Why would any homeowner ever want to have 40 Realtors traipsing through their home like a herd of wild buffalo looking for food in the early hours of a Wednesday morning?
There’s only one possible reason. They want to sell their home more quickly and at the highest possible price. They know these buffalo are Kentwood real estate Brokers who just may have the right buyer ready to purchase their home.
Every Wednesday morning the Brokers from our Kentwood Company real estate office in Greenwood Village pile in to their Mercedes, Lexus and BMW vehicles, four to a car, to go tour new listings in the office. It’s been a weekly ritual since the company was formed back in 1982. And, it is fun. Often, Brokers will provide breakfast food or even a buffet so the Brokers will linger longer to absorb the ambiance of the home. So, it can become sort of a “Progressive Breakfast” as we weave our way though some the best neighborhoods in Denver and the suburbs.
Some people think it’s an old-fashioned ritual designed to appease sellers with the illusion of activity from the outset on their new listings.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Our Brokers are literally the most productive real estate brokers in the state. They have plenty of other things to do with their time. But they choose to tour the office new listings for very selfish reasons. The main reason they want to tour new office listings is that they might be able to sell one of them.
I remember a few years ago when we were on our weekly office tour, I walked into a listing that I knew was perfect for one of my buyers. I called her from the living room of the home and could hardly hold back my excitement when I said: “I found it”. My excitement was contagious. She asked if she could come over right away to see it. Of course, I obliged. I told the group to go on without me I was in a state of mind inside this brand-new listing. So, I waited for her to come over. And, within the hour, she was driving me back to the office to write a contract to buy that home.
That story has been repeated many, many times in the office. But, there is another reason why agents want to see these homes also. Each of us takes a turn every couple weeks answering prospective buyer phone calls in to the office. We call that Floor Duty. The objective of floor duty is to convert anonymous phone calls into appointments on our listings. That process is a lot easier and more successful when we can describe the interior of the home and its exterior setting. The prospective buyer is more likely to be able to visualize the advantages of that home and, as a result, set an appointment to see it.
Believe it or not, we sell many homes as a result of anonymous for calls. I’ve done it many times. But if all were doing is reading the brochure, the perspective buyer is likely already done that because most of our listings have brochures attached to the sign.
Most real estate offices no longer have a broker tour or caravan. But, our company has a different philosphy. Maybe, it is old fashioned but we know that our Broker Home Tour helps sell our listings.
So it really is part of our job description to tour our new listings every week. We all realize that it is part of operating as a Team, not individual Realtors. But, it is a selfish motivation we all have to sell each other’s listings too. Ultimately, it is the Seller that benefits from our “old-fashioned” practice of touring our new listings every week on the Kentwood Broker home tour.
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