When buying in a tight market, 3-D home tours give buyers a unique perspective on potential homes and provide critical online information. The 360 degree home tour helps the buyer gain an advantage on their fellow buyer competitor. As a creative traditionalist, I’ve always believed a good photographer can capture a home’s depth and amenities as well as any virtual tour.
In a matter of hours buyers learn in a tight market any offer less than full price was at an immediate disadvantage, and you have to place your offer as soon as — or before — the home hits the market if you want to stand a chance. In many cases, you won’t have time to see properties in person. I now know a smooth, immersive 3-D walking tour helps the anxious buyer prepare to make a confident offer without seeing the property in person. You get a much better idea of how your furniture will match a room’s layout.
They’ve also brought life to listing agent notes like, “Great mountain views from the rear deck.” This technology lets you walk through a garage, go upstairs and into bathrooms. It lets you see where you’ll be putting your groceries down as you hold the door open with your foot. It allows you to be there without being there. Room-to-room flow, finishes and space are all much more accurately conveyed via 3-D tours. It’s a very tough time to be a buyer. We need every tool out there to enable us to move fast and make smart offer decisions.
The more we learn about a home online, the better equipped we’ll be to work with an agent. Relative to that, I’m finding in today’s marketplace — or at least the one most buyers are shopping in — the agent’s role as information provider is shrinking. The web moves much faster than they can, and I don’t hold that against them. Most importantly, the role of transaction manager — and therapist — has become more critical than ever. The value we’ve been provided to date is well beyond 3 percent of the transaction. 3-D tours, whether they’re done with iGuide, Matterport, Immoviewer, Virtual reality or any of the others, are vital to capturing a buyer’s Interest.
iGuide :
Virtual Reality :
Immoviewer :
Matterport :
Check some of these examples then strongly consider implementing this strategy if you don’t already.
The real estate market is always changing and there is one trend that continues to be getting stronger every year. As you already know the power of a real estate team can always outperform an individual just by sheer numbers. Here’s your all in one guide to teams in real estate. Let’s begin by looking at the different team models in real estate first. Teams are an amazing way to leverage time and resources. In my nearly 24 years of experience and coaching super star agents like you, I’ve noticed there are four different types of teams in real estate.
1. The Accidental Team – The accidental team isn’t really a team in the traditional sense… This is just a group of people in the same office that all do the same thing and started selling together. Think of this as more like a bunch of sales people without anyone to run the operational side of the business. They do this for comradery, accountability and maybe even sharing in costs and work load with one another.
2. The Real Estate Family Team – You’ve probably seen a family team and they are very popular. Although everyone is related, roles aren’t clearly defined across as to who is doing what… Also, family teams usually have to put the business on hold when they all go on vacation. Not an easy task to work with your spouse, in law, parent or relative in the real estate world especially when things get crazy and the pressure and stress is rising.
3. The Guru and The Minion Team – I’m sure you’ve met the “guru” agent leading the team of minions. The guru agent is great at what they do, but they are huge control freaks! Have a fairly large ego and opinion of themselves. These are the types of teams where burn out is common and people are always coming and going. The guru can be tough to work with and they are usually the kind of person that doesn’t play well with others.
4. The Business Builder Team – There are some super star agents out there who know their stuff and hire a team to help support them in the other areas of their business. They realize with a team they can grow the potential of the business exponentially. Leverage, systems, processes and multi-talented team members equal mega success. This is because the business builder knows the team is the vehicle to maximize everyone’s strengths to even better serve the customer and take the business to the next level.
So Why a team? You can build something repeatable, scalable and something tangible business you can sell! Whether you are looking to start your team with just an assistant or take on five or six people to build your team, you need to remember one thing… Have you ever seen one of those Russian nesting dolls? It is a big doll that splits in half and there is another doll inside that is a little bit smaller.
This keeps going several more times with the dolls getting smaller in size. I bring this doll up because this is what most people think hiring a team is… The ego and desire to feel important causes many agents to hire someone smaller than them. If you want to achieve massive success in your business you’ve got to add super stars to your team who are committed to doing big things. This means not hiring based on ego, but instead finding the people who think and perform big and are dedicated to growing the business.
