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Monday, November 18, 2024

Presentations that close

You can blink your eye three times in the time it takes a person to judge your trustworthiness and competence just by looking at your face, according to research conducted by Princeton University.

Yet, the real estate industry is confounded that most real estate consumers go with the first agent they meet and that so many homeowners spend only one day choosing a listing agent.

As with all things real estate, time is of the essence during the listing appointment, so let’s take a look at how you can ensure the homeowner’s first impression is a winning one.

It starts with fact gathering

Whether it’s a cold call or a response to a Free Offer postcard, how you handle that first contact with a potential seller will pave the way to a successful listing presentation. In fact, this is the time to gather as much information as possible about the home and the owner.

The National Association of Realtors offers a list of questions to have ready for your next listing appointment:

  • Why are you selling your home?
  • How soon do you need to sell?
  • Do you have a ballpark price in mind?
  • Tell me about your home – how long you’ve lived there, what you like best about it and whether you’ve performed any renovations or major repairs.
  • In your opinion, what makes your home different from others in the neighborhood?

When you set the appointment, let the homeowner know that all decision-makers should be present.

Before compiling the CMA, take a tour of every home currently for sale in the seller’s neighborhood and a drive-by of sold comps.

As most listing agents know, potential home sellers are keenly aware of current listings in the area and will many times bring them up during a listing appointment. Rather than being embarrassed that the homeowner knows the local market better than you do, be the agent who is completely up-to-date on the local market.

Now you have the information necessary to put together the CMA. For the rookies out there, here is a list of quick tips to help you out with that:

  • Generics won’t make you stand out. Every home and every seller is different. Customize your presentation to a specific home and neighborhood.
  • Even if you use a digital presentation, ensure that everything in your hard copy is professionally printed. Your competition won’t bother using the color printer, which is why you must. From your branding to the graphics and photos, color grabs attention and gives the impression that marketing is your forte.
Powerful first impressions

Remember how quickly we form first impressions? One of the best ways to ruin your chances is by being late for the listing appointment. No excuse on earth will work just show up on time. Before you leave your car, turn off your phone, take a deep breath and relax. Remind yourself to smile and make eye contact as the homeowner opens the door.

Steer the participants to a place where it will be easier to maintain eye contact with everyone who is present. A round dining table is ideal. Then, break the ice with a statement such as, “Driving over here, I was thinking about how excited I am about this meeting,” this lets them know that you’re confident and have exciting things to share.

Another suggested ice-breaker is to ask a question. Engaging the homeowners immediately will help you make a quick connection. While every listing agent is different in how they conduct a listing presentation, most that we’ve spoken with share the following:

Homeowners want to know that you’re truly listening to them. Making eye contact conveys that and taking notes as they speak shows you are serious about remembering what they’re saying.

Assume the close

While some agents we’ve spoken with wait until the end of the presentation to assume the close, others do so throughout the presentation.

Here’s a brilliant example we read about at ActiveRain. Draw up two lists of services – one the basics, and one with the extra services you offer your listing clients.

Then, when explaining your services during the presentation, start with the basics – the stuff that is standard in your area. Then, whip out the second list and, as you tick them off, stop occasionally to ask if this is a service they want you to provide.

For instance, “Will you want aerial photography as well as the 3-D home tour?” Or “Do you want me to hold open houses?”

Although we don’t expect these tips to be everything required to beat the listing presentation willies, they offer ideas on how to prepare. And, knowing you’re prepared is calming. And, when you’re calm, you’re confident and unbeatable!

Send out at least 100 Free Market Statistics postcards from the Call to Action Series to an area where you would like more listings and get that killer presentation ready.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list tool to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

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The Right Dialogue is the Key!

As we head into the holiday’s, now is the perfect time to sharpen your negotiating skills and polish your pricing techniques, the following are 3 powerful closing techniques to try. You know that old Floyd Wickman saying, “Worse than no listing is a listing that won’t sell.”  Make sure yours are priced to move and you’ll not only be a hero to your sellers, you’ll set yourself up as the agent to call in your marketplace.

3 Powerful Closing Techniques to Try:

1. Don’t Help the Competition: 

Overpricing your home in today’s market can actually help sell other listings. Explain to your seller to put themselves in the shoes of the buyer.  They’ve got an agent and they’re looking at listings that are priced at market value, show well and have motivated sellers.

If they look at your home and a comparable home and all things being relatively equal, in other words, both are 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2600 sq. ft. homes and both show well but yours is $50,000+ above market value, which home is going to look more attractive to them when it comes to a bottom line decision for their family?

In fact, when it comes to choosing their property, if your home is overpriced, you’ve just made the lesser priced home look perfect by comparison.  They can feel good about their decision of getting the same sized home for less! You can also pull comparables from your MLS to show real world applications of this.

If the seller overprices their home today and it goes online via the MLS and your multiple web listing portals, their home won’t even have the benefit of SHOWING up when consumers search by price.

 They’ve just priced themselves right off the internet search – eliminating the possibility of that 85+% of consumers who start their search there.

2. The Four Sales: 

A great Floyd Wickman strategy is to use the following dialogue: You know we’ve covered the comparables – the research that I showed you with the prices of the other homes like yours that have sold recently in this area and I know you want to list it at the higher price. I’ve put a lot of thought into it, and you know if we went ahead and put it on the market at your price – and I was the only one that had to be sold on that price – well I guess that would be fine. But in reality, there are actually four sales that have to be made in order to sell your home at that price.

First…I have to be sold and I’ve gotta tell you – all I can go by is the CMA facts and figures that I showed you.

Secondly…the other agents have to be sold on showing your property at that price – otherwise they’re simply not going to show it to their buyers.  Unfortunately, they get their numbers the same way I do – from what’s recently sold in the area and those same CMA numbers.

Thirdly…and this is a big one – the buyers.  Let’s just pretend we sold the agents on it.  Now we’ve got to convince the buyers to pay a higher price for a property when there are other homes like it that are selling
for less.

Unfortunately in today’s world and with the internet, buyers have access to the same information that we have here.  They know what homes are going for in this area.  So that’s going to be a tough sale, don’t you think?

Now let’s just say everything lines up and somehow we even sell a buyer on paying more for your property than we know its worth in this market. We still have one more sale.

Fourth…there’s the lender.  Lenders use exactly the same formulas we do to determine Fair Market Value for a property before they’ll write a loan. Are you familiar with Fall-Throughs? Yeah, fall-throughs are what happens when people are thinking just the way you were thinking about pricing higher and the sale can’t go through because the property won’t appraise for what you’re asking for it. And that’s not what you want right?

3. Empathy vs. Reality Close: 

This dialogue comes from our friend, Coach Gord Gerrie. I understand how you feel Mr. and Mrs. Seller and there is no doubt, many others have felt exactly the same way you do right now. However, what they found was that once they had sold their house and focused their attention on their new home, they understood that the reality of accepting the offered price really only amounted to a few dollars more per month on their next home.

Again in reality, by accepting this offer today, you will know that your house is sold and that the difference between what you had hoped for and what you will receive will amount to less than $X per day in your new home. Would you let $X per day stand between you and the home of your dreams?

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