Your listing agreement is signed and you're heading out to install the lockbox and yard sign for your fabulous new listing! By this afternoon, the property will be entered into the MLS, and hopefully your fancy-schmantzy home brochures will be delivered by the end of the week.
Whew! You're done, right? Time to move onto the next listing prospect!
Well, that's up to you, but I don't recommend it.
Those first two weeks of a new listing provide a beautiful window of opportunity to knock the sox off your seller and cement your position as his or her all-time favorite real estate agent. Oh, and by knocking the sox off your new seller out of the gate, you'll buy yourself a little grace if, down the road, you unintentionally drop the ball (it happens)!
When you put a new listing on the market, strive to have contact with my seller every single day for the first week; and into the second week if possible. Remember, while listing another home may be just another day at the office for us, it's a monumental event for most home-sellers. They are watching your every move (or lack of movement) very closely - AND - commenting on those moves (or lack thereof) to their peers.
So, what can you do to knock some sox those precious first two weeks of a new listing?
- Send the sellers a copy of the MLS listing and ask for their blessing
- Send the sellers a draft of the home brochure and ask for their blessing
- Schedule the first open house
- Create and deliver your first State of the Market report
- Deliver feedback from showings, if any
- Send links to your online advertising (Your Virtual Tour, Craigslist, Postlets, Realtor.com, your blog, etc.).
- Ask seller to distribute the virtual tour to his social network.
- Drop off brochures
- Do your Open House
- Deliver feedback from Open House
- Ask sellers how they feel the process is going so far
- Preview any new competition and share your feedback
- Call to check on brochures - do we need more yet?
- Prepare a market report with the number of showings and virtual tour hits, along with an update on the status of the competition.
After the first two weeks, you can slow down your attention a bit, although of course, do continue to provide showing feedback and check on brochures and such. Every 2-3 weeks, send an updated market activity report, and at six weeks, prepare a full CMA and schedule a meeting with the sellers to discuss it.
If your seller feels you're being TOO attentive, he'll probably let you know, but I really doubt that will be a problem!
Any other ideas of reasons to contact a seller? Please share!
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The Daily Seduction
Tips & Inspirations to Generate Business from the Very Important People Who Know You
Excellent advice Jennifer. Communication is so important.
More often than not, we have the listing in the MLS before my broker leaves the property. It is on Showing Solutions, lockbox in place, and an email sent to the owners with the new listing so they have an opportunity to make suggestions. Open house is scheduled at the same time. Then I put it on the various websites and send the owners those links, too. Doesn't matter if its a traditional sale or a short sale, they are all the same.
We try to be the best at what we do. Every advantage counts. That's one of the reasons we are referred, I believe.
rather than overkill during the first couple of weeks, my team members put them on a system of what to expect.....feedback is given within 24 hours after a showing....weekend feedback is given on a monday morning, unless there's an offer.
Barbara - Expectations are good, especially if they're met or even exceeded! However, there ARE a lot of things to talk about in the first few weeks and many agents don't think to keep their sellers in the loop of what they're doing. Since those first two weeks are when the majority of our "work" is being done, it only makes sense, to me, to make sure our sellers know what we're up to.
Suzanne - Sounds as if you're doing it right!
Mary - Having had my own houses on the market with other agents thru the years, I can tell you that YES, communication is much appreciated and very seldom "over"-done!
Great post and a great reminder of the things that in today's market are a must.
One of your points about asking the seller to distribute the virtual tour to their social network is so good. All of them are good but this one wow . Light bulb in my head going off!!! Thanks
Hi Jennifer great post. I just listed a lake front lot and I actually do about the same thing for my lot listings. I send links to all the places I've advertised it, I send link to my blog post, the page on my website with their listing plus a viveo of the community it is in, the link to the ad on my company's website,the press release etc. etc. when you claim to have the best coverage they want to see it in action. We all have to go beyond what they expect to wow them!