Is there any competition in your marketplace? You and I both know there are a ton of real estate agents out there! There is this myth that all agents and all companies are the same and do all the same things.
The challenge is how to separate yourself from the competition…
Here’s the truth… If you’re not unique, then you’re weak! Be committed to creating a better experience for your customers because you know your unique factors! What unique factors do you have that create a better experience for your clients? What is your value proposition and how are you communicating it, Fast?!
It is amazing to me how so many agents struggle responding to the questions so Why you? Why your company? Why now?
Let’s talk about Your Super Bowl Commercial. Imagine if you invested $5,000,000 in a Super Bowl commercial! It would be 30-60 seconds long and be seen by 114,000,000 people. What would your pitch be? What would you say about yourself and why should the customer want to work with you? On a smaller scale you are advertising yourself every day… When someone says “you are in real estate?”, what do you say? Is it unique? Remember if I am not unique, then I am weak!
How Do I Create My Powerful Pitch?
#1 Start with a problem. This is a hook, and the reason a customer should be interested. The goal here is to articulate a problem that connects with the kind of customers you want to serve. When you speak to people through their problems, you are speaking life into them engaging with you.
#2 Amplify a problem. Use quick examples… Say something like “buying a home is easy…” Then list out some of the problems most of your customers might face. Remember to think about this from your customer’s perspective, and the types of questions they are asking… Questions like: So what? What’s in it for me? Can you prove it?
#3 Offer Your Solution. Talk about facts, data, proof, and credibility. You can even use a script. “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 real estate 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 (restate them) that you can hold me accountable to.” Remember even if you are a brand new agent you can still use the facts and data from your office (be honest and disclose that) to offer the solution to your customers.
#4 C.T.A. You’ve got to have some kind of call to action! It could be something like: visit our site, like our page, schedule an appointment, or sign the contract. Remember if you don’t close you can’t win!
The Most Persuasive Words. Have you heard of the 12 words that are considered to be the most persuasive? They are: You, Money, Save, New, Results, Easy, Health, Safety, Love, Discovery, Proven, and Guarantee. Think about your marketing presentation; are you using those words? The most engaging agent’s know the words to say and how to say them and get people’s attention and stand out!
You and the Competition. Listen, when you follow all of these steps you are creating a degree of separation between you and the competition. When you can articulate your uniqueness and how you can solve problems for your clients you are standing out from the competition! This makes it much easier for your clients to choose you over all those other agents in the marketplace. Take the time to really invest in your pitch and identify what it is that make you and your experience unique? What are the problems that buyers and sellers are facing today in your marketplace? What do you do to provide solutions to the buyer and seller? You only have seconds to engage, persuade and differentiate yourself from the competition. I challenge you to work on your power pitch and really stand out from your competitors.
It’s so important to take the time to think and put ourselves in the shoes of our customers rather than thinking like a realtor and what we need and want all the time. This week we look and see the trends of our customers and how to model what they want and need from us. So let’s get started….
#1.) Follow up web leads and make contact with them in under five minutes (speed to lead). We know 50% of sales will go to the first person to make contact with them and the agent that makes at least 6 follow up contacts has a 90% higher chance of getting a response and chance of converting the online lead. (Source Insidesales.com )
#2.) The best time to make email contact with a customer is at 8:00 A.M. in the morning and 3:00 P.M. in the afternoon. ( Source GetResponse)
#3.) The best time to make follow up phone calls with a customer is between 4:00 P.M. and 5 P.M. in the afternoon. Second best time is between 8:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M. and the worst times are 11:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. (Source InsideSales.com)
#4.) The following are the best days of the week to follow up with contacts. Thursdays are the best follow up and prospecting days. Wednesdays are the second best follow up and prospecting days and the worst day to follow up or prospect according to InsideSales are Tuesdays.
