Love them or loathe them, For Sale Boards (FSB) are excellent marketing tools to maximise exposure and generate interest. And without them our job as estate agents gets that much harder, my discussion today is two agents’ boards, how helpful is this?
Whether you approve or not, FSB’s are an integral part of estate agent armoury, bright as tropical birds in some cases and clamouring for your attention as you drive by. But here’s the thing, when I’m out and about and I see FSB’s outside property, I know that place is on the market, pretty obvious huh? But then I see a few homes with two boards from different agents strapped back to back and I immediately think, oh dear, trouble selling? Now this can be for any number of reasons, but usually they conspire to be reasons of negativity which can then transpire to your potential buyer.
So what can be the reason that drives sellers to the have two boards from different agents outside their property? Is it because the first agent couldn’t provide a service or gave such poor advice such as a ridiculous asking price and the seller is left without a sale. Usually these are the agents that have lengthy contracts; part of their complacency is they know their vendor isn’t going anywhere. Or, are sellers, out of desperation, then signing on the doorstep when they are ‘door-knocked’ and bamboozled into a multi-agency by the competition.
My point is, having one board outside your home for many months is bad enough so to compound that further by adding another agents board is clearly advertising that this house is difficult to sell, whether it be the price, the property or the persuasive door-knocking competition, the impression shouts “help, this house won’t sell”.
My advice, be sure before you sign up, you feel comfortable with your chosen agent. It’s key to success that you should be able to discuss action points should things not go according to plan. Valuing houses is not an exact science and it’s impossible to predict the future, these are the crucial variables in establishing a marketing strategy.
Your relationship with your agent, could be a long one, so make sure you understand each other and can communicate your expectations. Good luck and should your relationship dissolve under irreconcilable differences and they prove useless then it’s got to be the three D’s, Dump the agent, Ditch the board and Do it again with another!
