Here’s the problem.  You have a house  for sale and it isn’t moving.  What should you do?   Keep having open houses?  Take it off the market? 

Here’s an interesting case.  I received a call last week   from friends who had just bought a house in an upscale Nashville neighborhood, down the street from the governor’s mansion.  They had looked at it  during a December open house. Then the house was taken off the market.

Suddenly my friends  made an offer in January and got it.

What’s so unusual about that, you might ask?  The owners had taken it off the market because of their new baby’s birth.  They didn’t want the typical realty  hassles  while they were  dealing with the stork. Besides it was after Christmas and all the experts have said that’s a very bad time to sell, right?

One phone call from my friends changed everything. 

Sure, my friends were more than welcome to come and see the house privately several times.  Why?  Because the owners knew they had some serious buyers who were seriously interested.  A sale was made.

Always remember one thing.  A real buyer is motivated.  He wants to buy.  In many cases he needs to buy.  Help him.  Make it as easy for him to make contact as humanly possible. My friends wanted that house badly.  The owners were able to sell in the middle of winter when the market supposedly wasn’t in their favor.  Does that tell us something?

I’m always amazed at the bad service and lack of attention to buyers and diners in some  stores and restaurants.  Is real estate actually  any different?

Go back and reconnect with the lookers who were at earlier open houses.  See who’s really interested and who isn’t.  Offer to show the property again to the motivated buyers privately.  Does this sound too elementary?  It might be much more productive than having continuous public open houses.

Here’s another point- people sometimes act uninterested when, it fact, they may be very interested.  I know that tactic works when you car shop. 

Don’t give up.  Who knows, in these markets, just about anything can happen.

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