From Listed to SOLD - How to Sell Those Listings You Work So Hard to Get!

A fellow Active Rainer, who shall remain nameless in the interest of protecting her relationship with her clients, recently commented on one of my blogs as follows: 

"Jennifer I just wrote an email to a seller who has a very overpriced listing. They swore they'd lower in two weeks if no activity. It is now 5 months later and two very good offers that they rejected."

I asked her for an update and she responded with:

"Jennifer their response was 'they are perplexed that I didn't mention this during the negotiations.' I just don't understand which of the 12 emails and 10 phones calls where I told them the current market they missed."

So, I'm thinking... either these people are idiots, or they truly didn't "hear" what their agent was telling them. Let's give everyone the benefit of the doubt and assume the latter. I'd hate to call anyone an idiot.

Since the listing agent mentions emails and phone calls, I'll assume that emails and phone calls are how she communicated her news. I'd say she did her job.

But two things come to mind. The first is something I'll save for later in the interest of brevity. The second relates to how we communicate with our clients.

Again, it sounds to me as if our AR agent did a heck of a job communicating with her sellers. But, for the sake of argument, what if her sellers aren't auditory-types and don't "hear" well and/or aren't "good on email?" What if they are engineer-types and need to see charts and graphs and trends? Or what if they're visual and need photos and descriptive text? Maybe they would prefer a long, wordy emailed opinion without any data at all? Perhaps a face2face meeting would have done the trick? Or a tour of the competition?

Loreena Yeo (another AR friend who is also an engineer) is a master of the CMA. Her market analyses are works of art and they impress the heck out of me. But, but, but... if I were a seller, they'd be too data-intense for me.. I like pictures and descriptions, so columns of numbers and graphs of monthly trends shut me down. If my agent communicated market data to me this way, I'd be just as "perplexed" as the sellers described above.

Do you attempt to analyze your client to determine the best way to communicate with them? How many different delivery strategies ARE there to communicate with our sellers? Please share yours! 

http://www.sellwithsoul.com/

Copyright Jennifer Allan 2007

I wrote two unrelated blogs yesterday - one about how I would rule the (real estate) world and another about how we real estate-types are put in an awkward position when negotiating our commission with sellers.

After a day and night to ponder my blogs and the commentary, I realize that these two blogs are indeed, very closely related!

To summarize blog #1 - I am currently negotiating a contract for a book deal. The person I’m negotiating with will also be my editor, if we come to agreement. So, this guy has to first wine me and dine me (cyberly-speaking) to pique my interest, then he has to put on his a&&-hole hat and negotiate against me – but after that, we have to work closely together over the next year to produce a killer product (my book). So, he has to build my trust, then shatter it, then build it again.

Blog #2 was a little ditty about how if I were Queen (that is, a managing broker), I would require my agents to convince me that their listings are worthy of my sign in the yard. Thus, any seller who wants to be honored with my sign has to sell US on HIM! Instead of the other way around.

So here’s my point.

We real estate agents are in the exact same position as my potential editor. We have to build the rapport that encourages our prospects to like us and trust us. Then we have to risk trashing that rapport and trust while we negotiate our commission and list price. If the seller hires us, we have to somehow rebuild the trust and rapport so that we can work together to get the home sold. It’s a tough job description.

What might be really cool would be to apply the car dealership technique of requiring management approval on any deal struck between buyer and seller, that is, listing agent and seller prospect. Here’s how it would work...

Agent meets with seller and builds rapport. Once rapport and trust are established, the financial discussions begin (commission and list price). Agent and seller work TOGETHER to come up with a proposal for the Queen to approve. The agent cannot accept a listing without that approval. Together, the agent and his new best friend, the seller, create a marketing plan which includes the list price, the agents’s commitments to the seller, the seller’s commitments to the agent, along with a proposed commission to be paid upon success. Both parties know that they have to present a reasonable proposal to the Queen or it will be rejected.

Let the Queen be the bad guy! It lets the agent off the hook, while bringing the seller more into the process of selling the home. Best of all, the agent never has to switch hats!!!

Under this scenario, I, as Queen, would be tickled to market the hell out of any listings that are deemed worthy.

I love it. Do you?

http://www.sellwithsoul.com/

Copyright Jennifer Allan 2007

Okay, that's a little melodramatic and I don't have time to talk about everything I would change. And, frankly, I have no interest in ruling any world.

So, let me rephrase that. If I ruled my real estate company...

I'd pass this law: Any agent who works for me will have to prove to me, their queen, that the sellers they allow to hire them have either a strong NEED or a strong DESIRE to sell. No market-testers allowed.

My company's listings would be 100% marketable. My company's listings would sell. Buyer agents would flock to show my listings first because they are priced right, easy to show and smell good. Or if they aren't easy to show and/or smell awful, they are priced accordingly.

We'd take 60 day listing agreements and not a day longer. That's plenty of time to sell a home and frankly, I don't want my real estate sign sitting in front of a house any longer than that.

Sellers would have to sell themselves to my agents. My agents would have to sell their sellers to me.

If an agent didn't like my law, they could leave. But I think they'd love it once they understood it.

Read Part II Here

www.sellwithsoul.com

Copyright Jennifer Allan 2007

Loreena Yeo wrote a blog from her hospital bed today that, as her writing often does, inspired me to put my own two pennies on paper.

A few weeks ago, my partner and I put a Charming Denver Bungalow on the market. Our seller is one smart cookie and he's sold several homes on his own. We didn't want to insult his intelligence by boring him with all the details of having a home on the market; we figured if he had a question about the process, he'd ask. Oops.

Well, now he's asking. In a rather annoyed tone of voice, as if he feels blind-sided by what is happening to him.

And I realize that no matter how smart, how experienced, how cooperative a seller may be, we can never assume that he has a clue what is about to happen to him. And more importantly, what his role will be in the home selling process.

It's our job to make sure that our sellers understand...
1. What it means to their lifestyles be On the Market (basically, it sucks)

2. What they should expect from us (particularly the frequency of communication)

3. What we are expecting from them (see below)

4. How showings and feedback work

5. Why I won't be attending most showings (the buyer has his own agent)

If your seller has to call you to ask these questions after the fact, he'll likely have that annoyed-tone-of-voice with you, too!

It's also our job to be upfront with our sellers, no matter how unpleasant what we have to say may be for either of us.

Topics such as:
1. Why they need to SCRAM for showings

2. Why they need to accept short-notice showings and allow a lockbox

3. Why the market will not overlook toothpaste spit in the sink or eau d'Chef Boyardee in the air

4. Why they need to be pleasant to buyer agents who show up early or late

5. Why it's not okay to have barking dogs locked up in the laundry room

When your home is on the market, you talk about the experience with everyone you know. Especially if you're confused by the process which will translate into dissatisfaction with your agent. But yet... aren't listing appointments long enough without adding in all of the above??? How do you handle this issue?

Copyright Jennifer Allan 2007