Why My Listing Just Isn’t Selling?

kelowna on July 19, 2017

We are past the end of our spring market and have entered the summer market. Let me ask you this question. Do you have a listing that just isn’t selling? Or even worse, sellers are dominating the conversation because of what is happening in the media? This week I’ve got solutions for both of those scenarios so you can sell your properties faster and get your customers what they want. So why isn’t the listing selling? Write this down….. If it isn’t compelling, it isn’t selling!

Action Steps to Help Sell Your Real Estate Listings

#1 Face-to-Face Meetings

Start by making sure you are meeting with all the decision makers involved in a face-to-face meeting. When you meet face to face ask them again “Why do you want to sell?” Help remind them of their “why”, what they are avoiding (Pain) or what they are moving towards (Pleasure).

#2 Understand Their Point of View

If you don’t start by understanding your customers’ point of view, you’ll instantly be out of rapport with their perspective. Think of the things they are reading like the WSJ, Globe & Mail, Fortune Magazine, CNN Financial, and similar publications. All those media sources are saying there is no inventory! Most people only see the news story of millions of people wanting to buy homes and there are no homes for sale!

#3 Break Down The Information

Let them know the national, state, provincial and city stats versus what is happening locally in the community. Get them out of the global mindset and have them focus on what is happening in their backyard. That starts by meeting them at their perspective and world view.

Know Your Market – What makes a listing compelling in your market? It isn’t just price because most clients just hear that and assume you want to lower the price because you are an agent… Educate your client with some of the following tips.
Opportunity – Is it an opportunity problem? In my neighborhood, if a property was built in the 50’s or 60’s a builder is going to come in and scrape the whole thing and build something magnificent. Those properties are priced sometimes 3-5% above fair market value and still get 5-6 offers! This also goes for fixer uppers and residential lots too!
Exclusivity – You know those one of a kind properties! Kudos to Gary Gold and Mauricio Umansky for selling the Playboy Mansion. Other unique factors could be the designer, architect, or even the year the property was built.
Turn Key With No Competition – We all know turn-key properties are really compelling especially when there is no competition. What if there are 5 homes that are exactly the same on the inside and priced the same too? Something has to be compelling…
Want to try something different? Take your clients to see where the new homes are being built. Those companies are spending millions of dollars to win the minds and hearts of the sellers! That is the competition and they are creating compelling products for the market.
Price – Price trumps everything! Which brings us to the options for pricing your listings..3 Options For Pricing – The average agent shows the comps to the seller… Even though the seller has seen the median sales price and comps, they still want to see that bigger number! This is because they have this emotional attachment and hallucination about what the market really is… Remember if it is not compelling it isn’t selling! Show your customers these 3 pricing options…

Above Fair Market Value – Not Compelling. Talk about pricing above the fair market value, and how having a higher pricing strategy hasn’t worked so far… The data and the market have showed at their current price the home isn’t compelling.

Fair Market Value – Compelling Pricing at the fair market value is really just going off the comps. This will make the property more compelling, but there is an even better strategy…

Below Fair Market – Extremely Compelling What really makes property more compelling? When the price is extremely compelling, you create a bidding war and feeding frenzy around the property! Announce a price that is below fair market value to everyone!

The Challenge – I’m issuing you a challenge, if you have a listing that isn’t selling execute on this plan! Repackage and reposition with this strategy and let me know how it goes in the comments below!

Strength and courage,
Wade

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Are You the Agent The Leads Think Of First?

kelowna on April 26, 2017

Are you the first agent your leads think of when they want to buy or sell a home? I talk to agents ALL the time who are driving down the street and see a house they know sold by another agent or someone an agent knows bought a house from another agent. You CAN stand out among the competition when you follow the 4 Step Lead plan!

What is the 4 Step Lead plan?

It is a simple 4 step plan you can do to stay top of mind with all your leads…

The Top of Mind 4 Step Lead Plan for More Referrals is:

1. Call or Text

You want to connect with your clients every 90 days. Don’t just call to talk about real estate. Bring relevant news, check in, and have it be to the point your database expects your call! Stats say you get a 23% chance of response with email, 43% chance of contact with a call and 97% chance of response with a text! Do you have your leads and databases cell phone numbers?!

