S4 E8: HOW TO LIST FSBOS EASILY

Ren Jones (00:00):
It’s that time. Welcome to Roadmap, how to take three listings a week until you’re ready for more. And this is the For Sale by Owner Show. We encourage you to take notes and apply as much of the knowledge as quickly as you can and then use the copycat principle. I want to remind everybody that we’ll be simulcasting the show also on the private lead gen group on Facebook. They have 51,000 members, so we have a large audience there today as well. We will be pausing for a commercial message during the show as a thank you to the lead gen folks. So welcome folks, this is the For Sale by Owner Show, Everything for Sale by Owner. There’s some very important information and if you will apply some of this. My only goal for doing this is if you can add two listings a month, three listings a month from for sale by owners, we’re talking about a tremendous amount of money and they have a home for sale.

(01:01):
So let’s look at number one. If you’re watching this in October, November, December, the fourth quarter of the year, if you’re watching it in that fourth quarter of the year, it’s the golden time. Now why is it the golden time? Why if a for sale owner, a fresh new for sale owner shows up October 22nd? What do we know? Yeah, come on. Yes, we know number one, they have to sell and they need to sell now, which is what I love to hear. Because if they have to sell and they have to sell now, anything you say, they’ll be listening carefully to. If they don’t have to sell and/or they’ve got plenty of time, they’re not listening as intently and the leads are not as strong. So it’s a mixed bag some of the other times of the year and you have to filter that out. But in October, November, December, there’s your filter. If they show up, we know they need your services and they’ll be very willing to talk to you.

(02:01):
So that’s number one. So when you see that fresh for sale owner pop up, know you don’t have many competitors. You know who your competitors are. They get bombarded with mailings like, We’ll list it for 2 cents or $500,” or whatever, all the discounters. And where are the regular professional agents? I’ll tell you where some of them are. It’s the myth. What are the myths around for sale by owners? What do we say to ourselves sometimes and other real estate agents about for sale owners? Well, one myth is, oh, they don’t like us. Oh, they don’t think they need us. They don’t like us. They eat their young. And we have to take a look at that and say, now why are we saying that? Here’s somebody who has identified themselves and said, “I have a home for sale. I need to sell my house.” And if you called them up, some of them are going to say things like, “Well bring me a buyer and I will pay you blank percent.” You know they say that. If you’ve been calling them, you hear that from time to time. So they want to partner with you at some level.

(03:05):
Now if you can convince them on the rest of the parts … so how do we convince them? What does NAR say? Type it in right now because NAR keeps those statistics updated. They study it. What does NAR say? What is the difference between a for sale by owner price and listing it professionally with a full service realtor? There’s a big spread. It’s like 15%. And it will vary a little bit and it will vary based on whether they have a great agent, a discount agent, or no agent. So you want to get familiar with that in your value proposition.

(03:40):
A lot of reasons they decided. Let’s look at it. Why is a for sale by owner a for sale by owner? Well, for sale owner, often they don’t know a great agent. They know a couple agents. Well there’s Larry who works at the firehouse and he also sells real estate. No, I’m not going to do that. Then there is Mary, who is my nephew’s, cousin’s, mother’s, brother’s sister. And they’re like, “Mm, I don’t want to deal with family.” So they know real estate agents but they don’t know a great one. And notice how in our automobile, in your car, how your brakes will fail when you’re driving past a for sale owner. Here there’s a home for sale and you could step on the brakes and get out and introduce yourself. But we have a brake problem and you need to take a look at that. What’s going on in here? It’s the mindset.

(04:37):
So what does that for sale owner sign mean when you see a sign says for sale by owner? It says interviewing for a great agent because they don’t know a great one. They know agents, but they don’t know a great one yet. And are you that person? Can you take 2, 3, 4 for sale by owners this month, next month? You’ll find there’s not a whole lot of competition, which is interesting. I personally know several agents that that has become their specialty. They’ll list 6, 7, 8 for sale by owners a month. That’s a good living folks. I don’t care what market you’re in, that’s a great living. Can you do it?

(05:15):
So here’s the secret, the mindset’s number one. You have to believe that you’re going to net them more money in a better, safer process. You have to believe it, you have to believe it and you have to keep telling yourself that. Number two, you have to practice the scripts and dialogues and get a good routine down. Number three, you gotta talk to them. So here’s an interesting formula and I like this one a lot. So when you call for sale by owners, whatever script you’re using, and there’s some great scripts out there, there’s two things you need to know and you need to know it early out of the gate because there are too many real estate agents that will talk to a for sale by owner and not find out where they’re moving to. How can you help if you don’t know what they’re trying to accomplish? Too many real good real estate agents won’t ask them for sale by owner when do you need to be there? And number three, what’s important about moving there? Those three things.

