So in my last two articles I talked about preparing for the listing appointment and going on the appointment. Now I want to share some thoughts on servicing the seller during the listing period.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the clients want to hear from you. They want consistent communication with you to know what’s being done to sell their home, how the market is doing, and what the feedback is from the showings that are taking place.

I can’t tell you the number of expired listing appointments I go on and the seller says, “My agent listed the house and I never heard from them again”. As a professional in this industry, that is completely unacceptable in my opinion. The client is hiring you by signing a multi-month contract for thousands of dollars. You owe it to them to provide a professional level of service and communication.

It’s really pretty simply but for some reason we allow fear to get in the way of calling and communicating with our sellers. You leave the house with the listing signed feeling all warm and fuzzy, and then when a few weeks or possibly months go by and the home is not sold, we get scared to talk to the seller.

There are many reasons for this fear and it’s justifiable. The biggest issue with this fear is that you likely didn’t set them up properly at the listing appointment. The sellers are looking to you as the professional to lead and guide them throughout the entire process. Remember, they don’t know what they don’t know.

Here are some things that you should cover with your seller either at the appointment or within the first week of taking the listing.

1. You will call each agent that shows the home to get feedback from them and communicate this with them.

2. You will update them every 30 days with a new market analysis of their home via email showing how their home is continuing to compare to the market so that they can remain competitively priced in order to sell.

3. Explain that other agents and companies will be showing the home way more often than you are. As the listing agent your job is to market the home and get the home maximum exposure no matter what agent the buyer is working with. Don’t pretend you’re going to be showing the home all the time, in fact tell them the truth, you may never show the home as the listing agent. If you have a financially qualified buyer who is looking for something like their home you will but otherwise you will be spending your time marketing the home and looking for buyers, which is what they’re hiring you for. My agent never showed the home is another huge complaint I hear. Educating them on how this works will do wonders for your relationship with the seller.

4. Discuss price reductions right up front. Tell them the truth. The longer the home sits on the market the harder it will be to sell and the worse thing you can do is continue to let the home sit on the market month after month at a price that isn’t causing the home to sell.

5. If you are not going to do open houses, let them know this. Don’t allow the client to wonder about this. Either you are an agent that does open houses or you are not. There are a number of objection handlers in our book, Now What Do I Say?, to overcome this if you choose not to do open houses.

6. Ask them how they would like you to communicate with them, email, text, phone, mail. And then do what works best for them.

The future of business is in relationship and communication. Make sure your goal is to take excellent care of the client’s needs, wants, and desires first and foremost. A paycheck should come as a result of providing great service. Please don’t be the type of agent that is only concerned about getting a paycheck. Trust me, the client feels this from miles away.

Be a contribution to your client in every way possible during your relationship with them. Have form letters, checklists, price reduction campaigns in place to service the listing. It should be streamlined and the same for every listing you take. You shouldn’t have to think about any of this, it should be automatic.

Remember, the consistency of your day to day activities determines the consistency of your income month after month.

Please let me know how I can support you with your real estate business. I have recently opened my scheduled to allow space for a few additional individual coaching clients. My goal is to teach agents across the United States how to sell a 100 homes a year with great service, and a personal life too!

To learn more about how I can help you, please call me at 540-312-0085 or email me at christycrouch@aol.com, or visit our website at www.yourethedifference.com

I hope you are on track to Making 2010 YOUR Year!

Christy Crouch

The Listing Presentation

We all have different tactics for generating and securing leads that turn into a listing appointment.

As a co-founder, coach, author, and an active agent still selling real estate, I want to share some thoughts and ideas that I am confident if used, will help you take more listings.

There are many parts of the listing presentation and I’m going to break it down into three parts that I’ll write about over the next few days.

The first step is being prepared BEFORE the appointment. Being prepared ahead of time will give you the knowledge and confidence it takes to get the listing signed when you meet with the seller.

Now I realize a lot of you may have been taught and are practicing a two step listing presentation. You go see the house, hope to build rapport with the client, then go back prepare your market analysis and show up for a second appointment to hopefully get the contract signed.

My question to you is why? With yours and the client’s time being one of the most valuable things you both have, why would you want to waste time going twice to do what can be accomplished with one appointment?