#5.) The owners of real estate and high probable home selling clients are using the social media site LinkedIn at least 6 hours a week. Are you? (Source Jill Konrath)
#6.) Back in 2007 it would take 3.68 cold call attempts until you found a client prospect and today it is taking at least 9 cold calling attempts to find a prospect and lead. (Source Ovation Sales Group)
#7.) The average real estate agent only makes 2 attempts and 45% only make one attempt to follow up a client lead and would increase their conversion rate by 9 times if they increased their follow up attempt to only 5 times. (Source Sirius Decisions)
#8.) Agents only have a 2% chance of converting a cold call to an appointment. Lesson is to stop making cold calls and make warm calls using new ways to reach the decision-makers. (Source Leap Job)
#9.) An average agent can make about 8 prospecting contacts per hour and prospects for 6.25 hours to set one buying or selling appointment. So remember the magic number for prospecting is 50 prospects to set one appointment. Are you making enough contact when you prospect? ( Source Ovation Sales Group)
#10.) The highest response rate of communication with consumers is a text and 97% chance of getting a response. Lesson is to make sure you have the customers cell phone number!! (Source GetResponse)
#11.) Nurtured leads have a 47% chance of making a large buying decision versus a non-nurtured lead. (Source Annuitus Group)
#12.) When communicating or making a sales presentation, Visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. Use visuals and don’t tell but show and sell! (Source Neo Mamallian Studios)
#13.) The most memorable part of all sales presentations for the customer is the last five minutes. So always end all your sales presentations with a bang!
#14.) 91% of our current and past customers say they would give a referral to an agent but only 11% of agents ever ask for a referral. (Source Dale Carnegie)
#15.) Each year agents lose 14% of their customers a year. The biggest reason is for not keeping in touch. Lesson is to keep in touch and always be prospecting. ( Source Businessbrief.com)
So there you have it. Some crazy statistics and trends all agents need to be aware of and take action and implement new strategies to buck the trend! I dare you to take a few of these tips and implement and execute them and let me know how they impact your business in 2017?!
I cannot believe it myself the first quarter of 2017 has almost come to an end. Time really does fly when you’re having fun!
How did the first quarter of your year go for you personally and in your real estate profession? Are you behind your goals? Ahead of your goals? Just right where you targeted for your start to the year?
We are now entering into one of the typically best quarters of the year; Q2. My question to you is… is it time to change things up? This week we look at some critical steps to take today if you are not on track:
#1. Take Some Time To Look At Your Status
What is your current situation? What are your biggest challenges or issues you are facing? What were your goals and why you wanted to accomplish those goals?
#2. Measure Your Quarter
What were your numbers for the first quarter? How many calls? How many appointments? How many presentations? How many Listings? How many buyer agreements? Don’t measure your quarter success solely on results but even more important is measure your quarter on activities. You have to be faithful with your activities to receive the success you deserve.
#3. Growth Checklist
Based on the first quarter and what the numbers are saying what do you need to do different? What do you need to do more of? More leads, appointments, follow up, conversion, presentations and contracts this quarter? What changes need to happen to achieve your goals and breakthrough this next quarter in Real Estate.
#4. Working On Your Business
How does your operation, systems and automation look right now? Do you have systems and checklists for everything in place? Are you leveraging with someone or something else that is generating you business while you are busy being busy or getting some sleep? Time to schedule that hour of power a day and work on your business and not always in it.
#5. Time For Help?
Is it time to delegate the low dollar productive activities and free up time for you to focus on the high dollar productive activities? Remember someone or something else doing the low dollar productive activities as better than you doing them, right?
#6. Sales and Marketing
Is what your spending and doing generating a return on your time and investment? How are you positioned in your marketplace? Is your unique value proposition to the customers being communicated in all your materials? Growing your business is no small task and there are many different moving parts.
#7. Income and Expenses
How much are you spending? How much should you spend to meet your goals? Are you profitable? Do you take time and measure your expenses and the R.O.I.? Remember we are in this to make a profit and not all about the gross income being less than the expenses.
#8. Technology
Is technology ruling you or are you ruling the technology? How much technology is enough? Am I relying solely on technology and not enough on old fashion full contact with people belly to belly? We all need to embrace technology because it isn’t something that will just go away. In the same breath we need to not just rely on technology because sales always has and always will be a full contact sport.
So there you have it 8 solid points to help you turn your year around and really make Q2 the best quarter of your year. Take the time to look at your first quarter numbers and your goals and refuel your “why” for crushing it in the second quarter of this year. I dare you!
I love to see what is happening in real estate in other countries and where we are going with real estate innovations when it comes to marketing. This week’s content is a great taste of what we are seeing in other parts of the world and what we are seeing to innovate our own real estate marketing in 2017.
