So we all know that prospecting is the lifeblood of any realtor's livelihood. We knock on doors, send emails, send postcards, make phonecalls... We do what we have to do to make contact in any way possible. I've sold cars, sold online, sold door to door. But NOTHING prepared me for prospecting in Real Estate. I gotta tell ya, it ain't fer the faint of heart...
We go after expired listings. This should be EASY, right???
Whoah there, Sir Loin of Beef... If they're coming up as an "expired listing," it could have been 1, 2, 3 months, or in some instances 6 months to over a year... But the point is, their home DIDN'T SELL. They are NOT HAPPY. But even worse, at this point, they sometimes HATE REALTORS. Is it your fault? No. Is it theirs? Maybe. Maybe the house was over priced. Maybe the realtor was a personal friend they didn't have the heart to fire. Well, I made a call not too long ago. To an expired...
Me: Hi, Mrs. Jones. I'm Christine with Prudential Realty, and I...
Mrs. Jones: You DISGUSTING, GREEDY, LAZY, #$%&&%%$^ REALTORS! YOU ALL )(&%&@..........
Ummmmmm, yeah. She wasn't happy. She was done dirty by her last 2 realtors. Some do take a listing and never call them back, OR bring anyone to see the house. And, believe it or not, after 4 of those calls, I GOT her listing, lol! Well we're not always that lucky. But, we keep calling. We HAVE to. It's what we need to do to keep leads in the funnel.
Last week, I made a call to a local builder to promote a waterfront listing I had just gotten. I got an older gentleman on the phone, a bit hard of hearing. "Can ya call me BACK??? I can't HEAR ya!" Okay, so I did. "And you're WHO? You're callin' me WHY?
Up 'til now, I'm thinkin' I'm pulling aces, when all at once, very slowly, "and WHAT makes YOU think I would want to hear about this?! You're a REALTOR?!" (Ummm, yeah, I said that 3 times already...) I HATE REALTORS!!!!!" I exited with a hasty, "ALL RIGHTY THEN, YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY!!!" (just to be sure he'd hear me...)Dunno what happened with HIS realtor, but...
Then, there's the people that are in pre-foreclosure. At first, you think, ok, this shouldn't be that hard, desperate sellers. But guys, they haven't listed yet. They're hoping that the miracle will come and they'll be saved. But they're NOT selling their HOME. I went to knock on one door, and the inside door was slammed SO hard from behind the unlocked screen door that it blew open and OWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!! It hit me in the nose!!! Man, and I didn't even get the listing... (insert boo boo lip here..) But I was actually LUCKY with that one, because I actually had one, no joke, that the owner, a VERY large man, actually chased me off his property as soon as he saw my card. Yep, cursing me, and the other 5 realtors that knocked on his door that day. The tirade was loud enough for the WORLD to hear, let alone the town. Did he physically chase them too? What did he say? "I'll tell you the same thing I told the LAST 4 of you that were here, GET THE (*&% off my PROPERTY!!!!!!" and yadda yadda yadda.... We need to be sympathetic to peoples' situations, and some people will not buckle, and that's their decision to make. We can only offer them help.
What it all boils down to is, you have to have a thick skin. We can't take it personally. I can be having a great day, getting all kinds of positive leads, but then I get ONE bad or nasty call, and all of a sudden, it's as if I can't pick up the phone to make the next call. It was like I was paralyzed by that one call. But, you HAVE TO DO IT. I accidentally knocked on an expirde that was owned by a local realtor (DOH!!!). She was SO cordial, and she shook my hand and said, "You are AWESOME! Knocking on doors, you're better than ME! I couldn't do it. I couldn't take getting the door slammed in MY face... I would go home and cry!" She actually tried to recruit me to her brokerage, lol! So after that, having a veteran realtor telling me her experience, I knew that it wasn't me, and that I had more courage than most. I landed 3 listings that week. Is it hard? Hell, yeah! Does it, errrr, bite? Yep! But,
WE GOTTA DO IT!!!!!
Ok, guys... Give me your BEST, and worst (lol!) prospecting stories!
CG
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