Ladies and gentlemen, we are professionals, aren’t we?  When your market thinks of you, do they think of a trusted advisor, or the agent in the picture above?  Today we are going to cover the 5 deadly sins of overpriced listings.  Depending on the current market conditions in your area, you may be faced with a lack of inventory.  As real estate agents, listings is the name of the game, and the more listings we have, the more control over the inventory we maintain.  This being said, we may be tempted to take any listing that comes along, in the hopes that it will either sell with the uptick in the market, or at least generate some sign calls for us.  This thinking is flawed, and while may look like a good strategy in the short run, it is not the foundation for a long-term profitable business.  Let’s jump in and discuss why taking overpriced listings can be detrimental to the long-term health of your real estate business..

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Today we are going to cover the top 5 objection handers you must master in order to take profitable listings.  Now, notice I didn’t just say take listings, I said take PROFITABLE listings.  You often hear coaches as well as real estate agents saying listings is the name of the game.  This is true.  In order to be a top agent, you need to have a steady supply of your own listings.  However, our goal is to make our business net as much money as possible.  In order to achieve this, we not only need listings, we need to make sure they are profitable.

When I first started in real estate, I hired a coach through the Mike Ferry Organization.  MFO has some of the top coaches in the country, and through them, I was able to grasp a strong understanding of the selling process.  Part of the training included handling objections, both for getting the appointment, as well as securing the listing.  The Mike Ferry Organization website is packed with free resources including the scripts to use for objection handling.  You can click this link to see a full copy of the objection handling script.  I am going to take the top 5, in my opinion, and discuss their applications.  Let’s get started:

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In our previous two posts, we covered both the mindset necessary to prepare for the next shift in real estate (read the part 1 POST), as well as the first 6 tactics to not only survive, but thrive in the upcoming real estate shift (read part 2 of that POST).  Today we are going to cover the final 6 tactics  to get you through the coming real estate shift in the market.  Let’s jump in right where we left off with tactic #7:

7)  Price Ahead Of The Market- Seller Pricing Strategies

In Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, Gary Keller states that as soon as the media declares a shift in the real estate market, buyers tend to become overly cautious, sometimes overlooking great opportunities in search of a steal; sellers who are slow to recognize this shift will quickly become overpriced, and thus, overlooked.  What a shift does is expose the age-old real estate price conflict between what a seller wants versus the price a buyer is willing to pay.  During a shift, our sellers need to be aware of the concept of “window of opportunity.”  When a home first comes on the market, it will attract the attention of motivated buyers, or agents who believe the price is worth the effort of finding those motivated buyers.  The first time someone sees the house is called the window of opportunity, simply because it is the best time to sell the house.  The home must be priced right from the beginning in order to capitalize on this important timing.  You need to understand that pricing at the market in a shift, is in essence overpricing the home.  In a shift, agents must absolutely become masters of pricing the home correctly, and also must become experts in helping their sellers understand and trust their market data.  The last thing you want to do in any market, especially a shift, is chase the market down by being behind on pricing.  As Keller states, the best advice you can tell your sellers is “We are in a race against time.  The best price you will get, is the one you get now.  If you wait, it will just be lower.”

8) Stand Out From The Competition- Seller Staging Strategies

Very few people have the imagination to visualize beyond what they see, according to Keller.  The best sellers realize this and do what is necessary to showcase the home in its best possible light. Price must match the condition of the home, period.  It is not a matter of should the seller stage, as every home should be staged.  The better question is how should we stage?  A recent study shows that staged homes, on average sold in half the time of non-staged homes, and they sold for 6.3% more as well.  A great approach to help sellers get on board for staging is to have before and after pictures of cluttered, homes that were not staged, and then after staging.  Simply show the photos to the seller and ask them which home would do a better job catching the buyer’s attention.  Of course, they should pick the staged photos, at which point you can explain they have chosen the staged rooms, and can guide them in to staging their home as well.

