Monica Neubauer, real estate instructor, will be the keynote presenter at this year’s Alabama REcharge conference.

For agents, listing the home is just the start of the process of selling, and according to real estate agent and instructor Monica Neubauer, the journey to closing is paved with advocacy for the seller and the best available marketing tools.

Neubauer will be the keynote presenter at the 2016 Alabama REcharge conference at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center in Birmingham on April 19. The daylong event, designed for residential Realtors through a partnership between the Alabama Association of Realtors and the Alabama Center for Real Estate, will feature multiple speakers with a focus on “Productivity Versus Activity.”

Neubauer has been selling real estate in middle Tennessee since 2002 and has been a national instructor since 2009. She will present two sessions, the morning, “Top 10 Tech Tools for Real Estate Success” and the afternoon “Sell, Don’t List: Top Notch Seller Service.”

“Any agent can enter data into MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and offer a house for sale,” Neubauer said of the morning session topic. “As a Realtor, we have an obligation to serve our sellers and serve them well. As their agent, we are their advocate in helping them sell their home according to their time frame and needs and netting them the most money possible with all things considered.”

Neubauer will bring agents up to speed on the best industry tools available.

“Whether you are overwhelmed and can hardly begin or overwhelmed because you have a password with every social network available and you are posting so much you don’t have time to work, this is the class for you,” Neubauer said.

Neubauer talked recently about her REcharge presentations, and shared key industry insight on topics agents across the country are tuned into.

The 2016 Alabama REcharge conference will be held in Birmingham on April 19.

ACRE: You have been in real estate since 2002, and obviously lived through the Great Recession. What have been the major changes in the real estate industry since the housing market emerged from the recession?

Neubauer: During the recession, we became extremely committed to our smartphones. Technology has become a mainstay in the industry. Agents need to connect with the items that give them credibility with buyers and make their businesses run smoother. And when these tools are well used they can help them save time. Another major change is that buyers and sellers have access to more information on the Internet and access to more business models. They need to clearly understand the work and skill that goes into selling a house. Agents need to be able to educate clients better on the full process and their value in it.

ACRE: There are hundreds of real estate agents in a given area. Your first session is “Sell, Don’t List.” With that being said, what separates an agent focused on selling versus those who might just list a property hoping for the best?

Neubauer: An agent who really wants to get the house sold is going to focus on helping the sellers improve the home and present it in its best light. Some sellers are savvy in this area and some are not. All deserve to have an agent focused on selling. The selling process for a house begins well before it gets listed on the MLS. Helping a client get the most for their money begins when sellers understand that they need to do certain things to improve their house for sale. The product needs to be good. The agent then needs to maximize the benefit to the client with great photos, staging, marketing and process management. And what is that benefit ultimately for the seller?  A house sold in a reasonable period of time for the best amount of money and with as little stress as possible.

ACRE: A lot of Alabama’s Realtors are selling in small rural markets in Alabama. What are some of the top tools (just a sneak peak) they can expect to hear about that are universally successful, whether it be in an urban setting or a town of 1,000 people?

Neubauer: Universally successful tools are a good product, (a house in good condition that invites a buyer to buy), excellent photos of the house and the property and the benefits provided by it and appropriate marketing. The rural houses do present certain challenges, so the goal of the agent needs to be, if someone wants to buy a house in this town, I want my listing to be the one they have to have.