REAL ESTATE MARKETING INNOVATION #1
Business Models…
*Portugal – Average transaction commission is 3%. Exclusive listings only. No Office cooperation with one another at all
*France – Average transaction commission is 5-7%. Mandatory posting of your commissions displayed in your office window to the public. Just starting to cooperate with one another. Social interaction is key to their culture.
*Belgium – Average agent in the Netherlands do 35-40 ends a year and the top solo agent did 290 ends in a year. Buyer comes in, they tell you, you show them and they buy it! Social interaction with a consumer is an insult and complete waste of their time.
*Turkey – Completely unregulated profession and now just starting to see large franchises moving into the country to increase professionalism. Consumer is actually willing to pay more with a franchise because of the perception of professionalism vs. haggling culture.
REAL ESTATE MARKETING INNOVATION #2
Augmented Reality…
Phone technology that allows the consumer to scan over properties and the properties listed for sale pop up as you scan over through the phone. Click on the pop up on your phone and get all the details of the listing immediately. You can also take static real estate marketing piece and bring it to life.
Dedicated Property Sites or Personalized Seller Sites…
REAL ESTATE MARKETING INNOVATION #5
Single Property Websites…
This concept has been around for a few years now where the seller has a dedicated website for their property. ( Example www.1234maplestreet.com )The key to lead capturing using this marketing tool is to provide different photos, details, videos, neighborhood information, documents etc. in this platform that you don’t offer on the MLS listing platform and get them to enter their contact information to login and see all the extras you have on the property on the single property website.
REAL ESTATE MARKETING INNOVATION #6
Virtual Home Staging…
Computer enhanced virtual staging helps the consumer see the potential in the properties.
REAL ESTATE MARKETING INNOVATION #7
Seller Follow Up…
One of the biggest complaints we hear from sellers is that they listed with an agent and never heard from them again.
E Suivit – Electronic Follow Up ( France ) Online seller communication platform providing stats, feedback, showings, marketing etc.
· Seller sees all the buyers and contacts the agent that their home is a match and will sell
REAL ESTATE MARKETING INNOVATION #10
Seller Concierge Services…
3 year client follow up concierge service. $220 / Year
I hope to start seeing uses of these real estate marketing innovations popping up as you begin testing and implementing them in your own areas of business.
Effective Real Estate Strategies Just Before Christmas
On the First Day of real estate my true love gave to me…
Spend some focused time on your real estate database prior to 2017. If you don’t have a database then assemble one. Take the time to build a monthly database touch system for 2017 making specific activities each month to add value and deepen your relationships with your database. This “give to get” activity is the best way to increase repeat and referral business in 2017.
On the Second Day of real estate my true love gave to me… Create a buyer or seller landing page. These landing pages capture a seller who is curious what their current property value is or a buyer who wants to be notified of hot new listings and beat other buyers to them. A nice steady stream of buyer and seller leads from a good landing page keeps you from those peaks and valleys in your business. This is a great way to create more buyer and seller leads all year long while you are busy serving your active buyer and sellers and when you don’t have the time to prospect.
On the Third Day of real estate my true love gave to me… 2 daily hours of power. High-volume agents don’t just service existing business and then start lead generating once they have closed the majority of their transactions. Instead, they block time (usually in the morning so it gets done) to do something each business day that gets them closer to earning a new client. In a nutshell, there are two ways to be successful in real estate: By Default: live in the same area for years where everyone knows you and eventually sends you business; or By Design: time-block a relatively small portion of each business day to proactively generate for new leads.
On the Fourth Day of real estate my true love gave to me… Listings is the name of the game. The power of the spin is where a listing can generate up to 15 other pieces of business if done right! If a real estate agent is working more than 65 hours a week and not closing more than 45 transactions annually, the agent either has a time management problem and/or is working with far more buyers than sellers. You can handle four times as many listing sides than buyer sides at the same time. So, top producing real estate agents always focus their lead generation activities on the listing side.
