Instant Gratification
Posted 09-30-2012 at 04:53 PM by Roy Sanborn
There were 93 residential home sales at an average price of $345,705 in August in the Lakes Region communities covered by this report. That’s a 12% bump up from last August when there were 83 homes sold at an average of $330,718. That’s a pretty good month in my book, but we still haven’t made that magic 100 sales in a month this summer that I was looking for. Maybe we’ll make it in September?
This is the age of unlimited gigabytes, high speed computers, 3G, 4G, instant messaging, and on demand movies. It's also the age of “Instant Gratification.” Let’s denote that as “IG” to keep it short. Everyone wants everything right now. It is getting more and more difficult to keep up with the ever increasing expectations of consumers no matter what the product or service is. For example, if someone walks into a store shopping for a certain brand and size flat screen TV and it is not in stock, he is likely to go to the next store to see if they have it. No one orders anything from a store if they can take it home the same day from another. Now millions of people do buy stuff over the internet as long as they can get it delivered absolutely positively overnight. But if a particular website doesn’t have the item the buyer is likely to go to the next entry down in the Google search and try to order it from there. This is what IG is all about.
In today’s on-demand real estate market, agents receive inquiries from prospective buyers by phone, email, or text messages. Buyers often are looking for more information about a certain property or would like to set up a showing to see it. Many times their IG instinct kicks in and they say “…I’m sitting in front of this house, can I see it now?” Usually this call or message turns the agent who received it into what we call a “Pop Tart.” A Pop Tart eagerly jumps up from his desk or leaves whatever he is doing to run and show a property either because; (1) it is his listing and he feels he owes his client everything short of falling on a sword or (2) he desperately needs the money. Now if the agent doesn’t answer the phone or return the text or email instantaneously there is a 100% probability that buyer on the other end of the line will contact another agent. But, the chances of a sale resulting out this kind of showing is only about .73%, yet new Pop Tarts are toasted every day!
Sometimes, potential buyers would like to see several properties and say “we’re coming up tomorrow, I’ll email you a list of what we’d like to see…” A few days notice would be nice, but OK no problem. Buyers believe that agents are sitting by the phone or computer just waiting to hear from someone they have never met before to go look at property. Well, most of the time agents are actually out of the office at appointments, looking at property, doing presentations, stuffing their faces at a broker open house (our main source of sustenance), or some other real estate related activity. This is where the “Smart Phone” comes in handy to receive phone and text messages and email anywhere in the world except for parts of Gilmanton and Alton. It is our link to the IG world. All messages must be answered within three to five minutes or the buyer will likely move on to another agent. Talk about pressure to perform…
A buyer afflicted with IG often can’t grasp certain bottlenecks in the real estate business. First off, he mistakenly thinks that all the listings he has viewed on the web belong to the agent or agency he just called. He also thinks it is no big deal to just take a look, but in order to see a list of properties the agent usually has to call a number of other agents who in turn have to call their clients to set up a schedule of appointments. Sometimes the schedule doesn’t work for the other agent, or is not convenient for the seller, sometimes the seller has to check with their spouse to see if it’s OK (especially when the husband answers) Someone has to check to see if there is a conflict with basketball practice, a birthday party, Aunt Hilda's visit, and so on. If the time isn’t convenient, the seller calls his agent back to tell him the showing needs to be a half hour later, or earlier, or maybe not until tomorrow and that totally screws up the logistics of this impromptu, but meticulously planned and timed ballet. Adjustments and realignments are made to keep the IG in focus. The sellers then scurry off to dust, de-clutter, and defrag (that’s a technical computer term, those who know will understand it) the home to make it show ready.
When viewed from outer space with state of the art heat sensing equipment, the locations of the agents and their clients glow brightly as a result of cell phones being overheated and vacuum cleaners frantically whirring to make the IG possible to thousands of impatient would be home owners. It’s like looking at ever changing, brightly glowing, constellations. It also kind of reminds you of those Verizon commercials on TV that show they have the most coverage. Truly beautiful.
So everything is set, heaven and earth have been moved, the time is almost here, and the eight MLS packages are in hand for the magical road show to begin. The Smart Phone rings just as the agent grabs his morning cup of coffee to head out to the first showing. The number is recognized and the call immediately answered so as to adhere to IG protocol. “ Hi, aahhh, we have to cancel for today, something has come up and we can’t make it. I really hope you didn’t go through too much trouble?" So REALTORS® make IG possible and do it with a smile no matter what happens. That's what we are all about...
