There is a list, published electronically, that gives people a forum to offer items or services for sale to the public.  It’s free for an individual to use to post items they want to sell and free for people to look for items they wish to purchase.  It’s a good deal.

It’s also popular because it is free, and because it is not obscure- it’s easy to find and get to.  As a result, it is wildly popular and very effective.  People advertise everything from houses and cars to ideas and services.
All of the people who post an ad in that list have one thing in common.  They want someone who is looking at that list to purchase from them their old refrigerator or their ability to tile your kitchen floor.  Granted there are some who are searching for something to buy, but largely, everyone there wants to sell something.  It is important to them.  Maybe the old item is in the way at their house, or maybe they would rather have some money than the old item.  Or maybe that is how they make a living.  But they are wanting to find buyers!
Yesterday, I happened to be looking for an item that I had decided I would like to have one of, and I found one in that list for sale.  Then two remarkable things happened.
Firstly it took a long time to reach the seller.  This does happen a lot.  Sometimes you are trying to call a telephone number.  Sometimes all you have is an email address.  But after you  you do this a time or two, you realize that the seller does not put in an ad and then wait for you to respond- he goes on with his life.  So, OK, give him that.
Then, when I finally did communicate with him, we emailed back and forth a couple of times.  I was trying to find his area of the city, and when I might get with him to look at and hopefully buy the item he was selling.  Suddenly, as if to stop the electronic give-and-take, he said that he would be happy to let me look at the item, but it would have to be at his convenience.
Now call me old-fashioned or overly-sensitive, but the item was not a cheap item.  It was not an item that very many people would want or need.  And yet, here I was, wanting to buy it.  He could have asked me if a certain time would work for me, or he could have said that the only time he could meet me this week was this other certain time, but instead, he made me feel as though really felt that he was doing me a favor by meeting me.
I guess you know where I am going with this.  Sometimes when people put ad ad in the list of an item for sale, as much as they may want to sell it, they don’t want to deal with the buyers enough to make that happen.  The immediately get the attitude that their item is SPECIAL and so is their time, and they are sure people will beg them for both.
I have talked to many house-sellers who mysteriously catch that same condition.  They act like they are doing a favor to let someone look at and subsequently buy their house.  Therefore, they are justified to place conditions on the prospective buyer.
(You can only see it between 2 and 4 on Saturday afternoon.  You must take your shoes off.  You must have a pre-approval letter.  You must already have your house sold or your apartment lease is about to expire.)  And on and on.
I can only ask, “are you serious?”  The reason you are advertising your old refrigerator or your old house is because YOU WANT TO SELL IT.  You are not giving some lucky person the right to purchase your stuff.  Your stuff is only marginally special.  You need to bend over backwards to make it easy for the buyer to buy it.  You need to make it accessible.
You may need a few people to look at your refrigerator, before one of them decides it will be right for their home.  You may need a LOT of people to look at your house before one of them decides it might be right for their life.  So don’t shoot yourself in the foot.  Even if you absolutely hate meeting prospects, the more you meet, the sooner you can stop.
Good luck for now! Get to work if you want it to happen. Call me if you want to talk. Yes, I am the Reasonable Realtor. Don Martin, MARTIN PROPERTIES (615) 973-8970
Just make your comments here, or you can reach the Dean of Graduated Realtors at www.FSBO-GUY.com or “like” him at http://www.facebook.com/MartinProps
And please don’t forget our book The NEW REAL ESTATE will be out in a few days.  You need to have it on YOUR bookshelf!
Don Martin
Martin Properties (Flat Fee MLS to Full or Graduated Services in Nashville, TN)