The Ann Arbor area real estate market has been dealing with a buyer's market for nearly 4 years now. While it is comforting, I suppose, that we are not alone in dealing with this market, it can be amusing to hear other parts of the country are just NOW adjusting to the changing marketplace. Take this AP article recently published in the Detroit Free Press. Pretty innocuous article on it's face, but it's that last line that sent me into laughing fits!

"You have to be nicer than you used to be," he said. "Your goal is keep people in the deal."

"Nicer than you used to be!"

This begs the question, "To whom do you need to be nicer?" Your client? The other agents? The dog? Look, I understand the article is to highlight what new, creative things agents are doing to assist their clients in selling homes. Be nicer? How is this new and creative? How is this even relevant to selling homes? Shouldn't we be operating by the golden rule anyway: Treat others as you want to be treated?

Oh, It's About Creativity!

Perhaps creativity is what the agent meant. You have to be more creative now, than ever before. I could buy that for a dollar! Not too long ago, it was fairly straight forward that when an agent entered the property in the MLS, it sold. Without too much effort, in fact. Buyers were springing up out of the ground and sellers couldn't count their proceeds fast enough! These days, things are a bit different. I know Team366 has striven to be very creative in how we market and sell homes in the Ann Arbor area real estate market. Heck, we use narrated walk through videos, hi-res photographs, 1,000+ Google indexed backlinks, reverse offers....That's pretty creative! Even for this marketplace. I'm glad to hear that other agents around the country are catching on to being more creative in their marketing efforts. Now, if we can just coach them on things NOT to say to a journalist.....

Photo Courtesy of myukewie.