On the Fifth Day of real estate my true love gave to me… Face to Face activities and prospects who already want to sell. For real estate agents looking for immediate business, top agents know the quickest conversion ratios come from contacting FSBOs (for-sale-by-owners) and expired listings. They also know conversion is higher when you are face to face and the prospect can tell if they like or trust you quickly and want to do business with you. Although many agents are reluctant to reach out to people they don’t know, these are people who typically want to sell their home right now.
On the Sixth Day of real estate my true love gave to me… A realtor to realtor referral system with other agents working the areas where the people and business is coming from to buy real estate in your market. Contact them once a month and stay top of mind and be that referral agent of choice in your market area. Share tips and ideas with other agents to keep top of mind and make them feel like they want to refer you their clients moving to your area. This is a lucrative business opportunity if done consistently.
On the Seventh Day of real estate my true love gave to me… The power of words. Scripts and dialogs are important. Successful real estate agents understand that whether they use someone else’s scripts, dialogs or their own, they’ll eventually start saying the same things they know will work. Using tested real estate scripts created by others simply eliminates the trial and error process and enables agents to start seeing desired results more quickly. Sound like your planned and engage and attract the clients to want to work with you with your powerful words of persuasion.
On the Eighth Day of real estate my true love gave to me… Have powerful sales presentations and visuals. Don’t tell them but show and sell them. Have a visually powerful presentation for listings, buyers and pricing. Don’t just wing it and leave things to chance but engage people to want to do business with you, your company and NOW! Talk alone is cheap. The most powerful visual sales tool is a pad and pen and being able to show prospects and tell them has greater impact than words alone. Remember some of us are visual and some of us are auditory but we don’t know which one they are.
On the Ninth Day of Christmas my true love gave to me… Know your why, purpose and vision. My goal that drives me every day is to impact and improve people’s lives personally and professionally every day. Real estate is the vehicle that makes this happen. We all need to be part of something bigger than ourselves. If your why is big enough then the how takes care of itself!! I love having a vision board with images of the things that drive me, move me, I want and need to experience each and every year. Never underestimate the power of a vision, purpose or why!
On the Tenth Day of real estate my true love gave to me… Be a servant and focus on helping others get what they want and you in turn get what you want. Listen for the need and be aware of others fears, challenges and offer to help. So as to not “bother” the general public when prospecting for new business, top real estate agents always tie the reason they’re contacting people in with providing some type of value at the same time. Always come from a mindset of contribution. Helping you is what we do.
On the Eleventh Day of real estate my true love gave to me… Be a lean mean appointment setting machine. The money in sales is in the conversion to the appointments. No appointments then no presentations. No presentations means no contracts or agreements. The lead generation is great but not having the skill to convert to the appointment is a real estate killer. Know what you have and what you can offer for them and engage them to want to sit down and meet with you. What is your value proposition for a buyer and seller? Why you? Why now?
On the Twelfth Day of real estate my true love gave to me… Leverage by systemization and delegation. When real estate agents consistently do not have time to prospect for new business because they are too busy servicing their existing business it’s time to hire someone to help out. The first hire should be an administrative assistant, not a buyer’s agent. Administrative assistants help agents make more money by freeing up time for agents to perform more important revenue-generating activities. 3D test everything in 2017. “Do I do it? Do I delegate it? Do I just dump it?”
I trust your holiday season is full of love, happiness and joy
3 Reviews to Increase Your Real Estate Biz in 2017
As we head into the final month of 2016, for most of us, there will be some “downtime”. Downtime driven by both the holiday season, as well as a general slowdown of activity, especially after the first two weeks of December. This is an ideal time to start planning for 2017. I have honed a process for preparing for the New Year. There are 3 reviews you need to complete before you can set a path for growth of your real estate biz in 2017. The three reviews include your transaction history, your prospecting efforts, and your personal marketing efforts.
Review Your Real Estate Business Transaction History
Where do we start? We start with the past, we start with the review of what you’ve done financially, the actual transactions that you’ve completed, and all the elements associated with those opportunities.
Once you understand where you are, you can identify where you are going. Ask yourself, what was your average deal size last year, the year before that, the year since then? What clients did you work with? Which clients were the most attractive to you, both now and in the future? What were the average size deal with those clients provided for you? Where did you get those clients? What was the source? Was it a prospect call? Was it a website, off a lead, a company referral? Was it the same clients? Where were those clients and opportunities located? What market are you best to focus on moving forward? What product type have you really been successful for in the past and what product type is best for you moving forward?
