1,200 Great Sales Tips for Real Estate Pros

Mariwyn Evans, Christina Hoffmann Spira

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780470096895
• eBook ISBN: 9781118039090
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Real Estate
• Index: Business

Perfect for brokers, agents, and other real estate professionals, this handy guide brings together the best ideas from years of incredibly practical lists and checklists published in REALTOR Magazine. This practical, one-of-a-kind guide is perfect for learning the business of real estate and perfecting the best and most effective tactics and techniques for helping your real estate career and business grow.

Chapter 1

PROSPECTING

Striking Real Estate Gold

When gold fever struck California in 1849, prospectors armed with pickaxes, shovels, and pans followed their maps to where the gold was.

Prospecting for real estate listings, potential buyers, and referrals also requires a plan and the right tools. You need to zero in on your sphere of influence—those who know and respect you and are most likely to hire or refer you to others—rather than depend on random efforts like standing in a shopping mall at a kiosk and waiting for someone to walk by, says Dave Beson, a broker and head of Dave Beson Seminars in Minneapolis.

Once you narrow your list of prospects, develop a consistent program of “touches.” Regularly e-mail, telephone, snail mail, and meet face-to-face with prospects. When you get their attention, deliver a message that’s appropriate and that touches each person emotionally, Beson says. If they’ve just bought a house, send a welcome postcard with a list of favorite area shops.

But don’t stop there. Stay in contact and feed prospects the information they most want: what comparable area houses are selling for, says Kenneth W. Edwards, founder of Professional Associates in Corvallis, Oregon, and author of Your Successful Real Estate Career (AMACOM, 2003). If you keep your name out front, prospects are likely to remember you when they get ready to sell.

Also, remember never to rely on one approach. Develop a multilayered campaign. If you’re worried about becoming a pest, don’t. “It’s better prospects see you as the one who followed up seven times. They’ll know you’re on their side,” Beson says.

If by chance they find your style irksome, you’ll learn an invaluable lesson in prospecting—and life. You can’t be successful all the time, but you can develop resiliency. Get back on your feet; start anew. Next time you’ll prospect better. Here are more lessons to start you on your way.

12 Prospecting Tips

Build a wide sphere of influence through regular prospecting. There’s no time like the present to improve your skills with these handy tips.

1. Add a memo field to your contacts database to store pertinent, personal information about prospects. For example, planned retirement in two years, children going to college, or a big promotion.

2. Conduct a phone survey. Choose a topic that’s likely to be of interest to your prospects—the impact of recent school reform or how the current economy is affecting the neighborhood. Then offer to e-mail the survey results. Voilà, you have an instant e-mail marketing list. (Before you pick up the phone, know your state’s antisolicitation laws. Surveys aren’t prohibited under the national do not call laws, but you can’t talk about or sell your services to people over the phone at the same time. Keep the call strictly to research.)

3. Motivate yourself to prospect by making a deal to pay a fellow associate $10 a day for every day you don’t cold-call for one hour.

4. Analyze the language used in FSBO ads and adapt your marketing presentation to fit the style of each prospect.

5. Smile when you pick up the phone. Experts say the simple act of smiling subtly alters your voice and manner and makes you more approachable.

6. When you’re setting up a listing appointment, be sure you’re talking to the decision maker.

7. When you call to introduce yourself, ask if the prospect is busy. If so, ask for a convenient time to call again.

8. Hand-address your letters. It increases the likelihood that they’ll be opened. Mailing too many letters to hand-address? Choose a computer typeface that looks like handwriting.

9. Contact your best prospects first in case you run out of time.

10. Build your e-mail list by sponsoring an occasional online contest. Tell interested prospects they must enter via e-mail and will be notified the same way. Offer a good prize—a television or dinner for two at a hot restaurant. For each contest offer a different kind of prize. Sooner or later, you’ll motivate most people to participate. (Contests are regulated in every state. Check with your state attorney general’s office for regulations.)

