From Listed to SOLD - How to Sell Those Listings You Work So Hard to Get!

Last fall, I wrote a book specifically for the NAR convention called: 74 Ways to Sell Your Listings in Today's Market.

But after it went to press, I slapped myself in the head because there's one topic I didn't cover in the book and I should have.  So, I'll address it here. 

The question I didn't answer was: "If I do each and every one of your 74 thingees to sell my listing, can you guarantee that it WILL sell?"

Nope.

Sure wish I could. With all my heart, I wish I could promise everyone who buys my book and puts my advice into action that their listings will sell within xx days. But that would be a lie and I'd never lie to my friends.

Here's the thing. There simply may not be a demand for your listing right now. There may literally be NO buyers for what you're selling.

I had a broker once who made the statement "There's an a$$ for every saddle." Cute, huh? All she meant was that every home will sell eventually. And it was true, back then. Today? Not so much.

There simply aren't enough buyers out there. Very few of today's buyers are willing to take a chance on their home purchase. If your listing offers any sort of investment risk, it may not be sellable. Right now, anyway.

So, if your listing isn't selling and you've done everything you could possibly do, it's NOT YOUR FAULT!  Please stop agonizing over what else you can do or who else you can call. You've done your best and none of us are miracle-workers.

Stop losing sleep. Rest easy. You're too cute to look so stressed out!

www.SellwithSoul.com

Got this idea from Herb Hamilton's featured post today "Doom or Gloom or Huge Success."

Active Rainers - let's have some fun. In the next 48 hours, go out and preview ten listings in your area. Any ten you want. Make it easy on yourself and preview the ten homes closest to your home. It'll take you an hour or two.

Then report back. Of those ten properties, how many are being competently marketed? How many are not?

To my way of thinking, here's what "competently marketed" means:

• The home is easy to show (yes, even on Sunday)*
• The sellers know to be gone for the showing*
• The home is clean, tidy and smells good*
• It is, of course, priced well
• If there's a brochure box, it's full
• The MLS description is enticing and intriguing, not to mention accurate
• The MLS listing includes great photos
• There are no barking dogs locked up in the laundry room*
• There is no lingering odor of Football Game Chili in the air*
• The lockbox and key work smoothly*

*If you're saying that these are seller responsibilities and beyond your control, you're wrong! It's our job to make sure our sellers know THEIR jobs as partners in the home-selling process.

See, here's the thing. Our job, as real estate agents, is not to prospect prospect prospect until our fingers go numb. The reason we have a license for what we do is because we provide an important service to those people who honor us with their business. We owe it to our sellers to give their listings our full attention and commitment ... instead of fitting in our home-selling activities around our prospecting efforts.

I'll betcha that out of the ten listings you preview, very very few will meet my standard of competent marketing. I'll betcha most will fail miserably. I'll bet it will be clear to you which homes are marketed by someone who gives a damn about selling their listings... and which ones are marketed by someone who has better things to do.

Imagine if we all cared about selling our listings. I mean, really really cared. Imagine if we all had the guts to tell our sellers what's what and why. And how. If we all spent just one hour a day making sure our listings are being properly marketed and presented to the market.

We could turn this mess around.

www.sellwithsoul.com

copyright Jennifer Allan 2007