Why now?

(2nd in a series - Listing Excellence)

Why is it important that listing excellence is something that we need to discuss now?  Maybe this is best answered with two real life calls from sellers today (even though I stopped selling a year ago):

Phone call #1:  friend of the family, retired homeowner with a condo.  "Hey Bud.  I've been on-line and seen where all the condos have sold in this complex since Jan. 06.  I have the average price per square foot of similar homes and have two interested parties.  What do you think if I offer it to them at 'X'?"

Amazing!  What happened to the good 'ole days when they needed us for information?  He actually had better information from the internet than our multiple listing service because most of the sales in this complex never hit the market.

Phone call #2:  past client with home currently listed with someone else.  "Hey Bud.  It's been on the market 90 days.   Why isn't it under contract?  Why isn't it in the paper?"

We've all been spoiled.  Agents and consumers have been living life on easy street.  Now that we can no longer price a home competitively, stick a sign in the yard, and wait for offers, the customer goes back to what we have taught them -- "spend more money on advertising."

Here's my "why now" thoughts:

• real estate has been too easy for the past few years (at least the 10 I have been in it).
• the market is changing.
• this is the first time most of us (real estate agents and many sellers) have seen a changing market.
• the last time the market was like this, the consumer still needed us for information (see phone call #1 above).
• the last time the market was like this, their were at least 50% fewer agents (probably less than that).
• the last time the market was like this, Blackberry was something that you put in pies (not to mention several other technological advances).

Whether we (agents) like it our not, it's time to discuss our value.  Because I am both a consumer and a lover of this industry, I'm idealistic enough to believe that we still have great value to bring to the consumer.  Those of us that are willing to continue to add value to the consumers will continue to get paid well for the services that we provide.  Those of us that don't, ...(I'll keep these thoughts to myself for the time being).

The time is now...more of the nuts and bolts of listing excellence tomorrow!