Seller High Productivity

The Ultimate Listing Process

SELLER HIGH OUTPUT PRODUCTIVITY

Created and written by Nick McLean

Chapter 1: Listing Agent Foundations, Philosophies & Seller Conversation

Welcome to the Seller High Output Productivity Training

This is the seller's high output productivity training. My name is Nick McLean and I'm the owner of the Nick McLean Real Estate Group in North Central Washington. We have a highly elite productive team in North Central Washington that has been named on the INC 5000 fastest growing companies, Real Trends Top 250 Teams. I've personally been a part of over 5,000 transactions. This training is not theory. Our process has been developed based on experience. When followed, our selling is proven and repeatable.

Early in my career, as a commercial airline pilot, I flew Boeing 747s. What people don't usually know about my career as a pilot flying Boeing 747s and the training I went through was that I helped the airline create their manuals and their policies and procedures.

The procedures on a 747 are developed so that pilots are able to take an 800,000 pound aircraft flying 500 miles an hour from Hong Kong to Paris safely and precisely.

You have to create a procedure that minimizes errors, and it minimizes the likelihood of the number one error, and that is human error.

The best way to remove human error is to have a standard procedure. Have a listing process and then train and invest in your people so that they can do what they know they need to do. Remember the number one reason we make mistakes in real estate is human error not luck or the competition.

The human brain likes to blame everyone, it will look externally in the environment to identify what went wrong, but ultimately it was probably something the agent could've done differently or failed to do.

It makes sound business sense to have a proven repeatable system that produces a predictable result. There is no other way to improve unless you have a standard process. You can’t make improvements if your listing process is based on the individual’s natural abilities.

The agent and organization must remember in real estate, we only get paid if we get to the end.

There's something you need to remember, the seller will only remember the agent that sold their home. The person and organization that got the job done. It’s imperative for us to have a system with the ultimate goal of “throughput”.

Throughput is the completion of the listing sales process ending in a successful closing. The ultimate goal of making the sale happen. The seller will not remember the list price to sales price ratio or the time on market or the 1st or 2nd agent that listed the home. They only remember the agent that sold their home.

Imagine you did everything right, imagine you gave the best advice in the world to a homeowner, you told them what repairs to make, you told them how to stage their home, you helped them prepare the home for sale, you followed up with them for two years, giving them market analysis after market analysis, valuation, after valuation.

And then another agent comes along into your marketplace tomorrow and gets the listing and sells it.

Who is the seller going to remember in five years?

Are they going to remember you, that helped them for two years? Are they going to remember the agent that swooped in and took your listing?

Here are our core philosophies that we must have in place to prevail at the end. We must align ourselves mentally, philosophically so that we know what to do when we're out on our own at a listing appointment.

Core Philosophy #1

We are only interested in long-term relationships. We are not interested in short-term relationships. This is key for homeowners and as listing agents because there will always be a high level of competition for listings. The best way to compete is to have a process and approach that reduces the competition. As a listing agent our ability to establish connections and relationships with homeowners early and often with the intention of a long term relationship is the winning formula.

If someone raised their hand in your marketplace right now on Facebook and said, "I'm thinking about selling my home, who should I contact?" What do you think is going to happen on the comment thread?

There's going to be hundreds and hundreds of comments from agents. There's going to be agents everywhere flocking to that listing opportunity like a clan of hyenas. A highly competitive environment. Remember, the ‘now’ seller is highly competitive. What we want to do is we want to take one step back in the funnel. We want to create a little bit of distance and be willing to go a little bit further than everyone else, because there's no competition. We want to work with homeowners that are just considering it, or haven't even considered selling their home, and then acquire them and put them in the process so that we're with them when they are ready, so that we can take them to the end.

Think of all the ways you can reach a homeowner prior to them needing to list their home? Write down a list of 5 ideas.

What are all the tips and advice topics throughout the year a homeowner should know? Write down a list of 5 ideas.

To dominate a marketplace you need to be adding value to the homeowner before they are thinking about selling their home.

This is the key. 70% of homeowners work with the first agent they talk to. Knowing that doesn't it make sense to be the first agent they talked to before they're ready?

Because then there's no competition.

Something magical happens when there's no competition. You get higher commissions. Because something happens when you do have competition you compete on commission fees. We rarely have to overcome objections on our commission rates because we rarely compete. Am I starting to make sense?

To increase your income and your company's income you need to compete less and go on more appointments with homeowners before they are ready to sell. When you can achieve higher returns per listing you and the company will have more resources. More revenue can be invested back into the company. Your company will invest in more marketing resulting in more opportunities which allows the company to hire more people to support the agent. This is the flywheel. The more action we can take the more the flywheel will gain momentum and market share for the company.

Three ways to make more money in real estate.

Sell more homes
Sell higher priced homes
Get higher commissions

By avoiding competition we can increase our commission substantially or protect our list rate without external pressures to reduce.

Read the book, ‘Zero to One’ by Peter Thiel. He'll explain to you the goal of business is not to compete.

Core philosophy #2

We are only interested in mastery.

Mastery is the process of taking something that's hard, difficult and with long term, intentional practice will progressively become easier and more pleasurable.

The listing process is not easy. However, through practice it will slowly become easier and more enjoyable. Over time your skill acquisition will outpace the competition. You will start winning more and making more.

Part of mastery is embracing the plateaus. Generally all mastery has plateaus. You're going to reach a level at which you can no longer detect improvements. Have a belief, self-efficacy, that you are getting better you just can’t detect the improvement. As you progress through a plateau there will be a remarkable leap of improvement. Stay engaged and don’t give up. The leaps will come. I call it leveling up. Once you level up, you can not go back down.

What happens to experienced agents is they get complacent. Why do they get complacent? Well, because they believe they already know how to do it. They believe they already know how to do it. And that's because they hit a plateau and they can't tell they're getting better, so then they stop getting better and start skipping steps.

Here is a rule about skipping steps - if you skip a step, you have to pay it back with interest. It's a loan. If you skip a step, it's a loan, you pay it back with interest. Don't skip steps because you think you're getting there quicker, but you're not.

Core philosophy #3 The Stockdale Paradox

The Stockdale Paradox is from ‘Good to Great’, Jim Collins. Every single lead, every single phone call, every single interaction with a seller, we must have unwavering faith that we will prevail at the end, no matter the difficulties, no matter the obstacles, no matter the time frame.

We will work with every homeowner we meet until they sell. No matter the time frame. This is a commitment we must make to ourselves, the organisation and the client.

FACT

Every homeowner will sell their home eventually.

Everyone sells. It might not be the person you talk to, it might be their estate, but everyone sells. Think about it. Eventually everyone will sell. It makes sense to have a system in place where

we hold on to every single homeowner we ever interact with in real estate, period. We will outlast the competition. We will be the agent at the end.

We're going to go over the high output selling process.

The agent needs to understand all of the marketing and advertising of your company, your team, your organization. What are all of the ways that people are currently getting in touch with you and the company that are interested in selling their home.

Know all the sources of leads from radio, billboards, Google, GLS, Facebook marketing, open houses, listings, buyer leads...

Every homeowner you interact with you need to uncover the source. How did they hear about us?

Who do we have to thank for you contacting us?

When you know the advertising source you can report to the company so that they can double down on the marketing that works. It also uncovers a connection between you and the client. For instance if they use your website you gain the connection that they are already benefiting from your free services online. A radio listener shares a connection with you based on the authority and credibility of the radio host.

The GOAL of every business. The goal is throughput.

Throughput is the completion of the listing sales process ending in a successful closing. Never forget the only person the client is going to remember is the person that got them to the end,

Anything other than throughput is considered waste.

Once you make contact you need to be committed to the very end with your clients. Otherwise, everything you've done, if you quit or lose touch is wasteful.

At the same time, we must understand we don't work with people that we can't help. Because as we invest our time, money and energy into a lost cause we are creating more waste in the system. If you say ‘yes’ to one thing you are saying ‘no’ to another.

Be able to spot defective opportunities early in the process. You can’t force people to sell or convince them to sell. You can influence and guide using a process.

The perfect sales process requires no selling.

We are a conduit for timely and effective communication, and we are a catalyst for people to make a choice, make a decision, take an action.

As a listing agent your goal is to lead them, guide them, so that you're the catalyst at every step of the process, they make a choice, make a decision, and take action. You must be ruthlessly committed to bringing clients through the process. As long as progress is being made to the next steps you are making progress.

Process Based Selling

The easiest way to get someone to sell their house is to explain to them how to sell their house.

70% of homeowners stated they would be more likely to sell their house if they understood the process better. 70% is a massive improvement to your conversion rate merely because you are able to articulate the listing process to a homeowner.

You can take any marketplace, any neighborhood on the planet right now, and talk to homeowners and by purely explaining the listing process, even though they are not considering selling they will be more likely to sell. I call this process-based selling.

Throughout the process, the listing agent must explain the process over and over again. Outlining next steps upon completion of each step. You do this by briefing people through effective communication.

I know the more people I talk to about the home selling process the more sales I will have. The leading measure to focus on is how many people did I explain the listing process to this week, month, year? Because this is what results in the lagging measure or the customer satisfaction that we desire to close listings.

If the goal of a business is throughput. The ultimate goal of business is to make a profit.

Raise your hand, if it's okay that you make a profit as an agent.

Raise a hand, if it's okay your company makes a profit.

Both the agent and the company need to make a profit. We know as the whole grows, the part gets bigger.

There's no such thing as an unreasonable amount of profit.

The commission that you can charge or command has no limit as long as value exceeds the price. Focus on value creation.

If you articulate enough value more than the competition, you can command higher prices.

People associate high price with quality.

Think about it. If you're looking at cars, there's the same model of car, but there's different levels. You expect to pay more for the highest level, because you expect to have a higher quality car. This is the same for a service based industry. The higher the price the greater the quality. Not every seller cares about the bottom line first. Remember this, sellers want more than just price. It's not all about the money.

The 3 Things ALL Sellers Want

The MOST money
Their home sold in the least amount of time or on their timeline

3. The least amount of hassle... The best experience

State your goal immediately with a homeowner.

Script Example

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I know you're not in a hurry, you're not even thinking about selling, but when you do or if you ever do, I want you to know something. I want you to know my goal, or the goal of our organization, the goal of our company, when it comes time to sell your home.

In other words. State to the homeowner, I know you're not in a hurry, but I know we're interacting right now, and that means I'm going to be around as your agent. I’m there for you when you are ready, whether or not it's a day or 100 years from now, I'm going to be there for you.

Script Example

Here's the ‘Goal’ for us today, and I hope that it can be our common goal. Let's commit to this goal Mr. and Mrs. Seller.

If you ever consider listing your home...

Number one, my goal is to get you the most money.

The most money possible at the end of the day, compared to all other options available to you.

The most money in your pocket compared to all other options. That's the goal.

How am I going to do that? I'm going to do that through our advanced marketing and advertising, by massive exposure, and by using a selling process superior to anyone else. Because I want to get you the most money.

By creating the most demand for your property, exposing it to the most people. When we execute on this plan, we're going to find more buyers, we're going to create so much demand, we're going to have so many buyers that we get to achieve goal number 2.

Goal number 2 is for you to choose your timelines. You get to be in control of your terms which includes the closing date.

My goal is for you to get the price you need and desire and control the terms, so that when you list with me you're in control.

Most people don’t list their home unless they have certainty. They want control of their future. They are thinking if they list their home it will sell and they have nowhere to go which means they have lost control. Their life is out of their hands. And any time someone thinks that their safety and their life is out of their hands, guess what they do? They revert to doing nothing.

If a homeowner understands that the perfect process allows you to get price and terms giving them control of their future they're much more likely to list.

The goal restated, higher price and control terms.

Script Example

The third goal at no time ever working with our company is there any obligation to sell or even list your home. Absolutely no hassle. Our goals,price, timelines (Control), no hassle.

Done For You Listing Service (Full Service)

To create the least amount of hassle we have to help them remove impediments. Hassles could be cleaning up their house, finding a carpet cleaner, getting it ready, staging the home, getting the windows cleaned, getting the lawn prepared etc.

Listing your home is a lot of work and many people will avoid listing their home to avoid work and hassle. It's human nature. Therefore the more options and availability of resources we have for the homeowner the more likely they are to list.

The more you can take some of that heavy lifting off of them through vendor relationships, through a service, the more likely they are to use you.

They don't want to lift a finger. People will pay crazy amounts of money for done-for-you service.

Everything's done for you and instant gratification. You can order meals delivered to your front doorstep. Meals prepared for you every single night. Uber will bring you food from anywhere. You don't even have to leave your house for anything right now. It's all delivered to you, done for you, right to your fingertips. That's the level of service people would like to have in real estate.

They want it done for them. They don't want to do the heavy lifting. As a listing agent, you need to be prepared to do some of the heavy lifting. Schedule the cleaners, movers, stagers, landscapers, window cleaners. Bill the owner but they need you to make it happen. They will hire you for your connections and your ‘can do’ attitude.

Script example

No problem Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I'm willing to do that for you.

Convenience equals a better experience. People go to Disneyland and Disney World and they pay a ticket to get in, a couple of hundred dollars. They will then pay an extra 2x, 3x more for a better experience. What's the better experience? Less hassle. Skipping the lines.

You can pay extra to skip lines, to go into separate lines.

They do it at the airport. TSA PreCheck, better experience. You get a first class ticket, what do you get? You get to get on the plane first and you get to exit the plane first. Experience matters when it comes to commissions. There's never any excuse to say, "Well, I had to lower my commission because somebody else was willing to do it for less."

Somebody else isn't giving them the experience you're going to give them.

Constant And Never-Ending Improvement

As you go on more and more listing presentations, more and more tours, more and more phone calls with homeowners, you need to be thinking about constant and never-ending improvement.

What is slowing me down?

How can I get better?

You must reflect on every single listing experience with homeowners.

Here is the framework, it is called ‘After Action Review’.

After every phone call, AAR.

After every listing presentation, AAR.

Bring someone with you, have a witness because they're going to pick up on things you didn't and couldn’t.

If you're an experienced agent, bring a new agent with you on a listing appointment, because they're going to give you feedback and see things you didn't see. They're fresh eyes.

I owned a tech company at one time, and when we had a new hire, a new person, a new coder, a new programmer come to our office, we didn't want to just necessarily spoon feed them what we already know.

We want them to dive into the systems and code and point out all of the things that they see that could be improved upon, or point out parts of the code that needed to be removed. We don’t want to corrupt their minds with our ideas. We want their fresh eyes and beginners mind to explore and point out areas to improve.

We need to start removing things from the process so it's more efficient and convenient for the homeowner.

If you're experienced, bring someone with you to talk about the appointment afterwards. Teach them because teaching them is to know it.

If you're inexperienced, ride along. If you're sitting at your desk without direction, find somebody going on appointments and ask if you can go.. That's how you learn quickly.

My top listing partner that lists and closes 80 homes a year spent her first 2 years riding along with me on all of my appointments. That experience made her the best listing agent in the MLS.

After every single phone call, after every single meeting, you're going to do an AAR.

AAR

What was the goal?

What was supposed to happen?

What actually happened?

What was the difference between what was supposed to happen and what happened?

What would you have done differently?

What could you have done differently?

What can you do moving forward?

Is there anything we need to implement or remove from the process to improve upon the process for next time?

To reiterate, one of my listing associates rode along with me for two years. She sells 80 homes a year. Why? Because after every single phone call, after every single appointment, we did an AAR. What just happened? What did we want to happen and why didn't it happen? Why did it happen and how could we improve on it? Especially when we got the listing , how could we have gotten better?

People make this huge mistake, that when they get the result that's positive, they assume that the process was positive or perfect.

Not at all.

Sometimes you can totally screw up and luck is going to give you the desired result. That is going to reinforce some really bad behaviors. So be very, very aware of when you get the listing, be very cognizant of that, thinking that you did everything right. You may not. You may have got lucky. Maybe they were just super motivated. Maybe they were desperate. Maybe you've got the listing at your commission rate, but they're going to want to cancel in a week, right. Be aware there are always holes in your process. There will always be more information that you did not acquire than the information you acquired from any given situation.

It’s a major red flag to me when someone signs up really quickly and I don't take them through the process.

It's a red flag when a homeowner calls me and it’s a "Come list me lead.” Because you are at risk of skipping steps and not adding value and not setting expectations.

Experienced agents learned this the hard way. They've signed people up on a listing, and skip steps, and the next thing they know they have an overpriced listing with unreasonable sellers and they end up canceling, listing goes expired or they fire you.

Do yourself a favor and do an AAR after each actionable step.

OODA LOOP

The OODA Loop is a four-step process for making effective decisions in high-stakes situations. It involves collecting relevant information, recognizing potential biases, deciding, and acting, then repeating the process with new information.

Intuition doesn't come to the untrained mind

Observe

Always be collecting information and converting that information into an overall picture.

What is actually going on?

When I walk through a house, I'm looking at everything, family photos, condition of the house, and the owner’s body language and personality traits.

I'm asking calibrated questions so I can collect more information throughout the process. Up until the point of you doing a listing presentation, you should be asking only questions. So many agents make the mistake of telling too much, vomiting of the mouth. It's a feature and benefit dump. It's most often way too early. It's a commission breath. It's stanky.

People don’t want to be told what to do

You need to be using calibrating questions so that you can be collecting information. I want you to be observing throughout the process, continually observation so that you can orient yourself to the listing situation.

Orient

Orient yourself to the situation, because every home is different, every human's situation is different, however, they're all the same. Meaning approach each listing with a beginner’s mind from a place of curiosity so that you can go layers deep to find the principle that drives and motivates all human beings.

Every phone call is different, orient yourself and recognize the barriers.

The reason someone doesn't list the home is rarely price and commission. It’s a physical or emotional barrier. Orient yourself and recognize the barriers that might interfere with the

homeowner making a decision and taking action. The barriers to a homeowner listing their home are often times life events, physical space, psychological, or emotional barriers.