9) Create Urgency- Overcoming Buyer Reluctance

In Shift, Gary Keller notes the great irony of a buyers’ market is that even though the opportunity to buy is high, buyer urgency tends to hit an all-time low.  The biggest myth of a shift for buyers is their belief that they can time the market.  They lose focus as to why they are buying in the first place (different neighborhood or school district, more space, etc).   Keller goes on to say there are 3 things you will want to determine when deciding to work with a buyer: 1) Their ability to buy 2) Their readiness to buy 3) Their willingness to buy.  Their willingness to buy is tied in with their urgency.  You want to know that they are not wasting your time, waiting for the “perfect bottom.”  Stay on top of your buyers until they have actually settled on the home.  You want to make sure you don’t take your willing buyer for granted.  You will want to head off any issues as soon as they arise, or sooner, in some cases.  By helping a buyer discover their “why,” by being the local economist of choice, and by addressing buyer reluctance issues, you will be able to energize the urgency of your buyer.

10) Expand The Options- Creative Financing

Keller further goes on to state “In a shift, finding creative ways to help buyers afford to buy and sellers afford to sell, or buying and selling will slow down to a crawl.”  As an agent, you must become very strategic as well as competitive in order to find creative solutions for your clients in order to get a deal to work.  You must understand 3 factors in order to have creative finance work: 1) You will have to be clear as to what buyers, sellers, and lenders want.  2) You will need to be well versed in what each of them can do creatively to put a sale together. 3)  You will need to be creative in making all this work at one time.  Here is just a brief list of creative financing ideas.  Make sure you read this chapter in Shift to understand the complete list:

• seller contributions
• owner financing
• seller second
• gift funding
• pledged asset mortgage
• non-occupant co-borrowers
• lender-funded buy down
• state and local grant programs
• private lending

11) Master The Market Of The Moment-Short Sales, Foreclosures, and REO’s

According to Keller, we are uniquely positioned in a downward shift to help both borrower and lender work out their problems, either together, or separately.  There are 3 markets that show up in a shift: 1) Short Sales- individuals and families trying to avoid foreclosure.  2) Foreclosures- bargain hunters and investors looking for bargains.  3)  REO’s financial institutions with an above average amount of foreclosed homes to sell.  When dealing with homes in default, you will need to be both organized, as well as persistent.  Become an expert in these niches and you will be able to generate a tremendous amount of leads and referrals, and potentially receive groups of listings at one time.  As we get closer to the shift, we will break down each of these categories in more detail, as well as resources to become the leading expert in your market place.

12)  Bulletproof The Transaction- Issues and Solutions

While real estate transactions in general aren’t completely trouble-free, when a shift happens few transactions are easy, and most closings have some type of challenge, according to Keller.  In a shift, you not only need to be a master of the transaction, but you need to master the skill set of being a salesperson as well.  In fact, if you are a student of Mike Ferry, he believes that we are all sales professionals first (or at least we should be).  You need to over prepare yourself and be ready for anything that comes up.  By doing so, you will not only be able to handle problems that arise, you will be able to anticipate problems before they arise, and head them off.  Your biggest focus points in a shift need to be proactive prevention and early response to issues.  There are 6 key areas where issues are likely to arise:

• inspections and repairs
• appraisals
• loan approval and funding
• other contingencies
• co-op agent
• deadlines

In future posts, we can break down these areas individually and go through some of the challenges as well as remedies to work through them.  As you can see from this series of posts over the last 3 weeks, Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, truly is a wealth of information and should be your go-to resource when the market changes gears on us.  Do yourself a favor, click on the link above, and buy yourself a copy to keep on your desk as a reference.  You will thank yourself for many real estate cycles to come.

 

 

 

 

In our last post, we began talking about how to prepare for the next shift in real estate.  In today’s post, we will cover the first 6 of the 12 tactics necessary to not only help you survive the shift, but also to thrive during it.  These tactics are taken directly from Gary Keller’s book Shift:  How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times.  Let’s jump right in:

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See that image at the beginning of this post?  That is exactly what many real estate agents do when the market shifts.  They exit the business, because the low hanging fruit is gone.  What are you going to do to prepare for the next shift in real estate, so you aren’t heading for the exit as well?   Are you going to bury your head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening?  Are you going to bitch, piss, and moan that it’s “too hard” to sell homes in this kind of market?  Or are you going to be a student of the game, sharpen your skills, cut back inflated expenses, so that your net profit stays steady…and grow.

