But, where will the prospects come from to write contracts for? How will you
get them? How do you become a top agent in your marketplace? How do you handle
the objections along the way?

These are questions that almost every new Realtor faces when beginning their
career. And due to lack of training, some agents are still asking
themselves the same very questions years into the business.

My first full year in real estate in a brand new town where I didn’t even know
how to get to the grocery store and back, I sold 39 homes. How? With a strong
desire, a strong commitment, an unwavering level of daily discipline, and a
coach.

When I began this business I didn’t ever think of myself as just a salesperson
or just a Realtor. I thought of myself as a business owner. I formed a
corporation for tax purposes which actually made it a business. Not telling you
to do this however calling myself a corporation vs just Realtor surely helped my mindset in addition to many tax savings.

I had no income at all at the time, and a baby on the way. I knew I was going to
do this real estate thing at all costs. My goal was to sell 100 homes a year.
I had this posted everywhere. I talked about to everyone. I had a detailed
business plan to follow and an amazing coach to teach and hold me accountable
along the way.

I got two credit cards, one with enough of a credit line to pay my coach for one
year and one to pay my living expenses for six months. I jumped in head
first without giving myself any options other than to make it.

I knew to truly be a top salesperson in any business, you can’t sit around
waiting and hoping for business. You have to get up, get out, and find the
business.

But how? Well it’s really fairly simple. As an agent our goal is to find buyers, find sellers, and put them together. It’s really much more simple than many agents think.

But how? We have to go out and talk to lots of people that we don’t already know. Sure, you can talk to
your family, friends, and associates. This will carrry your business for a
few months and hopefully help get you started, but after that you’ve got to find a way to create business.

But how? Prospect expired listings, FSBO’s, call around yours or your companie’s
listings and recent sales. Call neighborhoods that you would like to have
listings in. Call apartment complexes. You could also door knock but in most cases it’s
much more efficient to call.

Let me ask you, if you were just opening up a brand new business that gave you the potential to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, how would you answer the following questions? Take the time to answer them to yourself and then take some actions as a result toward building the foundation for your business or growing your business to the next level.

Begin to think of and treat your real estate business as a real corporation and automatically your business will increase.

You just opened your brand new company…

How would that make you feel?
How would you spend your days?
How would you dress?
What would you think about most of the time? Remember Earl Nightengale’s quote “You become what you think about most of the time”
Would it be helpful to have someone who’s already accomplished what you’re trying to do, train and teach you how to do it most effectively and efficiently?
Would you trust and listen to them?
Would you have a detailed business plan to follow?
Would you have a daily schedule and/or routine to follow?
Would you practice the skills it would take to grow and maintain your new business?
Would you realize that you have to go out and create the revenue and business?
Would you tell everyone you come in contact with about your brand new business?
Would you consider writing a vision statement of what it will be like in your life when your company succeeds and you’re making hundreds of thousands of dollars?
Would you be enthusiastic and excited about your new business?
Would you realize that it will take some hard work, some long hours, and some levels of frustration to get there?
Would you try it for a few days or a few weeks and then give up and say it doesn’t work?
Do you believe you are or can be a successful business owner?

Guys, while some of this may seem simple and elementary, these ideas and exercises are a common denominator for the vast majority top corporations, athletes, salespeople, etc. across the country.

If we want the same level of success they have then surely we should follow the same basic principals they do, right?

If you are looking for the right coach to take you to the next level or to help you begin your business of selling real estate, I would love to support you. Please email me at christy@yourethedifference.com.

Christy Crouch is the co-owner of You’re The Difference, Inc, co-author of the real estate objection handling book, Now What Do I Say?, a collection of more than 400 answers to over 70 of the most common questions you’ll face throughout your real estate career. She is an active agent still selling in Virginia, the mother of two children and is dedicated to helping agents across the United States have successful real estate careers with a balanced life. To learn more about how they can support you, please visit their website at www.yourethedifference.com

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to read my partner, Scott Friedman’s most recent article about the importance of pricing properly. It’s not always easy to tell the client the truth about price. It’s much easier to tell them what they want to hear, take the listing and hope and pray it sells.

What we need to realize is that the seller is looking to us for professional advice. They interview us to educate them on what it’s going to take to get their home sold. Why would you allow them to set the price?

So many agents make this mistake, then later the seller is wondering why the home hasn’t sold. They call and ask you, what are you doing to sell my home? How come you haven’t shown my home? When will you do an open house? And on and on with an endless stream of objections as a result of you not properly educating them up front on the right price to actually cause the home to sell, vs sit on the market month after month like the other thousands of homes that are not selling.

