How do you advertise online without attracting a bunch of yahoos? I know typically you’re better off going through a trainer or dealer but the 2 I’m trying to sell aren’t very expensive so I’m not getting a whole lot of help from any professionals and I don’t begrudge that at all. I get it, it’s not worth their time to get such a small commission. I figured I’d advertise online to see if I could get anything done that way and I swear all I’ve gotten are the most ignorant inquiries. I don’t mean to sound harsh but I actually had someone email me asking me if I would “Hold” the horse until next summer because she thinks she might be moving to my area then. I’m constantly being asked how old or how big the horse even though it says it in the first line of the ad. When I tell people how much I want to lease the horse I’ve gotten really rude responses like I’m crazy to think I could lease a horse for so much. We’re talking under $10k! I can’t afford to pay to send the horses to a sales barn and even if I could I’d end up spending more than the horses are worth very quickly. any suggestions are welcome. I’m kind of at a loss on how to get these two sold.
I feel your pain. I would consider asking Amber at exchange hunter jumper if she would take your two horses. Though it’s more expensive than free FB groups, you get terrific service and much more qualified buyers.
If you stay the FB route, it sort of goes with the territory. It’s the same if you post ISO, and clearly state something simple, like looking for a been there done that and people send you their horse that’s been in a field for 5 years and SO SWEET. OY!!!
Wishing you the best of luck…horses sure are easy to buy and hard to sell!!!
Are you selling, or leasing? You said both words.
The one horse is for sale or lease. The other is strictly for sale
After a while you learn to “smell” the scammers/tire kickers/under age kids!! Put right in you ad that a telephone contact is mandatory after the first e-mail. That seems to sort out the web surfers!! I don’t make any appointments to view until I’ve had a “good” phone call!! Not being rude…just saving some of your sanity!!
I would just factor in that you are going to get time-wasting inquiries, whether they are from fools, from scammers, or from more knowledgeable tire kickers.
It’s also possible that people are not always all the literate, are overwhelmed with the number of ads they are looking at, or want confirmation of the details in the ad.
Some ideas:
Have the text of your actual ad saved in a format so that you can cut and paste the ad into your reply. Say: here is the text of the ad. Please contact me again if you have questions not answered in the ad.
If the email exchange goes longer than two exchanges, tell the person to send you their phone number, and you will call them back.
If the person gives you anything you think is unreasonable, crazy, rude, or scamming, just say “no, but thanks for your interest!” and cut off communication.
Assume that you will get a large per cent of stupid responses, and that your task is not to prevent these (you can’t, past a certain point), but rather to minimize how much of your time they waste, and prevent them from actually coming to view the horse, which is important.
I agree that Amber is a great person to contact. She provided me excellent advice when selling my hunter mare that was being shown in the US. Even though I reside in Canada she was more then helpful in providing professional contacts here for me as well.
I would personally NOT advertise on Facebook, Kijiji etc. The OP is correct. There are so many people that will just waste your time. Post some nice photo ad’s locally in tack stores, feed stores etc. even your local grocery store if you are in the country. You would be amazed how many serious contacts you make that way. Including the professional’s that are always looking for nice horses for clients.
I am having problems with this as well. My price point is lower and I’ve had so many people ask for videos, more info. I take the time to answer any questions and then they either say they can’t afford him (price is listed in the ad) or something’s come up and they can’t buy anymore (sureeee :no: ). SO MANY TIREKICKERS. I am open to people wanting to bargain but please don’t ask me to give him to you for free because you will be a good home, or at least say your budget up front before I spend precious time answering your questions.
This is why I ALWAYS say there’s a reason people hire pros to do the selling. It SUCKS.
Unfortunately, it is a matter of just weeding through the crap. I’ve had my horse listed to lease for the past couple of months. My favorite is on his FB ads when people reply “following.” Why? If you’re interested, let me know. If you’re not, just move along. I also love people who express interest, but then never actually continue on with asking questions. So glad I don’t have to sell a horse in today’s world! The last one I sold was in 2011, and that was weird enough, and he did sell thanks to FB, but now it’s just gotten stranger.
My recommendation: hire a pro. What ever you pay in commission will be well worth it.
I don’t mind paying commissions but the lower price doesn’t exactly entice pros to want to bother because the commission would be small
I totally understand your frustration. With time I think you will learn not to answer emails from obvious idiots. Laugh at them if you can.
I also like the idea of replying with the text of the ad in your email. I swear many people simply do not read, and it goes both ways. I have posted both sales and ISO ads and gotten many people who clearly did not read beyond the first sentence. It’s at the point where I will literally put “please read the entire ad before contacting me” as the first sentence.
