Falling Off the Dinosaur

Falling Off the Dinosaur

I’m sure some of you would rather save your aging eyes from od’ing on 600 words of my tiny type. Or skip the tough task of following the muddled meanderings of my Real Estate of Mind. So, I’m going to give you the take away message of today’s story up front. To-go dessert before dinner.

 

Here it is: The biggest mistake Sellers make these days? They think too much like Sellers and not enough like Buyers. Since they invariably love to see their own image reflected back to them in the mirror of their marketing, they mistakenly assume that buyers look in the same places they look when admiring themselves.

 

The end result? Sellers get way too hung up worrying about WHERE their homes are being advertised. And they pay far too little attention to WHAT is being flung out there to the far corners of the globe.

 

Almost everything has changed in Real Estate in the last fifteen years. But some old myths die hard. Cultural imprints once stubbornly established can be exceedingly hard to shake – even when there are dazzling displays of special effects at everyone’s fingertips, just begging to differ with our prevailing stereotypes and mess with our heads.

 

Fact is: Attitudes about selling are still largely shaped by old, left-over notions from a buy-gone era when Realtors owned the monopoly on real estate information and controlled most of what circulated in the public domain.

 

Back in 1995, we (Realtors) still managed all the information. We edited it for our clients. We picked and we chose what our clients saw on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.

 

I still remember waiting for the new MLS Books to come out every two weeks. Cheapo newsprint. Nine little black and white listings to a page. One grainy photo each. A few property details.

 

I’d pour through those home pages – searching for anything that seemed vaguely like what my clients were looking for. I’d Xerox individual pages. Manually cut out listings with scissors. Put them back on the machine, zoom to 150 % and spit out separate tear sheets. By this time the pixels were so far apart, there was barely a discernible outline of a house left. I’d hop in the car, drive by each place. Call listing agents. Preview a few. And set up a tour for my buyers.

 

Xerox?! Cut and paste with actual scissors?! Compared to today, it sounds almost stone age. Like we were peddling prehistoric property Flintstone-style. Plenty of fancy footwork in fancy cars. Showing ten homes. Rushing back to the office to chisel out purchase contracts on stone tablets. Delivering them by courier-pterodactyl-pigeon.

 

The primary purpose of advertising in the old days? Convince Sellers that their listings weren’t getting lost in those MLS books. Or bogarded by Realtors. They really were being seen by a larger audience of potential Buyers. Big Ads. Open Houses. For Sale Signs. The works.

 

When MLS information first became available on the web, even in rudimentary fashion, Realtors noticed a shift. Suddenly Buyers weren’t waiting for us to do the editing and tell them what to look at. They started telling us what they wanted to see.

 

They got the addresses. They did their own drive-bys. They decided which ones had enough curb appeal to merit a visit.

 

Then, when even more information became available in the form of high-quality photos, satellite images, sales and tax information, google street views, Realtors saw the next stage in the evolution of their buyers.

 

Instead of doing actual live drive-bys, more and more prospective buyers began choosing what they wanted to see based on virtual drive-bys. Lap top or smart phone appeal became synonymous wtih curb appeal.

 

Most Sellers would be shocked by the number of people who reject properties based on an initial virtual drive-by. Yet, if they thought about how they actually search the internet as Buyers themselves – they wouldn’t be shocked at all. There’s an odd double standard and strange disconnect in all this.

 

One we’ll explore next week.

Blowing My Other Cover

It’s been a while since a column generated as many e mails from fellow-agents, as last week’s.  Must have touched a chord. Or discord? An exposed nerve? An erogenous zone connected to the love/hate relationship we all have with what we do?   Maybe I inadvertently hit upon one of those odd funny bone moments. You know the one’s that make you laugh in spite of the fact that they really hurt?

If any of you were remiss in your required real estate reading and want to catch up on your home-work….go to tombrezsny.wordpress.com and  read  “Blowing My Cover.”

Here’s the basic premise:  Most good old fashioned real estate advertising is designed to shape how Sellers think about Selling rather than how Buyers think about Buying.   Although we have to tread carefully here, because eventually all buyers become sellers and all sellers become buyers.

But it is interesting to note how short memory spans can be. And how many people like to practice the “do as I say not as I do” method of selective recall.

