Selling Your Home in a Down-Turned Market
How A Local Real Estate Investor Used A Viral Marketing Campaign to Fetch Offers from
Prospective Buyers

by Michelle Craft, Publisher, mmc@realestatehotsheets.com

I was returning from a five-hour meeting in New York City with a prospective venture capitalist regarding a real estate opportunity.

The meeting had not gone well. I was agitated, distracted and driving to my brother’s to give him the bad news in person. I approached the intersection of Davis and Santa Barbara Boulevards in Naples when I spotted the sign.

I’d seen thousands of these kinds of signs before. But something was different with this one.

I read it. Appraisal Completed at $455 K. $195,500 or Best Offer. Open Home Inspection. Highest Bidder Wins My Home Sunday Night. Now that was some sign.

After giving my brother Bernie all the gory details about the scam artist in New York, I said
nonchalantly, “I saw the most amazing real estate sign about 30 minutes ago.”

“Really,” Bernie said. “Jay (my other brother) called me this morning about a sign
he saw with the same information.”

“Amazing,” I said. “Same sign.” Same family. Same internal radar. Wow.

I asked Bernie how one family could “coincidentally” learn of the same sign. He didn’t know.

But I did.

It’s called Viral Marketing, and it spreads by Word of Mouth and by other means.
The buzz it creates is faster than any wildfire we see in south Florida.

* * * * *

That day, I couldn’t stop thinking about the sign. I was determined to fi nd out
who was behind the campaign, so I called the number on the sign. I got an answering service, and left a message. Next morning at 9 a.m., I received a call from Len Strickler. You could feel his energy over the phone.

“I’d love to tell you my story,” he said.

Over lunch, Len detailed the frenzy around the sale of the home and absolutely amazing results he’d received from his “outside-of-the-box” 7-day sale.

Clearly, he’d discovered a very hot new way to sell real estate in a down-turned market.
Without giving away his “secret sauce” Len explained, “First, I had to take off my traditional Realtor hat and put on my marketing hat. “Second, I had to fi nd a way to uniquely market this home. For example, had the property been on a canal with a boat dock, I would have considered marketing the home on a website promoting yachts.”

He recalls, “I’ve recently sat for Open Houses where I haven’t gotten a single prospective buyer in the book. In this market to receive 250 calls and 25 prospective buyers visiting the home, is, by any standard, phenomenally exceptional.” The phone was ringing so furiously, Len had to use an IDX service to respond.

“Of the 25 people that actually came to see the house on Sunday, we received 8 bids,” he said.

“Holy Toledo,” I said (I can say that proudly as I grew up in Toledo, Ohio).

“Yeah,” he said with some satisfaction, “Our highest bid was $385,000.”

“*#*!>!,” I said.

“Yeah,” he smiled.

* * * * *

Len Strickler’s a pretty savvy salesman. He started his pedigreed career with
Burroughs Corporation and then when to Digital Equipment Company (DEC for those of you who remember). He sold VAX(es). He’s spent time with Sun Microsystems and other Fortune 500 firms.

He has an easy wayabout him and he is very likable. And he certainly is smart. And “smarts” is what it takes to survive in a down-turned market.

By anyone’s count, there’s are a lot of homes for sale in the market.

Depending upon who you talk with in Collier or Lee County, reasons for the down-turned market range from “a Condo bloat” to “Investor’s Greed” to “too many homes in the $500-$750K bracket.”

Whatever. Does it really matter?

Try selling your home in today’s market.

Let me repeat that.

Try selling your home in today’s market.

Today, most homes are on the market for 180-days to a year. Some don’t get any “action”
whatsoever after being listed on MLS. When you’re competing against 120,000+ area listings, you have to do something to differentiate your property.

Two and a half years ago, just thinking about selling your home got you five offers and two were above asking price. One was in cash.

Today, it’s not uncommon to find homes selling significantly below market value.

My inbox is filled with emails ... “Must Sell Today.” “$100K reduction.” “Best value in Longshore Lakes.”

Just what is “market value?” It’s anyone’s guess. Today, it’s whatever the market will bear.

Len believes we are just entering the “lower” part of the downward curve. “There’s some more blood to be let,” he said.

Experts agree. Most believe we have another 12 to 18 months of a “down-turned” market.
We do know there are many great deals, and now clearly is the time to buy if you have the means.

My guess is that Len and others are going to be very busy “differentiating” their
properties by whatever marketing means they can conjure up.

* * * * *

Len will tell you he is both an investor and a Realtor. Wearing two hats has been
challenging, but has helped him focus.

He calls his frenetic, concentrated real estate marketing blitz “The 7-day Sale.”
“For 7 days we intensely focus all of our energy on this one property,” he said.

“On the seventh day, we let prospective buyers submit an offer.”

On hand during the silent offer process are loan offi cers from mortgage firms who pre-qualify the prospective buyers.

Len is quick to point out his program is not a traditional auction. “I prefer to think our program is true capitalism. We let the market tell us what it is willing to pay for
the property,” he said.

Len continued, “We’d like to help as many homeowners as we can, and our program is tailored to fit each unique property.”

He continues to innovate his real estate marketing program and states with a degree of confidence, “This can work virtually anywhere in the U.S.”

You can contact Len directly at (239) 405-3434 or at lensellsnaples@comcast.net.