Credentials: selling houses
3rd June, 2009 - Posted by admin -
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 on: June 3, 2009
Filed under: Observations on real estate
2 Comments
AndrewBoldman
June 5th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Original post by mattusximus
wow gold
October 30th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Good post,This was exactly what I needed to read today! I am sure this has relevance to many of us out there.
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