No, Your House Is Not Worth That Much…

Is it me or does every seller think their house is worth more than it really is?  I don’t blame them. I too, thought my house was worth more than it was.  It’s totally natural because there’s an emotional attachment to it.  I think my Mom and Dad are the best Mom and Dad in the world, but that doesn’t make it a fact.  That opinion is based on an emotional decision.

So how do you approach a listing when your seller thinks their house is worth more than it is?

Here is an approach you can take pricing your listings so you can accomplish two things.

1. Allow the seller to determine they are overpriced themselves so they agree to your initial pricing.
2. Avoid accumulating too much market time and tainting the listing.

This post is about how to address your sellers unrealistic expectation of pricing while at the same time avoid accumulating too much market time and shooting the listing in the foot.  Lots of market time on a listing is no bueno!

It’s our job to advise our seller clients on the who what, where, when,why, and how of listing a property for sale.  This includes telling them to low down dirty truth about their market value. You are only doing your clients a disservice taking an overpriced listing you know won’t sell.

On this post we are going to talk specifically on pricing positioning.

Pricing Positioning

Your initial list price is the most important part of positioning because the first couple weeks on the market is when you will get the most amount of eyeballs on your listing. Knowing how consumers search online is crucial. It’s even more crucial to explain this in detail to your client.

• How do buyers search?
• What are the most important parameters they set up?

The #1 search criteria on any property search online is price. Most people and search sites search in $25,000-$50,000 increments. Your initial list price should take this into consideration. For example,  listing at 254,900 would miss all buyers searching up to $250,000.   Your initial pricing should be focused on what would trigger the most amount of traction in the least amount of market time simply on price alone. “Testing” the market at a very high price can backfire on you if price is not adjusted early on in the listing.

WHY?

More showings and competition means higher offer to list price typically.  I would rather list at $199,900 vs. $209,900 for example.  I know I have a higher chance of getting as close to $200,000 within the first two weeks of listing.  In a tight inventory market there’s a good chance I can get higher than $199,900 by creating a multiple offer scenario.  If I start at $209,900 I am missing everyone capping their search at $200,000.

My risk of starting higher is in accumulating too much market time. As a buyers agent I advise my clients to come in much lower on properties that have over 30 days of market time than ones newly listed. If you have over 60 days of market time, I’m coming in very low.

Having a preplanned pricing strategy creates urgency and scarcity if done correctly.

How To Plan A 2 Step Pricing Strategy With A Seller Who Doesn’t Agree With Your Initial List Price

Let’s say you had a seller who wanted to start really high.  I would suggest a pre-planned price change before you took on the listing.  Tell the seller than you agree to their price for a certain amount of time (1-2 weeks) if they agree to a price change early on should they not get enough activity up once they go live. This gives you a back up plan so you have the time to “reposition” the listing without accumulating too much market time early on in the listing.  A newly listed property ALWAYS gets showings unless its OVERPRICED even with a bad marketing plan!

Most sellers don’t realize how market time can hurt them down the road and when you point this out in detail, you look like a ROCKSTAR.

Pricing positioning, many times, is the key to getting an offer. It’s amazing what a repositioning in price can do for your listing even if the price change is only $5,000 and you enter into a $25,000 or $50,000 increment. You should have a pre-planned pricing strategy laid out for your seller upfront should your initial offering not get enough traction to create an offer. This allows the price change conversation to go over more smoothly if you have to resort to it.  Also, having a “back up plan” is great service and sellers appreciate it. They are hiring you for a solution to their house problem so be a good problem solver!

Case Study:

We took over a listing from an agent who had the property listed for over 250 days without one price change.  Nobody wants to buy the house that sat on the market FOREVER. When we took the property over we decided to list it at $214,900.  This was only a $5,000 price change from when it was previously listed at $219,900. The seller was taking a big loss on the property so every dollar counted!  We sat on the market for roughly 2 weeks with a decent amount of showings and even received a second showing, but no offers.

I had to have a heart to heart with the seller and tell him that we needed to go below the $200,000 to get an offer before we shot ourselves in the foot by accumulating too much market time. I knew we would  be “repositioning” and reaching everyone capping their search at $200,000. Within 4 days, we received an offer within $1,000 of list price because the buyer didn’t want to lose out on that deal!  It was because we had a minimum amount of market time that made the buyer “not want to lose out” and come in with an offer that was within 1% of list price!That’s pricing positioning!

TIP: Always try to tell stories of past experiences. It helps people understand much better and you will get your point across more effectively.

Market Time

Nobody wants to buy the house that nobody else wanted, but at the same time everybody wants the house that everyone else wants. When a property gets listed for sale, everyone takes notice of it.  A good listing agent knows how to create urgency.

“You are more likely to generate a higher offer when you can create urgency because someone will pay more for something they feel will be gone tomorrow”.

When speaking about price with your seller it’s very important that you explain this to them in detail. It’s best to always price correctly from the beginning, but let’s face it, you are going to have clients who think their house is worth more than it is.  Sellers LOVE when you have options and multiple exit strategies. When you get a client that wants to try to test the market and shoot for an unrealistic price, make sure they know the consequences up front of accumulating market time.

Here is a video from one of my training inside Attracktor that will explain this in more detail.

Grasp the concept of pricing positioning so you can now have an educated conversation with the seller that pricing too high from the start can potentially hurt them in the long run.

We suggest pricing right from the beginning, but this is for those sellers that are emotionally connected to the property and do not want to listen to your expert advice.

This is more of an “I Told You So” approach without actually having to say that.  With this approach you can give the seller what they want (pricing too high) and at the same time not accumulate too much market time where they end up retrieving less in the long run.

One of my favorite lines is, “we cannot create the market, we can only react to it”.

Let this serve as a potential compromise when your seller disagrees with your pricing.I have found that this approach does two things.

First, it lets a seller who thinks their house is worth more than it really is (every seller) test the market and see for themselves.

Secondly, it gives you a pricing repositioning strategy for when a listing just sits.  I hope you don’t have to change price at all, but it’s going to happen on some of your listings and as the market changes. Now, you have a backup plan when all else fails and you need to kick the listing in the ass.

A marketer will have  backup plans.  A Realtor has just one. How many other agents do you think are giving their clients a “back up plan”?

EXACTLY…

Real estate agents no longer control the information about real estate available for sale, but we still control the real estate customer experience!  The way to compete against the technologies of the world trying to cut us out of the equation is to simply outperform them.  Technology will never replace one on one human interaction. These “alternatives” ultimately compete on price, but price IS NOT the only thing consumers care about.

People don’t care what you charge, they care you earned it.

The value  a real estate agent brings to the table is the total real estate customer experience you offer.  To hammer this week’s message, I wanted to share the sales process of a chiropractor I recently signed up for and how it relates to real estate. Let me explain…

Last week I signed up for 3 months worth of chiropractic services.  I didn’t plan on signing up for three months, but I was so impressed with the experience I did it.  I going to walk you through my customer experience and then show you how the sales process is no different for a your real estate business.

The Marketing

I was at a street fest with my family and as we were walking through the tents one of them was a chiropractor.  I have bad lower back issues so instantly I thought I could get a FREE adjustment.  I met Dr. Lara there. She was very approachable and smiley giving off a good first impression.  She sat me on the table and gave me a quick check up.  She quickly identified where my pain was coming from and offered some valuable advice.  She then offered to give me a full check up with x-rays so we can do a deeper analysis at their office.

I didn’t really want to go, but I did because my back has been killing me and I feel like an 85 year old man. Maybe I could get my FREE adjustment at her office:).

What this has to do with the real estate customer experience.

