Getting Started As A New Agent Sitting Open Houses
You’ve finished your schooling, passed your licensing exam, and signed on with a broker. You spent the first day setting up your desk, ordering business cards, and introducing yourself to the others in the office. Now what do you do? You need a plan. Clients will not just come to you. You want to hit the ground running. You see the big numbers that some of your fellow agents have but you don’t even care about that. You are worried about making enough money to stay in business at all. Remember, you really have just opened a business and you are the only one responsible for its success. Your success or failure will be determined by what you do.Let’s look at some of the best ways to start. This is, by no means, a complete list. For example, in addition to the strategies listed, you will absolutely need a good web presence in order to grow your business. Setting up, or, having someone else setup, your website will take some time though and you need to get moving now.
I have divided up three important things you should start doing into the next five postings. In this one I will talk about sitting open houses for agents in your office that are too busy to do their own. Part two will discuss FSBO’s, and in part three I will talk about marketing to your circle of influence.
Sitting an open house for an agent in your office that has more listings than they can cover can become an excellent source of prospects for you to work with. Make sure you are prepared with business cards, flyers and a place for prospective buyers to sign in. Many people will be reluctant to sign in if you leave it up to them. That’s why you should always ask them to sign, or do it for them, as soon as you introduce yourself. Another thing you will want to find out at the start is whether they are already working with another agent.
Make sure you have pictures and details of other similar properties that are on the market. Try to mix 1, 1 ½, and 2 story homes with different numbers of bedrooms and baths. Many people don’t know exactly what they want and are trying to figure out how much house they can afford. Arrive at least a half-hour before the scheduled start time to prepare the house for the showing. Ideally, if you were working with the sellers, you would have already advised them on how to get their house ready to sell. If this is not the case, at least make sure you spend some time talking to the listing agent to get any specific details about the house. These might include a home warranty, new roof or mechanical systems, help with closing costs, or that the appliances stay with the house. You will want to know anything that helps sell the house.Make sure you open all window coverings and turn on every light. Bright and open beats out dark and cave-like every time. Take some air freshener, scented candles, or a little pan of potpourri that can bubble away on the stove. Be careful with the last two, you don’t want to burn the place down. If the weather permits, you might want to open some windows for the fresh air. This, of course, is especially true if the sellers are smokers or have pets.
When deciding what open house(s) you will sit, give some thought to whether you want a house that is empty or one that is still lived in. Both of these have advantages and disadvantages and it comes down to what you prefer. I think the prevailing view is it’s easier to prepare and show an empty house but plenty of agents would disagree.
Fill the time between visitors working on other marketing efforts. For example, this could be a good time to hand address any mailings you are doing. If you weren’t planning to handwrite the address on your envelopes, you should consider doing so. The whole purpose of everything on the outside of the envelope is to get the receiver to open it. A handwritten address says it is a personal message and increases the odds that it will be opened.
Something else you will want to do is to write out a “Thank You” note to everyone who stopped by. Do this before you leave the house and drop them in the mailbox right after you close up. Even if your visitors spent the entire day going from one open house to the next, I guarantee, yours will be the only “Thank You” note they receive. Also, make sure to include these people in your contact list making sure you write down the date and the type of home they came to visit.
Before you start receiving visitors, you should already have in mind a number of questions you might ask depending on the circumstances. What type of home are you looking for? How many bedrooms? Do you have children? What about the schools? What is your price range? Do you need a list of lenders?
As you progress in your career, you will build a list of other professionals to recommend. These will include mortgage brokers, title reps, landscapers, title reps, movers, and a wide variety of inspectors and engineers. When you start out, you’ll probably want to ask for recommendations from other agents in your office until you put together a list of your own. Don’t forget to spend some time calling these people during your first week to introduce yourself. You don’t want to put yourself in the position when a potential client tells someone you recommended them, they say thanks but they never heard of you.
It is nice to walk the house with people that come in, but please, don’t say, “here’s the kitchen” or “here’s the bathroom.” Everyone who walks through the door should be able to identify the obvious. Instead, point out the not so obvious, extra deep closets, hot water dispenser, home warranty, carpet and paint allowance, anything that might attract a buyer.
Everyone knows that sitting open houses can be a great way to connect with buyers but don’t forget you can meet potential sellers here as well. Your potential buyers might need to sell their current house before buying yours. Many times these people are trying to compare their house with what’s on the market to get an idea of what they can sell for. You will want to make sure you are prepared for this as well. So one of the questions you should ask is “Do you have a house already that you plan to sell?”
Finally, remember that nobody likes to be ignored. If you’re on the phone when someone pulls up – hang up! And, have your ringer on vibrate in case someone calls when you’re showing people around the house. How can you possibly give someone the impression you are the person to help them when you can’t even get off the phone when they are there?
This is, by no means, a complete list of ways to work an open house, but it should get you started. In part two of this series of posts I will talk about For Sale by Owner properties and some strategies for working with them.
