Do I Stink?

Imagine a buyer looking online for a home. They examine the inventory, veto the ones they dislike, dutifully check off their favorites, and compile a list of homes they’d like to see. It has taken over an hour, but final choices are made and one of my listings made the cut. They like the photos, the property description is enticing, and the house looks like a winner. The buyer want to see my listing!

Next, they call their buyer agent and request to schedule a showing. 

I have succeeded, right? I am bringing another set of eyeballs to my listing thanks in no small part to my marketing prowess. We are one step away from selling a house. 

Are my sellers happy? I think they should be. 

YET…

Some sellers, for reasons I still have yet to grasp, are critical of their listing agent when they themselves have not shown the house themselves! On a number of occasions, I have actually had clients criticize me because I didn’t show the house. Leaving aside the irony that many of these same people are vocal about not wanting dual agency, they just feel as if the listing agent is not earning the paycheck unless that listing agent also showed the house. 

I have sold many a listing where I never got a call on it. And it was ubiquitous- enormous exposure on all the websites, enhanced and featured in many, and copious, quality photos in tandem with written descriptions that make the mouth water. 

But no calls to my office. Other agents have shown it plenty, but not me. 

Am I am bad agent? 

Am I not doing my job? 

Am I lazily sitting back and waiting for the cooperating agents to “do my job for me?”

Or…is it possible, that if a listing is getting showings-just not with me- that the serious buyers in the market already have representation and choose to call their agent instead of me? 

Is there any marketing out there that is actually good enough to make someone approach the largest transaction of their life without an advocate?