As Realtors we are constantly looking for new clients to work with.  Whether you are buying portal leads or you are referral based, the initial step should be to always set an appointment with prospects to learn about their needs and wants and then better advise. We would refer to these as listing presentations or a buyers consultation.  The purpose of them to to demonstrate our expertise and better advise the clients so they can make a more informed decision.

I wasn’t a client at the chiropractic office yet and neither are your buyers and sellers leads at this point.  Before you take someone to go see a bunch of homes or even list your best friend’s house, you SHOULD always walk each client through the entire process regardless of who they are. This also will help you weed out the people who aren’t that serious.

Who makes one of the largest financial investments of their life without talking about it in detail. If they are serious buyers or sellers they will meet with you before they commit to working with you!

Far too often, Realtors try to sell a house on the first meeting. Instead focus on creating extreme value upfront earning their business .   I am currently in the “Lead” phase.

The Consultation

I arrived at the chiropractors office and met Dr. Lara. Instantly I was greeted with with a big smile by their front staff.  They are extremely personable.  There were other patients in the office too and I noticed the interaction they had with the staff as well. It felt like everyone knew each other for a long time. We took some x-rays and she further checked out my back.  She then walked me through in detail how chiropractors work and in general how the discs line up in your vertebrae.  I’ve been to plenty of chiropractors and not once did I ever learn this much about my back.

We ended the consultation by setting up a follow up to analyze my x-rays as those would show us where the problem areas are.  I set another appointment to come back in 3 days.

What this has to do with the real estate customer experience.

This was like visiting a house and doing a listing presentation.  You are able to see the property first hand so that you know how to properly come up with a marketing plan for it.  You need to research the local area, create the ideal buyer avatar, and then create a marketing plan to speak to that particular audience. However you cannot come up with that kind of marketing plan without first seeing the property yourself.  You also demonstrate your expertise and apply for the job.

When you are meeting with prospects, it’s important to learn their needs. Not every seller is looking for the highest and best price for example.  Listen to what people want, and then create the best solution for them.

Are you setting up a marketing plan specific for that property and then creating another reason to come back or call back.  For example, “now that I know what your house is worth Mr. & Mrs. Seller, I will create a net sheet for you and then you can see what your true walk away bottom line will be”. Just because you go on a listing presentation or buyers consultation doesn’t mean you’re hired, you just auditioned for the job.  If you do get hired on the spot, then great, you would still follow up with value!

I am currently in the “Prospect” phase.

The Follow Up & Options

I had to go back in the chiropractors office to see the results of my x-rays.  I was super curious and even a bit excited to find out what was going on.  My back looks like a bent straw in x-rays.  I learned that my back was slowly deteriorating and I had to do something about it.  At this time I am still not a client.  Dr. Lara further advised me with a 3 month plan of action that was very detailed.

She took out a piece of paper and walked me through each week what each session would look like.  Instantly I was thinking this was going to be pretty expensive.  I know I wanted to do it, but was curious on what the price was going to be. She gave me 3 different payment options.

Option 1- We could go on an a la carte basis. The total for this would be roughly $2400 for 3 months.

Option 2- We could do a flat fee of $600/month for 3 months bringing the total to $1,800.

Option 3- I could pay the entire 3 months up front for $1,440.

I chose option 3.  Keep in mind when I started this, I was only planning on getting adjusted for FREE at a street festival.  Now I’m going to therapy 3 times a week and just spent $1400 bucks.

The best part is that I’m happy to invest into my body and take care of a problem I didn’t know was that serious.  I appreciated the different options and the way they stacked their offer.  Ultimately they sold me on the experience I receive each and every time I visit the office.  Yea, I’ll get my back adjusted each time I go, but I bought into the 3 month plan that would force me to fix this issue. At that point the cost was irrelevant because I could justify the value.

What this has to do with the real estate customer experience.

Everything!  How many times in the past year have you been asked to discount your commission?  Have you lost a buyer to a rebate brokerage yet?  People only choose less expensive alternatives when there is a lack of value in their present option.

People choose a rebate broker over you because they think the 1-1.5% savings is worth more than your expertise.

People chose listing with a flat fee brokerage for $3,750 over a 5-6% commission because they think all you are doing is popping up a sign in the yard and listing their home on the MLS.

People want you to earn their business. If your involvement in a transaction creates more value than you being absent from it, then payment is not an obstacle.

Do you have options to your services?  Is your role truly defined?  What is your process?

It is crucial to your business to develop your own customer service process to enhance the real estate customer experience in your business because it’s a fact that what someone else says about your business is far more powerful than what you can ever say about it.  Also, keep in mind that over 60% of business each and every year comes from the people you know, past clients, or referrals.

Have you noticed all the “less expensive” options coming out the wood works in the real estate industry? As if this business wasn’t hard enough, we now have to compete against price too!   I don’t know about you, but I can’t stand when a buyer or seller asks me to take a discount simply because they saw a Red Fin commercial.

When you bring TRUE value, these less expensive options are no longer competition.

My goal of this post is to show you exactly how to compete against the “less expensive” options.  And YES… to compete you must be willing to learn something new to differentiate your brand because an MLS listing and a sign in the yard is no longer a marketing plan.

Realtors have more competition than any other time in our industry’s history.   The question is: why is all of this competition sprouting up and how do traditional real estate agents compete against it?

I was on the phone the other day with a broker from Salt Lake City and she was describing what’s going on in her market.  Apparently, there is  new FSBO company that is taking their market by storm.  Although this company is a FSBO flat fee type of service,  they are providing sellers with a more advanced marketing plan than a traditional agent does. They are winning by providing better value and/or service along with a discount!

This scenario has also happened in other industries as well.  Take a look at Uber! They have created a better service that also saves people money. Uber took the taxi cab industry head on by offering a less expensive fare that picks you up vs. having to call and flag a ride down.  It’s more convenient and less expensive than your traditional taxi service.

Is The Same Thing Happening Right Now In The Real Estate Industry?

The market sees a lack of value present within the real estate industry and people have been calling it for years! In August of 2015 Inman News wrote an article citing the largest threats to the real estate industry.

They were;

1. Low Quality Agents
2. A Poor Consumer Real Estate Experience
3. Entry Into the Industry by Non-Industry Companies

What Does This Mean?

It means consumers don’t think Realtors are worth their weight and therefore the market was ripe for alternative options. This, in my opinion, has allowed “less expensive” options to infiltrate the market place. When there is a lack of value, the only other option to revolutionize is price.

Learning how to compete against the “competition” is very simple, but you must find out their strengths and weaknesses first. You can then “position” your brand to do what they cannot. This is how I would suggest developing your value proposition.

I want to share with you what I believe are the proper ways to position your brand to both buyers and sellers going forward.

Home Buyers

Buyers no longer need real estate agents to find out about properties for sale as much as they need them to confirm wise investment decisions. It was for this very reason that I pulled IDX from my site.  Most agents thought I was crazy, but I begged to differ.  How am I going to compete against Zillow or Red Fin?  Do I really think people will use my website to search for homes over those giants?

Most times not….

So I started creating content that buyers search for.  The one thing none of the “online” competition can offer is local area expertise and investment advice.  The “less” expensive options do not have the local knowledge that I do.  Therefore, how can they confirm wise investment decisions? My website is an encyclopedia of the “how to’s” of real estate.  I promote my expertise because I know my competition cannot. I also know the value of my expertise far outweighs the 1-1.5% rebate savings offered by a Red Fin type of brokerage. The challenge is educating the public on that which I overcame through creating very good content.

I know the staff or agents working for the “less expensive” options do not have the expertise or experience I do because if they did, they would have built their own brand vs. working for one.

Secondly, is that I became an expert of the facilitation of real estate transactions. I’m talking about creating a red carpet consumer experience.  So I built systems and processes around my business that are meant to get the job done, but also improve their experience.  I turned customer service into a marketing and lead generation strategy. I call this having effective Transactional Marketing Systems in place.