Guys, lets face it, we really don’t NEED to see the house in order to prepare a market analysis. The factors that mainly determine the value of a home are the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, the square footage, age, style, and location. I know, yes, the condition does matter. And if you’ll take just a few minutes BEFORE you go on the appointment to ask the potential seller a few questions, you can get all the answers you need to prepare a market analysis and be ready to discuss price with them on the first appointment.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that really all the client cares about is how much can you sell my home for? What will you do to get my home sold? And, how quickly do you think it will sell? ;

If the client can know the price right up front on the first appointment, trust me, that’s what they want. So, before you go out either when you’re setting the appointment or the day before, give them a quick call and ask them some questions to help you prepare. Most of this can be obtained through tax records as well and it’s a good idea to verify the information with the client ahead of time.

I’ve discovered that the more questions you ask the client, the better chance you have of taking the listing and the more in control you’ll be of the entire situation. When you go to a doctor or a lawyer, don’t they spend most of their time asking you questions so they can best help you? As a professional Real Estate Agent, handling what is mosts largest single investment, don’t you think asking some questions would be a good idea?

In coaching, I teach my clients exactly what questions to ask and HOW to ask them. When asking the right questions in the right way, it’s possible to gain instant rapport with the client right over the phone before ever meeting them. A few of the questions are:

1. Tell me a little about your home.

2. Have you done any recent repairs or improvements that you feel will be important for a buyer to know?

3. How would you rate the overall condition of your home?

4. Do you have a price in mind that you are hoping to get for the home?

5. Why are you thinking of selling the home?

You can use these, add to these, develop your own, or I have a scripts CD offering the exact questions to ask while teaching you HOW to ask them as well. This can be purchased from our website at www.yourethedifference.com.

It’s called How To sell over 100 homes a year sales package scripts CD. It’s $49.99 and also gives you scripts for calling expired listings, FSBO listings, past clients, just listed, just sold, and how to convert sign and ad calls to buyer leads.

When you take the time to ask the questions ahead of time you’re showing the client that you are investing time to find out what their needs, wants, and desires are. Preparing for the appointment ahead of time also shows professionalism above the competition.

In addition to being able to powerfully present the market analysis specific to their home, you should also know your overall market statistics. This puts you in a place of power and confidence while proving to the client that you know what you’re doing, giving them confidence in hiring you.

Know at least the following statistics about your overall market. In most cases you can discover this with the click of a button on your MLS system.

1. How many homes are for sale?

2. How many homes have sold year to date

3. What’s the average sales price of what’s moving in your market?

4. What’s the average number of days on the market for a home to sell?

5. What’s the average list to sales price ratio?

While you may not think it’s so important in determining the value of their home, again, it shows that you know what you’re doing. And, the statistics actually do have an impact on their home because it’s what your area market is doing.

Always set the appointment in a fifteen minute time period so you don’t have to stress and worry about being there at an exact time. Tell them you’ll be there between 2:00 -2:15. When you are on the way, give them a call to let them know you’re on the way and looking forward to meeting them. The more you talk to them ahead of time, the more comfortable they will already feel with you when you show up.

Before you go on the appointment, spend some time practicing and role playing your presentation. Review the market analysis in detail so when speaking with them you are confident about the numbers. Take a moment to visualize signing the contract, putting the sign in the yard, and taking the listing. If you think you will, you will.

And last, rehearse handling objections. You know you’re going to get objections, so be prepared to handle them. Take some time to write down the most common objections you face when on a listing appointment and come up with some answers ahead of time that you can use again and again.

When you don’t have to think of answers on the fly, you’re much more likely to answer their question with professionalism and confidence leading to more listings taken.

If you haven’t already, I invite you to check out our Now What Do I Say? line of products where we answer more than 70 of the most common questions and objections that you’ll face in the entire real estate sales business with more than 420 answers. We have the published book, the book on audio, and a live role play CD where we demonstrate not only WHAT to say but HOW to say it when faced with objections. You may purchase these from our website as well, www.yourethedifference.com.

In the next article, I will talk about the actual listing presentation and give you more thoughts and ideas on what to say while you’re on the appointment.

Please let Scott and I know if we may be of support to you in any way.

I hope you are on track to making 2010 YOUR year!

