A Really Big Deal is More Than Meets the Eye

A Really Big Deal is More Than Meets The Eye

In 2000 we were working at one of the local ReMax offices as top producers in the top 5% of the office. In order to increase your income as a real estate agent you can either increase the number of units you sell or you can move into higher markets to sell less units but produce more income. We decided to make a laser effort to become luxury listing agents. At that time a luxury property was about $400,000 in Wellington ( outside of the equestrian ranches and farms). We had some listings in that price range and we sold homes in that price range but we wanted to break the 1 Million dollar listing range. We had listed properties overseas and Nestor had listings over that price in Texas so we knew we could do this in Wellington, Lantana and Lake Worth areas. 

The best way for us to break into that market was through expired listing marketing campaigns. At that time, there was no "do not call" list so calling was something we did each morning along with a letter campaign. There was this one listing that every time it expired the lady would call us, we would talk to her and then she would list with someone else. At that time a normal luxury priced home listing term was 6 months. So we had her on our calendar to call and write her a letter every 6 months right when her listing would expire with the next agent. We know that the reason she did not list with us was only because we did not have a lot of million dollar listings. 

Then it was our turn. We knew that we were going to sell the listing. 

Every agent that has listed this property had convince the sellers to lower the price. They kept lowering the price over and over again every six months. Soon, the listing was so stale that agents no longer paid attention to the listing. By the time we created our marketing plan the listing had dropped to $799,000. When we sat down with the sellers, Nestor said that the price should be over $1 Million list price. We presented our marketing plan in person finally and they signed the listing with us. This is a very old photo below so please parden the lack of clarity, etc. This is many years old now. 

The property was estately. It was surrounded by water like an island all by itself in the middle of a beautiful golf course. The owner was the developer of this neighborhood therefore he had the best lot there was in the neighborhood. One of the agents they kept listing over and over again with was the agent that worked for him selling his lots. It is quite different to sell a lot than a estate home. 

The next piece to a marketing plan that we look at is who is the avatar that is going to buy this property. Who is the MOST likely buyer because that is who we need to target in our marketing. The house was amazing, a great open layout with these gigantic floor to ceiling windows with expansive views of the lake. The biggest obstacle to selling this home was that it was not a typical Floridian style architecture. It looked more like a home you would find in Lake Tahoe.  

But it was also dated, very dated. It even had the old green shag 70's carpet throughout the house. Whoever the buyer was going to be would be a buyer that had the funds to renovate the house and a vision for that. It was going to be about $250,000 in upgrades and renovations to bring this home into the year 2000. The price of $1 Million for the property ( it was worth that as well) would attract the buyer that would be astute enough to want to do the renovations and have the means to do so. Buyers in the $750,000 range at that time would be people who are wanting a million dollar estate but tapping themselves out financially to where they could not do any renovations so the home would have to already be upgraded. 

We had aerial photos taken of the estate and it looked like a private island so that is how we marketed the property. We created a listing brochure and started the marketing. We sold the property in 5 months time. The buyer was another real estate broker from down south. The day that we were sitting in closing a buyer who was an American working in Thailand called us and she said that based on our video that she wanted to buy the property sight unseen. We told her we were actually in the closing and she then asked us to offer the current buyer $250,000 in cash if he would sell the property to her right away. He declined. 

But this was not all to the story. I will never forget how happy I was that we had attained this listing because now I could tell other sellers that we had million dollar listings. This was the result of knocking on the door over and over again and not giving up. We went back to the office to proudly write down the listing on the board. 

But our broker did not have the same excitement. He did not even congratulate us. He made fun of the listing and told us how we wasted our time going after this listing because every agent knows that listing, that we had grossly overpriced it and that it was stale and unappealing so therefore we would not get any showings. We explained what our objective was and our goals, he was not impressed. Then came the lecture that Re/Max was built on middle income properties and selling more units is what he was really interested in. Yes, I was hurt. Nestor has a tougher skin than I did in those days. My skin has toughened much more since then. But back then, 13 years ago, what my broker said to us, really hurt my feelings and I was pretty upset. Nestor was like, " we'll show you". 

Going back to that board and changing that listing over to the SOLD column was sweet revenge! No, I am not about revenge, it was just the best term I could think to use for that moment in time. This changed our marketing, it changed our focus and it certainly made us realize that being at that office was not a good fit for us. 

There were many lessons learned during this entire Big Deal process that you can take away too: 

• You can move into higher price points of listings with a good solid plan of action
• Don't let haters make you give up
• Look for opportunities where others see none 
• Money is not everything but it ranks up there with oxygen ( Zig Ziglar)
• Expired listing marketing is the best way to break up 'good ol' boys' clubs
• Always know your avatar and speak ONLY to one avatar in your marketing. 

Going into the new year we hope this post encourages you to reach for the stars. Whatever you dream of you can achieve. What you think about you bring about so make sure those thoughts are on what your desired outcome is. You can change paths, change directions but don't give up on your dreams.