The CAMO, also know as a Caravan, happens when a Realtor invites other Realtors to visit a listing that is not on the market. The CAMO has three specific goals:
1) To get pricing feedback from other agents. Often, we will do CAMOs when we aren’t sure where to price our coming soon listings. Properties vary greatly in Marin County, and it’s not unusual to have a lack of recent comparable homes to help with pricing.
2) Get suggestions from other Realtors regarding presentation of the home. I’ve had plenty of good suggestions come out of CAMOs. Feedback from active Realtors is important, we don’t work in a vacuum.
3) Possibly get an offer from one of the clients of the Realtors you invite. I’ve sold my share of homes over the years through CAMOs, but I prefer to put a house on the market if possible, to get the most exposure and the highest price. Sometimes clients prefer the ease of selling and going incognito off the market though.
This year I’ve listed 18 properties, which is about average for me in recent years. I had CAMOs for two of them. One of the CAMOs produced an offer $35,000 over our low listing price. We were planning on listing low to get multiple offers. My client countered the buyers $65,000 over their offer, making it a full $100,000 over the list price. The buyers backed out. We got half a dozen offers after coming on the market and closed 50% over our counter.
The old real estate axiom is that the first offer is the best. That’s not always the case when you aren’t on the market. Another different client contacted me to sell their house after a potential buyer made an off-market offer. We went on the market and ended up with an offer $100,000 over the first offer.
Some sellers prefer not to go on the market. They don’t want the broad public exposure. The very first sale in my real estate career came from promoting a listing in my office, and not going on the market. That seller only wanted the general public walking through his home as a last resort, which I understood completely.
A CAMO is a great tool in a Realtor’s belt. The best way to do a CAMO is to invite active agents from different brokerages personally. Call them individually and invite a select few (6-10) who do a lot of business in the local market. I’ve seen Realtors ask everyone in their brokerage to attend a CAMO, which I think is a mistake. I don’t need the price opinions of people who are not active in that particular market, that can be misleading.
To CAMO or not to CAMO, that is the question.