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

Glad you stuck with me through the Monkey Series! You made it all the way to the punch line.

In case you just stumbled onto this series, you should probably read it from the beginning - starting here. Or not. Your call.

It's really easy for Old Fogie types (like me) to confidently proclaim that WE don't accept Monkeys that aren't ours to mess with, and WE (said in a deep, gravely voice) just tell our clients the way it is and if they don't agree; NEXT!

But it's not that easy, especially for newer agents who really aren't sure what their responsibilities are, and are not in the mood to NEXT anyone. So, here are some tips.

•       Don't be an objection-buster (aka Silence is Golden). When a client throws out objections, concerns or stumbling blocks, think before you speak. Often these objections, concerns or stumbling blocks will be HIS Monkeys, not yours. Just smile, nod and make an "I hear ya" noise, and let the client continue. If he wants your input, he'll ask for it directly, but until he does, just listen without offering solutions.

If, after your moment of golden silence, you realize that this IS your Monkey, go ahead and offer a response or solution. If you aren't sure, just write it down or commit it to memory to ponder later. You can always accept a Monkey after the fact, but it's much tougher to return a Monkey after you've accepted it prematurely.

•       Ask "What's Your Plan B?" as if you are not guaranteeing the desired outcome... which you aren't. I use this strategy with sellers who are being a little stubborn about pricing, accessibility or condition. I sweetly ask them what they will do if their home doesn't sell for the price they "need" or, at all. This subtly lets them know that while I'll do my best, I won't take full responsibility for their home selling - that's not a Monkey I'll accept.

•       A la Jackie Leavenworth, the Real Estate Whisperer - if a buyer or seller looks to you to solve a problem that isn't reasonably yours to solve (e.g. you give up some of your commission to put or hold a deal together), you can gently say something like "I've found that when a real estate agent wants to make a deal more than the other parties involved, it's not the right deal to make." (Jackie has a whole audio CD on negotiations that is superb - check it out at: http://www.coachjackie.com/jackiesproducts). If you like my stuff, you'll love hers.

So, what IS the punch line?

If you know what Monkeys are yours to carry... and which are not... and you respect the other party enough to let him keep his own Monkeys, you'll be a much happier, healthier and RESTED real estate agent!

The Epilogue - I have a very timely situation to share with you about two agents on opposite sides of a deal who both accepted Monkeys they shouldn't have. Stay tuned! 

What's the Number One Thing "they" say that homesellers complain about?

All together now...

Communication (or lack thereof) from their agent. And, having been on the other side of the For Sale sign a time or two, I can certainly second that emotion. But "communication" isn't just about calling every week to say "Hi, how're doin'?" No, it's also about keeping the seller informed on local market activity. On providing feedback from showings. On notifying him of new competing listings and recently closed sales. And, frankly, on making sure the seller knows exactly what his agent's been up to to promote his home!

If the only time a listing agent contacts a seller is to ask for a price reduction or a listing extension, well, I can pretty much guarantee that seller is less than tickled with his agent. And that agent deserves every bit of his seller's discontent! Oh, the seller may not complain to his agent, but I'll bet he's not keeping quiet around the coffee machine!

The good news is that keeping a seller happy isn't that hard. They just wanna know what's going on and that their agent cares. Is that too much to ask?

Here are sixteen things you can do to keep your seller happy with you. And a happy-with-you seller just might be a great source of future business!

1. Notify him as soon as the listing hits the MLS and send him a copy of the listing
2. Send him links to all your online advertising (Realtor.com, Craigslist, Postlets, Active Rain, your own blog, etc.)
3. Send him a copy of the home brochure before it goes to print and ask for feedback
4. Make sure he knows when home brochures will be delivered
5. Schedule an open house right away (yes, you must do an open house)
6. Call after the first showing(s) to see if he has any questions about the process
7. Pursue and deliver feedback, especially in the first month
8. If you do any print advertising, send the seller copies (including Just Listed cards)
9. Send him a "state of the market" report showing all the competing listings. Update this report every two or three weeks
10. Call periodically to find out if he's running low on brochures (if it's impractical to keep the box full, just remove it.)
11. Be sure to provide feedback after open houses (if someone else does your open houses for you, be sure to follow up with them afterwards)
12. Schedule an appointment to review the latest market activity
13. Preview any new competition and provide feedback to your seller
14. Refresh your Craigslist ads and send the seller a link
15. Ensure that your photos are in season
16. Ask for feedback on how you're doing

