Chris Brown

I recently received a question about why a home might have a lot of traffic at first and then taper off to considerably less visitors. This chart could give you an idea of how this might look. It might take a week before there is much activity at all. This is usually because it takes a few days to get good quality pictures. Then they have to get up on the internet and all of the different websites. There may be a stray showing or two at first based on the sign calls.

Then you start to go up that curve. These are the best buyers. These are the buyers that were already looking to buy a house. They have been looking for awhile and they know the market and what they want. They are basically waiting to see if a better house will show up. Hopefully, your house is the better house.

After this you hit the climax of the chart and start to roll back down. Now, you are basically waiting to see if one of the ones that saw it earlier becomes serious or if someone new comes on the market.

This is why a lot of times you might here a real estate agent say, "Usually your first offer is the best". This chart also illustrates why it is so important to price your house right at first. If you have this initial flurry of activity and they see your house and realize quickly that it is priced too high, than this opportunity has been lost. They will move on to other houses and never look back. This chart is not duplicated with a price reduction. At least not with the same numbers.

This time of year I always start to get the same question. Should I sell my house now or just wait until the spring when everyone else sells their houses? This seems like an obvious answer until you see a few key points.

1. It is too cold, no one wants to look at houses in the snow? In Knoxville, Tennessee, where I am from, we really do not get a lot of snow. As a matter of fact, we are lucky if we see any snow at all. Therefore this common hesitation doesn't apply to this area.

2. No one is looking for houses in the winter time. This is plainly not true. There may be less people looking to buy. However, the ones who are looking are more serious. There may be less property visits during the cold months but the ones who are willing to drag their realtor out in the winter must be pretty serious. Wouldn't you rather have less traffic if they are more serious buyers?

Another point is that with less inventory during this time of year means less competition. During the spring there are going to be a lot more homes to compete against. I would rather be a big fish in a smaller pond, than a small fish in a big pond full of other fish.

3. I can't decorate my house for Christmas. I disagree. I say, don't just put out your Christmas decorations, go all out. Make your home the best decorated house on the block. A house can look truly beautiful, warm, and inviting during the holidays. One very strong buyer desire is to be in the new home by Christmas. Last year I had four sales in December specifically for this reason. One of them actually closed on Christmas Eve to make good on my promise to get them in by Christmas.

Another idea would be to put some lights around the realtor's "for sale" sign too. Please make sure that your realtor replaces the holiday pictures in their marketing after the holidays. It looks nice while it is in season, but after that it just looks dated. More on that on point #5.

4. I like to invite friends over for holiday parties. I can't do that if my house is for sale. Are you kidding? This is the perfect opportunity to show off your home to a large group of people. Don't just invite a few people over, host the Christmas party. Your friends might not be in the market to buy a home, but you don't know who they know who might be in the market. It is estimated that most people know at least 150 people very well at any given time.

5. If we don't sell the house over the winter, it will appear stale in the spring. This might be true but there are tricks you can do to lessen the impact. The most effective change you can make is to adjust the price. If the house was listed all winter and it didn't sell, the chances are the price is too high. Have a price adjustment, even if it is just a small one. Also, update the pictures. Most likely the original pictures were taken with leafless trees and plants without flowers. Your house will look drastically different with some fresh blossoms and updated landscaping. Be sure to take the picture of the house from a different angle as well. Someone who saw your house a thousand times on the internet will be forced to pause and look at the house again in a fresh light.

6. That tax credit expired, it won't help me sell my house. Actually, congress decided to extend the tax credit through April. Not only did they extend it, but they opened it up to more people. If you wait until the spring you will miss this large group of buyers.

7. I'm still not convinced. I really need to sell but think we should wait until the spring. My final point is best illustrated with a story. In my past life I worked at a computer retail store. One day our general manager made a surprise visit to our store. He looked around our sales floor and then looked in our stock room. He proceeded to bring out boxes and boxes of inventory that we had in our stockroom that was not on the sales floor. "You can't sell, what your customers can't see!" If someone is not actively trying to sell your home, no one will know it is for sale, and no one will buy it.

These are just a few points to ponder as we head unto the winter months.

I messed up today. There, I admitted it, I made a mistake.

This morning at a business meeting, I was approached by one of my new referral partners. He told me that he needed some information on finding some properties. It was the conversation I hear all the time. Seems like everyone is always looking for an investment property or something for a family member. In this case, his son was in the Navy and about to go on one last tour of duty for 8 months. He is in town today and wants to look at some properties. He hasn't talked to a lender or other realtor yet. The red flags were up that this person wasn't really looking to do anything today. I told him I would get him some MLS briefs of properties he might be interested in. I do take one day off out of the week, Friday, and this happened to be Friday. I do go to my early morning business referral meeting (BNI) and then take the rest of the day off to spend with my 3 year old. I told him this but asked him to call me if he needed anything. I bet you can guess what happened. I gave him the MLS properties, and went on with my day. Twelve hours later, and well into the night, I come into my home office and there was a message from him, wanting me to call him. I bet you can guess what happened. Yup, they bought a condo! The son had cash and it should close in a few weeks. They wanted to buy it now while it is such a great buyer's market. They want to rent it out until he gets out of the Navy.

I am a firm believer of learning lessons from every bad situation. What are some take aways from this situation?

• You never know where your next transaction will come from, therefore, pay attention. You never know when you are talking to your next paycheck.
• Don't assume. I assumed this person wasn't serious. I assumed that I had time blow him off for the weekend.
• I made the mistake of calling him from my home office number. I don't ever check that message machine because I don't give the number out. I have it listed as a fax number. I forgot that a lot of people just hit call back on their phones. The lesson learned here is, change the message to reflect that this isn't my main number and provide an alternate number.
• Make the most of the situation. When I called him and found out what happened, I was not happy, but I realized that it wasn't his fault. I made the mistake and admitted it. As it turns out, he felt bad that things worked out the way they did. He did try to reach me. He did what he should have done. I talked to him about the offer that was made, and helped him feel comfortable with everything. At this point, this sale is lost, now I need to work to nurture the next one. By not getting upset and losing my cool I helped insure that this individual will want to give me more referrals in the future.

I write this story in the hopes that I help someone else down the road. I am sure that there are more lessons to be learned here. I welcome the comments of anyone with similar stores and lessons learned.