The NorthWest Multiple Listing Service has all kinds of rules and regulations to keep us agents under control. One of the rules is that every time we visit a listed house, we MUST leave a business card behind. The electronic keybox also records who we are and when, to the minute, we were there. But the business cards are still a requirement.
The business cards also serve another, much more visible purpose. They “speak” to anyone who sees them — read: buyers, buyers’ agents, and the seller — as to how much traffic is coming through the house. Good listing agents deliver a lot of traffic. If there’s a lot of traffic but no offers are coming in, the house’s “value” is too low. I use the word “value” because it could be that the price is just fine — it’s just that the house is a wreck. You can improve value either by lowering the price, improving the property, or some of both.
But the point is: If there’s a ton of cards and no offer, do SOMETHING!!!
Yesterday I saw a pile of cards unlike any I’d ever come across before. There had to be 100 cards on the kitchen counter. The buyers I was with had their two little kids with them, and when they saw the cards the daughter said, “Look! Look how many people have been to this house!!!”
“Yeah, look!” I thought. “And yet here it sits…”
I was dumbfounded by the pile. I ran back to my car and grabbed my camera for a photo. It was just too classic not to get a shot of it.
When a buyer sees that many business cards, they typically ask, “What’s wrong with this house?” People want to buy what other people want too. And 100 showings with no offers means “nobody wants it.”
If your house is listed for sale and you start having cards stack up like that, do two things:
1) Call your Realtor and schedule an appointment to strategize increasing the value of your listing. Either lower the price, improve the property, or both. And…
2) Put those cards in a drawer so they’re out of sight of the next buyers that come through. Having that many cards laying out is “anti-staging” and anti-staging doesn’t help get you reach your goal of getting sold.