How many of these items do you already do? If you do at least 50% of them, you're blowing away your competition. Sad, isn't it? The last few times I've had my own properties listed, my agents did ZERO of these activities. ZERO... Zero.

A happy seller is a cooperative seller. An unhappy seller is not, and will likely become more and more uncooperative as time goes by. You pick!

RELATED BLOG: Get Good... or Get OUT!

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If the brochure box is empty... they notice

If their brochures still show the original price after two reductions... they notice

If their agent hasn't done in an Open House in six months (or ever)... they notice

If no feedback cometh after showings... they notice

If there haven't been any showings in a month... they notice

If their Craigslist ad hasn't been refreshed... they notice

If their agent hasn't updated them on market activity... they notice

If their online photos are from two seasons ago... they notice

If the only time they hear from their agent is when he calls to ask for a price reduction... they notice

Just because a seller doesn't complain doesn't mean he's happy. And just because he's not complaining to his agent doesn't mean he's keeping quiet elsewhere. Trust me on this. If his agent doesn't seem to care about selling his home... the seller notices.

Coming soon - 16 Ways to Keep Your Seller Happy

First, allow me to apologize for dragging this Monkey Series* on too long. I really didn't intend to write more than one or two posts on it, but I just keep thinking of things to say! I was hoping this would be the last one, but I suspect it's not. Hang in there with me, k? I really AM trying to get to my point.

Yesterday, I wrote about CONTROL. Specifically, which issues of a real estate transaction (i.e. Monkeys) YOU control; which ones your CLIENT controls and which ones neither of you has any say over. My point in spelling it all out wasn't to give anyone permission to be snotty with a buyer or seller when he tries to hand off his Monkey; no, I just wanted to clarify which Monkeys are appropriate to decline. ("Declining the Monkey" means to refuse to accept responsibility for problems that are not yours to solve.)

If you didn't read yesterday's blog, please do so here. The rest of this won't make much sense if you don't - sorry. And while you're at it, read this one, too.

Believe it or not, politely declining to take on your clients' monkeys has a lot to do with respect. Respecting your CLIENT'S intelligence, abilities and willingness to do his part. Acknowledging that your client has a brain and a checkbook, and that he can probably find some free time. A lot of us don't seem to give our clients the benefit of the doubt that they are willing or able to do their part, so we either offer to do it for them or walk away frustrated.

Sure, an upside-down seller will be more than happy to dump his upside-down monkey on you, if you agree to take it. A frustrated buyer would be tickled to let YOU figure out where that extra 5% down is going to come from when the terms of his loan change. But you CAN gracefully hand that monkey back to the buyer or seller without his ever noticing the hand-off!

Let's use the example from my initial blog of the seller who owes $415,000 on a house that might be worth $399,000. To come out whole, he really needs to sell around $430,000. Oh, and he DOESN'T want to come to the table with money or short sell the house.

What do you do?

Of course, you can refuse to take the listing, and indeed, that's what you might end up doing. Or you might agree to take the listing at a too-high price, and regret it every day for the next six months. But are those the only two options?

NO!

There is another solution to this problem. One that may result in a sellable listing. What IS this magic solution?

I dunno.

It's your seller's solution to discover. And if you let him keep his monkey, he may very well come up with the solution on his own. Maybe he'll decide to kiss up to Aunt Lulu and ask her for a short-term loan to cover the spread. Maybe he'll decide a short-sale isn't out of the question. Maybe he'll agree to make the improvements you recommend to give him a better shot at a higher price.

Or maybe he'll come up with something brilliant none of us thought of.

