Touring

My cute little condo is going on tour this morning. To prepare, I whisked over at some early hour, shoved a bunch of bottles of water in the fridge, fluffed up the bathroom towels, sprayed some air freshner, and made sure there was toilet paper in the bathrooms. I also turned down the air, swept the porch and turned on the interior lights.

The way the tour works is some enterprising vendor, such as a mortgage company or title office, gets a bunch of agents who are somewhat desperate to have their home shown and all of us agents as well as any strays caravan around, property to property, oohing and ahhing over each home. This is not a tour for the general public, only for those of us in the industry.

As we do so, we are to give feedback about the listings. How is the curb appeal? Price? Does the seller need to declutter? All of the feedback is then compiled and the agent takes it back to their sellers. It is a handy marketing tool that allows for some pretty nice exposure for our sellers.

There are times agents specifically ask for feedback. Such ask, "If you think the home would show better if the six cat boxes are clean, please say so," which we do. Then the feedback is coming from a neutral third party and not the selling agent who has been bitching and moaning about the cat boxes for weeks.

Generally, the vendors have brought in lunch or in some cases, a party bus so we don't have to drive ourselves. In return, we listen to a five minute spiel about why their home inspection company/lending products/escrow office totally rocks and we should use them.

Often there is some sort of vote of "best home on tour" where the listing agent gets to proudly take a sign rider (often for only 30 days or so) to hang at their listing as a way to entice buyers. ("Stop the car, Elmo! This home was best on tour! Did you see that??? We must buy it right now!" "That's nice Mildred. What does best on tour mean anyway?" "I don't know Elmo, but it sounds important.") Sometimes being best on tour is kind of a double edge sword, because the seller wants to know if their home is so great how come it hasn't sold just yet?? That's always fun. Some of my homes have won best on tour before.

This past week I invited my realtor pal, John to tag along. He is going through a sales dry spell, and is trying to drum up business. Sometimes it helps to meet other agents and get some fresh perspectives from folks who have also gone through dry spells. It doesn't hurt to also meet other agents who might be able to let you hold their home open too. And if nothing else, just see what inventory is out there for sale. Unfortunately John was busy, but he was very grateful for the invite.

Right now there is a challenge with few listings on the market so I did not know for sure whether or not this tour was going to happen until last night. I suppose it is a happy problem, or it would be if it were my home that fell out of the tour because it was under contract. But my cute little condo is still looking for a new owner. Maybe one of these agents will bring me a buyer.