One Way to Sell a House in Sacramento

Is this one way to sell a house in Sacramento? My team member Josh shot this photo yesterday. I don’t know if you can read the small print, but the rider sign hanging below the panel reads: “Free Pizza With Purchase of House.” Is it a joke? Does the agent own a pizza joint? Is the pizza frozen or fresh? How many pizzas do you get? Do you get pizza for a year delivered to your house or does the agent just send a pizza to the closing table?

So many questions over one way to sell a house in Sacramento. Ask the incredible Barbara Dow about it, and she’ll say it gets people talking so all publicity is good.

Who doesn’t like pizza?

You ask my husband about the notion of free gift with purchase, and he will launch into a tirade. How there is no such thing as a free gift with purchase. But then he has never shopped for department store makeup or perfume. You pay the same price whether you get a free gift or not. Although, maybe it’s the “free gift” he objects to. It’s redundant.

All gifts are free, except for those with strings attached. Like a timeshare presentation. Oh, I know you think you’re immune and you will stick it to them, but the likelihood is the timeshare promoters will stick it to you. And if they don’t, you still gave up a precious two hours of life that you can’t get back, being subjected to and reduced to the position of a “mark.” They know it and you know it.

By my mere holding of a California real estate license, I am a regular “mark” to all the mortgage lenders in the business who think a Sacramento Realtor is ripe for harassing. Even those of us who have been in the business for over 40 years and are top producers. These MLO’s think we crawled out from under a rock. Or, how about some listing agents who do not realize we have access to MLS listings just like they do, yet they still want to dump email blasts toting their newest listing into my email box.

It’s spam, it’s junk, and if you gave me a free gift, I’d give it back. The only person they are reaching is the seller who thinks any method to promote is good.

Is this one way to sell a house in Sacramento? Plaster email blasts to such an extent they no longer have any value or uniqueness to the information? Of course it is. Just like the one way to sell a house in Sacramento is to offer free pizza.

I prefer to use technology in such a way that it does’t annoy people. But then I don’t use those methods to sell a house. I use tried and true strategies that have worked for me one way or the other for the past 44 years, and I incorporate any new technology I stumble across. However, do you really think email blasts and free pizza are the way to do it?