Missy and I have been looking for a steal of a deal on a home. The housing market is really depressed here. But we took such a drastic upturn in 2005-2007 the people can not afford to sell their homes because they owe more on them than they are now worth....and I mean a lot more...many times they owe twice what the house is now worth... So we have a lot of forclosers and short sales....since the banks are involved in both of these types of sales and they have been promised Bail Out Money....even they are not wanting to let them go for a dirt cheap price right now.. So the search continues....
When I was selling Real estate I liked to work with people wanting to sell their house because you had to get listers before you could get buyers. More than once I put my own home on the market to pull in buyers… They didn’t want MY home but they wanted some home.
To get sellers I specialized in the ‘For Sale By Owner.’ I would drive around till I found a FSBO sign and knock on their door. I told them I sold real estate in the neighborhood and always wanted to check out the competition to make sure I knew about all of the homes. I told them nothing was more embarrassing than taking a client to look at a home and see a FSBO sign and not be able to tell my client about the home. Believe it or not that always got me in the door…
The seller would always walk me through the house and I would just “Umha” to everything. I would thank them and head towards the door. They would never let me go without asking me what I thought about their home and their price. That’s all it took. I would then tell them I would be happy to pull some comps in the area, Free of charge of course, and come back at a convenient time when their husband was home and show them where their home stood in the market. Every one of them had me come back, and as I remember only twice did I fail to list the houses.
When I went back with the comps I also was armed with, “What I can do for you.”..One of those things was Open Houses….Every seller I ever met wanted you to do open houses. In reality less than 1% of houses sold through an open house. But it was a sure fire way to pick up buyers because as I said earlier they did not want THAT house but they wanted A house and by the time of the open house I knew all about every house for sale in the area. I have closed down several Open Houses to show a new buyer another home in the area.
Real Estate was interesting but it is a lot of work. I think you have to be a little crooked to sell real estate., but I never listed a house that did not sell…one I bought myself to get it sold but I did sell every one I listed…Even back then it was a lot of hours, I would hate to be trying to sell houses in this market.
1 comment:
ceI too sold real estate for two years, I always thought Mike was so understanding to let me work at a job where I had to pay the Broker every month. I just didn't have your nack....I loved showing, but I did not have what it takes to be a closer. I only sold 4 homes in two years, but I did have quite a few listings that agents in my office sold.
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