Even with as much grief as I lay on practitioners, I feel myself obliged to confess: I do not believe that any so-called professional real estate salesperson could come with with a marketing strategy quite as repellent as this:
Tipped by Barry Bevis: “Drove by this yesterday while showing clients homes in the same neighborhood. Average house in this neighborhood is $175,000. Nothing the age of the FSBO home selling for $200K. My clients laughed. We just put their house on the market ‘Bloodhound Style” and had it under contract in four days. I wonder how long the FSBO will be for sale!”
(PS: Our friendly visitors from the cute little yellow school bus have taught me that one cannot possibly be too obvious, so it is incumbent upon me to point out that the phone number and email address are not obscured on the original sign.)
Gary Frimann says:
Well, well, well… Maybe they “don’t want to give it away!” lol. Here’s the $198,828 question: Will it appraise at that should they get a full price offer? Ooops, forgot about that–maybe they’re just hoping for the greater fool who will bring an all cash, non-contingent, full price offer!
People, this is why I don’t chase FSBOs.
I’m surprised they did not write “or o.b.o.” after the price… Maybe they did not want to waste their money on the vinyl lettering, or give an indication of weakness.
Are they unaware that the market will ultimately determine what they get for their mansion.
I hope they’re not in a hurry to get to where they have to go…
Are they asking so much because the house was put together with gold nails, which justifies asking almost $24K more than the other houses in their neighborhood?
Do they think they can do a better job, and have a better grasp of market conditions than some “greedy” Realtor? If they fish, do they use bait? If they grow a vegetable garden, do they water the plants? If they hunt, do they use ammo?
Presuming they are going to move, and presuming most people prefer to live indoors, will they be using a Realtor to find their next home?
Thanks for sharing this Greg. Congrats on your quick sale. Sadly, I see this almost every day. I chuckle because being in the business, I know how easy it is to sell a house… Everything I know about real estate I learned in “FSBO’s for Dummies”.
PS- The painted shingle used as a sign rider was a nice touch. Very nice. I guess they’re not kidding and truly mean “By Appointment Only”.
April 20, 2009 — 8:10 am
Thomas Hall says:
Where’s the “Brokers, I have a gun and I am not afraid to use it!”
Clearly not the best marketing plan of attack, but I don’t think attacking the FSBO crowd is the right approach. IMO, it is the failure of the RE broker community which drives many to DIY.
What would happen if there were a Bloodhound approach just for FSBO or unrepresented buyers? Real tools – real analysis – real confidence – a focus on process, not price?
Hmmm – that sounds like an idea? 😉
April 20, 2009 — 8:18 am
Greg Swann says:
> What would happen if there were a Bloodhound approach just for FSBO or unrepresented buyers?
In Phoenix, the people most likely to adopt our style of marketing are FSBOs. Always too small and too cheap, but at least they’re trying.
April 20, 2009 — 8:26 am
Michael Fisher says:
The only thing missing from that sign to make it a hat trick: “Principals Only”.
April 20, 2009 — 9:06 am
Jeff Brown says:
I chuckled when I read Barry’s quote about selling homes quickly “Bloodhound style”. When we listed our first property in San Diego in nearly five years (February), I told the client we were gonna go all BHB on his place. 🙂
Sold in 48 hours for more than anything else had in last eight months. Second person who saw it, bought it. Even though we eventually had to adjust to killjoy appraisal, it still set a high water mark for price. 🙂
Agents not adopting ‘Bloodhound style’ or as I put it, ‘Go all BHB on their listings’ simply aren’t paying attention.
April 20, 2009 — 9:40 am
Deb Dahlberg Rowland says:
Not very appealing. But while covering their “bases” it looks like they missed the required pre approval letter.
April 20, 2009 — 9:41 am
Gail Tassey says:
Creative way to market to who? Realtors driving around clients? NOT!… maybe to people just driving around, one of them will be qualified and ready and able to purchase and as mentioned in other comments, not want an inspection or bank loan. Easy Peasy!
April 20, 2009 — 2:23 pm
Sean Purcell says:
I say laugh all you want, but the people selling this home got it going on over a heck of a lot of agents I see out there:
They’ve actually listed a price (albeit high)
They’ve set or at least managed expectations
They’ve listed two ways to make contact (most probably with someone authorized to speak about the property and not a service or asst. who’ll take a message)
And finally, it looks like the flyer box is full!
This house may not sell and I certainly wouldn’t use it as an example of marketing done right; but there’s a lot of agents out there that don’t even measure up to this.
April 20, 2009 — 3:21 pm
Sean Purcell says:
I say laugh all you want, but the people selling this home got it going on over a heck of a lot of agents I see out there:
They’ve actually listed a price (albeit high)
They’ve set or at least managed expectations
They’ve listed two ways to make contact (most probably with someone authorized to speak about the property and not a service or asst. who’ll take a message)
And finally, it looks like the flyer box is full!
This house may not sell and I certainly wouldn’t use it as an example of marketing done right; but there’s a lot of agents out there that don’t even measure up to this. 🙂
April 20, 2009 — 3:22 pm
Mark Madsen says:
I use to put a marketing program together for FSBOs that included a professional yard sign, single property web site, online syndication, SEO, call capture 800# and the works….
The most common question I got from my sellers – Do you care if we set the price way above market values?
I didn’t care because I’m a lender and was mainly using their home as a way to meet new buyers and agents.
So, I let them put any price they wanted on the marketing material. They got what they paid for, which was great marketing and exposure. The only things that I did not provide were a professional real estate agent’s opinion of what their home was worth, or a suggested listing price that could potentially result in a successful sale. By law, all I could give them was marketing materials that they had to pay full price for.
Then again, that is why they loved my system – I wasn’t telling them what they should sell their home for.
Did anything close? No, but I did get a lot of buyers out of the marketing partnership. Most of my sellers eventually ended up listing with one of my agents 6 months later at a much lower asking price, especially since neighborhood comps declined another 18% in the amount of time that they wasted. Kind of defeats the idea of going FSBO to save a 6% listing fee.
I didn’t trick anyone into thinking that my deal was better than using an agent. And, they even signed disclosures acknowledging they were aware that my main purpose was to meet the buyers who weren’t interested in or couldn’t qualify for their property.
I eventually put that program to rest when Vegas buyers stopped looking at anything other than REOs. Plus, going through the pain with these people as they watched their values decrease and time run out was too much to bare.
Moral to that long story:
1. Working with FSBOs is a great way to meet new buyers in the right market.
2. Your marketing can be awesome, but price is generally what sells a home (in my market)
April 20, 2009 — 6:36 pm
Barry Cunningham says:
Sean…how right you are..I bet if you call them they also answer the phone! And another thing…they actually have and must know how to use email!
April 21, 2009 — 6:02 am
John says:
Hey – it’s beautiful inside and a nice private yard! There’s the 20k.
April 21, 2009 — 9:11 pm
Al Lorenz says:
Hey, with the blue tape they might have obscured the e-mail address and phone numbers themselves. It would fit in with the rest of the sign. Thanks for not leaving us hanging 🙂
April 22, 2009 — 12:14 pm
Sue Zanzonico says:
Well they’re not holding back words are they… I wonder how long they have been trying to sell this place on their own as the sign reads a little frustrated (smile)…you know, like they’ve had alot of less than serious buyers stopping by “without appointments”. Or are they right out of the box with the no nonsense marketing campaign.
April 24, 2009 — 4:52 am