How Did I Reposition?

My overall brand “positioning” is no different than what a financial advisor does for people looking to invest in a savings or retirement account.  I am an advisor on the investment aspect of real estate.  When I get asked about the Red Fin’s of the world I combat it with the following;

“I don’t care what you buy, I care about the investment aspect of it. When you do well on that, you are more likely to refer me your friends and family”

” Sure you can use a rebate broker that will credit you 1% of the purchase price, but this is really the question.  1% amounts to roughly $3,000 on a $300,000 purchase.  The only reason I have a job still is because my clients make investments out of their home.  Are you really saving money? In this case, $3,000 on one of the largest financial decisions in your lifetime is peanuts.  The truth is you are either not being advised at all or if you are it’s by someone who doesn’t know the market like I do. So would you rather save $3,000 or really make an investment out of this purchase and make alot more down the road?

Home Sellers

Sellers don’t want to hire a Realtor, they want to hire a marketer.  The sell side is pretty simple.  Quit being your traditional Realtor and start being a marketer.

It’s obvious as to what sellers want from their agent.  They want us to expose their property to hundreds of buyers so we can sell their home for more money much faster and make it a hassle free process.  If you listing marketing plan is simply an MLS listing, sign in the yard, a few flyers, and an open house, you most likely need to improve on your process.

Think about it…

If you were selling your house and you are given two options which would you decide?

An agent who does the status quo or a company that does the status quo and saves you 1-2.5% of the sales price?

If we want to compete against Zillow or rebate/flat fee brokerages you must have a value add that they don’t.  It’s for this reason sharpening your marketing skills to adapt more processes that better market the property are essential.

Are you doing Facebook ads for your listings?

Are you doing video for your listings?

In addition to adapting more advanced marketing strategies to increase a property’s exposure, what is your strategy?  Marketing any product or service is no different than marketing a property for sale.  You must first determine who the ideal buyer avatar is for that house and ten craft your marketing to speak to that ideal audience.  A home selling strategy IS NOT WAITING FOR A BUYER to come around eventually.  Its how you proactively adjust to your current offering!

In real estate marketing we call this positioning.  I highly suggest reading this article as it can replace every seller script you ever had.  Once you start talking like a marketer, your conversions will go up and eventually you will begin attracting business.

There is a paradigm shift within the real estate industry.  Are you going to adapt or die?

Are you one of those real estate agents reading off some cheesy real estate script?

I get so confused when I see agents constantly asking for a “script” to use. How can you script for a conversation you have not yet had?

Do you want to stat converting more of your real estate leads?

Then stop using a real estate script and start being real.  There is extreme power in demonstrating your authenticity.

I want you to try and put yourself in the shoes of a buyer or seller. Imagine you get called by a real estate agent and they are reading off a script.

Does it feel genuine?

It’s no different than when you get cold called from a call center in India.  You can hear the “boiler room” in the background and what sounds like hundreds of “script readers”. It’s an immediate turn off to most people and spotted a mile away.

The key to conversion is not persuasion, it’s conversation.

 Most people determine in the first 30 seconds of speaking with you if they will continue the conversation or engage in it.  If they do, you have a better chance of building trust and ultimately setting an appointment.

You want to know who converts the most amount of leads?

Agents who don’t use a real estate script and instead focus on building a relationship first vs. “selling”.

Where Should You Start?

The key to converting more leads is through the power of authenticity. People don’t want to be sold, they want to be served by a living breathing human being, not a robot. How you say something is more important than what you say upon initial conversation. 

There are two reasons people still use a real estate agent today;

1. To confirm a wise buying or selling decision.
2. To facilitate the entire transaction

People use real estate agents for their knowledge

So what does this have to do with real estate scripts?

Everything, because your real estate script should focus around helping people with what they are calling you for. What do they want to know that they cannot find online?

This is where the power authenticity comes into play.  Consumers want to trust you, it’s just sometimes they can’t if you are reading some real estate script, you sound off the salesman radar.

Quit being a Realtor and start being a RESOURCE! 

How To Be Authentic With Buyer Leads

You need to know your market inside and out so you can speak intelligently on it. People don’t need you to find houses for sale anymore. 

We no longer are in the business of finding properties for people to buy as we are to confirming those very buying decisions are wise.

For buyer leads, I tend to want my conversations focus more around displaying my local expertise without having to say how awesome I am.  We know that buyers are looking to get a good deal. Therefore, be the one who can help them achieve that investment.

Let’s go through some examples of authenticity for a buyer lead to put this in more context:

Me: “Hello sir, this is the Chicago Real Estate Dude(always a little chuckle) calling you back from Zillow on 123 Cherry lane. What can I help you with”

Lead: “My wife and I are interested in setting up a showing for this property this Sunday”

If the house is under contract (many of the ones they call on are)

Me: “I’m sorry that house is under contract, but good news is it was way overpriced. I wouldn’t let you buy that dump anyways.  How long you been looking?”

Lead: “oh I see… we been looking ….”

Me: “Here’s the scoop and excuse me being blunt.  My best advice is if you are buying a house today is to go after the investment side of things vs. just to buy a house. Our values have re-peaked and if you don’t plan on making an investment out of it then rent instead.  The only other exception is of course you are going to hold this property for 30 years, then I could give two shits about the investment side of things because you will eventually pay this off. It’s when you look for more of a shorter term hold that it makes a big deal. What’s your buying strategy for this move?”

Lead: “I guess I never thought about it”

Me: “Dude, are you crazy?  Don’t buy unless you know what you are doing. The only reason I have a job is because people need my insight to confirm their investments. I’m not sure what the who, what, where, when, and why of your search is, but if you like I don’t mind spending 30-45 minutes with you to show you how this al works.  That way you can see if buying is even right for you? “

My goal on a buyer lead is to demonstrate how to make an investment out of their purchase. What I want you to get out of this example is my tone.  I don’t change for a second in my tone or personality because I have a good lead on the phone.  

Most people decide right away if you are genuine or not. This is why text messaging and video email are having such a positive effect on conversion and creating engagement.  

Find out about the things that most buyers don’t know in your market and educate them on it.  All you need to do is share something with them they most likely didn’t know.

How To Be Authentic With Seller Leads

When speaking to sellers, I take on a different approach focusing the content of our conversation more on facilitation.

What do you do that other agents don’t?

What can you do that a seller cannot do with Red Fin or some other discount broker?

If you want to start converting more sellers, you need to sharpen your marketing skills and create a true value added proposition. Putting a sign in the yard and a MLS listing is not a marketing plan anymore.  The MLS is no longer your secret weapon.

For this reason I like positioning myself as a marketer vs. a Realtor. If you don’t have a REAL marketing plan, what is the point of hiring you?

This is going to be the #1 differentiator between the good, the bad, and the ugly in terms of service Realtors offer the public on the listing side. Don’t believe me? Just follow what Zillow and most recently, Red Fin, are doing.

Your “real estate script” should allow you to enhance your value proposition to working with you.

I focus entirely on talking about positioning. You can read all about it here. Positioning is the strategy behind selling a property.  It’s the remarks you use, pictures you take, and way you optimize it to the public.  For example, I’m not going to talk about the school system when I am selling a bachelor pad, am I?

In marketing, positioning is EVERYTHING!

Again my goal is to create value, not try to sell them on anything. Let’s take into context a CMA or closing cost lead that would typically come off my website.

Me: “Hi this is the “dude”(lol) and I’m just returning your message”

Lead: “Oh hey dude thanks for calling back so quick”

Me: No worries bro(if a dude), I wanted to make sure I gave you an accurate value so I have a couple more questions and I should be able to tell you what your true market value is.  I have one rule though. Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m going to tell you what it would really sell for in today’s market, and that may not be what you want to hear, but I can tell you it’s the truth. If it’s a number you don’t like don’t get mad at me. Is that ok?”