Review Your Prospecting Efforts as a REALTOR
What was your financial goal for net income goal for 2016? Money that you take home for you and your family. That’s something we really care about. What did you achieve, and what was the goal? Hopefully it was greater than your goal. If it was less than your goal, maybe you set too high of a goal. I love goals that push you, but be careful so they don’t demotivate. How many exclusives did you secure? How many listings you got went to closings? You want to explore that. Make sure you understand some of the ratios financially of your meetings, to listings, listings, to close. Look at the numbers. Look back on your efforts last year, and see where those are. Define your average gross commission income. What was your average net commission per closing? Of the listings/representations/assignments you secured, how many were unsuccessful?
When it comes to your clients, think about your top five clients. When I say top five, people go, “Okay so these five made the most money for me, they’re my top five.” Fine. That’s how you want to define top five, look at it that way. Some say, “No, top five really means those that provided me, and will provide me the greatest opportunities moving forward.” In 2016, this may have been one deal, but it’s going to lead to more deals down the road. That’s going to be a top client for you, or a client that always gives you multiple opportunities. Same client opportunities, or refers you. All they did is one or two deals with you maybe historically, yet they’re one of your raving fans. Therefore, they’re your top client. Identify your five top clients based on your parameters.
Finally look at your prospecting efforts. Prospecting is a disciplined act of asking for business. Think about what you did to specifically ask for business. Look back at some of the quantitative, and qualitative aspects of your prospecting. How many prospecting meetings did you hold in 2016? How many calls to you attempt vs. complete, and how many prospect letters (not emails) did you send?
Review Your Personal Marketing Efforts
Prospecting is hard enough when folks know you, or at least heard of your company. Prospecting without a personal presence is downright difficult. Your personal marketing efforts will reflect strongly on you prospecting results. I always focus on three elements of presence, or personal marketing. Personal, Physical, and Digital. Upon your review of your personal marketing efforts in 2016, ask yourself how many personal meetings did you have from a marketing perspective? These are meetings to get to know people. These are not prospecting meetings. These are relationship building opportunities. Maybe it was going to a conference, or going for a drink with the guys, or whatever it might be. How many personal marketing meetings did you hold? Look back at your calendar. This is vital to growing in 2017. Physical marketing efforts consist of tangible items you have mailed, gifted or sent. From the physical side, mailing side, how many times did you mail out? How many times did you send out post cards, or flyers. How many gifts did you send, or articles you shared. Again, look at your calendar, look at your marketing efforts, look at your budget, look at your expenses.
Lastly, think about the digital side. Yes, the tweeting, the blogging, the LinkedIn groups, Facebook interactions, that you actually participate in. Just because you’re a member of a LinkedIn group, and you never participate that does not count. That’s probably 95% of folks out there. Think about the digital efforts. What did you do digitally? Even e-mail blasts, and newsletters.
As noted, the first step in any process of change is always the biggest. Reviewing your transactional history, prospecting efforts and personal marketing activities will take you some time. Potentially several days. But don’t forget you will have several days of “downtime” in the weeks ahead. You can either review and then implement change, or simply do what you have always done in the past. You know, and we know that positive change, and income growth, are not products of simply doing the same thing year after year.
Commit to making 2017 your best year as a REALTOR ever. I dare you!
The #1 objection all agents are getting from real estate buyers and sellers is “we are waiting until spring.” So having the ability to change how the buyer and seller feels about waiting to buy or sell until the spring is imperative to your winter real estate success!! The fact of the matter is, the reasons and myths are endless so it’s our job as REALTORS® to be equipped with facts and a strong reality check to combat these reasons we hear every day. To help you through the winter season I put together some of the top reasons a client would want to choose this time of year to buy, sell and list a home.
Top Reasons to Sell Real Estate Over The Winter
#1 – Only Serious Buyers Looking
• Yes there are fewer buyers, but those buyers are usually very SERIOUS about making a purchase or many HAVE to make a purchase. Who else would want to look at buying during the winter?