As you observe and ask questions, think about the situation as the homeowner. Put yourself in their shoes. You have to detach from your ego and personal mental models.

To get more listings, you must detach from your ego.

You are not the one selling your home. You want to get a listing, make a sale and make money. If that is your focus you will miss the opportunity. The homeowner will also detect your intentions and will be repelled. You must detach from those thoughts and transcend yourself into their shoes and tap into empathy for their situation so that you can recognize the barriers. These barriers are invisible to the selfish agent.

What's holding them back?

What are the barriers?

Psychological barriers, physical barriers, emotional barriers. Is it fear? Is it just physical?

Example: They literally can't do the repairs to their house on their own. They're 80 years old. They can't get up and down the stairs. Just because someone's older doesn't mean they don't get scared.

Most sellers are scared

They're scared and frightened.

Tap into that orientation of the situation and think, how can I solve the problem?

How can I remove these barriers for them?

What are all my available resources that will help solve their problems?

This increases the convenience and overall experience when you start removing barriers for clients.

Decide

To get a seller to make a decision you must give them options. Narrow it down to one or two options.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, here are your options... ...Make a decision.

You're the catalyst for decisions.

Action

At the end of every step, you're a catalyst for decisions and the action taker. Upon making a decision we must make an action immediately before leaving.

To be an agent that sells 100 homes a year it doesn't have to take more of your time if you do it the right way.

If you set up the process the right way and you have the right leverage and support systems in place. It doesn't necessarily mean you're going to have less time with your family and friends, right?

Imagine a HOT homeowner called you today and wanted to sell their home and was willing to take a reasonable price and pay you a full commission.

Could you screw it up?

Think about it. Someone's ready to sell their home, 7% commissions. Could you screw it up? 100%.

We can screw it up 100% of the time.

Remember that. I can screw it up 100% of the time.

I can’t answer my phone. You don't answer that phone when that seller calls...see ya later. RULE: We return all missed calls

Our profit is in our loss. Our profit is in our errors. Our profit is in our omissions.

Our next sale is in the one we didn't answer. Answer every call at that very moment. If you can't answer the phone at the moment, you return every missed call. Returning missed calls is something we can control.

Focus on the parts of the process you can control

I've made millions on missed call reports. Parachute me into your office right now and just give me your call reports, and I'll call your missed calls and outsell everyone in the office.

The single most important question to ask a buyer is...

Do you own a home or do you rent?

Because if they own a home, they have now become a listing.

The single most valuable lead in a real estate organization is a lead that will list their home and buy another in your marketplace. This lead is worth 3X a buyer lead.

We can screw it up 100% because we don't ask the right questions.

The right questions to ask a homeowner/seller lead

SELLER INFORMATION SHEET

Date ___________________ Taken By ___________________ Source____________________________________________

CLIENT INFORMATION

Name ____________________________________ Spouse _____________________________________ Phone (______) ____________________________________________ (______) _____________________________ E-mail ___________________________________________________________________________________

The Key Questions

Property Address ____________________________________________________________________________________ How long have you owned your house? ____________________________________________ WHY are you selling?____________________________________________________________________

WHERE are you moving? __________________________________________________________________________ HOW soon do you want to have your home on the market?____________________________________

What are homes like yours selling for in your neighborhood? $__________________________________ What would be an acceptable price for you? $_____________________________________________

What do you owe on the property? _________________________________________

HOME / PROPERTY DETAILS

Neighborhood ______________________________ Is it currently for sale? _____________________ Sq Feet ______________ Beds _______ Baths _______ Garage _______ Other __________________________________________

APPOINTMENT / FOLLOW-UP

WHERE: Office Home Date ____________________ Time_______________________

This is the seller intake form. Think of it as an intake form. This is a new person that we're intaking, we're bringing them on into our system, we're claiming acquisition. You need 30 of these on your desk at all times. You need a seller information sheet everywhere you go, and you need a binder or a folder of all the sheets you filled out.

Rule: You are never to lose them, get rid of them, or throw them away. Even if the homeowner tells you they're not going to sell. You're going to hold onto these forever. They are pure gold.

I had seller information sheets that are seven, eight years old and they list their homes. Play the long game here, everybody sells.

Have 30 of them printed out, and when you take a phone call or you're making a phone call and you talk to a homeowner, you're going to fill it out.

Have three folders. You can enter them into your CRM but also three folders for hard copies. A, B, and C seller folders. You can have a three ring binder with dividers A, B, C.

A is a homeowner that is ready, willing and able to sell now

B is 30 to 90 days out

C MOST COMMON are 90+days out

Rule of Thirds

You should be going on enough appointments to track the rule of thirds. Anyone converting 90+% appointments to listings is not going on enough listing appointments. You need to be working with people before they're ready. This will open up your listing sales funnel and reduce competition.

One third are going to list the day you meet or within one week. One third will list from one week to 90 days.

One third will list with another agent or not at all in the same year. up clients.

Go on more appointments before they are ready to list

These are long term follow

If you play poker, you want to win every hand, but you shouldn't be winning every hand. There's an optimal amount of hands you should play. If your goal is to win 100% of your hands that you play, you're going to be folding a lot. You will be way to concervative. If you fold a lot in poker, you will miss out on potential opportunities that won’t present themselves unless you take on risk. You will ultimately lose because of the blinds.

You'll never win a tournament trying to win 100% of your hands. You have got to take risks. You got to take on challenges. You got to be taking action.

Rarely do we lose to another agent.

How to fill out the Seller Information Sheet in the right order

Step one: is the date with the year. It sounds simple however, failure to include the date and year tells me you are not in it for the long run. We must be committed to these homeowners for years. Therefore I need to know the month and year we first spoke. We think in terms of years where most agents think in days.

Becoming a listing machine requires you to think differently than the average agent

It's like the Will Smith, ‘Treadmill’ video, only one of two things are going to happen. If you get on a treadmill with me, either you're going to get off or I'm going to die.

There's hardly any competition if you increase the timeframes far enough out

Step 2: The source. Who do I have to thank for you going to our website? How did you hear about our company? Have you heard about our company? What are all the ways you've heard about our company? What was the single most important or influential part of our marketing that brought you to us?

This is key because you can double down on the influence. Many of us are on teams, organizations that have massive brand recognition. They may say, "We see you everywhere." Go deeper and gain clarity. "What's the single most important influential part of the marketing that you've seen that brought you to us? If you could narrow it down."

Collect this information so you can tell your team leader what's working and what's not working. Feed the stallions and starve the ponies.

The next set of questions shall be asked in order. It's like a combination to a safe. The human brain acts like a combination of the safe. You put the numbers in the right order and it's going to unlock. If you put them in the wrong order, it won't unlock.

Script example:

"Hi this is Nick McLean with Nick McLean Real Estate, how can I help you?"

Seller: "Hi, I'm interested in knowing how much you guys charge." Or, "I'm interested in knowing what my home's worth."

"Awesome. Who am I speaking with?"

Seller: "Bob."

"Bob, nice to meet you. Bob, what's your last name?"

Note: When he gives me his last name, I say his name like he is my best friend. I say his name like I haven't met him in years. He is my long lost friend with passion and energy.

A person’s name is the most beautiful word in the English language

"Bob, you're interested in knowing your home’s value, do you own it alone or with anyone else?"

We ask this question because we need both decision-makers and owners to get a completed listing.

Seller: “With my wife, Mary."

"Oh, Mary. Awesome. Mary!"

What is your property’s address?

Be specific in your language. Example is don’t say, “where is your home located?” That’s too vague. Pilots are trained to read checklists verbatim for a reason.

In the first 2 minutes on the phone you must demonstrate you are sharp as a tack and an expert in your field.

Sharp as a tack, expert in the field example after asking, What is your property address?

"So what's your property address?"

Seller "123, Main Street."

"Awesome. Bob and Mary, our team sells a ton of homes in that neighborhood. I love that area. We sell homes in that area. I know a lot about that area."

I need to demonstrate to them, I know their area, I'm the local expert and I'm sharp as a tack.

"How long have you owned your home?"

People want to list their homes with people that love their homes.

What's your goal?

I know you're not in a hurry, you're not in a rush, you're maybe not even consider selling it, but if you were, imagine that you were, what would you do when your home sold? What would your goal be?

What would need to happen or what would you want to see happen for you to consider selling?

You can calibrate the ‘GOAL’ question in different formats.

If you were..

If you could..

What would it take...

What would your goal be in the future? For example, "Oh, you're not in a hurry. You're not going to sell for five years. Great. In five years, what would your goal be?" Gain clarity on their goal.

Not having a clear goal is a barrier.

If I can help them get clarity on their goal, they're more likely to sell their home. Where are you going next?

How soon do you want to be there?

The holy trinity of questions to ask a seller...

Why are you selling?
Where are you going?
How soon do you want to be there?

I need to know where someone's at and where they want to go. They're either staying in the area or moving out of the area. They have already moved to another place in the area or already moved to another area.

If they're moving out of the area, you're going to get a referral fee by placing them with the top agent in the marketplace they are moving to.

Then the next question that I like to ask is, if I feel like they're ready, I'll say,

"How soon could you get the home on the market?" Or "How soon would you be comfortable putting your home on the market?" Or “How soon before you would be comfortable having a buyer look at your house?”

That leads me to my favorite question on the planet.

The SINGLE most important question to ask to land an appointment

Do you know what homes like yours are selling for in your neighborhood?

No matter what they say, you're going to follow up with,

"Well, Bob and Mary, what I recommend we do is let’s get together so that I can tour your home. It'll only take five to 10 minutes to tour your home, so that I can give you a home equity report.”

I'll tour your home so that I can do a home equity report, so that I can tell you what your home would sell for in today's market using our marketing, and give you an idea of how long it would take in the event you ever decided to list your home. What day works for you?"

Stated Again...

What I recommend we do is let's get together. You can give me a tour of your house. You don't even have to pick up the house for me, it'll only take a couple of minutes, so that I can do a home equity report for you. The home equity report will tell you what your home will sell for in today's market, using our marketing and give you an idea of how long it would take in the event you ever wanted to sell your home, how's that sound?

If they're motivated, I'm going to say sell. If they're just thinking about it, I'm going to say list or give you an idea.

Another variation is to state the home equity report will tell you how much equity you have in your home equity bank account.

“Bob and Mary, it always made sense to me to know how much money I had in my savings account? It would be funny to go through life not knowing how much money you have in the bank, right? Well, why is your home any different? Your home is probably the largest bank account you own. Let's do a home equity report so you know how much money you have in your home equity savings account."

Don't believe what people say, believe what they do

If a homeowner invites you over, they would consider listing. Asking them if they would consider selling or asking someone how motivated they are to sell is not an accurate measure and is a terrible approach as a listing agent.

"How motivated are you? How serious are you? Would you consider it?" is ineffective to, "Can I come over?" Because if they invite me over it doesn’t matter what they are saying, I believe what they do. I believe what people do, not what they say. You only invite people over to your house that you trust. Think about that as a listing agent.

If they don't give you an appointment, set up a proper follow-up plan.

"No problem. You're not ready. I understand, Bob and Mary. You're not ready. Would you like me to keep you updated when a home sells in your neighborhood so that you know?"

Put them on a property search that shows them what homes are selling for in their neighborhood. We're going to drip them on homes that I've sold in the neighborhood, or went under contract in the neighborhood, or go active in their neighborhood.

You can set up a sold report portal in your MLS. Because as soon as something sells in the neighborhood, that could be the trigger point for someone to sell. This is because people are influenced by what others are doing. It could be a neighbor selling that changes the game. Not something you say.

People do what other people do.

People look at other people to know how to think, act and behave.

A core concept to adopt because someone said it in the past, doesn't mean it still holds true today.

Agent, "Oh, they told me they will be holding off selling for two years." Copyright 11/21/2021 and Written by. Nick McLean

That was before their neighbor sold for 700,000.

We need to check in with them everytime a home lists, contracts and closings in their neighborhood.

“Bob & Mary, did you see your neighbor’s house went on the market?”

Chapter 2: The Seller Script & Setting Listing Appointments

Seller High Output Productivity Training Chapter 2 we go over ‘The Listing Appointment’.

Starting on time and ending on time is one of the most impressive things you can do as a listing agent...

...If you want to test this theory, show up to a listing appointment late ten times. Now, show up to a listing appointment on time. Which set of ten appointments regardless of your listing presentation will have a better conversion rate?

The most valuable resource a listing agent has is their time. You must respect your own time and the time of your clients. State to the homeowner how long the appointment will take and stay on track. This is a powerful way to demonstrate authority, respect and execution to a potential client.

The easiest way to lose a listing is to show up late or to show up not prepared. ‘Failure to prepare is preparing to fail’

Rule: Every single listing appointment you go on, every single home tour you go on from now on, for the rest of your career, you show up prepared to list the property.

Even if you still need to do a market analysis, or the seller needs to prepare the home to put on the market, you must show up prepared with paperwork to list their home every time.

We are always going to go to a listing appointment assuming the seller, regardless of their comments that we're going to need to list their property today.

One of my first luxury listings was won because I followed these two principles, being on time and being prepared. A luxury listing is defined as more than 3X the average sales price. A high-end listing is defined as 2X the average sales price.

My first high end listing that I ever had, I got it because I was the most prompt and accurate when it came to follow up. I went to the original appointment, they said that they were going to list their home the following Spring. This appointment was in the fall and they were interviewing 3 agents to get their recommendations on how to prepare their home for the marketplace. It was determined at the listing appointment they would wait until April 2nd to make a decision on who they would hire to list their home.

They're very professional people. Knowing this I made a verbal declaration. I said I would commit to calling them on April 2nd at 10:00 am. Upon arriving back at my office I scheduled this as an appointment in my calendar. On April 2nd I called the homeowner at 1000 sharp, as the second hand turned 10 AM.

The seller answered the phone and I got the listing. Later, I asked why they chose me over the other agents with more experience than me.

They said, "Because you said you were going to call on April 2nd at 10:00 am and you did."

As an airline pilot you are measured by your on time departures. Not early departures, on time departures. When you list your home the seller wants the agent that is the most accurate and can execute on a plan.

Develop a game-plan with the homeowner and demonstrate execution of that game-plan to win more listings.

I wasn’t the best agent at the time with the most resources. They interviewed some of the best luxury agents in the valley at the time. I was a green horn with 3 years of real estate experience but I landed the listing because I was very specific.

Don't be vague, be very specific in your follow up and deliberate in all your actions in the listing process. Everything matters.

You should never have a shortage of listings because every homeowner on the planet will eventually sell their home. You don’t have to go very far to find a potential listing. What are all the ways you can communicate with and contact a homeowner and add value?

When talking to a homeowner here are the key questions we must ask.

How long have they owned your home?

What would your goal be if you ever considered selling?

Where would you go next?
1. If you were to sell, where would you go?
2. Of all of the places in the world, where would you go next?
How soon would you want to be there if there was nothing holding you back here?

a. If you weren't stuck here, if there were no obstacles, no impediments, how soon would you want to make that happen?

Here is an example of how identifying an motivation (The Why) can be inserted into the conversation.

Homeowner Example: We have grandkids in Arizona, and we currently live in Seattle.

"Okay, great. If you had no impediments, or no obstacles, nothing holding you back in Seattle, and no reason to be in Seattle, how soon would you want to be in Arizona with your grandkids?"

When you frame the question around their motivation you can help them discover what is truly important. The follow up question to land appointment would be...

Mr and Mrs seller, do you know what homes like yours are selling for in your neighborhood?

If no, or yes:

What I recommend we do is I could tour your home and tell you what your home would sell for in today's market using our marketing. I can even tell you or give you an idea of how long it might take if you ever decided to sell your home. When can we meet?

There's no obligation to list or ever to sell your property, we offer a home equity reports to everyone purely because we believe in long-term relationships. I always felt it made sense to know how much money I had in my bank account. Mr and Mrs seller, doesn't it make sense to always know how much money you have in your retirement account, your bank account? Your home is no different. Everyone should know how much money they have in their home savings equity account.

You cannot rely on computer valuations. You cannot rely on county assessments. You can't rely on recent or past appraisals, you need to rely on an expert that knows what's going on right now.

The knowledge of the seller script is so that you can be able to extract the principles so you can use the language patterns in all walks of life when it comes to being a listing agent.

The seller script can be used with any homeowner out there

7% of any neighborhood that will sell in a year

If there's 100 homes in a neighborhood, seven of them will list and sell in a calendar year. When COVID hit, it went up to 15%, for every 100 homes 15 listed and sold.

If I was parachuted into your marketplace today I would find the neighborhood(s) with the highest price point and the most likely to sell. Find the sweet spot within a marketplace, the homes that turn over the quickest and with the highest profit.

I will farm that neighborhood using a circle prospecting technique. Meaning I will call and dial every name, number, in the very neighbor I want to dominate. I will send postcards to every home in that neighborhood. Everytime a new listing hits the market in that neighborhood, I will send a just listed card to everyone in that neighborhood. When a home goes on under contract, I send a message to everyone in that neighborhood. Everytime a home closes I will be the expert that informs the neighborhood of the sale.

It is about becoming the preeminent force in that neighborhood. ‘THE’ local expert. The only agent that matters is the agent the neighborhood thinks about when they are ready to sell. That agent is the last agent they had a positive interaction with that gave them valuable content and information about the area.

Be the 800 pound listing agent in any given neighborhood by providing consistent data throughout the year.

The seller script works well for farming, inbound calls and pure prospecting.

The basis of the seller script is making a compelling offer. You must align yourself and the homeowner with a common goal in the event they ever decide to sell.

A leading measure is how many times do I tell a seller a common goal?

The more sellers I establish a common goal with the more listings I'll get.

The common goal will incorporate the three most important things a seller wants.

The 3 Most Important Things to a Sellers

#1 Most money - We're going to get them the most money by creating the most demand. Sellers don't have a problem paying you a commission, they just want you to earn it or deserve it. The last thing a seller wants is to pay a commission for an agent that did nothing. You don't get paid for time, you get paid on results. Tell your sellers that you don't get paid for time, you get paid based on a result. A seller will choose to hire you and your agency because they want to get the most money.

