Category Archives: Sellers

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Convincing Sellers To Price It Right?

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I have found that an overpriced house actually helps other houses get sold, because they look like an even better value by comparison! I feel it is important to help my sellers to understand who their competition is so we can be the best and most attractive home value in their price range.

There are three places sellers compete. Price, terms and condition. Make sure all three of these are researched and discussed.

 In our Minneapolis / St Paul real estate market we have a two week window at the beginning of the listing period to get the highest price. After that time consumers want a discount.

If you have a seller who is not willing to price where you believe the value is, discuss and agree that once you have had 10 showings without an offer it is time for a price reduction down to your price recommendation. Set up this expectation with your seller at the time of the listing agreement. Have scheduled price reductions already agreed upon in the terms of your listing agreement and as part of your overall marketing plan. This makes the price reduction calls so much easier to make and gives your seller a benchmark to measure against.

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What’s Your Perfect Customer Lifecycle?

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There are seven distinct phases to the Perfect Customer Lifecycle:

Attract Traffic
This includes all of the work you do to generate interest in your business, like website traffic, foot traffic, etc. that comes from online/offline advertising, partners, etc.
Capture Leads
Smart businesses are very intentional about capturing contact information for interested leads as well as permission to follow up. As a real estate agent you run a small business. You can’t follow up if they leave your site or store, open house or showing appointment without giving you their info! What thing of value can you offer in exchange for their contact information.

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Who Is Your Perfect Target Market?

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Success in real estate sales involves constant evolution and adaptation to the ever changing market. Over the last 24 years I’ve been fortunate to have found success in a few different verticals within the real estate industry. Looking back I see a common series of steps that were taken to get to the point where the leads were coming in to my team at a steady pace and our sales cycle was even and profitable.

The first step is to determine your target market. This is really important. You cannot be everything to everybody. The more narrow your focus, the more accurate your marketing message will be for your targeted audience. You will have success in generating the right leads that will be seeking you out because you are a specialist in their particular need and you will have more sales as a result.

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Should You Send Your Friends Your Marketing?

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I will never forget the shock I felt when one of my friends worked with another agent to sell his home because he perceived the other agent to be the “neighborhood specialist” in the neighborhood we both lived in. To make matters worse, I had originally sold him his home and had negotiated for him in multiple offers to do it.

My client/friend and I were on great terms. We were neighbors in a popular area in Minneapolis. Because it was a sought after area many agents mailed material to the homeowners as the listings there sell really quickly. He told me he and his wife despised junk mail from Realtors so I quickly took him off of my marketing list. Imagine my horror when I drove down his street one day and saw the sign in his yard listing his home with another agent from my same company. When I asked him why he used the other agent he told me it was because he published a monthly neighborhood specific newsletter talking about his sales in the area and the local market statistics. My friend and his wife felt the other agent really knew how special the neighborhood was and would be able to market their home the best. WHAT?!?! They bought their home because I recommended the area, found them an awesome home, I lived a couple of blocks away and I had worked hard for them and had assumed they would only work with me!

I learned four things that day.

#1- Perception is reality. My clients saw in the agent they hired a specialist for their home and neighborhood. They considered me a generalist because I had not been giving them specific marketing messages that appealed to them.

#2- Keep in touch with ALL of your clients on a regular basis to make sure they know you are busy working in Real Estate and know their market.

#3- The neighborhood specific newsletter with statistics and a list of homes he had sold in the neighborhood was not considered “junk mail” because it was specific and even considered valuable.

#4- Even friends need to be reminded you are successful and effective in selling once in a while!  As the saying goes, out of site, out of mind.