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The Value Of A Watermelon, A Parable by Bill Roberts

Reblogger Bob Crane
Real Estate Agent with Woodland Management Service / Woodland Real Estate, KW Diversified #1 in Forest Land Mgmt

I always enjoy it when I take a bit of time to enjoy a bit of wisdom from my friend Bill Roberts.

Stop by his blog and enjoy this post and many other classics.

Original content by Bill Roberts DRE 00527512

The Value Of A Watermelon, A Parable
This is the story of Joe, an enterprising young fellow who bought 100

watermelons, iced them, and took them to the beach to sell.
He had planned on selling the watermelons for $5 each, but when he

got to the beach he saw a lot of people, maybe 50,000 and no

watermelon sellers.
So he priced his wares at $10 for each ice-cold watermelon.
He sold out in minutes.
He made a nice profit.
He was happy.
Johnny, who was at the beach that day witnessed this red-hot ice-cold

watermelon market. Johnny said to himself, "I can do that. I know

where I can buy a truckload of watermelons for $1 each."
So the next weekend Johnny showed up at the beach with 1000 ice-

cold watermelons. So did 999 other guys. It seems everybody had the

same idea. One million ice-cold Watermelons.
Johnny tried to sell his Watermelons for $10 like Joe did, but he was

only able to sell a couple watermelons. It seems that the other guys

weren't doing any better.
Johnny said "I got to lower my price or I'm going to be stuck with these

things."
So he reduced his price to $9, then $8, and eventually got down to $1.

He was able to sell out at that price, but he only made about $25

profit for the entire day.
Some of the other watermelon sellers weren't as lucky as Johnny. They

were slow to reduce their prices, so they got stuck with most of their

watermelons.
After all, 50,000 people at the beach might seem like a "BIG MARKET,"

BUT when you have 1,000,000 watermelons there is no way you can

sell them all.

What's the Moral?
Now there is a moral to this story, but I would like you to tell me what

it is.
And I am sure that it applies to  real estate. Do you know how?

 

Please comment. All comments are greatly appreciated.

Bill Roberts

 

View William (Bill) Roberts's profile on LinkedIn

Comments(5)

Chris and Dick Dovorany
Homes for Sale in Naples, Bonita Springs and Estero, Florida - Naples, FL
Broker/Associate at Premiere Plus Realty

Reminds me of the crash of a few years ago when all the greedy know it all Realtors here in Naples bought bought bought.  Guess what happened to them?

Aug 30, 2015 10:41 PM
Bill Roberts
Brooks and Dunphy Real Estate - Oceanside, CA
"Baby Boomer" Retirement Planner

Bob Crane Thank you very much for the kind words and the re-blog.

Bill Roberts

Aug 30, 2015 11:59 PM
Larry Johnston
Broker, Friends & Neighbors Real Estate and Elkhart County Subdivisions, LLC - Elkhart, IN
Broker,Friends & Neighbors Real Estate, Elkhart,IN

Bob Crane , Bill Roberts 

Nobody sold watemelon the next year at the beach, because there was no more beach to lay on.  It became a watermelon field from all the millions of seeds that were spit out.

The moral is to find new marketing ideas to make money, before everyone else floods the market with the seeds that you thought of first.

Aug 31, 2015 12:10 AM
Lottie Kendall
Compass - San Francisco, CA
Helping make your real estate dreams a reality

Hey, Bob, I'm really glad you shared this post. I'm off to say hi to Bill

Aug 31, 2015 02:04 AM
William Feela
WHISPERING PINES REALTY - North Branch, MN
Realtor, Whispering Pines Realty 651-674-5999 No.

Never jump into a venture at the high point...Never buy real estate at the high point.   I will take 2 watermelons!

Aug 31, 2015 08:51 AM