The Secrets To Seller Counselling During A Shift Archives

Seller Counselling Strategies for Realtors© 2022

Wade Webb on June 22, 2022

In the early 90’s when I first started in the real estate business it seemed like every seller counselling session for Realtors© I had for the first five years of my career was about Mr. And Mrs. Seller paying too much, needing too much or wanting too much. N.A.R. reports that around 80% of people don’t use the same real estate agent more than once because they never hear from their agent again after the sale or after giving the agent their listing. Another common reason we hear is “We felt our real estate agent really didn’t do that much for us.” When we are getting paid a large sum of money for our services, isn’t it fair for the seller to expect some kind of advisement and service throughout the process before, during and after?

Seller Counselling… Top Tips of Advisement and Service During Their Home Sale

Establish a plan – clearly set out for the seller the level of communication they can expect from you throughout the process. Then exceed that expectation. Kill them with communication.

Don’t focus on their price, rather focus on the 5-6-7 technique to help you and your client determine what their hot button for selling truly is. All of us are motivated by either pain or pleasure. How many of us have asked our sellers a minimum of 7 deep questions to find out their true desire for moving? It is always about something they are running to or running from and they consistently need to be reminded of that pain or pleasure button. That is how we “move them” to want to sell and not choosing to stay.

When nothing is happening, this is the time we communicate even more! How many of us have nothing to say and therefore just choose not to communicate with our seller? There is always something to say… you just need to find it.

Prepare and educate the seller in advance of the paradigm shift in virtual showing vs. the physical showing in today’s market. With the use of modern technology we are able to qualify even better than before and allow the buyer to virtually tour your home and not have to waste your time with so many physical showings to find the right buyer. Saves you from them getting upset about having fewer than expected showings.

Show them your system for pre qualifying the prospect. I truly believe they hire us to market to cooperating agents who have the buyers and qualify them and qualify any other buyer before they enter the seller’s home. I would show the seller a list of questions I would ask to prospective agents and buyers qualifying them prior to viewing their home.

Have them come in weekly, bi weekly or worse case scenario 3 weeks and sit down to discuss online activity like website traffic. Share with them all the marketing that has taken place in the past and what is planned moving forward in the future. Discuss sign calls, ad calls and any other leads that have been generated on their home from your marketing efforts.

Review a classic sales tool from my mentor Floyd Wickman called the Saleability Checklist. Every week share with your seller a creative idea or two that they could possibly implement to help their listing become more saleable other than lowering their price from this fantastic checklist. They hired you to be the creative marketing expert and dropping their price is not what they had in mind. For example, suggest to them a technique from the list called a “Dutch Auction” where you would agree to create a market buzz by pre signing price reductions for every week for an agreed upon amount until the home is sold. Buyers become interested in the listing watching the price drop week after week until finally a buyer pulls the trigger before they feel it sells to someone else first. Although a Dutch Auction involves asking the seller for a price reduction, this technique at least is actual creative marketing that can create a buzz and interest around a property. If explained properly this can offer the seller hope and get them excited again, whereas simply telling them to drop their price is frustrating and discouraging. (Click on this link to download a copy of our Saleability Checklist)

Take the seller and play the game my mentor David Knox taught me “The price is right”. You tell them you are picking them up for a ride and that you are buying coffee and dessert. Drive them by the 3 most recent sales similar to theirs and read them the feature sheet and show them interior photos but don’t tell them the sale price and let them guess the final sale price for each. Then take them to preview the top 3 homes for sale that compete directly with theirs and again don’t let them know the asking price until you come back to the car. After the 6 homes and the price is right game then go for coffee and desert and discuss how they feel their home compares to what they just saw.

My final tip is to review all this information and really deliver value to the seller in all your seller counselling sessions during the listing period. I always ask them these very important questions…

1. What do you think we should be doing different?

2. What should we be doing next, moving forward?

3. What are we waiting for and why are we not doing anything about it?

I then pull out 2 forms and a pen. One paper is a price reduction form and the other a listing cancellation form. I explain to them that I cannot afford to disappoint them and fail them at selling their home and I need them to either reduce their price or release me of my responsibility of selling their home.

I hope you find these tips and the checklist incredibly helpful with your seller counselling in 2022 and begin to sell more homes and not just list more homes. We are in the business of selling homes and not just listing them and you want to be known for the selling.

AgentsBoost – Saleability Checklist

Strength and courage,
Wade

Secrets To Seller Counselling During Market Shift

Wade Webb on July 4, 2018

We are beginning to see a shift in many real estate markets across North America. The importance of knowing how to counsel a seller through a changing market is something many Realtors© need to learn how to do properly. As the homes begin to take longer to sell, activity lowers and the competition increases the importance of a consistent process managing listings and sellers is key. Let’s look at this 10 step process and begin to manage our listings and sellers expectations before they consider firing us.