Script: Mr and Mrs seller, my goal for you when the time comes for you to put the home on the market is to get you the most money. And the way I do that is by creating the most demand, the most demand.

Don't be afraid or bashful to establish this common goal, right away.

#2 Timing - Sellers want the most money and they want to be in control of the timing. To be in control, you have to be the one making decisions.

Script: Mr and Mrs seller, my goal is to not only get you the most money, but to sell your home in the least amount of time, or on your timeline. The way we sell on your timeline is by creating the most demand. By marketing your home to the most amount of people possible. Not just buyers in town, but buyers out of town.

Timing is really important to a seller. When a seller tells you, "It only takes one." Respond, "It does, but it's way better if you have two and you're hiring me to get two. Because buyers act differently when they're going up against someone else.”

There is a big difference between one buyer and two buyers. One buyer will say, ‘what can I get the home for? Two buyers, ‘what will it take for me to get this home?

Big difference. If you can articulate that to a seller, they're going to hire you. Any agent on the planet can list a home and sell it. It's easy but can they sell it and get you the most money and keep you in control of your timelines?

#3 Convenience - The third thing a seller wants is convenience. The concept of no hassle is a very powerful concept and unique selling proposition in a marketplace.

Hassles include but are not limited to...

Agents that are pushy.

Long listing agreements that tie them down.

They don’t want unqualified or picky buyers that will make tons of inspection repair requests. They don't want a ton of red tape from a lender.

They don't want appraisers that are hassles.

What are all the ways you can remove hassles from the seller? When you remove risk and hassle we call it a risk reversal.

The number one risk reversal you can state to a homeowner on the phone to get an appointment is to say, there is no obligation to list or fees associated with our meeting initial consultation.

The number one risk reversal you can add to a listing agreement is to make the agreement cancel anytime with no hassle, easy exit with no cancelation fees.

We have tracked our cancellation policy and only 1 in 100 will cancel early and sell to someone else. It is rare for someone to take advantage of this policy for personal gain. In fact, more often than not when they cancel early they come back because we were gracious in our exit and had a solid follow up plan in place.

Seller Script

Most Money (Creating the MOST demand)

Timing (Least amount of time or on their timeline)

No Hassle (YOU, BUYERS, BROKERS, LENDERS, APPRAISERS)

Hi, __________, this is ___________, and the reason I’m calling is....

● You inquired about an online home evaluation
● You reached out to our office
● Someone referred me to you
● You were using our website
● Someone asked me to call you
● We just listed, just pended or just sold a home in your neighborhood

Most homeowners are in no rush and are curious to get an idea of what their home would be valued at in today’s market. Is that the case for you?

Offer #1 - Home Equity Report

The reason I ask is because most evaluations (online, assessments, brokers, appraisals) don’t take into account all the unique factors that determine a home’s true value. Homes like yours can range as much as ($50k to $200K).

If I can take a quick look at your home I can give you an accurate home equity report that will tell you what your home would sell for in today’s market using our marketing and how long it would take, if you ever decide to list.

Would that be useful?

When would be a good day this week?

Offer #2 - Maximizing Value

In the future, if you ever decided to sell, is getting the most value possible important to you?

Great, the best time to prepare your home is way before you ever decide to put it on the market. I can come over and complete an upgrade consultation that outlines specific recommendations that can increase your home’s value.

If you are thinking about doing renovations or repairs I can make recommendations on what you should and should not do. There is no point in making or spending money that doesn’t see a positive return on investment.

Since you are not in any hurry, how about next week?

Offer #3 - Free and no obligation - (RISK REVERSAL)

We only believe in long term relationships that is why this service is free with no obligation to ever list your home. I can even give you a detailed list of all the expenses associated with selling in the event you ever wanted to sell.

Offer #4 - Real Estate Market Updates

It sounds like the timing is not right. Would you like to be updated when your home’s value substantially changes?

Great, I will set you up with a specific market update report for your property so you know what home’s like yours are selling for in your neighborhood.

Offer #5 - Long shot

This may be a long shot but, would you consider selling if you did not have to list and could choose the closing date? For example we will eventually find a qualified buyer that is looking to purchase in your neighborhood that is not in a hurry.

If yes, great, let's meet so that I can tour your home and give you a value.

Appointment Set Go To ‘Pre-Appointment Questions’

Introduction

Seller Script Narrative In Detail

"Hi, Bob it's Nick McLean, and the reason I'm calling is because you inquired on our website about your online home evaluation."

Introduction Variations:

"Hey, Bob, it's Nick McLean, and the reason I'm calling is you reached out to our office."

"Hi, Bob. This is Nick McLean. The reason I'm calling you is because someone referred you to me."

"Hi, Bob. This is Nick McLean. The reason I'm calling you is because you're using our website to search for homes.”

“Hi, Bob. This is Nick McLean. The reason I’m calling you is because a home has recently been listed/under contract/closed in your neighborhood.”

Buyer Leads Searching For Homes Are Often Times Homeowners

Remember that oftentimes people that search for homes on our websites, are trying to get an idea of what their home's worth.

Introduction Script Buyer Lead That Owns: Hi, Boby, I’m curious, are you searching for homes on our website because you're looking for a home or because you're trying to figure out what your home is worth?

Introduction Script Just Listed/Just Pended/Just Sold

"Hey, Bob. This is named Nick McLean. The reason I'm calling is because our client your neighbor, recently listed their home and asked me to give you a call as a courtesy to let you know."

Simple and Direct Introduction: "Hi Bob. This is Nick McLean. The reason I'm calling is because we just listed a home in your neighborhood and I’m calling the neighbors to let them know about it"

You don’t need the listing to make just listed/just pended/just sold circle prospecting calls.

"Hey, Bob, the reason I'm calling is because a home was just listed in your neighborhood."

See, you don't even need the listing. It could be from another agency. The difference instead, I just listed a home in the neighborhood. It is modified to a home just was listed in your neighborhood.

Home Valuation Lead Introduction

“Hey, Bob, this is Nick McLean. And the reason I'm calling is because you used our website to look up your home's value and most homeowners that we talk to that look up their value online are in no rush. They are merely curious to get an idea of what their home would be valued at in today's market. Is that the case for you?"

It reduces sales skepticism and builds trust when you acknowledge that most homeowners are in no rush.

Inbound phone call variation.

Agent: "Hi, this is Nick..."

Seller: "Yes, I'm thinking I would like to know what my home's worth."

Agent: "Awesome, so, I'm sure you're like most homeowners, you're in no rush. It sounds like you just want to get an idea of what your home's worth. is that right?"

Seller: Yes

Agent: “Great...(Go to Seller Information Sheet)...What is your name, What is the property address...with the goal of ending with the question (Do you know what homes like yours are selling for in your neighborhood?)

Compelling Offers

When you set an appointment do not get off the phone. You have to add value and prepare for the appointment. In most cases you will need to add value to land the appointment. For example there are times where I must make all compelling offers to land an appointment. Other times zero. In the event, I land an appointment with zero I will make a point to offer one or two compelling offers. It is a red flag to a process when the seller wants you to skip steps. It is the old saying, ‘If it is too good to be true, it probably is.” Don’t skip this step of making compelling offers prior to an appointment.

Home Equity Report Continued

Script Broker Home Valuation Continued: “Well, the reason I asked about the online home valuation request is because online assessments like our site and Zestimates don't take into account all of the unique factors that determine the home's true value.”

People want to work with an expert in their field and someone that is sharp as a tack.

Script: “We sell a lot of homes in your neighborhood, they can range greatly compared to what is stated online from $5,000 upwards to $200,000. If I can take a quick look at your home, I can give you an accurate home equity report that will tell you what your home would sell for in today's market using our marketing. I can even tell you how long it would take. If you ever decided to list, would that be helpful?”

Principle: Offer a home equity report versus a home valuation or CMA

Offer someone a home equity report versus a comparable market analysis. We know real estate agents mostly offer a free CMA. To differentiate ourselves we say home equity report because we transition to the line, “It always made sense to me to know how much money I have in my home savings equity account.”

A seller doesn’t want to know their home’s value. What they really want to know is how much money they will have in their pocket if they decided to sell.

Script: “Mr and Mrs seller, CMAs are broken, they're outdated, they're incomplete and often misleading to homeowners. A home equity report is a CMA that also takes into account all of the fees, taxes, transfer fees, commissions and mortgages into account. So, you know what really matters. What really matters is how much money you would have in your pocket, if you were to ever list your home.”

Sellers truly want to know...What is your walkaway money? What is your back pocket money? What is their net proceeds at the end of the day after all the associated fees. That's what sellers really want, so give it to them. They will respect you more by showcasing all the fees versus pretending they don’t exist. Sellers don’t even care what your commission is, they really want to know how much they will walk away with.

If a seller ever asks you. "What are your fees? Or What's your commission?"

Never tell your commission over the phone

Never tell your commission prior to providing a value presentation and equity report which is always followed by a listing agreement presentation.

Rule: Only give a commission when you are running the numbers and present the listing agreement.

I repeat. Don't give your commission over the phone or by email without meeting with somebody and adding massive value. If you don't add value, your commission is irrelevant. You're losing millions by discussing commission over the phone or getting into commission prior to adding value.

How to handle, "What are your fees?"

Script: "We have flexible fees. And when we meet I'll break all associated fees involved when selling your home. First things first what I recommend we do is I'll do a CMA on your property, and I will also do a home equity report. The home equity report takes into account all of the unique factors that determine a home's true market value. When can I take a look?”

Seller: Tomorrow works.

Script: When we meet with the seller I will break down all of the fees, so you know what really

matters, what truly matters, and that's what you walk away with. Does that sound great?

Perfect, I will do research on your home prior to coming over. I will come prepared.

Prior to the appointment you must do your research and due diligence on the property. In addition it is critical you let the seller know you will be doing your research and showing up prepared. This signals to them you are not only the right agent but that you will also be prepared to list their home on day 1 if they choose to list. If you show up unprepared with only notes the seller will ask you to go back and do a market analysis and report back to them. It nearly guarantees that you will never get a listing on step 1 of the home tour.

Compelling Offer #2

The seller might hem and haw, to a home equity report because they are not ready. They might even mention they have projects. They might be embarrassed to have you over. The reason they're not inviting you over, is not that they don't like your offer to know their home’s value, it may be that their home is dirty, cluttery, and not ready for showings. They are frankly embarrassed to have a professional come over. You and the thought of judgement of others, brokers, buyers and the market is intimidating. To us listing a home for the world to see is normal. To them it feels like public speaking naked. There is FOMO, fear of missing out and most agents use this to motivate sellers to sell. It doesn’t work because FOPO overrides FOMO. FOPO is the fear of other people’s opinions. Their friends, you, agents, buyers, family, neighbors. To overcome this emotion you need to connect deeply that you do not judge. And that when they hire you, you can sell their home prepared or as-is. Either way it will be great. To preemptively overcome any hesitation to a home tour, use this script.

Script, "I know you're not ready to put your home on the market, and I don't even want you to pick up. You don't even have to pick up after yourself. I see homes all the time."

Variation. “I know you are not ready for photos. You don’t need to pick up or finish any projects. I meet with sellers everyday prior to their homes being ready for market. I look past personal items and projects and can visualize the potential in any property. That is one of our gifts that allows us to get top dollar for clients.”

You can pre-frame the appointment by letting them know they don't even have to pick up. You will land way more step 1 grand tours if you just use this script. Let’s imagine their home is ready for market and dialed in. The seller will object to your statement. This is called a reverse objection. Getting the seller to object with your push back. We have heard a seller respond like, “Actually, I keep our home very clean and orderly. If you have buyers now they can come look as well.” or “Actually, we have been packing up and decluttering for about a month now. We just reserved a storage unit downtown.” When you hear a response like that from a seller are you more likely to get a listing on step 1 or less likely?

The compelling offer we will make is how they can maximize value. We know most people are not ready to list however, the single most important thing a seller wants is the most money. When the seller tells you no to an appointment because they are not listing in the immediate future use this script.

Script: “In the future, if you ever decide to list your home, is getting the most money important to you?”

Script Variation using mirroring: “Great, I understand you're not in a hurry, and that's perfect. When you do decide to list or you ever decide to sell, is getting the most money possible, important? "

That is what is called a set up question. It is a set-up question because we know the answer. When the seller says, ‘Well, yes’.

Script: "Great, the best time to prepare your home to list, is way before you decide to put it on the market. I know you're not ready, but I can come over and walk through your house and give you an upgrade consultation and outline specific recommendations that will increase your home's value. Many low cost, no cost recommendations. What day works for you?”

Script Expanded: “As we are walking through your house, I will make expert recommendations If you're thinking about doing any projects, renovations or repairs, I can make recommendations on what you should and should not do because I don't want my client to spend a dollar unless they get at least a dollar back or more in return. One of the most common mistakes sellers make is putting money into their home that has a negative return. I don’t want you to lose money. There's no point spending money that doesn't see a positive return. Since you're not in a hurry, can I come by next week?

Can I come by next week?

When setting appointments the rule to follow. IS NOW A GOOD TIME? Meaning your appointments should be as soon as possible. Time KILLS Deals. However, when you get pushed back on immediate appointments give them some space. Because even though you told them they won’t need to pick up, they still need time. Offer an appointment 2 to 3 days out to a week later.

PRO-TIP: The compelling offers are great for email copy, text messaging, social media videos, marketing and advertising.

Compelling Offer #3

Compelling offer number three is free with no obligation. This is what is called a risk reversal. I recommend using risk reversal language throughout the process. No obligation/No Cost/Cancel Anytime

A subtle ninja selling tactic. Change ‘FREE’ to ‘GIFT’. Anytime you say something comes with no cost or free you diminish the value. Free in the consumer's mind is ZERO VALUE. To overcome this pitfall, call it a gift. An example would be. There is no cost for me to provide you with a home equity report. It is a gift that I give all our clients.

I often will add the risk reversal to other compelling offers.

Script: "Mr. Mrs. Seller, I can come over to your house and give you a free home equity report and I'll tell you how much you're going to walk with. Not only what it'll sell for in today's market, but how much you're going to walk away with after all the fees. This is no cost with no obligations.”

Script Expanded: “Mrs seller, we only believe in long-term relationships. I sell a lot of homes in your neighborhood. I'm an expert in your neighborhood. I value the community, and I value relationships. That's why this home equity report that I'm offering you and the advice that I'm offering you, is our gift to you with no obligation to ever list your home.”

Script Expanded Further: “I want you to know that. When I come over to your house, I'm not expecting you to list, I never expect any of our clients to list. I just want to be prepared and there for you when you're ready.”

This is an example of how to utilize our core philosophies. We only believe in long-term relationships.

A consumer is more willing to pay more if they understand there are not any hidden charges or fees. People hate surprises. It's counterintuitive. I've actually found the more costs I tell the seller about that are associated with a home sale, the easier it is to get my listing fee.

Script: “Mr. Mrs. Seller, I want you to know that I will uncover all the hidden fees associated with selling. Because most agents I find only talk about commission. But there's other fees associated with selling your home that always blindside people at the closing table. How does that sound?”

I'm demonizing the average agent by saying they don't tell you everything or they don't know everything. This makes the average agent’s incompleteness seem like they are untrustworthy. This is because people that hide things are not trustworthy.

Script: “Mr. & Mrs. Seller, I always thought it made sense to know all of the fees when selling an asset.”

Compelling Offer #4

Compelling offer number four is real estate market updates. This is something that you offer when you're not going to get the appointment. The reason we offer real estate market updates is so that we prepare ourselves for success using a long term follow up plan.

Remember all homeowners will eventually sell their home. I want to set myself up for success when they become ready to move forward.

Script: “Mr and Mr seller, I understand you're not in a hurry, not quite ready for me to come over. Not a problem at all. Sounds like the timing is just not right. Would you like to be updated when your home's value substantially changes? Because I track all the neighborhoods listings and closings and I can let you know when things change that increases or decreases your home’s value. How does that sound?

Seller: That’s fine...

Script: “Great, I will set you up on a specific market update report for your property to let you know when homes like yours sell in your neighborhood. What is your best e-mail to send these reports to?”

Zillow is crushing property update report. Why do you think Zillow came out with the Zestimate report so that they could be the most accurate valuation company on the planet? Kind of, but that wasn't the initial goal. The goal of the Zestimate is to inform people of changes in the marketplace, because the more they control their attention and have their attention, the more they're going to be the one that they reach out to when they want to buy or sell. The Zestimate is another reason to use their platform for information. The Zestimate is a value proposition so that the consumer opts into their email updates.

We then set the seller up with an MLS portal that emails them everytime a new listing, pending or sold populates. If your CRM has a property notification system, use it to inform homeowners of new listings in their neighborhood.

It is human nature to decide what to do next based on what other people are doing. We are tribal creatures. We look to see what other people are doing to know how to feel, look and act. When a sign goes up in the neighborhood, or a home sells in the neighborhood or their friend's home sells in the neighborhood, it triggers something in their mind that maybe they should be thinking about selling. Just like social media platforms we want to use notifications to grab the sellers attention and focus towards real estate. What a person focuses on is the most important thing.

Whatever a seller is focusing on at the moment is what matters.

As a listing agent, I want homeowners to focus on their home and the real estate market more often. Zillow sends updates consistently to the consumer. We have got to be better than Zillow at that updating the marketplace on changes. It is incredibly hard to convince someone to list their home. It is much easier to trigger a change and be ready and there for them when they do decide. The principle that people only think about themselves comes into play everytime a home is listed, goes under contract or sold. When they see a home get listed, they think to themselves, "I wonder what my home would list for?" When a home goes under contract they think, "Wow, I wonder what they're going to get and how much more we would get?" When a home sells they're thinking, "I wonder what my home would sell for?"

The same concept goes with cars. Imagine that you see someone in a car that you love, a Lamborghini. You don't think, "I wonder who's driving that Lamborghini?" You think, "Man, I wonder what it would be like if I was driving that Lamborghini?"

