Getting Started As A New Agent - For Sale By Owners
As a new agent, you are under the gun. You have to learn how to make money or you’ll be out of business fast. The failure rate, depending on who you believe, for new agents in their first year is higher than 80%. In order to be one of the less than 20% who make it, you absolutely must develop a good plan for what you will spend your time doing and stick to it. Included in that plan should be contacting FSBO’s in your area.
In this post, I will talk about FSBO’s and, hopefully, give you some good ideas on how to convert them into your listings. In the first part of this series, I talked about sitting an open house for another agent’s listing. You can find that posting here. Future postings in this series will include marketing to your circle of influence, farming, and working with a more experienced mentor.
You may be inclined to pass up the opportunity that FSBO’s present, but this would be a mistake. If you stop and think about who you’re really looking for when you send out letters and flyers and make personal contacts and sit open houses, you will realize you’re looking for two kinds of people; people who want to buy property and people who want to sell. FSBO’s represent at least one of these and maybe both.
What I meant when I said you might be inclined to pass up FSBO’s is that it takes a certain amount of courage to approach these people. You may get it in your head that these sellers have heard from so many agents, all with the same “If I bring a buyer will you be willing to …” line that you were going to use yourself, you would probably be thrown out or hung up on. Maybe even worse! You tell yourself that these people have already decided to go it on their own and so surely they don’t want to hear from the likes of you.
The reality here is the average homeowner that try’s to sell by them self eventually ends up listing with a broker. Also, who do you think will get the listing? Will it be the agent that has offered their assistance, or the one who never made an appearance?
The other reality here that you have to think of is just how many agents do you think actually contacted the owners? I don’t mean how many called on the phone and spent thirty seconds telling them that they are available if the owner has any questions. Very few approaches can be this bad. In fact, you would be better to not call at all if this is the best you can do.
What will stop the seller from thinking, “Is that all I’m worth, a phone call?” The easiest way to understand this is to look at it from the seller’s point of view. Ask yourself if you would ever list your home with a voice on the phone. In my opinion, the only thing the phone should be used for when first calling FSBO’s is to ask if there’s a good time when you can come out and see the house.
Don’t make the same mistakes many other agents make. Take the time to get a sales kit together for the seller. Make sure it includes comps and business cards and recent sales and any other information you think might help your case. Remember to point out what a good job the seller has done so far and let them know you appreciate how hard it can be. Take the opportunity to tour the house if for no other reason than you want to know all the property for sale in an area, not just those listed with a broker. You might want to point out a few things the seller should do to help them sell faster such as removing clutter, new paint, empty counter tops, and remove personal photographs for a start.
Finally, don’t be afraid of giving away the farm. I know a great many agents will disagree with this last bit of advice but I stand by it. You are not just trying to make money. You are in the business of helping people with all their real estate needs. No one was ever hurt by giving more service than what is absolutely necessary. Besides, even an agent that has worked a number of deals can’t possibly know everything that can come up in a sale so there is no way to educate a seller out of your help. Any questions you answer and free advice you give will be remembered when the time comes for the owner to finally list, providing you follow up diligently and keep in touch.