Classic example?  Sellers, selling here,  also looking for a property in Hawaii.  They log on everyday to look at homes in Maui. They have an Agent there and are on his automated search engine. Whenever they see something that strikes their fancy – they e mail him.

But  here in good ol’ Surf City USA,   where they are trying to sell, they want their Agent to advertise in the Mercury or the Chronicle at great expense.  Or run fancy, color spreads in magazines. Or…run a big Featured Home Ad in the Sentinel (oops… don’t look now…I think I just blew another cover.)

Don’t recall too many people here subscribing to the Honolulu Times-Picayune so they could hunt for real estate in Hawaii and say “Aloha” to the market there.

We aren’t even going to get into the absurdity of listing a house here with an over the hill Agent (I mean over the hill in the geographical sense – not over the hill as in the success-challenged and seen-better-days kind.)   The huge leap of sur-real logic it takes to list with a Santa Cruz property with a South Bay Agent who doesn’t know squat about our home turf is perfect fodder for another column on another day.

As is one of those other long-hyped myths of realty – the notion that somehow a mediocre Agent working at a giant brokerage can represent you better than a good Agent working at a smaller brokerage can.

And as long as we are at it…let’s toss one more myth-ing urban link onto the bonfire of the sanities: The notion that a vast network of personal contact exists between big city Agents within the framework of mega-national real estate franchises.  Secret handshakes and everything. When you sign on, your home is spoon fed to tens of thousands of Realtors waiting with bated breath to sell your property.

Just like most real estate advertising is designed to sell the sellers on the sell rather than the buyers on what’s being sold… the sell underlying most of the sales pitches from the big guys revolves around the subtle promotion of  Dual Agency.

As in:  List with us. We have a lot of Agents. One of them probably already has a buyer for your home.   Those who aren’t quite sure what Dual Agency is might want to google it and decide whether you think it is a good idea.

Darn! I’ve been yacking away so much our time is up.  Not to worry though, Sherman has been warming up the Way Back Machine.  Next week we’ll jump on board, travel to the fin de siècle era of the 1990’s and see what changed while all us aging baby boomer analogue types were struggling to get across the great digital divide.

Blowing My Cover

There I was at a listing appointment this week.   The owner of a beautiful ocean-view property was doing his due diligence. Interviewing three prospective Agents – like conventional wisdom says a smart Seller should.

At one point, this likeable, highly-educated, sophisticated home-owner, fixed his gaze intently on me and said with utmost sincerity: “I’m  looking for an aggressive Agent to get the job done.  Someone who will target the right markets. Places where the money and the buyers are  – starting with Silicon Valley.”

Ok. No problem. Makes perfect sense.  I’m with ya’.

But suddenly out of the blue he took a left turn and started pitching curve balls in my direction.  Holding up a glossy local real estate magazine he continued on with his defacto job description:  “ You know, I want someone who’ll run these big color ads. Someone who’s going to put my place in the Wall Street Journal. Get a special mailing list of big time corporate CEOs. Send them all postcards. Run displays in the San Jose Business Journal to connect with all those up and coming Facebook millionaires.

A crash of cognitive dissonance washed over me.  Punctuated by ringing in my ears – the sound of inner “ca-ching-ing” as all those imaginary dollar signs rolled along with my eyes back into my head.

I recognized the place. Been there. Done that. Many times.  One of those lonely marketing cul-de-sacs where listings go to die.  Despite everyone’s best wishes, best efforts and best intentions.

Once again I was reminded that there are still an amazing number of Sellers who don’t quite seem to get it yet.  They are unclear on the concept. Running on autopilot with notions that were old even in the old days.  Having trouble reformatting their brains. Possibly doomed to spend the rest of their upcoming days on market as analogue people lost in a digital world.

Perhaps it would help to list a few of the common disconnects between reality and realty that are floating around out there:

- Homebuyers from Silicon Valley aren’t driving over to the car wash in Santa Cruz to pick up a glossy magazines so they can search for available real estate.  They simply log on. Why would any serious buyer window shop randomly – when they can see the entire inventory in a couple of keystrokes?

Most Sellers in Santa Cruz moving to other parts of the Country are doing the very same thing their own potential Buyers are doing – looking on-line.  Why would it be different for their Buyers than it is for them?

