How To List And Sell Expired Listings

How to sell expired listings isn’t rocket science.  It’s the same as how to sell a For Sale By Owner (FSBO), or any other listing…price the son of a gun correctly.  And, if you miss the mark, reduce the price until buyers feel it’s worthy enough to make an offer.

How to list expired’s is a different story, although not too unlike listing any other type of property.

MINDSET:

Your mindset – First, go back to my last post and read it again.  It will tell you about why you need to go after expired listings.

Then, you need to realize that you can help these people.  You can help them better than their last agent, and probably better than anyone in your market (that is, if you’re willing to tell them the truth about pricing).

Their mindset – True, many expired’s will be frustrated.  Think about it, their home didn’t sell, many times their last agent disappeared, and why is everyone calling me today…where the hell were you when my home was listed, did you show it?

So, the first thing you need to do is understand and empathize with their frustration.  Wouldn’t you be just as pissed?

Also, don’t take anything they say personally.  Their not personally mad at you…they don’t even know you.  They’re mad at the situation.

WHAT TO DO:

The small percentage of agents that call expired’s usually only call once, maybe mail something, and then stop.  You want to be a little persistent and consistent.  It will ultimately pay off.

You want to call 3-4 times over the course of a week to 10 days, and you want to mail them something the day they come up on the MLS.  You can also drop by the ones you think are great listings to have, or that you can’t get the phone numbers for.

What you mail them can vary, but it should be some form of “Still want to sell your home, check out my results” letter, along with your track record (office track record if you don’t have one).  It works wonders to list actual expired listings that you (or your office) re-listed and sold.

To get the phone numbers, you want to subscribe to a service like LeadSenders.  You pay a monthly fee, and they give you all the expireds, daily, in your market right from the MLS.

The trick is to have a system.  Don’t just randomly call.  Don’t call expireds one day, but not the next.  Don’t call some of them once, and some of them 3 times.

WHAT TO SAY:

An easy script would be something that starts off with affirming that their listing expired and then asking them questions.  You might start off with something like “when are you setting up interviews for agents,” or “when do you want to put your home back on the market,” or “do you still want/need to sell your home,” etc.

Then you want to find out their motivation…do they have to move and why.  Find out what they think went wrong the past six months.

Find out anything you can that will help you learn about how to best service them, and lead you to setting an appointment to list with them.

If they give you objections, only handle those that can lead you to an appointment.  The rest should be handled AT the appointment.

For instance, if they ask you your commission, that’s not going to help you get the appointment (unless you discount your commission right off the bat, and that’s just plain stupid).

However, if they say they already have 3 agents to interview, then you’re going to NEED to handle that one to get the appointment.

If you want to learn how to handle the toughest objections that expired sellers might through at you, simply buy something from our Now What Do I Say? book and audio product line.

As with anything you do, especially if it’s something new, you need to commit to it and give it time.  As you get more confident, and do it with consistency, you’ll notice more and more appointments and listings.

Scott Friedman

scott@yourethedifference.com

609-601-1296