I suppose it’s pretty rare that a seller actually hands their listing agent an invoice during the course of a listing, but it shouldn’t be. Based on what I see, the vast majority of listing agents should be billed by the seller, same as they would be by any other third party vendor. The fact that it doesn’t happen simply means most sellers don’t understand what is really going on during the course of a listing and, I’d wager, neither do most agents – or if they do they certainly haven’t informed their client.
Here’s a question every seller should ask their listing agent: “Why are you going to put up a For Sale sign in my front yard?” Standard answer: “A sign is just one part of my ‘Handy-Dandy, Super-Duper, 24 Point, 7 Step, Maximum Sales Price Marketing Plan’ or HDSD-24/7-MSM Plan… which I offer to all my clients completely free of charge.” (The standard answer is impressive, wouldn’t you agree? We agents are very creative indeed.). Of course, given the use of internet these days, I suggest to you, dear reader, that most For Sale signs are more directional than informational, but let’s not split hairs. Okay, so the sign is a part of the marketing plan. Next question by an informed home seller: “If that sign is part of your plan to market my house, why doesn’t it mention anything about my actual, you know… house?”
This is old Greg Swann stuff, but I’m rehashing because it needs to be taken further. There are actually two correct reasons for placing a sign in someone’s front yard:
- Sell the actual home. (The primary objective from a fiduciary standpoint.)
- Attract future home sellers from the neighborhood. (Secondary objective, but a legitimate expectation of work well done.)
So why is it then, that the vast majority of signs fail both of these objectives? Because they are designed with a different purpose altogether; they are designed to advertise the brokerage (hence the uniform colors, logos, big brokerage name and phone number). To a smaller degree, they are also designed to advertise a brokerage’s presence in a neighborhood Read more