A Fresh Approach to Real Estate Rookie-hood with Jennifer Allan: July 2010

I'm going to steal a page from the Broker Bryant rulebook and dredge up an old post from the distant past. In fact, what follows is one of my very first posts here on Active Rain, but I was inspired to re-post today it by Susan Haughton's excellent post on the same topic... 

Besides I only got 8 comments on it the first go-around (hmpf!), so let's give it another go!

BUYERS ARE NOT LIARS! (first posted January, 2007)

Buyers can be hard to nail down and you'll hear agents talk about the "Buyers Are Liars" phenomenon. It's a phrase usually used in frustration either when an agent loses a buyer or when he's at his wit's end showing homes that the buyer says work for her, but don't inspire her to make an offer. It simply means that buyers don't really know what they want, and often it's true.

Remember, buyers don't shop for houses every day and they probably don't know what they'll respond to until they see it. So you'll need to have a little patience with them.

Find out your buyer's preferred neighborhood. If he is unfamiliar with your city, find out what kind of neighborhood he thinks he'd like - urban, suburban, rural, mountains, coastal? Any particular commuting distance? Does he like charming older homes near the city center or new contemporary homes near the shopping malls? Price range?

Moving on... number of bedrooms, baths, garage? Any special needs? Don't get too specific though. Pushing buyers for too many details is counterproductive, believe it or not. If you keep pushing, he may start making things up to please you. Doesn't everyone want a garage and more than one bath? But he might not really care that much and, if you limit your search to his non-critical parameters, you'll miss a lot of great homes.

The other danger in asking for too many details is that your buyer will start telling you things like, "I really want a window over the kitchen sink" or "I want an open floor plan with lots of light." Depending on your inventory, you may end up with nothing to show her if you rely strictly on her wish list. And if you show her homes that don't meet her "requirements," she may think you weren't listening. You (and she) need to gauge her reactions to different styles of homes in person. Remember, buyers don't shop for homes every day and don't really know what they will respond to until they've seen it.

And you know what else (by the way, this is new material from here on out)? Buyers change their minds about what they want or need. OMG! How dare they? I mean, they TELL us they want to live in this-and-such neighborhood and then, BAM! They find a new favorite neighborhood they'd like to explore. Egads - the nerve of them! (that's sarcasm ;-])

When I was looking for a home in Alabama, I changed my mind at least three times as to whether or not I wanted to live in the City... or the country. Whether or not I could live without a garage. Whether that fourth bedroom was REALLY necessary. My real estate agent hung in there with me, never breathing a hint of annoyance at my incredible insensitivity to wasting her valuable time. Good thing, because if she had, I'd have found someone else more appreciative of the $7,000 paycheck I eventually generated for her, as well as the two other $7k-ish paychecks she got when I bought two rental properties.

My friends, our buyers are not liars. They're just regular human beings who deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. And we are well-paid to do just that. 

Following up on yesterday's blog about making sure your prospecting goals are compatible with your business model (in a nut, don't set goals that will force you to sacrifice your quality of service, if providing quality service is important to you)...

The agent who inspired yesterday's blog is following a popular prospecting program that's making the rounds these days. It encourages agents to spend so many hours every day doing X (basically, some form of cold or warm prospecting), with the goal of reaching Y number of prospects every day, with the ultimate goal of securing as many new clients as possible by the end of the program.

Y'know, your basic Numbers Game strategy. Fair enough.

He's all ramped up about it because he says that another agent who is participating in the program got 41 new listings in 30 days. My agent friend is very impressed.

Initially, so was I. But then my cynical side kicked in and I said "hmmmmmmm."

Let's do some math.

41 new listings in 30 days. Assuming these aren't batch listings (10 building lots from a developer; 15 spec homes from a builder, etc.), I'm wondering how this is possible. Not saying that the agent in question isn't capable of securing 41 listings with her Super Sales Pitch, but in a month?

That means that she did at least 41 listing presentations (probably more as it's unlikely she has a 100% success rate, but let's be generous and say she does). That's 41 CMA's, 41 sets of contracts and disclosures, 41 copies to seller and broker, 41 keys-in-the-lockbox, 41 MLS entries, 41 signs-in-the-yards, 41 whatever-she-does-to-market-her-listings, etc. etc. etc. And none of this includes explaining the process of being on the market to those 41 new sellers, answering the inevitable questions that arise as showings for 41 sellers begin (or don't begin as the case may be), keeping up on the market in all 41 seller's neighborhoods, pursuing and delivering feedback, and managing offers that come in.

Have we mentioned the time that this agent was dedicating to her daily prospecting for these 41 listings, or the time she was devoting to her existing clients or to her family? And let's not forget eating and sleeping. All the while, preparing for, going on and processing these 41+ listing appointments.

I call BS. I don't think it's logistically possible to get 41 new, individual listings in 30 days. Could you list a developer, builder or bank and find yourself with 41 listings? Sure. But 41 individual sellers? I don't buy it.

What's my point? I dunno. Maybe just to demonstrate how smart I think I am to see through the nonsense and call it what it is. Or maybe I just want to assure agents that this sort of production isn't realistic and not be discouraged if they don't experience it themselves.

Probably a little of both.