This is a very common misconception sellers have when listing their home for sale. Time on the market is the #1 enemy for a seller. Historically, we know the longer a home sits on the market for sale, the softer the price becomes. In this episode, I want to share one approach that's worked well for me in these situations. Should you decide to incorporate this into your business or not, the main purpose of discussing this is to be sure you have your go to script, plan... whatever you prefer to call it. Our ability to effectively deliver our responses to common objections such as this can be the difference between a listing taken or a listing sold.
Let's list some of the things buyers think when taking into consideration the length of time a home they're interested in buying has been on the market. Of course, it depends on the market conditions, this will be applicable in any market and especially effective in a predominantly seller market or neutral market.
Let's first look at a home that's been listed for just a few days.
Buyer's thoughts:
I need to act fast.
There may be multiple offers.
The seller is less likely to be flexible on the price.
I wonder if any offers have already been submitted.
All set the buyer up to have urgency, take action and make a strong offer.
Now lets list some of the common thoughts that come to mind when a home has been listed for, say, a few months.
Buyer’s thoughts:
Is there anything wrong with it?
I bet we can get a better deal.
I have time to think about it, let’s see some other homes before making a decision.
All of these don’t encourage urgency and leads the buyer to make a lower offer.
Let's set this up. Here's the keys ideas you’ll want to keep in mind:
Know your outcome - the objective is the seller comes to realize that pricing right from the start is the best choice.
With that in mind, learn how to ask questions that will lead them to this decision. Selling is not telling.
If you don’t believe it, neither will they.
The conversation.
Seller: It looks like we need to price it at about $350K, so let’s start a bit higher and leave room for negotiation, let’s start at $365-370K to so the buyer can feel like they got a better deal.
Agent: I can understand why you would feel/think this way. It’s normal, after all when we go to buy something, it’s only natural to want to get a better deal, right?
Seller: Yes
Agent: (Name), if asking a higher price would end up actually causing you to lose money, or in the end walk away with less profit...you would want to know that … wouldn’t you?
Seller: Of course, I am not sure what you mean.
Agent: Let me explain. Let’s look at this scenario...a buyer looks at your home and they are excited, they want to make an offer. What do you think is one of the top questions a buyer asks their agent about the listing? They already know the price, the size, beds/baths etc. What would you think it would be??
(The answer we are looking for is “how long has it been on the market”. We are handling this like the TV game show The Family Feud. Allow the seller a few attempts at coming up with the answer themselves, if they’re struggling, praise their effort and let them know the answer we’re looking for.)
Seller: Is there any offers?
Agent: That’s a good guess and yes buyers will ask that, what else?
Seller: How long has the home been listed for sale?
Agent: That’s it! This is the one that is most important...here’s why. Let’s look at 2 scenarios…A The buyer asks their agent “how long hasit been on the market” and their agent says “2 days” what do you think the buyer’s mindset is likely to be?
Seller: Well, I would imagine they’d be thinking they need to make an offer quickly.
Agent: What else?
Seller: Ummm. They better make a strong offer because it just came on the market.
Agent: Yes! That’s exactly what we want them to think, correct?
Seller: Yes, that’s right.
Agent: Ok, let’s look at scenario B. The buyer asks their agent “how long has it been on the market” and their agent says “62 days” what do you think the buyer’s mindset is likely to be?
Seller: What’s wrong with it?
Agent: What else?
Seller: I am going to get a better deal.
Agent: What else?
Seller: Why didn’t anyone buy it yet?
Agent: Exactly...so...this is what I am talking about when I mentioned if you knew that asking more to leave room to negotiate could actually end up costing you money, not making you money...and you want to maximize your profit, right?
Seller: That’s right.
Agent: So, (name) what is the most dominant thought you want your buyer prospects to have? A. I better make an offer now and make it a strong offer because if I don’t someone else will...OR B. “Let me think about it..if I do end up making an offer I am going to come in low to see how good of a deal I can get.”
What thought do you want them to hold on to? A or B?
Seller: A
Agent: You’re right, I would pick A as well. So...based on that...what is the best price... based on the facts that will cause a buyer to choose to make an offer on your home vs. the competition?
Seller: I guess we better price closer to the mid $50’s...let’s go with $355K
Now, this isn’t going to work perfectly or every time I have found this to be a very effective way to help the seller self-discover how to make the right decision and price it right the first time. The key here isn’t taking my words exactly as I said them and try to be me…(unless that works for you). The idea is to grasp the concept of this conversation, practice it at first by reading it...then try doing this with notes in hand and attempt not to look at your notes if possible and eventually run through the scenario freely from memory. Always keep in mind we need deliver this as if it was the first time you’ve ever said it won’t be as effective.