Sally - awhile back, I listed my out-of-state house with an agent - after several months, I hadn't heard much of anything, so I got a little pi$$y and asked to terminate the listing early so I could rent it out. She got all indignant, insisting that she'd done "all this work" and spent "all this money" and it wasn't fair that I wanted to pull the listing. Uh, I had not seen ANYTHING she'd done - no advertising, no virtual tour, no brochures, no feedback, no showing history, no market data - NOTHING. So, even if she was doing all these things, it wasn't doing her any good with me anyway since I didn't know about it!
Charlie - Yep! And they can post it on Facebook and lots of other places!
Diane - Oh, how I wish they were a "must!"
Jennifer, this is a great post and we all need reminded at times. Sometimes we get in a "system" mode and forget the personal contact. You've put it very well here.
This is a great check list and fights the list and leave scenario that many in the industry are guilty of. I try to give my sellers as much information as possible. Well said!
Thanks for the kind words, Lisa & D&D!
Hi Jennifer. Nice list.
I must say I wish I would get an A+, but I don't...
Not quite.
Thanks for writing,
Ken
Great follow up system for new listings. I use those same tactics the first few weeks. As things slow down a little I start to feel guilty like I'm not paying enough attention to the house like I was the first few weeks.. Then you know what happens, IT SELLS! :)
I love your perspective, Jennifer. It is a BIG event for the home seller. They now sit on pins and needles, kind of feeling at the mercy of "The Market". Also, I like your advice about running the marketing material past the home owner. I've looked at so many listings online and have wondered, why would the home seller even put up with this???
Great advice. I agree that sellers like to see activity right after listing. In a lot of cases, they have spent a lot of effort preparing to put their home on the market (packing clutter, cleaning, etc.) and they want to see something happening. When I take a listing, I always discuss the frequency and method of feedback that my sellers want, and then I stick to that. The exception is that they need to know they will have a lot of contacts with me in the first week as everything gets setup. I love the idea of sending them links to the different sites that show their home - I hadn't done that one.
JA - Boy, that's an eye opener. Many of the things we already do as a matter of course and yet we fail to communicate the activity to our principals. I like the "deliver" approach to keep all parties abreast of the market and marketing. I will upgrade my effort. Thanks!
Jennifer, these are all great ideas! an open house is such a great opportunity to gather feed back on a house - I suggest having clip boards with a short survey for the Open House visitors to fill out, it gains written feed back, gets the potential buyer to interact and think about the house more than just a run through, and it gives the agent more of an opportunity to build a new relationship!
Communication with our clients certainly is everything in the RE biz
Loved this one, so I hit the Re-Blog Button...
Great advice, Jenn. Like Ken, I wish I could say that I get an A+, but sadly, no...but I will one day, sooner than I possibly think....
Some of this is very obvious, but then why doesn't it get done. I love list and systematic approaches. Thanks for the post.
Great list to follow, Jennifer. We've had clients tell us that even thought they know how hard the market is, they appreciate our monthly mail out and keeping them informed.
Great list to follow up on I will have to use it as a check list for the future. to keep me on track with the people that hire me. One yesterday, One today, One last Saturday but those were in the works for a while. Appreciate your writing always something to add to my toolkit.
Jennifer, I like how you keep the home seller involved all along. I think this is great customer service.
thanks for the list- glad to see I am doing most of the right things!
From the desk of David Dee,
Jennifer, very sound advice. Great open communication helps to reinforce the relationship and trust.
DD - And without the communication, believe me, that trust is OUT THE WINDOW!
Carol - Yippeeee!
Birgit - Yeah, I do think our sellers deserve to know what we're up to... and shouldn't we WANT them to know?
Lee & Carol - absolutely - I don't think sellers will ever complain about getting too much information from their agent.
Clark - I'm so glad - thanks for letting me know it's helping you.
Gene - Ooooh, I love lists and checklists too!
William - Oh, I'm sure you're A+ material...
Robert - Thanks for the reblog!
