There is clearly a growing trend in our industry, at least locally, where new listings are coming soon, exclusive and/or offered as a sneak peek. Quite often, the result is a blurred line of when a house is for sale, sort of for sale or being held back from the market for various reasons.
First, let’s look at the 3 scenarios in their intended form:
COMING SOON…
The house will be up on MLS (Multiple Listing Service) in a few days. The REALTOR® is trying to generate a little bit of buzz in the marketplace. Think of the club owner creating a line up outside of the bar to give it a “we have to go check THAT place out!” atmosphere. It gets shared a bit on social media, emailed or texted between friends or mentioned between Realtors at the water cooler. Within a day or two it is launched on MLS and showings begin.
EXCLUSIVE…
Sometimes a home owner doesn’t want their home up on MLS for privacy or personal reasons. Perhaps there is a difficult personal situation that would make a full MLS listing too stressful so a more private exclusive listing is chosen. Of course the seller is doing this with the knowledge that exposure will be limited since the home will not be on the fully-public MLS system.
SNEAK PEEK…
This could be a few photos dripped out on social media or an email campaign to a select mailing list of potential buyers. In general, it is a sneak peek at a listing that will be hitting the open market very soon. It’s a trailer for a movie that is going to be coming to a theatre near you. Then the home hits the MLS and showings begin.
So, these all seem relatively logical and mostly harmless. Right? The bigger question that needs to be asked is this:
Is this being done in a manner that truly benefits the sellers?
Answer: It depends
Has the home been in a perpetual state of ‘coming soon?’
Why is it really exclusive?
Are the ‘sneak peeks’ part of a 3 week long sponsored Facebook ad campaign?
Fun Fact:
If the REALTOR® is being hired to expose the home to the largest pool of buyers possible, throwing a COMING SOON sign in the front yard for the month of February is not fulfilling that obligation.
No matter what a seller is told, the greatest amount of buyer activity is going to come through throwing the doors to the club open and letting the buying masses in. The club in question is MLS.
Looking at our current market, if a home is only exposed through a COMING SOON sign or the REALTOR®s sign with EXCLUSIVE on it, that seller is missing out. Again, perhaps it is due to other reasons but (real estate cliché alert) if the REALTOR®s goal is truly to sell the home in the shortest amount of time with the least amount of inconvenience for the greatest amount of money, don’t you think having the maximum number of potential, qualified buyers through the home is the route to go?
But here is the issue: Thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars can be left on the table. If there are 42 buyers in the market for a home however only 6 are aware, the activity, momentum, leverage and offer(s) will reflect that the other 85% of the market is unaware that the home is even offered for sale.
It can be the difference between an offer for 97% of asking versus 3 offers and a sale at 101% of asking price.
So, if you are a seller, make sure you hear your Realtor’s strategy and plan to market your home to ALL of the buyer pool. Make sure you know the scenarios and potential outcomes. Ask questions, be clear and be on the same page. To do anything else is unfair and potentially harmful to your bottom line.
To discuss a strategy and plan for your home purchase or sale with our team, feel free to contact us at anytime. We would be happy to meet with you at your convenience.
Thank-you for visiting.
THEbTEAM.
Thank-you to Charles Forerunner for the photo.