Sellers have two choices; price it to sell, or price it to sit. Ask them which side they want to be on and share the market statistics that reveal the right price.

Do you go to the doctor so you can tell him how to properly treat you or do you go looking for professional advice? My guess would be the latter. So, my question is, what causes you to believe the sellers aren’t looking to us for that same level of advice?

Agents seem to have an unwarranted fear about asking the seller to list at the price they know it needs to be listed for. This is because they don’t know what to say or how to say it. In many cases agents lack confidence due to simply not knowing what to say in order for it to make sense to the client.

Here are some objection handlers that may help you with price:

Seller says, I want to start out high to leave room to negotiate.

Mr./Mrs. Seller, I can appreciate your thought process and what I’m afraid of based on the market statistics, is that we are pricing ourselves out of the market. This can cause buyers to not even look at ours. I’d rather see us be firm at a price that brings interest and offers rather than being overpriced and lose buyers, wouldn’t you?

Seller says, another agent said they could get more.

Of course they did. Because that agent really needs your listing or specializes in overpriced listings that produce buyer leads for them. Imagine the buyer calls they’ll get on your home. Mr/Mrs Seller, I’m not interested in just taking your listing. I’m interested in helping you to actually get it sold. I have the courage to tell you the truth up front, and that’s not easy. Let’s look to see how we can convince a buyer to pay more than the market value, or should we just price it right and get it sold?

Seller says, I’m not going to give it away.

I totally get your position and you’re not going to give it away. What I hear you saying is you want to make sure you don’t leave any possible profits on the table, is that right? Great, I don’t want you to either. In fact, I want you to make the most money possible. After all, the more you make the more I make as well.

My concern is that if we don’t price it within market value, you may never see a profit because the home may never sell. As a buyer, would you pay the price you want to ask after reviewing the comparables? Be honest. And then there’s the appraiser to convince. They’re getting tougher and tougher on price now than ever before.

Shouldn’t we just price it at X and get it sold, or did you want to take the chance of other sellers using us to sell their home? Because undoubtedly you realize buyers will look at ours and then look at these others and see they’re getting more for the money down the street, or a lower price for the same thing. We can either sell or help our competition sell, which do we want to do?

Business and sales is 90% communication. Learn to powerfully communicate and automatically your business will increase. If you haven’t already visited our website to see products and coaching that we offer around communication, objection handling, building rapport, generating more business and what to say and how to say it we invite you to learn more about us at www.yourethedifference.com

“Christy Crouch is an active agent in Roanoke, Virginia and sells an average of 100 homes a year. She is the co author of the highly acclaimed real estate objection handler book, Now What Do I Say, the co founder of You’re The Difference Sales and Life Coaching where she teaches agents across the United States exactly what she does and helps them to dramatically increase their production. If you’re interested in a free coaching call or more information on products, coaching, and courses please email christy@yourethedifference.com or call 609-601-1296.”

What I am about to write flies in the face of the vast majority of real estate agents in North America today.

That is, the number one thing that contributes to the sale of a home, in any market, is the price of the property.  That’s it.

Location, features, benefits…all of those have a price tag.  What that means is, if I had a dump of a house in a dump of a location, it would sell if the price was low enough.

That being said, what’s low enough for a buyer to want to buy may not, in fact, be low enough for a seller to want to, or be able to sell.  Yes, that was simple economics at it’s best and it lends to explaining much of what has gone on the last few years…the price a seller would/could sell a house for far exceeded the price a buyer would (and sometimes could) pay for the house.

Now, let’s get back to the reason you, and most agents, might not like this article.

Both when practicing real estate (May 1998-Dec 2006, top ten percent in my market 2001-2006), and more recently as a coach, I’ve heard the arguments against price being the number one reason homes sell.  Most of those reasons center around an agent’s ego and/or the huge misconception as to what their job actually entails, as well as some sort of misplaced loyalty to the seller and the price they say they want.  (Before I go any further, I’m not in any way advocating that you shouldn’t be loyal to your sellers.  I’m saying defending a random price a seller tells you they want, ignoring comps and any sense of reality, is misplaced loyalty.)

Some of the arguments from agents:

“If price is the only thing that matters, then we real estate agents aren’t needed.” – Guess what?  That’s actually kind of true.  If you’ve ever heard of a FSBO selling on their own, then you automatically realize selling a house can be done without a real estate agent.  The good news is that the vast majority of FSBO’s do not sell without the help of an agent (even if only on the buyer side – but most end up listing).  And, unfortunately for the FSBO seller, they get a very low list to sale price ratio as compared with when listed by an agent (both stats are published by NAR).  So, on some level, my fine fellow agent, you are definitely needed…so breathe a little easier.

