FSBO Fiction. Turn Myths into More Listings

FSBOs

Apr 23, 2018

With inventory in high demand and buyers eager for deals, sometimes it takes a little objection handling skill and myth-busting to turn FSBOs into happy clients.

The following are three common FSBO misconceptions. And how to turn them from myths to more listings.

1. FSBOs are hard to work with

Really – all of them? In truth, most sellers who are trying to sell themselves are eager to save money and fairly motivated, yet not well-informed regarding what it takes to price right in today’s market.

Are they distrustful of agents? Sure, many are but that doesn’t make them difficult it makes them human beings. It’s your job to earn their trust, treat them with respect, develop a relationship and make them raving fans.

How do you help develop that relationship? Consistent communication and professional presentation tools. Our FSBO Postcard Series are a great way to communicate and educate over time raising questions that will compel FSBOs to call you for help.

Our FSBO door hangers are also perfect for stashing in your car for a quick leave behind every time you see a For Sale By Owner sign.

Anytime you are attempting to get in the door of a potential listing, especially a FSBO, consider offering something of value. A reason to contact you. Great ideas for this are free reports, market information and a list of resources.

2. FSBOs are overpriced

Many FSBO homes probably are overpriced but surprisingly with the information available on the internet, many get the price right. However, more often than not, they still don’t understand they can likely get more for their home using a real estate professional.

The biggest reason this is true is the exposure an agent can create for your property as opposed to what a FSBO can do on their own. An agent enters the property into the MLS where it is broadcast marketed via the paper, home guides, a wide range of internet sites, and to other agents. This creates greater property exposure and more competition leading to a higher selling price.

A great strategic tool that allows you to walk sellers through all the components of the salable listing is the Merchandising Review. It even helps to answer some questions before they’re raised. The Merchandising Review is available as a Free Download Here.

As soon as you see a new FSBO, contact them to offer to complete a ‘no obligation” Merchandising Review. Explain the tool allows you to make a comprehensive analysis of whether their home is salable in today’s market and what will assure it sells for the right price. Then schedule a 20 minute time to meet with them to go over the Review.

Walk them through each item and negotiate the issues that might keep the property from selling. Correct these issues, and ask if they would allow you to show them your marketing plan.

3. FSBOS can succeed on their own

The truth is most FSBOs do end up using an agent. According to NAR, statistics show only 8% of the homes sold are FSBOs. And 31% of FSBOs don’t market their properties. They need someone like you to lend your expertise for a headache free sale that achieves the most money.

Other tasks that NAR has shown are difficult for FSBOs include: pricing the home right (18%), preparing the home for sale (13%), understanding the paperwork (12%), helping the buyer obtain financing (6%), timely selling (3%) and time to devote to the sale (3%).

FSBOs really are the “low hanging fruit” but the keys to success are consistency and timely communication. Most deals are sealed after the fifth contact. Know your business and your market and you’ll create a presence as the expert in your market for FSBOs.

Get prepared for your next FSBO sighting by ordering 100 FSBO Door Hangers today to have available to leave on the door of the next home you see with a FSBO sign.

Remember -we’re here if you need us. Call our team today at 866.405.3638 to help choose the marketing materials you need to capture this market!

PLUS: Hey, don’t forget to check out 3 Free things below that will help you CRUSH IT this year!

1. Easy Agent Business Plan

Treat your business like a business. It is vital to long-term success in this industry. This business plan is both easy and highly effective. Check out the perfect one-page Real Estate Business Plan – Click Here

2. Marketing Return on Investment Calculator

Consistent marketing is the key to success. Discover how effective your marketing dollars can be. Enter numbers in our Free online Return on Investment Calculator to see instant results! – Click Here

3. 12 Month Done-For-You Marketing Planner

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here

Also…check these out 🙂

Turn One Listing Into More – from your mobile phone

Automate Your Just Listed/Just Sold Postcards – work smarter not harder

Become a Neighborhood Brand – with the Market Dominator System

Back to School Strategies for Real Estate Professionals

Jul 25, 2016

Six Lessons for Success

By Julie Escobar

Back to School Real Estate Marketing

You can almost feel it — that anxiousness, excitement and uncertainty that envelopes us around this time year after year. Tens of millions of children headed back to classes, and even those without little ones can get caught up in the thirst for knowledge, need for more certain schedules and the never-too-old-for allure of new notebooks and supplies. All right, maybe that last one is just me, but you’ll have to admit there is something exciting about creating a clean slate, learning to the best of our abilities and growing as a sales professional as well as a person.