People are lazy and don’t read entire ads, or even most of them - whether it be for services, horses for sale, anything. They don’t want to sift through the information they don’t find useful to get the answers to their questions, so they just ask you their questions. It is quite frustrating when you spend the time to write a well-thought out, detailed ad.
Sometimes you can find Consignment programs with smaller, up-and-coming trainers; I’d ask around.
Otherwise, you just have to sift through the time wasters and hope you get a few good leads. But selling horses is hard - even the leads you think are good can end up really bad.
Have to agree that answering the stupid emails with a copy-pasted version of your ad is the best way to go. I haven’t had to sell a horse, luckily, but I have the same issue the few times I have advertised for boarding publicly. I have a concise ad with all the necessary info (price, location, what is included in board, etc) and people constantly messaged and emailed asking those exact questions.
Copy --> paste ad. No other response unless they contact you again with legitimate questions/inquiries.
I agree with people who suggest having a phone conversation after the first email.
An exchange of 1-2 emails should be enough to establish interest. If the person doesn’t want to talk on the phone, that’s a reg flag that they aren’t serious.
I would also state somewhere in the ad that juniors must have their parent or trainer contact you.
I feel your pain, OP… I once listed a young TB and in the ad said he needed a firm, advanced rider… got so many emails to the tune of “is he beginner friendly?”. :rolleyes: He was a great TB but you needed a sense of humor because he was secretly Ashton Kutcher in horse form.
Good luck. I think sussing out the tire-kickers is unfortunately part and parcel with that gig…
A few things I’ve found to work to weed out tire-kickers… Put as MUCH information out there. Do not be vague… Provide two, three videos of the horse[s] in question in the text. Put the price in the FIRST line after the horse’s USEF/USEA/USDF/whatever name: aka - Bolero - $15,000 (age) (breed) (discipline). Do not write “$15,000 or best offer” - NO wishy-washy language. Write FIRM. Provide a link to pedigree if you have it, provide at least 3-4 pictures, 1-3 videos (bonus if any are from a competition) and link to the competition record[s] if you can.
Videos should show W/T/C both directions, and one should be the horse jumping.
I don’t understand why sellers these days are stingy about videos - is the horse not sound? Is the riding bad? What is it? You eliminate SO much wasted time if you just provide everything up front instead of responding to a dozen and a half FB requests for videos…
The video thing is annoying, yes. If a horse is listed for around $2k+, there should be a readily-available accompanying video, showing at minimum what the horse is advertised as being able to do (i.e. jumping 3’6’’ if you state its schooling/showing 3’6’’).
I disagree that people who don’t want to talk on the phone aren’t serious buyers. Some people just don’t like talking on the phone. It is far easier to email, as you don’t both have to be available at the exact same time for the communication to get to the other person. When I work in an office job 8a-5p Monday through Friday and I have to try to talk to a trainer who teaches back to back lessons weekday evenings, it’s simply more efficient to send an email instead of having to wait until the weekend to speak with someone. Also, when discussing details, I strongly prefer the details to be written down and readily available, which emails provide quickly and easily. If I have to wait for you to be available for an unknown-length phone call where I’m going to have to write down a million details on a piece of paper I’ll likely lose, that blows. Your emails are available anywhere you go with your cell phone, what with our modern phone technology.
Yes, I agree that email is a good way to start and for documenting important details. However, people who drag out the email exchanges would raise a red flag in many peoples’ minds.
I’ve been in situations where I’ve made inquiries via email for the reasons stated above and then suggested having a phone conversation after which the person disappeared and changed their mind about the ad. So absolutely, I would in future transactions suggest a phone call. If the person wasn’t interested or couldn’t work it into their schedule, yes I would use that as a way to screen them.
A buyer that would not talk on the phone and only wanted to e-mail would turn me off–I want to be able to hold an actual conversation with a real person, so I can find out what their experience level is, their goals with the horse, etc., and I simply cannot do that through e-mail. Experience is not easily quanitified; I need to ask questions based on the person’s responses to get an accurate picture of whether or not the horse in question will even work for the seller. Finally, if they make the effort to call me, I know they are serious, and are serious about actually finding an appropriate horse. Lots of things written do not translate to the person buying–I find all the time that people who do call me after an e-mail exchange have a preconceived notion of the horse based on photos or videos that they are not reading accurately–I can save them wasted time of coming to see a horse that is not appropriate if they just call.