When you see a yacht, you're not thinking, "I wonder who owns that yacht? Wow, they must be cool." No, you're thinking, "Wouldn't it be cool if I was on that yacht? Wouldn't it be cool if I owned that yacht?" People think about themselves. It's really important that we understand this.

Compelling offer #5

Compelling offer number five is the long shot. You can use this anytime you want, but I use it at the end when I can't get the appointment and the homeowner is ninety days or longer out.

When I can't get the appointment or they're not ready for the appointment, I'm going to set them up on property market updates. And then I'm going to throw the long shot offer.

Script: “Mr and Mrs seller, this may be a long shot, but would you consider selling if you did not have to list your home? And you got to choose your closing date. Even if it was 60, 120 days from now.”

Script Expanded: “For example, our team will eventually find a qualified buyer that is looking to purchase a home like yours in your neighborhood and they will not be in a rush to close or move in. Our office sells XX homes each day which means we are constantly working with new buyers.

Mr and Mrs seller, I know you're not in a hurry, but if you didn't have to list your home and could control price and terms, would you be open to me calling you when I have a buyer that wants a home like yours?”

In the event they say yes to this offer. Come to an agreement on an acceptable price. You will recommend that you tour the home so that you know more about the property prior to telling a potential buyer about it. You might as well do a home valuation report.

Preparing for the appointment

Prior to our appointment do your research. And let the seller know you will be conducting in depth research. The seller needs to know you looked at all of the active listings, under contract listings and closed listings in the specified area. .

I am showing up to 100% of our listing appointments with a completed listing folder with all the paperwork required to list their home. I'm showing up with the listing agreement, I'm showing up with the input sheet, I'm showing up with the disclosure forms, I'm showing up with everything. Even if they told me they're not ready.

ALWAYS SHOW UP PREPARED TO LIST

Questions to ask prior to your appointment

What's your property address?

Do you own any other properties you would consider selling or would like a valuation for?

The reason I ask this question is because I've lost opportunities because they own other properties such as land, condos, commercial property, or multi-family. True story I met with a client to list their home. I went on the appointment and then a month later they listed their commercial property on the MLS that I didn’t realize they owned. I called them up, "Bob, I noticed you listed a commercial property?" He responds, "I didn't know you sold commercial properties? I wish I would have known that.”

When I meet with a homeowner, I want to know every property they own.

What is your best contact information? How long have you owned the home?

Tell me a little bit about your home? Beds, baths, square footage, improvements.

What features do you enjoy most, or believe the buyer would like the most?

What's really going to sell your property?

The reason you ask what they enjoy most about the property is so, that you can highlight these features during the grand tour.

Imagine they really love the remodel that they did, or they really love the neighborhood, or they really love the proximity to points of interest, or they really love their special garden. These are items that don’t show up on the report but are emotional attachments with the seller.

People want to list with people that love their property.

People want to list with people that believe in the property. I've lost listings because the seller didn't think I liked their home. I've lost listings because they didn't think I believed in their home. I've lost listings because they thought I was too busy for their home. I've lost a listing because they felt like it was priced too low for me and wasn’t worth my time. I've lost listings because they felt like I didn't want bad enough.

People will list with you for your energy and enthusiasm towards them and their home. When you don’t get a listing you MUST call and get feedback.

Script: “Mr and Mrs seller, I see you put your home on the market with another company, and I want to wish you the best of luck. I really do. And if I have a buyer or our company has a buyer, I hope we can help sell it for you. I'm just curious, is there anything I could have said or done or something I failed to mention that would have made a difference?”

Script Variation: “What was the deciding factor when it came to choosing an agent?”

Be open to gaining feedback, because you must improve. I called people and I found out that the reason I didn't get the listing is because I didn’t take notes. Now I take notes. I have found out they went with another agent based on years of experience. Now I say our office has over 100 years of combined experience.

You need to find out why people don't list with you. Don't be a lazy thinker and assume they didn’t list with you because of the price or the commission structure.

Questions to ask prior to appointment continued

What do you owe on the property?

I'll say something like this, "Mr and Mrs seller, remember my goal always is to get you the most money after all of the fees and so that I can accurately calculate your equity position, how much do you currently owe on the property?

Where would you go next?

How soon would you want to be there?

Do you own the home alone or with someone else?

Make sure all parties are there at the listing appointment. Reschedule date and time to accommodate both parties to be present.

Have you received any other real estate values, or are you going to receive another real estate opinions of value in the future?

Variation: Have you received any other real estate advice or looking for more advice?

We are in discovery to see if we are competing for the listing. 70% of people will only interview one agent. Only 30% of the time we are competing. If they are meeting with someone else, I'm going to schedule to go last.

I don't believe what people say, I believe what they're willing to do. I’m not going to ask a seller if they are prepared to list their home. I’m going to give them a test. An example is to ask for a mortgage payoff. "So, Bob and Mary, when preparing for our appointment, will you be able to find out what you owe on your mortgage or find your last mortgage statement?" If they say yes, I know they're more likely to list their home. If they say, "Oh, you know what? We're not that serious yet." Then I know where they are not ready.

A second example to test motivation is asking for a spare set of keys. “Mrs. Seller, do you have an extra set of keys available”

If they say yes prior to the meeting, guess what? You're probably getting the listing. The other thing is when you're doing the grand tour, you're going to ask them,

Script: “By the way, if you ever put your home on the market, we will put a lockbox on the front door, and then in the lockbox we put a set of keys. Do you happen to have an extra key available?”

I've literally had sellers take their keys off their keychain and give it to me during the tour. Copyright 11/21/2021 and Written by. Nick McLean

The other test of motivation is photos.

Script: “Mrs. Seller, I'm curious. When do you think your home would be ready for photos? Because we have professional photography, videography and drone photography and I can check his schedule for you.”

Notice, I never asked how soon do you want your home on the market? Or are you ready to list? I don't ask those questions because I care about what they're willing to do, not what they're willing to say.

Seller Script

Most Money (Creating the MOST demand)

Timing (Least amount of time or on their timeline)

No Hassle (YOU, BUYERS, BROKERS, LENDERS, APPRAISERS)

Hi, __________, this is ___________, and the reason I’m calling is....

● You inquired about an online home evaluation
● You reached out to our office
● Someone referred me to you
● You were using our website
● Someone asked me to call you
● We just listed, just pended or just sold a home in your neighborhood

Most homeowners are in no rush and are curious to get an idea of what their home would be valued at in today’s market. Is that the case for you?

Offer #1 - Home Equity Report

Would that be useful?

When would be a good day this week?

Offer #2 - Maximizing Value

In the future, if you ever decided to sell, is getting the most value possible important to you?

Since you are not in any hurry, how about next week?

Offer #3 - Free and no obligation - (RISK REVERSAL)

Offer #4 - Real Estate Market Updates

It sounds like the timing is not right. Would you like to be updated when your home’s value substantially changes?

Great, I will set you up with a specific market update report for your property so you know what home’s like yours are selling for in your neighborhood.

Offer #5 - Long shot

If yes, great, let's meet so that I can tour your home and give you a value.

Appointment Set Go To ‘Pre-Appointment Questions’

Pre-Appointment Questions

Prior to our appointment I will do market research on your property. So, that I can best prepare,

State the goal: Our goal is to sell your home for the most money with the best possible terms on your timeline.

1. What is your address?

a. Do you have any other properties you would consider selling?

Contact Information

How long have you owned the property?

Tell me a little about your property
1. Beds, baths, square footage, age, improvements.
2. What features do you enjoy most and believe a buyer would like most?
3. Have you done any renovations or plan on doing any?
  
  Do you know what home’s like yours are selling for in your neighborhood?
  
  How much were you hoping the value would come in at?
4. Is there a number that would excite you?
5. What would an acceptable price?
So, that I can calculate your equity. How much do you currently owe on your home?
When the timing is right, what is most important to you? Getting the most money or

timing?
Where would you go next?
With no other obstacles, how soon would you like to be there?
Do you own this alone or with someone else?
Have you received any other real estate values or advice?

a. If meeting with other agents. Schedule last.

I’m excited to see your home. Our goal is to sell your home for the most money

possible.

Couple of items to prepare. Test motivation.
1. Please look up your mortgage balance.
2. Have two sets of keys available for a lockbox
3. When could you have photos taken?

Chapter 3: The Listing Appointment & Grand Tour

This chapter we're diving into the listing appointment. The start of the appointment, the value presentation adds massive value propositions and value to the process, so that we achieve the highest possible commissions, and achieve the best possible price that will achieve the highest price to the client. It's very important that we understand that there is an order to the listing process and that if we put things out of order, we will get dramatically different results. Once you learn the order to which a listing appointment is done your results will forever change.

The seller invites you over to their house to conduct a tour not so that you can sell their home. That decision will be made during the listing presentation. We offer a home equity report, which is a market analysis combined with a detailed report of all of the expenses associated with selling your home, so that the seller can know what their bottom line is, their walk away money.

Determining a seller’s walk away money is way more important and valuable to a homeowner compared to a market analysis. Every agent on the planet offers a free market analysis that will not differentiate yourself. You need to differentiate yourself by going a couple layers deeper in the process, and being more transparent in what it will be like to sell your home with your organization. The average agent shy away from fees, costs and sales. The average agent relies too much on their personality and relationship with the seller to win listings. However, don’t overestimate relationships. The number one competitor in your marketplace isn’t the top producers, it is the thousands and thousands of agents that sell 1 to 7 homes a year. The long tail of agents combined have a massive market share. Their only advantage is their proximity and relationship with the homeowner. This means we must make a concerted effort to connect with the homeowner.

The heart chooses and the mind justifies

The more a seller knows about the process the more likely they will be to take action. By not hiding any taxes, fees or expenses, you're actually going to get the seller more likely to move forward. The timing of outlining their walk away money is critical. The only time you conduct a net proceeds for a seller is after the market analysis and before the listing agreement presentation. Never talk commissions outside of the middle. The middle being the middle of a listing presentation.

When you outline all of the expenses associated with selling and the other agent doesn't, it will cause doubt in their mind about that other agent. "Well, why didn't they tell me about that?”

What I learned in my career haven gone on 5,000 listing appointments, I must hold off giving the seller their home’s value and equity position up until the point I go over all of the value our company, our team, our organization, will provide them in the event they do choose to list their home. This is because I need to raise the bar on value. I need to be articulating value the entire time, to the saturation point in which our value exceeds our price (commission).

Value is anything above and beyond price

Value addition is the leading goal of the listing presentation. By leading goals I mean a goal that is within our control. The lagging goal is to get a sign listing agreement at our commission at a price that sells. Much of the lagging goal is outside of our control. We can control the amount of value we articulate and demonstrate.

You can not gain back the seller's focus and attention once you deliver their home’s value and commission structure. Therefore, the timing of that information is critical. It must be followed up with a call to action to list their home.

It is worth repeating, if someone is willing to invite me over to their house they are motivated. No matter what the seller has been telling you to this point. Come to terms with the fact sellers will tell you they're not in a hurry, they're not ready, or they just want to get an idea of what their home’s worth before they make a decision. In less than 5% of appointments the seller states they are interviewing more than the agent before they make a decision. This is merely a seller's pre-emptive negotiation strategy. They want you to compete on price so, it is critical you make the focal point net proceeds, risks when hiring the wrong agent (what can go wrong) and overall value. Whatever you do, don't allow this fact to throw you off the process.

All the sellers are going to say the same thing in all areas and all marketplaces. When they say they are not in a hurry or that they don’t know if they will sell. What they're saying is, they don't want to be sold, they don't want to be pressured. We have to increase our no obligation, no hassle language. I want to be proactive in my language patterns. No problem, when you are ready, cancel anytime...

Knowing that most sellers are going to signal they are not in a hurry because they won’t want added pressure, I'm going to be proactive.

"I know you're not in a hurry...”

“If you're like me and our clients you're not in a hurry and you don't want to be pressured. I want you to know, I don't expect you to list your home and when you do there is never a time you have to sell it. At our office you can cancel anytime.

I know most sellers will say they don’t want to give their home away, so be proactive, "I know you don't want to give your home away, neither do I."

When you assimilate yourself proactively with the homeowner that's a connection point. These are critical to gaining trust and overcoming other relationships in the marketplace.

“I don't want to give your home away, you don't want to give your home away.”

We are the same! In other words, you like me and I like you, let's be together.

To reinforce how big of a step it is to get a home tour. Imagine psychologically, who do you invite into your home?

You only invite people into your home that you trust.

By the seller inviting you to their house, there's massive amounts of trust that has been granted, just by getting in the door. Honor that moment and make it count. When you are at their front door, set an intention that you made it and from here on out they will sell their home with you no matter the timelines. When they open the door you better have your appearance dialed in and you better greet them like a family or friend would when they come to your home.

Everyone wants the magic bullet listing presentation. That is a small portion of the process. Most listing presentations are a feature and benefit dump. Most sellers don’t care. Embrace the listing presentation is the entire process, it's the entire experience.

Two Step Listing Appointment Step one:

The grand tour
Go no-go decision

Step two:

Value presentation (listing presentation)
Home equity report
Listing paperwork

At the end of step one, you're going to make a go, no go decision, whether or not you go to step two. Steptwocanbeatalaterdateorcanbeonthesamedayasstepone. Weshowupto every single listing appointment, regardless of what they said, prepared to list their home that day. We show up with our home equity report, value presentation and listing paperwork to every listing appointment. We must be ready to capitalize when opportunities present themselves.

You will complete a market analysis with pending, and sold comparables. You will review the active inventory for a proper pricing position. In the absence of quality and condition knowledge base the report on average to good quality and condition for their neighborhood.

You know the marketplace, trust your knowledge because you can adjust during the grand tour. Come prepared with sales. On the phone, prior to meeting with the seller, I'm going to let the seller know that I'm coming prepared. I will personally conduct extensive research on their home, neighborhood and marketplace.

I'm going to do my research prior to showing up. That is why it is very important you ask the seller over the phone, "Do you know what homes like yours are selling for in your neighborhood?" Because more than likely they know of recent listings or sales in their neighborhood. You need to know what they know. If they know something and you don't, that will jeopardize your authority and cost you the listing. You need to look at a mapping system that shows all the sales in the neighborhood based on MLS and Recorded Sales. It should be noted you will study all active, under contract, sold, price reduced, cancelled, expired and withdrawn in their neighborhood.

A few years ago, I was at a property doing a CMA, and I nailed the CMA. It was perfectly accurate, in my mind. I went over all the value propositions and she was confident I was the right agent for the listing. She knew we were the best company, best agent and best process. The next step after value presentation is the presentation of the numbers. We went through all her numbers and I recommended a list price of $255,000. To my astonishment she was disappointed. She's said, "Are you sure?" I replied, "I'm sure, I'm sure." She's said, "Are you sure?" I said, "I'm 100% sure. really confident." You have to have confidence in the price, because they won't hire you if you don't have confidence.

We were in her living room, and she had vaulted ceilings with big windows, and she pointed out the window across the street. There was a sign in the yard, and it said “Pending.” And she goes, "Then why is that home under contract at $269,000? It's the exact same house, exact same builder." I didn't do my research.

I didn't look at what is under contract. I was only looking at what was sold, and I didn't look in her neighborhood. I didn’t ask her if she knew what homes were selling for in her neighborhood. I didn’t get to her home early and drove around the neighborhood. I didn't get the listing, not because I wasn't the best agent, it's because I wasn't prepared, I didn't do the research. I didn't ask the right questions. Our profit is in our errors and omissions.

Prior to going to their house, look at all of the sales, all of the pendings, all the actives in the neighborhood, and then do a drive by around the neighborhood.

Make sure you get to know that neighborhood. Drive all around all those blocks before you get there. Because you need to know if someone puts a sign up and it's not on the MLS yet, and you don't know that, you're going to lose credibility if you don’t.

Back to the grand tour, you need to be prepared with a listing folder, ready to go. They need to know you're showing up prepared. Even though they're not in a hurry, it's going to symbolize and set the tone that this is who you are, and this is the experience they're going to have when they hire you, that you are always prepared.

Every time there's a showing, you're prepared. Every time you need to get feedback, you're prepared. Every time there is an offer, you are prepared. You need to demonstrate that you are the right agent by showing confidence.

I come to their house with a folder, I'm ready to go. I have a listing agreement and they know it. They know what's inside that folder. Plus, I want them to know that there are sales in that folder because they want to see those sales later. Offering to go over sales is going to be our close

from the grand tour to sitting down and going over value and numbers. yet? Bring all the paperwork.

What to bring in the folder:

Active, Under Contract & Closed Sales
Listing Agreement
Listing Detail/Input Sheet
Listing Disclosures
Listing/Value Presentation
Social Proof (5-Star Testimonial Tear Sheet)
Cancel Anytime Addendum
How to prepare for a photoshoot
Seller Information Sheet

Have I mentioned this

Don’t be cheap and lazy thinking it is a waste of paper. Don’t be lazy thinking it will be easier to send electronically after the listing. It's worth it to spend the time preparing all these documents, because the number of listings you're going to take on step one will make you more money than the paper and the effort you put into it. Trust me on this. It was a game changer for me.

Take Detailed Notes During Tour

Take detailed notes or have an assistant take detailed notes during the grand tour. You must take notes on the grand tour.

When you walk up to the door, knock, knock, knock, we're at Bob and Mary's house. Imagine you're going to an appointment. You're prepared, you have your sales, you have your paperwork, you have everything, you're 100% prepared to take a listing today. You knock on the door. The first thing we're going to do when we knock on the door and they answer, both parties are there when they open the door.

Script: Who's going to give me the grand tour?

That's the first question you are going to ask, because you want to decide and observe, who's the decision maker. The person giving you the tour, 90% of the time is the person that's going to make the decision. The decision on the prize or the decision to list the home.

However, be aware that if somebody directs the other person in an authoritative way to give the tour, the person directing is the decision maker. If Bob and Mary are there and Mary's says, "Bob, you show him the home." Mary is most likely the decision maker. However, if she says, "Oh, Bob knows everything about the home. He should show it to you." Bob's the decision maker.