I am noticing a pattern that keeps showing up lately during conversations I am having with many agents. Since this seems to be so prevalent, I thought we could talk about it today as it’s likely something many of our great agents in action are experiencing. Even though a simple, and even a common topic, it’s one that is (in many cases) costing you $10,000’s and even $100’000’s in lost income opportunity. Ultimately, this shows up in our lives many ways. Sometimes, it’s having more month than money left at the end of each month...day to day lifestyle choices, it poses restrictions on us to give to others, not taking much needed (well deserved) vacations and so many others. What is this villain? It’s our ability to know what to do with our time each day and some long-standing myths or lies that are encouraging this to continue. I thought we could really dissect what I believe is the underlying cause behind this.
The Three lies robbing your productivity.
Lie #1 Everything Matters Equally
All things do not matter equally. Not tasks, not possessions and even people matter equally. Not everything matters equally, and success isn’t a game won by whoever does the most. That is exactly how most people play it on a daily basis. THE SIMPLE TRUTH IS THE PERSON WHO IS MOST FOCUS WINS EVERY TIME. They are better because of time on task. It’s time on task over time. Achievers always work from a clear sense of priority. Instead of a to-do list, we all need a success list - a list that is purposefully created around extraordinary results. So, go small, go extreme, say no, and don’t get trapped in the check off game. The check-off game never produces a winner. Sometimes it’s the first thing you do; sometimes it’s the only thing you do. Regardless, doing the most important thing is always the most important thing.
Lie # 2 Multi-Tasking
What’s ironic is employers often advertise to find self-proclaimed multi-taskers.
A thought: Multi-Tasking is probably one of the biggest lies out there. If doing the most important thing is the most important thing, why would you try to do anything else at the same time?
4000 - The number of conscious thoughts on an average day. Most people have an interruption of thought. (Every 14 seconds.)
43 - Average number of interruptions in the workplace daily. (Every 11 min)
28% - Loss of efficiency due to those distractions.
End result: In a five-day work week, you are losing more than one full day of production due to distractions. We wonder why we’re stressed out and not getting ahead as fast as we feel we should based on the time we’re putting in. You have only so much time and energy, so when you spread yourself out, you end up spread thin. You want your achievements to add up, but that actually takes subtraction, not addition. You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects!
Lie #3: A Disciplined Life
When we buy into the lie that everything matters equally, we end up multi-tasking because there is just too much to do, and when multi-tasking doesn’t work, we end up saying things like “ I just need more discipline in my life.” The trick to success is to choose the right habit and bring just enough discipline to establish it. How much discipline is required to build a new habit? We suggest 66 days, you can force yourself to get to 21 days, 66 days takes commitment. Don’t be a disciplined person. Be a person of power habits and use selected discipline to develop them. Build one habit at a time and stick with the discipline long enough for it to become routine. Remember, it’s not just one thing, it’s ONE Thing at a time.
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Four Ways To Boost Confidence When Pricing Property
Typically, when preparing for a listing appointment, most agents will leave their pricing research to a desk review over their computer. If you want to outperform your competition and at the same time...dramatically boost your confidence, go the extra mile and consider implementing these steps to maximize your confidence and accuracy.
1. Preview property every 10-14 days to give yourself a stronger knowledge of your local market, and it will give you more confidence in pricing during the listing presentation.
The more real estate you see, the more familiar you will become and have a keen sense of what a home’s value actually is. No more guessing or wondering.
Gives you the edge over your competition as you will have the ability to reference properties for sale or that have sold, carry a higher level of conversation with both your sellers and buyers and clearly demonstrate your expertise of the market place. A great disguise for new agents or agent that don’t really know an area as well as others.
3. Over achievers, you can mix in some door knocking while you’re out there.
2. Arrive early to the subject property neighborhood and preview your competition before you go on the listing appointment. This will help you better understand exactly how your listing will compare to the others and allow you to have certainty when discussing price and proper positioning in the market.
Go the extra mile, get inside and take notes on the condition, updates or lack of. Is the home dark, bright what direction does it face? Were there any odors that won’t be detected by just looking at pictures, how was the yard size, privacy or lack thereof. All these things can only be discovered by viewing the home in person. Pictures can only tell us so much; a site inspection shows it all.
Gives you absolute certainty when it comes to comparing the condition of the subject property.
Doing this will eliminate any doubt when the seller should comment about their home having this or that compared to those that are for sale.
3. Drive the comps including similar properties that are pending or closed status. Consider only looking at closed sales going back 90 days whenever possible as this best represents current market conditions. It’s critical to know where the properties are located in proximity to the subject property. Are the others on/back to traffic streets, train tracks or some other type physical objection?
