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What was your response to that mindset from buyers... that they feel they should be entitled to some savings since no agent is involved? Did many buyers feel this way or just a small fraction? This may get back to pricing it right so that you can argue that it is priced fairly. Were you successful in selling it yourself?
I agree with davebarnes. The feedback we got when had our house listed last year was meaningless. However, it did signify that they had walked through.
I think it might be best to hear what you are thinking of doing. Selling a house is stressful, and it involves being ready to vacate your house quickly, while leaving it in beautiful shape. Sometimes prospective buyers ask weird questions, or make odd offers. I don't know how an app would help with any of that.
I suppose a tracker that kept track of showings might slightly interesting, but why would you do this?
I recently sold my house. I had at least 15 people look at it within the first 5 days it was on the market...I think feedback from potential buyers can give you somewhat of a gauge if you have enough people, though I did see several of the comments were virtually useless: what was mentioned in complaints were things which were clearly visible or written in the listing.....I think many people just look at some pictures and do not bother to read thru the information in the listing itself----my agent says that is quite common and is a big mistake.
One couple liked the house but "wanted one floor"--the listing and pictures clearly showed it was 2 floors.
Another woman thought the fireplace made the room "smell of smoke" which she found "disgusting" despite the fact a fireplace was prominently shown in 4 pictures in listing and written in listing itself (it hadn't been used in 6 months, house de-odorized)---she put in an offer 20% below asking which I countered at $500,000 (on a 170K asking price--that made my point very clear to her).
I was under the impression a fair amount of buyers were rather unrealistic in terms of wanting everything to be new, updated and high end, even in a 25-year old house going for only 170K. Some feedback clearly showed that. One couple wanted granite counters, high end appliances etc---unlikely to happen in my price range and area. Another didn't like the fact that the doors had brass instead of nickel. My agent told me buyers now are less willing to do any work to a house than they had been years ago...he told me one woman client of his didn't like a house because.....[gasp!]...the appliances in the kitchen were not all the same brand!
But in general, in my case the feedbacks were more or less positive and the fact we got a serious offer on the 4th day seemed to confirm the house would be fairly easy to sell and would be liked by buyers. But it is amazing how uninformed and lazy some people are when considering it is one of, if not the biggest purchase they will ever make.
I suppose a tracker that kept track of showings might slightly interesting, but why would you do this?
We are looking for a niche to target - and for which a website or app can be developed. The objective is to make money somehow... but need to find a "pain point" to address. Can't please everyone as evidenced by the varying viewpoints here.
Thank you all for your responses - have identified two areas we will investigate further with focus groups.
We are looking for a niche to target - and for which a website or app can be developed. The objective is to make money somehow... but need to find a "pain point" to address. Can't please everyone as evidenced by the varying viewpoints here.
Thank you all for your responses - have identified two areas we will investigate further with focus groups.
I'm not sure if you realize this or not, and I hate to be negative about this, but everything you've described is currently available to agents which choose to use it. Those agents can make it available to their clients. A popular showing service, CSS, allows agents to immediately see feedback emails. Most MLSs allow agent to set up client accounts to track houses or price ranges.
My guess is you're thinking about providing this directly to sellers. The big problem you're going to face is MLS access. There are hundreds of MLS systems throughout the country, and each one is different. The large portals do not always have accurate information. Getting information on the competition, if it's under contract particularly, is often dependent upon access to the MLS system and not all will permit public access to all information. In some states sold data is not public information.
Most large RE companies already have apps available for buyers that use location data to show one all houses for sale within a certain distance from the current location.
What was your response to that mindset from buyers... that they feel they should be entitled to some savings since no agent is involved? Did many buyers feel this way or just a small fraction? This may get back to pricing it right so that you can argue that it is priced fairly. Were you successful in selling it yourself?
We were taken aback at first but got used to it eventually. Serious buyers, looking for a long time and wanting to be in our town, moving from out of town and liking the house a lot, those kind of buyers - yes they all expected a break because we selling it ourselves. We eventually settled on an offer that was a bit more what we would have got net of realtor fee and a little less than what we listed for and it was a fair price. We did not go through with the sale because the buyer wanted us to put in a brand new septic tank. We have decided not to sell our house at this time.
But I will certainly be more prepared with the pricing next time.
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