“All you want to do is lower the price as far as you can, darn the seller, and take your quick commissions!” – A buyer will not buy something they don’t feel is priced correctly; plain and simple.  I’ll explain more about that later in this article.  In the meantime, I can only go on statistics/facts.  My personal statistics in my former real estate practice showed my listings selling for an average of 4-9% more and up to twice as fast my market’s average, depending on the year.  Simply put, I was getting my sellers more money, and selling their homes much faster than the market average.  So how was I harming the seller?  I don’t know many sellers that want their home to sit on the market for a long time, do you?  Do you know of any seller’s who want LESS money for their home?  I sure don’t.

And where does this false sense of loyalty to the seller’s price come from?  I’m sorry, but it’s so misplaced.  I always wanted to get as much money as possible for my sellers, and did my absolute best to make that happen.  But just because a seller WANTS a certain price doesn’t mean they’ll get it, or, in most cases, that it’s even realistic.  I’m sorry if the seller paid $400,000 and owes $350,000.  If the comps say it’s worth $275,000 then that’s what it’s worth.  Listing it at $400,000 so the seller can feel like they broke even does NOT mean the home is WORTH $400,000.  Nor does it mean they will get anywhere near that.  In fact, in my example, with it being so far overpriced, if there isn’t a significant price reduction, the house likely won’t sell at all.  How is that protecting the seller?

I don’t want to digress too much, however in a previous article I wrote on negotiating, I discussed the issue of many listing agents being egotistical about the price they set on their listings.  If a buyer comes in low, the listing agent scoffs and postures to the buyers agent about how the home is worth every penny of what it was listed for, etc.  Please.  The only true test of what a home is worth is what a ready, willing, and ABLE buyer is willing to pay…not what the listing agent or the seller thinks its worth.

“It’s not price, it’s marketing.  Staging, open houses, broker opens and advertising are all where it’s at.” – This is the reason for the big chasm between the average agent (selling between 2-5 houses a year, on average, according to NAR) and the higher producers (over 25 homes a year).  Agents who sell a lot of homes know how to SELL, and know that their job is to SELL the home for the most money possible.  Agents who don’t sell a lot of homes typically aren’t good salespeople, don’t actively prospect for buyers and sellers and think their job is not as a real estate SALESperson, but rather a real estate MARKETINGperson.

Simply put, you can market a house to the hilt, but it will NOT sell if the buying public thinks it’s overpriced.  In fact, today’s shrewd buyer who combs the internet and does their homework, won’t even look at home that they feel is overpriced; unless they think they can get a tremendous low-ball deal.  And, if you want to take a notorious low-ball buyer around so he/she can throw offers up on a wall and see what sticks, have at it.  You’ll end up doing a lot more work and probably be very frustrated.

So, let’s investigate some of these marketing ideas:

Staging – I’m always amazed at how someone comes up with something for agents that doesn’t sell homes, yet agents buy into it in droves.  Text “MOVE” to 12345 and receive no obligation information on this listing.  That worked for about a minute until buyers realized they would get called back from agents they didn’t want to talk to.  Now, it’s no better than a regular sign with a regular phone number or website.  Or, how about the private radio station that drive-by buyers can tune into and hear all about the house?  Way to go!  You just bought something that assures you of never hearing from your buyer leads!  They won’t need to call you to find out information because you gave it to them on their car stereo.

Staging is one of those tools that doesn’t sell a house.  Yes, the house should always look its best.  And, yes, if you stage a house, it will look better than the competition.  BUT…staging only works better to sell your house versus the competition if the home is priced competitively.  Let’s say you’re in a development, and two identical houses on the same street are for sale.  One is for $350,000 and NOT staged.  The other is for $425,000 and is staged.  The seller or agent who paid for staging of the $425,000 house doesn’t know anything about sales or economics and wasted their money.  No amount of staging in the world can trick a buyer into grossly overpaying for a house.

Open houses – This is the biggest real estate scam ever perpetuated on sellers.  And the funny thing is, many sellers will fight tooth and nail for the right to leave their house for multiple weekends in a row so that you can park yourself there for 4-6 hours at a time and put balloons out front.

NAR itself puts out a report every year that shows a very small percentage of buyers buy the home they saw open.  It’s usually around 1%.  That is an astonishingly low rate of return on your marketing efforts.

Open houses do provide buyer leads for the AGENT, not the seller.  All listing agreements should come with a disclaimer showing the past year’s NAR percentage of homes actually bought due to the open house.