2. Weekly Email

Send weekly emails for open house invitations, events, and other updates. Emails need to contain value add and focus on content that offers insight to the challenges in today’s market or something every consumer has questions about. Email is not about spamming but enhancing, pulling and adding value to the leads and thinking that was really great and helpful content you sent.

3. Two Direct Mail Pieces

Send out two direct mail pieces every month. One of them should be a “just listed/just sold” or “we have a buyer”. If you’re new to real estate you can use your company’s stats, listings, sales, buyers (just be sure it says that on the mailer or get permission from the agents. Your other mailer can be: “Curious about the value of your home?” This makes you the expert they think of and you provide them with the information they are looking for.

4. Activate Your Base, the Secret Weapon

Do a Facebook Live video and your instantly connecting with your leads. I even had a client who did a live mention which lead to a listing! He got a response from an old friend who said his mom was looking to sell her house. Show your base you are the local market expert.

4.1 Know Your Unique Selling Factors

There are four things you should know to boost your confidence and swagger. You may not use all of these stats, but you should have them ready when you talk to customers.

1. We sell (x) times more…

2. We sell our homes (X) times faster…

3. We sell our homes for (X%) more on average…

4. We have (X) more five star reviews than any other agent in the marketplace.

When you use these unique selling points you can use a script like this….

“Clients work with us because we have the experience, we sell homes faster, and get our customers more money. We pride ourselves on customer experience and relationships, and we have 7x times more five star reviews than any agent in our marketplace. Our number one aim is to make sure you are our next five-star review and we want to deliver that experience to you. These are my competitive advantages (mention points above) that you can hold me accountable to.”

Remember if you are a new agent, you can use the stats from your office/team. You can leverage their numbers to support more customers.

Are you following the 4 Steps Lead plan? Or are you comfortable having $15 billion being spent from really large companies who want to take your clients and have them go somewhere else? Remember your strategy matters, and now more than ever, your ability to stay top of mind absolutely rules!

Strength and courage,
Wade

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Building Real Estate Leads with a Stellar Landing Page

kelowna on July 8, 2015

Over the past few years I have implemented online lead generation systems for our brokerage and have become a big fan of lead generation using landing pages. This week we are hearing some great strategies for agents using landing pages from some experts in the business.

Let’s hear what Peter from Top5Agent has for us on landing pages for REALTORS.

At this point you know that being a player on the web is the right call for agents in virtually any area, but what happens when potential homebuyers actually end up on your site? Do you offer up a reason for these visitors to stay on your website, or do they simply arrive on your general home page without any direction or information on how to proceed? If you’re firmly in the latter category, it’s time to take a moment and talk about why having a unique and engaging take on landing pages can help you capture even more leads.

The Real Scoop on the Power of Landing Pages

To start off the discussion the right way, let’s talk about what a landing page is, as well as why making the switch to strong offerings on this front is more important than ever before. Essentially, a landing page is a unique website page that helps boost your conversion rate with potential customers by offering a clear call-to-action message (CTA), as well as something of value to the person on the other side of the screen. After filling out a few details and submitting this information, the user then makes his or her way to the other areas of interest on your site.

So just how beneficial can well-crafted landing pages be as you welcome prospective homebuyers to your site? When compared to average offerings, optimized and refined landing pages can generate up to five times as many conversions or leads. The moral of the story here is clear; if you’re a realtor who isn’t directing consumers to the right portions of your site via specific landing pages as part of each ad or promotion, you’re leaving a ton of business on the table.

Making a Great Digital First Impression

Now that you understand the true value of a proper landing page, it’s time to talk about how best to capture the huge lead generation potential – in some cases up to a 60 percent increase – found within these offerings. A good place to start auditing your landing pages is with the “5 Second Test.”