Yes, I said it, GROW.

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In the last post, we covered 7 Ways To Cut Expenses For More Profit.  In today’s post, we will cover 5 more ways to increase profits, and this time, no expense cutting is needed!  Whether you sell 12 houses a year, or  you are like Bob Lucido, and sell over 1200 houses a year, it doesn’t matter.  What does matter is your net profit.  I had the pleasure of hearing Lucido speak during a mastermind event this past week, and I can tell you he is an amazing real estate agent, who puts his reputation above all else…that’s the way it should be.  I can also tell you, he is a shrewd business man, and would not be selling 1200+ homes a year, if he didn’t have a close eye on his bottom line…net profit.

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In today’s post we are going to cover 7 ways to cut expenses for more profits.  Don’t worry, in a future post, we will also cover ways to increase revenue for more profits.  Benjamin Franklin once said: “Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.”  There is a lot of truth in that statement.

As real estate agents, we have a fiduciary responsibility to our clients, whether we represent the seller, the buyer, or (where it’s legal) both.  But we also have a fiduciary responsibility to our company, and many of us tend to overlook it.  We focus on GCI (gross commission income) or on how many units we sell.  I know agents who sell 100’s of homes a year.  I know agents who bring in over a million dollars in GCI.

Do you want to know a dirty little secret?

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In this post we are going to discuss the importance of creating your bullseye list.  A bullseye list is a list of names of your top advocates and business associates who are most likely to refer you at least one transaction this calendar year.  The goal for us is to work smarter, not harder.  Many real estate agents do not like the idea of prospecting with strangers.  They cringe at the idea of calling FSBO’s or expired listings.  Even the less “confrontational” calls, like circle prospecting and just listed/just sold calls can be intimidating for some agents.  Most agents that don’t like prospecting with strangers, have no problem calling their sphere of influence.

I have always been at the other end of the spectrum.  I could make 100 cold calls a day, and get rejected on 99 of them without it bothering me.  But calling my SOI (sphere of influence)?  I would freeze in my tracks.  I guess in the beginning I just didn’t feel confident enough.  Maybe I felt like I couldn’t bring enough value.  All I know is that whatever the story that my mind was telling me on that particular day, it was compelling enough for me to listen.  So for the first few years I was in business, I lost out on a lot of potential business.  Now that I have been studying personal development, and have found the power of having coaches and mentors, I realize all those stories I was telling myself was nothing more than self-imposed limiting beliefs.

It is these limiting beliefs that we have all had at some point, in some area of our lives, that can stop us from reaching not only our goals, but our true potential.

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In our last post, we covered 5 ways to get real estate leads through prospecting.  Today, we are going to cover 5 ways to get real estate leads from networking.  Not everyone is comfortable prospecting via cold calling and door knocking.  That is why God invented networking (Okay, maybe God didn’t invent it, as He probably had some more important stuff going on, but someone invented it, and that’s all we really care about).

There is a right way to network, and a wrong way.  The wrong way is how most people network.  They act like it is speed dating, going from one person to the next just handing out their business card.  I can’t tell you how many events I have been to where someone would walk up to me, not even introduce themselves, and just hand me their card.  Some didn’t even ask me for my card, and they would just walk away.  One guy was so lazy, he didn’t even take a card out from the stack he was holding.  He simply pushed one of his business cards forward, like he was performing a card trick…pick a card, any card is what popped into my mind.

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Today’s blog post is going to cover 5 ways to get new leads in the next 7 days . The best part about it is these are free.  I must warn you however, they will all take a  bit of work on your part. All of them are based on prospecting and will fall into one of two categories:

1)  Phone calls

2)  Door Knocking

Now I know what some of you were thinking.  Just seeing the word “prospecting” is making you picture the devil himself. The truth is prospecting can be a little intimidating, actually it can be downright scary, if you don’t have confidence in your skills. Don’t worry, we will help you through that. (In fact, I have a new 7 day mini course coming out on the basics of prospecting. I will be launching this free course at the beginning of July, so keep an eye out for it).

