I’m selling, and my agent doesn’t follow up with every buyer’s agent. Should I?
I found this question on Craigslist, and I sat down and practically wrote a book about it. Here’s what I said:
Not everyone who sees your house is going to be interested. The last property I showed was seen by about fifty people, three of whom were actually serious.
Obviously, following up with all fifty would have been a waste of time.
But I did do two kinds of follow-ups:
One, I courted the serious people (kept contacting them and telling them how we bested the competition — i.e., actual selling). This worked and brought us to our offer.
Secondly, I would randomly sample buyers/buyer’s brokers to make sure they were seeing what I was seeing.
What you, as the seller, really want to know is: “what are people saying about my house?”
If they’re not offering, it usually will come down to one of three things: 1) the price is too high — which you can figure out by seeing what you’re competition is like, and if it’s selling;
2) your house has a flaw that you can’t fix that turns people off, and you need to identify that flaw and work extra hard to find a buyer for whom that flaw is less important. For example, if it’s located on a heavily-trafficked street, you perhaps want a childless buyer;
or
3) your ads are bringing in the wrong clientele. I love this one because it’s really easy to fix!
So ask your broker, “Hey, what did the last five people who saw the place think? What else are they looking at in the area? What did they like about my place? What held them back?”
The answers to these questions may not be what you want to hear, but they’ll help you take the next step on the road.
ali @dgneary.com
I never call agents to find out what buyers think. Just before I put the property in the mls I bring in some strangers, neighbors, and get their thoughts in case I missed something. They are often very helpful and do see something I didn’t see. This way I can get it taken care of before real buyers see the home.
After it is listed I want to know if the buyer bought something. Obviously they didn’t make an offer on my listing. If they didn’t make an offer on anything, whatever they have to say is fairly irrelevant. They obviously didn’t like anything and need to adjust to what they can afford. If they bought something for a lot more money, I also don’t care what they didn’t like and we are not expected to compete with higher priced properties.
If they bought something at the same price that was better, and if three buyers in a row find something at the same price they liked better, then we need a price reduction.