But... but... but... how DO you show your prospect or client the respect of letting him keep his own monkeys? What do you say? Or not say?

You know the drill... stay tuned...

*I didn't make up the Monkey concept - Terry Watson did. You can purchase Monkey t-shirts at his website: http://www.terrywatson.com/Products/Apparel.asp

Pre-vacation, I wrote a "to be continued" blog about avoiding burnout by refusing to accept responsibility for stuff that isn't your responsibility, specifically in a real estate transaction. I promised to share some ideas for putting this philosophy into place that don't alienate the other party, who in all likelihood isn't trying to be difficult. And could end up being a fantastic client with a workable deal.

The first trick to respectfully declining your clients' monkeys is to know which monkeys are appropriate to decline. And which are rightfully yours to carry.  Yes, when our clients hire us, they have a right to expect us to take on some of the burden of their real estate transaction. Entering into a real estate agent/client relationship creates responsibilities on each side. The clearer you are on whose responsibilities are whose, the easier it will be to assign them to the appropriate party.

Put another way, what factors of the transaction are within your control, which are within your client's control and which are out of either of your control?

You control:

•         the services you are willing to provide

•         the marketing you are willing and able to do

•         the price at which you are willing to take a listing

•         whether or not you will take a short-sale listing

•         the times you are available to your buyer

•         the expertise you have in advising a seller how to prepare for market

•         the resources you have in place to help a seller prepare for market

•         your willingness to show short sales, foreclosures, FSBO's or new construction

•         how often you will communicate with your client

•         how much you charge for your services

Your client controls:

•         the price he is willing to list and sell for

•         how much he is willing to "come to the table with" if he's upside down in his mortgage

•         whether or not he's willing to short-sell

•         the amount of work he is willing to do and the funds he has available to prepare for market

•         the times he is available to look at houses

•         what marketing services he will require from his agent

•         how much he is willing to offer on a home

•         whether or not to allow unrestricted showings

•         whether or not he wants to pursue short sales, foreclosures, FSBOs or new construction

•         whether or not he is happy with the inventory in his price range

•         how much he is willing to pay for real estate services

Neither of you controls:

•         changing lending requirements

•         overall market activity

•         the cost of home maintenance and repair

•         interest rates

•         closing costs

•         the underwriter

•         the agent on the other side of the deal

•         the buyer or seller on the other side of the deal

So, how are these "control" issues relevant to getting the various monkeys assigned properly? Any thoughts?

I'll share mine next time...

The 2009-2010 Winter of Soul Cometh!

The other day I had a three-way conversation with two agents who are in the middle of career crises. Both are trying to decide whether to stay or go, interestingly, for opposite reasons. AgentFriend1 has too much business and is burning out and AgentFriend2, well, doesn't. Have too much business, that is. And she's burning out, too.

We talked about burnout and both agents confessed that they become deeply involved in their clients' personal situations and get sucked into the emotional drama of it all. Which isn't uncommon in our business; after all, we ARE deeply involved in the whole mess - if our seller doesn't have enough equity to properly price; if our buyer's loan changes and they have to come up with an additional 5% down; if our listing doesn't appraise and the deal crashes... yes, these events DO affect us both financially and emotionally. And frankly, if they didn't affect us, we probably wouldn't be effective at our jobs.

But you can draw a line and preserve your sanity. Terry Watson calls it "the Monkey." He describes how we wrongly let others put their monkeys on our backs - even though we have our own monkeys to deal with, thank you very much! We real estate agents are really good at accepting our clients' monkeys as our own.

And you know what? Our clients are HAPPY to give us their monkeys and then blame us when things go wrong. Further, we accept that blame - which puts us in a position where we have to apologize for our inability to solve a problem that ISN'T OURS TO SOLVE.

Here's an example. The seller owes $415,000 on his home. The market value is no more than $395,000 and that's pushing it. In order to break even, the seller needs to sell at $430,000 at least. The seller "doesn't want to do a short sale," so he looks to his agent for another solution. What solution does the agent come up with?

