Think About The Perspective of a Real Estate Buyer!

Midori, it never even occured to me that someone wouldn't see the home-buyer's perspective.

But, that is kind of silly on my part, especially after dealing with a customer service rep yesterday who failed to grasp the concept that I might not want to buy their product any more. And, yes, I do tell other people about the bad experiences, and the good ones, too!

What about holding up on the offers that are submitted... regardless of when they expire, in order to try to get into a multiple offer situation...  I think there ought to be an ethics violation in there. 

This happens frequently in our market. 

Most often, it is already SOLD before the sign goes on it. 

Coming soon signs are the norm in my market. You do get a lot of calls and pick up some good buyers off of the signs. Coming soon is a form of advertising. No different than post cards or flyers or shopping cart signs, bus benches etc. etc.

For those agents that I see on A.R. complaining about coming soon signs, is it really because you didn't get the listing? There's no other logical reason. (that I can think of)

Midori- This is what happens when the horse comes after the cart.  

Midori,

Just got an REO listing but given the bank's steps, it will be a couple weeks before I can put it in the MLS. Need to set the price, clean up, get utilities connected, etc.

I would dearly love to stick a sign out right now. That, however, would be a total violation of our MLS rules. (Even with "delayed showings" by written seller request, it still must go into the MLS before the sign goes up.)  Won't even post a Real Estate Shows video until it is in the MLS.

We all should be playing by the rules!

Not surprised, all kinds of rules are broken in the MLS Rules.

Obviously they are not thinking about the buyers,but themselves or they jumped the gun and put the sign in.

 I don't know the current statistics....a good experience...people tell 2 people...a bad is 20 or some such thing....you can't buy/erase/easily repair a reputation...guard it with your license !

Seems to me that putting a sign up before the property is actually for sale is akin to a dog marking his territory.

It serves only the ego of the dog listing agent.  I doubt they've given even the slightest thought to how this action is perceived by the buyers. 

As for "coming soon"...well, that's very nice, but if I'm taking folks out to view properties, it's because they're "buying now".

I hope you find something spectacular for your friends very soon!

home buying . . . you said it. they are shopping and can easily walk away or tell others when the experience or performance of one or all parties is poor. locals - agents, lenders, etc - tend to provide the best service since their reputation is involved and they are familiar with the area. irresponsible to have a sign up before property is available.

I'm am so glad you wrote about this!  I am working with a buyer right now on a Fannie Mae listing and it has been extremely frustrating.  I got a great chuckle out of a portion of their required addendum that says, "The seller has strict timelines which must be followed."  This from a seller that took almost 2 weeks to get back with a counter.  Only when I told them the buyer was ready to move on to their second choice did they reply. 

The sign in the yard indicates they want to sell, but their actions say otherwise.

I recently had clients interested in a house with this same scenario. The house was bank-owned, there was a sign in the yard, but not in the mls and the listing office couldn't tell me anything about price or even WHEN we would be able to look at it. My clients were REALLY hung up on this house and, although they had another house they were considering writing on, didn't want to make a move until they got into the bank-owned house. We waited three weeks and FINALLY it showed up on the mls - $30k out of my clients' range! In the meantime, the other house they liked got an accepted offer. We lost a house they loved and nearly a month of shopping time waiting for the listing agent to actually LIST the house with their sign in the yard! Frustrating!!!

Home-Buying experience is indeed each buyer's expression of their satisfication or dissatisfication. Most our buyers are very high-maintenance and we strive to please them as much as we can, sometimes it is about striking the balance between making customer/client happy and not bending over backwards too much! THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST!

In Oklahoma City we have a 48 hour rule on signs to show and market. I have no problem filing a complaint with the local Board and the State Real Estate Commission. No wonder so many FISBO's come on the market for the reason of lack of respect for our professionalism.

Some asset managers will accept an offer even prior to a BPO... But, if it has a sign out front  our MLS says it has to be in the MLS!

What was it that Marc Antony said at Caesar's funeral: the evil that men do lives after them, the good is interred with their bones. If we aren't careful in what we say and do when we are engaging with buyers, it can indeed come back to bite us in the tush. The   thing that most of us don't think about, whjich you pointed out so eloquently, is that the buyr's perception is not just focused on one actor in the entire process, but on every actor in the process, and one misstep by any factor can be detrimental for all involved.