Essentially, this test aims to answer three questions: What is this page about? What do you, as a digitally savvy realtor, offer a potential homebuyer? And how can this prospective client take you up on the offer? If it takes more than five seconds to answer this group of questions, then something needs to change. However, if you pass this test, and work with someone who can put the rest of what you’ve learned here to good use, there’s no reason why you can’t capitalize on the increase in leads that come with a stellar set of landing pages.

Additionally, optimized landing pages also offer a variety of search engine optimization (SEO) benefits. It might just be a pleasant side effect, but having a boost in terms of your page rankings via this practice is a nice way to help buyers and sellers in your area find your site and generate even more leads and conversions.

Going a Step Farther with Real-World Examples

Of course, talking over the particulars of landing page best practices is only part of the learning process. To truly show you how these assets work on behalf of your digital persona, let’s look at some real-world successes and failures. First up is the winning end of the spectrum.

After taking a look at the landing page associated with the River City development in Toronto, you’ll notice a few distinct features. First, this page has a clearly present and focused CTA and message that grabs the reader’s attention. Additionally, the response form is easily accessed and well-placed. Finally, the aesthetically pleasing imagery helps wrap up the “complete package” offered by this landing page.

On the other side of the spectrum is the less than stellar example offered up by My Condo Pro. On this landing page, there’s no clear CTA or message, and the sign-up form is located near the bottom of the page. These issues might not seem like much at first glance, but when it comes to your impact with potential clients and conversions, these stumbling points can end up being catastrophic.

The “Dos and Don’ts” of Winning Landing Pages

As far as “game changing” additions to your landing page and common mistakes go, there’s a few things you need to keep your eye out for as you start exploring this digital territory. Let’s start with the “dos” side of this discussion.

First, winning landing pages have attractive imagery and video content that can help boost conversions and engage the viewer. Additionally, offering up eye-catching headlines that focus on building curiosity and intrigue around your value proposition – all while skipping the overt “buy this now!” language – also play a major role in the process.

From here, breaking down the benefits of your offer in bullet points, or some other easily digestible format, continues the process of enticing the reader to take the plunge and convert. Utilizing clear, straightforward CTAs that only take up about a sentence or two of on-screen real estate also goes a long way with your landing page audience. Finally, having a lead capture form that helps track these sign-ups and bolsters your user information database ensures that you harvest all the data needed to continue to refine and optimize this process.

In terms of the “don’ts” that can turn viewers off in a hurry, putting too much text on your landing page, or having too many fields and questions for these clients to fill out, can undo all of the progress you’ve made on this front. Fortunately, if you’re able to make good use of this information and present a page that helps viewers find the right home, discover their purchasing power, evaluate home-worth, or delve into some other important topic or niche, there’s no reason why your landing page can’t join the ranks of the highest converting members of this field.

Putting the Right Foot Forward

From realtors just entering the business to established names in markets far and wide, Top5Agent has helped many real estate professionals boost their leads significantly, all by implementing smart online presence tactics and industry-leading custom landing pages. Top5agent provides a variety of innovative web solutions for the real estate industry, including modern agent’s websites, integrated CRM, customizable easy-to-use landing pages, and social media and blogging content management. Top5Agent also offers custom web development and design, web hosting, branding, and various pay-per-click lead generation programs.

The experts here at Top5 Agent help brokerages and agents alike create and utilize their online presence properly, all while increasing lead capturing potential by 40 to 50 percent. All of our customizable websites are sleek, modern, and possess a variety of tools to engage visitors, capture leads, and convert these potential consumers into satisfied clients. Top5Agent also conducts free educational sessions for real estate agents and brokers that cover a wide range of topics, such as social media, lead generation and capturing, pre-construction landing pages, and branding best practices. If you’re looking for customer-oriented services that deliver creative and effective results, look no farther than Top5Agent.

To find out more about Top5Agent online solutions, including our killer Landing Page Creator, click here!

I hope you have gained some value from our guest post this week.

As always when we bring in a guest who offers their product or services from AgentsBoost we NEVER take a cut or make a dime. We believe in what they have to offer PERIOD!

Strength and Courage,

Wade

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