1.       Price at $439,900 and hope for a miracle

2.       Reduce her commission to nothing and price at $420,000 (and hope for a miracle)

Of course, there are other solutions, but we monkey-acceptors want to please, so these are the ones we propose. (And then we're miserable because we have an unsellable product, but that's another story).

Here's another example. You interview for a tenant-occupied listing. The seller doesn't want to inconvenience the tenant, so he asks for a 24-hour showing requirement; for day-time showings only; that you attend all showings, and a 60-day possession. You want to please the seller, so you agree, knowing what he's asking will make the properly unmarketable... and you miserable.

Do too many of these deals and I think burnout IS an inevitability.

Of course, it's easy to advise "Well, just thank the %$SOB^# very much for the opportunity and walk away!" I hear that advice all the time, and sure, that's an option. But there's a better way... a way to respectfully decline the monkey and move forward without alienating someone who could be a wonderful client and future referral source.

Stay tuned...(actually, you might have to wait a week for the sequel - I'm heading out for my vacation tomorrow and have been duly informed that I will NOT spend my vacation on the computer. But maybe I can sneak it in!)

The Monkey Series
Part II Which Monkeys Are Yours? Which Aren't?
Part III Declining the Monkey Part III
Part IV What to Say (or not say) to Decline the Monkey
Part V A real world example of a Monkey Unnecessarily Accepted

Picking up from yesterday's installment of things you can do TODAY to ensure a Happy Next Year, today's topic is how becoming a Master of Your Market can get you business. As with yesterday's topic (blogging for business), what you're about to read comes from the Pipeline 2010 program that was included in my 2009 Summer of Soul Teleseminar series.

First, what does being a "Master of your Market" mean? To me it means that if someone tells me where they live, I get a mental image of their neighborhood or subdivision or condo building. I don't necessarily know how big their house is or what year it was built, but I can probably guess within a decade or two, and I have a general sense of the overall ambience, what amenities are nearby and even a personal anecdote or two about the area I can toss out.

What being a Master of your Market doesn't mean is that you're a walking encyclopedia of facts, figures and statistics (click here to read my thoughts on the irrelevancy of the DOM statistic). No amount of research sitting behind your desk will give you the level of intimacy and familiarity with your market that you'll need to be a master of it. Again, a good definition of a market master is the ability to visualize a neighborhood when given an address - and there's no way you'll get that from MLS research.

How does being a Market Master help you attract business?

Well, as a real estate agent out there in the world with your antenna up, what do you have to offer the Average Joe who strikes up a conversation with you? Does he care how many listings you have? Does he care how gorgeous your home brochures are? Does he really want to hear about your 32-step marketing plan for selling houses? Probably not. But if he's at all interested in what $300,000 buys you in his neighborhood (and you know), or how much it costs these days to get into South Park Hill (and you know), your ability to make intelligent conversation about the market will get him, if he's gettable.

But if the best you can come up with is something like: "I'm not sure about that, but I'd be happy to find out for you;" well, it doesn't have quite the same effect.

The same thing applies when you're sitting on floor time or at an open house. If the best you can do is hand a visitor a list of other homes in the neighborhood, but can't really make conversation about them, the possibility of watching that stranger walk back out your door just went way up. But if you can chatter about nearby listings or comparable neighborhoods, you just dramatically increased the chances that your visitor will ask for your business card.

When you're on floor time, or take a sign call, again, if you can speak intelligently about the market either surrounding your listing, or that your office specializes in, you'll easily capture those leads.

So, what should you be doing right now to ensure that you're a Market Master by 2010? Well, following the advice of Todd Clark in his featured blog: "How Long of an Article is Too Long?"  I'll answer this tomorrow... but please share YOUR thoughts today!

This topic, as well as nearly a dozen others, is covered extensively in the 2009 Summer of Soul Teleseminar Series, which is a collection of over 800 minutes of downloadable audio recordings on a variety of topics of interest to real estate agents. It's just $49 until September 15; then it's going up to $99. Purchase the series here.