Here’s what I can tell you from experience… All it takes is practice, practice, practice. Once you get comfortable with the scripts, and you must get comfortable with the scripts, prospecting will become a breeze for you. I know there are other “easier” ways of getting leads, you know, like paying for them! And there is a place for that in our business as well. However, I am a true believer in what Gary Keller says that your business should be prospecting based marketing enhanced. If you are like me and you believe a shift is coming in the market within the next 18 of 24 months, then it’s imperative that your business has a prospecting based foundation. When the last shift happened, the agents who mastered prospecting were the agents who not only survived the shift,  but thrived during it. I know in most of your markets things look great now.  Most houses are selling in days if not hours.  Even in our market, where this seems to be the case, small signs are popping up that a shift is on its way. You need to pay attention to those signs and stay ahead of the curve if you plan on being in this industry five years from now.

OK, so let’s get started on the five ways that you can generate a lead this week for little to no money.

1) EXPIRED LISTINGS

Expired listings are one the easiest ways to not only get a new lead this week, but to actually get a new listing contract signed this week. You can connect with expireds either by calling them or door knocking them.  There are 3 secrets to winning with expireds:

• Timing: In order to win with expired you need to be one of the first to call them in the morning. For me that means when the clock hits 8:00 AM, my dialer starts calling. Ideally, you want to be the first agent to connect with the expired. However, if you can’t catch them in the morning, you may also have success reaching them between 6:00-8:30 PM, as most agents won’t be making calls at this time.  If they were not reached earlier that day for some reason, by connecting with them at night, you may still be the first agent they to speak to them.
• Scripting:  You must know not only what to say, but just as importantly, if not more so, HOW to say it.  For expired listings I prefer the Mike Ferry Expired script, which you can download for free by clicking on this link.  We will cover the nuances of tonality, etc in the upcoming Prospecting Mini Course, so stay tuned for more information on that free course!

• E & P:  E & P stands for empathize and project.  In order to win with expireds, you need to empathize with their situation, while projecting confidence that you can succeed where their previous agent failed.  It’s a delicate balance, and you don’t want to sound cocky.  You just want to show confidence in your abilities, as this confidence will make the client feel they can put their trust in you.

2) FSBO’s (For Sale By Owner)

FSBO’s are some of the easiest sellers to land an appointment on the first contact.  Again, you can reach them by phone, or in person, through door knocking.  The challenge with FSBO’s is the time it will take from your first contact with them, to actually getting them to list with you.  Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some for sale by owners who will list with you on the very first meeting you have with them, but in my experience they are few and far between.  FSBO’s by their very nature believe they can sell their home by themselves, so it takes persistence to turn a FSBO lead, into a client.  Here is where you come in…most agents will try 1 or 2, maybe 3 attempts at most to gain a for sale by owner’s business.  The fact is, it may take between 5-12 attempts to get a contract signed.  Yes, it is a little delayed, but the best part is, you will most likely be the only agent that has stuck with them, so they will be very happy to list with you when the time comes.  I prefer the Kevin Ward script for my initial conversation with FSBO’s, and you can download that script for free here.  Make sure you follow-up with a FSBO every 5-7 days after your initial contact.  I prefer calling them on Monday’s and asking how their showings went over the weekend.  I ask them how many offers they received (usually none) and I offer a something of value on each follow-up call.  I don’t just call every Monday and say “Are you ready to list with me yet?”  That is not offering them value.  My suggestion is to come up with a clear, repeatable drip campaign consisting of both emails and phone calls.  In each, touch on their pain (no offers yet), and offer a solution (something of value).

3) Open Houses

Open houses?

Yawn.

I know, I know, you hate to do them and you never get any business from them, right?  Well, there is a reason for that…You suck at them!

Harsh?

Maybe, but the truth is, most agents do not a) know how to do a proper open house, or b) are too lazy to do one properly.  The secret to a successful open house (one where you actually get clients) is to have a 7th level open house.  If you are not familiar with what that is, and you are a Keller Williams agent, take that segment of IGNITE, the next time it is offered in your market center.  If you are not with Keller Williams, contact me, and I will make sure you get invited the next time that class is offered in a KW office near you.  I will give you a quick over view of what to do for the sake of this post though:

• Reach out to the entire neighborhood via phone, and invite them to your open house (while you have them on the phone, ask them what are their upcoming real estate related plans that you may help them with).

