Tired Listings
I am beat.
Tired, worn out, exhausted.
This real estate market has been brutal. Homes come on the market and are under contract in a matter of days, sometimes hours. I’ve watched homes pass buyers up. I’ve watched buyers weep at how quickly a top-quality home disappears from the market.
Yet, here I am. Still an active listing on the market.
There’s a Reason
This past week, I had the opportunity to show a few different buyers homes in different price points and geographic areas in my marketplace. Yet, the one thing in common, from the first time homebuyer, to the buyer entering retirement, was the scarcity of quality inventory to tour.
Oh, we saw homes. But very little of the available inventory was exciting to my buyers. Typically, the homes had some aesthetic or functional defect that immediately excluded it from the running. In one instance, there were simply too many residents still present at our showing.
This one home showed great promise for my retirement buyers. The images on the profile were beautiful. The virtual tour made the home flow and present very well. Visiting the home in person? That was a different story. While the images were truly representative of the home, the images did not convey how “worn around the edges” this home was. Paint in need of many, minor touch-ups, a counter top that was close to being worn through, a “finished” basement with exposed foundation walls and carpeting that looked as though it had not been vacuumed in over a month.
Best Foot Forward
This is not a tired listing. Nor is this home in Redford. This Rosedale Gardens home sold pretty rapidly too.
The commonality among these listings, aside from me as their listing agent, and that they sold quickly, is that what you are seeing via the images and video was as close to reality as can be done. Having a congruent experience from online to offline is a huge advantage for my sellers.
Years ago, when I first started shooting narrated walkthrough videos for my listings, I learned a huge lesson. Sitting at the closing on one of my first video’d homes, the buyers, represented by another agent, thanked me for the video. You see, they were third shift employees. They work, while the rest of us sleep. They said that they felt confident in writing the offer to purchase because the video matched what they saw, when they came through the home, after the sun had set. In fact, the first time they saw the home in the daylight, was at the home inspection!
I won’t forget that experience any time soon. It taught me that providing what the buyer is looking for, without the typical, real estate puffery, is what allows them to make a rapid decision. Allowing the buyer to experience the home before seeing it in person, cuts down on the inconvenience to a seller. Imagine having fewer, to no feedback forms stating, “The rooms were smaller than anticipated. The paint color was drastically different than the pictures. The home was tired.”
Need a few more examples of how marketing for a home should be done? Check out these current and sold listings.
Want to put this marketing to work for your home? Contact me!
[…] Tired Listings: Marketing a home should mean lining up the online and in-person experiences in such a way that there is little incongruity. […]