13-Question Acid Test to Spot Homes That Will Never Sell
It’s hard enough to get a referral after a successful sale. Expired–forget it.
To make matters worse, the economy’s tanked and it’s an election year. (Is the election almost over?) So, selling a home can seem near impossible at times. And wrenching a referral out of it like pulling teeth.
And it doesn’t matter if you are a rookie or seasoned veteran. Some homes just won’t move and never produce a referral. Even if you use critical strategies like these.
But here’s the real kicker: if your signs stays up a long time in somebody’s yard, or someone else’s sign replaces yours, the neighbors will feel you did not do your job, and they won’t quite trust you. Even if it wasn’t your fault the home didn’t move.
And like the seven natural laws of real estate prospecting, this is just a natural law in real estate, too: Homes that are on the market longer than 60 days are earmarked as problem homes.
However, a home that stays on the market too long gets a bad rap, but unfortunately, so do you. It can turn into a referral nightmare.
It gets even worse if your picture is on the sign in the yard. And if you have two such homes at once, it could get really ugly for you.
So, the idea is to spot a potential problem home during the listing presentation. (There’s good reason you don’t want to win every listing presentation.)
What you want to know is if the home is something you want to add to your inventory. Or not. Here are the 13 questions you should ask yourself before taking a listing:
1. Is this a home you would not object to buying yourself?
2. Does the home show well?
3. If not what can be done to improve the salability (and is the seller ready to take those steps)?
4. Are the sellers’ expectations and timeframe reasonable?
5. Are the sellers motivated?
6. Is there a sense of urgency?
7. Is there a need to sell? (More space? Relocation?)
8. What are the positives of the home?
9. What are the negatives of the home?
10. Are there any structural issues that need to be addressed?
11. Will the sellers address the negatives prior to listing the home?
12. Will the sellers agree to price the home in-line with the neighborhood comps?
13. Will the sellers list with you, at your commission rate and terms?
If the answers to the above questions are mostly “No,” then why bother taking the listing? You are just setting yourself up for acquiring a bad reputation.
To do so will ensure an unhappy relationship with unreasonable demands until the term of the listing expires. And a dismal career to boot.
You don’t want a dismal career, do you?
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