Working With Sellers – “Why Should I Work With You?”
Helping Real Estate Agents Podcast 3/17/22
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Hello everyone, this is Tanya Eldert with the Helping Real Estate Agent Podcast and today we are going to talk about a subject I am very passionate about, working with sellers.
See I started my real estate career through my marketing agency. About 17 years ago I was hired by several agents in area to get them on the internet, rank 1st page on Google AND help them market their million-dollar listings. Now coming from a marketing background and use to focusing a plan on everything I marketed I was stunned how the prevailing thought was to throw it up on the MLS and it will sell. Of course the agents I worked with at least thought, let’s get an agency to give us a hand with that part of it, so they were smarter than most… but that is how I fell in love with helping agents and marketing house.
Fast forward to my career now and being “IN” real estate. I’ve learned a LOT over the past 17 years so let’s get started. If you have ever been to one of my trainings for new agents and working with buyers, you will know the first thing I teach is that buyers don’t buy real estate agents, they buy houses. So the seller equivalent of that is sellers are looking for agents, they are looking for solutions and someone they can connect with. Now, the connections will be a whole different episode, in fact, with all the content I have it may be a book or full course; so let’s talk about the Solutions.
You need to be able to get in front of a seller and at least have a conversation, but once you can, I can assure you that the following question is usually playing in the back of their mind, “Why should I hire you?” So obviously you going to have to try to use any type of connection you may have formed to first figure out what they need, so you can answer the question; but in the meantime, if you can’t focus on their specific needs and have to generalize, here are 3 important things:
Focus on the 3 Things you can do that add value to sellers and why they should hire you over other agents.
1) I will have a REAL PERSONALIZED marketing plan for you. You are unique, your house is unique, your situation is unique and I am going to set up a plan that is tailored to you that will get it sold for top dollar and take your situation into consideration.
2) I’ve got a team of professionals to get you through A – Z. Do not be the agent who thinks they are a professional at everything. Maybe you have an interior design background so you can stage, but don’t try to take photos and a drone unless you are a professional photographer with a commercial drone license. Hire people. That is one reason I launched Paid At Close, because I was tired of hearing the excuse I can’t hire someone upfront, well that’s why we help you and you pay us back at close. In addition to photography, you may also be using schedulers to work with your sellers to schedule the appointments. Have a listing coordinator or transaction coordinator for paperwork. Your title company. I only work with title companies that run the search as soon as I take the listing NOT when it goes under contract, so I’m well aware of any issues before it goes under contract. If you need one, look up Cloud Title. Other vendors you need to “be on your team” Sign installers, cleanout crews, someone to do light handy work, a locksmith, the fact is that you never know what problems you will run into during a listing, and people what to know you will be prepared. Think about it, in today’s market doing an inspection in advance could help with offers and if you are looking at a market with a lot of lenders, getting an appraisal in advance is something I know several agents do.
But the last thing, the most important thing is that you let the seller know that #3,
3) I’ve got YOUR needs in mind, and a plan and my people are here to help you. You need to convey that by listening to them more than you speak and then suggesting solutions. Let’s suppose you have someone who has to move out of state, then put their house on the market, GREAT. We all know it is easier to show a house when there aren’t people in it but think about it from the seller’s point of view. They are leaving their old home, which is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars empty, with no one to watch it and a bunch of strangers tromping through it. One of the things I offer is a vacant home check-in. In other words, a licensed agent on my team would pop in at the end of a busy day of showing and make sure everything was locked up, lights turned off, the temperature correct, and the toilet flushed. It relieved the sellers to know we had their back.
The value and the key here is that you do not go in with a CANNED one size fits all listing speech, but that you hear them, you value them and their needs and you and your team are NOT like everyone else. You are better because you care.