Lead: “That’s all I want”  (THEY ALWAYS SAY THIS)

Me: “Yea, I like telling people up front.  It will be what I see the market really doing and not what fake Zillow Zestimates tell you. I’m a total nerd at this and you just have to trust me on it. If I see it in person I can give you more exacts, but lets start with an online valuation first and if you want me to make the trip out we can do that later”

You just built their trust telling the truth.

Me: “So why you selling?”

Lead: “Let them talk and listen for their true WHY“

NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY, I SAY THIS NEXT.

Me: “Here’s my best piece of advice.  If you want to sell fast and for top dollar, it’s how you position it. When you can create the perception that your house is going to be sold tomorrow, that’s when you get top dollar because people will pay more for something they fear may be gone tomorrow. Let me explain…”

Here’s where I would go into my “positioning” talk you can read about on this article here.

Also notice that my tone never changes. I rely on my marketing skills to educate and my tone for authenticity.

Stop being so professional and start being more REAL.

Wait, did you say…REAL ESTATE LEADS FOR FREE?

Yea I said that.  The best real estate leads for free are referrals!

The million dollar question is, how the hell do you get more referrals?  Sounds easy doesn’t it? It is, but most agents will struggle overanalyzing this to the point they talk themselves out of it.

“Will my database think I’m annoying?”

“I don’t want to bother people I know”

“Everyone I know already knows I’m in real estate”

My goal of this article is to breakdown exactly how to generate referrals from your database so you can start obtaining real estate leads for free.

There are 2 things you need to generate real estate leads for free or what we like to call, Referrals.

First, is that you need an audience.  What’s an audience?  An audience is what all businesses refer to their fans, followers, and past customers.  Many times in real estate, we confuse an audience with a database, so let’s explain the difference.

A database is nothing more than a collection of names, addresses, and contact info.

An audience is a database that you consistently market to and have a relationship with.

An audience looks forward to hearing from you.  An audience loves you.  An audience pays attention to your communication. Your audience knows you exist.

Many real estate agents have a database, but they are not marketing to it consistently enough to transform it into an audience.

Take a look at this website. I have a large audience of real estate people who subscribe to my blog, listen to my podcast, or are members our our advanced marketing community, Attracktor. The only reason any of my followers know who I am is because I am consistently creating content like this and sending it to them through Facebook or email.  If I do not stay in touch with my audience, I will lose customers and authority in my niche.

I create content to stay in touch with my readers and listeners.  They look forward to next week’s tip so look out for it. At the end of the day my only goal is to nurture my relationship with them and continue to bring value into their lives.

It’s no different in your real estate business. If you want real estate leads for free, you need a relationship marketing system that transforms your database into an audience who shares your name with their friends, family, and co-workers.

This is the same formula for ALL businesses!

Let’s take Bye Bye baby for example and examine how they market their business.

When I had my first child, I went to Bye Bye Baby to get my baby supplies.  I input my email address for the receipt during checkout and continue to get email messages from Bye Bye Baby.  Bye Bye Baby is building their email list so they can continue to communicate with me.  They also took my home mailing address and continue to send me coupons. Suddenly, I see them on Facebook too.

Bye Bye Baby continues to market me through email, social media, and direct mail.  They are nurturing their relationship with me so I don’t forget they exist. One of their main goals in marketing is to build their relationship marketing lists.

Why would they do this?

Bye Bye Baby understands that by keeping their brand in front past customers that it will increase sales and overall net income because the subsequent sales after the customer acquisition cost are all profit minus the cost of goods.

In other words, it’s more profitable for businesses to create spin off or repeat business from past customers than it is to acquire new ones. 

The other day I I needed to get a client gift for one of my buyers who happened to be prego with their second child.  Where did I buy their gift at? Bye Bye Baby. Was that because I like Bye Bye baby or was it because they were constantly in front of me so it was the first store I thought of for baby stuff?

Let’s Take Another Example Shall We…

I was recently in Mexico a couple weeks ago at an all inclusive resort.  The resort offered us $1,500 in credits if we would attend their morning breakfast time share sales pitch.  We did it to get the $1,500 credit so we could go take the kids to swim with the dolphins, get FREE earrings, and some other stuff.

This hotel is trying to sell timeshares, but they are not doing so by running mass advertising campaigns, but rather concentrating all of their efforts on current and past hotel guests versus trying to sell their hotel packages to complete strangers.

They understand they get more sales from their current and past guests. It is a higher Return On Investment going about it in this way.

Now back to finding real estate leads for free.

It’s no different in your real estate business.  You don’t generate referrals from strangers, you get them from people you know that believe in your service.

However for whatever reason, real estate agents are led to believe that the way to find business is through cold calling and prospecting constantly.  Those methods work, but do you like doing them?

The key to having a long lasting real estate business is creating an audience of relationships that will support you with referral and repeat business, not buy some super duper email autoresponder that’s going to “drip” on people you never met for 30 days. That’s expensive and a far less ROI than it would be to just focus on your relationships and start getting their real estate leads for free.

The question you need to ask yourself is, are you doing enough to stay on top of mind with your database?

The second question is how are you keeping your brand in front of them?

if you want some more ideas on creating real estate leads for free, you might want to check out my Referral marketing library by clicking the link below!

Access the Referral Marketing Library FREE

People use agents they know, like, and trust, but more importantly that are remembered.

It’s not the job of our database to remember what we do for a living, but it is our job to make sure they do!

We like to call this having a relationship/referral marketing system set up in your business so you are not forgotten about.

Once you have a system to staying on front of your database that nurtures your relationships you will develop an audience out of them, but that’s not it.

Service, Service, Service

The second thing you need to generate referrals is great service, but that sounds too easy so let me explain.  You have to be more than just a licensed agent.  Anybody can get a real estate license, but not everyone can run a referral dominated business based on free real estate leads from their audience. You need to kick ass in what you do because people don’t refer shitty Realtors.

Think about it.  You go into a brand new restaurant and the food is terrible.  Do you go back? Do you tell your friends about it?  Hell no you don’t!

If you want to start attracting free real estate leads in the form of referrals, you need to be exceptional!  So how do agents become exceptional? You become exceptional by having effective transactional marketing systems in place.

What’s your listing marketing plan? Is it involve more than popping a listing on the MLS and putting a sign in the yard?  

Are you using video?

Facebook ads?  

SEO?

What are you doing that a homeowner cannot do on their own?

Your listing marketing plan is an example of your service.  You should have a workflow associated with each buyer and seller client that defines your level of service so you can bring consistency to your business.  You cannot create a brand without consistency.

Think about the restaurant example.  If you went back to a restaurant you previously visited and they changed the chef and ingredients to the same dish you previously ordered and it tasted terrible this time , could that restaurant survive?  Most likely not.

So let’s go back to Bye Bye Baby and look at their product or service.  They have all the name brands in one spot that I need for my baby buying supplies so it works. They have good products.

The hotel example is a little different.  We did end up buying a timeshare there because I get sold everything. We signed up for 50 weeks of vacation at a HUGE discount.  The only reason we did it because we fell in love with the place and had a great experience.

The salesman told us in the middle of the presentation that their company no longer focuses on trying to sell their timeshares to people who have not visited the hotel before.  Instead they focus all their energy on their current and past guests focusing their entire on sales strategy on the customer experience.

He went on to say that their studies show that one positive review on Travelocity online, results in another 3-4 booked vacations, which then results in another few sales meetings being set up.