Advertising isn’t going to convince someone to buy something if they aren’t already moving in the direction of buying something.   Buying is a long process. Property ads don’t create buyers.

The chances that someone reading a four line classified in the Wall Street Journal is going to drop his coffee cup, get on the next plane and plop his money down are none and slimmer than none.  Who reads the WSJ classifieds anyway?

Someone who isn’t already familiar with Santa Cruz isn’t going to be moving/buying here anytime soon.  Near-term buyers are people who already are attracted to our area and have it on the same radar as their homing instincts.

Corporate execs aren’t checking their daily junk mail on the latest and greatest random real estate opportunities. Snail mail or  email. You know how you ignore all the superfluous crap you receive?  Why would they be any different?

And those Facebook millionaires?  Check our their Facebook pages. Not a lot of them are reading the Business Journal.

The majority of advertising dollars that agents and brokerages spend – are designed to sell the sellers on an Agents’ sell. Not to sell Buyers on what they are selling. We run those expensive ads mostly so more of you will list with us.  Been there. Still doin’ that.

Oops.  Now that I’ve blown my own cover, perhaps next week we can focus on how today’s real estate marketing really does work and which things Sellers should really be insisting their Agents spend money on.

The Shadow Knows

What was that tag line  we used to see on posters promoting Rasta bands at the Catalyst way back when?   All Killer – No Filler?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could channel a little more of that sentiment (and mojo) into the real estate inventory these days.  Seems like no matter how many times a day you and I and I go onto the MLS to check for new listings or download search engine e mails…nothing much new “of value” comes on. Just the same old same old.

Tired inventory.  Picked-over inventory.  Stale-inventory.  A warmed-over re-hash of all the stuff that didn’t sell last year.  Including a strange menagerie of distress properties.  Dubious short sales you can never be sure of and a smattering of REOs banks are pinching out of their systems…starting with the worst first.

The sum total?  An uninspiring catalogue of places.  Most of which aren’t qualified enough to move anyone anywhere.  As in: Move buyers in. And move sellers out.

(Quick disclaimer:  Individual Sellers, don’t get bent out of shape here. I’m talking about everyone else’s listing except yours.)

I guess we could say it’s All Filler…Very Little Killer in real estate land right now.  Not many killer views, killer yards, killer locations.   Or to lower our epxectations just a little… not many plain old, modest, middle of the road killer houses packaged up in nice presentations at reasonable price points. Specially right there in the sweet spot between $600k and $800k.  I don’t know about you…but it’s killin’ me.

Most Agents understand.  They’ve got clients calling too. Buyers ready to buy.  Or who think they are.  Buyers becoming increasingly frustrated with a market that doesn’t seem to offer anything up that fits their needs or price range.  And by extension, Buyers frustrated with their own Agents, who become more suspect each week when they fail to turn over enough rocks or the “right” rocks to uncover that special hidden gem waiting out there. Somewhere.

The same Buyers who don’t understand why it is so hard to buy in  (what keeps getting sledge-hammered into our heads as) the Perfect Buyers Market.  Is it safe to say this isn’t a Perfect Buyers Market?

There are certainly incredible interest rates. Prices have certainly come down a long way.  Those are two of the defining characteristics of a Buyers Market.  What’s missing?   Great places that people actually want to buy.  I think some people call it supply.  Or maybe “effective supply” would be a better term.

I keep having the same deja-vu experience.  Clients who’ve been looking forever, pouring over the on-line pictures of homes for sale, who keep calling and asking to see places they forgot they already saw a year ago.  Houses that didn’t work then and aren’t going to work after another 365 days on market and a minimal price change.   I call this  “Deja Viewing”. Stare at the MLS long enough and homes start repeating themselves over and over.

So when’s this slow tortuous drip of new properties coming on going to end?  When do the floodgates open? I feel like a kid staring at the classroom clock.  Waiting for recess from a hard lesson. The minute hand isn’t moving. The fabric of time is frozen.

Thursday was Groundhog Day and another shadow appeared again this year.  Was it just the shadow of a huge shadow inventory?  Or was it also the shadowy logic of would-be sellers planning to hold out putting their places on the market for as long as they can.

Either way, looks like the winter of our buyers’ discontent is going to last at least another six weeks.  If we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot that is – by kicking the groundhog down the road even further…