Overcome Buyer Reluctance and Make The Offer!

The biggest challenge in real estate that I’m hearing from my agents these days is the buyers reluctance to make an offer. They cite various reasons, the most prevalent being the concern that “home prices will continue to drop”.  I think this is the same old fear that buyers have always had, just dressed in new clothing.  And that  is that there is an underlying concern that has not been addressed, and it is up to you as a real estate professional to find out what it is.

Every market has different challenges, either prices are going up or they are going down, interest rates are either going up or going down, and the same for cash flow. There has always been a buyers reluctance in every market and you the agent,  have a choice to either buy into their reluctance or see it for what it is. Drill deep and find out what the real issues are for your client, address that issue and then ask “do you think home prices will ever increase again”?

Of course they will and then you can move on to the close,  ”If we find the right home for you today that has most of your important wants, is there any reason that you wouldn’t want to make an offer”.

 

Profit Seeking versus Prospecting in Real Estate…

What’s the difference between profit seeking versus prospecting in real estate?

Although this might sound like just a semantic difference, I believe the underlying value is the Grand Canyon of difference. I guess after 20 years in real estate I shouldn’t be surprised when I hear agents tell me “real estate is hard” and they hate to prospect….hmmm, there just might be a correlation there. I think one of the reasons that agents find this business difficult or hard is that they are not continually building their business and generating new sources of revenue.

It should come as no surprise that just as with every other successful business enterprise, having a real estate business, whether you’re a brokerage of one or many, profit seeking should be your second highest commitment. The first, of course is unparalleled customer service. If, as Stephen Covey suggests in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, ( Habit #2 “Begin with the end in mind), envision the final result before starting a new endeavor. Deciding on what profit you want to obtain is the first step.

His analogy of building a house was perfect; we don’t just go out and start building, it would be far too costly and full of mistakes. Instead we first envision our new home, then blueprints are drawn, plans are made, etc. So it is with real estate. Your profit seeking activities such as Open Houses, Internet Marketing, Direct Mail, should be seen as just that, activities that will bring you profit rather than prospecting which is not as directly tied to your end result.

My challenge to you is if you do not know what profit you want to have at the end of the next 12 months, take that first step and envision your future.

 

Single most important thing…

In meditation the single most important thing is to “be present“, and I think that is true in real estate also.

How to be “present” in real estate I think is being focused every day on whats most important, and what is most important is connecting with people and setting appointments. Tom Ferry  your coach.com recommends 20 appointments a month for success, and I would say that would be a minimum. Particularly if you count the people you meet at an Open House as appointments and if you are an extraordinary agent who does extraordinary open houses twice a week. The key is to optimize your open houses.

                                               Rules to Optimize Your Open House:

1. Pick a foreclosure home close to high traffic street.

2. Use at least 8 signs with the words “foreclosure open house” to guide traffic.

3. Have lender there to pre-qual.

4. Have printout with pictures  of at lest 10 lesser/more priced homes for prospective buyers on display board  

5. Have partner at open house to alternate taking prospective buyers to other properties.

6. Be consistent and make a commitment to two open houses a week!

 

 

I need to make more money….

I heard an interesting proposition this weekend, and that was “the answer to any problem can solved by first asking the right question”.

Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?

So being the good zen student that I am, I decided to not judge but to give it a try-so I asked my agents in a sales meeting if anyone needed to make more money. You can imagine at no big surprise that quite a few of them said yes, they would indeed like to make more money. The dialogue that followed went something like this:
me: The question is how can you make more money?

                              agents: By increasing our business.

                             me: How can you increase your business?

                            agents: By increasing our prospecting. (Is this true? If you                     increased your prospecting, would you increase your business?)

                            me: How can you increase your prospecting?

                            agent #1: By doing more open houses. (Is this true? If you did more Open Houses, would you increase your business?) 

                             agent #2: By personally contacting my Sphere Of Influence. (Is this true?)

                            agent #3: By consistently marketing to my farm. (Is this true)

                            agent #4: By doorknocking my Just Listed/Just Solds. (Is this true)

                            me:  Is this true, if you did all of these, would you generate more business?

                            agents: yes

                            me: would you then make more money?

I won’t bore you with any more because you’ve probably figured out where this was going long ago but it is a simple truth; more activity generates more business, which generates more income.

I would invite you to just do at least one if not all four if you need to make more money–Namaste.