We all know some of the various methods sellers and REALTORS® use to close the sale. In this market, it can be frustrating. How do you get buyers to even notice the home, much less put pen to dotted line?
Some things are pretty standard, such as holding an Open House. However, in our area, so spread out and with resistance built in, having an Open House is often fruitless. If you are in town or in a development, there is a better chance of having some traffic that may lead to a sale. In a major metro region, people routinely drive around looking at homes. REALTORS® and buyers look in the paper to find which homes will be participating. Being so rural with homes in vastly different areas does not lend itself well to this idea.
I have held many, many Open Houses with limited effect. At developments such as Dover Bay, more success has been had. You can blame lack of success partially on the agents. If we had a culture of holding regular Open Houses REALTORS® would be looking for them and taking their clients to them and buyers would also do the same. Still, having to drive virtually all day to preview homes as far away from each other as fifty miles can be a daunting task. It is easier and more convenient to simply pick homes for the buyer, often grouped in the area they are looking for, and go to them. In major metro homes are all in town. Easy to go from one to the other to the other.
Another reason success is lacking is that these are not advertised well. Tour Factory and many of the real estate websites offer to list the homes having an Open House on their sites, as do newspapers. Taking out ads for very little cost is another hurdle. Nobody seems to want to pay for them.
Since Dover Bay regularly has these events, they get traffic, and they have advertised in the past, so they are a known quantity.
Bottom line is, if a REALTOR® holds an Open House and has very little success, either with lack of people previewing and, more importantly, not leading to closed sales, then they will be turned off the idea.
How about offering furniture with the agreed upon sale? This is so typically done on Schweitzer Mountain that it is almost a standard. Buying a condo in a ski resort means that most buyers are not making this their permanent residence. To have a ski-in, ski-out condo is a big enough move for many families to make, but to then have to furnish it means they often cannot have immediate enjoyment. Let's be honest. These kinds of sales are often spontaneous and having everything ready to go is a closer.
Homes off the mountain have tried this, but it doesn't have the same effect. People want to personalize their homes with their own flavors. They are much more interested in having another $20,000 price reduction. However, that $20,000 amortized over 30 years is pennies. To have to shell out dollars for a quality fridge and furnishing in today dollars can be prohibitive. Still, this is another gimmick that doesn't always have the impact of bringing buyers to dotted line.
How about these for incentives:
- A brand new Honda Civic for free.
- Seller carry-back financing.
- Seller to pay $20,000 in closing costs for buyer.
- And, of course, bonuses to buyer agents.
They all have been used to one degree or another with some success. With the exception of the new car, each has been used in North Idaho. It is hard to quantify the success rate.
I have seen other gimmicks a little bit more out there:
- Clowns and party atmosphere at your Open House.
- Bands and even string quartets.
- Raffles.
- Auctions.
- Shooting Competitions.
- Giant Balloons.
- Lots and lots of inflated balloons.
About the only thing I haven't seen are strippers, and I am pretty sure they have done that in Florida.
Going back to the idea of holding an Open House. About five years ago, having hosted the North Idaho Arts & Adventure radio show for years, I started the Mobile Artists' Open House. We would have five to fifteen artists set up in the better homes we were selling, offering gourmet food, free wine, and fine art.
We did this in about twenty-five homes. Each one cost roughly $1,500. The cost was the advertisement, the art presentation equipment, the banners, the balloons, flyers, food, beverages, and wine.
Pretty spendy.
The idea was we could get art out of the downtown corridor and out into the county for average people to view, as well as promoting our listings.
We had pretty great success. Typically we would have over 100 at every Show/Open House. Some of the shows had 250+ people in attendance. We often held the Mobile Artists' Open House over a two-day or multiple day period.
This culminated with the Midwinter Art Fest held at Dover Bay as part of and during the Sandpoint Winter Carnival. Over seventy artists participated with Dover Bay providing the food and beverage. The venue was great, with many styles of homes and condos offering varied spaces for the artists to present their art. The REALTORS® who had the listings paid for the advertising, and since it was split between many, the costs individually was held down. Many places had spectacular views, and over a two day period a steady stream of cars packed with potential buyers went from listing to listing to listing. We actually had giant, full color banners, great ads all over the Inland Northwest, and I even made two websites: www.MidwinterArtFest.com and www.SandpointWinterCarnival.org.
Why did I stop? I never tracked a buyer to actually close as a result from these events. Let's be honest, spending over $40,000 with very limited results is just being an art supporter.
Here is what some other pundits think about the subject:
Realtor gimmicks and blue light specials reek of desperation
Home sellers rely less on gimmicks, more on price cuts
Bottom line is, the advertising seems to bring attention to the seller's homes, but the gimmicks don't always work. The vast majority of buyers are identifying and finding the homes they end up buying on the internet.
Therefore, having a strong internet presence is paramount. Plus, having good videos and pictures is more important than ever.
In our current buyer's market, with thoughts being about the down economy, price seems to be the biggest draw.
If you price it right, homes seem to not linger on the market. If it is not priced right, there is no gimmick a competent agent can use that will sell your house.
Snow sculpture at the Midwinter Art Fest
I promoted the Midwinter Art Fest on my North Idaho Arts radio show
Over seventy artists at the Midwinter Art Fest
Lots of events at the Midwinter Art Fest like snowshoe volleyball
Gary Lirette, featured in Where To Retire magazine and host of the Tuesday noon local radio shows: North Idaho Business as well as North Idaho Arts.
E-mail Gary or call 208-610-1384
Read Gary's Blogs
Tomlinson Sandpoint Sotheby's International Realty
200 Main Street
Sandpoint, Idaho
208-255-3474
www.SandpointID.net - To learn all about Sandpoint and North Idaho
www.RealtySandpoint.com - For Sandpoint Realty
www.SkiSchweitzer.net - To visit Schweitzer Mountain's Community Web
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