By Julie Escobar 
A while back I had the great pleasure of sitting down with one of my favorite REALTORS,® Kathy Casarin to talk about the strategies and solutions she uses to ensure that she gets the expired listings she wants – every time. With our emphasis on Expireds last month, I wanted to drag it out of the archives and share with you some of my favorite tidbits from this remarkable (and funny!) powerhouse agent!
Q: I’m glad for that – what made you decide on working with Expireds as your niche of choice?
A: Well, I’m not much of a cold calling person to start with, and since I had a marketing background, in most cases — I could see the reasons the house didn’t sell. With Expireds you already know they’re motivated to move the property, so it seemed like a good way to build my business, get new listings and like my broker taught me, get my name out there!
Q: Well, it worked! Share with us some of your secrets to success!
A: Sure! I knew that to compete in my market, especially without having a lot of experience, I had to do the homework and brand myself as the professional to turn to. For me, putting a system in place to help me list those expireds just made sense. So, I put together a comprehensive pre-listing package that I send out to every expired that comes on the market. The package helps present me as a professional who is ready, willing and able to start marketing their property and provides the seller with valuable information and insights they need to make the best decisions for their families. In many cases, that package alone spotlights that I’ve already done more in terms of market analysis and marketing preparation than the other agents in they’ve talked to. So it enables me to get the call not to interview me as an agent; but to say, “Come over and list my house.”
Q: Sounds like you’ve got a well oiled machine at this point. Can you give us a sneak peek at what’s inside that pre-listing package?
A: Sure, I keep a lot of the pieces that don’t need customizing printed and put them together in advance. That way, every day I can look at the Expireds that come on the market, quickly add custom pieces to the pre-assembled ones and send the packages out. It a great way to start your day when you know that before you even go out for your morning run, you’ve put 2-5 packages in the mail and you’re pro-actively moving your business forward.
Even if there are no Expireds that day, I recommend going back through your MLS and looking at the listings that expired 3-6 months ago and see if they were sold or re-listed. If not, don’t assume they’re not a good prospect! I’ve gotten a lot of listings this way and the sellers are thrilled that they weren’t forgotten! I think of it as planting seeds. If you’re always planting – you’ll always have something to harvest!
Sometimes the packages vary depending on the property and if there are obvious reasons it didn’t sell, but some of the main ‘ingredients’ include:
- Personalized cover letter
- Several feature property flyers from ProspectsPLUS! (you can put the property picture into the system, and choose the flyer that most closely matches the property)
- Articles about doing well in a down market
- Moving Up in a Down Market brochure
- Personal brochure
- Eight Reasons Your House Didn’t Sell flyer
- Commission brochure (eliminates the question up front and informs sellers WHY some agents cut commission)
- Proven Negotiator flyer
- Information about my website and how it syndicates their listing and creates greater exposure
- Testimonials from happy customers
- Things That Don’t Matter When Selling Your House article which addresses the question in advance regarding what improvements do and don’t make a difference in terms of sales price
- Information about my company, my franchise and my various designations and continuing education
Those are some of the basics, but I change it up to suit the listing of course, and I’m constantly updating it to match the market conditions.
Q: Sounds pretty robust! No wonder you get the listing! Now that you’ve been in the business for some time — you’re not just working with expireds anymore – right?
A: No, they still are a great source of listings for me, but I’m very fortunate now to be getting a lot of referrals as well. I am very active in our community and I’m diligent about getting the word out as well. We have a newspaper that allows agents to put press releases in on a regular basis, so I do that announcing my designations, different awards, etc. I also do a lot of social media networking through LinkedIn, Facebook, ActiveRain, my website, etc.
Q: Good stuff! Sounds like a lot of those seeds have meant not only new listings at the time, but now lifetime customers that are sending their family and friends to a REALTOR they can trust! And I like the idea of utilizing Press Releases – that’s free advertising that often goes overlooked by a lot of agents! One thing I have to bring up that we talked about in a past interview is your willingness to always ask the questions, always be pro-active. It’s a trait that’s served you well! Tell our readers a little about your recent open house day that I think really spotlights this.
A: It was a fun day – I had four open houses with riders. We drove a lot of online traffic to the homes through social media, and used the flyers and postcards in ProspectsPLUS! to email our spheres. We ended up with about fourteen people coming through and we really had created a buzz. I always say that you have to be willing to treat everyone that comes through the door as a buyer and a seller. That day was no exception — of the fourteen I had attend, three people wanted me to list their houses, one on the spot and two others that invited me to come over and give a presentation. One lady even came through with pictures of her home and asked what I could do to get it sold! I had printed the ProspectsPLUS! brochures on first time home buying, on the tax credit, on selling your home, etc., so I had a lot of collateral pieces that gave people information they were looking for and create an good opportunity to start a conversation. It’s great for business, because with that kind of information, people don’t feel like they’ve just gone to an open house, they feel like they’re walking away informed. So open houses are still a great way to not only service your listing, and find new buyers — but they also allow new customers to find you in a great setting to spotlight what you do.
Q: That’s exciting. I was recently reading a post from an agent saying that Open Houses are outdated – sounds like they’re sure working fine for you! On that topic, let’s talk a little bit about how you are consistently finding new business and what other agents can do to do the same.
A: I definitely hold the open house days, ask for referrals, and make the most of those press release opportunities. Every time you get a new designation, take an advanced course or win an award–let your community know. It shows that you are passionate about what you do. Use Facebook to forward articles about interest rate changes, home market stabilization and even fun stuff to your clients every week and don’t be afraid to share among your networks. I have a sphere of about 1,400, and I have a good friend who has a sphere of about 1,000 and we share articles and interesting information between the two groups all the time and it works out very well for us.
Q: Great ideas and insights Kathy! Thanks so much! Any last advice for agents working with Expireds?
A: Expireds get a bad rap in a lot of ways. A lot of agents just assume that no one wants that house or the people are too difficult. My advice is don’t write them off up front. Look and see what was wrong with the listings. Was there no photo? Was it a bad photo or only one photo? Ok, then you can add more pictures, a virtual tour, showcase the good things about the house. Was it overpriced? Did anyone even talk to the homeowner about pricing it right in this market? You’d be surprised how many times the homeowners didn’t even know what was wrong. Was there no property description or a poor one? Don’t assume that what was wrong with the listing has ever been addressed with the seller. Find a need and fill it. Sure there will be some that you’ll want to pass on, but there is tremendous opportunity in working with Expireds. And when you’re the agent that makes the difference and you hear them say, “That’s EXACTLY what we were looking for last time – but didn’t get,” then you’ll feel like a million bucks because you went that extra step!
You’ve been wonderful Kathy, thanks! Kathy Casarin is a REALTOR® in Clarks Summit, PA. You can find more information about Kathy, her market and happily send her referrals at www.coldwellbankernepa.com!
If you’d like to learn more about building your business by working with Expireds or find out about the powerful program Kathy is using to make getting every listing you want faster and easier, contact Julie today at 1.866.405.3648 for a no-obligation demonstration of ProspectsPLUS! Personal Real Estate Marketing Software or visit www.prospectsplus.com.
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