Posted by Sherman in Idaho [24.32.202.166] on Sunday, July 21, 2013 at 19:01:50 :
In Reply to: Re: An hour north of L.A.? posted by Henry4 [71.108.75.143] on Sunday, July 21, 2013 at 18:25:47 :
I've never understood that sentiment, or even that attitude. Sometimes people also include some line like "serious buyers only". I'm not picking on you. You answered all my questions even though I said right off that it was too far away for me to be interested.
But as long as we're grousing about uninformative sellers, I'd have to say that combining a great lack of information in the ad, with language about "no tire kickers" or "serious buyers only", tells me the seller has a bad attitude and is going to be a hard one to deal with. By including all the important informaation (make, model, year, condition, LOCATION, and asking PRICE), a seller saves having to answer the same questions over and over from all those "tire kickers" who aren't "serious" about buying. It also means that very likely some serious buyers will be more likely to pay attention to the ad once they see that it's in their area and that the price is reasonable.
That said, I think you have to accept that a certain number of people are "fishing" and don't have "real interest". But look at it this way. If you were running a grocery store, would you put up a sign saying that nobody is welcome in our store unless they bought $50 worth of groceries? Or that nobody is allowed to walk in, look around, and leave without buying anything. To me, the fact that somebody is willing to pick up the phone or type out an email indicates that they are at least looking to buy. Very few people do that just for the fun of it. If someone is willing to drive out and look at it, they're definitely willing to buy. If, in either case, they don't buy it, it's because they considered what you were selling and decided they didn't want it. They have the right to do that. In my experience there are probably more "sellers" who aren't interested in selling than there are "buyers" who like to shop but don't ever buy. The uninterested "sellers" are the ones who will keep advertising the thing, be it a truck or a piece of land, for 10 years without ever lowering the price. I think some of them are just lonely and want someone to come out and talk to them. Others get some perverse satisfaction from saying, "If I don't get my price, it's going to the crusher."
Frustrating as it is to answer a lot of calls or have a lot of people come and look without buying, that's just part of the routine of selling something. If it seems like too many people are "fishing" but not buying, there's a message there.
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