“What someone else says about your business is far more powerful than anything you can say about it”

Since I got back from vacation, I told all of my friends about this place because I had such a good experience and am planning on going next year. I plan on inviting more families and friends with us this time and will introduce all of them to the same hotel package I bought into.

So bottom line is that you should define your level of service by installing customer service oriented tasks within the workflow of each buyer or seller client you work with. The only goal is to enhance the consumer experience.  Happy and satisfied past clients leads to future referral sources that create real estate leads for free! Once you do and provide a consistent streamlined level of service you will develop something your database wants to brag about.

Did you like this article?  Help me get the word out and share it amongst your peers.

Do you need real estate scripts?

I’m in a handful of real estate groups and I see a consistent theme occurring.

“Does anyone have an open house script?”

“Does anyone have a seller script?”

“Does anyone have a buyer script?”

What are these real estate scripts that everyone is talking about?

Just before I sat down and started writing this post I received two cold calls from companies that tried “scripting” me.

I gave the first rejection a, “I’m sorry but I’m not interested right now” and BAM!

He immediately went into another script based on my answer, “So you are telling me that you don’t want….” then I hung up. It was like talking to a human autoresponder. I was more turned off by the “Scripting” thing that I am now more unlikely to ever become a customer.

I can’t stand real scripts because I don’t know many people who like being on the receiving end of a script. Think about it.

Many people can smell the BS a mile away.

The worst real estate scripts are the ones that are written out!

It’s because when you are using a real estate script, you are losing most of your authenticity.  You cannot undervalue the power of your unique authenticity.

“DUDE YOU’RE CRAZY I”M CONVERTING LEADS LIKE CRAZY“

I hear you, but please hear me out.  If you are converting leads on real estate scripts right now you are good, very good.  It takes a natural to pull off conversion using some of these scripts almost like The Wolf Of Wall Street’s, Jordan Belfort.

In the movie Jordan is a CLOSER, but he’s natural at it. Those are some hard core scripts, but that’s how sales used to be.

In today’s market nothing could be more opposite because we are living in the connection economy.  What’s that mean?

Here’s what Seth Godin had to say. Watch this and take notes.

Buyers and sellers already hate real estate agents so let’s stop creating haters and start creating value for others first. Let’s  engage in conversation and focus on creating a relationship first by serving the needs of others..

People Don’t Want To Be Sold, They Want To be Served

In order to build trust, you must first create value.

So I was in a conference the other day which gave me the inspiration for this post.

So there I was watching a presentation and this slide popped up. This was an internet marketing conference, but this also applies to all communication, especially for Realtors.

If you want to start seeing better results with your client conversions, you need to master the art of learning to ask great questions instead of reading off some “script”.

I’m not saying scripts don’t work, I’m just saying I believe this works better.  I also believe that it also will fit the personality type of more agents who hate “selling” (I’m one of them).

What Kind Of Questions Should I Ask Sellers To Engage in Conversation?

I took this video right out of our one of my training courses.  It’s easier to explain this to you versus write about it.

4 Seller Real Estate Script Questions To Create Conversation

1. Are you familiar with what’s going on in the market right now?- Most people have no idea exactly how the market is doing right now.  I love giving potential sellers a ”birds eye view” of the market because it allows you to show off expertise and share some valuable insight.  Just be honest.  If the market is shitty tell them that. If the market is awesome tell them that. It’s by far the best way to build trust and gain authority right away.
2. Are you aware of how important market time is?- I love this question because I already know most sellers have no idea, which then allows me to give them a mini-listing presentation on the phone by explaining how we position houses for sale. The point I want to make is that I am a marketer who happens to have a real estate license and not the other way around. This allows me to explain the 3 ways to properly position a house for sale. This builds instant authority. I wrote another article on this subject and encourage you to read it because we can go on forever here. It’s called 3 Things You Must Talk About In Every Listing Presentation. This is your seller real estate script.  I also wrote it on my local real estate blog here you can check out The 3 Ways To Position Your House For Sale.
3. Have you prepared a net sheet?- This is the big one that will separate you from the rest.  I am amazed at how many agents do not do this as a service even after they are hired. One of the things that sellers love most is when you offer to provide them with a net sheet because it’s something many of them have not yet thought about. What do you think is more important to a seller, what the house sells for or what they walk away with?  HINT: getting closing costs also allows you to ask questions about the house and give them a CMA at the same time doesn’t it?
4. Are you looking to buy another house after you sell this one and if so do you have to sell to buy?- I love this question because the selling and buying at the same time process is so tricky you know that they cannot do it on their own. Every time I point this out to a seller lead it leads to a longer conversation which allows them to see the need to hire a professional.  I would spend the whole phone call on this question and explain how to buy and sell at the same time. Regardless of the conversation it will always lead to a face-to-face meeting because it has to be mapped out in person. You might want to also check out this article 7 Steps To Selling & Buying A House At The Same Time.  This is your seller script.

All of these questions lead to me providing value first. It’s when I provide value first that getting an appointment is more likely.

Buyer Real Estate Script Questions To Create Conversation

This is also taken out of one of my training courses within Attracktor.

Your primary goal in speaking with any potential buyer lead should be to set up a face to face meeting.  One of the easiest ways to get burnt out in real estate is by showing someone many properties only to find out they cannot get a loan, change of mind, or are not very realistic in their search.

You want to set a buyers consultation for the following reasons:

1. Build rapport and gain trust
2. Build authority
3. Qualify the buyer
4. Find out what they want

As long as you can accomplish these 4 goals, you will see better use of your time.  The 45 minutes you meet with potential buyers will be the best investment of your time you can make.

This video is all about how to set more appointments with both cold and warm buyer leads by engaging them in conversation first and focusing on creating value.

Scripting is a live form of marketing! What you say and how you say it has an extreme importance, especially when prospecting for buyers and running cold marketing systems.

Scripting should be all about building rapport and setting an appointment. It should not be about trying to “close” someone.

Having a real estate license is not enough anymore.

It used to be all you needed to sell real estate, but in today’s world you need more than that.  You need to be a marketer.

Having a real estate license gives the legal right to get paid selling houses, but that doesn’t mean buyers and sellers today think you earned it.

How often do you use the material you take continuing education on to keep your license in tact?

Does it help you get listings?

What do you mean “dude”?

Buyers and sellers expect more out of their real estate agents than they used to.

The writing is on the wall and our commissions are at hostage. Consumers have more options today than they used to.

Technology and the Internet have changed the landscape giving home buyers and sellers less expensive options to using Realtors, but do they really “save” people money?

Well, that depends on who they hire.

Let’s take a deeper look…

If you are a listing agent with a marketing plan that consists of a MLS listing, sign in the yard, and occasional open house, then YES, sellers who choose flat fee options or decide to go FSBO may be better off.

If you have a REAL marketing plan and strategy to selling houses the same way any business does with their product or service, then perhaps not.

It’s pretty simple.

The way to compete against all the “competition” we are experiencing is to show the value you bring to the table. Value can be defined in multiple ways (retrieving higher offer, or making a better investment for example).

Unfortunately, home buyers and sellers tend to lump all Realtors into the same category. Many times they assume all Realtors provide the same level of service more or less.

Nothing could be further from the truth, but in general consumers don’t understand the difference between low and high quality agents, which is why there is a demand for “less expensive” options.

There are good agents and then there are bad agents.

Unfortunately, there are far more bad agents than good ones, but that’s nobody’s fault except the broker owners and other industry elites who encourage anybody and everybody to get a real estate license, but that’s a whole other blog post.

The point is that there is a HUGE opportunity here for real estate agents who can see what’s coming in the future.

Buyers and sellers want agents who demonstrate the skills of a marketer because your license no longer creates the “Value” it used to.