Christy Crouch

You alone have the power to create an amazing life by design. It’s about realizing and tapping into your power to BE, do and have anything that your heart desires.

You’re the One to open your mind and life to the possibility that there is more to life than just life-ing along; You don’t have to be caught up in the rat race of what the world’s standards are, there is true inner peace, joy and happiness possible.

Create your life by design and not by chance. The decision is yours for the making…simply realizing that you’re the one is the first step to having all that you desire

There is absolutely NO proof whatsoever that you cannot be, do and have anything that you put your mind to. In fact, throughout history, time and time again, there is proof to the contrary. You can be, do and have anything you want…absolutely anything. You’re The One.

You’re the kind of person that has often felt that there’s got to be more to life than just this. Maybe it’s something you can’t quite put your finger on, but you know that you’re not like everybody else who seems to just be going through the motions of life, don’t you?

Being The One allows you to create a life of your choosing instead of having your life dictated by circumstances.

The only One that can make a difference in your own life is YOU.

The only magic pill is YOU.

So, what’s stopping you? What are you waiting for? Who are you waiting on to give you what you want?

Are you in a Someday conversation? Someday, when I have enough money, or Someday when I’m successful, or Someday when I have the time…then I’ll do this or that. I’ll buy that thing I’ve always wanted, I’ll do that thing I’ve always said I would do, etc., etc.

We hate to break the news to you…Someday isn’t coming; it’s not on the calendar. The truth is that you are the only One who can make Someday today.

It’s time for you to step into your own power.

What is your power? Have you ever taken a moment to appreciate all the great things about yourself; your talents, your attributes, what you have to offer to the world?

Right now, make a list of 7 to 10 things that you like about yourself. Think about what you do well, what others say they like about you, and what you feel are your greatest attributes.

Now that you have a list of things you like about you, spend some time appreciating you. Read this list daily and realize that this is who you are.

If you don’t believe that You’re The One, what will it take to convince you? Who or what are you waiting on to Be The One that makes the difference in your life?

Can you imagine how accepting and acknowledging that You’re The One can change your entire life? Being The One means that no one and no circumstance has power over you. Start to notice that simply realizing You’re The One instinctively gets you excited!

This is an excerpt from an audio program Scott and I co-wrote, You’re The One.  For more information on this product, or to purchase it, please email info@yourethedifference.com.

Make 2009 YOUR year!

If you are thinking of calling all of those expired listings that will come up next Friday, January 1st and are unsure of what to say, I wanted to share my script with you.

It’s allowed me to do more than 70% of my business with Expired’s and FSBO’S.  I’m actually going to give you the script that I use for leaving messages when I can’t get an answer, and you can basically use the same if you do catch someone home.

Now obviously you want to try to reach them in person whenever possible to set an appointment.  But, I’ve found that now a days, it seems a lot of folks are screening their calls with caller ID, and may not answer if they don’t recognize the number.

The other beauty of leaving messages is that most other agents even if calling at all, generally aren’t leaving a message.  And, I want you to know it WORKS!  Day after day I get clients calling back from my message asking to set an appointment!

Hi, this is _____ with ______, I noticed that your home came up on our computer today as an expired listing, and I just wanted to check to see if you guys were planning to interview a different agent for the job of helping you?

If you are, I would love the opportunity to meet with you and show you what I can offer.  I work with a lot of folks here in the area and have a very active and aggressive marketing plan that’s actually really effective!  I have been able to sell ____ homes so far this year, and consistently sell an averagey of ______ homes each year.

I mention this, just because I feel confident that I can help you get your home sold and of course, given the opportunity would take excellent care of you.  If you would be interested in getting together my office number direct is __________.  Thank you for taking the time to listen and I hope to connect with you.

It is a little long and yet I generally have plenty of time to get the entire script out, and it’s been very effective in getting response.  If you are new or haven’t sold a number of homes that you would want to mention, then you can use your companies’ numbers and simply say my company has sold ____ homes so far this year and consistently sells an average of ______ each year.

Don’t forget to register for our FREE call, Make 2009 YOUR year. Simply send us an email to info@yourethedifference.com and you’ll be emailed back with the number and code. The call is Thurs. Jan. 8th 4:00-5:00 est.