11. Ask prospects for a five-minute appointment in return for your tips on how to increase their home’s value.

12. While at a fast-food drive-through, pay for coffee for the car behind you. Ask the clerk to hand your business card to the driver. You might get a call or e-mail with thanks.

Sources: Dave Beson, Dave Beson Seminars, Minneapolis; Denise Brophy, RE/MAX Realty Specialists, St. John’s, Newfoundland; Chip Franks, The Real Estate Marketplace, Killeen, Texas; Raymond C. Harlan and Walter M. Woolfson, Telemarketing That Works (McGraw-Hill, 1991); Joe Meyer, Joe Meyer Presentations, Lake Grove, N.Y.; Jack O’Connor, Prestige Real Estate Group, Englewood, Colo.

6 Creative Prospecting Events

If you host it, they will come. Here are some great ways to draw prospects out of the woodwork and into your database.

1. Ask if you can take instant photos of Halloween trick-or-treaters when they come to your door. Slip the photos into jackets printed with your name and telephone number and give them to the parents.

2. Create a competition to award a $500 or $1,000 college scholarship to a high school senior in your community. Present the check at a ceremony for the winner’s family and friends.

3. Buy a block of tickets to a concert or play and hold a drawing in your office. Call past customers and ask whether they’d like their names to be in the hopper.

4. Sponsor a home repair demonstration or lecture at a local hardware or home improvement store.

5. During the summer, rent an ice cream truck and give away free frozen goodies in targeted neighborhoods. Use a postcard mailing to notify residents ahead of time.

6. Organize a group to go caroling in your market area. You can leave behind your company’s holiday card at each home you visit.

Source: REALTOR^® Magazine Online’s (REALTOR.org/realtormag) Personal Marketing section.

Powerful Prelisting

Prelisting packets may be the first and most important impression you make on sellers. The goal of the kit, according to David Knox of Minneapolis-based David Knox Productions Inc., is to establish credibility, not to sell. Focus on materials that focus on you.

Here’s what your prelisting packet should include:

• Cover letter. Remind prospects when you’ll arrive and how to contact you.

• Outline of your skills. Be sure your brochures and resume describe your qualifications, experience, and designations.

• Personal marketing brochure. Reuse the same brochure you mail for personal marketing efforts. Be sure your materials explain your selling philosophy, marketing approach, and commitment to top-notch service.

• Brief bios of your team members. Highlight each person’s experience and the functions they’ll perform for the seller. Include a friendly, informal picture of team members so that the sellers feel they know them.

• Testimonials from past clients. It’s always more effective if someone else says something positive about you than saying it yourself, says real estate marketer and author Danielle Kennedy of Danielle Kennedy Productions in Pacific Palisades, California.

• A few press clippings about you and one or two articles you have written. Nothing creates credibility better than the endorsement of a third party.

• A property disclosure for the sellers to complete. Ask questions on the age of the house, appliances, roof, and furnace. Ask them to note any environmental issues, give costs of annual property taxes and assessment, and point out any special features connected with the house.

Meet the Buyers

Helping people buy their first home is a great start to a long-term relationship. Here are some tips on how to meet first-time buyers.

At Weddings

I’ve found friends of the bride and groom start thinking about their own long-term goals as soon as the couple rides off into the sunset. Young people want direction from someone who is knowledgeable and who cares.

—Ann Marie McManus, Meybohm Realty Inc., Augusta, Georgia

Through Tax Preparers

Every renter who files a tax return and doesn’t have property ownership bene...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 - PROSPECTING
• Chapter 2 - SELLING
• Chapter 3 - KNOW YOUR MARKET
• Chapter 4 - STAY OUT OF TROUBLE
• Chapter 5 - PERSONAL GROWTH
• Chapter 6 - PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Chapter 7 - TIME MANAGEMENT
• Additional Resources
• About the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS
• Index