Who's going to give me the grand tour? If they're both passive, they need you to take on the leadership and director role. Seller: "Thanks for coming. What do we do? What do you want to see first?" That's the most common start to a tour. “What do you want to see?" You must take control. You need to start directing and establishing authority immediately. When you start telling them what to do or what we're going to do in what order, you are now the director, you're the guide and the director. This is the ideal position, the authority position. Because that will allow me to tell them what to do next throughout the process. With passive sellers it is important that you outline the next step. Don’t try to close for the listing agreement too early. Any sign of pressure and they will resist. Constantly lead them down the path towards reviewing the listing paperwork.

"We're going to do the grant tour. Next, we're going to go over value propositions. Then we're going to go over your numbers. And then we're going to review the paperwork."

That is the order of things. Grand tour, value propositions, review the numbers, review the paperwork, sign. Even if they're not ready, I'm committed to asking them upon reviewing the numbers, "So, are you guys ready to put your home on the market? Or do these numbers work for you?"

If they say, "No, we need to think about it." I will say, "Okay great, since we are together now, let’s review the paperwork and disclosures."

Here's a rule that you will follow, never present the market analysis or numbers, without also reviewing paperwork. They go hand in hand.

If you have clients that are out of town. If you must e-mail the CMA, you must review the numbers over video conference or by phone. Set an appointment to review the numbers over video conference. Avoid sending an email report where the seller is left to themselves to interpret.

You are losing listings because you are emailing the market valuations without an appointment.

Don't let the seller interpret your report for themselves. You have to display the report and present the numbers. And actually, next week we're going to review a CMA, a market analysis, and how I present the numbers.

Start of Tour Script: "Bob and Mary, before we begin the tour, as you are showing the house, please tell me everything you've done to the home since you've owned it. In addition, tell me if there's anything you were planning to do to the home, prior to putting it out on the market."

During the tour script, "Bob and Mary, what is it about your home or your property that you believe the buyer will enjoy or value the most?”

Variation: “What is it about the home that you valued or enjoyed the most?”

Variation: “Take yourself back to when you purchased the home, what were all the reasons and

features that sold you on the home?"

The reason I’m asking these questions is twofold. First, I’m going to highlight the features during the presentation of the numbers as superior features compared to the comparables. Second, when going over our marketing I’m going to describe how we will highlight these features to the marketplace.

Imagine they mention they love the neighborhood because it is really quiet and they love their neighbors.

"Awesome, Bob and Mary, we are going to articulate how amazing the neighborhood is, how private and how amazing the neighbors are to the consumer. By articulating this to the consumer, they're going to value it, and the more the consumer values your property, the more they're going to pay you."

Most agents don't do this, they just click the boxes and then put on the MLS. Anybody can sell a home. Remember this fact. Anybody can put a home on the market. Anybody can put a home in the MLS. Anybody can install a lockbox and a sign.

Tell the sellers, "Anybody can list and sell your home in today's market, but will they get you the most money? Will they achieve the most money? Will you get what you deserve?"

Price is a function of supply and demand

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller price is a function of supply and demand. No agent can control the supply. That is outside of our control. However, demand we can control. By choosing the right agency with the best marketing you will increase the demand for your home, resulting in a higher price at the end of the day.”

The Single Most Important Decision

“Mr. & Mrs. Seller, do you know the most important decision you have to make when it comes to selling your home?”

“The single most important decision that a homeowner has to make when it comes to selling their home is the agent or agency they choose to hire. This is because the agency is going to determine the demand.”

In a low inventory seller’s market agents will actually do less marketing and put in less effort because it is not required to get a home sold. Use this to your advantage. Describe how you are doing more during a seller’s market.

Compare all value to the average agent

The average agent sells 7 to 12 homes a year. Know what the average agent sells per year in yoru marketplace. It's very easy to do. Look at your MLS, pull up all of the residential sales, times it by two so you have the total sides. Divide total sides by the total number of agents. For example if there are 10,000 sales and 1,000 agents, that's 10 sales per agent.

As a top producer and part of an elite organization, how many transactions did the organization sell in the last 12 months?

Our office sells 600 homes a year, so we say we sell nearly two homes a day. Where the average agent sells 12 homes in an entire year.

Script: “Mr. and Mrs. Seller, the average agent sells 12 a year, that's only one sale a month. More than likely, that's 6 buyers and 6 sellers, which means they are only selling one listing every two months. Imagine hiring a doctor or a surgeon that does that surgery every two months. Would you hire them to do surgery or would you want to have someone that does it twice a day? I have a client that does knee replacement surgeries. He does four a day. I'm going to hire him, not someone that does one hip surgery every other month. It doesn’t make any sense even if they happen to be a family member or a friend.”

The average agent’s marketing budget

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, If the average agent sells 12 homesa year. How much do they make per sale? After, they pay their broker, they pay all their dues, they pay their personal mortgage, they pay their taxes, they put food on the table. How much is leftover to market your home?”

“Our agency, our team, our elite organization, is high volume, low profit. Because we sell so many homes, it allows us to invest in a massive marketing budget to sell homes. Our agency spends $XX,XXX per month on marketing.”

Don’t fall for the trap of having a buyer already. A seller may ask you, "Do you have a buyer?"

Sellers will pay you crazy amounts of money, but they want you to earn it. When they ask if you have a buyer it is likely because they are trying to get a concession on the commission.

Never say you have a buyer. Don't play that game. Respond by saying, "Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we have thousands of buyers searching for homes like yours on our website. When we list your home we'll market the home to these buyers and the entire market. Attracting the most buyers to your home.”

The concept is that we will attract not chase buyers.

As they're giving the home tour I'm gathering information and observing the entire property and personal items.

I'm identifying the highest and best use of the property, but also who is most likely to buy that property and give them the most money. I’m developing their ideal client profile.

Is it a first time home buyer? Is it an investor? Is it a developer? Is it a second home buyer? Is it a vacationer? Who is it that's going to give them the most money? Who are they? Where do they live? What do they like? What do they do? Develop a story around the Ideal client profile.

I'm going to highlight potential ideal clients during the listing presentation. I'll say, Mr and Mrs. Seller, these are the groups of people that I think are most likely to give you the most money for your home and here is how we will target them.

Example, in our marketplace, we're 2 hours outside of the Seattle Metro Area. Seattle buyers can geoarbitrage into our marketplace. Geoarbitrage means you live in an area that's very expensive, cost of living higher, housing prices are higher, incomes are higher. These people can go to another marketplace that's lower cost of living, lower housing prices. They have more money to spend on the same thing for the same home in a different area. Someone sells a home in Seattle for $1,600,000, they can come over to my marketplace and buy a home for $800,000. That's better. It is half the money and it's better.

Who are your geoarbitrage buyers?

When I'm talking to a seller, I'll say, "Who I think will really enjoy your property or value your property the most, is someone from Seattle, someone relocating, someone downsizing, someone retiring. They're going to sell their home for $1,600,000, and they're going to buy your home for $800,000."

Tell a story of the consumer journey, based on their ideal client profile. If you can highlight that during the process, it's very powerful. The ideal client profile is most likely the person in the house, it is the seller, call them out. For instance, let's say a homeowner bought the property because they were starting a family. They just had a kid, they relocated for a job. I will call it out. I'll say, "You know who would really love this house? Somebody that is moving to the area because they just got a job, and maybe they just got married and plan on having kids. This is a perfect house for that and this is how we will target the market.”

Tell stories about your other clients that you've helped target the ideal client. Take them through the journey. Describe how your marketing attracted the buyer and describe the buyer in detail.

Taking Notes Continued

As you're going through the house, you need to take notes. The reason you take detailed notes is because the agent that doesn't, won't get the listing compared to the agent that does.

There was a listing where I was competing against the 800 pound gorilla in my marketplace. She had dominated the area for a decade.

I said, "You met with another agent. What did you like or what did they say they would do that knocked your socks off? How did they impress you?"

Rarely will the seller be impressed with the last agent's presentation. Most agents go through the motions and rely on luck, reputation or personality.

Second question, "Did they do anything that offended you?”

And what they told me was, "She has a great reputation and we've actually used her in the past, but you know what? She walked through the home and she didn't take one note. Not one note! Look at our house, it's beautiful. We told her all about it, she didn't take one note. There's no way she's going to remember everything."

From that moment on, I take tons of notes on every listing appointment. As you tour the home they may ask you for advice.

How do we stage this home? What should we do to this room? Should we remodel?

What color should we paint?

Do we need to declutter?

Be brief on your answers and always future pace that, after we review the numbers, we will make recommendations on staging, repairs, and preparation measures.

If they're asking me about staging, I'll say, "Mr and Mrs. Seller, you're asking me about how to stage this property. When you decide to put your home on the market, I'll hire a professional stager to come in and stage your home." Or if you don't do staging, say, “When you decide the time is right to list your home, I’ll come to your house and do a walk through with you and we'll stage every room."

Don't start giving them advice prior to the value presentation and equity report.

Should we remodel this? Let's talk about that when we talk about numbers. What should we do in this room? Let's talk about that when we talk about the numbers.

Many times in my career, I would give the seller all this advice. They would say, "Thank you, we'll get back to you." They would list with somebody else.

Even worse, I would get the listing, but now that I've already given them all my advice, they would want to negotiate the commission. The majority of your value should be after they sign up. That's why you have to differentiate yourself. If you're the same as everyone else, then the decision for the seller is, who's going to give me the best commission.

How to Test Motivation

Shoot bullets before cannonballs

As we are walking through the house, we can test motivation or the likelihood of us getting the listing by asking the right questions.

As I'm walking through the house, I'm going to ask when they could be ready for photos it will also add value, "Mr. and Mrs. at our office, we have a professional photographer, videographer, that does 3D tours, and drone photography. When do you think your home would be ready for photos?”

Variation, “When do you think you could be ready for our photographer to come over and take photos?”

Asking this before the value presentation and equity report will give me an idea of their motivation to sell and also an idea of how bought in they are with me as their agent.

Oftentimes they're going to give you a date, that tells you they're thinking about listing. If they give you a date, the probability of you getting the listing is near perfect.

The seller may say something like, "Whoa, whoa, slow down one bit. No, no, no, wait a second. We're still thinking about whether or not we want to sell" Or they might just be like, "Yeah, next week."

We are flushing out any objections in advance. You don’t want to handle objections to listing later in the process when it counts.

The second test is getting keys to the house. The lead in language is the lockbox,

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, you have a beautiful home. When we list your home, or if you ever decide to put your home on the market, we will put an electronic lockbox on your front door that's secured, showings will be based on appointment only. Inside that key box, we put keys.

Anytime someone that accesses the lockbox we will get notified and can call and ask for feedback."

I'm very detailed in the lockbox process and benefits because I know other agents won’t. The ending question.

"Do you happen to have an extra set of keys available?"

Preparing for the appointment, I said something about the key as well. I've had people on the tour, before we go over equity reports, before we go over value propositions, before we go over listing paperwork, before we've gone over commissions, before everything, take their keys off their key chain and hand it to me. I've had people tell their partner to go grab a key. I've had people give me their garage door opener or the code to their front door during the home tour.

I've had that happen. And it's like, "Oh my gosh." What type of person do you give your key to? Only people you trust. Obviously I've built enough trust or authority or value that early on that it is my listing to lose. There are no guarantees meaning to continue with the process. Don’t skip steps.

The third way to test motivation is asking about how much they owe on the property in terms of their payoff amount.

Script: "Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we talked about running the equity report on your home, which is the market analysis minus the taxes and fees. Mr. and Mrs. Seller, do you know what the biggest expense is when it comes to selling your home?"

“It's your mortgage: Do you happen to have your last mortgage statement that shows your principal amount, that way I can run your equity position accurately?”

Three types of buyers

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, three types of buyers. There's buyers that live in town, there's buyers that live out of town, and there's buyers working with other brokers."

I'm going to highlight how we're going to attract in-town buyers, out-of-town buyers, and buyers working with another agent. Describe all the ways we get buyers working with other brokers to show our listings. The last thing you want is a seller wondering why you or your office hasn’t shown the house. You must highlight that 94%+ of all buyers have an agent. We put it on the MLS.

All too common mistake is agents stop selling that which is common. The MLS is powerful and most agents stop selling the MLS. You can differentiate yourself by detailing the common tools that everyone stops selling like lockboxes and the MLS.

Script "Mr. and Mrs. Seller, the MLS is one of the most powerful technologies available to you to get top dollar. Sadly, most agents don't know how to leverage the MLS for their clients to reach other agents with buyers."

They don't know how to email the top agents alerting them of your home, they don't know how to cooperate properly, they don't answer the phone, they don't take enough photos, they don't take professional photos, they have terrible directions, terrible remarks, terrible private remarks, they don't have all the documents uploaded.

The average agent makes it hard for the other agent to sell a property. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for the other agent to sell the property, because over 90% of all buyers are represented by our buyer's agent. Because when it comes to selling your home, you have to sell the home three times.

You have to sell your home three times

If you haven't noticed, I like using three, because it's easy to remember and easy to understand,

"Mr and Mrs. Seller, when it comes to selling your home, you have to sell it three times. You have to sell it to the buyer, the buyer's agent, and the lender.”

I'll talk to them about all the mistakes the agents and the industry make. By stating the mistakes you build trust, credibility and they will assume you don’t make those mistakes. This is important to understand, you don’t have to say that you don’t make those mistakes. You are not perfect but knowing they could happen is elite.

“Any error, omission or mistake, can cost a homeowner tens of thousands of dollars when it comes to selling their home.”

Above is a one-liner that you can use on sellers. “You know why the biggest decision you have is to hire the right agent? It's for exposure and demand, we talked about that. But it's also that if you hired the wrong agent, any mistake can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Even worse, your home could fail to sell.”

There's a Facebook group called bad MLS listings, where agents and consumers post terrible listings. A poorly executed listing is a detriment to the seller and affects the price. We all have stories for days, and share them with the seller.

There will be a time for us to talk about commissions and fees

Never talk commission over the phone or during the tour, anytime prior to doing the home equity report. If the seller asks, What's your commission? Reply with, “We have flexible fees” or “We have a number of different programs.” Or the best option, “When we review the sales, I will break down all of the fees associated with selling your home.”

The reason being is, I have to go over my value presentation prior to the equity report.

This is a two-step process. In the event the sales and numbers you brought are accurate and you are not competing you will continue to step 2 after the tour. If you need to run the numbers and do more research. After the tour, you're going to say,

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, thank you so much for the tour of your home. I'm going to go back to the office and run a report for you and then we'll meet up and review the numbers. When can we meet?"

Never leave the appointment without an appointment. You're going to set up the step 2 appointment no later than 48 hours unless other seller conflicts arise. This is a rule of thumb. Within 48 hours you set up that follow-up appointment for step 2, unless you are competing or their schedules don’t allow it, then adjust.

If you're competing, you're going to go last. Otherwise, I want you to do it within 48 hours or sooner. Time kills deals.

I'm also going to tell the seller how long it takes me to do the report. This builds equity in the relationship and skin in the game. "Bob and Mary, I'm going to go back to the office. It's probably going to take me two to three hours to do a report for you. I can have it done for you by tomorrow. Can you go meet at 4:00 pm at our office?”

I'm going to bring them back to my office because I want home court advantage and I can control the experience.

If you're not competing and the appointment is 48 hours away or longer. If I had time and I'm doing a two-step process, because my numbers were off, I'm going to go back to the office, I'm going to adjust my CMA. Once finished, I'm going to call the seller back and say, "Bob and Mary, I had some extra time. I was so excited after seeing your home, I just had to get to work. I'm almost done with your report. Do you have time to meet earlier? Can we meet tonight, or can we meet earlier tomorrow?"

This will exceed their expectations. Using this technique it's really important when you call them that you say you're almost done, because if you're done, they're going to want you to email it to them.

Don't email them the report. I've won listings by getting them while they're hot and going to step 2 the same day. This is the primary reason I prefer 10 AM listing appointments for step 1. Because if I can’t go to step 2 during the initial tour and have a free afternoon. I will hustle and do step 2 the same day.

If you're doing the grand tour and only one decision-maker's there, set up a second step to meet when the partner is available next. My numbers might be perfect but if the husband's not there or the wife's not there. I'm going to abort and go step two to make sure I can get both in the same room at the sametime.

Never count on the one person being able to transmit the value propositions to the other party. What is going to happen is the other person will only care about price and commission. There will be no value.

If they don't like your price or they don't like their commission, they're going to go look for other agents' opinions. You might not think you're competing, but since you only presented to the one person, the other person's going to go do some research and find someone else. Bow you are competing and even worse you don't know you're competing.

If you're going to a two-step process on another day, some people will try to bait you into giving an opinion of value, "What do you think it is worth?" They will even say, they won’t hold you to it.

Don't tell them. Don't tell them. Don't tell them. Trust me. If you give them a price, you are losing their attention and their focus.

"Mr. and Ms. Seller, I really want to tell you what I think, but you know what? I can't trust my gut, I got to use the numbers. Because the pricing that I give you isn't necessarily the pricing that I believe I can get for it. It's what the market will bear. You hire me to attract buyers to give you the most money. You don't hire me to tell you what you want to hear.”

Do you want fiction or the truth?

"Mr. And Mrs. Seller, can I have permission to tell you, not what you want to hear, but what you need to hear?"

Here is the opportunity when people want to know what you think, it's an opportunity for you to articulate that you are their expert advisor.

"Mr and Mrs. Seller, it is not right or ethical for me to give a number without doing my research. Most agents will try to tell you a number that they think you will like, so that you like them. I wish I could get you $2 million for this home. If it were up to me, that's what you would get. But the fact of the matter is, you hire me to do a market analysis so that you can make a decision on the best price, to position your home on the marketplace to achieve the most money.”

Remove obstacles and remove barriers

Here's the thing. Some people aren't going to list their homes because they're not ready. This is a legitimate reason and that shouldn’t hold us back from moving them forward with assistance.

