The One With The Dissapointment

There’s a story here so stay with me.

I’m lucky that at this point in my 11 year career I usually don’t have to compete for listings. It’s rare that I go up against other agents, usually a seller just knows me by reputation and they ask me to help them and I do, and I get their house sold. Sometimes I am up against other agents though, and sometimes I get the listing and sometimes I don’t. I move on. You better believe I watch the listings I don’t get to see what happens though. Human nature! I saw the pilot episode and want to see how the finale shakes out. Who can blame me? The frustrating thing is when I look them up and the listing is awful. Terrible pictures, absoutely no marketing, no social media strategies, no market exposure besides throwing the house into the MLS and waiting. When this happens I sit back and really wonder what the heck did that agent say or promise. Do people realize that the internet is far and away the #1 way buyers find homes? It’s no exaggeration to say that at least once or twice a month on average I get a message on Facebook asking me for help…asking me why their house isn’t selling. My response at that point can only be that they are represented elsewhere and there’s absolutely nothing I can do to help, I can’t even give advice. I can’t tell them it’s because no one knows about their house and that the listing online is horrible and everyone is skipping it because the pictures are dark, grainy, and sad. Shoulda, woulda, coulda called me. 💁‍♀️ Don’t even get me started on FSBOs.

Do yourself and your friends and family a favor next time they or you are thinking about listing a house. GO ONLINE and search that agent you are thinking about. LOOK at their listings. How’s the listing description? Is it hurried and filled with spelling mistakes? Does it make you FEEL something? A good listing description makes you FEEL a certain way. Facts don’t elicit emotion and houses are ALL ABOUT EMOTION. It’s naive to think otherwise. What’s their average days on market? Ask them what their online presence is and how they employ social media in marketing. If they look at you and say that stuff doesn’t matter, THEY ARE WRONG.

But why the title of this blog post? Well that’s the story I’m going to tell you. The saddest thing that’s happened to me so far in my career and the first thing that’s happened to me that I can’t seem to just let go and all the stuff I said above is one of the reasons I can’t get past it.

The story: Once upon a time there was a girl named Wendy, and ever since her mom moved to Mt Lebanon there’s been a house she STARES at and COVETS and really, really, really loves. It’s awesome, fascinating and just simply fabulous. One day in the present time she found out through sheer happenstance that the owners were planning to list it. So she drove there in like a stealth ninja, took a picture from her car, went home and printed the picture out and for the first time in 11 years selling real estate, sat down and wrote the sellers, total random strangers, a letter. Front and back, by hand. Explaining her relationship to this house and how she’d do anything to list it. Right when she was about to go hand deliver this letter, she found out some buyers of hers wanted to put an offer in on a house and there was a time element involved, so she put the letter aside and wrote and submitted the offer. THEN, she took that letter, drove to the house, got out of the car and hand delivered the letter to the owner who proceeded to say she had signed with another broker just an hour before and that I was too late. Three guesses how that listing looked. It killed me. This house deserves theatric video. Full blown marketing blitz. It’s an iconic house and was thrown in the MLS with no fanfare at all. I know I need to get over it, I know. Maybe by writing this blog and getting my feelings on it out it will help me move past it. I truly hope the sweet sellers get their house sold quickly and for a great price. I really wish it had been me to do it though.