Training Tip #5- Stay above the Crowd
Above the Crowd 101
The most feared question for a newer agent is: "How long have you been in real estate?"
Or for a more experienced agent, the tough question might be, "How much real estate did you close this past year?"
These questions often indicate that your prospective buyer or seller's decision may be easily swayed by competing agents with BIG sales numbers.
Now we all know that this business is filled with agents who sell more than $10 million per year with many years of experience that are (pick a fault) disorganized, lazy, sloppy or maybe just too busy to do a great job. Even the best top Producers typically have their assistants handling most of their work. This can create serious drawbacks for clients working with Mr. (or Ms.) Bigshot Realtor.
To be honest, these types of questions are VERY difficult to overcome for an agent with less experience or average sales production numbers. So how do you keep these questions from knocking you out of the running before you even get started? Well, the first thing you can do is look people straight in the eye and tell them the honest truth about your experience and sales production. Then point out the BENEFITS of working with you.
Do this is a brief, straightforward way. For example: "I've been licensed since 2006, and I closed $1.1 million dollars last year. But I work for a full time, hands on broker who has 12 years of experience. She advises me regularly, and has been fantastic in helping me be more professional, knowledgeable and on the right track. I'd like to point out one fantastic benefit of working with me that super busy agents just can't deliver. I am available to take your calls every day from 8:30 to 8:30. I take all calls directly to my cell phone. You’ll never have to deal with an assistant or staff person when you have a problem or question. Also, I currently have active 5 listings and I work about 60 hours per week. If you give me your listing, I'll have 6 total, that gives me 10 hours per week to focus on your listing. Some super agents have over 40 or 50 listings, which means their clients get a lot of busy signals, and have to leave messages when they need ANSWERS. I am competent, professional and excited about your listing. Please give me a shot, you won't be disappointed."
That "defense" is often effective with these types of clients if you have demonstrated that your materials and professionalism are there. you are asking them to trade years od experience and track record for availability and enthusiasm. Not a bad trade.
However, the best way to avoid this very tough question is to never have it occur to your prospective client at all. You can do this by being incredibly knowledgeable about the type of home or area that they are buying or selling in. The more you know, and the more you prepare, the less chance you have of ever getting that dreaded question.
What do you need to know? You need to know 2 types of things.
1- You need to know the current state and trends of our Brevard County market.
For example- you need to be able to express clearly the following facts.
The trend for number of homes sold for the last 3 months.
The trend for the median sales price for the same period.
Be able to compare those figures to a year ago, and make a prediction about what is going to happen in the next 6-12 months…
Don’t worry about National or Statewide trends, remember real estate is local.
2- More importantly- You need to know about every home that is active, under contract and sold in the last 6 months in the relevant area. You also need to know about taxes, interest rates, HOA fees and schools info.
Ideally, you should be familiar with as much of the following as you can.
General:
The number of homes that sell each month
Average selling price
Sale price to listing price ratio
Average days on market
Absorption rate (how many months of inventory are on the market)
Number of homes listed each month
Neighborhood Specific:
Each of the above items, neighborhood specific
Key features (good and bad) of each comparable listing
This WILL set you apart from 99% of the other agents in your area, and will impress your prospects so much, that no questions about your experience will even enter their minds.
All of this stuff is available on Innovia. We can show you how to incorporate this data in to a mail out, web page, email or listing presentation in a sharp looking Excel format with colorful charts and graphs. It's really quite easy. People love this stuff... and the super busy, super agents don't have time to do it.
Advantage- YOU!