,000 agents in the Houston Metropolitan area.

Additionally, all open houses are promoted on our web site, thewoodlandsrockstar.com, kw.com, Har.com, increasing the exposure of your home.

MarketingKeller Williams Luxury International

We are also members of our Keller Williams Luxury International. As a home seller of Luxury home, your property will be features in our unique Luxury only website, www.kwluxuryhomes.com.

We go the extra mile with our marketing efforts by isolating the primary focus of your property to attract the perfect buyer for your home. We elevate the number of high resolution photos available, create a lifestyle cinematic video for your home, create an 8 page color brochure, promote your property to the agents in our market area most likely to have a pre-qualified buyer for your property, and create a dynamic personal website for your home that is shared through our premium reach social media channels.

MarketingSOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Your home will also be marketed extensively on Facebook, the world’s leading social media site. We also are active on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pintrest.

I will market your home using several proven approaches, including highly –targeted ads, video, photos, and more.

Facebook represents an opportunity to reach tens of thousands of local Houston residents on a site where they already spend a lot of time.

MarketingFACEBOOK MARKETING

With strategic targeting, we are able to get your listing in front of more eyes than any other website portal. Facebook now has 95% of the internet consumer and we can discover who has the

most likely interest in your property.

MarketingFACEBOOK MARKETING

Leads are then submitted to our follow up system and distributed to our Buyer’s Agents to call right away. We find out the level of interest in your home and start the showing process.

Buyer SearchGOOGLE MARKETING

We also utilize the latest technology in buyer search with our data capture sitewww.findnorthoustonhomes.com

Buyer SearchGOOGLE MARKETING

FindNorthHoustonHomes.com then requests the information from our shopper and their contact info is then put into our CRM for our agents to call. Look at that, 708 active home shoppers

registered on our site in the last 120 days, that is appx 6 leads per day.

Marketing A MARKET WITHIN A MARKET

Your home will not only be marketed through universal channels such as the Internet, print advertising, the Multiple Listing Service and signage, I will also market internally to our highly collaborative Keller Williams sales force of more than 1100 agents – each with their own connections that forms a rich source of prospects, buyers and referrals.

This “market within a market” results in the most efficient transaction environment in Houston real estate. In fact, one out of every six transactions in the Houston area involves a Keller Williams agent.

Furthermore, Keller Williams has one of the highest market shares in the Houston MLS.

ServiceWHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT FROM THE ROCKSTAR GROUP

In addition to the services we’ve covered, you can expect us to provide the following:

Attentive Service to the Sale. The responsibility of managing the sale of your home is our focus throughout the transaction.

Regular communication the way you like it. We let you know of our efforts and the results of those efforts, plus any changes in the market, that includes new listings, recent price changes of competing homes, recent contracts of competing homes and how we should re-position your property to remain competitive.

Assistance in negotiating offers and preparing contracts.

Attending the closing to ensure all contract provisions have been met and that you are fully satisfied with the results of your sale.

Thank You

Thank you for the privilege and opportunity to partner with you on the sale of your home. As always, feel free to call me if you have any questions. I look forward to meeting with you and helping you achieve a successful sale.

Debbie MialiTexas RockStar GroupKeller Williams – The Woodlands & Magnolia1401 Woodlands ParkwayThe Woodlands, TX 77380

Direct: 832-585-2845

Debbie@texasrockstargroup.comwww.texasrockstargroup.com