Usually, when we say someone has "expired", we mean dead. Done. Fortunately, for a great many folks hoping to sell their homes and properties, that is not the case. The trick, though, is bringing the dead back to life.
Let's face it, this is one tough market in which to sell a home. Buyers are not plentiful and the competition is strong. Tell me, then, why are some homes being marketed just as they were back in the bad old days. Back then, when Buyers would kill to buy an overpriced property, agents often would only have to stick a sign in the ground and both they and their Sellers would sit back waiting for offers. Hello, 2009.
Most agents are again practicing their craft and conducting business as it should: Determining the real market value of a home, getting it prepared for the market and then launching the marketing campaign. The market value of a property has nothing to do with how much was paid for it, how much a Seller wants to get for it or how much it means in sentimental value. Once a house is placed for sale… it is a commodity. The market determines the value just as it does with stocks, cars or bread. Agents are there to interpret and anticipate what the market is doing and act accordingly to sell the commodity they represent.
Yet, many homeowners - the Sellers - are still not getting it. They continue to place their properties for sale with an agent that will tell them what they want to hear. The agents then hope the Sellers adjust the price as time goes by and that the marketing takes care of itself. Thus, the "Expireds".
In approaching homeowners whose homes had been on the market but did not sell - Expired - as it were, there is one and only one question I initially ask: Do you really want your property sold. If the answer is, "Yes", we proceed further. For then only do we both know that whatever needs to be done, will be done. Then begins my "Zombie Marketing" - bringing the dead back to life.
Let's face it, this is one tough market in which to sell a home. Buyers are not plentiful and the competition is strong. Tell me, then, why are some homes being marketed just as they were back in the bad old days. Back then, when Buyers would kill to buy an overpriced property, agents often would only have to stick a sign in the ground and both they and their Sellers would sit back waiting for offers. Hello, 2009.
Most agents are again practicing their craft and conducting business as it should: Determining the real market value of a home, getting it prepared for the market and then launching the marketing campaign. The market value of a property has nothing to do with how much was paid for it, how much a Seller wants to get for it or how much it means in sentimental value. Once a house is placed for sale… it is a commodity. The market determines the value just as it does with stocks, cars or bread. Agents are there to interpret and anticipate what the market is doing and act accordingly to sell the commodity they represent.
Yet, many homeowners - the Sellers - are still not getting it. They continue to place their properties for sale with an agent that will tell them what they want to hear. The agents then hope the Sellers adjust the price as time goes by and that the marketing takes care of itself. Thus, the "Expireds".
In approaching homeowners whose homes had been on the market but did not sell - Expired - as it were, there is one and only one question I initially ask: Do you really want your property sold. If the answer is, "Yes", we proceed further. For then only do we both know that whatever needs to be done, will be done. Then begins my "Zombie Marketing" - bringing the dead back to life.