They have to declutter. They have to clean it. They need to move items to a storage unit. They have to find another home first. They have some repair projects. This is where you come in.

Find the solution. Be flexible on the list date.

We want to remodel or work on a project is a common barrier. If the market bears it ask about selling as-is.

"If I could sell your home without you remodeling the bathroom, would you consider it? If it didn't cost you any money. If at the end of day you made more money, would you do that?”

You know your marketplace. Remember sellers want the least amount of hassle. They might consider a lower price knowing they can list now versus later with less effort.

At the end of the day, you need to give them good advice, but it's up to them to make the decision.

The more creative you are on listing, the more listings you're going to get.

The more flexible you are on listing, the more listings you're going to get. I'm really flexible on terms. We have signed listings with a 7 day expiration date and 24 months expiration dates.

Everyone in the marketplace does a 6 month listing agreement. It is boring and standard. There is nothing exciting or different about it. That is why we offer our services for 12 months. We however, are willing to cancel anytime and take any timeline we feel will allow us to do our jobs effectively.

A properly priced listing shouldn’t take 6 months. In most cases and marketplaces the home will sell in 30 days or less.

End of Tour, Confident Numbers, No competition

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I did my research prior to coming over, and I brought some sales with me. Do you want to sit down and review them?"

I've never had someone say no to that question. What happens then, is they're going to sit down at the kitchen table. Avoid awkward sitting arrangements like sofas or living room furniture.

Chapter 4 we will cover the vale presentation and home equity report presentation.

Chapter 4 Value Presentation Value unarticulated is value unappreciated

To differentiate yourself in the marketplace, we have to be able to articulate our value. The more value we present and demonstrate to the homeowner or the property owner or to the builder, the more we're likely to get our commission and raise our commissions to new levels.

We have found after 5,000 sales, homeowners have no problem paying you 6%, 7%, 8% commission rates. I've actually had a 12% commission listing on homes and as a test, because I wanted to test myself on how much value I can present and articulate. Homeowners have no problem paying the money if you're worth it, if they get the value out of it. Wealthy people understand they pay for value, not for price. They're not looking at costs, they're looking at value. Value is anything over and beyond price. Therefore we must demonstrate and promise future value at the appointment that exceeds the cost.

With any product and service as long as value exceeds price, it's a good deal. If they think the value is less than what they're paying, then the loss aversion kicks in, they feel like they're getting taken. And it doesn't matter how much it is, it could be a dollar. If they feel like you weren't worth that dollar, they're going to feel bad about it. Agents don’t understand this concept. They charge less than full rate and the seller still isn’t satisfied because reducing the commission is not a value proposition. You are not increasing value by lower fees.

Real estate agents call the listing presentation the part of the process where you're actually sitting down and talking about your marketing, your features and benefits. But the listing presentation is the entire process. From the moment they contact your company. That's the listing presentation. You should be adding value from the beginning whether it be on the phone, by email, as soon as they're a lead, when you're doing the grand tour. They are paying for an experience. Call it the listing experience. The point at which you sit down and get permission to give value is called the value presentation.

Listing Presentation Steps

Grand Tour
Value Presentation
Present Numbers
Listing Paperwork

Nick McLean:

Ideal Client Profile

Who is your ideal listing client? I want you to be able to articulate your ideal client profile in great detail. Get crystal clear on who they are. And maybe there's four or five ideal client profiles that you can go out and get more listings with. I want you to get really clear on this. Where are the people that own homes that you want to work with? What neighborhoods do they live in? What do they do for a living? How old are they? What's their education level like? Do they have kids? Do they not have kids? Do they have families? Do they not have families? Are they empty-nesters? Are they starting a family? Are they up sizing or downsizing? Do they own second homes or not second homes? Who's your ideal client profile?

Take 5 minutes and write down your ideal client.

During my career, one of my many ideal client profiles that I love, love, love, love working with is elderly people. This ideal client profile I’m very passionate about serving and gives me the highest degree of meaningful work. I'm just very passionate about this. I love working with widows or widowers, mostly widows because females statistically live longer than males. I really loved working with them because they needed my help. They typically owned homes for 10, 20, 30 years, so they had tons of equity. They had kids, but the kids are now grown up, in their '50s and '60s and have moved away. And they were really good parents and their kids were educated and their kids are very successful. They are really proud of their kids, but their kids moved out of town, so they now need local expert help and assistance.

They would call on me, because I was the person that would come in and help them out on their home sale. I loved them because they have tons of equity. They would always appreciate my services. They were open to my recommendations for preparing the home for sale and also for pricing the home. Now that I have identified an ideal client profile, I can reverse engineer and find out where those people are and what messaging they respond to best. I can also identify other businesses that already work with my ideal client profile and network with them.

I'll give you an example. Because my ideal client profile often is selling because of a loss in the family there's a time of death analysis required. When someone passes away and you're married, there's usually a time of death valuation. I reached out to all of the attorneys or law firms in my community and I introduced myself as an estate planning expert or a listing agent that helps people through the estate process.

Probates and estates, if there's a time of death, I would do a free home valuation for that

firm, so they don't have to go out and look for people to do it. I would do it as a service for free, and I don't expect to get the listing, but eventually I would get the listing.

Another example is maybe I love working with new construction, and I love the building process, and I love designing and engineering and picking out things and working with that. Well, my aunt just turned 85 years old and had an amazing real estate career, that's what she would do. Her ideal client was a builder. Builders are no nonsense, there is no emotion involved at all, they want results. They want someone to take on the heavy lifting, the logistics of working hand in hand with buyers and all their little choices. They hate paying agents for doing nothing. They want you to earn it. They want you to sit at open houses and do model homes. They want someone that understands the process that can take charge with the buyers and agents. They

don’t have time to answer all the little questions that get in the way of what they love doing, building homes.

What my aunt would do is she would drive around and every single home that was being built, she would stop. Every apartment complex, every condo being built. If there was any lumber on site, she would stop, she would get out and she'd introduce herself. She had an amazing career as the agent that could manage a new construction project.

You're in an organization, a team, a company where they're probably providing you with opportunities to get listings, but at the same time, you can go out and reverse engineer and generate listings for the company as well. The power of proximity, you need to put yourself in positions closer to where people are going to be listing homes.

One of my agents loves working with baby boomers, the older baby boomers that are getting ready to retire. They own a big home and they're downsizing. This is a very profitable ideal client profile. They still have kids in high school or are recent empty nesters. One or both of them are in the workforce and planning a retirement in the next 5 years. They want to travel more and enjoy the golden years. Many will buy a condo or home in a vacation/second home area as well as their new primary location. Many are moving to be closer to kids and grandkids. To reverse engineer this ideal client. One could find an organization that employs baby boomers that also have retirements. This requires longevity in their employment history at the organization.

Are you starting to see that you need to get clarity on who you want to work with?

Ask yourself, that's my ideal client, who else is working with my ideal client? There's other businesses, ancillary businesses that already have your clients. This is a host beneficial relationship, so go find the host that you can benefit from. What I told my listing partner, I said, "Financial advisors have those people because they're having conversations with their clients about how to retire. They're actively talking about retirement right now." Reach out to financial advisors, reach out to CPAs, accounting firms that are helping people plan for retirement. You're going to get more listings from that, way more listings.

That's a host beneficiary relationship. Again, it's the power of proximity, if you want to work with socialites or people that are part of wine clubs or PTA meetings, teachers, medical fields get closer to those people and networks.

Another source of listings or buyers is from all human resource departments. Every big company in town, whether it's your hospitals or the big corporations or manufacturing plants, who's hiring? Go to Indeed job boards, Monster.com boards, find out who's hiring and get to know the HR directors. Find the job recruiters in your market. They don’t get paid unless the person takes the job. If the person can’t find housing they won’t take the job. They need you.

Consistently reach out to builders to know what projects they have in the pipeline and what they need.

Script: “Hey Roger, I'm just checking on you personally to see how you're doing during this time. Tell me about your current projects. What projects do you have going on? What is your future need for lots and dirt?"

They always have production problems. They always need more access to lots and more development projects.

I once sold a piece of property to a builder and then they built 35 homes. That is 35 listings. A mentor of mine once taught me that we have to create listings.

How do you subdivide in your area? How do you develop land in your area? How do you improve properties in your area?

Help more people achieve their goals and you will achieve your goals.

Reached out to developers and asked them what they were looking for and go find it. To a developer, "What are you looking for? What zoning do you need? What would you build?”

Value propositions for homeowners

We always show up to the property prepared with sales, so that we can present numbers. Ideally we have a comparable market analysis completed. At the end of the tour, we're going to say.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller. I was able to do research prior to coming over. I'm always prepared prior to going to an appointment because you want to hire an agent that is prepared. Do you have a moment to go over recent sales that I brought with me?"

99 times out of 100, they say yes and you're going to sit down at their kitchen table.

Nick McLean:

It's possible that you're competing and you want to go last, or that your numbers don't match up and you're not quite prepared, or maybe both decision makers aren't there. In all three cases you're going to abort and schedule step two at your office.

Either at the office or you're at their kitchen table, the next step is to get permission to go over your value presentation.

“Mr and Mrs. Seller, prior to reviewing the sales I brought to you, I wanted to go over what we do to sell homes for the most money, if you ever did decide to sell your home now or in the future. Is it okay that I go over our expert listing process with you?”

The enemy of good is great

We're going to differentiate ourselves compared to the average agent. We're not going to compare ourselves to the top agents in the marketplace. We protect people from hiring the wrong agent. Hiring us is protection against the average. Any listing agent's number one competitor is the large number of average and below average agents. They get listed based on relationships and connections. Top agents rarely compete against each other. Top agents typically are not competing because they attract referral business. It is difficult to differentiate yourself compared to the elite agents in the marketplace. The difference is minimal. However, to compare your services to the average agent is drastically different.

Value Presentation

“Before we review the sales, let's go over the process we would go through if you decided to sell your home. When you decide to put your home on the market, our goal together is to get you the most money for your home. We will do that by creating the most demand so that you are always in control of your timelines. No matter if you sell today or in the next week, you're going to be in control of your timelines.”

People love security, certainty and a sense of control. They want to know that they're in control.

“We're going to sell your home with the least amount of hassle and the least amount of headaches possible. Does that sound like we're on the same page, if you decided to sell your home?”

They're going to say yes.

The home equity swing

Sellers need to understand that the single most important decision they can make or they will need to make is the agent they choose to sell their home.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, the single most important decision you have to make when it comes to selling your home is not when you sell it, it's who you hire, because who you hire will determine how much demand you have and how much demand determines your ultimate price.”

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, most homes are selling right now, but what's shocking or what people need to understand is your home can sell for the low, the bottom of the market, the middle of the market, or the top of the market. Your home's worth what someone is willing to pay, however, the agent you choose determines how many people see your home.”

“Hiring the wrong agent will result in less demand and can have catastrophic impacts on your desired results and goals. The wrong agent or the average agent will result in you selling your home for the bottom of the market or the middle of the market. Hiring a great agency that creates the most demand will result in your home selling for the top of the market, the most money. Our goal is to sell it for the most money.”

“We have identified hundreds of factors that go into selling a home. In mistake, error or omission by an agent could cost you 10s of thousands of dollars on your price or unnecessary costs. The difference between the bottom and the top of the market could be up to 18% or more.”

“Imagine you listed your home with an agent and they literally did nothing. What do you think the home sold for? Not much!”

“That is the reason there are agents who are willing to list homes for very low commissions. They're willing to do low cost listings because they know they don’t have anything to lose. While the seller has everything to lose. Will your home sell? How much? It is unknown when you hire the wrong agent. Statistically for sale by owners sell for 18% less money than a traditional listing.”

The next thing you want to cover with them is that homes fail to sell.

“Mr and Mrs. Seller, shockingly, what people don't understand is a lot of homes in today's marketplace aren't selling. So they list their home. They go through all this process, all the hassle. They go through all their preparation, they spend money, they change their lifestyles. They change their plans to their life. They put their home on the market and it doesn't sell. They. end up cancelling their listing or it expires from the marketplace. This is something the news and agents never tell the public. But, there are cancellations everyday on our MLS.”

There are three reasons homes fail to sell

Priced too high
Poor marketing and exposure
Something is terribly wrong

A price and a great agent can overcome these obstacles. If they don’t hire the right agent and price is off nothing can help.

List Price to Sales Price Ratios

The average list price to sales price ratio is something I talk about with the homeowner. I want to emphasize something to them. I want to emphasize that the price I give them is a price that's optimized for the sale of their home. They should not consider listing high expecting to come

down. This is a common error and we must address it before we present numbers. By showing them the list price to sales price ratio they will see they shouldn’t overshoot the runway.

Emphasize when you hire a great agent like us, a great marketing agency like us, there is no need to price that high to come down. Be explicit: do not price high expecting it to come down. That's what the average agents do. The average will tell you to go higher, because you can always come down. When you're an expert in your field and you have the right marketing and you create the most demand, when you price it right you see prices go up.

We will create an auction-like effect.

Homeowners want to hire a listing agent with confidence. The most confident will win. Not cocky but confident. Their self-efficacy is high, meaning they believe they are the right person for the job of selling your home, that anyone else would be detrimental to the results. This is the mindset you've got to have during the value presentation, supreme confidence. You have to believe that you're at the right agency, organization and you have the right process to get it done, no matter what.Their home may be hard to sell, but you're still the best chance they have, period.

Average Agents Sales Numbers

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, the average agent in our marketplace, sells 10 homes a year. This means they'll represent five buyers and represent five sellers. This means statistically they only list five homes a year. At our office, our agency, our organization, we're selling two homes a day. We are a high volume, low profit real estate company conversely the average agent is low volume, high profit.

No matter what, you're going to be spending a lot of money on commissions. It's just some agents, because they're not selling enough homes, they cannot invest in marketing your home the right way. Think about it, if you're selling 10 homes a year, you have to pay your dues, you have to pay your student loans, your mortgage, you have to put food on your table, you have personal expenses, you have accounting fees, you have all these other fees, and what's left over you have available to market someone's home. There just isn’t anything left over for their clients.

When you hire an agency, like our company that is run as a business, not a hobby, not a supplemental income source, like a lot of agents use real estate as a supplemental income source for their family, we have way more to invest. The average agent in our marketplace is 500 dollars a month in marketing. Our agency spends over XX,XXX dollars a month in marketing because we do high volume, low profit.”

Know your marketing budgets and compare them to national averages.

Talk about the barrier to entry into the real estate industry. The average agent barrier to entry in Washington State is 90 hours of online courses. It's very easy to get your real estate license. If

you're in Canada, maybe it's one year or two years, whatever it is, know what it is. This is shocking to a lot of people.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, there's a lot of agents, and the reason there's a lot of agents is because the barrier to entry is so very low. When an industry has a low barrier to entry you get widely different skill sets. So many agents are just part-time and they're just doing it as a hobby and they really don't have the skills, knowledge, or ability to do it at a high level for their clients.”

Average Agents Lack Training

“The average agent doesn't do any additional training. They don't have a coach, they don't train, they don't work on their business beyond the government minimum requirements. Our company invests in training. We have relevant industry training every week. We're full time experts. Imagine needing brain surgery... You would seek out the very best in terms of training and skills. Why would selling your biggest asset be any different?”

How to counter experienced agents

Talk about the collective genius of your organization. An example is at our company we have over 300 years of experience combined. You must touch on experience because you don't know if you're growing up against another experienced agent that has 30 years experience. You have to differentiate yourself against those years of experience.

Nick McLean:

I combat years of experience with this line. If I'm an agent right now and I don't have too many years of experience,

Script: “I would rather have a young and hungry agent over an experienced complacent one.”

As a pilot, one of the most dangerous pilots on the planet is the experienced complacent one, because when they make a mistake it will be a big mistake. When an experienced professional loses interest and passion they become lazy and disengaged. That is a dangerous combination to be complacent and not care about the result. Sellers do not want to hire lazy agents. They want someone that's going to be proactive and aggressive and work hard no matter what.

The Traditional 3-Step Listing Plan

The traditional three step plan for listing your home is a line you must use as well with sellers.

“Mr and Mrs. Seller, the average real estate agent, has a three step listing process. Step number one, they put a sign in the yard.

Step number two, they put it on the MLS.

Step number three, they cross their fingers and hope it sells.

Really aggressive agents, all they want is to convince you to list the home so they can put a sign in the yard, put it on the MLS and go out and find another listing. They're not actually going to be proactively working the listing the entire time to get you the most money. Our approach is to be proactive and aggressive the entire time during your listing.”

The Selling Process

Now I'm going to share with the seller the process of selling a home. Our value propositions are all built around the buyer conversion process. Understanding the buyer sales process is exactly how I list and market a home for sale because a seller wants conversion. This means you need to understand how to convert buyers at the highest level.

Here's how we're going to explain it to a novice seller.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I'm going to share with you our system for selling homes for top dollar compared to traditional methods prevalent in the real estate industry.

Pricing

The average agent will use a comparable market analysis to price your home. The problem with a CMA is it's antiquated and in isolation it's not enough and can lead to overpricing and even worse underpricing your home. We do advanced research on your home, we also factor in other important variables. A comparable market analysis is all rear view mirrors. The marketplace changes so rapidly that the price that the average agent gives you is probably old and not accurate. If you have the wrong price you will get the wrong result.

We're going to factor in more than just past sales. We're going to factor in trends, economic indicators, loan programs, interest rates, inventory levels, new construction trends, job markets, and macro economy. When we review numbers together, I know that I factored these variables to forecast future demand.

Can I tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear?

There's something catastrophically bad that can happen, shockingly bad, that can happen to a homeowner like yourself and the average agent does it all the time. They try to guess what the seller wants to hear when it comes to pricing to land the listing. Most agents are going to tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear.

Mr. Mrs. Seller, is it okay that I tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear?

After 5,000+ listing appointments I have never had a seller say, no to this question. Not once.

