There are two places you’ll almost never find me on a Sunday morning.
One is Bunnings, the other is any place of worship.
I was born without the DIY gene and have a fear of uncontrolled giggling whilst singing lyrics written between 1 AD and 1500 AD. My Sundays are usually quiet, contemplative and relaxing.
Yet last Sunday I had to make the pilgrimage to…Bunnings. Eek!
My dogs had made one too many escapes from the yard, and instead of investing in towers manned by guards with high powered rifles, I hatched a plan to beef up security and ‘dog wire’ the crap out of my yard. Stalag 13 would have nothing on my place.
The plan was to find the “Dog Escape Prevention” aisle and escape shopping as quickly as possible.
But then, as I was about to get into my car, I saw a piece of white paper sticking out of my letter box. Australia Post doesn’t deliver on a Sunday. Monday, Wednesday or Friday are usually when the postman visits. This didn’t look like the usual smorgasbord of catalogue specials, it was a Real Estate advertisement.
Oh joy!
A local Agent visited our private drive to deliver a plain A5 piece of paper which looked like it was designed by a five year old prodigy during a craft lesson.
Whilst it looked basic I was eager to see what the powerful message could be to myself and 30-50 of my neighbours.
This is the stuff that gets my blood pumping. I always look forward to reading the latest innovations in Real Estate practices and how the industry is progressing.
I scanned the A5 sheet and there was the ‘Star’ of the show smiling through his “I look like I just swallowed a dog” beard, whilst wearing a neat corporate tie and sleeveless sweater that his wife must have knitted for the photo shoot. He looked like a nice fellow.
Ok, I know who he is, now I just want to know what the message will be that will make me want to call him at 9am on Monday.
“I have motivated buyers.”
The millisecond I read that persuasive and long thought out text I heard someone yell out, “NO YOU DON’T!”
I checked myself and wondered if I thought that or screamed it across the valley. Yep, it was the latter.
He’s pinched that one straight out of the Old Testament Agents’ Playbook.
No agent ever owns a buyer.
Any buyers on his database is on the databases of every other agent in the area.
Repeat after me – “Buyers follow property, not agents”
Excuse my preaching but this is the key of understanding when selling your own home or using an agent.
Buyers find the properties they are interested online, then contact the agent, entity or organisation that represents them. That’s how buyers end up on agent databases.
Trying to control buyers is like trying to herd cats.
Buyers scour and scramble all over the big property sites like realestate.com.au and Domain to find their next property.
Sadly, our intrepid letterbox dropper had failed to deliver a message powerful (or truthful) enough to make me, or anyone else for that matter, call him and hand him the keys to the castle.
Real Estate critique over.
Now off to Bunnings.
Mmmmm – sausage sizzle, oh and 30 metres of dog wire with stakes sounds good.
