You have worked hard, knocked on doors, networked, and you are finally getting listings!
Hooray! This seems like a piece of cake: put the property on multiple listing, put a sign in
the ground, and go collect your commission check, right? Wrong! Not if you want longevity as a real estate practitioner.
Here are 10 things for you to do to develop loyalty from your customers and word-ofmouth
referrals:
1. Deliver what you said you would at your listing presentation. Your credibility is at stake. Do what you say you will do.
2. Take the time to make honest recommendations to them about “getting their home ready to show.” Provide them with the names of vendors who can do work with them if they need
the contact. I had one client with whom I went accessory shopping.
3. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Let your seller know what they should expect from you. Are you going to contact them after each showing... or once a week... or once a month? Personally, I love e-mail/Text because I can do it late at night but some sellers prefer a phone call. Whatever your mode of communication, stay in constant touch. It sounds like a cliché, but a person’s home is their most valuable asset. Treat it as such.
4. Be honest but tactful. Sometimes we do not want to hurt our sellers’ feelings so
we spare them from the truth. This ends up backfiring if they are not receiving offers on their home. If the listing has not sold and you are close to the end of the listing period, you do not want to have a big bomb to drop on the client. They have slowly been adjusting to feedback from the market and will be willing to relist with you at a reduced price.
5. Pricing. Sometimes Realtors are so desperate for a listing, any listing, that we take the listing at the price the seller wants but not the price the house should be listed. We have all done it. What is important is that you do it honestly. You must say, Mr. Seller, I have just shown you why $500,000 is a great price for your home but you want to list it for $600,000. I will take the listing for $600,000 but if in 30 days you have not received an offer and I can document all of the showings I have had, we will revisit the issue of price because we do not
want your home to get stale on themarket.
6. Marketing Report. Provide your client, at least once a month, a written marketing report documenting your showings, your marketing, feedback and any other information that will be helpful to them in looking at the overall picture of their home. This requires a lot more work, but as a professional who is getting paid handsomely for their efforts, this is a document the seller deserves.
7. Contracts. Hopefully, before you have ever received one offer on your listing,
your Seller has seen what a sample contract will look like. They will
understand the various pitfalls of the way the contract is written and they will know that you will provide them with the very best information you can to navigate the contract and provide them with your excellent real estate acumen. They know you are looking out for their best interests.
8. Once the contract is written. I take the contract and extrapolate all of theimportant dates into one document and e-mail it to my clients. They are then able to follow along with what is going to happen next and know that I am on top of their transaction. I usually provide the same list to the Agent for the buyer as well so that we are all on the same page. There are presently some Internet programs that will do this as well.
9. Inspections. Once the home is inspected and the report delivered, you must bethe voice of reason. Be actively involved. I always tell my sellers, “What is the
mission? To get your house sold? We will work through any inspection issues thatare presented to us.”
10. Follow through. Sometimes I know I am a pain to the buyers’ Realtor but I dot my I’s and cross my T’s. All of my transactions close because if there is a problem I know about it immediately and do everything I can to address theissue at hand.
11. Go to the closing.
Mike Sher, Max Broock Realtor - Bloomfield/Birmingham
(248)496-1572
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