Issue 43 - Marketing dangers Aug 2008
Marketing dangers
On Thursday 3rd July of this year, the N.Z. Herald ran an article warning home-sellers that real estate advertisements could be attracting thieves as well as potential buyers.
Hamilton police issued the warning after a man admitted burgling four houses after seeing photographs of the electronic equipment they contained. A number of plasma screens and LCD televisions had been stolen from Hamilton homes. The man, originally arrested for car theft, said he studied billboards and websites that advertised houses for sale or flat-mates wanted.
Clearly, there are a number of real estate practices that need attention.
- Signboards: Make sure that any signboards do not contain interior shots. Even if they do not show actual electronic goods, the general interior of the home will give clues about the likelihood of expensive articles being present.
- Virtual tours: These are really bad from the security aspect. They enable a would-be thief to view the interior of your home from the comfort of theirs. Worse, they enable a thief to reconnoitre the house and plan how to get in and out in the least time possible.
- Open homes: Probably the worst of the security faux-pas. To open your home at an advertised time to all who desire to enter. It is easier for a would-be thief to walk through your home, sizing up saleable items than it is to rent a video or DVD. Having a visitor log at the door eliciting names and telephone numbers of viewers, is not the answer. Is a would-be thief going to tell anyone their real name and telephone numbers?
- Photo’s in newspapers and other publications. Again, these should not show interiors or, if they do, certainly not show the home entertainment system! The worst photographs from a security point of view are the large interior ones in vendor-paid advertising.
Please, do nothing to encourage strangers to enter your home. To do so is to threaten your property, your possessions and possibly your safety.
Be firm. To protect yourself, your family and your possessions, you could tell your real estate office that you do not want to have open homes. Almost certainly, they will protest that they haven’t had anything stolen from their open homes. Well, yes, of course they would say that. What about those who visit the open homes and steal later, having unlatched windows or French doors to facilitate entry and escape?
Be firm. Verify that your chosen agency interviews prospective buyers in the real estate office prior to showing them any property. I suspect that non-genuine buyers (and the occasional thief) will not want to go through this process. (On the other hand, real buyers are quite happy to find that there is an agency out there that cares enough to try and help, rather than simply telling them to ‘come to the open home’)
Be firm. Tell your chosen real estate office that you don’t need a photo of your property on the sign in front of your house. If it is a photo of the exterior, those looking can usually see that it is the exterior. If it is proposed to be of the interior, you’re helping the thieves.
Finally, be firm. Choose a real estate office that won’t put your property or you at risk. We would never do that.
…..and another marketing danger….
While I am on the subject of marketing danger, I must point out one further major danger faced by home sellers.
We are presently in a market where buyers are fairly scarce. This means that there is a reduced level of sales being made which in turn means that there is reduced evidence from which to assess a suitable marketing price for a property.
The sale prices relating to May or June may not be a guide to the present market except in so far as we know that the market is going down and equivalent properties will be likely to sell for less this month than they did last month.
The danger is, therefore, that properties are going to be on the market for prices that make them unattractive to buyers. Consequently, the over-priced properties don’t sell and by the time the sellers accept that the property is overpriced, the market has retreated even further. Adjusting the price down now can actually mean more money in your pocket!
