Gettin’ Listings Sold – Playin’ Hide the Pea

by Jeff Brown

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

I’ve never really cared much about the infinite number of sites ‘marketing’ listings for real estate agents. It’s always struck me as oversold at best, and a con at worst. I’ll let you gentle readers gimme your experience in the comments section. I have done a kinda sorta poll in the last 10 days or so. The question was — How many sold listings do you attribute to any of the various sites that do that sorta thing? Mostly I was greeted with a whole buncha silence, though some immediately admitted not knowing.

This question began to bug me about 18 months ago as I was headin’ towards the return of my firm to our local San Diego market. I’m gonna be a lister for the most part — can’t help it, it’s in my DNA. My dad always said it was one of the ways to keep my ManCard. 🙂 Actually, those who know me assume I won’t be showing houses, as my son will be representing buyers who can’t get started in investment property, but can own as cheaply as they can rent — another post altogether. I’m more than happy for him to be on the road. 🙂

As I was sayin’, in January of 2009 I was wondering how effective these sites really are when the Firestones kissed the pavement. The answers most agents finally gave me were exactly what I’d expected — they use them to get listings. Potential sellers are impressed like Little Leaguers at their first big league game when they see that Larry Lister from TopProducer Real Estate will be putting their home on 3,058 different sites — and by Saturday to boot. Boy, does that guy know how to market, or what?!

Um, I opt for ‘what’. This declaration of implied marketing savvy, also implies the agent is a techie of the first degree. Geez, does he leap tall buildings in a single bound too?

Wanting to find out for myself, I did a little experiment with the first local listing I’d taken in about six years. No sign — no fancy stand-alone websites — no Craig’s List ads — nothin’ except the good old MLS.

Oh, and doin’ things right in the first place.

Doin’ things right? I shameless copy Greg’s listing to-do list and claim it as my own. Clients think I’m innovative when in reality I’m BawldJapan. I have added an original twist, at least original for me. We bring in an interior designer who has the kind of experience most any 10 designers out there won’t have between ’em.

Here’s what she ordered done on the property in question.

Best curb appeal in the neighborhood — check — already true when we got there. Quick redesign/remodel of both bathrooms. Shorten an interior wall here, modify a patio cover there, drywall the garage, and for kicks ‘n giggles, re-floored and/or re-carpeted the whole place. Oh, and painted everything not moving inside. Staged it pretty well, but not like we will in the future.

Results? Hit the MLS late Friday afternoon, opened escrow Wednesday morning. Took awhile since there was some give ‘n take between offer and acceptance. Again, no sign, nothin’ online, just MLS.

Back to my massively unscientific, Amateur Night at the Bijou, poll.

When pressed, every single agent, without exception, admitted that using all the various zombie-like listing sites was a marketing move used to convince sellers to list. And the congregation responds with a resounding — DUH! Having your listing on 1,001 sites is what may be gettin’ you traction during your listing presentation, but I’ve yet to find anyone who honestly believes they’ve produced (meaningful) squat in the sales of their listings.

It’s the 21st century version of the Open House — poster child for agents playin’ Hide the Pea with their sellers. It’s even in many of their presentations. “Yes Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we’ll put your listing on special websites all over the world. And…and…we’ll, um…we’ll hold really bitchen Open Houses too — Yeah, that’s the ticket. (Apologies to Greg & the rest who love them. To each his own.)

Meanwhile, their neighbors are impressed within an inch of their lives by how hard that nice real estate agent has been working. They hold Open Houses, and they have all sorts of stuff they do online. Aren’t they just the best of all 27 worlds?!!

NOTE: I’m not talkin’ about the stand-alone websites for listings. I’d just like the time to get one of ’em up before the damn property goes into escrow. 🙂

Look, will I have open houses for the vacant rental homes/condos/townhomes I list in San Diego? Yeah, probably. I’ll recruit some starving agent who’ll be grateful for the opportunity to snag a buyer or three. I’ll tell my sellers exactly what I’m doin’ — showin’ other income property owners in the area how hard we work for them. Usually, when I’ve confessed this to a seller/client they laugh their butts off. I tell ’em it’s intra-industry charity work. (That was bad, right?) Then they always ask the question.

“How many listings have you sold using open houses?”

“I’m positive of one, though there may have been one other.”

The TakeAway

When was the last time you shopped for a used car? Why did you buy that one? It was priced right. It looked fantastic — easily better than the others. It performed as advertised. All things considered, it was the best one you’d seen, hands down — so you bought it. Betcha you didn’t hafta be sold much if at all. Right?

The local MLS or some agent’s site with an IDX is all ya need out there. OK, Realtor.com comes with the MLS, right? Cool.

You’re a professional. List properties to sell, and stop listing properties to market.

Been around for awhile? Here’s your 60 second ‘listing presentation’ — “Mr. & Mrs. Seller, here’s a list of properties we’ve sold in the last six months. Here are the seller’s contact info.” I’ve often done that by phone, then immediately emailed them the contact info, promising to call them the next day. Just as often they’d call me first.

Do I have this whole 1,001 listing websites thing wrong? Am I the one who can’t find the pea?