With Today's Model Even A Motivated Buyer Can Miss Your Listing

There may be an inventory shortage but that doesn't mean every house for sale is going to stand out. Any major market still has dozens of homes hitting the MLS almost every day and buyers can be too busy to look at each listing closely enough to decide if it is worth visiting in person. This Marketplace article sums it up well with the following quote from a real estate agent, "[Buyers] are leading their own life, they’re trying to sell their house, they’re raising their kids. They have the attention span of a gnat. If there’s one thing that pulls their emotional attention away from that house, we’ve lost them. We have five to seven minutes to win them over. And basically all we’re trying to keep them from doing is saying ‘no.' "

It is time to use a new model. The short attention span and time crunch phenomena are nothing new, but what if instead of spending time visiting a house that isn't going to be a good fit an agent spent about ten minutes creating a BuyerProfile that spelled out exactly what a buyer needed in a home? Instead of focusing on listing properties, the industry needs to shift toward listing people and what they want. That way when they do go visit houses they know going in it at least fits their most important requirements.