I received a phone call this morning from LeapFish sales rep. After trying to explain to me why I have to buy advertising on his search aggregator (I am on first page on Google for the keywords I am interested in) and failing to do so he launched into old faithful sales pitch- the rest of the Realtors are doing it, so you must follow them or you will be left behind.

Little seemed to have change since the door-to-door selling tactics during the 50s. I just watched an old I love Lucy episode about a vacuum salesman. He enters her house and starts telling a story to Lucy about how another woman was so old fashioned and so difficult that she couldn't  understand the value of what he had to offer. Of course Lucy not wanting to appear difficult bought the overpriced vacuum cleaner.

To all salespeople out there - things have changed, people are better informed and intelligent!

I went online and did a search on Google (a name I have actually heard of) and here is what I found about LeapFish. Here it is: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/leapfish

If you get a phone call from their rep and and your pay-per-click cost suddenly skyrockets you will know why. 

This whole episode annoyed me but also made me think how I am treating my clients. Do I always treat them as the smart people they are - and do I always think of what would benefit them first?

I have been considering doing short sales lately and I read quite a bit on this forum. I even signed for Broker Bryant and Wendy's short sale seminar. I found opposing opinions on whether it is worth doing short sales so I decided to do my own research.

I looked at last month sales (MLS only) in Riverview, FL. True, this is not scientific research but it is based on facts.

So, here is it.

Last month sales: 112

Short sales: 26

REOs: 32

New homes: 18

Normal sales: 36

I used to work in retail and from there I learned that it's worth stocking on the merchandise that sells.

What do you think?