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Expired Listings

Yesterday I read Lissa Uder's blog on Expired listings, it was a good blog and obviously garnered a lot of attention. I decided rather than just add my thoughts to her blog, I would write down what we have decided to do in light of the National and State Do Not Call Lists. We simply send a letter. We have a letter that we try to get out the morning that the home expired. Right on the bottom we have the disclaimer that if they have relisted, we wish them luck in selling their home and please disregard this letter.

We keep these in a file, then after 10-12 weeks, we check those against the MLS to see if they have re-listed their home. If not, we have another letter that we send out. The reason behind this is I am not an attorney, I do not know how the Do Not Call Lists are being interpreted. I don't feel like I have the time to make sure that each home seller is or isn't on the Do Not Call Registries. I also think that it is unethical to tell a homeowner who is thinking of selling, whether their house is expired or not that I have a buyer for their house. That is, unless I have a buyer that has said to me, I have been inside that house and I have to buy it.

If I have buyers looking in that neighborhood and price range, I might say that I have people that I can show the house to, but unless those buyers tell me that they have to have that particular house, I am going to leave it at that. I believe that a commission is far too little a price to pay for my integrity.

We have some other follow up mailers that we send if the house still isn't listed 6 or 7 months from the time that their home expired. I don't know what other Realtors do, this is what we do. The reason is, I value my time as I value those homeowner's time. I hate having to talk to salespeople when I am home with my family, it seems that time is getting less and less therefore more valuable to me. I know that there will be those that will say that it is too passive, not aggressive enough. That's fine, we are very aggressive when it comes to pricing and marketing homes.

Like I said, this is what we do, I don't ask anyone else to do things our way, other than to do whatever you do with integrity. Have a Great Weekend!

If you're looking to buy or sell real estate in Cedar City, Utah; please give us a call. We would love to earn your business!

Posted by Tony & Darcy Cannon - The C Team on 04/04/2008 04:02 PM

Comments (8)

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Originally posted at: Tony & Darcy - The C Team's Blog: Expired Listings

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8 Comments on Expired Listings

APR

2008

Tom we do pretty much the same thing. It does work and I have never had anyone was you bothered us too much.

Great Info!

Jason and Deanna, Tom is my brother, that's okay, I have been called much worse. I have found the same thing, we have as much success as those agents in our office that call the expired listings, and you're right, those people don't get angry at us.

It seems like a good system. They say the best system is the one that works for you. I say if it works then GO FOR IT!! Would you be willing to share your letter with someone WAAAAYYYY outside your market area?? :)

Kimberly, Not a problem, I will try to send it to your contact.

APR

2008

I like the idea of sending out again. I do send out letters to the expired listings but I lack when it comes to continuing to send. Do you ever feel that 10-12 weeks is the right amount of time...to me it seems like that is an awful long time to wait before sending out a follow-up letter but maybe not...

Last week a listing we had expired. It expired on a Monday. Tuesday afternoon the seller had over 20 letters in his mailbox and almost every one said the SAME THING: dear homeowner, your home is no longer being marketed and is off the multilist system. List with me!

Now this homeowner had been away for a week, and he called to tell us to renew his listing, and he'd come into the office Tuesday afternoon to re-sign. When he opened his mailbox to see those letters, he was really ticked off. Not at our firm. He knew the listing expired Monday, and that he'd get into the office Tuesday. He was upset that the "vultures" were circling his property. "Where were then when the listing was active?" Not one of them had ever shown his home, and now they had buyers and a way to sell faster than us.

He came into the office with the letters in his hand, re-signed the contract, and we're back on the market. His impression of realtors is that they're just salivating for the expired listings, and he called us all vultures.

Erica, I guess you didn't read the entire blog. I explicitly stated that I believe that it is incredibly unethical to tell someone that you have a buyer for their property just to get the listing. Again, I said do what you wish to do, if you client thinks that we are vultures, I guess he will. I don't know how he would have felt with 20 unsolicited phone calls instead of the letters. I have never told anyone that has a house for sale that I have a buyer for their property.

APR

2008

Tony--I did read the blog. I was simply stating a single experience and one consumer's perception.

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