Stop saying anybody can do it

What's interesting about our value propositions is we're not telling people how hot the marketplace is. We're not telling them how easy it is. We're not telling them how fast it's going to sell. You have to understand something, if you're telling people how fast it's going to sell, how quickly you can sell it, how hot the marketplace is, how low the inventory is. What you're saying is anybody can do it. What you're saying is you can wait, because the market is only getting better and when you are ready the home will sell no matter what.

When the seller thinks their home will sell no matter what. Then they think, let me find the agent that will do it for the least amount of money.

Talk about what can go wrong. I talk about homes that don't sell. I talk about how you can sell it for the bottom of the market. I talk about how you could be pricing it wrong and getting the wrong result and not knowing it. People are problem aware and problem unaware. In a seller’s market they're thinking it's hot and it's just going to happen, you come in there and you give them the truth.

Marketing Value Proposition

Let's say you decide to list your home on the open market with a top agent, like myself, the first thing we're going to do is we're going to market your home. We're going to put your home on the marketplace and expose it to the most qualified buyers, humanly possible in the best possible light.

94% of all buyers search online for homes. That is a number that's constantly increasing and it's probably closer to 100%. The only reason it is not 100% is because some homes sell off market to people they may already know. When that happens their home is only exposed to one person and statistically sells for under market. It makes sense for us to invest our marketing dollars in the areas where buyers look for homes like yours and that is online.

I might even call out their home. Meaning I describe their home.

I might say, "We are going to invest marketing dollars in sources where people looking for a second home, a waterfront home, or a new construction home are looking."

“We will market your home using digital marketing, that's Google searches, Bing searches, Website searches.

Your home will have premiere positioning on websites like, Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. S Your home will be promoted on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.”

Using social media you can target exactly who your ideal client is. Who's most likely to buy their home and you talk about it.

We're going to market your home to every buyer in the market now and in the future, but specifically, first time home buyers, relocation buyers, people getting a job, people buying second homes.

We're going to market to the people with the most money.

Videos, Videos, Videos!

You are then going to talk about your presentation of your listings, how you use professional photography, 3D tours, drone photography and videos, videos, videos, videos, videos, videos, videos. We're going to do open houses with video tours, Facebook Live videos. The consumer wants videos right now. They want access to the inside of the homes and they want to see video from the comfort of their home while watching Netflix. If you're doing videos or you're willing to do videos, you need to be telling your seller that you're going to be doing videos.

We're showing homes to people outside of the area. We will do video tours of your homes.

Tell a success story on how you were able to attract a buyer from out of town using your marketing.

Differentiate your professional photos

I like to differentiate everything with the seller.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, anybody can hire a professional photographer, but will they hire the right professional photographer with the right lighting and the right angles.

Variation: “Mr. and Mrs. Seller, most agents will tell you they do professional photography, but they don't understand lighting and exposure. See, once you set your criteria on the search, you're only looking at photos and I want your photos to stand out. I'm going to make sure your property stands out from the crowd of competitive homes.”

Advertising Copy

The average agent lists homes with very few remarks. They don't take the time to write about the details. There are words that sell.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, there are words that are proven to sell properties. The devil's in the details. Everything you showed me today on the grand tour, all the details, all the quality, the exceptional condition, and all the features, we are going to highlight on your listing. We're going to increase the perceived value of your home by being very, very specific. It's about the details, the nuances that sell.”

You tell them we're going to be very, very detailed on your listing where the average agent will be vague.

Vagueness doesn't sell, clarity sells.

Parables roll off the consumer's mind like water off a duck's back

Meaning in marketing and advertising, you have to be able to call out people specifically with details. Otherwise, it's like the best burgers in town, what does it mean? Best food in town? Means nothing. Awesome, great, amazing, whatever, means nothing to the consumer. Agents make this mistake with listings all the time because they are lazy. The average agent writes things like, amazing home, great home, nice home, beautiful home. That's vague and it doesn't sell.

Zillow actually did a study on all of the sold homes versus the ones that didn't sell and they compared the words used in the remarks. What they found was the listings with more specific details sold and sold for more money.

Reach and Frequency

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, there are also three types of buyers. There's buyers in town, there's buyers out of town and there's buyers working with another broker. Our goal in marketing is to expose your home to all of the buyers using the greatest marketing reach in terms of distance because the more buyers we get, the more demand. Then increase the number of times the buyer sees your home. That is called Frequency. We're going to be everywhere. We're not just going to be local. The average agent goes local. The average agent thinks it only takes one buyer. We understand it, we want all of the buyers, that's why you hire us.”

Tell a story of how you have found a buyer from out of town.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, this is what I found to be true. If I can reach somebody in Europe or China, I can reach somebody local. The average agent thinks too small and markets locally, such as signs, flyers and newspaper ads. They're not reaching people out of town. They're hoping they

drive over and visit. We catch them before they drive over and then we do video tours and sell them before they even visit.”

Cooperation

We will detail how we will be cooperating with other agents.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, there are buyers in town, out of town and buyers working with another agent. This is very interesting, over time, the number of buyers that are using agents has actually increased. Not too long ago, maybe 10, 15 years ago, 85%, 86% of buyers used agents when buying a home. It's now over 90%. We understand that a lot of buyers are already working with brokers so we're going to reach out to all the top agents in our marketplace and market your home to them. We will reach these agents through the MLS, emails, phone calls, through broker's tours, through private showings.”

“I know that other agents are or will be working with a buyer that is looking for a home like yours. As soon as you list your home with us, I'm going to network with the agent community. We're going to run the numbers later, but it is worth sharing that the total commission doesn’t go entirely to me, we share our commission with the other agent that brings the buyer.”

Share Not Split

We say share, not split. Stop saying split because there's going to come a time in which you're going to be making less than the buyer's agent and there can be a time where you're making more than the buyer's broker. At many top agencies the listing firm has a higher percentage of the total commission.

For instance on a six percent commission the co-operative agent will receive two point five. sometimes we're getting three and a half and they're getting two and a half. Just like the listing commission is what the market will bear, the co-op should be what the markets are willing to bear. I'm a capitalist.

3.5% compared to 2.5% is 40% more revenue for the listing department.

4.5% compared to 2.5% is 80% more revenue for the listing department.

Three ways to make more money in real estate

There are three ways to make more money in real estate. You can sell more homes, you can sell higher priced homes, and you command higher commissions.

When you can do all three, you will see exponentially or geometrically increases to your income. More homes, higher priced homes, higher commissions.

Attract Versus Chase

Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we market to all of the buyers, all of them in the best possible way, in the best possible light essentially attracting buyers versus chasing. We are attracting buyers, not chasing buyers.

The best negotiating strategy is to attract the best offer. It's much easier to negotiate the highest offer when you attract buyers. When you chase buyers you have to convince them to do something they don’t want to do. Do you like to be told what to do? Then doesn’t it make sense to attract buyers that want to give us full price or higher?

Time Kills Deals

Sellers need to understand time kills deals. Most real estate agents and certainly the average real estate agent will return phone calls after 24 hours. In most cases not at all.

Nick McLean:

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller. If an average agent lists a home on the marketplace and they put a sign in the ground or they put an ad somewhere and a qualified buyer calls the number on the sign, statistically, the agent will not answer the phone and if they return the call it will be over 24 hours later.

Let me ask you a question, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, what do you think happens to that buyer? If they don't answer that phone, what do you think the buyer's going to do next?

They're long gone.

We know that time kills deals, so we are trained under the concept of speed to lead. When a buyer registers on the website or calls a sign, you need to call them within 5 minutes or less otherwise, they're long gone. It's now five minutes.”

I was talking to our Zillow rep, and we're one of the top Zillow Premier Agent Teams in Washington State and last week we hit 81% answer rate. And you know what? We were in the top 1% of all agents. Zillow reports that less than 25% of their phone transfers are answered by paying agents. It's atrocious out there, you know it is and the seller needs to know it. Agents are not answering their phone, so call them out.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, would you hire an agent knowing that if someone called the sign or grabbed a flyer out of the flyer box, that when they call that no one's going to answer? No, not at all.”

I will explain to the seller how we are trained at our company to answer our phones and to call every lead within five minutes. How we have a call center or broadcast to multiple agents to minimize dropped calls which means more buyers for our listings. Highlight you are a salesperson and that they need to hire a professional in sales when listing a home. Most agents are not closers and if the seller knows other agents more than likely it will highlight how inadequate they are to make a sale.

Coming Soon Listings

“We have a hundred agents in our office and each one is working with pre-approved or cash buyers. As soon as you sign, we're going to expose your home to all of the buyers, prequalified, that we have right now. But we only do that once you sign up. In many cases buyers are willing to pay a premium to have access to homes prior to the MLS.”

Art of the Deal (Negotiations)

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we don't want to give your home away. We are trained in the science and art of negotiations. We're not going to settle for average here. If there's more to get, we're going to get it for you because you deserve it and that's why you hire us. There is an agency problem with the average agent because they only get paid if your home sells and they need to make money. Never hire an agent that needs the sale more than you. We will always negotiate from a position of strength and be willing to walk away if it is your best interest.”

What is an agency problem?

Since the agent is incentivized to get your home sold, it doesn't matter to them if they leave 10,000 dollars on the table for you, because 10,000 dollars left on the table for you is only 300 dollars on their commission check, 3% of 10,000. It doesn't really matter to them, but it matters a lot to the seller. 10,000 dollars is a lot of money. Since we sell high volumes of homes, I don't need the commission. I want to earn it, but I'm going to fight for 10,000 dollars for the seller.

This was in the book Freakonomics They did research on this and agents give bad advice because they're not incentivized to get that extra 10,000 dollars. You never want to hire an agent that needs the commission more than you need to sell your house. The average agent doesn't sell enough homes. They're desperate. They need the money and they want it sold. This puts them in a tough spot to give ethical and moral advice.

Execution is the name of the game

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, now we need to execute. You did all the work and got a qualified buyer under contract, now you need to execute. At our office we have a closing coordinator, a dedicated person that will make sure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s crossed. Everything from title, escrow, contracts, inspections, inspection responses, the buyer's appraisal, lending and more. Because any mistake during the closing process can cost you 10s of thousands of dollars. The average agent is not equipped to handle their day to day business and coordinate closing.”

In Conclusion

You're going to ask them if they have any questions.

Mr. and Mrs. Seller do you now see we are the right agency to sell your home for the most money? Now, let's go over the CMA and the home equity report.

Next Chapter we're going to go over market analysis, breaking down the numbers and commissions. We will cover different types of listing programs.

Additional Comments on the Value Presentation

If you're competing or if you don't know you're competing there's a question you can ask at the end.

Have you heard anyone say they're willing to do something that I failed to mention? Ask do you have any concerns about the listing process?

They may not want a sign. They may not want an open house. They might have questions on how showings work. They may need access to your vendor list.

Chapter 5: Running the Numbers, Commissions & Listing Programs

Prior to getting a listing signed, you need to sound ultimately confident and not break rapport. Once you sign a listing, you can set expectations. There's pre-listing and post-listing, this is very important when it comes to expectations. A lot of agents are worried about being blamed or overpricing the home. They get anxiety that they start setting expectations during the grand tour or setting expectations during the value proposition and they sound like they lack confidence. They may give sound advice however, it is in the wrong order. Just like in comedy, timing is everything.

The moment we get a listing signed we set expectations and manage seller expectations on results.

Running the Numbers

This chapter is all about going over the numbers. We want to get to a place where we choose a price collaboratively with the seller so that we achieve the most demand and the highest price.

We've been telling them this the whole time that we want to get you the most money in the least amount of time on your timelines.

“Mr. and Mrs. Sellers, you have control over the demand of your house as well. Choosing a price is how you can position your home on the market. The best position creates the most demand. Too high or too low can lower your demand. Therefore, the market analysis that we present to you is data, it's information that you're going to use to choose with my guidance a price that will achieve the highest value in your pocket. You don't want to try to choose a price based on what you want, you want to choose a price that creates the most demand, because the more demand you have, the higher the price.”

“Price is a function of supply and demand, right? We can't control the supply, but we can control the price. By the end of the CMA, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we will choose a perfect list price based on the data I'm going to present with you.”

The process is one in which you present the comparable sales and at the end of the report you make a recommended value followed by a collaborative approach to arriving at a list price. This approach has worked really well for me because I don't want the seller choosing an agent based on a price they were told. The seller should choose an agent not based on what they said they can get but, by what value and services they bring to the table.

Reminder of the listing presentation, step one is a grand tour, then step two is the value presentation and step three is the home equity report.

That's when we sit down at the kitchen tableau at the office and come up with a recommended list price followed by the home equity report factoring in all of the fees. The ultimate goal is to get the seller to make a decision based on their walk away money or their back pocket money.

When a seller brings up price or commission prior to the point of running the associated fees, we are going to delay.

Example: "What's your commission?"

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, when we run the numbers, we will look at the data and come up with the list price, I'll then be able to show you all of the associated fees so that your will know your exact equity position in your home. That is the most important number, how much you're going to walk away with if you chose to sell your home. Does that make sense?”

What we get paid is not an important number, what the list price is, is not important, what really matters to the seller is what they walk away with. Take them down that path to the walk away money, the net money, the proceed money. And I'm going to show you how to do that. And I'm going to show you how to close at the end.

To this point it has taken discipline. Have patience with the process. There will be a time to close and a time to cover fees.

Setting up the numbers

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, prior to meeting we reviewed all of the sales in the MLS, in your price range, in your location, all of the sales in your style of home."

I've looked at every single home active, under contract and sold, preparing myself for this meeting so I can state that fact to the seller. It's important because you want them to know that you didn't miss anything. When they see your price at the end, you don't want them thinking,

"Yeah, but are there other sales that would support a better price?"

The seller is thinking you are trying to convince them to list low so you make money fast and easily. Sales skepticism is at an all-time high when you are reviewing the numbers, there's an agency problem. You only get paid if you sell the home and they know that so they're going to try to convince you to go higher and you're going to try to convince them to go lower.

There's a big problem here and we need to break down this barrier.

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I reviewed all of the sales and I was looking for the sales that were the most accurate but also supported the best, highest, greatest price."

You need to let them know. "I chose the sales that were the very best to support the best price." This builds trust and fulfills our promise.

You have to sell your home three times

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, you have to sell your home three times when you list your home on the marketplace. Number one, you have to sell it to the buyer. Over 90% of all buyers hire a buyer agent. Number two we have to sell your home to the buyer’s agent. The buyer’s agent has a fiduciary relationship to advise the buyer on whether or not that house is a good deal or not. Number three is after all of that, most buyers need to get a loan or cash, but even with cash buyers, they don't want to overpay. The lender's going to require an appraisal. I know that even if I can sell it to the buyer, even if I can sell it to the buyer's broker, we also need to sell it to the appraiser. The report I'm about to show you is based on knowing all of these facts.”

Appraisal Method

I want the seller to know that we use the same approach to value a property as an appraiser, but we don't call it an appraisal because we're not appraisers.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller I'm a broker or an agent so our report is a broker price opinion or a market analysis. I want you to know we used the same approach because we know at the end of the day, we must sell the price to the lender.”

Presenting the CMA Comparable Market Analysis

Everyone uses a different system and it doesn't really matter what the presentation of CMA looks like. What matters is how you set up the report and go over the numbers.

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we will be going over the comparable market analysis and at the end of this market analysis, I'm also going to run the numbers showing you all the fees associated with selling your home so you know the most important number and that's the number you walk away with if you chose to sell."

Repetition of the mother of all skills. Yes, I repeat myself a lot because I want these facts to become automatic in the seller’s mind.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, at the end of this report we're going to work together to pick a price to position your property. We will arrive at the best position on the marketplace if you choose to list so that we create the most demand and get you the highest price. The price I give you at the end of this report is for your informational purposes only so you can make the best decision.”

“The most important decision you have when it comes to selling your home is what agent to choose and that's me because I have the best marketing. The second most important decision is the list price you choose, because the price you choose affects demand greatly.”

“I'm going to do everything in my power to get you the most money no matter what price you choose but I can tell you that if you choose a price that I think is detrimental to your goals and has a negative impact to the result you desire, is it okay that I tell you that?”

Variation, “Mr. and Mrs. Seller, is it okay that at the end of this process, if you choose a price that I believe is going to be detrimental to your results or your goals or your desires that I tell you?"

See what I did there? I’m getting permission to tell them whether or not their price is too high. You don’t want to break rapport. At the end of the report you don’t want them to want a higher number and have to tell them, "No, that won't sell." Or, "We can try it for two weeks and see what happens."

Concentric Circles

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we take your subject property and we start looking for comparable sales or recent sales in the six months, the more recent the better. We find the sales based on location. We use concentric circles starting close and moving out. The closer the sale, the more accurate. I'm going to start really close to your property, your neighborhood, your street and I'm going to work my way out, trying to find the very best sales to support the very best price.”

We look for three to six of the best sales. Don't forget pending sales or under contract sales.

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I also looked at not just closed sales, but most agents make a mistake and they don't look at recent activity which are homes under contract. I also looked at what's under contract.”

Explain to the seller that active sales are not used to determine value but are used to determine positioning.

“At the end of this process, Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we'll look at what's on the market to see where we should position our home. Because let's say your home's worth X, if there's a better or superior home for Y and it's a little bit less than our valuation we have to adjust our list price"

Anchoring

Always start with the lowest sales price comparable.

I want to use bracketing in my report, meaning I want to be able to show them sales that are inferior in all areas, therefore resulting in a lower price as well as superior sales.

So many agents only show sellers high values, you want to show them a lower priced sales. This is critical.

Start with the inferior sales because I want to anchor their expectations on a lower price. Here is how I enter into the lower sales.

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, before I show you these comps. I want you to stay calm and I want you to stay patient until the very end. You are going to see homes that are inferior with prices you may not like. You're also going to see homes that are superior.”

"The first home I'm going to show you is 123 Main Street.”

Go over all the superior and inferior characteristics. Ending with the original list price, sales price and days on market.

They may say something like "Oh my Gosh, I wouldn't sell for that price. There's no way, our homes are way better."