Remember, you are the expert. It’s not only the professional expectation to be fully aware of the details surrounds the sales directly impacting your potential seller, it’s what the seller expects of you … and sets you up for a timely sale.
You can use this knowledge to confidently make references to other properties during the pricing or CMA portion of your presentation. This demonstrates your familiarity with the neighborhood which sellers will pick up on. They’ll know if you aren’t familiar too. The more prepared you are, the more easily you can carry on a fluid conversation with the seller about what is taking place in the neighborhood.
Nothing feels better than being prepared and knowing you are ready. Do what others won’t, go that extra mile and do your homework. You will find yourself more relaxed able to focus on getting the listing contract signed instead of worrying about what may be brought up or said next. Don't forget the 5 P's - prior, planning, prevents, poor performance.
4. Having an overall knowledge of your market statistics to create the highest impact. NO ONE CAN ARGUE WITH FACTS. Not the seller, buyer, agents or lenders. Set a reminder in your weekly calendar, make it a routine and do this.
It’s across the board, the majority of the agents don’t really have a firm grasp on market statistics in the areas they specialize in. If we’re the expert, then we’d be sure to know exactly what is going on in the marketplace. Here are some numbers to be tracking, these include:
A. Total inventory (Subdivision, city, county, entire metropolitan area, or all of them.
B. New Pending sales the past 30 days
C. Homes sold/closed in the last 30 days
D. Homes listed for sale in the last 30 days
E. Homes that expired/cxl in the past 30 days
F. How many months of inventory are currently available? Supply demand.
Eliminates being subject to what “others” may be saying about the market. This includes the media, other agents at your office and the general public. Be careful, if you don’t take ownership of the information available to you, someone else will do it for you.
It’s the difference between wondering and knowing. Statistics are unemotional. If you’re looking for a way to bring certainty about what really is taking place in the market, knowing your market statistics will do that for you.
Personality Styles 101 - Today we’re going to discuss the D.I.S.C personality styles and how to use this system to have more influence with anyone you are speaking with, resulting in a higher level of communication and ultimately, developing these skills will be an asset to close more business or, increase your overall effectiveness when putting deals together.
It’s was something I learned early in my career...probably 20+ years ago now. What’s interesting is I use what I have learned probably on a daily basis, if not several times a week. Knowing first who we are and then, to identifying the traits in others has been invaluable over my career. Remember the saying, people that are like each other tend to like each other and birds of a feather, flock together...it’s really true they’re not just “sayings” they are a fact of life. As Realtors, having a solid understanding of the various personality styles, and how to approach each of them, will be an asset and contribute to your success.
A good portion of our success stems from our ability to effectively communicate with others. When we stop to think about it, it’s not just our ability to present our listing presentation to a seller or a buyer our value proposition. It’s more than just this. It’s handling negotiations or comes into play when converting leads into appointments. It’s knowing HOW to present our value proposition, HOW to negotiate or HOW to convert leads into appointments based on WHO we’re speaking with that is the key to our success or, lack thereof.
Knowing who we’re speaking to, and what their preferred communications style is will either build up or break down the relationships we are working to form and dealing with on a regular basis. Knowing how to to do this, having a trained eye, what to look for and a trained ear, what to listen for will serve you well over the course of your career.
Let’s take an example from each...starting with what to look for. At our core, all of us are either more task oriented or people oriented. This also shows up in areas we may not really be aware of. For example, how people select the clothes they wear. If you saw someone that was wearing clothing that was bright or had a busy pattern, (if you’re paying attention and have an awareness about this) we could conclude that they are likely to be more “people” oriented. When you see someone dress more conservatively, solid “safe” colors, a more reserved look, you could conclude they are more “task” oriented. Remember, these are just clues and initial indicators.
What we’re looking for here are speech patterns you may pick up on. Is the person you’re in conversation with talk fast or slow? Is their tone louder, or soft spoken? Are they higher energy or more methodical in the way they communicate? Both will be an indicator of the personality style you are dealing with. Again, when you have familiarized yourself with these patterns and with a good amount of practice, you will begin to see how you can use all of this to have a higher level of influence.
So, let’s take a closer look now at what the characteristics of the D.I.S.C styles.
The DISC is a behavior assessment tool based on the DISC theory of psychologist William Moulton Marston, which centers on four different behavioral traits, which today are called: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance. This theory was then developed into a behavioral assessment tool by industrial psychologist Walter Vernon Clarke. There are many different versions of the questionnaire and assessment. Some date back to the 1940s while others are more recent. Marston, after conducting research on human emotions, published his findings in his 1928 book called Emotions of Normal People. The DISC approach suggests people’s personalities fall into four categories. We all have some of each of the four in our make-up, while two of the four are most dominant. Let’s review the most common characteristics of each style. There are four main personality styles...we lead with usually 2 and have some of all 4.
