February 28th, 2010
If like many people, you are put off or intimidated by auctions and loud auctioneers, you will be pleased to know of another way.
Silent auctions by private sellers
A Silent auction takes off the immediate pressure of an auctioneer with a hammer ready to drop any minute on buyers and allows you plenty of your time to think, discuss and be clear of where you want to go with your bid.
At silent auctions you have the time to think...
A form is set on a table with a starting bid. The auction runs for 30min, where viewers can view the property, ask any questions to the owners and view relevant documentation i.e. code of compliance, cert. of title, Lim report, etc and have the time to think before placing a bid. Each potential buyer can view the current bid at any time throughout the 30min period.
It is the seller’s choice to have a reserve or not. If there is no reserve the property will be sold after the 1st bid.
If a reserve has been set, a coordinator may write that the bid is at 20% of the reserve informing bidders that they are close to the selling price. When the reserve is met, the coordinator writes “Reserve met” and the property is now selling.
5 minutes before the end of the auction, the bidding sheet is handed to each participant for a last bid before the auction closes and providing the reserve has been reached, the highest bidder wins the auction.
I can’t think of a simpler and attractive way to conduct an auction. It costs nothing and anybody can do it.
Tags: Add new tag, silent auction
Posted in Observations on real estate | No Comments »
February 5th, 2010
I had a stall at an exhibition for the 1st time ever last week. It was an interesting experience. 95% of stand holders had products on display. Only a few were promoting services like me. For the first 10 minutes after the doors opened, I observed people observing me or should I rather say glancing at me and the printing behind me and keeping on walking. I quickly realised that I had to do something to attract them to my stand. I took a quick walk around the facilities and someone promoting a Travel agency jumped at me asking if I wanted to get in the draw for a $200 discount off a trip they were promoting.
I did entered it, then went to my stand and decided to do the same. Fortunately for me, I had come quite prepared with 3 displays and containers to enter 3 types of draw but very few would have approached me to enter if I was not ready to approach them first.
It’s how a sentence I made up on the spot was repeated in my perfect French accent endlessly during the 4 hours the exhibit lasted. This way, I got what I wanted. Names of people in each of the draw box that I later contacted with prize winners and more information on our services.
Comparatively, someone across the alley had a stand offering “customer service training” and she didn’t approach people as much and didn’t have a prize draw system in place, so unfortunately hardly no one stopped at her stand.
This is what I learned from this experience.
People will not stop at a stand unless they have a very good reason to do so. They may miss something of interest because they don’t want to appear interested and keep walking on a slow but nearly unstoppable momentum. I had a monitor displaying a Powerpoint presentation but nobody stopped long enough to see it. If I hadn’t prepared those draw boxes, it would have been a complete flop. But thanks to them and my inviting people to get in the draw, I got names I could work on later on.
I also realised that the best way to assess people’s interest and therefore potential clients is to offer various prizes, one of them being your services.
I hope you find my tips useful, it worked for me. Keep in mind I am a complete newbie, for pro advice try Access displays and tips on artwork.
Tags: advice, draw, exhibition, experience, expo, prize, stall, tips, winner
Posted in Observations on real estate | No Comments »
June 10th, 2009
I found a flyer in my letter box from a real estate agent who was trying to get some business. The flyer features a house in my street with the word SOLD mentioned 4 times.
Underneath it says: “You may have noticed that we have just put up a SOLD sign on this property. If you would like to see the same on yours, please feel free to call me …” bla bla bla
Very well you may think. Hey why not telling everybody that you have finally sold a house. But wait.
Underneath, in small print it says: “The above information has been furnished to us by the Owner. We have not verified whether or not that information is accurate and do not have any belief one way or the other in its accuracy. We do not accept any responsibily to any person for its accuracy and do no more than pass it on. All interested parties should make and rely upon their own inquiries in order to determine whether or not this information is in fact accurate.”
I re read it twice wondering if I had misunderstood the statement somehow. But no. They were really insulting their potential clients’ intelligence and making a fool of themselves at the same time.
Not only they admit that they have not sold this house themselves, otherwise they would be certain of the accuracy of the SOLD statement but they also subtly hint that the house may have not been sold at all.
Why on earth would anyone contact this real estate agent after she admits that she put the SOLD sign only for the benefit of her advertisement?
It’s beyond me. They may think desperate times call for desperate measures but this real estate agent only showed her dishonesty while trying to disclaim all responsibiliy for her actions.
Please comment if you have any similar stories.
Tags: false statement, real estate, selling house, sold
Posted in Observations on real estate | 3 Comments »
June 3rd, 2009
I was sitting in my car today waiting for a friend and facing yet another real estate company FOR SALE sign. I should be used to it by now but it still amazes me how they have made a profession of how to advertise themselves for free.
This particular sign didn’t even show a photo of the house, just the face, name and contact of an agent as if he was the one up for sale. The house simply didn’t matter as much as the agent himself.
I know why they do it but I just can’t get used to it. The benefit for the agent is two fold. He not only gets the calls from potential buyers passing by (providing they manage to notice the house) but also and above all shows his smiling face to any potential vendors wanting to find an agent to sell their home who will themselves contribute to more advertising for the agent. It simply snowballs.
In the meantime, the house owner is promoting the agent while losing any chance to sell privately to the buyers passing by.
You may think that if the sign is great with beautiful pictures of the property, that’s alright then. Well think again. The people passing by will indeed notice the property more but who will they call if they want more information and ultimately buy the house? The agent of course. The sign was put up on the house owner’s own turf. Consequently, they deserve to sell without giving any commission away if the buyer finds them this way.
It’s a bit like having a car for sale and driving around with the name of a dealer on it, so people call the dealer and you pay them a commission !!! How crazy would it be?
Yet, the real estate industry has been indoctrinating us with the belief that only they can sell real estate and therefore all vendors ans buyers should always go through them.
The truth is that however successful an agent may be at selling properties, he will never be the reason why a buyer buys a house. A house will sell because there is someone who likes it and can afford it. There is no point for agents to show off how many houses they have sold. These are not convincing credentials, they are merely the consequence of having advertised themselves more than the others, thanks to their generous clients.
Tags: real estate sign signage private sale agent advertise for sale
Posted in Observations on real estate | 2 Comments »
April 22nd, 2009
You may have heard of Neil Jenman’s mission to inform and protect consumers from the 
dangers involved with selling or buying real estate. I thought I knew and observed enough to know that one had to be very careful in dealing with real estate agents. But after having read one of his books, I realised I had underestimated how sneaky they can be.
I’m not saying they are all money hungry and ethics deficient but they have been endoctrinated in believing what they’re preaching and when they start to realise the extent of lack of ethics and fairness of their practice, they either quit or look the other way.
If they don’t quit or look the other way, they may try to change the system more or less successfully due to the pressure of the industry controlling them.
Jenman says that the consumers who suffer the worst financial losses are generally the home sellers. They suffer because of:
- False and misleading offers
See details on Jenman’s website
Tags: Add new tag, don't sign anything, house, market, Neil Jenman, private, privately, property, real estate, sale, sell
Posted in Observations on real estate | No Comments »
