I have to get much better at posting more often but I am sure all of you understand that this time of year is busy. I promise to post more consistently in the future, I hope to get to at least once a day soon but you ,my readers, must promise to keep coming back. Now that's out of the way lets talk real estate shall we.
I find it interesting why people choose a particular Realtor they do when they go to list their home. A year ago I went on a listing appointment to a couple who were selling their first home, so needles to say they were new to selling a home....This will be important later. I went through my whole presentation and began to go through the listing agreement when the gentleman stopped me.
He asked, "how much advertising do you do in those home magazines I see all over the place?"
I told him, like I mentioned in my presentation, "I do little to no advertising in those types of home books. I continued by saying "The National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers survey says that less then 2% of home buyers found their home in those types of books".
He then began to tell me how he believed that those where the only way to go in order to get his home sold. He also said that his cousin in Florida sold real estate part time and he agreed with this type of advertising. I politely told him that his cousin was wrong and I showed him the numbers to back up my marketing. I then asked him where he did his home search at and can you guess what his response was?.....................Nope................
He said he was using the internet. I kind of gave him a blank stare for a second, my deer in headlights stare. I then told him, "that is where everyone else is doing their home search, just like you."
He then returned the favor by giving me his deer in headlights stare. He again disagreed and said he wanted ads placed in all the home books in Prince William County and Northern Virginia. I again politely said no and told him he would have to find another agent to list his home. We parted ways but it would not be the last time I would hear from them.
Six months later I received a call from his wife asking me if I would meet with them to list their home. Unfortunately the last agent was unable to get their home sold, wonder why? I took on the listing with my price and marketing terms and was able to sell their home in two months. The unfortunate thing is with the falling prices in the Wellington area they could have realized 15k more if we sold it 6 months earlier.
The moral of the story for home buyers are make sure you are getting your information from current reliable sources. Please also be careful of agents that will do what ever you ask to just get the listing. They may be marketing your home to get more listings and not to get your home sold, because that is what you want, to get it SOLD.
You can also find this post along with others at blog.calljoey.com
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