2 Reasons Why Everyone In Real Estate Needs To Sharpen Their Marketing Skills

The first reason Realtors need to become marketers is because being a marketer increases the level of service you offer. Let me give you two examples:

1. You are selling someone’s house and they hire you for the listing. Anyone today can find a flat fee service, put a home on the MLS, and a sign in the yard, but a true marketer is going to know how to position that home to the general public, apply different marketing strategies to it, and retrieve the seller a higher sales price than if they did it alone, making your commission justified. Your marketing skills are part of the service you provide.

2. You are working with a buyer in a tight inventory market and you cannot find anything for sale. A typical Realtor will just wait for something to pop on the MLS, but a marketer will seek out a property for their client to buy that is off market. They will search FSBO’s, send out mailers, and target a property to purchase. You need marketing skills to do this, but it’s part of the service you offer. This is the extra value that no online information source can provide.

In both of these examples, notice on how being a marketer has become part of the service you offer? 

The second reason Realtors need to become better marketers is for consistent lead generation. Our “competition” is consistently dangling their “less expensive” options in front of buyers and sellers daily so you need to beat them to the punch and consistently be marketing for new clients.

PEAKS AND VALLEYS SUCK!

There are many ways to market your business for new clients. It’s not hard to make your phone ring, it’s what you say when it does that makes the difference between the top producers and the low quality agents.

Just this week Zillow announced their brokerage division of their platform. Regardless of the details of their brokerage offering, I think it’s safe to say that Zillow will be successful because of the footprint they have already established.

They also have much bigger pockets to spend on brand awareness than an individual agent so it’s going to be hard to keep up with them, or is it?

How many possible clients are you losing each month to people who instead took a “less expensive” option?

Let’s first start by defining the competition so you know what we are up against.

Who Is This Competition?

They are every alternative to the use of a full service real estate agent. You might want to check out this article below to get a better macro perspective.

Is The Real Estate Industry In Trouble & Nobody Is Listening?

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

Competition Example #1

FSBO’s- In a hot market the MLS is all a seller needs to get a contract on house. Getting a contract on a house is not the hard part, figuring out if that was the highest offer that could have been accepted is.

What To Do To Compete:

FSBO’s jump up and down when they sell their house on their own patting themselves on back for a job well done.  The question is, was it?

Did they really squeeze everything out of that deal or did they leave some money on the table?

I think we know the answer to that, but part of being a marketer is the strategy in the “positioning” of a house for sale.  Marketing is not all about exposure! It’s about how your make the house appear to the general public so that it creates urgency for buyers to take action quickly and for the right price.

The marketing strategy for selling a house is just as important as the actual marketing steps you take.

No FSBO will know how to apply a real marketing strategy to their house the way a marketer can.

Competition Example #2

Flat Fee & Rebate Brokerages- People think they are “saving” money when using one of these options but I strongly disagree the majority of the time.

You get what you pay for with these services.

What To Do To Compete:

This is easy.  Does any of these companies do any of this:

1. Marketing “positioning” strategy
2. Professional Pictures
3. Professional Video or Matterport
4. Featured listing packages on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Homes.com
5. Video Optimization for ranking organically
6. Run Facebook Ads
7. Send Just Listed Postcards
8. Pay for their move
9. Facilitate entire transaction
10. Host & Sit open houses

What’s your marketing plan for listings? Are you starting to see why you need to adapt more marketing services into your business.

The challenge is going to be educating the public of your services so they can compare one against the other.

You see, it’s never a matter of price. Price will get people’s attention because who doesn’t want to save a few bucks, but it’s not everything.

As long as you can demonstrate the value you bring to the table price is not an obstacle.

People don’t mind paying for service, they just want the value to be justified.

There’s a reason why high end barber shops exists when someone can easily go to Super Cuts.

It’s a marketing plan like this that will give you the confidence to compare against any rebate or flat fee brokerage so that the seller can decide whats best for them.

At the end of the day all you have to do is show that you can net the seller an additional 3% more than they could with one of the “less expensive” options.

Why 3%?

Because over 85% of buyers are represented by an agent so even FSBO’s pay commissions many times to buyers agents. There’s a reason why the majority of FSBO’s on Zillow state in the remarks they will cooperate with agents.

In any event I think you can see why in today’s market you need more than a real estate license to compete.  I value licensing laws, but real estate agents need to start investing their time into learning how to create a better service to compete or I think we all know what happens next.

Did you like this article?  If so, share it and help us get the word out!

Need FREE buyers agent training or possibly thinking about hiring your first buyers agent? First of all, congratulations for making it to this stage in your career! It’s exciting that you are leveraging a buyers agent to your team!

OR

Perhaps you are a broker owner or a team leader and you are sick and tired of doing the buyers agent training!  Then this is for you too!  I’m going to give you a 4 step checklist and some training to follow.

Let me first start off by saying that properly training your buyer’s agent is one of the most important things you can do. The time and energy you put in now will pay off in the future if you find the RIGHT agent to bring into your team or office.  They will create residual income for you as your role should become more focused on keeping their pipeline full. This is the importance of having a good buyers agent training system in place.

There is a major difference between agents who can close and agents who cannot.  Hiring the right person is 80% of the battle because getting them trained is the easy part. You cannot train someone’s personality, trust me I tried.  Once you find the right person, it’s time to get them going.  This is the most important piece of advice I can give you right now.  When you have a new hire, IT’S ESSENTIAL THAT YOU LAY OUT THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT TO WORKING WITH YOU UPFRONT. It is much more difficult to mold an agent into a system down the road as opposed to it being the only thing they know to working with you. In other words, to make your buyers agent training more effective, start this DAY 1.

The entire focus of buyers agent training should be to give them a process to follow that can be duplicated and represent your brand well. The smallest details of a transaction from a customer service perspective can lead to tens of thousands of dollars in additional commission. For example, implementing a process to assist your buyer in turning on their utility services for them prior to moving is a great service that encourages referrals and repeat business. The closing gift you get your clients is also reflective of your brand and necessary. Small customer service details in real estate are the most effective form of marketing because our industry is dominated by referrals or word of mouth. You want your buyers agent training to lay out the process and brand you want to portray.

A good buyers agent training system can turn your buyers agent into a mini ATM machine. Your training should help improve their closing ratios by giving them an effective system or process to follow. Here’s a good overview of a good buyers agent training system.

Step 1- Agent Scripting To Appointment

This is 80% of the battle.  I hate using the word scripts because I don’t believe in using them.  I do believe that all agent’s script should be based on providing value to others. It’s hard to script for something you don’t know is coming.  You have no idea what any particular lead is going to want to ask you about.  Therefore as a script, it’s much easier to teach agents how to answer the most important real estate questions most buyers have. This is the content that all buyers agent training should be focused on. Here’s a good tip!

A good buyer’s agents should be able to convert leads into face to face meetings for buyer consultations.

The very first training they need to tackle is going over what they should say to potential buyer leads who they are given. Focus on showing them how to sell without selling at all by providing value to someone first then asking for an appointment later. They need to focus on being an educator first and foremost. When considering hiring a new buyers agent to join your office or team, you want to look for people who are very outgoing, friendly, and great on the phone.  Introverts typically do not make good buyers agents, extroverts do!

Here’s the goal of a lead and setting a face to face meeting:

1. Build rapport and gain trust
2. Build authority
3. Qualify the buyer
4. Find out what they want

This is an in-depth video form the Attract & Retain Formula Boot Camp. Check it out!

Check out these articles for more information:

How To Sell Real Estate Without Every Having To Close Anyone

OR

Why Do Some Agents Convert Better Than Others?

Step 2: Buyers Consultation Training

Once you have a buyers agent who is good at setting face to face meetings you need to train them in what to say at those meetings.  I have found that when buyers agents are trained well in giving a buyer’s consultation that their productivity will go up quite a bit.

