‘Most viewed’ home fails to sell at auction
One of the ways that agents have convinced sellers to spend more money on advertising and on the benefits of Open Inspections, is by proudly pointing to the number of enquiries generated from the marketing campaign. Surely if the campaign on your property has generated 60% more than the suburb average, the advertising must be deemed as a success?
This logic has a similar ring to industry advertising awards. You know those awards for the most popular TV ads over the last 12 months? And make no mistake, they are good ads; great ads even. Laugh out loud moments. But the critical question really is can you remember what company was being advertised? Clever, funny and entertaining enough to gain industry recognition; but which company was being promoted and did it help to lift sales? With rare exception, it’s an embarrassing no.
Answer this question: if 3 people end up being sufficiently interested to actually bid on your home, would you prefer to have just those 3 through your home or the (wildly successful) 187 that the agent proudly identifies as having come through the Open Inspections? The accompanying article shines an uncomfortable spotlight on the nonsense of measuring success in marketing property by the number of “hits” on internet sites or the number of people through Open Inspections. In the end, how many people will actually buy it.
The real skill is in being able to identify the genuine, prospective buyers and ensuring they get to see your property in a timely fashion. Generally speaking this has no relationship with the size of the advertising budget or how many magazines the home is advertised in (but this WILL of course help the agents profile).