Agents use the SW Florida Multiple Listing Service (MLS) to search for homes for their buyers but what about searching for buyers for agent’s listings? The Ellis Team has found that having a searchable buyers database helps sell homes.
There is no MLS for buyers. That would be weird. There is one for sellers but it does not include personal information like seller’s name, phone number, email address, search preferences, etc. because nobody would want that kind of information out to the public. The same is true for buyers. No buyer would want a seller searching and contacting them. And it wouldn’t be just sellers. You’d have every retail store, financial planner, lender, etc. calling these buyers if that data were out in the public.
There may never be a true MLS for buyers as buyers for the reasons stated above however, we do have a large database of buyers we can search upon when we list new properties. One of the advantages we offer buyers is our MLS search site is updated every 5 minutes, so they can beat out other buyers to hot new properties. It’s also consumer friendly, speedy, and easy to use.
Because the buyers benefit so much we’re able to capture crucial search data. The system will email them property matches if they desire, and they can target exactly what they’re looking for.
Searchable Buyers Database Helps Sell Homes
Sellers often ask us if we have buyers looking for a home like theirs. The answer is usually yes. We can go into our database and search for buyers that matches our seller’s criteria. We spend a lot of money on advertising each month. We create a lot of buyers. It’s possible the money we spent last month or 6 months ago has already created a buyer looking for a home just like the one we’re listing.
One of our databases has created about 1,407 leads in the past year. Let’s say we’re on a listing appointment and the property is worth $250,000. If I search our database, we currently have 304 leads searching in that $250,000 range.
Let’s say we’re listing a Million dollar property. I just conducted a search and our database contains 58 people searching for properties. Our agents can tag buyers, so we have the ability to pin it down to features like golf course or waterfront, or neighborhoods.
Each time we list a property we create marketing designed to find a buyer in that price range. It does us no good to list a Million dollar home and create $200,000 buyers. Our marketing never stops working. Not only are we marketing today for a million dollar buyer, our past marketing may have already created the buyer. Likewise, just because we didn’t have a $4 Million dollar home for sale in last 6 months doesn’t mean we don’t have some $4 Million buyers waiting for the right property to enter the market. We create marketing for what we list. If we list a $70,000 condo we’ll create some $70,000 buyers.
Each week we have a team meeting and we inform our agents the properties we’re listing soon. Many times we have a buyer waiting for one like that to come to market. I remember a few years ago we listed a property in Moody River Estates. The seller asked me if we had buyers for his home. I answered I don’t know, we could. I went back to office and sure enough, one of our agents was writing an offer on another property a street over from the one we just listed. I asked him to hold up and go show our home. A day later our home was under contract with a buyer we already had.
No agent can promise you they have a buyer. And even if they did, you don’t know what the buyer will pay or how they will like it. The goal is to produce many buyers for the home. If you’d like to check out our site go to www.LeeCountyOnline.com Buyers and sellers love the site. Or call us at 239-489-4042 We’d love to help you buy or sell your piece of paradise in SW Florida.
Ellis Team Weekend Open Houses
14457 Cypress Chase Ct Fort Myers, FL 33919
3 Bedroom 3 Baths
Located in South Fort Myers
17225 Johnston Dr, Fort Myers FL 33967
3 Bedrooms 2 Baths Home in San Carlos Park
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