Potential buyers are more likely to commit to your buyers agent because of this.  More importantly, your buyer’s agent will develop an authority position with the buyer as they look to them for advice setting the tone right from the beginning.  This will help alleviate some of the tire kickers out there.  You can read this article for more information on the buyers consultation overall.

How To Avoid Working With Tire Kicker Buyers

Here’s some more buyers agent training.

When you meet with someone who is interested in buying property, what do you talk about?

This video is going to show you the step by step buyer consultation to have with a potential client.  This is the basis of what a buyers consultation should be.

Having a buyers consultation is about a whole lot more than just meeting someone.  It qualifies the potential client. Let’s face it, there are many people out there who want what does not exist.  Instead of taking someone out blindly (not knowing what they like), you get a chance to build rapport, establish yourself as an authority, and confirm their purchasing timeframes/intentions.  I personally will never show anybody a house until they meet with me first.

The same “education” you will go over in a buyers consultation also serves as a way to create killer content for marketing purposes.  Below are some examples of how I use my expertise on buying a property to create content and show that I am an expert at what I do.  I create content and promote it in social media. Here are some Youtube examples:

The First Thing You Should Do When Considering To Buy A House

How Much Should I Spend On A House?

Tax Advantage To Home Ownership

Feel free to visit my youtube channel to get some more examples.

Visit my website to see how I used this content for marketing purposes.  This is what online marketing is. Use it as a road map for a possible content marketing strategy.

VISIT MY SITE HERE AND CHECK OUT MY BLOG

Step 3-Perfect Their Process

Homebuyers use agents for only two reasons today.  Anybody can find a house for sale online today as the vast majority of properties are listed publicly.  Consumers look for a buyers agent to leverage their local expertise and to help them navigate through the home buying process.  Your buyers agent should know their local market well.  This is something I cannot help you with as it’s built with experience.  What I can help you with is providing a process that will help your buyer’s agents service kick real estate ass.

I call this, having effective transactional marketing system.  This is the level of service they provide. The way to make this happen is by implementing a buyer checklist that the agent is required to perform on each and every buyer client they are working with. This gives your brand some consistency while at the same time helps build your buyer’s agents business by providing a level of service that creates clients into referral sources and eventually repeat clients.

These are the goals for doing this:

1. Create raving fan client who becomes a referral source.
2. Leverage the current buyer to pick off spin off business by performing marketing activities like Just Sold Fb ad and direct mail postcards for example.

Have you every seen a successful business without a process in place?  It doesn’t exist and part of forming a team or building a brand is to create a value added service that people desire.  Ultimately your buyer agents reflect your brand regardless of your position.

Check this out and let me know what you think!

Do you have a consistent process in place to take care of all your buyer clients?

One of the most undervalued concepts of marketing that Realtors take for granted is the level of service they offer their clients.  No matter who you are working with, you should always treat all buyers the same.  Your customer service is the #1 marketing system you have in real estate because we are predominantly a referral based business.

How do you get referrals or repeat business?

Simple…

You kick ass with the level of service you offer your clients. Doing this will not only encourage repeat business, but also turn your past clients into a referral source that send their friends and family members to you when they know someone who may need your services.  This is your least expensive form of marketing you will ever do because receiving a referral costs you $0.

The only way you will receive referrals from anyone is by doing an amazing job on their transaction!

You want to look at all of your clients as a source for future business because that’s exactly what they are.  Follow this checklist and make sure you do not miss any steps! This video will walk you through exactly what to do with each buyer client you take on. In addition to making a Rockstar impression that will have clients wanting to send you business, it’s equally important to use your transactions to leverage additional business by implementing transactional marketing steps.  Doing this will create spin off business and leverage your existing business into spin off business.

In this video we give you a step by step transactional checklist so that you may accomplish both! Follow each step and things will happen.  Remember you are building a business, not working a job.

I speak a lot about process.  Having a good process makes a good business. This is the exact checklist I follow with every single client.  All of these touches are a way to stay on top of your game and enhance their experience they had with you.  Good experience equals referrals and repeat business.

If you are using our CRM, you the buyer transactional marketing checklist is automatically implemented into contact detail once you “tag” the contact as an active buyer.

Step 4- Set Expectations

When you are looking to hire a new buyers agents making sure you lay out the rules of engagement up front.  Having a system in place puts the burden on them to perform and not the other way around.  Doing this will save you hours of frustration in the long run as well as give your buyers agents a blue print they need to follow.  Hopefully you made a good choice in your buyer’s agent and will be happy with their performance, but I’d be lying to you if it were that easy.  Realistically, you could set up rules and guidelines up front in your buyers agent training and have a predetermined set of consequences if your buyers agent is not following them.

This takes the pressure off you as well as builds an easy way out in the future if you should decide this agent was not the right fit for your team or brokerage. They can play by your rules or hit the road!

I hope I laid out some guidelines for you to follow for setting up your buyers agents training.  If you have any further interest you should check out the Attract & Retain Boot Camp where all of this training is taught in much more detail.  The boot camp only opens up every two months and it will train your buyers agents for you. Click here for more details!

Real estate is not a hard business, but it’s a hustle business.  The question you should ask yourself is if you feel like you are in the right hustle?

Please comment below.  I would love to hear from you.

If you think others could benefit from this article share it and help us get the word out by clicking the social media icons below or at the top of this post.

It’s very common, in today’s market, to be in multiple offer situations.  You might have been working with a buyer for 4 months and because inventory is tight, you have just been waiting for the perfect home to pop up.

The home comes on the market and your buyer LOVES it! You submit an offer only to find out…

“Highest and best please…”

Inventory levels in many areas of the country are tight so this is happening quite a bit, but how do you get your offer to stand out? Let’s go over what not to do when negotiating.

Don’t text or email  an offer

Technology has made many aspects of our job easier, but sometimes it can hurt us too.  Real estate will always be a people business.  Texting or emailing your offer is very cold. It’s important to make contact with the listing agent because they are the ones who are selling your offer to the seller. You should make efforts to “personalize” your offer which will help in getting your it accepted.

My sellers always ask my opinion on which offer is the strongest.  When I have an idea of who I’m dealing with, their offer stands out.  Other than price, sellers want to know about which offer is going to make it to the closing table. Knowing that an offer is from a first time buyer that is super excited vs. dealing with a money hungry investor can sway the seller to take one offer over the other.  Don’t sell your clients short by not personalizing your offer! Sell your buyer to the listing agent whenever possible.

It would be a good idea to reach out to a listing agent before you submit an offer to let them know what’s coming and get as much information about the property activity before submitting.  I would also suggest using video email to send it over.  How many agents are using video email?  You can read more about that CLICKING HERE. 

Don’t Strong Arm Anybody

I hate when a cocky agent submits an offer on our listings.  Our job is stressful enough and we don’t want to deal with some jerk who is having a bad day.

One of the members in our Facebook group reached out to me worried about an agent who tried to strong arm him.  He was on the listing side of a deal and this agent told him he was going to report him to the board for whatever reason.  The buyers agent was mad because someone else submitted an offer in the middle of their negotiation.  The seller’s agent MUST disclose all offers to seller so the counter was changed to highest and best.

The buyers agent went on to strong arm him talking about how long he has been doing this, threats of taking some kind of legal action(no idea what kind of legal action since the listing agent was just doing their job), and used other language that was totally unnecessary.

Needless to say I’m pretty sure the other offer got the deal since they we essentially at the same price. Nobody wants another headache.

Don’t Tell Me How Long You’ve Been In The Business

It’s very condescending.  Don’t be that agent who says, “sweetie….I’ve been in the business for 15-25 years let me tell you….”

I DON’T CARE.