#2 – Less Listing Competition
• Most sellers wait until the spring or summer to list, so your home will have far less competition
• Spring = Greater supply = Same Demand = Less Money
#3 – January is the Biggest Corporate Transfer Month
• More corporate relocation moves happen during January than any other time of the year.
• Catch the corporate relocation buyers while you can.
#4 – High Attentive Efficient Customer Service
• By putting the home on the market during the winter you experience better, personal and faster customer service from movers, lawyers, banks, insurance providers etc. Listing realtors have more time to better serve their sellers and get all the marketing strategies in place.
#5 – More Time to Get Top Dollar
• By starting to market your home early, you may be able to secure a higher price with more listing exposure time. This season allows a seller to not be in a rush to sell and allow for more market exposure time and ultimately generate a higher price than in the spring.
#6 – Time to Sell Now, Buy In The Spring
• If your home sells quickly, you will be able to shop for your next home during the winter, a great time to find a bargain!
• More time to look and not pressure to shop and beat the other buyers. Sell first and then buy in the spring when the inventory and selection begins to rise for you when you are the buyer.
#7 – Stand Out in a Smaller Crowd
• Most REALTORS® and offices have less inventory during the winter, enabling your home to stand out even more.
• Less marketing noise out there for the buyers and they see your home with ease now.
#8 – 20% of Homes Sold During the Winter
• Buyers and Sellers are usually quite motivated to get the transaction completed. We still have 20% of the business in the year occurring during the winter.
• This can mean less price haggling and fewer hassles during the process.
#9 – Non-Contingent (Subject to the sale) Buying
• By selling now, you may have an opportunity to be a non-contingent buyer during the spring, when more houses are on the market!
• Less “subject to the sale” offers from buyers and you are not one of them when you are buying your next home.
#10 – No Yard Work When It’s Snows
• Great time for a home that needs a yard make over to sell.
• No need to worry about your yard work. Snow makes it look fresh and white.
BONUS…..
#11 – Buyers Time Everything Too
• Buyers begin the search and purchase for spring moves in January, February.
• Busy move times are March Spring Break, April Easter, May long weekend and July long weekends
#13 – No Pricing Wars With Others
• Less choice for buyers means less sellers to play pricing against each other
• Buyers will often make more concession in their buying decision with less choice
#14 – Holiday Magic Show Time
• Property shows well, almost staged with holiday décor adding to the ambiance
• Tis the season for your home to shine!
#15 – Higher Quality Showings
• Little chance of quick showings and not being prepared to show your home
• Easier time of year to make appointments and give sellers advance notice.
• Higher quality showings
#16 – Right Buyer, Right Time
• The odds are the same for the right buyer looking at your home regardless of the season.
• Right buyer, right time, right home
Top 10 Reasons to Buy Over The Winter
#1 – Little Or No Competing Offers
• Little or no chance of multiple or competing offers for the buyer during this time of year
#2 – Buyers Receive Better Customer Service
• Better service from all service providers like the agents, banks, insurers etc. Not as busy now.
#3 – Seller Motivation Increases
• Sellers motivated at this time of year if still trying to sell from summer or fall.
· Sellers willing to negotiate, been on the market for some time now. Give and take.
#4 – Expired Listings Available Now
• Buyers can shop the expired listings market, which has the largest selection this time of the year.
#5 – Better Closing Options
• Good time of year to make an offer and do the due diligence, buyers can move quickly now or slower in the spring if not in a rush.
#6 – Alternative Housing Options
• Easier for sellers to find alternative housing, not as much pressure finding a rental vs. the really busy spring and summer season.
#7 – Subject to the Sale Acceptable
• Great time for buyers to make contingent “Subject to the Sale” offers and get them accepted and movement on the price.
#8 – Better Available Moving Services
• Easier time for a buyer to move and find help and services like movers, cleaners, storage.
#9 – Smoother Mistake Free Completions
• Better timing for buyers on completions with lawyers, banks land registry. Not that busy and time to attend to you now.
#10 – Buyer Competition Lower
• Less competition for the same property from other buyers on the deals that pop up this time of year.
Now that you’re equipped with ammo to overcome any objection, debunk the myths and go out there and list and sell some real estate this winter season
Is there any competition in your marketplace? You and I both know there are a ton of real estate agents out there! There is this myth that all agents and all companies are the same and do all the same things.