Low producing agents love open houses because they haven’t been taught, or are too afraid, to prospect for business.  So, the idea of sitting in a home and having potential buyers come to them seems good.  Never mind that most people are just looking, and the percentage of leads converted to actual buyers (and the time it takes to convert them) is no better than a call in on a sign or website.  And let’s not mention the fact that you may sit all day at a house and have NO traffic.  God forbid if it’s a rainy weekend.

Broker opens –   These have a small chance of helping you sell the home because it can get you exposure to agents who missed it in the myriad of listings on the MLS.  However, it’s usually not worth doing a broker open until well into the listing term, and is most effective to get a price reduction for the seller by having the agents write their pricing opinions on a survey card (darn, there’s that pricing thing again).  And here’s the fundamental flaw - top agents, you know the one’s doing 90% of the business, are typically too busy to stop at broker opens.  So you’re exposing the property to a handful of agents who have nothing better to do than to eat your free lunch.  Look, I know I’m sounding harsh, but my big concern is that many agents think their job duties entail hosting and going to things like broker open houses and working on making a pretty brochure…things that DON’T help sell a home.

Advertising – Here’s another scam on the seller.  NAR reports a very small percentage of homes are sold as a result of being advertised.  I will admit they also report a slightly higher percentage of homes are sold as a result of the buyer calling in on a different home, so advertising can help (but the home still has to be priced right).  For the sake of this article however, I want to stick to the specific house you have listed, and I’m talking about advertising over and above the norm.  I mean the type of advertising where the agent thinks it’s the solution to why the home hasn’t sold in the last 90 days.  We all know that every agent does some form of advertising, whether it’s the MLS itself, the various websites that agents/companies have, the websites that pick up listings from the MLS, or the newspaper ads your company provides.

Here’s the flaw:  If your local grocery store paid for circular ads in your town’s Sunday paper, and advertised premium, no-filler, turkey lunchmeat at $50 a pound, how many people would buy it?  The answer is nobody.  Two things would happen.  People might still visit that store, but they would buy another brand of turkey lunchmeat (congratulations, you’re overpriced turkey ad sold the competition), or people will go to another store all together to buy that brand at its normal price.  In any case, the store could have spent millions of dollars on ads all over the place and it wouldn’t matter a lick in regards to the sale of that brand of turkey.

Yet sellers and agents all think that more advertising will equal a sold home.

The bottom line is that your job as agent is to educate the seller and list the house at a price that will cause the home to sell.  Stop kowtowing to the seller who wants to overprice the home.  Stop with the false sense of loyalty to a pie-in-the-sky price, against all reasonable economic sense as evidenced by the comps.  Stick to your guns, be professional and price it right.  Or, horrors, be willing to say “no” to the seller, and walk away from listing the home if they insist on overpricing it.

You’ll be doing yourself a huge favor, I promise you.  Even if another agent lists the property, don’t worry.  It’s not going to sell.  Look at your market.  Look at any market.  Overpriced listings don’t sell.  Why do you think there are so many expireds?  Oh, right, I forgot.  The agents all must not have staged those homes.  Yeah, that’s it.

In coaching agents across the United States I see this with my clients. Two agents can use the same exact script or objection handler and have two completely different results. It’s not only WHAT to say it’s also HOW to say it that makes a difference in the result. It’s also in who and how you’re being with the client that makes a huge difference.

Before I share some thoughts and ideas on communication I want to talk a little about what I mean by who and how you’re being for the client. We all know we never get a second chance to make the first impression on anyone. Before you make a call to a client, a potential lead, or go on an appointment, take a few minutes to clear out your thoughts and get focused on the client. Our head can be a really scary place and our ego can be very dangerous when it comes to our business.

The client can sense almost right away if you’re only concerned about getting a paycheck, if you’re arrogant, pushy, egotistical, a know it all, or rushed to get in or out. My intention whenever communicating with my clients is to always be completely present with them, not in my head about all that I have to do or what’s going on in my life or what’s in it for me. I want to come from a place of contribution to the client and look to make a difference for them. I am focused on talking about them, their needs, their wants, their desires, and leading the conversation by asking great questions that allow them to talk and share about themselves and their situation.

Guys trust me, the client does not care about you, your personal life, your interests, or being friends with you. They are looking for you to be an educated professional to assist them in one of the biggest investments of their life. They don’t care about your kids, your busy life, or your personal interests. Taking the focus totally off yourself and putting it on the client will have a huge impact on your business. And I know you may think this is elementary but trust me, this will be huge if you study and practice it.

