Two ways to sell your home

There is a version of selling a home that nearly everyone knows. 

You take attractive photos. You settle on a price. Then you wait. You wait for buyers to tour the house. You wait for one of them to make an offer. You wait while they schedule their inspections, and you hope nothing turns up that sends them walking. For weeks, sometimes months, your life sits on hold. The next house, the downsizing plan, the move closer to family, all of it waits on someone else’s decision.

Kevin Wasie, founder of Exactly Real Estate in Fairlawn, calls this the passive approach.

The seller does all the preparing and then hands the timeline to whomever happens to wander through.

“Most sellers think there is only one way to do this, so they wait,” Kevin says. “Waiting is not a strategy. It is hope.”

A Second Way

The active approach reverses the order. Instead of waiting on buyers, the seller sets the terms. Showings are concentrated into a planned window. Offers are due by a firm deadline. Buyers compete on the seller’s schedule, often with reduced contingencies, so the seller is not left wondering whether a deal will hold together.

Exactly calls its version of this the Market Maker strategy. The goal is not to find a buyer eventually—it is to create a moment when serious buyers act at the same time. When buyers see that they’re not the only ones interested, hesitation gives way to urgency. Kevin says that is where price pressure often begins.

Kevin compares it to planning a wedding. “You cannot plan a wedding without a date,” he says. “Once you have the date, everything else falls into place. The venue, the guests, the schedule. Pick the date, then build the sale around it.”

What It Looks Like

Dave and Jackie wanted what many Northeast Ohio sellers eventually want—less house to manage and a ranch-style home that fits the next stage of life. Their home on Wall Road in Wadsworth had sat for 147 days under a traditional listing with only a handful of showings. They’d heard about the active Market Maker approach and called Exactly.

This time, Exactly prepared the home with a pre-listing appraisal and inspection, then brought it to market with concentrated showings and a firm deadline. Ten days later, Dave and Jackie were choosing among three offers. 

Because the inspection questions had already been surfaced and the buyers were competing on the timeline, signing did not mean starting weeks of uncertainty. Dave and Jackie bought their ranch and got on with their lives.

“They went from months of silence to a decision in a week and a half,” Kevin says. “Same house, different strategy.”

Choose the Strategy, Then the Agent

This is where Kevin believes most sellers get the order backward. They begin by interviewing agents and pick the one they like.

“People choose an agent like they are voting for class president,” he says. “Who has the nicest car? Who has the biggest billboard? Who do they run into at the country club? None of that sells your house.”

Kevin’s advice is to decide how you want to sell first. A seller who prefers to wait for the right buyer should hire for that. A seller who wants a defined process, visible buyer competition and a date on the calendar should ask whether the agent has a system built for it.



“Find the strategy that fits your life, then find someone who runs it,” Kevin says. “That is the whole decision.”

Exactly works with homeowners throughout Northeast Ohio who are early in the decision and want to think through their selling strategy before committing to the market. 

Exactly Real Estate

2998 West Market Street, Fairlawn

330-615-1414 

ExactlyUSA.com