I met earlier today with a client for whom we will list their property for sale in the Boise, Idaho area. It sits on two acres, have a lovely well landscaped yard, swimming pool and the home itself has plenty of appeal. The seller asked if I could forgo putting a yard sign in front of the home and eliminate a corner directional one as well. In his words, he doesn't want to upset his kids by giving them the uncertain feeling the home is going to be sold and they'll have to move.
No matter how I framed the questions back to him and explained the importance of a visible yard sign with either Sikku or some other call capture mechanism plus flyers we would diminish our marketing ability. His reply was that everyone uses the internet anyway to find homes, and dismissed my attempts to pursuade him otherwise was verging on being insensitive. Logically I backed off. I know there are plenty of older buyers who haven't a clue much less a computer at home preferring to looking the "old fashioned way" by just driving around.
Boise get its fair share of inbound folks flying in for a few days, renting a car, driving areas of town looking at locations and gaging prices from one part of town to the next. Many never speak to a Realtor, nor want to until they think they've found a match. I can easily spot them as they creep slowly through neighborhoods, stopping at homes with yard signs, pulling flyers and driving off.
My concern is that we'll miss one of these shoppers. The home is on the outreaches of town in horse country, definitely off the beaten track out of home developments. So for all it's worth, and until technology reaches at mile stone that eliminates the need to drive the streets, I think it's safe to say most people eventually couple their internet search with a fair percent of driving around. What's the split of time devoted to the driving portion of the home buying process? I do not know, but it's go to be high.
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