Kevin - EXACTLY! I think I shall expand on that thought today...
Jill - Yeah, I get great feedback from sending it on - although sometimes my clients want to "improve" the wording...
Deena - LOL! I agree - and I have to wonder - are the sellers really THAT oblivious that they don't know or CARE what their MLS listing looks like?
Christopher - I always feel guilty when I haven't communicated in awhile... which is good... if I didn't feel guilty, I'd be less of an agent, right?
Ken - Go for that A+!!!
Just posted a follow-up... http://activerain.com/blogsview/1473402/if-a-tree-falls-in-the-forest-and-no-one-hears-it-is-your-realtor-doing-his-job-
This was really good, we do a lot of it already but incorporated the rest into the system. We agree with Charlie, asking the Owners to send out the virtual tours etc through their contacts, great idea!
Jennifer,
Glad I scrolled down and read this...there are some points of communication I had not thought of...and the time frame of the first two weeks is also very important....A big thank you....
Thanks Jen, Makes me feel good that everything you mentioned is what I'm already doing. My seller's get so bomobarded with emails of links of sites where I've listed their homes on, the MLS sheet, seeing the brochures and flyers delivered the next day, etc, that they hopefully will think I'm working 24/7 for them. It is a full time job for me, and they need to know that I'm earning the commission that they are going to pay me.
What a great list of things to do, expecially for those of in waiting (for our first listing!) I like this style of customer service.
Hi! I found this post really useful. Thanks!
Judiciary Square DC Homes For Sale
Jennifer,
Your ideas are really great. I try to comminicate often with my sellers. I have only had 1 who called and told me how she thought the remarks on the MLS should be worded. She was a nutcase, but that's beside the point. We should make our sellers feel involved, because they are the ones with the most at stake.
Great list for listings! Putting a sign in the yard and leaving it at that is not enough and a disservice to the seller!
Oooooh. I like the clipboard idea for real sellers and short sales!!!! Thanks. It can make a huge difference when the sellers get feedback from potential buyers.
Hi Jennifer, enjoyed the post. I have a 5 week program similar to this. It is so simple it does work.
Great job, Jennifer. However, I feel like the seller will reluctantly watch the initial expectations dwindle to very little. My philopsophy is to "start out how you're going to hold out". I let my clients know they will hear from me every Tues or as often as needed with updates. As someone said, meeting the expectation is great but exceeding it is better. I haven't promised something I can't deliver.
Love this list!! It's a great reminder for my new listings!!
One Step is Missing here.... You can get a Pre-listing Inspection and really knock their sox's off. Just think for a moment. This could show your clients that you are looking out for more than a commission in this transaction. You are looking out for them. Heading off any potential problems before the buyers inspectors shows up. A pre-listing inspection puts the home in a better selling position. And they usually sell for more with multiple offers... Remember a proactive agent is a respected agent. Read more about Pre-Listing Inspections here
Hi Jennifer,
Great advice! I'm going to print this and keep it in my little Real Estate 'tips & advice' notebook as a checklist. Thanks for sharing!
~ Vienna
Never have I paid this much attention to a client in the first week. hank you for showing me how to improve myself!!
Nice post. I have been using this strategy for awhile. I have a detailed 30 day marketing plan that I take to the listing appointment and these are some of things in it. I am not calling them everyday though. I understand your theory, not sure it is necessary to call them everyday though. I like the idea of having them giving information to their sphere. I think that they should be contacted with showing feeback the day of the showing and weekly internet activity reports. I do a market evaluaton at the end of 30days,but 6weeks is good too.
Love your post as usual! Thanks for the wonderful ideas.
Having a communication PLAN is a great idea and in the end makes our job easier. Margaret C.
My thought is if it is something you would expect from someone else, it would be great if you were to do it for others....you know, the Golden Rule. Great customer service stands out to everyone.
Good post, especially for a "newbie". I will keep this in mind as I make my first listing. Thanks.