Lazy Sellers

My Mom sent me a headline in the Palm Beach Daily News that said “Bidding war sees home fetch extra $3M.” I texted back “Smart Seller”.

Lazy Sellers are costing themselves 10-15% on average by not marketing their home properly right now. More at any time I’ve ever seen. To me it’s the biggest story of the market.

If you inherited or had a Pablo Picasso, what would you do with it? Here are 4 options.

Sell it to your neighbor
Donate it to a museum
Call art galleries
Auction it with oodles of marketing creating a bidding war that will make Buyers sweat.

Option 1 – Get it off your hands. It would be neighborly of you, and no one would call you call you shrewd. Although they might call your neighbor shrewd and even accuse them of taking advantage and being un-neighborly to you. Some might feel sorry for you. And that’s good I guess if you enjoy sympathy. However most won’t feel too sorry as there are more things to feel sorry for than the dimwitted.

Option 2 – If you are really wealthy one option might be to donate it to a museum. But the wealthy didn’t get wealthy by donating material things. The Super Wealthy do but they get tax write offs and “Wings” aka “Billboards” in return to advertise their name. Those Super Wealthy are also Super Smart.

Option 3 – You could call around and sell it to an art gallery that specializes in Picasso’s. Not a bad option but they will probably want it on consignment and don’t have skin in the game to get the most for it.

Option 4 – Send it out to auction! Bingo – we have a winner. The reason why is that a good auction house is going to spend the money getting the word out and will put it into a bidding atmosphere. Buyers will sweat and raise their paddle up. Your neighbor, local museum, and art gallery owner are all welcome to come but I bet they wouldn’t like option 4……

So, how does this relate to real estate?

It’s exactly the same thing!

This photo is of shoes that visitors had to take off at a recent open house. 80 people walked in the first 30 minutes! This home needed everything and had no view. 150 showings netted 2 buyers. Before the open house we had a standing full price offer. After it, by doing more marketing complete with professional photos, aerials, brochures, mail out, social media, etc… we got 2 buyers in a bidding war. The result was 12% more and no inspection. No inspection might have been 3% more as the standing offer probably would have wanted something off once they did the inspection.

This was a shrewd smart Seller. 12-15% and no worries of cancellation is a big deal. I get that some sellers don’t want people trampling through their homes, but there really is too much at stake to fool around.

4 words of advice……

Interview hard. Oftentimes the listing agent who only specializes in one area is the absolute worst choice. The reason is they have no marketing reach. They may know the local neighbors but the local neighbor is the one who is already there and is going to see it regardless. You are looking for value added reach.
Spreadsheet it. Ask for a guarantee of what you are going to get in marketing. Our Home ECHOnomics Guarantee promises 57 items we will do for every home we market. I know no one will match it because our company pays for the advertising while agents at other firms have to pay for it themselves and can’t afford it, don’t want to pay for it, and don’t have the infrastructure for it. Pay attention to what tools and reach the agent has outside of the community and compare it and make them guarantee what they do. For example if you live in BallenIsles , don’t just choose the resident Realtor who plays golf in the community. That may or not be ok, but do they have sales and reach coming in outside of the subdivision? Oftentimes, that choice is the worst Realtor you could pick. Sellers don’t get this. The value added buyer who isn’t aware of the community, usually will pay the highest price. Reaching them with lots of marketing outside of the subdivision is the key.
Let it go to market. By doing proper marketing and slowing the process down, we brought 150 people.
If you want to be neighborly, sell it to your neighbor after the open house when all the bids are in. You are being neighborly to them by choosing them and they are being fair to you by paying fair market value. Then one day you can take all the extra ‘Mula” and donate a wing at the museum in your name.