• Door Knock the entire neighborhood a few days before the open, and the morning of as well in case you missed some of the neighbors earlier.  Give them a flyer of your open house, invite them to come see it, and make sure you include market stats for the neighborhood on this flyer. Again, ask them what real estate needs you may be able to help them with.

• Make sure you advertise the open house for an entire week (at least) before having it.  You want it posted on your MLS for other agents to see.  You want it on all your social media, and your office’s social media as well.  Make sure it is on all the public real estate sites, such as Zillow.

• Have plenty of directional  signs up as far in advance as possible (check with local laws on this).

• And last but most importantly…if the open house is for your own listing, only have one open house, and have it the very first week the listing hits the market.  Make sure you that you do not allow ANY showings until the open house (check with your broker on the proper way to do this as to not violate any MLS standards).  By waiting until the open house for all showings to begin, you have the opportunity to create a feeding frenzy by having so many people come through at once.  I have sold many listings this way.  It is a win for the sellers as they don’t have to be on the market for weeks, leaving their house hours at a time for each showing, and it’s a win for out team as well because we pick up new buyers as clients, and the neighbors see what a great job we did, they contact us when it’s time to list their homes!

4) Just Listed/ Just Sold

Calling or door knocking around a neighborhood of a home you or your office either just listed or just sold is a great way to show the neighbors that you are the neighborhood expert.  You can utilize the Mike Ferry script(click HERE for the Just Listed script and click HERE for the Just Sold script) to maximize your conversation with the homeowner.  Your goal is to accomplish one or more of the following objectives:

1. Find a homeowner who is planning on selling their home in the next 30-90 days (or invest in real estate in that timeframe).
2. Find a homeowner who can refer you to someone looking to buy, sell, or invest in the next 30-90 days.
3. Add each person you contact to your database.

I use a simple script which allows me to add people to my database:  “As the local neighbor expert, I like to keep my clients informed on the local real estate market for their neighborhood.  What is your best email?  I would be happy to INCLUDE you in the future.”

NOTE:  There is barely a pause between me asking what their best email is and saying I would be happy to include them in the future.  I capitalized the word “include,” because psychologically, people like to be included in things.  When I have coached others and have not emphasized the word “include,” most people use the word “add.”  By saying “add” people feel like they are being added to a list, and that becomes a turn off for most.

5)  Circle Prospecting

Circle prospecting is very similar to Just Listed/Just Sold prospecting.  Again, you can do this activity either by making phone calls, or in person through a particular neighborhood.  The approach our team uses for these types of contacts is very simple.  We pull a neighborhood in which we, or one of our colleagues, have sold a home quickly, at or above asking, in a multiple buyer situation.  Those 3 criteria are key.  Your goal with this activity is exactly the same as above for the just listed/just sold contacts.  The only difference is the opening part of the script:

We say: “Hi, this is (blank) with Keller Williams Real Estate.  Thanks to our marketing efforts, the house on 123 Main Street sold in X Days, at (or above) asking price, with multiples offers.  Now we have a problem because we know that there was only one lucky buyer, which means there are now other buyers still looking for a place to call home.  I was calling (or stopping by) to see if you or someone you know, was thinking about buying or selling their home in the near future.”

From there, we just go right back to the remainder of the Just Sold script.

NOTE:  If you have a buyer, and I don’t mean a pretend buyer, who is looking in a neighborhood with low inventory, feel free to make that the opening of your script as an alternative.  It will show the homeowner that you are aggressive and pro-active, which will make you stand out to them in the future when they are ready to sell (if you stay in touch and remain top of mind) and you can use it as a value proposition when you are having a buyer consultation.  This alone will make you stand out from the crowd and most buyers will sign a buyer agency contract with you on the spot.

Feel free to share any other methods you may have for generating free leads, and stay tuned for next week’s post in which we will cover 5 more ways to find new leads, all of which involve networking.