Sunday, June 15, 2008

Comfree Success Rate

The new Comfree is here as described in the monthly report:
Further assisting sellers with pricing, ComFree launched the “New ComFree” with a bang. Thursday June 5th ComFree played host to a day of fun-filled activities including special appearances from the Edmonton Esks cheerleaders, Edmonton Rush, Joe FM live on location, and best of all our friends from Big Brothers and Big Sisters were present to take in the fun.

With all the celebration the private listing company now charges $947, up from $699! They also re-animated the corpse of "sales success", now called "success rate" (See previous posts here and here)
We expect our success rate to jump from 73% to the high 80’s maybe even 90’s with the New ComFree.” says Travis Holowach, “Just another reason that the ComFree Advantage works for buyers and sellers in this market.”

I cannot fathom what type of twisted process could be used to arrive at a 73% success rate for Comfree in the current Edmonton market. Comfree hasn't been 73% successful at selling houses for awhile now. However, unlike REALTORS, they are 100% successful at getting paid.

Lets take a look at some metrics that are derived from actual numbers in a repeatable and straightforward way. One is the sales-to-listing ratio and another is sales-to-total inventory. Another insight is to determine the properties that are removed from the inventory each month without selling:

"REMOVED NOT SOLD"
=
PREV. MONTH INVENTORY + NEW LISTINGS - SALES - INVENTORY

Date
Sales Listing Inventory Sales to Listing Sales to Inventory Removed Not Sold Comfree's Sold to Listing
Jan 07 327 419 820 78.0% 39.9%
82%
Feb 07 416 496 837 83.9% 49.7% 63 82%
Mar 07 513 664 893 77.3% 57.4% 95 82%
Apr 07 505 788 1180 64.1% 42.8% -4 78%
May 07 556 1212 1616 45.9% 34.4% 220 73%
Jun 07 405 1243 2179 32.6% 18.6% 275 61%
Jul 07 277 1100 2696 25.2% 10.3% 306 58%
Aug 07 237 788 2972 30.1% 8.0% 275 58%
Sep 07 201 613 3423 32.8% 5.9% -39 50% *
Oct 07 146 470 3108 31.1% 4.7% 639 -
Nov 07 124 356 3060 34.8% 4.1% 280 -
Dec 07 91 162 3026 56.2% 3.0% 105 -
Jan 08 151 389 3088 38.8% 4.9% 176 -
Feb 08 164 449 3108 36.5% 5.3% 265 -
Mar 08 201 574 3196 35.0% 6.3% 285 -
Apr 08 233 624 3329 37.3% 7.0% 258 -
May 08 205 597 3386 34.3% 6.1% 335 -

*Changed to sales success

Look how the properties removed and not sold from Comfree inventory has exceeded sales for several months now. This would imply a "success rate" of less than 50%. Also note that it has been an entire year with a sales-to-listing ratio of under 40%, excluding December.

Just some things to consider before shelling out $947.

2 comments:

Carioca Canuck said...

I would not pay $947 for Comfree as they offer nothing IMHO......and I definitely would not pay 7% to a realtor.

Art Vandelay said...

Comfree is an advertising medium. Sellers pay to advertise in the magazine. It's no different than paying to advertise in the Journal. Sale not guaranteed.

Part of what sellers pay for when they hire a realtor is listing access on the MLS and www.mls.ca. In the rush to crucify realtors, this fact is often overlooked. No money up front, but a lot more money at the back end.

If your house is priced correctly, it should sell through Comfree. If your house is not priced correctly, it will not sell through Comfree or the MLS. It's over-priced.

The problem is not Comfree. Nor realtors. It's greedy sellers.