The more questions you ask, the better the client feels. This allows them to talk about themselves and their situation. The most important person to everyone is themselves. Whether we as human beings are willing to admit it or not is another conversation. One thing is for certain, people love to talk about themselves. You allowing the client to do this will set you apart from most agents. What do most agents do? Talk non stop about how great they are, and what the client needs to do or not to do. No one wants to be TOLD anything. They want to be led and guided to making the choices and decisions that’s right for them and their situation.

I see it time and again with the agents I coach. The use the exact same scripts and objection handlers and get two totally different outcomes. Why? It’s how it’s said, it’s your body language, it’s whether you have rapport or not, it’s the words you choose to use.

I was on a listing appointment the other day and going through the house with the seller talking about things that could be done to help the home show better. She had interviewed several other agents before me. At the end of our meeting she said, “Gosh, you are so different than the other agents, they told me the same things that needed to be done, but totally offended me and I would never do business with that one lady.” Case and point right there, same thing being said, and the client took it in two totally different ways. Needless to say I got the listing and one of the reasons was HOW I communicated with her.

You have to gain rapport with the client not by having common interests, and telling them how great they or their house are, but by aligning with them, matching and mirroring them, acknowledging them, and having compassion and understanding for their situation. Then lead them to the decision that’s right for them.

At our coaching company, You’re The Difference, our intention is to transform the public’s opinion of salespeople from social leeches to one of contribution, genuine care, concern, and service for clients.

We want the public to no longer view salespeople as a necessary evil; rather they will look to them as their trusted adviser.

We teach effective sales communications, business generation, mindset, and objection handling skills that will open the doors for you to substantially increase your sales and make a positive difference with your client and the real estate industry across the board.

To gain instant rapport with your client you want to BE like them. Not have similar interests but communicate like them. People like people who are like themselves; it puts them in their comfort zone. If you talk walk and act like they do, the client will automatically feel more comfortable with you. Sounds crazy but try it on for a while.

If they talk slow, you talk slow. If they talk fast, you talk fast. If you’re a fast talker what do you instantly think of when you’re talking with someone who speaks slowly? If you’re a slow talker, what do you automatically think of when talking with someone who speaks fast? Case and point, you need to be like them so they trust you.

Same thing with loud talkers vs. soft talkers, words and phrases. If you’re a soft talker, how do you feel abuot loud talkers? If you’re a loud talker, how do you feel about soft talkers? Talk the same as them. Also, Pronounce words and phrases the same as they do. Not doing this makes them feel uncomfortable and possibly wrong because you didn’t pronounce the word the same as they did, or they think you’re wrong. Choose to BE like them.

And last, emotions. Match their mood and their emotion. Think about this, if you are angry and upset and someone comes up to you all cheerful, happy and excited telling you things are going to be okay, how does that make you feel? Same thing, if you are happy, energetic, and excited and someone comes being tired, unenergetic, and overall mundane, how does that make you feel? Match your client’s mood. Don’t be how you are as a person, transform yourself to be, talk, and act like your client.

Let’s face it, when we are presenting, it’s show time.

And always, always, keep in mind, no one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Here are few examples of what I mean when there is saying something and it coming across in two totally different ways.

Before you put this home on the market you need to clean it up, paint it and get rid of all the clutter in the yard. This is what the other agent said when the client I mentioned above got offended.

I said, “Guys I know it’s overwhelming to sell a home, especially when you’re moving out of town. I realize you don’t have a lot of free time right now but can I mention a few things that I think would help the home to show better?” And THEN I shared what needed to be done.

Just the preface of acknowledging them, their situation, and their feelings FIRST made all the difference. This is what I mean with whom and how you’re being.

Another example:

If you want to sell this house then you need to price it right or it’ll just sit on the market.

Try on… Guys, I know you want to get as much money as possible, and I want to help you make as much as possible. I realize this is one of the largest investments you have, and that you’ve put a ton of time and money into the home with the improvements you’ve made. Unfortunately, the market is still very challenging and to sell in these conditions, price is very critical. If you want to actually sell in this market vs. just sitting on the market like the other thousands of homes that aren’t selling, then we need to price it right, does that make sense? We have to look at what’s going to cause the buyer to buy your home vs. all the others that are for sale. When you’re buying, isn’t price most important to you in most cases? Same thing said but two totally different impacts.

One more example:

Before you look at homes or we go out, you need to get pre approved for a loan.

Try, Guys, if you haven’t already talked with a lender to discuss what price range we need to stay under in order to get your payment at a place that’s right for you, we may want to do this. You know, most lenders will approve you for way more than what you actually want to spend and what we want to find out again, is exactly what price range we need to be looking under in order to get you at a monthly payment that’s comfortable for you. Plus, in representing you and negotiating on your behalf, guys in this market, most sellers won’t even look at an offer without a pre approval letter from the buyer’s lender. Being approved ahead of time will give us much more negotiating power to get you the best deal possible. My job is to protect your best interests and I want you to go into the home buying process with eyes wide open about the entire process and all your options. How about I have one of my lenders give you a call to get started with helping you?

