By Jonathan Bodeen · 8 October 2019
*Mike and Karen went on a well deserved vacation, and I, the son, was inhumanely tasked with doing all of his work 😉 and so unfortunately our beloved snapshot was delayed a day. I blame my father. You can too!
We wanted to take a break from market diagnostics this week and officially announce/talk about our new client service. We are more than ecstatic about it.
Many of you may have noticed our beautiful new listing that came to the market and sold in just a few days at 8677 E Gary Rd in Scottsdale. In fact you may just be sick of seeing it, but we just can’t help ourselves. This home belongs to longtime friends and clients of ours Yuan and Karen Meng. They bought a new home with us earlier this year. Well after they moved into the new one, they were ready to sell the old one, but wanted to make sure they received the most profit possible. This is where they brought us in for a consultation.
Now we’ve spent years building a reliable database of reasonably priced and quality tradesmen, and we are always looking to perfect that list. We also have a strong eye not just for what looks good in homes, but what most buyers really want, AND what sells. Specifically, which upgrades or finishes will reliably bring a return on investment and which won’t.
Our advice to them was that for real predictable profit, a near total renovation was needed. This is not always the case, and sometimes, doing nothing may be more profitable than doing anything all. This really comes down to each home and owner’s situation.
The prospect of taking on a complete renovation was a little daunting to Yuan and Karen, but fortunately for them we had a proposition. We offered to do it for them!
Yep, we brought in our best tradesmen, collected bids, managed the schedule and all the minute details. My mom, Karen, and I labored over all the finishes from paint colors and flooring choices, to fixtures, hardware, and what flowers to plant and where. Don’t tell my business partner (Dad/Mike) but I even pulled out my screw gun and installed a few hinges and door handles near the end to save on some last-minute costs!
We essentially acted as Project managers and Designers. We took ownership of the project and brought it to fruition. Ultimately the only thing Yuan and Karen had to do was approve our design decisions and write the checks.
So here is how we structure our fee around this service. We would add a fee based on project scope and size on top of our standard commission. It would not be paid until the home closes! The difference in cost is much less expensive than what a general contractor would charge for managing an entire project and usually less than what you would pay for an interior designer to do the same. So your getting the services of a project manager and designer without having to pay for those services until the listing closes and you make your money.
The other benefit is that while a designer or a contractor will tell you that whatever they do will make your home sell for more, as agents, we actually have the expertise and tools to discover when or when not that is true. We will also be accountable throughout the entire process from project beginning until the property is sold. The buck will start and stop with us. The agent can’t blame the contractor or designer for a missed sales price or visa versa.
The other big money saver is that because we gather sub contractors directly, we save our clients thousands by removing the general contractor profit overlay.
So here’s how Yuan and Karen fared based on what they would have sold it if they had done nothing to the home:
As you can imagine, they are pretty happy with the way it’s turned out!
Of course we realize this will be a niche service that only a certain number of our clients will have the resources to undertake. But in this seller’s market we know many of our clients are considering these sorts of things anyways so we want to make sure you are all aware of our new offering!