Thinking Of Taking A Moratorium On Listings
I have passed up more listings in the past year than I have the entire 26 years I've been in the business, and it's leaving me questioning if maybe I should take a break with my current listing system. I just returned home from a listing presentation for an Oak Forest condominium for sale that was an expired listing but these sellers cannot afford to sell right now.
I get listing appointments from people finding my websites, referrals and past clients. I also send out a postcard program to expireds and fsbos, although there aren't many fsbo's left in my area. My websites are already up so unless I want to pay someone to help me create a landing page or something special for sellers, I can let my sites do the work they're already performing.
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I'm really wondering if I should continue my postcard campaign right now. I get the listing appointments so that isn't the problem. I can convert those appointments, but lately I don't even want them because sellers can't afford to price them correctly.
My ROI was always good on the postcard campaign. I would get sellers calling me. They would tell me I had the best postcards of any others they received.
It takes time and money to work this system:
- I have to keep up my supply of custom postcards (which are very inexpensive from Vista Print).
- I have to pay 1st class postcard postage – full 1st class for oversized cards (I don't trust third class for this and it's been a pain in the past).
- I invested in the RedX system and can't imagine keeping this up without it. I paid an annual fee and am paid up until June of this year.
- I spend time each day to print up the labels using the MLS and RedX.
- I pay my son to put the labels and stamps on the cards. I pay him a small bonus for every listing appointment I get from this system.
- I drive them to the post office.
- I have to spend time preparing a Comparative Market Analysis for each listing appointment.
- I provide more data than my automated CMA provides.
- I have to print it all out along with my other marketing materials.
- I pay for ink, paper, pre-printed flyers/brochures, presentation folders and binding materials.
- I spend time with the prep-work, driving to the property and making my presentation, which includes some basic staging advice. Lately, I've been offering “Plan B” & “Plan C” suggestions.
I'm starting to get busy with buyers from my websites and feel maybe I should switch gears and put most of my efforts with buyers now. But darn it, I'm primarily a listing agent and it's tough for me to just give up, no matter how much inventory we have flooding the market.
I've got the appointments and that isn't the problem. The problem is going on all of those appointments and walking away because they won't agree to list at my price (and will list with the first agent that does) or they realize they cannot afford to sell and stay put for now.
The last listing I took is a Midlothian condomium for sale that is the lowest priced unit in the complex. Yet it has been on the market already for 58 days with few showings. Nothing is selling in the area.
I feel like I'm looking for that needle-in-a-haystack seller that absolutely has to sell and is able to bring money to the closing table if necessary. I'm not sure it's all worth it in today's market.
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judyo
Judy Orr is in her 27th year as a REALTOR® in the southwest & near west Chicago suburbs. Judy mainly works in southwest & near west Cook... Read More
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There are currently 8 Responses to this blog entry.
Spoken Gently
I do not blame ya Judy. We are seeing some of the same thing. We are getting the listings, but folks are simply not buying. A house we had on the market for 150 days finally went into escrow.
Ryan Ward
Funny. I basically took a moratorium for the last year. I've decided that it's time to go back and start marketing for listings as by the time any marketing I start now takes effect, the market may be turning. We'll see. It's really a tough call. We have turned down 8 listings in the last 3 months.
Sharon Roark
I'm curious, Judy, about your automated CMA. Is this something your MLS offers or a product/service you've purchased? I know Top Producer has an automated CMA, but I'm not aware of others...
Thanks.
judyo
I hate to shut down my "system" because I'm already seeing buyer activity picking up and there's still snow on the ground here and cold temps. I've had good years where activity didn't start until March, April or May. So I'm kind of with Ryan, that I should keep it up. I did shut it off right before Thanksgiving as I did not want to take listings to sit on market through the holidays. So I started it back up on January 1st. It starts to work very quickly, especially with the expired listings. But if I'm going to put in the time, effort and money, I'm just getting tired of walking away from most of the appointments empty-handed at my own choice or for the fact that the sellers simply have to stay put.
Sharon - our MLS provides an automated CMA. It allows customization and works very well. I was always afraid sellers that interview several agents would be seeing the same thing over & over but it doesn't sound like every agent uses it since I always get compliments on my CMA and presentation. Of course, I add my marketing materials and other things, so maybe it's the entire package they like.
Carolyn Gjerde-Tu
Judy, do you think these sellers are candidates for short sales? Do they have to sell or think they want to sell to get into something else? I chased the same type of sellers last year without a lot of luck and haven't done much of that marketing this year either - web leads seem to be easier to deal with now (but that might be short sighted).
judyo
Carolyn, one of my latest listing appointments will probably be a short sale and she was told if she wants to do a deed in lieu her home has to be listed for at least 3 months. The other couple I met yesterday do not want to ruin their credit with a short sale although I'm still trying to figure the true damage it does. I've read it goes against you for 3 years, but they didn't seem to want that.
jolenta
Judy, I read yesterday that a short sale takes down your credit score about 100 points. I also read that with a short sale you can gain access to credit again within 2-3 years but that with a foreclosure you can't get any sort of credit for at least five years. I don't know if this information is accurate or if it applies to all areas. I was reading that on someone's blog and they weren't practicing in Wisconsin.
Funny that you are thinking about shutting down your postcard system when I am just now thinking about starting one up! I have never done postcard marketing (or any directly marketing, for that matter) in the 5+ years I've been doing real estate. I have always been very picky about what I list though so no change there with this market! I do think that in general, slow housing market and oversupply notwithstanding, you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince, so-to-speak. In other words, I just think that more often than not you may decide you don't want the listing, or they may decide not to sell, to use someone else, etc.
My advice would be to just keep doing what you're doing with the possible exception of creating a streamlined version of your listing appointment and CMA for the purpose of weeding out sellers who either a.) aren't serious about selling (ie won't list at market prices) or b.) who cannot bring money to the closing table (assuming you're not interested in doing short sales). In our market banks are getting a little better at short sales so as long as sellers are realistic and motivated, there are worse listings to have.
Carolyn Gjerde-Tu
Short sales are a definite reality here - there isn't a huge benefit vs. owner going into foreclosure but I think sometimes the seller feels better because they are trying to do something.
One thing I thought about - maybe have another agent (a hungry one) on board as kind of a backup with these listings - refer it out to the other agent - if something happens you get the referral - if not you haven't really wasted your time but the listing stays in-house. Sounds like you have a good system, might as well keep using it - eventually the market will turn.