Do you stand out from the other real estate agents when you are going for a new listing? We all would like to think that we do, but how do we know for sure? Have you ever gone back to a seller after losing the listing and ask why? If you haven’t, you should. You might be surprised what you’ll find out. Believe it or not, it’s not all about the marketing plan or pricing the home correctly. It’s more about how you present yourself and if you take into considerations their emotions.
Recently, good friends of ours were selling their house as they realized that they had no more room in their home. They decided that they would interview several local companies prior to listing their home. After interviewing three real estate agents, my friend called to tell me about the agents she interviewed. Needless to say I was intrigued about the appointments and who she had chosen. And, after listening to her, I knew I needed to share her experience with my Skirt’s friends.
The first agent she interviewed was 15 minutes late, not a good start, but to the agent’s credit, she did call and let them know that she would be late. When the agent arrived, she was dressed very casual and explained that she had been at her child’s school to participate in a classroom event. The agent asked if they would give her a tour of the home, which they did. After the tour, my friend decided that it would be more comfortable to sit at the kitchen table since she was sure that there would be a lot of paperwork being shown. Wrong. This agent started the conversation with how bad the market was, not a lot of things are moving, but she would give it her best shot. She asked what they would like to see the home priced for and then asked what they owed on it. Once this discussion was completed, she told them roughly what she thought they should list the home for. She was going to go back to the office and do a CMA, complete the paperwork and bring it back to them for their review with the contract for them to sign. Now, did I mention that this agent was a friend of theirs?
Agent two was scheduled for that afternoon. This agent showed up on time and was dressed in a business casual outfit. Once again, this agent asked them to give her a tour of their home. During the tour, she took notes, and asked if they had cable and internet. She also commented on the décor of their home and made some suggestions on how to get it ready to sell.
Also, during this process the agent began by asking them questions on why they were interested in selling and what they liked about their home and neighborhood. When they had completed the tour, agent two asked if they could sit at the dining room table as she would like to share with them information about herself and her company. Once they were seated at the table, she pulled out her computer and asked if she could use their internet connect as she would not only like to go through her presentation, but show them how she and her company would market their home on line. The opening page of her presentation had a picture of their home as well as a personalized cover with their name and address. Like any good listing presentation, she had included her glamor photo, resume, client testimonials about her and the company information, a typical marketing plan and a brief CMA for them to use as a base for the pricing discussion. Upon reviewing this customized presentation, the agent provided them a hard copy for their review.
Agent three was scheduled to drop by that evening around 6:00 PM so that the owners could take one child to football practice and the other to a dance. The agent showed up right on time and with a complete dinner for four. She said that she knew that it was rather hectic running your children to the various after school events and also interviewing real estate agents. This agent asked for the tour of their home, she discussed ways how they could get their home ready for sale, mentioned that she worked with a stager on all homes that she listed to get it buyer friendly, took pictures of the various rooms, and took notes. Once she completed the tour, which took 35 minutes, she reminded them that she would be meeting with them again the next morning at 10:00 AM to review her customized listing presentation that talked about her company, the local market stats, her resume (she had only been in real estate for a short time) as well as review a temporary listing detail page for her company’s website, a marketing plan and an open house schedule.
Can you guess which agent they chose? If you said agent three, you are correct. I asked her why they went with this agent. ‘First of all, she thought about my family when she brought the dinner for four. She had already told me that the first meeting would be for gathering information from us about our home and our goals. She asked us which other companies we interviewing and she was very complimentary of each of them. I like the fact that she was teaming up with a home stager so that my home would stand out from the others, and although I knew in the end I was paying for this stager, I didn’t have to pay for her services up front. And, when she came back the next day, she had a complete package for us that included the marketing plan and calendar of events for our home, we saw what our home was going to look like on the internet, the CMA and last but not least the contract for our review.’
So, when you are preparing to go on a listing presentation, take time to make sure that you are dressed professionally, arrive on time, that you have done your homework, that you listen to them about their home and let them tell you the features that drew them to the home. Have a complete marketing package that shows them their home and tells them what you are going to do to ensure that potential buyers will come through their home.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Loved this article. It really shows what worked. Very good information and well written.
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing! This is really insightful and heart warming really to the real estate professionals that understand it’s not just about making it happen but going the extra mile in both advertising and taking care of their clients (or would be clients in this case).
May I add one more thing that may help…technology is a beautiful thing and the internet and customized presentations are a testament to that. But there are more tools that can be used…one of them is a laser tape measure. This is helpful so that the listing agent can actually have the room to room measurements that many home sellers do not have. Even help create a floor plan where the sellers may not have one. Many buyers look for floor plans or layouts as the square footage alone is not enough. Layout makes all the difference.
Again, great blog! Thoroughly enjoyed reading it.