Same thing, two totally different impacts.

I hope this is helpful information to you and that you’re on track to Making 2010 YOUR year!

If I can assist you with becoming more effective in your business and in your communications, please let me know. My partner, Scott Friedman, and I have a few spaces open in our one on one coaching right now where we personally speak with you on a weekly basis to teach you all of these techniques and exactly what I do on a daily basis to sell 100 homes a year. We can assist you either just beginning your business or taking your already successful business to the next level.

We also have a 6 week tele-course where we teach you all about how to effectively communicate, handle objections with proven NLP language patterns, gain instant rapport anytime anywhere with anyone and create more confidence for yourself.

I personally am still actively selling real estate, coaching agents, have two kids under the age of 10, and am training for a marathon this year and to fight in a karate tournament. I write these articles on a weekly basis and still have a personal life. I can help you to have it all and not just be consumed by real estate. It’s in the efficiency, the schedule, the systems and the communication that opens the doors for you to have the life and the business you deserve.

Call me if you’d like a free 30 minute coaching call where you can ask me any questions that you have, and we can see if we’re a match for coaching together and making a difference in your business. 540-312-0085 or visit our website at www.yourethedifference.com

Scott and I are the co-authors of the real estate objection handling book, Now What Do I Say?, a collection of over 400 answers to more than 70 of the most common questions and objections you face in real estate. If you haven’t already purchased this, please visit our website for this and audio programs that will immediately help you do more business. www.yourethedifference.com

Christy Crouch

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

In my last article I talked mostly about preparing for the appointment and today I’m going to talk about the actual appointment.

My listing presentation consists mostly of questions. The more questions you ask the seller, the more in control of the conversation you are. Asking the client questions allows you to learn about what their needs, wants, and desires so you can better serve them.

When you’re the one asking the questions, you also avoid more objections and put yourself in the interviewer position versus them interviewing you. Actually, you should consider a mindset of being the interviewer when you’re on the appointment anyway. Because of many reasons, you may decide not to take the listing.

As you go through the presentation, decide whether you want to take the listing instead of worrying about whether or not you’re going to get the listing. This confidence proves to the client that you are a professional salesperson and not someone just trying to impress them. Be careful that you don’t come across with arrogance. No one likes an arrogant salesperson.

When discussing price there are three areas of statistics you want to address:

First is the overall market for your area. You want to educate them about what the market is doing in general in your area.

Second are your personal stats, or your company’s stats. Sharing yours or your company’s track record gives the client confidence that they are dealing with an experienced professional.

And last, is the market analysis specific to their home. Your opinoin of the right listing price is primarily what the client wants to hear. Decide ahead of time a price range at which you are willing to take the listing. Studies have shown that taking an overpriced listing doesn’t do you or your client any good. The longer a home sits on the market, the harder it is to sell. Be honest with the client up front about what price it will take to actually get the home sold, and not just have it listed.

Practicing presenting price is something Scott and I highly recommend. You want to be able to powerfully and confidently discuss market values with your client. They are looking to and trusting you as their professional to educate and lead them to the right decision for their circumstances. Have the courage to tell the truth up front about the right price.

Your listing presentation should not exceed an hour including paperwork, taking pictures, placing the sign and the lockbox. The longer you stay in the home the less confidence the client will have in you. Remember our job is to get their home sold, not to make friends with them. Just as if you were going to a doctor or an attorney for advice, they don’t sit with you for hours. They come in, ask a series of questions, tell you what their opinion and plan of action is and they get out. This is the same mindset and strategy you should have.. Present and view yourself as a professional salesperson just like doctors and attorneys do.

In my next article I will talk about servicing the listing and working on price reductions. Studies show that if a home is sitting on the market, it’s likely the price that is keeping it from selling. Educate your sellers up front about the possibility of having to lower the price if it doesn’t sell within the first 30 to 45 days. This way they are mentally prepared to discuss a price redcution when the time comes.

Don’t forget about our 6 week course, Now What Do I Say?, The Course. In this 6 week course we will teach you powerful language patterns, objection handlers, and talk about the mindset it takes to sell homes in today’s market.

Please visit our website at www.yourethediffreence.com for more information on this, and other products and services that can benefit your business,

I hope you are on track to Making 2010 Your Year.

Christy Crouch

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

My question is, are you ready? What are you doing to ensure that 2010 is better than 2009?

