An essential ingredient to saleable listings
Happy New Year! I hope 2021 is your best year ever, and if you have goals, challenging targets and a plan, you’ve already laid the foundations for this to be a reality. Now all you need do is get to work and follow your plan.
A key to better results is to increase your list-to-sell ratio, to sell more of the properties you list. Your market may be moving now and your list-to-sell ratio might be high, but it would be foolish to think things will stay this way forever.
Have you ever had sellers refuse an offer you know was fair? They wanted a higher price and you doubted whether you could get it.
The culprit might not be seller greed, but a lack of feedback on your part. This can result in a lack of information given to the sellers, for them to understand which offers are fair.
Feedback is essential to sellers understanding where their properties sit in the market. What is a likely selling price for their property? Most agents gloss over this figure at the listing, afraid that if they tell the truth they will lose the listing.
Good honest feedback from buyers who are active in the market help sellers understand their properties’ fair market price. When experienced buyers say that a property is worth $1.2 million, this is good information for the sellers, even if they had hoped for more.
Jayne Finlay, a winner from Page & Pearce Real Estate in Townsville QLD, discussed the importance of feedback during Pittard’s Convention Week. Jayne said, “What’s the point of having listings if you don’t talk with your sellers?”
Jayne carries a lot of listings in Townsville, where prices dropped by 40% over the past 5 years, and believes that honest feedback is essential to pricing her listings so that they are competitive in a marketplace where many properties are for sale. She sets aside Mondays to call her sellers. She recaps buyer inspections and the feedback they gave.
When talking with buyers, Jayne always elicits price feedback from the buyers, feedback she can pass on to the sellers. Jayne will seldom conduct an inspection with buyers without asking them what they think the property is worth.
This helps her qualify the buyers, to see whether they know the market, and gives good information to convey to her sellers.
Professional salespeople don’t avoid the issue of price. They don’t gloss over it. They look the sellers in the eyes and tell them honestly what the buyers said.
Sellers don’t always like what they hear, but it’s the truth, albeit told diplomatically.
They say that truth hurts. Lies hurt more. Do you want to make more sales? Give regular and honest feedback.
Gary Pittard