The D Style
The “D” 3 -5 % - The D Personality Style tends to be direct and decisive, sometimes described as dominant. They would prefer to lead than follow and tend towards leadership and management positions. They tend to have high self-confidence and are risk-takers and problem solvers, which enables others to look to them for decisions and direction. They tend to be self-starters.
What is the greatest fear of D Personality Types?
The D Personality Type will crave to be in control of the situation and therefore fears the idea of being taken advantage of by others.
When working with a D, be direct, to the point, and brief. Focus on tangible points and talk about "what" instead of "how." Focus on business instead of social topics and try to be results oriented. Make suggestions for how to achieve the goal instead of talking about why it won't work. Try to thinking like a D, be confident and focus on problem-solving.
When working with a D, it's important not to focus too much on the problems, the negative points, and the small details. They are big picture thinkers and may perceive you as negative. When speaking, try to speak confidently. Avoid repeating yourself or rambling. Don't make generalizations and make statements without support. Focus on the topic and do not be too sociable, they want to get right to the point.
Types of jobs these people may have for employment - CEO/Management, Trial Attorney
What are the general characteristics of the I Personality Style? (People) “I” 25%
The I Personality Style is not afraid to be the center of attention - Influencer. They are enthusiastic, optimistic, talkative, persuasive, impulsive and emotional. This Personality Type will trust others naturally, truly enjoys being around others, and functions best when around people and working in teams.
Since acceptance and approval by others are the main desire of I Personality Types, Rejection is their biggest fear.
When working with an I Personality Type, it's important to build rapport and be friendly. Approach Give them plenty of opportunities to verbalize their ideas, as they usually have very creative thoughts and are great problem solvers. Because they have so many ideas and enjoy discussing them, it may take some planning for them to turn their verbal ideas into action. It helps to write details and follow up to see they’ve followed through. They are great motivators of others.
Don't eliminate social time, as this is a very motivating factor for them. Don't do all the talking or strictly tell them what to do, you'll miss the opportunity to hear about their ideas and creative solutions to problems. Don't react to them in a way that makes them feel rejected, this is a great fear of theirs and will result in them feeling insecure.
Types of jobs these people may have for employment - Sales reps entertainment industry, public relations.
What are the general characteristics of the S Personality Style? (People) 45%
The S Personality Type is known for being steady, stable, and predictable. They are even-tempered, friendly, sympathetic with others, and very generous with loved ones. The S is understanding and listens well. Preferring close, personal relationships, the S is very opened with loved ones, but can also be possessive at times and hold them close.
What is the greatest fear of S Personality Types?
Because the S strives for stability and a feeling of peace and safety, they fear the loss of security through change.
When working with S Personality Types, be personable and build rapport. The sooner they feel comfortable with you, the sooner they will open up to you, especially if they see genuine interest in them as a person. If instituting change, be patient with them, explain your reasoning, and give them time to adjust. It will make them uncomfortable at first.
When working with an S Personality Type, it's important to be kind and patient. Avoid being confrontational, using strong tone or body language, being overly aggressive, pushy, or demanding. They avoid confrontation and will recoil if approached in this way.
Types of jobs these people may have for employment - Nurse/Social Worker, Admin Assistant. Amazing in support roles.
What are the general characteristics of the C DISC Styles? (Task) The “C” 25%
The C DISC Styles are accurate, precise, detail-oriented, and conscientious. They think very analytically and systematically and make decisions carefully with plenty of research and information to back it up. The C has very high standards for both themselves and others. Because they focus on the details and see what many other styles do not, they tend to be good problem solvers and very creative people.
When working with a C Personality Style, it's best to be prepared. Do your research and prepare your case in advance. Pay attention to the details because this is what the C focuses on. When you can support a statement or idea with accurate data or examples, it will be beneficial. Be systematic and logical in your thinking and planning and specific when agreeing or disagreeing. When disagreeing, work with facts instead of people examples. Be patient, persistent, and diplomatic and remember that they fear criticism.
Do not speak in broad generalizations with no specifics, use details and explanations when possible. Try not to answer questions too vaguely or casually, as they need information and details to make sense of new plans and decisions. Do not criticize the work they've already done as they take great pride in their work. If you do need to criticize, be specific with your examples and be diplomatic. Avoid being confrontational as they will not respond well to this and will close off.
Types of jobs these people may have for employment - Engineer, Scientist, CPA, Pilot
Take aways…Do’s Be curious, know there is always more to the “story”. Talk in their style, meet them where they’re at. When you mirror their style you will begin to notice you’re more influential, thus a more effective communicator.
Don’ts: React should they approach something in a manner you’d approach another way.Make them wrong for being themselves. Force your style on them; it won’t work.