Sale

Terrifying!!! That is how I think my dad would describe the word, “sale”. My mom would come home proud of what she bought on “sale”. For some reason, pop didn’t show the same enthusiasm.

Universities don’t use the word sale. Instead, it’s called a “scholarship.” Our daughter, Jade, got into George Washington University 4 years ago. She received a $25,000 scholarship. To me it sounded like a 35% sale at Saks (you can do better there these days.) 35% off at Saks – like dad knows – is still a lot. GW was still $45,000 (post scholarship sales price) a year + an estimated $20,000 for room and board in the DC area. $65k x 4 = $260,000. Go Noles, thank goodness.

At Ashdan’s Yogurt they gave me a punch card instead of saying the word, sale. 10 punches and you get one free. Basically a 10% off sale.

Lots of manufacturing companies give volume breaks. Discount points are paid in exchange for a lower mortgage rate. Nothing discount about that. Some industries have tiered pricing as-in Good/Better/Best. Buy one get one free at a new grocery store I recently visited although I only really wanted one item. My wife recently went to my chiropractor, Spine Design. They gave me a 20-minute neck massage. Another freebee but this one I could actually use!

Medical at times calls for an “accommodation.” It’s basically a sale, but doctors selling their services sounds a bit too salesy. Watch Flo on Progressive and they have Bundling. Another sale. Airlines give points. Buy something on a credit card and pay 30% interest but you get 1% back. Doesn’t sound so good when you think of it that way. Then there are rebates – a discount that you probably forget about because of all the effort. Car and furniture dealers SLASH the prices or sharpen the pencil. Those people know what they are doing.

Real estate agents used to promote price reductions like the car and furniture stores but that changed in recent years. Instead, things have moved to what, rest in peace, George Carlin would love, “Price Improvement”.

So why have the price reduction or price cut in bold and HOT KETCHUP RED disappeared? The blame rests with one party, the homeowner….

Seller dictation coupled with weak Realtors who won’t push back to the client. Sellers don’t like the way it looks or sounds. So, price change or price improvement came into play. Could you imagine, Bloomie’s running a “Memorial Day Price Improvement Special”?!

I don’t agree with this line of marketing where the tail of the homeowner is wagging the dog of the marketer (Realtor). If you are going to have a sale, have a sale. My best line to bring in the crowds has been, “Drastically Reduced” when I’ve had the most desperate of sellers up against the clock.

It’s the emotion that affects sellers. Hurt feelings. Does it damage the integrity of the house? Why has it been sitting? What will my friends and neighbors think?

My advice – Ignore the neighbors. They aren’t going to be your neighbors for long anyways. You are selling the house. It’s on sale. There are lots of reasons to lower the price. Seasonality, carrying cost, and lost opportunity costs have much to do with that. It could also simply not be in the right price category to be found. Pricing isn’t a rejection of you personally. Once a home is priced right and marketed properly it tends to move. The key is that second piece, marketing it properly.

If you really want it to move, let me shout out that we are “practically giving it away!” On second thought, I don’t want to be fired by the client! Baby steps first!