How To Sell A House During A Blizzard

Agents should not let the big snow storms which have hit the upper Midwest and (especially) the Northeast coast today totally shut down their sales efforts.

This is a time to be aggressive about selling a listing and/or generating a buyer for one while the other agents are sitting around waiting for the snow plow.

Check on your current listings. Are any (or, hopefully, all) of your listings on streets which have been plowed clear?

Suppose one of your listings is on a "cleared" street. Get over there ASAP, and take a photo from the street. Let viewers see that cars can get by on the street and that the driveway to the home is cleared. (For that matter, if you have to, spend $50 and get someone to plow the driveway to make this photo happen!)

Next, as soon as you possibly can, update your online ads and listings for the home with the new photo. Change your copy to read something along the lines of "The seller went to the grocery store twice on Tuesday!" (or whatever day it is) and show how the path is clear.

What this tells a potential buyer is that even during extreme weather conditions, if they owned (or lived in) this property - they could get out and make it to work, school, shopping, etc. when others can't.

Call any potential buyers you have shown the property to or who have expressed an interest in the property to let them know that the driveway and street are clear for coming and going at this property.

And if you noticed that other homes on the same block have not yet had their driveways plowed, point it out!

Of course, this doesn't even tap the potential of putting the photo and the "all clear" notice out via your social media and/or e-mailing to your entire database!

What if you don't have a listing which has been cleared? That's still no reason to sit around. You can do one of two things.

You can pick up the phone and pay someone to plow it clear as soon as possible so that you can perform the steps described above and push for the sale. Or, you can find a home or row of homes which can get out from the snow, and offer to bring potential buyers to see the home(s) that very day. Let them know that you can get them into a property which does not get stopped by the weather.

If nothing else, having your property listing advertisements up to date within the week shows how both you (as an agent) and the sellers are motivated and updating as you need to. After all, the ad for the home for sale down that same block has a photo with no snow on it. That's not how the property looks at the moment. Your ads and postings reflect this.

It's your choice. You can have potential clients think that you are hiding out waiting for the storm to end. Or, you can have them all thinking about how you are working with sellers and buyers no matter what in order to get the job done.