List, Leave and Languish - Don't Let This Happen to You
List it and leave it? Is this how you want your house marketed?
I had an interesting phone call with my brother recently. After the usual chit-chat, he asked me if I knew if the house that was for sale next to him sold. He had heard that it did.
I looked up the listing and found that it was still active and had been active for the last three months. He told me he couldn't believe it. Why? I asked.
He said the For Sale sign was knocked down at least a month ago, the grass and shrubbery were a mess, there has not been one open house there, there has been no showing activity, the house looks abandoned (it is vacant) and there have been new phone books in plastic bags dropped near the mailbox for about a month.
He went on about the condition of the house and asked me how the listing agent expected to sell the house, which by the way, is a completely renovated - inside and out - house on beautiful property.
My brother then asked me how the listing pictures looked. I looked up the listing on the MLS and told him the exterior shots were done on a cloudy day and made the house look creepy, which I knew was not the case. The interior shots were dark and not the least bit flattering.
I then looked back on a previous listing of the same house that had expired with another agent and found pictures that were beautiful, bright, and really showcased the house. Unfortunately, it did not sell because it was overpriced. Now, significantly reduced, it was more where it needed to be pricewise, BUT it was not being marketed or maintained properly.
While we talked, my brother looked up the house on the internet and found that it had a very low presence and on sites where he did find it -- if he were looking for that type of house in that neighborhood -- he would not give it a second look.
OK, so what did this tell us? Well, the house was merely listed and left to languish. I call it the 3Ls - List, Leave and Languish. Sellers pay really GOOD money to get their houses SOLD. They expect their money's worth and assume their house is being marketed to the WORLD.
If you are a seller, you should expect marketing that satisfies the minimum BUT provides MAXIMUM exposure of your house. Your house MUST stand out among all the competition. In the case above, the house appeared to be an abandoned and inactive listing.
Ask for your REALTOR®'s marketing plan. If he/she does not have one, then move on to another agent who has one that pulls out all the stops. That plan should include having the property 'ready to show' at all times.
Additionally, make sure you get a link to the listing and ensure the pictures show your house in the best 'light' - no pun intended. After all, the object of listing a house is to sell it. Marketing is a driving force that will get it done.
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Barbara, Great points about the three L's. It's amazing when they have poor pictures or the big shocker, no pictures. Why would anyone use these agents. That's a huge marketing no-no. Did the sellers just disappear? One of the current neighbors should let them know how bad the house looks. All the best, Michelle