How to Counsel Home Sellers in Market Shift

#1 – HOT BUTTONS, You Must Know What Your Seller’s Hot Button Is. The only thing that moves their emotional meter is the avoidance of pain – What are they running from? Or the gain of pleasure – What are they running to? Take the time to question them 7 questions deep to identify their hot button. “Why do you want to sell?” “So why is that so important?”…… Identify the hot button and remind them of the outcome if they chose.

#2 – CREATE A PROCESS, “wing it” and get “wing it results”. Implement a plan to manage the sellers expectations. The most powerful way to manage their expectations is with education and communication. It is now time to become their trusted advisor and not the time to hide and not be proactive. To them your silence is deafening and they blame us for the market.

#3 – ESTABLISH PREFERRED METHOD OF COMMUNICATION, we can’t assume the method we choose to communicate with our sellers is the method they would choose. Sit down and ask how they would like you to communicate with them? Phone? Text? Email? FB Messenger? Face to Face? Set the expectations for communicating and make note of the method in your process.

#4 – ESTABLISH FREQUENCY OF COMMUNICATION, we can’t assume the amount of communication we choose to connect with our seller is what they hoped and wanted. Sit down and ask how frequent they would like to hear from us. Remember to make note of it and then over deliver and not under promise that frequency. We are in the customer service business, right?!

#5 – CREATE THE SIMPLEST SHOWING PLAN, we need to take time and educate the seller on the importance of an easy showing plan for their property and the importance to them getting the physical activity they want and expect. Set the showing plan so it is easy and not an Indiana Jones adventure to try showing their home for the selling agents. Take the time to explain to them paradigm shift of virtual showing activity of their home and how it has taken over for physical showing activity of their home thanks to internet, drones, photos, video and interactive floor plans.

#6 – EDUCATE THEM ON QUALIFICATION, other than MLS, marketing and negotiating the most important skill they hire us for is our ability to qualify the perspective buyers considering their home and eliminating the time wasters. Share your list of qualifying questions with them that you use to question the public and the list of questions you use for qualifying the co-operating agent and their buyer to ensure the best of the best are physically viewing their property. This also helps us deflect the issue of no physical showings in a slower market because they think we are doing such an outstanding job at qualifying!

#7 – SHOWING FEEDBACK, is always something that can hurt any listing agent and their relationship with their sellers. Have a system to get showing feedback from selling agents. Have a system to give showing feedback to your sellers consistently and agree on that system together. Pick a set day? Time? Remember even just a call saying you tried multiple times to get feedback from the showing agent and have to assume no news is not great news, but we tried is better than not calling them at all.

#8 SELLER COUNSELLING REPORT, is a vital tool to managing the sellers and their listings. Pick a set day and time during the week to report to our sellers. Create and deliver a weekly or bi-weekly report by email, postal mail or better yet hand deliver it. Remember to kill them with communication ( sample seller report – Attwater report May 6th ) Items you should include with your reports:

a) Auto emails of new listings, sale and expired listing alerts to the sellers
b) List of your ongoing marketing activities you presented them at the listing presentation ( they forget )
c) Local Board Market Stats
d) Local real estate related media reports
e) Showings – Feedback comments
f) Sign calls, Ad calls, Email enquiries
f) Salability checklist ( one marketing idea a week ) something other than dropping their price to change up the marketing. (AgentsBoost – Saleability Checklist )

#9 – 21 DAY FACE TO FACE OFFICE MEETINGS, you schedule every 21 days a face to face meeting at the office to review the previous and upcoming weeks activities on their property. Remind them of their hot buttons. Ask them what they think we should do different? Next? What are they waiting for? Why are we not repositioning the property? It is good face to face time to lean into your sellers and act like a trusted real estate advisor, hence them coming into your office for the meeting.

#10 – THE PRICING PROCESS, we all know any price will cure any property or market problem. Consider at the initial listing getting a pre signed price reduction at time of taking the listing to allow you to reach out to the co-operating agents and their buyers to notify them of the change in price within the first 14 days of the listing to avoid losing those buyers to other properties. Consider ordering a third party bank appraisal to help with pricing. I always like to physically bring my office pricing team of 6 agents to view and write their estimated sale price on the back of their business card. One last tip is remember as a listing agent we can always prepare with our sellers a reverse offer (seller initiated) for that agent and buyer just lurking for days in the bushes!

So there you have it! A simple and powerful 10 step process to excel as a listing real estate agent and deliver excellence to your clients in the midst of a changing market. I hope you can implement and execute this system and take your business to another level.

Strength and courage,
Wade