and the latest realtor gimmick is............... (disclosure, foreclosure, illegal, inspection)
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I respectfully disagree. Local brokerages, in this case Windermere, print these brochures out and they contain mostly ads for unsold listings. The outlets for these brochures are found in places where tourists and other non-locals congregate - airports, train and bus stations, etc. That being said, it's only logical to conclude the brochures are targeting buyers.
But there's always the same smattering of certain realtors who pay a pretty penny to advertise pages full of nothing but previous sales with no dates mentioned. One in particular - John Templeton - does this to no end. While you can say he's doing this to attract new listings, the fact remains he wasn't doing this a few years ago when the market was brisk. You can't tell me John Templeton wasn't interested in attracting new listings when the market was brisk, now can you?
You get a couple of John Templetons doing this in these brochures, and it most certainly does create the illusion everybody's buying. It's false advertisement, plain and simple, and John Templeton and anybody else who's familiar with the industry knows it, too.
"False advertisement?"
Jeeze. I hope no one shows you an ad with the Easter Bunny in it.
If that is your preferred interpretation of the ad, you are free to do so, but it truly boggles the mind that an ad placed to convince the public that an agent could move listings in a buyer's market would be perverted and twisted into an interpretation that "everyone's buying."
Simply put: The ad's purpose is to convince Sellers that he can sell houses.
Buyers come from signs in the ground, listings, and calls to the sign owner far more than they come from magazines and brochures.
"False advertisement?"
Jeeze. I hope no one shows you an ad with the Easter Bunny in it.
If that is your preferred interpretation of the ad, you are free to do so, but it truly boggles the mind that an ad placed to convince the public that an agent could move listings in a buyer's market would be perverted and twisted into an interpretation that "everyone's buying."
Simply put: The ad's purpose is to convince Sellers that he can sell houses.
Buyers come from signs in the ground, listings, and calls to the sign owner far more than they come from magazines and brochures.
Alright, Mike, that's it - you've crossed the line. You leave the Easter Bunny out of this...
"Stealtors?"
Gee.
Now I feel bad about settin the bar so high at the sophomore level and creating all that pressure to perform...
Oh, darn, I wanted to give you some rep for giving me such a good laugh at the end of a long day, but I have to spread it around some more. (Funny how sometimes I'm told I have to do that when I try to give rep to people I've never heard of before. Haven't quite figured out how that works yet.)
I'd agree with your points if this John Templeton simply accompanied all his ****SOLD!!!!**** ads, which these brochures are chock-full of, with the month and year his listings were sold. But he doesn't, and I'm certain these ****SOLD!!!!**** ads are quite dated. Maybe false advertisement isn't the right word for it, but it can certainly be said it's misleading to your average uninformed buyer or seller who, upon reading the brochure, could very well think "Gee, the market's really moving here!" or "Gee, John Templeton can really sell houses right now!"
It's flaky, in my opinion, and worthy of gimmick status, so that's why it's in this thread.
Wait a minute: Isn't "priced to sell below the competition" what you ALWAYS want to price a listing at??? Otherwise, what is the point of listing a property?
Do we always want to price to sell below the competition? Absolutely not.
In a market like the one most of us are now experienceing, yes, it is USUALLY best to price below the competition. Simple market dynamics demonstrate the efficacy of this strategy.
If, however, one is trying to sell a house in a neutral or sellers market, then pricing below the comps is usually NOT a winning strategy, and will most often result in selling the house for less that you might have gotten with a better strategy.
Without getting into the variables & scenarios that affect each property & it's marketing strategy, the single best guiding principal of pricing is to evaluate the trend, and price to be at the front of that trend, in whichever direction it's moving.
I respectfully disagree. Local brokerages, in this case Windermere, print these brochures out and they contain mostly ads for unsold listings. The outlets for these brochures are found in places where tourists and other non-locals congregate - airports, train and bus stations, etc. That being said, it's only logical to conclude the brochures are targeting buyers.
But there's always the same smattering of certain realtors who pay a pretty penny to advertise pages full of nothing but previous sales with no dates mentioned. One in particular - John Templeton - does this to no end. While you can say he's doing this to attract new listings, the fact remains he wasn't doing this a few years ago when the market was brisk. You can't tell me John Templeton wasn't interested in attracting new listings when the market was brisk, now can you?
You get a couple of John Templetons doing this in these brochures, and it most certainly does create the illusion everybody's buying. Without a sales date which accompanies these ads, it's false advertisement, plain and simple, and John Templeton and anybody else who's familiar with the industry knows it, too.
I am going to have to assume that you do not own a business and/or have never done regular print advertising. Out here that magazine page (1) costs $500 a month. Now most agents buy 1 page and have a contract for a period of time to use that space.
Now John may be locked into a contract and the fact is that he may not have enough new listings to put into the magazine but he still has to pay for space. It makes business sense to put your sold homes in there to try and solicit sellers and/or show sellers on a listing presentation that you do magazine advertising. It also fills up your magazine space.
I think there are plenty of other logical interpretations of John's actions that have nothing to do with trying to convince people that buyers are buying.
Why are you assuming that someone is trying to manipulate you?
MikeJ: Isn't your job to SELL the property as quickly as possible? I cannot imagine that a seller would want to extend the torture and inconvenience of having people traipsing through their house for months on end.
I suppose that could be one aspect of a Realtor's job. The best price for the seller is another aspect. Perhaps some sellers don't want people traipsing through months on end. But they also don't want to give a house away just because someone thinks the price should be way lower than it is.
There are cheap houses on the market that are not selling because of the current economic conditions, or because the potential buyers cannot get qualified for a mortgage, or because the market is saturated with homes. Actually, it's a combination of all three.
Why do I get the feeling that the greed is going the other way, where the buyers are so hungry for that "steal of a deal" that they are waiting, waiting, waiting for prices to fall more, more more? And that many buyers will lose out because they waited too long and prices have gone up? I think it's pretty clear that many buyers want the McMansion at a starter home (or less) price.
I agree with MikeJ: if a potential buyer is sitting around waiting because the houses are all so overpriced, perhaps that buyer is better off exploring a lower price range. There's nothing wrong with doing that.
I don't think most buyers are hungry for a "steal." They are hungry for 2009 pricing, not 2006 pricing.
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