Topic Discussed:  
Cemetery Plots for Sale? There is No Magic Selling Button to Push. Part One of Four articles discussing Cemetery Plots for sale. The misconceptions about selling cemetery plots that is keeping most of the nearly 2 million cemetery plots for sale out of the marketplace that private owners could be selling but aren't 

Cemetery Plots for Sale? There is No Magic Selling Button to Push.
Part 1 Cemetery Plots for Sale what sellers don’t understand.

There are nearly 2 million cemetery plots and gravesites that should be on the market that are not. The sellers of these billions of dollars worth of valuable cemetery property don’t understand how the selling process works.

Evidence of how little is known about how this multi-billion dollar market really operates, can be seen in a recent letter sent from one seller, with cemetery plots for sale, thinking about listing for sale, to another seller, already listed, asking, “I, too, have four cemetery plots to sell. Would you mind giving me your opinion of this site for selling the plots?”

If you have any real knowledge of how the cemetery plots for sale market operates, there is generally only one response one would expect to such a question, "I haven't sold yet."

How else could a seller who hasn’t already sold expect to respond? The thinking, by most cemetery property sellers, that all you have to do to sell is just put out an ad and people will come running,  is a complete misunderstanding how cemetery property gets bought and sold on its most basic level.

 It assumes cemetery plots or gravesites for sale are no different then a car, sofa or even a dining room table when it comes to selling.

It is not to say these cemetery plot sellers are unintelligent but rather that they are naïve, in a major way, as to what kind of marketing and sophistication must go into the selling process if they ever expect to even get someone to voice an interest, let alone buy their cemetery plots.

The sad fact is that, in any given year, more cemetery properties are needed, in just that year, than the entire availability of all privately owned cemetery property, currently available, for sale. In other words, if every cemetery plots for sale offer, of every private owner who has them for sale, was sold this year to those who will need them there would not be enough for sale to fulfill the need. There also would be no privately owned cemetery property for sale the next year because all of it would already be gone to those who needed it last year. 

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About the Author
RW Ward

The author writes and studies marketing and consumer trends in death care around the world. His industry experience includes some of the world's largest death care providers. Comments? Questions? Send Them to:
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