Work only with motivated people!
Well friends, today I learned this lesson again for the 10th time. This rule is a big one friends. This rule can save you from wasting alot of time, money, effort, negative mental energy and potential for greatness. What is this rule you ask? The rule is: "We need to be working only with the most motivated clients we can find!" that's right, only the most motivated. Now this may sound a little mean-spirited to some of you, but think about it for a moment... Today I just got a call from one of my listings. They decided that after 7 months of listing with me (and refusing to lower their price as well) to take their home off the market and live out their lives there by using a reverse mortgage!! Now, truthfully I am happy for them since its the right decision for them, but as a business person running a real estate business I had NO business wasting my time, money and effort in the hopes and chance that the home would sell at their price in this softening market. I did a great job for these people. I provided great advice, marketing and consult. I was able to generate multiple offers at very respectable levels, I was able to find them a great home to move to as well..But ultimately their motivation to make this sale happen was not there. Something was holding them back. That something was MOTIVATION.
So, how do you know if your working with someone who is completely motivated to sell their home or buy a home? We need to get comfortable asking questions that get right to their motivations and continually check in with them throughout the process to make sure their motivation is still there.
If your working with a seller, during the listing presentation you want to be asking questions like this; "If I brought you an offer tomorrow what would you do?", "What are your plans when we sell your home?", "Do you have a home to go to, or do we need to find something first?", "Do you have your mortgage payoff, tax receipts, utility statements and home improvement records ready?", "Did you fill out the questionnaires I sent you with my pre-listing package?", "Have you spoken to any other Realtors about selling?", "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being ready to move, how would you rate yourself?", "Why are you moving?", "Do you fully own the property?(wills/probate issues)", "What type of improvements and maintenance have you been doing to get ready for the sale?"
If your working with a buyer, during the buyer consultation the questions sound like this; "If I showed you the right home tomorrow what would you do?", "Have you been pre-approved for a mortgage", "Do you have down payment money, and closing cost monies ready", "Do you need to sell a home to buy a home?", , "Have you spoken to any other agents", "When would you like to be in your new home?", "Why are you buying a home?", "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being ready to moving, how would you rate yourself?", "How long have you been looking?", "Have you seen anything you liked? What prevented you from buying it?"
All of the above questions are going to be helpful in realizing if you have a motivated client or someone who is just trying to test the market.
The trick to testing motivation is asking the questions that need to be asked and then re-asking them during the process to check. You then need to really hear the answers and make a decision whether or not you want to continue working with these people. It is OK to let someone go today instead of letting them down tomorrow. It is OK to say "Sorry, I can't work with you at this time Mr and Mrs Buyer, but when your ready to make it happen I'll be ready to work with you."
Now early on in an agents career we all want that first listing real bad, and its real easy to take a listing at the sellers price. But I am advising you DONT TAKE THE LISTING IF IT IS OVERPRICED. The only way I would take an overpriced listing is if I have it written in my contract that there WILL be price reductions at particular points in the process, and if I am helping the client buy a home. If the seller does not want to agree to this, than they are simply not as motivated as they need to be to sell their home. You need to pass on the listing and move on to the next.
For you newer agents out there passing on a listing gets to be easier when you have lots of leads and referrals coming in, which is why you need to create that database as I discussed in a prior post and use it systematically everyday as I will explain in a later post.
-Ron
Well friends, today I learned this lesson again for the 10th time. This rule is a big one friends. This rule can save you from wasting alot of time, money, effort, negative mental energy and potential for greatness. What is this rule you ask? The rule is: "We need to be working only with the most motivated clients we can find!" that's right, only the most motivated. Now this may sound a little mean-spirited to some of you, but think about it for a moment... Today I just got a call from one of my listings. They decided that after 7 months of listing with me (and refusing to lower their price as well) to take their home off the market and live out their lives there by using a reverse mortgage!! Now, truthfully I am happy for them since its the right decision for them, but as a business person running a real estate business I had NO business wasting my time, money and effort in the hopes and chance that the home would sell at their price in this softening market. I did a great job for these people. I provided great advice, marketing and consult. I was able to generate multiple offers at very respectable levels, I was able to find them a great home to move to as well..But ultimately their motivation to make this sale happen was not there. Something was holding them back. That something was MOTIVATION.
So, how do you know if your working with someone who is completely motivated to sell their home or buy a home? We need to get comfortable asking questions that get right to their motivations and continually check in with them throughout the process to make sure their motivation is still there.
If your working with a seller, during the listing presentation you want to be asking questions like this; "If I brought you an offer tomorrow what would you do?", "What are your plans when we sell your home?", "Do you have a home to go to, or do we need to find something first?", "Do you have your mortgage payoff, tax receipts, utility statements and home improvement records ready?", "Did you fill out the questionnaires I sent you with my pre-listing package?", "Have you spoken to any other Realtors about selling?", "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being ready to move, how would you rate yourself?", "Why are you moving?", "Do you fully own the property?(wills/probate issues)", "What type of improvements and maintenance have you been doing to get ready for the sale?"
If your working with a buyer, during the buyer consultation the questions sound like this; "If I showed you the right home tomorrow what would you do?", "Have you been pre-approved for a mortgage", "Do you have down payment money, and closing cost monies ready", "Do you need to sell a home to buy a home?", , "Have you spoken to any other agents", "When would you like to be in your new home?", "Why are you buying a home?", "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being ready to moving, how would you rate yourself?", "How long have you been looking?", "Have you seen anything you liked? What prevented you from buying it?"
All of the above questions are going to be helpful in realizing if you have a motivated client or someone who is just trying to test the market.
The trick to testing motivation is asking the questions that need to be asked and then re-asking them during the process to check. You then need to really hear the answers and make a decision whether or not you want to continue working with these people. It is OK to let someone go today instead of letting them down tomorrow. It is OK to say "Sorry, I can't work with you at this time Mr and Mrs Buyer, but when your ready to make it happen I'll be ready to work with you."
Now early on in an agents career we all want that first listing real bad, and its real easy to take a listing at the sellers price. But I am advising you DONT TAKE THE LISTING IF IT IS OVERPRICED. The only way I would take an overpriced listing is if I have it written in my contract that there WILL be price reductions at particular points in the process, and if I am helping the client buy a home. If the seller does not want to agree to this, than they are simply not as motivated as they need to be to sell their home. You need to pass on the listing and move on to the next.
For you newer agents out there passing on a listing gets to be easier when you have lots of leads and referrals coming in, which is why you need to create that database as I discussed in a prior post and use it systematically everyday as I will explain in a later post.
-Ron
posted by Ron at 4:51 PM
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