In part 3 of 3 for this series, Mike Ferry discusses How to Get Listings Sold in this New Market.

How To Get Listings Sold In This Different Market – Part 3

And welcome to Mike Ferry TV. And most importantly, welcome to Monday, November 7th. As we all know, the market has pretty much normalized now.

We’ve been talking about ideas on getting price reductions, and getting our listing sold in this post-pandemic area that we’re all dealing with.

And it’s an interesting time because the majority of Real Estate people are not doing any business in the fourth quarter of the year. In fact, I think the majority haven’t done any business all year long.

But for those of you that take listings, which I’m assuming a lot of you do, whether it be two or three a year or two or three a month or two or three a week.

The challenge, of course, as we’ve been stating for two weeks, is getting those listings sold, satisfying the needs of the Seller, and most importantly, satisfying the needs of the Buyer AND Seller, which brings you future business.

We’ve gone through a lot of ideas in the last two weeks. I’m going to go through several more with you today. These ideas are all designed and as I said when we started this two weeks ago, there are a lot of thoughts that go into getting a listing sold in a normalizing market.

So let’s keep the word normal and normalizing in our head versus recessionary or declining or, “Uh oh! What’s going on with the market type of attitude?”

#21:  Respect the cooperating Agents in your area

So the next point that I wrote down is … Treat the cooperating agents in your area, and the work with Buyers, with a great deal of respect because they can be your greatest asset in this market.

And when I say things with a lot of respect to the people that are trying to show your listings.

Simple things like answering your phone when it rings, returning a phone call quickly because they might be trying to show or write an offer, furnishing information to make the process a little bit easier.

I always felt as a Listing Agent that the greatest asset I had besides a motivated Seller that is priced reasonably well, was the agents and the marketplace that could bring us the Buyer.

So I tried my best to try to make every agent that I knew that worked with Buyers feel respected because they were an important part of this whole transaction.

And that whole attitude has diminished in the course of the last several years. So let’s reinvent ourselves as being a person that has a lot of respect for the other agents.

#22: Set realistic expectations with the Sellers

In 2008, the next point, I came up with an idea and I instituted this idea with a lot of our top agents. And quite honestly, the top agents took this idea and used it all the time.

And what this idea is in terms of getting a listing sold was a way to bring a little bit of reality into the minds of the Sellers.

As we said three weeks ago excuse me, two weeks ago last week and again today, I’ll repeat it.

The majority of Sellers want to believe that it’s January, February, March of this year when here we are in now, November, heading into December, and of course, January, February, March the prices were pretty strong and up here.

And they could ask 10%, 15%, 20% over what was fair market value. And they expected to get a lot of offers and have somebody be foolish enough to pay them what they wanted for that property.

That market, of course, is gone.

#23: After the 60-day mark of any overpriced listing, prequalify the Seller again

So what we did in 2008 is I created a little script that is a pretty strong little script to use, but it might be one that you would consider using yourself.

At the 60-day mark of any overpriced listing you might have … go back and prequalify the Seller 100%. Asking all the questions to make sure the motivation is still there.

And then after you’ve determined the motivation, say to your Seller, there are four thoughts that I have at this time. And I’d like you to determine which one of these four we should put in play to get your home sold.

Thought one … We’re now 60 days … 90 days, whatever the point is, into the listing. So let’s say we’re 60 days in.

#24: Ask for an extension

Point one, I’d like to ask for a 60 day extension in terms of getting your listing sold. Now they’re going to say, “Why?” Well, primarily because for the last 60 days, I’ve been trying to convince you the market is here and you believe it’s there.

As a result, we’ve used up 60 days of valuable time to get the listing sold, and I need to extend the time of the listing so we can get this listing sold.

#25: Substantially lower the listing price

Or number two, I need a substantially lower price, probably 10%, 12%, 15% and give them a price you want to reduce the to.

#26: Request a higher commission

Or possibly number three. And I’ve brought this up to you earlier.

Possibly pay a higher commission instead of 6%, three to the Buyer’s Agent, three to myself, maybe seven or 8% with the majority going to an agent to bring a Buyer because that lights the fire behind a lot of agents that represent Buyers is to make a big commission.

#27: Prepare to give the listing back

Or fourth, I’m going to have to give you the listing back tonight.

Which of these four works best for you?

And I can remember one of our clients up in Northern California, Santa Rosa, 2008, when I explained this to them, and the wife said, “I love it.” The husband, who is very amiable, said, “Oh my gosh, they’ll get mad.” I said, “Well, why don’t you try it?”

So they tried it and they called me the next day and the husband said, “When I got to number four and I said, ‘I want to give you the listing back'” the guy said, “No way! Man, you guys said, ‘You can sell it.’ You’re going to have to sell it.” So I’ll do one, two and three.

This guy extended the listing, raised the commission and lowered the price. So look at that thought as being something that if you have the personal strength and the desire to get your listing sold, you take that approach. But I also want to say on this next point.

#28: Perfect your Listing Presentation

And I started up by saying, once again, this is common sense.

Work every day, 30 to 40 minutes at perfecting the strength of your Listing Presentation.

Guys and gals were only as good as the strength of what we say to a Buyer or a Seller. And in this case, the Seller.

If we walk in. “Hi. I love your home so much and it’s so pretty and it’s so nice and gosh I would love to be able to list it for you and help you folks out.”

If you take that kind of approach, which is okay in a market going this way and probably still not going to work.

Or you take the approach that I’m a professional Real Estate sales person, I study homes and prices every day. Therefore, I know exactly what your home should sell for. What price won’t you go below? Well, that is a much stronger presentation approach.

#29: Practice your pricing section scripts

And I wrote and start with practicing the pricing section of your Listing Presentation, knowing that the stronger you are and the better scripted you are, the more apt the Seller is to follow your advice.

In this marketplace today. They’re looking for somebody that they have confidence in, somebody that will tell them the truth, somebody that will communicate with them on a regular basis. That person has to be you.

#30: Always tell the Seller the truth from start to finish

And then the last point that I wrote down on getting listings sold.

Always tell them the truth, starting in the initial contact, all the way through getting that property listed and sold.

They have to learn to deal with the reality of today’s market in November of 2022.

Closing Thoughts

“Well, Mike, what’s going to happen in 2023?” 2022 is going to be extended. We’re probably not going to see anything different maybe until the middle of next year.

You know, markets go up, markets go down, markets rise, markets fall. This is just called the nature of business and the economy.

So let’s all think about if we’re going to take listings, be open, be honest, be upfront, knowing that you can win because of that behavior pattern and understand at times they’re not going to accept it.

It’s a numbers game.

You can improve your numbers by improving the quality of what you do. I will look forward to seeing all of you next week. Thanks for today.