The best answer is to look at our success: From 2006 to year-end 2009, we've been the #1 office in Highlands County in home sales on a per-agent basis. Melissa has also sold more homes than any other broker or agent in our area MLS in 2010 so far as well - you can't be better than #1!

Private sellers also have a very difficult time competing with foreclosures. There is much more to this than listing the home in MLS and putting a sign on the lawn (that’s why there are HUGE differences in the amount of homes different agents sell each year – especially the past few years!).

One of the things we're excited about is we're offering a tiered commission structure to help sellers get their homes sold. We let YOU choose from these three structures which will provide incentive for ALL agents to sell your home (our office agents PLUS ALL other area agents) and you will be able to save money, thereby pricing your home competitively. Everyone talks commission but few talk commission SPLIT - many brokers do NOT split equally. We think that is wrong - we have always split at least equally from the day we opened our brokerage:

1) We can charge 5% TOTAL commission and we’ll keep 2.5% for ourselves. This means we’ll offer cooperating brokers 2.5%. We encourage this structure when your home is priced very well compared to others like it (many brokers DO NOT split equally and it can hurt your chances of selling – you want everyone on “your team.”).

2) We can charge 5.5% TOTAL and keep 2.5% for ourselves and give 3% to cooperating brokers – as much or more than most anyone is offering, and it’s still a low commission.

3) We can charge 6% TOTAL and keep 2.5% if we sell it and offer 3.5% to cooperating brokers, making your home VERY attractive to the other area brokers and agents. There are a lot of agents who sell a home or two per year and they may want to maximize their sales. I am not a big fan of this type of strategy from an agent's point of view (I think agents should show the best homes - period), but it is a reality. If your listing agent/team sells your home in either scenario, we’ll only charge 4% total commission.

We've heard from many of our clients who interviewed several companies that we can't offer all the services another brokerage can. That's simply not true. We can offer lower commissions because we don't pay significant franchise fees and keep non-marketing/technology costs down (in other words, we spend money on technology and advertising, not real fancy offices and franchise fees). THAT is OUR competitive advantage. Of course, the large franchise's competitive advantage is having a "name," but it still comes down to the individual agent and broker. AND, in this market you HAVE to have a very complete marketing campaign. The fact is, the large franchises can offer great service, great agents and great marketing, but it's REAL difficult for them to offer ALL that and still save you money. And we think they know it. For instance, have you seen the many recent TV commercials from one of the largest franchises touting that you can now search ALL area MLS listings on their Web page? Well, we've always allowed people to search all the area MLS listings on our site. And there are MANY non-specific company real estate sites (such as Realtor.com) where you've been able to do it for a LONG time. That kind of marketing really seems to be grasping to us.

So how can we do all of this? We simply work hard. The following shows some of the things we've done and continue to do to market our listings:

We've utilized these publications: Homes Of The Heartland (covers at right --->) Heartland Showcase Of Homes Real Estate Source Highlands Today/Tampa Tribune (colorful, full-page news ads!) The News Sun (Gold Partner) The Home Shopper We also advertise in a variety of special publications and supplements as well as with the Chamber Of Commerce (flyers, business cards and via their Web Page with a display ad that link to our Web site). We advertise in South Florida (where a LOT of buyers are). We've had the large billboard near the Citgo Station between Lake Placid and Sebring on US 27 for a few years. We're in the Royal Palms bowling center on their overhead Monitors. We have a great Comcast Cable TV commercial (click the video button on the left to check out our local version). We have many spots on a variety of shows. The commercial highlights our company and features several listings that will be changed from time to time. We also utilize Virtual Tours to get your home attention (see any on this site for examples). We do quite a bit of seasonal and special advertising. For example, we took well over 40 ads in papers up north during the cold spells we had and that produced a good response. We also have a TV commercial we run (on many spots on ESPN, Golf Channel, & more) in South Florida and South West Florida - another way we’re doing our best to “pull” buyers into the area!

Our Web strategy is also a powerful tool. More and more buyers search Online, especially people from out of town (where most buyers now come from). It is one the highest visited sites in the county – not just in terms of real estate, but ALL sites. We get several thousand visitors each month - just like you. We are highly ranked and advertise on major search engines such as Yahoo, MSN, Google and more.

We also utilize top real estate Web sites. We locked up two years' worth of Featured Listings with Realtor.com (the most visited real estate site on the Internet with over 6 million unique users per month). Only 4 agents and/or companies can have each code for the year. So what this means is whenever people put in the city or Zip code searching their site, our listings will appear as Featured Listings and as Showcase Listings for these areas (most searches turn up literally hundreds of results, so this really helps). The listings will be enhanced with several photos and really packed with information as well. This is just one way we've leveraged a national brand with our existing Online strategy.

We've signed up to receive buyer leads from Homegain.com, Realestate.com and AgentConnect.com - all VERY BIG real estate Web sites! We have 10 Featured Home spots with Homes.com - another biggie where we get placement at the top of every search for Sebring & Lake Placid!

And one of the best things we offer you is that ALL our Realtors are mature, very experienced and dependable. We have sold HUNDREDS of properties with no complaints (you can check complaints at the State Of Florida Website at: www.myflorida.com). We have agents with home inspection experience, investment experience (your home is often your BIGGEST investment – we treat it that way), and a VERY intimate knowledge of our area’s market.

Is this too good to be true? Well, if it is, you can walk away from the listing agreement at any time with no cancellation fees or "waiting period." We're not kidding - we're just that confident you'll be happy.

So, if this all sounds good, contact us and we'll try to get as much as you can for your home or land - you won't be sorry! Email to set up a listing appointment or you can call us at any time at: 863-441-2986 or 863-414-0009 or (Toll Free) 877-465-9455. Ask for Melissa or Dan or any other great agent at All About Realty.