I saw a graphic on social media today comparing quantity versus quality, using the pennies versus quarters comparison. The question was, with all things being equal, would you rather have 100 pennies or 4 quarters. It got the (newly 40 year) old real estate brain thinking about how that concept relates to our business. In “non-spring” times of the year, sellers are often disappointed when traffic is less than expected.
Scenario 1: May 26th. 4:00pm. 22 degrees with beautiful sunshine. The flowers are blooming, grass is cut and people are smiling and full of that spring time optimism. The open house has just finished with 43 people through, which is by all accounts, busy.
Scenario 2: Feb 3rd. 4:00pm. The sun is getting ready to set. The temperature is -6 degrees. There are strong northerly winds with grey skies and a fresh crust of newly frozen slush on the ground. Seven people came through the open house. In the opinion of most sellers, a slow, unsuccessful open house.
So, applying the pennies and quarters concept, which was the more successful? Is it harder to get 7 people out to a cold, unpleasant day in February or 43 people out on a beautiful, warm spring day? In general, we would rather see 3 couples struggle through nasty weather, snow shovelling and cold to get to that open house. Those 3 couples have a quality you as a seller want to see in a buyer.
MOTIVATION.
When you are selling pretty much anything, remember, you don’t need 32 buyers. You need 1. Filtering through the mass of pennies can be more challenging than working with a few motivated and persistent quarters. As we progress through the dim days of February, we are slowly moving from the land of quarters to the arrival of the pennies.
The flipside of that change is the change of supply which is a whole other discussion. The moral of this story is to consider the quality of your audience rather than how many are simply looking.
Thank-you for visiting.
THEbTEAM
Thank-you to Kim Gorga for the photo