Is your Agent INVESTING in your home?

Investment into Selling will get results

• How much time & money are you investing in your home to get it sold for the very best price?
• How much time & money is your agent investing in your home for the very best Price (this is what we are focussing on today)
• How can you get your buyers to invest more time on a viewing?

Can you answer these honestly?

Trying to substantiate what an agent is doing to get your home sold can often be a mystery. Especially when you haven’t heard from them in a while. It is key to know exactly what is happening with your home and how the marketing is working. Are they really holed up for 9-10 hours per day, checking every statistic of your home and tweaking to perfection to get you a result? Perhaps not.

I sat in front of a wonderful couple just a couple of weeks ago. They talked about how they built the home, how the floors were a design choice and yet although didn’t look practical, they were super easy to keep pristine. I laughed with them reminiscing about the beautiful fire they had installed, and how Mark really wanted it and Karen wasn’t so keen on its look (or the price!).

So when they mentioned they’d been on the market for 3 years and in that 3 years had received little or no communication, it was quite unexpected as their home was one of the most beautiful homes I have seen this year. One phone call with their agent even started with ‘We know you are still here on our books, don’t worry’.  They were frustrated and had some big ideas on their future. They had plans they wanted to see out and after 3 years they were no closer to moving. Feeling deflated and tired they felt like they needed something very very distinctive to help them sell this home.

We took a look at the marketing, on the whole, the standard was good. It wasn’t Exceptional.

They had originally opted for a low fee agent, the low fee was a reflection on the work they did to try and sell the home. Remember those fateful words, ‘We know you are still on our books, don’t worry’. There was no analysis, help, planning. Nothing.

Last post we explored YOUR focus while you are selling. Now What about your agent’s focus.

Remember, “What is focal is Causal” – Robert Cialdini  (Basically, what you focus on, you get results on.)

What is your agent focussed on right now?

Is it the Bigger the Better? There is a business strategy that has been at the forefront of many agents minds in what feels like forever. Get more properties on, then they’ll be the biggest agent in town. Okay, firstly, that’s not a bad thing for the owners. So here are two small issues with this theory:

1 – They are investing more time in getting houses on & more of their money finding new houses to sell.

2 – The more properties they have on the less time they have to spend on the houses that don’t sell immediately, how are they managing their time along with phone calls, viewings, general office duties, looking after the ones that have sold and chasing them through to completion without a hitch, valuing others, general marketing, writing up all the new houses, generating their brochures and ordering the signs, taking more phone calls and the three phone calls that that single call produces. It’s a very labour intensive role, where is their focus?

What can you do? Get them focussing on you and that is easy. Call them, email them to keep you top of mind, should the next buyer want a house like yours.

Ask them these three questions?

1 – What did you do last week to get more viewings/more offers/more online clicks (Insert whichever is most pressing)

NB: More online clicks – generates more viewings – that generate more offers so think about what is missing with your home. Has your agent told you?

2 – What are you doing this week to get it sold? (or get more viewings etc)

3 – If that doesn’t work, what will you do next?

How can you keep them focussed?

Tell them your story. Agents are people, they have hearts too, they feel emotion. Have you told them your story, do they know how important it is to you to move for a good price? If they’ve never asked it may be time to change your agent. They should always know your reasons and motivation for selling this home right now. You see, if you don’t care, if it doesn’t really matter to you, how can it really matter to them. Give them a call, talk to them in confidence, book a visit in with them. Ake sure they know just how important this is for you and what you are losing if they can’t sell it.

Send them cookies.  Agents get gifts all the time, but sending your agent something keeps you in mind, you’ll get a Thank You phone call, or maybe a card expressing their gratitude. You’ll be the first one they think of when they smell that freshly baked cookie dough smell.

Ask them what you can do.  This is your home too, ask them how you can help. Get creative, can you post your brochure through some doors that are on the market, do you know local businesses you can put your home in. Your agent will either, love that you are trying to help, or it may even give them a little nudge to get creative too.

Do they really want to sell it?

Do they really? Did you beat their fees down? Did they fear the loss of your home on their figures so they agreed to take it at a really really really low fee? Is it a percentage perhaps down .85% or maybe you agreed a low fixed fee of ￡849 or even ￡999 plus VAT.  If this is what happened then why would they try to sell yours faster than the property on the next street that went with their standard selling fee of 1.25% or even 1.5%, perhaps a ￡2100 fee which was their first offer would have incentivised them more. The truth is that be beating your agent up for a lower fee, will often result in a lower incentive, poor staff morale. They’ll be pushing the ones that give them a higher end number to enable them to hit their targets. They’ll have less money in the pot to really push your home. For those of you with a premium home, it just won’t sell without premium marketing, like the very best brochure and the very best photographs.

You may need to switch agents. Next time, ask them their fee and get them to qualify how they intend on getting your house sold. What processes will they use, each week to get you the result you both really want? Sometimes that extra ￡1000 in fees can be the difference of not only ￡2000-5000 in offers but could be the difference between a sale and no sale!

AGENT INVESTMENT

Time – Ask them to qualify what they are and have done to get your home sold

Money – Ask what else will help, if need be, offer to pay for additional marketing IF you need it. Why not give me a quick call and I’ll tell you what extra marketing you need to get you a result.

Try me, let’s jump on a call and see what is missing. Call 01524 230722 and ask for me.

Until next time,

What to do next: Grab your FREE checklist to Selling in the Autumn

What to Read next: Why you should Sell in September