A fairly new concept in real estate is bringing Realtors and licensees into a home to "interview" them in order for a homeowner to determine who is best qualified to handle the sale of their home.
Let's just stop right here and think about this interview process for a moment.
We, as real estate licensees and Realtors are supposed to be the professionals in home selling............right?
If you believe that premise then why in the world would you subject yourself to letting someone who has probably not sold a home in years (or never sold one), has no clue of how the process works, and worst of all, has no idea what we do to not only get homes sold, but get them to closing, interview you and 2-10 others so they can determine if you are the best choice for them to sell their house?
Here's the way this process needs to work after you've developed a listing lead from your prospecting efforts or a referral.
We, as real estate professionals, need to be interviewing sellers to see if they're serious enough about selling their home to be worth our time to work with them.
In short, we need to be the interviewor; not the interviewee.
Here's the process:
First we need to be dressed like a professional for your area. In most parts of the country that means a minimum of jacket and tie for the guys, a pants suit or equivalent for the ladies.
You need to go into the house with the attitude "if I want this listing, I'm taking it", not "Gosh, I hope I get this one".
We go over to the house after sending over a pre-listing package full of do-dahs about us and our company. No need to waste valuable face to face time talking about how wonderful we are.
Next we need to take prospective sellers to their kitchen table; that's where most serious business in the average home is conducted.
Set them down and first tell them what you're going to tell them, sort of a preview of how your interview is going to go.
Next you need to determine why they want to sell their house. You should ask lots of probing questions like "where are you moving to?", "what would happen if you don't sell?", and others to determine if they're serious about selling.
After talking a bit more and building some rapport with them you need to ask this question now: "Mr. & Mrs. Seller, what would it take...........what would I have to do......in order to get you to list your house with me today?" Nothing fancy, just a frank question you need the answer to in order to know how, or whether to proceed.
If they say "we're ready now", then all you need to do is the next step and come back to fill out the paperwork. If not you now know what their objections are and you can spend the rest of your time there dealing with and overcoming them.
After conducting this kitchen table interview you need to ask them to show you around their house and point out any improvements or upgrades they may have made since they've owned the house. Make lots of notes.
You should then point out things they need to do to make their house more saleable. None of this is rocket science but it does need to be stressed to sellers.
- Got a purple bedroom? They need to paint it a more neutral color.
- Worn out carpet? Needs to be replaced.
- Can't see the fridge for the 'darling' art work and junk stuck on it? It all needs to come down
- Poor housekeeping? A professional cleaning crew needs to pay a visit
You get the idea, that's why we're the professionals, we don't live here and we're not emotionally involved in living here like the owners are. Maybe at this point it's time to recommend bringing in a professional stager to make their house show to best advantage, sell faster, and put more money in their pocket.
Next step in your interview needs to be come back to the kitchen and THEN AND ONLY THEN, go over pricing and what you do to get their house sold in the shortest period of time, for the most money, and for the least amount of annoyance to them. One of the things you need to determine in your initial kitchen table interview is what is most important to them; most money, fastest sale, sell by a certain date, whatever.
When you were calling to make the appointment you should have asked them lots of questions about their house, size, bedrooms, baths, and their opinion of value.
Your job now is not to meet their opinion of value but as the professional to demonstrate to them what homes like theirs have recently sold for and what theirs should sell for. Give them a range of value to choose from.
"Mr. & Mrs. Seller, it looks like homes like yours have been selling in the $290 to 320,000 range. If we could get that much for you would that be enough?" And then let them pick a number.
After getting an agreement from them on pricing and if you have decided they are sufficiently motivated to want to actually sell their home instead of just "test the market" you then need to just ask them if they're ready to get started now.
If they come up with an objection, stall, hesitation, or other excuse you then need to handle it; after all you're the professional here right?
Think about the last time you went to visit your doctor or your attorney because you had some problem you wanted them to solve.
Did they meekly walk into the room and let you browbeat them into cutting their fee, giving you lots of free stuff, and then saying "well Jim, I hope I've helped you, please pay me someday"?
Or did they walk confidently into the room, say hello, ask you lots of questions, offer a solution to your problem, and then get started solving it?
And when they were finished, they said: "see ya, pay on the way out."
That's how a professional operates.
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