My brother and I just sold a house here in South Lake Tahoe for $2,500,000. It closed the week before the Angora Fire up here, and it was right in the middle of the fire zone. Miraculously it was saved, as were the 30+ other high-end homes in it’s immediate neighborhood.
Because this sale was so notable, and two other homes in the neighborhood are for sale, and perhaps because nearby homeowners could be thinking about selling as well, due to the fire or not, this is a perfect transaction to use as an example to explore truth in advertising... and what “Sold” really means.
The old-school way of Promoting a Sale: (legal, but somewhat misleading)
Lets call this one, the traditional
“Just Sold” postcard route. There are other methods of promoting a sale, but the postcard will do just fine for this expedition. And we don't recommend ever running this kind of campaign.
So, lets create the postcard. A sample of what we’re creating is here is just below though smaller; a sale this big needs a 6" x 9" postcard for sure... and lets make sure it’s UV coated!
First we’ll have to use a picture of the house, but not too much house in this case because we want folks to see the great view of the lake. Here in Lake Tahoe that’s what we’re really selling. We might want to include that deck too on the other side of the card.
The Just Sold Part:
Lets add “Just Sold” to it because we want everybody to know what it’s about. We’ll make the letters white, and outline them in red to even bring more attention to it, and oh yes, an exclamation point too... to emphasize our greatness.
Then we’ll add a black back-kick to it to make sure it stands out against the photo background... and put it in 36-point bold type just to make sure old folks can read it if they can’t find their glasses.
The Price Part:
We’re going to be clever and subtle here, lets put the price in green... to subconsciously remind folks were talking about real money. We’re talking real clever! Lets outline that in yellow to make sure everybody sees it too.
We’ll spell the price out, “$2,500,000” instead of “$2.5M”. All those zeros make great eye candy. And we’ll also do the black back-kick thing in 36-point bold type. The sold price has to stand out. Isn’t that the point of real estate prowess magnificence?
The Claim:
Now this is where we get’em. How are they going to know it’s the highest price ever if we don’t tell them? Lets say it and put it in yellow, and outline it in red. “Highest Price Ever”, short, sweet and simple. I think they’ll get it.
Oh darn, it’s too big, but we can make the claim smaller in 24-point type, and we can keep the exclamation point in 36-point type so people won’t forget. This is the most important of all of the other most important stuff here.
The Asterisk: (or how one can get away with saying something that’s accurate... kind of!)
But wait! There have been other houses that sold for $2.5M or more in our South Lake Tahoe, CA market this year. Two others to be exact. But they’re different... they were either lake front or water front homes, so they don’t count. So we’ll have to add an asterisk to our “highest price ever” claim, just to make sure things are on the up and up.
Lets put the asterisk in 14-point type. How big do they have to be? That size is fine anyway, we want folks to remember it was the highest sale ever, not the asterisk. Besides we’re going to qualify our claim on the other side of the postcard. We’re going to tell them that what we’re really saying is we just produced the highest non-lake or water-front home sale ever. We want to make sure nobody gets the wrong impression.
Yep, it’s Legal.
The postcard we’ve described here is perfectly legal. Our problem with it is, though legit, it’s misleading. Advertising by asterisk usually is. Yet we see this kind of advertising all of the time. One wonders if this is the kind of thing... over time, that gives some a tepid perception of our profession. We think so.
An Impression, but what kind, and is it distinguished?
The Just Sold postcard is a standard industry practice. And not all of them, or many of them are necessarily ever misleading. They are used to make an impression. But the truth is there are lots of Just Sold postcards like this one floating around all of the time.
It’s quite likely ... that each of the 5 agents in our market who have sold a home in excess of $2M this year have sent out postcards... with the same message... to the same people! And the message is essentially this, “List with me because I’m the greatest.”
The question then is, and there’s an even more poignant question about truth in advertising immediately below, “is there a better way to make a better impression?” We also think so.
What? Another Postcard Saying the Same Thing?
Damn it, there’s another postcard out there saying the exact same thing... about the exact same house... to the exact same people. I was hoping he wasn’t going to do that. (Gosh, I hope we were first.) Yes folks, there was another agent involved... the Buyers Agent. Lets call him Fred.
And this is where truth in advertising really comes into the picture. The truth is the use of the word “SOLD” can be somewhat misleading. It needs an asterisk, or at least clarification. The public does not necessarily know the minutiae and subtle nuances of our business. Like disclosures, sometimes we just gotta tell'em.
What SOLD Really Means:
In most states, only the Listing Agent can use the word “SOLD.” We were the listing agents for the house in this example. But, about 85% to 90% of the time a Buyer is represented by their own agent.
Another way of saying this for emphasis is, “another agent other than the listing brings the Buyer in almost 9 out of every 10 home sales.” So the Buyer’s agent brings the Buyer, yet only the Listing Agent gets to use “SOLD,” and the Buyer’s agent gets to use “SOLD, in cooperation with another Broker.” That folks is often qualified by an asterisk, or small type as innocuous as possible somewhere.
A Better Way of Promoting the Sale:
We think there is a way to make a better impression for us about this sale. The impression we want to make is one of truth, candor, confidence and clarity. We’re going to do a letter addressed to each homeowner recipient. Included in it will be a cover, plus the brochure we used to attract the sale of the house. In general, here’s what we think should be covered:
Lets call attention to one of our listings that just sold.
- We’ll show the original price, the sold price, and how long it took.
- Lets lead them to the custom website we did for the house. It was something the Buyer specifically praised.
- Lets tell them another agent was involved... that this is normal and happens about 90% of the time.
- Lets tell them the other agent (Fred) did an exceptional job working with us... and this one really required it, especially in the negotiating phase.
- Lets tell them we got the other agents interest talking about how wonderful the house was in a phone call.
- Lets show what the job of the listing agent really is:
-- Service with a duty owed to the Seller’s best interests.
-- Exposure - marketing, especially online now, where 80%+ of all Buyers look for a house first
-- Creating a compelling sales package for other agents - since 90% of the time they produce the Buyer.
-- Negotiation, and especially on this one. It was a week-long, complex negotiation that at times felt like a medieval siege. Thank God there was a pro on the other side. Yeah Fred.
- Lets talk about how teamwork produces a successful sale, and that 3 teams are usually involved:
-- The Seller and the Listing Agent.
-- The Buyer and the Buyer’s Agent.
-- The Listing Agent and the Buyer’s Agent.
The Final Question:
Of the Just Sold postcard, or our Letter, which of these methods creates the most goodwill and inspires greater trust? Which will distinguish an agent most?
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