"I know. Let's just keep going." When they don't like that price, just restate the anchor price and keep moving forward.

In a nutshell this is how to do it, but here's some principles I want to remind you: anchor low, go over superior, inferior and equal characteristics equal and end with the one the comparable sale that is closest to your recommendation or target list price.

Pricing is not magic but, very similar

It's kind of a magic trick. Most tricks that magicians use are card tricks, they can choose the card that you selected because they use a series of questions or have you make a series of choices afterwards that ultimately narrow it down to the card you picked. Basically, I'm narrowing it down so they arrive at our price psychologically that I think is going to achieve the best price.

3/3/3 or 5/5/5 Approach

Another approach you can do with a seller to arrive at a recommended price is called a three, three and three or a five, five and five.

It is a more interactive approach where you take five solds, five pending, and five active listings. You start with the closed sales, you go into the pendings and then you go into the active listings at the end to arrive at a price. You don't even give a recommended price, you arrive at it together.

After presenting the sales

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, based on the numbers that you see knowing these are the best available sales to support the best price in the marketplace. Where would you price your home on the market?"

I ask them that question. Where would you place it? This is really important that you say based on the numbers I'm giving you, knowing that these are the best sales, where would you position it?

The seller won’t want to sound unreasonable or stupid.

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, if you were an agent advising yourself on where to price the home on the market, what price would that be?"

You need to detach them from the ownership of the property so that they can make a logical decision. There's a psychological study in which people were asked how much they would pay for an apple. They were asked, how much would you pay for a delicious red apple? And they

came up with a dollar one dollar. They then gave another group of people an apple and they were asked, how much would they sell the apple for? The second group said a number higher than one dollar, closer to a dollar and twenty cents. The principle is as soon as someone owns something, it is now worth more money.

We call homeowners unrealistic. No, they're humans. Get over it. Every homeowner thinks their home's worth more than it really is. We need to use language to show them logically where they should arrive.

"Mr and Mr. Seller, based on the numbers I've given you, if you were advising somebody on this home where would you price it?"

You must get a price. If you don’t ask again.

"Now, what we're going to do then Mr. and Mrs. Seller is give me a price, no matter what it is. What is your price?”

Give your recommendation - Don’t Round Up

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, based on the marketplace, I recommend we list at $XXX,XXX”

I recommend a list price that is seven or eight thousand dollars below a rounding number. For instance, if the list price will be $599,900, I will recommend $592,000. If you are in the million dollar range. If the list price will be $1.19, I will recommend $1.12.

Don't round up because I'm going to be willing to go up a little bit when we talk about commissions. I need a margin for error to cover a commission negotiations.

Lower than I thought

Let's say it's lower than the seller thought because that's more common than not.

Seller, “Oh, that's way too low. I would never sell it for that."

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I understand that you want to get the most money so before we decide lets run the numbers. Let's run the numbers so you know what you're going to walk away with if you did decide to list."

Running the numbers

Whether or not the homeowner thought the recommendation was high or low we will run the numbers next.

I found after thousands of thousands of listing appointments going for 7% commissions that I need to make my commission seem small. In order to make it feel small, I need a larger number. What I’m about to teach you is counterintuitive but it works.

They might ask me what my commission is and I want you to add up all the fees associated with selling their home.

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, what I find is detrimental to a lot of people out there is a lot of agents don't show their clients all of the fees associated with selling their homes so they're blindsided at the closing table when they have extra taxes and fees they didn't know about. It doesn't help anybody when an agent hides any fees just because they're trying to get a listing."

“When it comes to selling your home in (INSERT AREA) you will have to pay...title fees, escrow fees, excise taxes, commissions to the buyer’s agent and to our firm for marketing and selling your home. ALL TOGETHER YOU ARE LOOKING AT 9.1%”

You need to figure out what the average percentage is above and beyond your commission and add it to your desired commission rate. For example in our market area all fees are 2.1% outside of our commission. Therefore if we desire a 7% commission we quote 9.1%.

Upon anchoring the higher rate I will run the net proceeds based on the recommended list price.

“Mr. and Mrs Seller let’s imagine we list your home for $X, attract a buyer that pays full price. You would walk away with $Y.”

“Can you make that work?”

A lot of people for planning purposes think 10% is a rule of thumb.

Never reduce commission by whole numbers

The average listing agreement, let's say is 6% and they offer 3% to the other agent. A big mistake I see agents make and it costs them a ton of money is they reduce by whole numbers. If they ask you, are you flexible or is your commission negotiable? Remember the seller is only prepared to negotiate one time. That is why ‘NO’ is a good response. However, if you need to adjust to get the listing go down by quarter percentage points.

Seller thinks the commission is high

"Oh, that seems high. That's higher than other people."

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, it is high because we spend $XX,XXX a month on marketing. We spend more on marketing so that we get more demand, so we get you a higher price so you make more money at the end of the day. I want you to know something, the commission you pay us is an investment. And like most investments you get a return on your investment.”

Paid on Contingency

I want to point something out to the seller. They don't pay a cent unless we do what we say we're going to do and we get them their desired result. We don't get paid until closing, so remember that.

“Mr. and Mrs. Seller, If I can't get you a number that is acceptable to you, you don't have to accept an offer. I don't get paid unless I do what we set out to do."

“Mr. and Mr. Seller, I will run the numbers on every single offer we receive showing you exactly what you walk away with. And if you're not walking away with a number that will allow you to reach your goals you do not have to accept an offer and don’t owe us anything."

Cancel Anytime

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, I want you to understand something, most real estate agents are going to want you to sign a six month agreement. Our agreements are for 12 months and that's because we want to give you our service for 12 months. Mr. and Mrs. Seller, we don't want to tie you down. At any moment you feel like we're not doing you justice or we're not the right agent for you, you can fire me.”

Power is giving the other person the impression they're in control

Yes, the commission is higher than normal, but the seller has nothing to lose. The seller needs to know that fact. The only thing we ask a seller is in the unlikely event they want to fire us they give us a heads up and the reason so that we can learn and correct.

Another agent said they would do it for X

I had an agent say they could do it for 5%. And if you're not willing to do 5%, I can't do it." I go,

"Mr. and Mrs. Seller, my goal is to get you the most money. And for me to go down, which would mean that I would have to get rid of some of these services and investments in marketing that I know work. So is there something you want me to not do for you? But that would be detrimental, I can't do that. It's okay that I make a profit too. Isn't it?"

And they'll say, "Yeah, we want you to make money, but we just want the most money."

"I know you want the most money, right? So how bout you give me 14 days and if we haven't sold the house, then I'll lower my commission."

more business or use us to buy a home." or do whatever, they're going to say yes.

There's no such thing as an unreasonable amount of profits and you're worth what someone is willing to pay.

If you never ask, you never get it. Let's say your average commission is 5%, if you never ask for 6%, you will never get 6%. Never, never, I'll put money on this. Never will you quote 5% and the seller's going to say, how about you do 6%! That will never happen. In order for you to get it,

you have to ask. Maybe you quote 7% knowing you're never going to get it, that's a rejection and retreat. There's a pricing strategy where you always quote something knowing you're going to come down. So you quote 7%, knowing you're come down to 6%. This is a very effective pricing strategy.

How about we get the paperwork out of the way

"At the end , we want to think about it and we want to talk about it."

"No problem, Mr. and Mr. Seller, how about we do this? Let's get the paperwork out of the way today. You can always call me and tell me not to list.”

If they want to think about what price to choose. Tell them you will do the paperwork now and they can call you with a price later.

Hassle Free Listing

The hassle free listing is one in which if the seller finds the buyer there is a 0% commission. If the seller finds the buyer and wants us to do all the paperwork and closing coordination it is 1%. For all other cases full commission.

Guaranteed Sale Program

We guarantee to sell your home or we buy it. This is a program that establishes a price and deadline. We start at fair market with an agreed lower number that we purchase the property for if we can’t find a buyer.

Chapter 6: How to get 'MORE' out of every listing appointment

The ultimate 6 principles of persuasion to convert every appointment into a listing at full rate.

Written by: Nick McLean Influenced by: Robert Cialdini

Reciprocity

The listing agent must give first and articulate they only want to get paid at the end under the conditions that the listing agent can perform and provide the results that allow the owner to achieve their goals.

‘We are obligated to give back to others who have FIRST given to us’ Ways to give first to a seller prior to asking for anything.

Arrive at the grand tour with a gift. Coffee, Cookie, Treat, Key Ring, White Paper, Market Report, Neighborhood Sales.
Upgrade Consultations. Offer advice on what to upgrade to improve the value of their home.
Market Analysis. Provide a market analysis of their home. The timing of this piece of information shall only be presented when prepared to run the seller net sheet and review listing paperwork.
Seller Net Sheet. Provide a detailed analysis outlining all the fees associated with selling including the mortgage payoff. The only number that matters in this report is the seller’s net proceeds number. This number should be large and apparent.
Access to Vendors. Provide recommendations to any and all vendors the seller can use to prepare their home for sale. Window cleaners, house cleaners, contractors and more

‘Every battle is won before it is fought’ Sun Tzu

The easiest way to practice this principle in real estate is to give information to homeowners that will improve their outcomes. White papers, tips, top 3 things to improve their outcomes. These are easily done through e-mail, direct mail and social media. The goal is to deliver value to the neighborhood prior to ever landing the appointment. Do not talk about your services.

Rejection and Retreat - ‘Concession as a gift.’ This is the concept that you make a large ask knowing the homeowner is unlikely to say yes. You then retreat to a smaller request that is ultimately what you want in the first place. The difference is considered a concession ‘gift’. The homeowner will feel obligated to perform in kind.

Example: Can I count on you to give me names of 3 people’s names that could utilize the same home selling system I’m providing you each month for the next year?

Oh, well then would you be able to give me one today?

Example II: The commission for our expert selling system that is an investment for our clients to achieve top dollar when selling is 7%/8%.

Seller, ‘Oh, that seems higher than other agents.’

Agent, ‘Oh, well our listing program provides so much more. I can provide you with a concession of .5% to make it work for you.’

Authority

People listen to experts in their field. Outline without bragging about your authority in the marketplace.

How many homes have you sold in their neighborhood, town, city?

How have you been recognized as an authority in the marketplace?

Who is someone or organization of influence that has endorsed your services? Visible displays of diplomas, credentials, awards in your office.

Credibility can be shown by being an real estate expert on a radio show, newspaper article, blog. Have you ever seen influential people say as seen on MSN, WSJ, Google, Yahoo...

You can establish authority through casual conversation by talking about past experiences where you were an authority. Someone influential or an influential source asked for your advice or services privately or publicly

Can you get leaders in your community to endorse your services? Mayor, Doctors, Police officers, Attorneys, Teachers, Non-Profit leaders and more.

Liking

People like those who like them.

Find similarities. We like people that are like us. Use FORD as a framework to find commonalities that exist between you and the homeowner.

My wife calls this ‘samesies’ or ‘me too’ or ‘same here’. You are a runner, me too

You like to travel, me too

You are from City, me too

Tactical Application

Buyers use this principle when delivering an offer to a seller with a ‘Dear Seller’ letter. As a listing agent you can do the same thing prior to arriving at the appointment.

Send the homeowner an email, send some information about yourself, what are your hobbies, what are your interests, where did you grow up, where you went to school.

You can do research on Facebook, LinkedIn to find common interests.

‘I like you!’

To oversimplify this principle with maximum results tell the homeowner that you LIKE THEM. It is as important that they know you LIKE THEIR HOME.

I have landed more listings than I can count over other agents because I demonstrated and articulated to the owner that I liked their home more than the other agent.

Never forget, it is important to let the homeowner know that you like them and you like their home.

Compliment

During the grand tour of their home or property. Compliment their decisions and choices. No matter your personal taste you need to like them for their choices as well. There will be time to give advice on how to improve their home later. The tour is there to gather information and build rapport.

They like those people they perceive as friends.

One of my best agents who has consistently been in the top 20 in the marketplace for 5 straight years uses this principle everyday.

She will call all her leads and clients, ‘Friend’.

A perfect example is when she answers the phone, ‘Hi, Friend!’

When she says bye, ‘Bye Friend’.

When the lead or client asks her to do something she says, ‘Sure thing, friend.’

Do you think she treats the other agent the same way during negotiations? Absolutely, they want to make the deal happen because they want to work with a friend over an enemy.

Popularity

People rely on others to know how to think, feel and act. They especially believe people that are similar to them.

Success Stories Be able to tell success stories about clients like them that have similar problems or goals. How they reached out to you. What recommendations you made and how you took action. Finish with a happy ending.

When telling success stories make sure to use real names.

Reviews Don’t keep your reviews secret. Be proactive and send an email, text, or bring a flyer with actual seller reviews about you and your company.

It is far more influential to send the reviews prior to going to the appointment.

People are more likely to choose the most popular agent versus doing research to find out who is best. Show them you are the most popular by sending reviews.

You can also highlight the most popular pricing recommendations. Imagine you show sellers a low, medium and high price during the market analysis. You will point out the middle is the most popular choice from your clients that have seen the best results.

4 Star Review

Do you have a 4 star review that sounds amazing? Turns out 4 star reviews are the most effective when influencing because 5 star are too common and the seller knows you try to get 5 star reviews.

Scarcity

People value what is scarce. People want more of what they can’t have more of.

As a listing agent you need to understand what your capacity is when offering full service. Without skipping any steps and pulling out all the stops on marketing and video...How many listings can you take on? Is it 3, 5, 10, 20?

Whatever it is you need to tell the homeowner that you have X spots available. In other words, you have a limited supply.

To create urgency with low inventory. When the homeowner has a home that is scarce in supply on the market. You must articulate that the supply is low but that will be for a limited time. Supply will go up and when it does they will lose their leverage and demand putting pressure on higher prices.

The key is to point out that low supply is for a limited time and that if they wait they could LOSE the opportunity. Don’t talk about prices going down. If prices have been going up for months and years you sound like you are pressuring them and lose credibility.

Exclusivity

Provide access to a service exclusive for your listings or for them as clients. 3D tour, Video Walk Through, Social Media Event, Mega Open House, Public Announcement to a newsource or organization.

Commitment and Consistency

Homeowners that make a commitment result in them actually sticking to their word.

The first step in getting a homeowner committed to selling and listing with you is to get them to commit verbally.

Don’t allow vague language such as ‘when we sell we will use you.’ ‘we will reach back out when we are ready.’ Mirror these statements and ask, ‘will you commit to calling me when you are ready?’, ‘will you commit to utilizing me when it comes to listing your home?’

It is easier to get someone to commit to something small versus big.

For example, listing your home is a BIG commitment. Scheduling photos is small. Selling your home is HUGE. Making an extra set of keys is small.

What are the tiny commitments (dominos) that will knock down all the dominoes?

OVER-PRICED ADDENDUM

The most important thing when selling a home is to price it according to current market conditions and values. The amount owed, amount needed nor amount paid for the property do not influence what the current market value is or may be.

“You only get one chance to make a first impression”

Seller(s) acknowledge that the Agent has informed them that the initial listing price of $___500,000____ is or may be significantly above the current market value, therefore, in jeopardy of obtaining buyer interest and/or satisfactory appraised value in the likely event the buyer(s) require a mortgage.

By acknowledging this the Seller(s) agree to hold harmless the Agent and Nick McLean Real Estate Group in the event the property fails to sell because the initial listing price is above the expected current market value.

Seller ______________________________________ Date _________________ Seller ______________________________________ Date _________________

One Liners

We get 1-3% higher sales price than the typical agent.
We will review inexpensive things you can do to increase your home's value, and

go over things you should do to increase value. We will also point out areas not to

spend money on.
Do you know what home's like yours are selling for in your neighborhood?
We will research all the sold and pending homes for you to review and complete a

home equity report showing you what your home will sell for in today's market using our marketing. We will also be able to tell you how long it will take. The equity report also shows all the fees and costs associated with selling. So, you will know exactly how much you will walk away with if you decide to list your home.
We sell over One home a day.
Because we sell so many homes, we have priority placement on all major home

search engines that buyers are using such as Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. All of

our listings are seen at the top of the search list, reaching vastly more buyers.
We spend 10s of thousands every month on marketing to attract buyers from the

Seattle Metro area and across the Nation and World. Giving your home premier placement on page 1. Compared to an average listing is on page 27 of 27. When was the last time you went to page 2 on Google?
We have an in-house professional photographer and videographer. Professional photography combined with video increase buyer views online by 70%.
Just like you hear on our radio, TV ads we sell more homes because we do the most marketing, including everything from video tours, professional photography to extensive online exposure. 94% of buyers search for homes online exclusively meaning they will not see your home anywhere else but online. Every buyer on the planet will know your home is for sale and presented in the best possible light. We also have a licensed drone operator for aerial photography.

10. Our commission rates are very competitive and we have different programs. They vary. Once we get together and see everything in person we’ll be able to determine the best program for you.

We don’t want to give your home away.
We are not in a hurry.

Listing Programs

Average - Listing Agreements - 6/3 - 6 Months - ARE RARELY DIFFERENT. Big Mistake - Reduce by whole numbers.

Listings Agreements

Terms 12 Months*

You get our services for 12 months or 1 year Amendment - Cancel anytime with no fees. Flexible - 1 Day - 12 months - 24 months Commissions - What is your commission?

Flexible Fees

We have a number of different programs. When we meet we will go over all your options.

Total 7%

Total 6.5% (.5%) $5000

Total 6% (1%) $10,000

Total 5.75% (1.25%) $12,500 Total 5.5%

Total 5.25%

Total 5%

Creative - $480,000

$489,000 - 2% more. 14 days at 7%. Lower to 6%.

Rejection and retreat

Exclusions: Known people. 0%. If they want us to do the paperwork 1%. Hassle Free Listing

0% commission for any buyer procured by the seller 1% buyer procured and we do the paperwork

$495 transaction fee.

List Dates: 30, 60, 90+ Price Blank: Blank.

Guarantee Sale: 8%+

Instant Offer: With 96 hours price.