ARE WE TO BLAME WHY WE HAVE FSBO's?

I was just reading a post by Paul Henderson, a Realtor affiliated with Lacey & Dupont Washington Homes. It made me look back on my years as a Realtor.

The basis of Paul's Blog was his question, "Do For Sale by Owner's have S.O.T.T.? He explains this means "Sell On Their Terms". He has recently noticed an upsurge of thinking amongst the FSBO mentality. He said for a while it seemed to go away and now its back. He was wondering if other real estate agents are seeing this trend? Well his blog did garner 33 responses or actually 34 when you count mine. I was curious enough to look at the responses because I have found there is a lot to be learned from them. However, in this case, I did not see any one proffer a reason why this is happening.

I SUGGEST IT IS OUR FAULT!

I include myself even though I am not a Realtor and am a Loan Officer; closely related. However I once was a Realtor, starting back in '76 (OK, that's 1976 not 1876) and the first half of my 20 plus years in active residential real estate I was all to happy to take a listing. It was sort of an elevation to my self esteem to see a 'George Willis Realtors' sign with my name rider on it. In fact after a while, I got pretty good at getting listings, including FSBO's. One day a friend of mine, not in Real Estate, casually mentioned he noticed I had signs all over town and I must be quite a "hotshot". Well my head, with my ego stuck inside of it, got so big I couldn't get out the door. Waiting for my head to regain the proper proportion allowed me some valuable time to evaluate the balance sheet in my checking account and the balance statement on my Visa bill. Turns out they were opposite of where they should be. The light of common sense then fell upon me, not with a thump but ever so slowly because I am of the male gender and not of the female gender; they can process volumes of information while doing seventy other things at the same time.

What I had been doing was being a "Yes" Real Estate Agent and that is pecisely the problem today. I would agree to anything just to get the listing, spend tons of money on fliers, do open houses both Saturday and Sunday, feed all the other Realtors on tour, and keep assuring my seller client we would get lucky. What I got was the overdrawn checking account and a Visa statement with too many cash advances each month. The usual outcome was an expensive unsold listing. The seller's get tired of this, especially after the second or third try. That is why they think they can do just as well. We need to guide them to their goal!

MAYBE THE BIG GUY ABOVE STEPPED IN TO HELP

I started getting these strange visions that perhaps I had it all wrong. The purpose of a listing was to get it sold in the shortest time possible with as little inconvenience to the seller. The inconvenience to the seller part soon fell by the wayside. I had the comps, I had the MLS data of unsold listings, sold listings, and if sold, the percentage of the sale price to the last list price. It dawned on me that I should price 'em right from the onset. So the first thing I did was get my data together that closely related to the subject property,otherwise to be known as the listing. I brought $25.00 worth of moving boxes with me to every listing appointment. I also put two bags of ready mix cement in the trunk of my car. I may have started the Lo Rider craze in California. Imagine the surprise when I walked in the door with this big bundle of boxes and tape. "What is this for", they would ask. "Your selling your house and you might as well start packing", was the response. I called this instilling a "Mindset to Move" strategy. As I got the tour of the house, I would drop off a number of boxes in each room to reinforce the idea. Then came the arduous task of the listing presentation binder, that I left with the seller whether they listed or not. This was a standard presentation I put together but always customized to that particular listing. Oh yeah, the ready mix. Often, the seller and spouse would listen attentatively to all the reasons along with the supporting documentation as to why they should list at the price I suggested rather than their, "Let's try it at our price for a while", way of thinking. I would then push away from the table and say, "I really want to work for you". They always like that, but then I went on, "I have something in my car I want to show you, however I need some help from both of you to get into your house". Then I would stand up and go to the door, walk outside to the car and never look back. More often than not they were right behind me and yes, you feel real stupid when you open the trunk to show them your ready mix and they aren't there to gaze upon those two 96 pound bags. I can tell you they are watching from the front window. So buck up and muscle a bag to the house. Ladies, you might want to try out the new half size bags at only 48 LBS. "What are you going to do with the cement", they ponder, and you will then say, "I need this to put around my For Sale sign because it is going to take me quite a long time to sell your house at the price you want as opposed to the price I believe will bring you a qualified buyer and actually close the transaction". Yes, this is borderline rude, yet this is "Show Time" and you need to make a lasting impression. After all, if you have gotten to this point, you probably are not in the running for the listing. I can't tell you how often I became the second and on some occasions, the third Real Estate Agent to list the property. This is how I obtained a 97% listing sold to listings taken sale ratio. Sure, I didn't take the listing always, but they remembered me well from the humorous way I made my presentation. The best thing is I suddenly started making a good living selling real estate. Then it was OK if I got a little proud of myself once in a while.

Ron L. Whitworth,

Your Guide on Your Oregon Loan Trail