Digital photos, virtual tours, instant notification on new listings, reverse prospecting...
There seems to be no need for agents to get together every Tuesday morning as a group to tour listings.
It's been coming for awhile. '
We've had to bait agents to attend for years now with the promise of everything from desserts to a full, free lunch and beyond to prizes including gift cards for cash value.
Our sellers don't understand why we hesitate to attempt to have an agent caravan (broker's open house). They haven't watched the response decline year over year.
They haven't carried home 43 uneaten sandwiches (there were 50 but you and your assistant ate 2 and fed the seller's dog 5!) and 31 chocolate chip cookies (there were 36 but you ate 5 when you realized no one was going to show up!)
They haven't done their weekly grocery shopping with the gift cards that couldn't be given away.
I'm sure that in some parts of the country in certain price ranges, agent opens are still useful to some degree but honestly, for the most part they have only been effective at placating sellers.
Now, agent opens are not even good at pacifying a worried seller because no one feels the need to do such things!
Just like public open houses, agent opens rarely result in a sale because for the most part, the agents who attend don't have a suitable buyer for the home.
In the olden days (pre-2007), agents attended to show support for other agents in their office and then that devolved into support of free lunch (post-2009).
I find it useful to set seller expectations about such things as open houses, agent opens and "market adjustments" at the listing appointment.
The problem is that as time goes by and the sellers become more anxious about the sale, they seem to forget about all of the expectation setting and they enter the TRY ANYTHING PHASE and start making demands for things that we know, WON'T WORK!
What has been your experience with AGENT CARAVANS aka AGENT/BROKER OPENS?
How do you handle a seller who begins requesting you deviate from your marketing plan and TRY ANYTHING?
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