Data was compiled as of 9/20/12 using the Northern New England Real Estate MLS System.
This is the age of unlimited gigabytes, high speed computers, 3G, 4G, instant messaging, and on demand movies. It's also the age of “Instant Gratification.” Let’s denote that as “IG” to keep it short. Everyone wants everything right now. It is getting more and more difficult to keep up with the ever increasing expectations of consumers no matter what the product or service is. For example, if someone walks into a store shopping for a certain brand and size flat screen TV and it is not in stock, he is likely to go to the next store to see if they have it. No one orders anything from a store if they can take it home the same day from another. Now millions of people do buy stuff over the internet as long as they can get it delivered absolutely positively overnight. But if a particular website doesn’t have the item the buyer is likely to go to the next entry down in the Google search and try to order it from there. This is what IG is all about.
In today’s on-demand real estate market, agents receive inquiries from prospective buyers by phone, email, or text messages. Buyers often are looking for more information about a certain property or would like to set up a showing to see it. Many times their IG instinct kicks in and they say “…I’m sitting in front of this house, can I see it now?” Usually this call or message turns the agent who received it into what we call a “Pop Tart.” A Pop Tart eagerly jumps up from his desk or leaves whatever he is doing to run and show a property either because; (1) it is his listing and he feels he owes his client everything short of falling on a sword or (2) he desperately needs the money. Now if the agent doesn’t answer the phone or return the text or email instantaneously there is a 100% probability that buyer on the other end of the line will contact another agent. But, the chances of a sale resulting out this kind of showing is only about .73%, yet new Pop Tarts are toasted every day!
Sometimes, potential buyers would like to see several properties and say “we’re coming up tomorrow, I’ll email you a list of what we’d like to see…” A few days notice would be nice, but OK no problem. Buyers believe that agents are sitting by the phone or computer just waiting to hear from someone they have never met before to go look at property. Well, most of the time agents are actually out of the office at appointments, looking at property, doing presentations, stuffing their faces at a broker open house (our main source of sustenance), or some other real estate related activity. This is where the “Smart Phone” comes in handy to receive phone and text messages and email anywhere in the world except for parts of Gilmanton and Alton. It is our link to the IG world. All messages must be answered within three to five minutes or the buyer will likely move on to another agent. Talk about pressure to perform…
A buyer afflicted with IG often can’t grasp certain bottlenecks in the real estate business. First off, he mistakenly thinks that all the listings he has viewed on the web belong to the agent or agency he just called. He also thinks it is no big deal to just take a look, but in order to see a list of properties the agent usually has to call a number of other agents who in turn have to call their clients to set up a schedule of appointments. Sometimes the schedule doesn’t work for the other agent, or is not convenient for the seller, sometimes the seller has to check with their spouse to see if it’s OK (especially when the husband answers) Someone has to check to see if there is a conflict with basketball practice, a birthday party, Aunt Hilda's visit, and so on. If the time isn’t convenient, the seller calls his agent back to tell him the showing needs to be a half hour later, or earlier, or maybe not until tomorrow and that totally screws up the logistics of this impromptu, but meticulously planned and timed ballet. Adjustments and realignments are made to keep the IG in focus. The sellers then scurry off to dust, de-clutter, and defrag (that’s a technical computer term, those who know will understand it) the home to make it show ready.
When viewed from outer space with state of the art heat sensing equipment, the locations of the agents and their clients glow brightly as a result of cell phones being overheated and vacuum cleaners frantically whirring to make the IG possible to thousands of impatient would be home owners. It’s like looking at ever changing, brightly glowing, constellations. It also kind of reminds you of those Verizon commercials on TV that show they have the most coverage. Truly beautiful.
So everything is set, heaven and earth have been moved, the time is almost here, and the eight MLS packages are in hand for the magical road show to begin. The Smart Phone rings just as the agent grabs his morning cup of coffee to head out to the first showing. The number is recognized and the call immediately answered so as to adhere to IG protocol. “ Hi, aahhh, we have to cancel for today, something has come up and we can’t make it. I really hope you didn’t go through too much trouble?" So REALTORS® make IG possible and do it with a smile no matter what happens. That's what we are all about...
Data was compiled as of 9/20/12 using the Northern New England Real Estate MLS System.
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