Willy Sutton, a Depression-era bank robber wanted for frequent heists in New York, Miami and New Orleans, was asked by a reporter on the occasion of his capture, “Why do you rob banks?” Sutton’s answer was as irrefutable as it was obvious. “Because that’s where the money is,” he said.
The same sort of unassailable logic underscores why so many sellers choose to list their homes with Michael Saunders & Company. Because that’s where the buyers are.
It’s a fact. The worldwide presence and connectivity of Michael Saunders & Company—combined with our agents’ drilled-down knowledge of the local market, its many neighborhoods, lifestyle options and essential pricing tools—attract more buyers to the closing table, by far, than any other company in Southwest Florida. While this holds true across every price range, the latest research from TRENDGRAPHIX reveals that the higher the price range your home falls into, the more likely an agent from Michael Saunders & Company will furnish its buyer. Here’s why:
With over 500 of the market’s savviest and best trained agents blanketing the region, your property is networked among all 16 branch offices of Michael Saunders & Company from the moment it is listed with any one of them. In addition, scores of these agents and their non-competing managers convene weekly to personally review and visit the company’s newest listings. Together they share educated insights on such key issues as proper pricing, staging techniques to make the home show best, unique marketing opportunities; and other best practices to elevate the property above its competition. Indeed, what is likely to go down as the region’s highest-priced residential sale of 2009 involved exquisitely-choreographed teamwork between agents representing no less than four of our offices. The buyers—longtime customers of a team of associates from our Bradenton office—recently closed on the magnificent waterfront estate on Casey Key; but not before they were afforded the advantage of tapping into the expertise of agents from our Main Street, Palmer Ranch and Longboat Key offices who are the acknowledged waterfront experts in the neighborhood where the sale took place.
Another key reason to list your home with Michael Saunders & Company is our unparalleled worldwide reach. With international buyers more anxious than ever to zero-in on the exceptional values that currently make ours one of the most sought after real estate markets in the U.S., no other company in the region offers such an extensive grid of international connections to harness their eagerness to buy.
One of the principal advantages of being an independent brokerage firm is the ability to pursue international brokerage relationships that make the most sense for your clients. Last year, Michael Saunders forged a formal affiliation with Mayfair International Realty—a London-based organization representing 125 real estate brokerages across the U.K. As Sarasota-Manatee is traditionally one of the top destination for Florida-bound buyers from the U.K. this newest affiliation has resulted in numerous trans-Atlantic referrals and hundreds of thousands of dollars of free publicity in the British media for our sellers.
Our newer alliances are in no way intended to eclipse our longstanding affiliation with Christie’s Great Estates, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Christie’s, the world’s oldest fine art auction house. As the real estate appendage of Christie’s, the patrons of the auction house are regularly exposed to the world’s finest properties at real estate referral hubs immediately adjacent to Christie’s headquarters in London and in New York’s Rockefeller Center. Thus, the world’s finest properties are exposed to the world’s most capable buyers in an atmosphere of unmistakable wealth and sophistication.
Each of our international affiliations—including those with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and Luxury Portfolio—is intended to leverage our reputation for service, skill and sophistication; while generating new interest at home and abroad for owning Florida Gulf Coast properties. At the same time, our in-house referral division—MSC Relocation and Referral Services—also manages incoming leads from numerous out-of-market sources, including relocation management companies, corporate relocation departments and relocation divisions of other leading brokerages. Moreover, as the market continues to absorb a massive number of distressed properties, we have adapted to meet the challenge. Our MSC Assets Management Division and MSC Short Sale Division have been set up to efficiently manage and market these properties to buyers who understand the inherent opportunities, risks and limitations posed by these types of “as is” transactions.
Perhaps the single most important benefit of listing your home with Michael Saunders & Company is Michaelsaunders.com. With nine out of ten buyers now depending on the internet to inform and shape the direction of their property search—long before they ever contemplate contacting a real estate agent—your property listed with Michael Saunders & Company is assured the visibility it needs to gain maximum Web exposure. Without it, even the best real estate agent in the world won’t be able to sell your home in the reasonable timeframe most sellers expect.
Michaelsaunders.com is by far the most trafficked Web site in Southwest Florida; with untold incremental exposure gained by strategically linking to more than 2,000 important local, regional, national and international Web sites.
Ultimately the best way to attract buyers in today’s challenging times is to work in tandem with an agent who knows the market inside out, knows how to analyze and price a home with dead-on accuracy; and has been given every tool available to sell it as quickly as the best technology, the most cutting-edge marketing and good old fashioned broker-to-broker networking will allow. Let the team from Michael Saunders & Company become your edge in today’s market. You’ll be amazed at how cooperative an uncooperative market can be when you take the right approach to selling your home.
