By Kim Knapp
Given that most markets are seller’s markets these days, it’s in a REALTOR®’s best interest to have as many listings as possible. After all, if there are 15 offers on a house, 14 buyers and their agents are going to have to start over again. The person who has listings gets a sale each time. The class “Leads and Listings: Become a Power Lister” takes you through the foundational tools that will prepare agents to convert leads into sellers and make sure that you can form a successful team with them.
The basics
The course will go through some nuts-and-bolts basics, such as: What questions should you have prepared prior to taking the call? What’s your intake form? How are you planting seeds for future referrals, and how are you converting them and getting them to say “yes” during the first phone call? What questions do you ask when you get to the house and what should you bring? If you’re doing a prelisting package, we provide forms in an easy-to-edit format that you can personalize immediately. You can retain or edit out the sections of the documents that serve you best and get right to work.
A sellable listing
It’s not just about winning a listing. It’s about winning a sellable listing. Key parts of the course teach you how to build a partnership with the seller. You create that by having a plan. Don’t just go in and say, “Yeah, I sell houses. Sign these papers, and I’ll put you in the MLS. We’ll throw it up against the wall and see what sticks.” That’s not going to get you very far.
To take on listings and be successful, you need to know how to have the seller on the team, so they cooperate with showings, properly position the property on the market and keep the property ready to show. If you just take the listing and it’s overpriced, it doesn’t show well and the seller doesn’t cooperate with showings, then you’re like a doctor who asks a patient, “What do you want to do?” And they tell you about what the neighbor said or what they read in a magazine, then the doctor says, “We’ll do what your neighbor said.”
You have to learn how to be the doctor who can say, “I understand what you read in the magazine. But let me show what will get you to your goal,” and then explain it to them. When you’re confronted with sellers who say, “Well, Zillow said this and my neighbor said that,” you must have the skills to help navigate the seller toward what’s true without baldly telling them, “You’re wrong.”
Establishing a goal
The course gives you dialogue and tools to help the seller define their goal—for example, getting the best price for the property. Once the goal is established, you can get behind it. It’s important information you will need to mention when objections arise, like smoking outside or doing some small repairs or refurbishment. Just ask, “Would it be worth it to you to do this if it meant getting the best price?” So now the discussion is not confrontational; you’re explaining to them that to meet their goal, this is what would be required. Now it’s their decision: Do they want to meet their goal or change it?
With course objectives that take you through the steps of lead generation, prelisting and listing presentations, and coping with common objections, this course will set you up to be a power lister in no time. The agents, both experienced and new, who have already attended this four-hour course say it was worth every second. Is it time to sharpen your listing game?
Be sure to check the education catalog regularly at CRS.com to see when new classes like “Leads and Listings” are scheduled throughout the year.
Photo: iStock.com/Visual Generation