I’ve written down a few things that I’m doing right now in my business to prepare for a strong 2010, and wanted to share them with you.

For those of you who haven’t read my articles before, I’m Christy Crouch with You’re The Difference Sales and Life Coaching. I am also an active Realtor in Roanoke, Virginia, and have been in the business for 17 years. I have been consistently selling an average of 100 homes a year for the past ten years.

I am co-author of the real estate objection handling book, Now What Do I Say?, a collection of over 420 answers to more than 70 of the most common questions and objections we face in day to day real estate sales.

I am committed to helping agents across the United States grow their business while taking excellent care of their customers and clients.

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that it’s been proven that writing down your goals and planning for your life and business puts you in a very small percentage of the population. Sadly, most people spend more time planning their vacations and weekends than they do their life and business. Just putting thought into your goals and writing them down naturally pulls it closer to you without even any effort. I’m sure you’re all familiar with the Law of Attraction. We get what we think about and focus on most of the time.

So, here are the ideas I wanted to share to help propel you and your business toward a powerful 2010.

1. Decide now what your schedule for next year looks like. When will you go on vacation, when will you take personal days off, when will you work? Just like in corporate jobs, plan your calendar ahead of time.

2. Determine how many transactions or how much money you want to make next year.

3. Break that number down into monthly increments and figure out exactly what you need to do each month to accomplish your annual goal.

4. Write a letter to yourself dated December 31, 2010 and reflect on all the things you accomplished and experienced in 2010. Go deep in this letter and really play full out with yourself. Don’t hold back. Pretend that there are no obstacles, no buts, no hows, no fear and just write what your 2010 would be like if it were perfect. Include both personal and professional in this letter. Play some inspiring soothing music and do this alone when you have the time to really focus on what you want to be, do, and have in your life next year.

5. Clean up and clean out your entire life, your closet, your house, your car, your office, your files, your database, your entire life, both personally and professionally. I’ve found that the less clutter, and the more organized things are in my life the more efficient and happy I am.

6. Begin thinking about your tax returns and getting all the necessary paperwork together so you won’t have to worry about this in January. This way while all the other agents are worrying about taxes, paperwork, and getting ready for the new year, you’re already set and ready to go out there working while they’re preparing. Always be step ahead.

7. Call all of your past clients and check in with them. See how they’re doing and if you can be of support to them in any way with buying, selling, investing, or refinancing. See if they have any questions about what’s going on in the market.

8. Develop a daily schedule for your entire life that will work for you and inspire you to get up every morning excited, energetic, and ready to make each day count.

9. Get some coaching / mentoring around what you’re looking to do in 2010. Find agents who have already done it and interview them. Find out what worked for them and what didn’t. Learning from others will save you time and money and make it so much easier for you.

10. Create your calendar for the rest of 2009 and make it as productive as possible while still enjoying the holiday season with your family. Most agents are slowing down as the holiday season approaches and throwing their hands up with 2009 finally being over. Don’t give up, what you do right now will determine the first quarter of 2010 and people still buy and sell despite the time of year for all sorts of reasons. Go find them!

I hope you find these ideas helpful. While very simple they can be extremely powerful if you choose to take them on.

If you haven’t already, please visit our website at www.yourethedifference.com to see the products and packages that we’ve put on sale to support you in creating the business you’ve always dreamed of. We have our book in published format, e-book, and on audio. We have a live role play CD of the three authors demonstrating not only what to say but how to say it when handling 12 of the toughest objections we face. My scripts CD will teach you how to develop new business and how to close more deals.

To Your Success,

Christy Crouch

Change is the only constant in our world and there’s no need to resist it and all the need to embrace it if you want to continue to grow and thrive in all areas of your life and your business.

Undoubtedly 2009 has proved to be a challenging year in our business and right now is the time to make necessary changes to ensure that 2010 is a better year.

We all know that the competition is stronger than ever before, it’s harder to get listings sold, and to get the buyers to commit.

Our sales skills, communication skills, and follow up need to be stronger now than ever before.

We need to have a solid business plan with an efficient daily schedule for creating and producing new business, as well as taking exquisite care of our current clients and following up with our past clients to answer their questions, concerns, and uncertainties in this market.

Set yourself up with some new ways of finding new business for yourself.  Come on guys, you can’t keep waiting for it, you’ve got to go out and create it.  Here are some tips I gave a few months ago that I wanted you to revisit.  If you haven’t put them into action, why not? and when will you take action to create change in your business?

1.  Put time in your daily schedule to do something to generate NEW business either by phone, in person, by mail, or email.  Do something to create new leads for yourself.

