Why 3241 Gatlin Drive is not Selling
How’s this for a listing description? From Brevard County, Florida.
…………….. Tired of seeing the same dialogue on every listing? …………….. PRICE REDUCED! SELLERS MOTIVATED! MAKE OFFER! Blah, blah blah . . .Here is the real scoop. . . . . . . . . It seems I can’t sell this house in the hood . . . I thought it was just misunderstood . . . agents were showing, sellers were glowing a contract seem nearly in site. But to no avail, no matter how much I hail . . . PLEASE BUY THIS HOUSE IN THE HOOD . . . no one calls, no one e-mails and no there are no faxes in sight. The sellers nerves are fraying . . . everyday they are praying for an offer to come their way. They have buried the statue, taken this Realtor’s advice . . . came to grips and lowered the price. We can’t understand why their home is not sold . . . it’s this crazy market, or so I am told. It should SELL . . . it should sell . . . yes it should, I would but it myself if only I could. They are just one of thousands, that sit and wait . . . hoping some day for a closing date. So if you see this searching MLS, the place is ready and at it’s best! Please stop by and take a peak . . . we can button up in a contract . . . in less then a week. . . . . . . . . . . . . All kidding aside . . . Lovely, lakefront home ready for quick move-in!! Popular, upscale gated neighborhood with mega-park that is fun for the whole family. Ideal location convenient to shopping at The Avenue, top rated schools, I-95 and much more! New Price ! New Motivation!
Yikes. Would that make you want to buy this home?
I don’t know why this particular house is not selling. Maybe it’s overpriced. Who knows? It’s listed at $389K and Cyberhomes tells me the average value for the neighborhood is $238,576, so it might be.
I don’t know anything about the physical condition of the building or the neighborhood - it’s new and looks nice enough from the outside. The “house in the hood” remark however does not exactly inspire confidence in me, the clueless Internet buyer.
Like I said, I don’t know why this particular house is not selling. But burying statues and praying for an offer ain’t gonna cut it. It seems to me, at least one of the reasons this house is not moving (in addition to the bizarre listing description) could be it’s not being marketed effectively enough online.
Here are a few ways I would suggest the Realtor could ramp up their Internet marketing efforts.
- Add the home to Zillow.
- Make sure it shows up properly in a Trulia Real Estate Search.
- Create a vFlyer single property web site for the home.
- Submit it to craigslist.
- Put the property on Google Base.
- Produce a RealEstateShows or WellcomeMat video tour.
- Embed a map on the listing page with the exact location of the home.
- Buy some “fire sale” ads on Google Search and Yahoo! Search results.
None of this is currently being done as far as I can tell. And while none of those bullet points on their own might end up selling the home - in a challenging market, it’s time to pull out all the stops.
FOREM readers, anything else you would suggest they do in order to move this home?
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12 Comment(s)
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- From Real Estate Shows Blog » Why 3241 Gatlin Drive is not Selling | Future of Real Estate Marketing | Oct 5, 2007
- From Best of the Blogs – Start Your Week Off Right! | Future of Real Estate and Loans | Oct 8, 2007
galen | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
Dude, those suggestions sound like sugar sprinkles on top of a burnt disaster. Craigslist might help a little, but offline ads (like postcards to likely buyers in the area) sounds like a much better option to me.
Maria | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
To sell this house:
Step 1: Fire Agent
Max Christian | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
Some more traditional exposure might help. It’s easy to get coverage in a local newspaper by getting a 3D model of the property in Google Earth and sending out press releases about new methods of property marketing.
Mark A. | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
Well, it looks like they just did get some more online exposure. “3241 Gatlin” comes up tops on Google. Under FoREM!!! The listing agent owes you one, Joel.
Chad Huck | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
Umm… I actually like the description. Am I a little slow, or dont ya’ll realize it’s a poem? It rhymes! It’s creative! Give the listing agent a break!
Dane | Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
Your marketing suggestions are all online based, and they are GREAT ones. Wouldn’t it make sense to target local traffic too, and push the monthly payment instead of the price? People don’t buy on price so much as monthly payment in my opinion. But I didn’t see that anywhere in the listing.
Gena Riede | Oct 5, 2007 | Reply
You had me in stitches…great poem that certainly accentuates what some folks are doing out there. Good advice!
Congratulations on being selected as one of the Top 25 Most Influential Bloggers!!
Kevin Tomlinson | Oct 5, 2007 | Reply
Wow
1. Fire the agent
2. Time–I’m sure this property has been on the market for some time, but NO ONE give a hoot about FLA. real estate in August/Sept./Oct.
3. The owners/agent created a PR nightmare with that type of advertising.
4. Take it off the market for a couple of months until January. Time needs to pass to heal the wounds created by showing too much desperation.
Realtor Marketing Guy | Oct 5, 2007 | Reply
This is a real funny idea for a listing, making a poem to hlep sell it. The idea is great but the execution was all wrong. This should be re-written as an add to the public not an ad hopefully to the Realtors that would not like the idea of a “house in the hood”
Try a rewrite
Pike Co. PA Real Estate | Karen Rice | Oct 16, 2007 | Reply
While the poem may be funny, and cleverly composed, my personal opinion is that it makes the sellers sound desperate and if it encourages anything it will be lowball offers. But hey.
I’m all for being different - I try not to regurgitate the same tired text over and over. But not sure if I’d go this far. LOL
Pat M. | Oct 18, 2007 | Reply
Very clever, and sometimes reverse psychology works. Ads are for getting attention, and that one worked! All of us in the real estate industry know that 99% of the print ads we pay so heavily for don’t sell the house anyway, so why beat up this listing agent for trying to make the listing stand out.
Dick Todhunter | Oct 22, 2007 | Reply
I appreciate your post. Not so much interested in the agent, their poem, their problems. More interested in your list of solutions. These are all great ideas for the promotion of any listing (don’t see create a web page on your list). Assuming that the property were in my farm area I would add the property to my farm area blog and promote it locally.