You’ve secured your client and they’ve agreed to list their home with you. Great, you’ve turned your opportunity into a client and your prospecting strategies are paying off. There’s standard protocol choices that a realtor will go through when he or she determines that the client is a first-time home seller, and it’s good to have a less-procedural approach sometimes as you move through the stages of listing and selling their home.
Here at Real Estate Leads, our online real estate lead generation system has been very helpful for realtors all across Canada, and as we’ve stated many times, prospecting effectively in real estate is all about establishing relationships, expanding your skill base, and – most importantly – making every opportunity into the most it can be. Sellers who sell their home quickly and / or get their asking price or beyond will hold you in very high regard, and quite likely request your services again years down the road.
As regards that less-procedural approach, it can be very helpful to make less-important but still valuable tips to your clients and present them in a very conversational way. Let’s discuss a few of them here:
Know and Suggest the Best Day to List the Home
Experienced realtors will know the best days and seasons to list a home based on it’s specifics and / or location . This time period will vary depending on the local community, the weather, time of year, and a host of other factors, and of course including the vibrancy of the present real estate market – or lack of it. This is a great one to discuss with your new clients very early on in the process
Be Direct About the Suitability for Immediate Showing
It’s perfectly acceptable and entirely advisable to be up front with people about whether their home is ready for showing, or what it needs to get to that point. Allow an open house if the home is conducive to an open house.
Showing a home that is not ready for it can mean a squandered opportunity with a potential buyer who may have been willing to pay asking price, a big loss for owners who are looking to move their home quickly and for the price they want.
Be Proactive in Preparing a House for Showing
Related to the above, an agent should be very involved in both recommending and working to make the home truly ready for sale. Most homes show better with about half of the furniture removed. Ideally buyers walk in the door and can get the feel for the space they’ll have at their disposal. Another industry-wide choice is home staging to boost selling power and appeal.
Painting is often the single best improvement you can make. Dings in the woodwork or gouges in the walls make your home suggest there’s going to be deferred maintenance. Always a big negative for an prospective buyer.
Advise Flexibility with Showings
In as simply a suggestion manner as possible you should suggest your clients be flexible with showings. If they’re too much of an imposition, you might suggest they go away the first weekend their home is on the market. Sure, some might think it a bit intrusive to make a suggestion of that magnitude, but you’d be surprised how many couples are quite receptive to it. The best way to sell your home is to let a buyer inside with the buyers’ agent to tour in absolute peace and quiet.
Use your judgment whether or not to suggest having a family member or pet of any sort be absent from the home during showings. Again, you are being a professional and working in the ENTIRETY of your clients best interests. They should be understanding and appreciative of that Use judgment, but do be firm in saying what you feel needs to be said.
Recommend Professional Photography
Most clients will make this move on their own, but if not you are wise to make very clear how much they’ll benefit from working with a professional photographer who has a high-end 20+ megapixel DSLR camera. Advise them that it’s not enough to just get the angle right in the photo, the most popular photos are rich in colour, depth, and sharpness and they are visually appealing in a way that a series of snaps from a smartphone or point n’ shoot camera simply can’t be. Suggest further that they approve the virtual tour or photo tour before it is published online and / or in print.
Suggest Regular Monitoring of the Listing Online
Homeowners will know the property better than anyone, and it’s quite common to have ones make suggestions, queries etc. on the listing of their home as they are exposed to each day or several days a week via their computer or smartphone. As such, suggest your clients review their listing online regularly. Suggest that they can look at their home listing on various websites, also to make sure the information is always being stated accurately.
Agents do their best to ensure accuracy, but since it is their home, they’ll know the details better than anyone. When they spot something may be amiss, they’ll contact you immediately and you can react from there.
Once an offer is accepted and a possession date is confirmed, tell you clients about how it’s very much in their best interests to book a moving service early if they intend to use one. The end of the month is always the busiest time of the year due to the rental market, and they can also help themselves out by starting to pack once the offer is accepted, even if the possession date has yet to be agreed upon.
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