Working both Smarter and Harder

Earlier this year we talked a bit about working both smarter AND harder to compensate for the changing market conditions. Here's a tip that will help you and your seller clients stay one step ahead of other sellers.

The subject is Feedback, but not the kind that the agent for the buyer gives you.

In my book the only meaningful feedback is:

1) Did your buyers buy anything?

2) Did they buy in the same price range as our listing?

3) If they bought in the same price range, what made that house better than our listing?

Most agents think feedback is getting the same info over and over again. The buyer didn't like your kitchen. The buyer didn't like your yard. The buyer didn't like...whatever.

Let's look at what the buyer REALLY didn't like:

On 7/15 Agent A showed my listing priced at $450,000. The next day he showed it again TWICE! He didn't bring an offer. So what did that buyer do. They were obviously out there motivated to purchase, given they looked at the house 3 times in two days.

Here's a quick way to investigate and get truly meaningful feedback for your seller client.

Track the buyer agent!

Our mls recently added the feature of being able to search by the buyer agent's "LAG" #. Most MLS systems assign a code # to every agent. I took the agent's code number and put it in the "search by selling agent" field, and here's what I found out.

The buyer didn't spend anywhere near $450,000. On 7/17 after considering our listing at $450,000 that needed a lot of work, they went to the other side of the lake and bought a totally remodeled home for $700,000.

The house they bought was only a little bit bigger and had almost the same tax assessed value. But the buyer chose to pay $250,000 more for it because it didn't need any work. It had all new windows, refinished floors, a newer kitchen (though not newly remodeled).

So rather than buy my listing for $450,000 and put $125,000 into it to make it look like the one they bought, they spent $250,000 more to have it in move in condition.

The buyer who bought our listing is going to do all of that work and live in the property at the same time. Maybe the difference is he is single, has no children, and can better able to live around a remodel project.

But I digress. Stop guessing what those buyers did!

• If the agent who showed your listing has no pending transactions week after week, then their buyer went home and didn't buy anything at all.
• If the agent sells a nearby home at a higher price then you can't compete with homes in a higher price range and aren't expected to.
• If three of the agents who showed your listing have pending transactions at the same price or lower than your listing then you have to show your sellers that the same buyer who looked at their home was able to find a better or equally nice home, for less.

Tracking the agent for the buyer by using the agent's code number, gives you quantifiable data. It's a fabulous tool to assist seller's in determining what happened to the buyer after they didn't buy their home.