Ready to get started? You’ve had a healthy breakfast, donned your uniform (name badges everyone!) put on your thinking caps and you’re ready to learn – right? Here are the “classes” you must master in this market:

1. Direct response. Is your postcard asking your prospects a question? Are you raising their awareness? Are you giving them a reason and means to contact you? Are you just staying in touch or do you need them to take action? When you use your marketing to ask the questions that are already in the minds of your prospects, you create a connection that makes people want to reach back out to you.

Even holiday postcards can effectively raise awareness and include a message to not only have a great holiday but to call you should they need you or have questions. A Just Listed card too – is not just a just listed card. It’s an invitation to see a new listing, to get a list of other homes like it, answer questions or evaluate another potential seller’s ability to sell their home. Content cards offer valuable information consumers are looking for and offer an invitation for buyers and sellers to learn more or get free reports. The Neighborhood Update/Free Offer Series, a popular one for agents, offers free reports, valuable consultation, and other items of value to the consumer — as well as neighborhood stats that appeal to buyers and sellers on a hyper-local level.

2. Consistency. Again and again and again. That’s how often you need to “show up” in their mailbox, on their radar and in the lives of your prospects and customer base. Our market is too competitive and life is too short for one-shot wonders. Plus – it’s just too expensive to waste time, effort and of course, marketing dollars on a one-hit mailing. They don’t work. Never have, never will. And in today’s world – people want to see that you’ve got what it takes to stick with it and get results before they want to work with you. If you give up easily on your marketing – what message does that send to your customer base? Success comes to those who show up not once but over and over again. With the right message, the right attitude and the right promise of service. Show them you’ve got what it takes.

3. List care. Your mailing list is not just “a list.” It’s not just a spreadsheet of names and addresses. It represents the lifeblood of your business. It hosts the people that, if cared for, if catered to, if serviced right, if stayed in touch with, if impacted – will take care of you for the entirety of your career. In fact, studies show that one in twelve will result in a transaction per year of you consistently and effectively stay in touch. That said- how many do you want on your list and how committed are you to taking care of them like the VIPs that they are?

Find a database you’re comfortable with and don’t stop with names, addresses and phone numbers. Fill in the gaps. Who is their spouse? What are their kids’ names? What do they do? What do they like? When did they purchase/sell with you last? What referrals have they sent? What common interests do you have? It’s not easy at first – but once you’ve formed the good habit of contacting your list at least three times a year (not all at once, of course!) you’ll start to be able to feed the details into your database.

Don’t lose those lists you get when you purchase a just listed postcard either! Every time you send a postcard out with us and choose to do a radial or neighborhood search, that list is yours to keep so that you can continue to build your book of business. Add them to your list and start building a relationship with them as well. For more ideas of who should be in your sphere of influence – download our free BusinessBASE – and check out the 150 Questions to Help You Build Your Business Relationships. It’s a great ‘refresher’ course for remembering all the people you SHOULD be building relationships with!

4. Niche Marketing: Niche players fare better, earn more, usually are better at time management and can more quickly define themselves as an expert in their market area. Why? First, it gives you clarity of purpose, so you’re more efficient in the way you conduct your business, in the manner you build your skill sets and your knowledge base and in how you grow your customer base. You don’t need to be all things to all people. You just need to be the best at reaching out to, teaching and building relationships with that core group or niche. That not only builds your business faster, but it gives you a sense of certainty and confidence that you wouldn’t have if you were trying to work with any and all customer types.

So who do YOU want to work with most? Seniors? First time home buyers? FSBOs? Luxury Markets? Boaters? Golfers? Or maybe outside the box ideas like horse enthusiasts, Harley riders, yacht club members, golfers? Find the fit that’s right for you – then be the BEST for that niche! Now with new mailing list options that include specialty lifestyle interest data, or Nielsen Prizm codes you can easily find more the customers you most want to work with.

That’s not to say you ignore your sphere – just keep enhancing it by building niche markets that help it (and your business) to grow!

By the way – one really time-appropriate niche to start is working with your local school communities. The rewards are great – not just in your bottom line, but the experience you get and connections you create and the very real difference you can make in the lives of students and educators. Download our Free Report: 10 Ways to Prospects To and Support Your Local PTAs. (You’ll find it close to the bottom of the free reports page.) While you’re there – download a few more great reports to use in your fall marketing!

