Planning a Round Robin Sales Event

You don't have to be a real estate genius to know the market is simply FLOODED with homes that are for sale, which means if YOU are trying to sell YOUR house, you've got a lot of competition! Because of this, Round Robin Sales Events are all the rage with investors, Realtors and individual home owners because they help attract attention to your property.

You can spend a LOOOOOOOT of money learning to put on a round robin sales event, or you could learn to do it for free right here on the MundoLuxe Blog :)




Checklist:

• Stage house (see previous post on "SETTING THE STAGE")


• Pick a date for your event (give yourself enough time for the marketing to hit)


• Order 50 signs that say "BID ON THIS HOUSE" and your phone number
  (bright yellow signs with bold black writing, 18"x24")


• If you want to get fancy, have a dedicated phone line
  line with a message about the house; but at the very least, make sure you get the phone number and name of everyone who calls, and give them the details- when and where to show up; see previous post on "CALLING ALL INVESTORS!"


• Determine the price you NEED to get for the house, and advertise your opening bid at 65% of this value, making it a weird number ending in a 7 EXAMPLE: "Opening offer $193,457 or best reasonable offer" (don't worry, the beauty of a round robin as opposed to a reserve auction is that you are NOT obligated to take a low bid if it is not enough)


• Determine your advertising budget. You could spend nothing, or you could spend a lot. Here are a few ways you could spend your budget: Flat MLS listing (~$200), email blast Realtors (~$50), send postcards
  to buyers who fit a profile appropriate for your home (~$100-$1500), set up a dedicated website or blog (could be free!), post on free internet classifieds!
  (Craigslist, Backpage, Locanto, Kijiji are my favorites.... Google "free internet classifieds" and you'll find a bajillion options) (~FREE), advertise in your local paper (~$50), distribute event fliers
  to neighborhood (~$100),


• Have a "check-in" table; get the name and phone number of everyone who walks through the door (this becomes important later!); prepare an info sheet about the home to give to prospective buyers as they walk in the door; have available comp information in the kitchen; set up the bidding sheet in the kitchen


• Have freshly baked cookies, coffee (click here for 5% off, coupon code CFL)
  and water bottles available for your guests


• After event is over, call all bidders (starting with lowest bidder), giving them an opportunity to outbid the highest bidder. If they do not bid, they are out of the running. Keep going in rounds (hence the name "round robin"!) until you end up with a highest bidder.


• In the chance you do not have ANY bidders at the event, you can call all of the visitors and say "we would like to give you another chance to bid on this beautiful home, could I put you down for a bid of $_____?"


• In the chance you do not reach an acceptable bid (i.e. what you NEED for the house), you can either recall all visitors giving them a chance to bid, or sit down and figure out WHY. Did you not do enough marketing or was it not out in time (the most common mistake of round robin events)? REDO YOUR EVENT!! Make sure you call all visitors and say "we've had a lot of interest in the home and want to give everyone a fair chance to visit, so we'll be having another sales soiree an yada yada date at yada yada time, if you'd like to come look at the house again yourself, we'd love to share some more cookies and coffee with you!"


• The second most common reason homes don't sell at round robin events is a sad one, and alllllll too common in this economy: the house simply isn't worth what you want it to be worth. You need to re-evaluate all of your options, and decide if that highest bid might be worth taking. (Remember, the true definition of "Market Value" is what a ready, willing and able buyer is willing to pay on a certain date in an arm's length transaction......)


• When the house sells, call up your closing/title/escrow office, cash check and repeat!!

Good luck! Feel free to email me info@mundoluxe.com if you want more in depth instructions!!!