2.  Do something positive for your mindset.  Read a book, listen to an audio program, write some affirmations.

3.  Get with someone who has already done the production level that you are looking to move to and interview them.

4.  Write a mini business plan for the remainder of the year and go ahead and write your 2010 business plan.

5.  Practice like the pros do.  We have all kinds of things we can practice in this business, generating business, the listing appointment, handling objections, negotiating, closing, and I could go on and on.  How much time are you spending sharpening your skills so you can be the best for your customers & clients?

6.  Let go of fear.  It serves no purpose inside this business.  You can do whatever level of production you want, just go for it!

7.  Watch what other agents in your marketplace are doing and do something different.  Find other top agents across the United States and find out what they’re doing.

8.  Clean up, clean out, and organize your entire life.  Your office, your car, your home.  This will clear space for new things to come!

9.  Tell everyone what you’re up to and what your goals are.  They’ll automatically hold you accountable.

10. Consider getting a role play and / or accountability partner to take the journey with you on what you’re committed to accomplishing in your life and in your business.

I invite you to call or email me personally with any questions about how to create change in your business.  I have been in the business for 20 plus years and have been consistently selling over 100 homes a year on average.  I have systems, scripts, ideas and training that can take you to the next level.

Call me today for a free 30 minute coaching call to see if some of the programs and coaching that Scott Friedman, my partner and I, have will benefit you and allow me to personally answer any questions that you have about building your business.  Our direct number is 609-601-1296.

Scott and I are committed to your success and appreciate you reading our blogs and articles and hope you find them helpful in your business.

Christy Crouch

EXPIRED:

We’re just going to take it off the market for now.

1. That makes sense.  And, I’m curious what will NOT being on the market accomplish for you?

*(The key is to ask this question, in a non-threatening way, and then don’t speak again until they answer that question.  They will tell you that they’re plans have changed, or that they’re frustrated with the market, or any number of things that will tell you if they really want to sell or not.)

2. I can appreciate you want to take it off the market for now.  So, what would happen if you left it on and got it sold this time?  Because the market is obviously not great, and the more time you take, the more money you could lose.  And if you’d be willing to meet with me, I’d be willing to show you how I/my company sold X homes in the last six months for top dollar.  Do you want top dollar?

I’m going to re-list with the same agent.

1.  I appreciate you wanting to give this agent a second chance, and yet I’m curious, do you think this agent will be able do anything differently this go round that they haven’t already tried?  Since you are considering re-listing, you obviously feel they did everything they could to get the home sold.  Doing the same thing again can’t possibly create a different result, can it?  Before you re-list, don’t you think you owe it to yourself to get a second opinion before you tie yourself down for another six months?

2. Stop for a minute and realize how hiring a different, aggressive agent might change the results you are getting.  You can make a decision now whether you’ll stay with the same results, or list with an agent who/whose company has track record of selling homes in X days.  Can you see why it just makes sense to meet with me?

FSBO:

Bring me a buyer and I’ll pay you a commission.

1.  Thank you, that’s great!  Let me ask you a question, because I have a concern about that.  It’s a great strategy to attract agents who will tell you they have a buyer when they just want to get their foot in your door.  I’d rather be very honest with and tell you I’m calling to show you how I’ve netted the most money for my sellers.  Is there any reason you would not want to meet with me if I could show you my proven track record for aggressively marketing your home and getting more you money?

2.  Thank you for the offer.  So, let me get this straight:  you’re willing to pay me 3% and you want to save the other 3%, right?  Okay, great, and I’m curious…after you pay for your own advertising, disrupt your family time showing your house at all hours, host your own open houses every weekend, negotiate with low-balling, bargain hunting buyers…if any actually make an offer, and then finally pay attorney fees, will you be saving anything, and, if so, will it really be worth it?

If we don’t sell it, we’ll rent it.

1.  I understand, and do you really want to be a landlord?  I know it’s frustrating right now, and can you imagine the frustration of chasing down a tenant for late rent, that your mortgage payment might be dependent on, month after month?  Not to mention getting repair calls in the middle of the night, and generally just being chained to the house for a year at a time.  Don’t you just want to get it sold?

2.  You could rent it, but what about capital gains?  You should really check with your accountant.  Renting it could cause you to lose money because the tax status of the property will change.  You could sell now and pay no capital gains, or rent it and when you decide to sell it you end up paying thousands in capital gains taxes.  That’s not good, is it?

In Now What Do I Say? book and CD’s we give 6 different handlers for over 70 different buyer and seller objections.

In our How To Take More Expired and FSBO Listings, we teach you exactly what to say and how to say it, and what to do and how to do it.

Sign up, now!