5. Leveraging Technology Tools: Leveraging technology and available networking to maximize your potential for lead generation, prospecting and keeping your pipeline of customers filled is crucial to your success. That means learning how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and the social networking tools that are available today. It can also mean hosting weekly or monthly conference calls, webinars and workshops for those in your niche, community or sphere of influence. These are great ways to inexpensively and effectively establish and reinforce your niche. Technology allows you to be in many places and in front of many people at one time, which helps you build relationships by using these tools to share information on a regular, consistent basis.

Technology also allows you to put systems in place such as automating the marketing of your listings using systems such as MLSmailings.com, www.GettingListingsSold.com which can take some of the daily, weekly and monthly marketing chores off your to-do list, freeing you up to spend more time at what you do best – getting face-to-face with customers and prospects.

6. Work High Priority Activities First. Real estate agents get paid to build relationships and provide exceptional service. There are plenty of ways to be BUSY in this business- but the activities that matter most are the ones that are directly tied to your bottom line. You need to have absolute focus on scheduling the time to prospect, present, close and build relationships before anything else. That means making and KEEPING that appointment with yourself every day.

The last thing we wanted to cover in our time together is how, as sales professionals, we can create good study habits that will also contribute to our success. Got down time? In the car, on the treadmill, during your commute? Make the most of it by ‘plugging in’ to top speakers, trainers and coaches that you can listen to on the go.

Need help? To learn more about how we can help you fuel your business, streamline your systems and take your career to the next level, call our marketing team today at 866.405.3638 or visit our website www.prospectsplus.com.
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Four Tips and Tools For Building Your Listing Inventory

Jun 27, 2016

Positioning Yourself to Be the Go-To Agent

By Julie Escobar

It’s certainly a whole new ball game out there isn’t it? The buyers are out in force and agents are now fast and furiously competing to both find and market new listing inventory. If EVER there’s been a time where listings are the name of the game? It’s right now. We recently did a poll to see what people were most interested in this month in terms of their marketing — the number one choice? HOW TO GET MORE LISTINGS. Enter this week’s topic!

Let’s look at four tips and tools you can use to position yourself as the go-to agent for listings in your market.

Systematically work For Sale By Owners and Expired listings. Make this on the top of your to-do list each week. Send them something. Get voice-to-voice. Go see them. Since they’re already motivated sellers-make sure they know how motivated you are to help them achieve the results you want!
Include a PDF. Another strategy came from one of our top agent customers who, before every listing appointment, creates a pdf version of a Just Listed postcard with a picture of the potential seller’s house and all listing details and includes it in every listing presentation as an example of the marketing that she will get started immediately upon getting their signature! (Very clever!) Click here to see a selection of Just Listed Postcards you can download.
Host an Open House to generate listing leads. In areas where homes are just starting to turn over, you’ll more than likely shake out the 3-4 (or more) other homeowners in the neighborhood who have been thinking about selling. Be sure to do your homework – canvas the neighborhood well in advance of your open house. Advertise it well. Send open house cards, use door hangers or flyers to your existing sphere of influence or farm areas as well. Some agents create an open house field day – where they’ll advertise 3-6 open houses all on the same day, one right after the other. While it makes for a long day, it does showcase you as an agent who has a lot going on and knows how to get things done. I always recommend having powerful collateral pieces at your open houses as well. Like 6 Pitfalls to Overpricing Your Home, Saving for a Down Payment and the Cash Buyer Checklist. When you have more creative collateral than just the home listing flyer you present yourself at a higher level of service and resource.
Saturate Your Target Neighborhood. Working an area or areas where you know turnover is starting to happen? Blanket those areas with a powerful inventory-needed campaign that speaks to the mindset of potential sellers and spotlights you as the agent to call when they are thinking of selling now or in the near future. Our Listing Inventory Series is great for getting attention. Or, if you really want to turn up the heat, learn more about our Market Dominator System which takes saturation mailing and direct response marketing to a whole new level! Then be sure to follow up on that saturation mailing and make the most of your marketing efforts.

Good luck getting those listings, and remember if you need help – call our marketing team at 866.405.3638! Be sure to check out our Specials Page this month as well if you haven’t already and see what’s new and get your budget-saving promo codes!