[5-DayForum] (5-Day Forum) The Mule Analogy

[luther-duncan at comcast.net]

Bill Effros & Kimberly,

Thank you Bill for looking into the "glitz" that blocked my posts.  I have learned from your answers to questions on this thread by people thinking of using the 5-Day method as well as those who have tried it and been both successful and less than successful.  I feel an obligation to participate and share my experience and thoughts, even though I have finished my sale and would like to take a sigh of relief and ride off into the sunset.

I do plan on using the 5-Day in the future.  Also by contributing to the thread, it allows me to put my thoughts down on paper, edit them, and in the process sort through and clarify my own understanding of your method.

Your comments on the Mule Story for instance are what I experienced this weekend.  I went ahead with a sale without the proper response.  I learned that I overpaid for my house, and what buyers were offering is what I should have paid, and what they are offering is pre-bubble Albuquerque SW Heights pricing.

I can only speak for the SW quandrant of the city of Albuquerque, which experienced a 30 % appreciation over the past two years and seriously affected the affordability of homes in a low income state.  Buyers who came to my house wanted it for 30% less than I paid/overpaid for it one year ago.  This, at a time when the local paper is quoting a magazine study that picks Albuquerque as one of the best markets in the country for 2007 with greater than 7% appreciation.  A spokesman for the Albuquerque Board of Realtors quickly jumped on that story and gave his own spin to it and his talents as a cheerleader would be the envy of Pres Geo. the goofy.  Albuquerque came late to the party and hence the kool-aid will have less of an impact and our real estate is somehow different than the rest of the country.  We have 6,200 listings, 4,400 "Realtors", and an average of 800-900 sales monthly.  That from the website of the Board of Realtors!!  Just an example of two published statements that a
re 180 degrees apart!!  They also quote 2006 as having great appreciation.  Yea, great going up til July when we fell off the cliff; but the average for the year was good, overlooking the fact we are now closer to the second half of 2006 than to the first half of 2006 and soon the first half will be a distant memory just like the Gold Rush Days.

Your statement that the 5-Day method predicts the market by 6 months seems to apply to Albuquerque, where sellers are in denial and not lowering prices.  I think that explains why with nearly a "Realtor" for every listing, monthly home sales are 14.5 % of monthly listings.  I quoted these stats to all the "Realtors" who called me when my MLS listing expired, and suggested that perhaps they may want to concentrate their efforts on getting buyers and stop fishing for listing and see that their very antiquated methods just do not work in this market.  I usually get silence, or in person their eyes just glaze over and you know it just blew right past them: then they recover and begin parroting the same old spill as if I were the Blond!  

I want to end by relating a story, no I think most people know the mule story, where I sold Encyclopaedia Britannica using a canned sales presentation that was very effective.  But it was corny and downright embarrasing to deliver and once  I became enamored of my own success, I started using MY STYLE to disasterous results.  My suggestion, The 5-Day Method might be uncomfortable, "but it do work!"

Luther Duncan in Albuquerque, NM