The office I am affiliated with does not do the office tour of new listings. That has been just fine with me because I am busy enough that I usually feel as if I have seen most of the inventory anyway. However, we all know that is not true. There are over 25,000 homes currently listed in the MLS to which I belong. Granted, I have had some buyers look at so many homes that it felt like 25,000, but in truth, I have not seen everything in my market.
There are four buyer agents on The Haddad Team---five if you count me. We have decided that it would be a good idea to tour our team listings as they come on the market. Why do we think this is a good idea?
1) Most sellers are still disappointed to hear that our office no longer tours as an office.
2) I remember back to the days when we did tour and it was always a great way to put the strength in numbers behind what you had already told the sellers whether it was in regards to price and/or condition.
3) I also remember when occasionally a listing would get an offer the day of tour from one of the agents who toured. Not likely to happen, but more likely than if we do not tour.
4) A few of the buyer agents are new and it will not hurt them to see what is out there and here the comments of more experienced agents. That is how they learn.
5) This might just catch on. We plan to invite anyone who wants to come and grow the group from there.
I have created a feedback form to distribute with a copy of the MLS info printed on the back. Each agent touring the home will be asked to complete the form and return to the listing agent to do with as they see fit. Most will share with the seller.
It would be great to get some feedback on the feedback form. Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated:
Haddad Team Home Tour July 8, 2008
Property address:___________________________________________________
Opinion of community:____________________________________________
Curb appeal:____________________________________________________
Suggestions for exterior:__________________________________________
1st Impression upon entering home:__________________________________
Overall condition of home:_________________________________________
Specific suggestions for interior:____________________________________
Other comments:________________________________________________
Opinion of price:_________________________________________________
I am always amazed when someone says they are too busy to tour. All of your points are valid. I would like to add a few more. When you get called to interview for a listing, how can you possibly talk intelligently about the comparable properties if you haven't seen them? You can't tell by photos an odd floor plan, condition, etc. Also, when you get a call on floor, how can you intelligently talk about the property if you haven't seen it?
I believe that part of our job is to tour. We usually dedicate Tuesday mornings for touring other brokers listings and tour our own potential or new listings on Monday morning. We are considering extending our Tuesday tour to include a few more local areas.
You might include a prize for the agent who is closest to the selling price if you're opening this to your entire office or to other agents outside of your office to preview.
Our office is one of the few offices that still caravans in our area. You should see the reaction we get from other realtors which is usually positive....they usually say I didn't know people were still doing that.
Such a great thing for a new agent
Paula---Wow! You guys go above and beyond the call of duty! I can't imagine getting anyone other than new agents to agree to tour the competition's listings. Your new agents must be some of the best informed.
Christine---Love the prize idea as an incentive to turn in the feedback sheets---that will also get agents to try harder to come up with a realistic price.
Carol---I have seen homes sell the same day as the tour with an agent who was on the tour bringing the offer. So tour are not just for the new agents!
My first instinct is, with gas costs and Virtual tours, WHY? Then I checked our MLS. 23% of active listings have virtual tours.
Feedback about pricing could be dangerous tho....
Greg---I was really initiating the tour more to help the new buyer agents on my personal team than anything else, but then the entire KW office seemed interested----but not so interested that they have acted on it yet. So for now it is just me and my four buyers agents touring our team listings.
I don't think we have a way to see how many listings have virtual tours in the MLS I belong to. 23% is a very disappointing number. It is hard to believe that some agents think $135 or so is too much to spend on a listing!! The company I use posts the tour on REALTOR.com too so I save paying REALTOR.com extra to have my listings displayed.
We do property tours and I think they are great! Very good for new agents!
I have heard of some offices who have a bus painted with their office advertising that they drive for these tours. I used to drive a full size van on tour day and could fit nine people in. They always chipped in for gas even though I did not ask. We limited our tour to locally listed homes--Hamilton County, Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Westfield, Cicero, Sheridan....
Pat;
Good to see you on AR. I thought I would throw in my two cents and ask you if you would be interested in having a Professional Stager go on a couple of tours, informing your team with a summary of what could be done in the home to improve its overall appeal and enhance the opportunity to upstage their competition. If this interest you, please call me, I'd like to share more.
Hi Linda,
Nice to see you here too! I have had a busy couple of weeks, so have had to let my AR blogging and comments go. I appreciate the offer. I just may take you up on it! We are touring every other week and just The Haddad Team new listings. I will let you know!
Hope business is good for you!!
You might consider offering a prize to the person who comes closest to the final sale price if you do not get as much feedback as you would like. This would also work for a general realtor preview.
Great idea Christine! Coffee or gas cards....Thanks for the suggestion!
I used to go on these all the time and then as gas prices started to rise, I noticed less and less agents going until the day I didn't see anymore being planned.
I thought it was a good idea to know what was out there and felt if I showed your home, you would more than likely show mine.
Never was a good listener when it came to getting my own way...Thanks for the congrats!
The buyers agents on our team are required to tour new listings each week. I think it's important to really know the inventory when a sign call comes in rather than just reading the info from the MLS. One more item we have on our feedback form is to check the directions - are they correct, and is it the best route to the listing.