Telling an agent how many deals you closed or how long you have had your license can offend someone. You are inferring that you are smarter than they are even though it might not be what you mean to say.  I can tell you first hand that you are hurting the chances of your offer being accepted. This pisses agents off.

If you are dealing with a newer agent who is frustrating to deal with, just kill them with kindness. Instead of taking a harsh approach, instead take them under your wing and guide them with you years of wisdom.  Who knows, maybe you’ll recruit them too!

Don’t Lie To Get A Deal Accepted

Lying to an agent about your buyer or seller qualifications to get a deal accepted will come back to haunt you in some way shape or form. It’s bad karma.

Believe it or not there are many agents who submit offers from buyers they might have just met for the first time.  The buyer comes through a online portal and they show up to meet them at the property.  The agent and the buyer don’t really know each other well, but the buyer wants the house, so the agent writes up the offer.

During negotiations the buyer’s agent is trying to sell how qualified this buyer is to the listing agent even though they barely know the buyer. Deal gets accepted and 4 days later the buyer goes MIA?  I can bet that listing agent will not take your seriously next time.

We all want to close more deals, but I have found that the best policy for that is to be honest.  Call me old fashioned, but what comes around certainly goes around.  The real estate industry is a small field of agents and you will run in to them again.

Conclusion

Next time you are negotiating a deal on the buy or sell side, just use your common sense and treat others how you would expect to be treated.  Yes, there will be some agents who will frustrate you, but just bite your tongue and treat them with respect.  Personally, I like negotiating in kindness first and foremost.  If things get ugly and as long as you are negotiating on facts, you can get aggressive later, but always start things out in a “nice way”.

Real estate is not a hard business, but it’s a hustle business.  The question you should ask yourself is if you feel like you are in the right hustle?

Please comment below.  I would love to hear from you.

If you think others could benefit from this article share it and help us get the word out by clicking the social media icons below or at the top of this post.

Do You Know The 3 Marketing Systems To Set Up In Your Real Estate Business To Avoid Cold Calls & Prospecting Forever?

Creating systems to keep business opportunities coming is very important to running a successful real estate business. Speaking of systems, check this out…

“Mr. /Mrs. Seller… your house is overpriced and you need to drop it by $50,000″…

OUCH that hurt!

This is one of the conversations we all hate having, but it’s going to come up sooner or later on one of your listings.

So what’s the best way to ask your seller about a price change?

How do you ask for a price change without turning your client against you?  If you don’t think sellers get irritated when you ask for a price change you are wrong.  Whether or not they turn that irritation into hate is another story, but this is how you can make the best out of an uncomfortable situation.

Set Expectations From The Beginning

Avoiding an uncomfortable situation is always about setting expectations.  We know that ALL most sellers think their house is worth more than what it actually is, so set expectations up front.  Nine times out of ten, your sellers are going to want to list higher than you suggest.  This is why we always present a pre-planned pricing strategy should the initial offer price not receive enough traction.

Doing it this way allows you to test the market to please the seller (I Told You So), but at the same time make price adjustments necessary without accumulating too much market time.

What Is A Pre-Planned Pricing Strategy?

This video is taken from my “Attraction Marketing” Boot Camp

Have A Real Marketing Plan That’s More Than An MLS Listing & Sign In Yard

The knee jerk reaction to a stale listing is typically that you are not marketing the property well enough. This is another reason you need to do more than the average agent for your listings. If you have a good listing marketing plan and your seller knows everything you are doing up front you will avoid this conversation altogether. Sellers will blame your marketing when showings are not happening.

You want to accomplish this in the listing presentation and by sending all your marketing materials to your sellers so they can see everything you are doing to market their home. During that first week on the market and at the listing presentation I make sure the seller knows how many showings we should be having and what it means when things are slow. It’s my job to make sure the seller knows that the market will tell us if we are over priced or not.

When you implement a pre-planned pricing strategy, you set the rules of engagement up front. Everyone wants to test the market and I don’t blame them, but it’s your job to let them know that “testing” the market for too long will end up biting them in the ass if they DO NOT TAKE YOUR ADVICE.

I tell every seller this…

“I do not create the market, I just play within it.  When it tells us what it’s doing we must listen to it or it will bite us in the ass later.  I can get your property in front of thousands of potential buyers, but if people are not inquiring 9 times out of 10 it’s price”

It’s crucial you talk about the importance of market time for your property.  It’s our job to educate sellers about what market time does to a listing.  Check out this article if you want to know more about market time.

The Importance Of Market Time In Your Home Sale

The more market time you have the more negotiable you appear.  I like to tell my sellers this;

“When we are shopping for a new home and we see a property you like with a lot of market time we are going to low ball them.  You don’t want to put yourself in that position as a seller because it will burn you in the long run.”

You are not talking anyone into a sale you are showing them how to walk away with a higher price and although your price change may not be what they want to hear, it’s in their best interest because the market doesn’t lie.

Once your seller understands the importance of market time, it’s important that your pricing strategy match up to how consumers search online for properties.  Online search is where all the action takes place. Consumers search for properties in $25,000-$50,000 increments because that’s how all the search engines work.

So if you play your cards right, you should only have to do one price change if any at all because that price change should be into a $25,000 increment to reposition the listing to a new audience who was not previously seeing it.

I listen to what the market tells me and recommend a price change based on our activity. Here is a good guideline to follow although not set in stone:

5+ Showings a week no offers and listed for 3+ weeks ($184,900 List Price)

This means you are usually very close in what the market is willing to pay.  Usually a small price change is needed.

3-5 Showings a week no offers and listed for 3+ weeks ($184,900 List Price)

Price change into a $25,000 increment.  For Example: 174,900 vs. $179,900.

Less Than 2 showing a week no offers for 3+ weeks ($184,900 List Price)

You need a much bigger price change and need to do more than an incremental shift. For Example: $159,900 vs. $174,900

Now that you have a pre-planned pricing strategy set up (hopefully you don’t need to use it), now let’s show them the data.

Backing Your Request With Facts

This only works when you have a real marketing plan in effect because the first thing your sellers will say is that you are not marketing their home enough.  You are going to show them through your marketing efforts how much exposure their home is receiving through sharing the data.

Use the tools that are available to you to justify your price change request.  This is an image from Trulia that shows the seller how many page views they had. You can also use the listing report features of Zillow to show them additional stats.

Realtor.com

This report is from Realtor.com. You can do the same thing with the four major search engines (Trulia, Zillow, Realtor, Homes.com).

You cannot force people to come and see the property.  Our job is to make sure they see it. This is like taking the scientific approach to marketing your listings.

Facebook Ads

Facebook ads are another way to drive very targeted traffic to your listings if you know how to use it the right way. You can also send out postcards and other traditional forms of marketing. There are a few other avenues of listing marketing you can be doing, but that’s another can of worms. If you would like to know more about a listing marketing plan, then check out the REAL MARKETING PLAN article.

Here’s the point.  When you have a plan up front that is pre-determined and you implement a Real Marketing Plan that consists of more than popping a sign in front and putting it on the MLS, the numbers WILL NOT LIE.  Taking this approach to asking a seller for a price change is logical, statistical, and they will respect you more for it. All you are doing at this point is relaying the facts and helping them make a wise decision.

Real estate is not a hard business, but it’s a hustle business.  The question you should ask yourself is if you feel like you are in the right hustle?

Check out the links on this post and please comment below.  I would love to hear from you.

If you think others could benefit from this article share it and help us get the word out by clicking the social media icons below or at the top of this post.

Do You Know The 3 Marketing Systems To Set Up In Your Real Estate Business To Avoid Cold Calls & Prospecting Forever?

Creating systems to keep business opportunities coming is very important to running a successful real estate business.