(06:15):
I can’t tell you how many agents will talk to a for sale of owner and have no idea why they’re moving, no idea. Don’t say why. What’s important about moving there? Say, “I’m just curious. If you sell the home, where are you moving to next? How soon do you have to be in Tulsa?” And number three, “I’m curious, what takes you to Tulsa? What’s the purpose for moving there?” Now, if they have to move and they have to move quickly, I want you to take that lead and keep it, put it up there, right there and look at it constantly. Keep that one. And then the other rest, don’t have to move or don’t have to move right away. Throw the lead away. Throw the lead away. All right everybody, right now we’re watching, I want you to lift your arm up like this and practice this. Throw the lead away. Throw the lead away. You’re probably going to throw away five out of six. And I promise you, I’m not steering you wrong. You need to look at this technique. If you throw away five out of six because they don’t have to move and they don’t have to move right away, now you’re honed in on people that are going to make a decision pretty quickly and you’ve got to get in front of them. Can you do that? Can you get in front of them? It’s real important.

(07:32):
So then what do you do when you get in front of them? You try to get a bonafide appointment. You do everything you can do to get that bonafide appointment. Now occasionally they beg off, they beg off, they beg off. Go for a preview appointment. With that group, one out of six, go for a preview appointment. They have to move. They have to move right away. You’ve got to get in front of them. Now I’m going to give you an interesting technique on how to get in front of them, sit down with them and then list it while you’re there. Okay? So let’s role play it folks.

(08:06):
Okay, so you’re the for sale my owner and just say, “Mrs. Brown, you’re right in the middle of where my team or I sell most of our homes. You’re right in the middle. It may be us bringing you the offer. I have to see what you have. I have to see it.” And this is only if you can’t get a bonafide appointment, you do this. So you have to insist on a preview appointment. They’ll go, “Well come Sunday during our open house.” Just say, “Gosh, I’ve got an appointment then. How about Thursday at four? Would that work for you?” “I think we can do that.” “Great.” And then you say, “Great,” and you get a little information on the property. Just say, “I want to know in case we have a buyer between now and then, let me get a little more information.” Ask them pre-qualifying questions. And then say, “Oh by the way, I don’t mind doing this. I know you can look online. Would you like to see what we see as real estate agents on competing properties? How we view that? And I can print that out, bring it along with me. Would you like that?” “Sure. Love that.” Okay, now you’re going to need to ask that question twice. Okay?

(09:15):
So then when you get to the house, you look at the property, you build a rapport, you have a conversation with them and make sure they know you want to apply for the job of selling the home. And then say, “Oh by the way, you said you’d like to see some of the homes you’re competing with through the eyes of what we see. I brought that with me. Would you like to look at that now?” Okay, now you’re looking at comparables, active and sold, active and pending and sold. You’re looking at the comparables with them. Because if you don’t get that permission ahead and you just try to do comparables, they’re going to get angry. But if you ask permission once and then you ask permission the second time and now you’re looking at them, see how that works? You’ve gotten their agreement to look at those comparables. And then finish up with, “Mr. Seller, Mrs. Seller, what would happen if you hire our team? We put out a big campaign. It’s under contract two or three weeks. You close in six weeks from now and net a lot more than you’re trying to get right now? How does that sound?”

(10:27):
This works folks. This works. Now you’re going to have to practice and you have to get in front of a lot of for sale by owners. Call them, call them, call them, call them, call them again. And you may need to go to some doors. Because what’s interesting is a lot of times they don’t answer their phone, which is strange, but that’s the way that goes.

(10:46):
Let’s look at some rules if you’re a for sale by owner. Let’s look at some rules. Never ever make a for sale by owner wrong. Because if you make them wrong, you’re never going to win. Never make them wrong. In fact, here’s a good line if it gets a little testy, because sometimes you know they’re like, “Are you a realtor?” You want to identify yourself early on so they don’t get hostile with you. So if it’s gets a little hostile, here’s the line, write this down, write this down exactly. And I want you to underline one word. I respect the fact that you want to try to sell it on your own. I respect the fact that you want to try, underline try, to sell it on your own. Don’t leave out that word. I respect the fact that you want to try to sell it on your own. Okay? They’re like, “Oh you do. Okay.” Now we can continue our conversation because they think you don’t respect that and that you’re making them wrong. So that’s a key phrase. Print it out in big letters and post it in your prospecting area. Oh, you don’t have a prospecting area? Okay, that’s a different show.

(11:50):
Okay, here’s a second script. If they’re getting a lot of agent calls, and believe me they’re not, but if they are, because there’s some hot areas in the world and it happens, here’s the line, here’s the script. The primary purpose of my call is not about the listing, but to see if you purchased your next home yet. The primary purpose of my call is not about the listing, but to see if you purchased your next home yet. Now they’re going to tell you this story and then you can say, “Well, when will you be interviewing agents again?” It’s a handy one if they’re getting a lot of calls, if they’re getting a lot of calls.

(12:30):
These are some good techniques. I think they’re going to help you quite a bit. And try them out, take them around the block, see what you can do. There’s a lot of money in this business. Folks, you know what? Someone was talking to me the other day. He just sold a very large company for many, many, many millions of dollars, starting up another company. And he was talking about perseverance and persistence. The person that wants to make a million dollars in this business, and this is a business, you can make a million dollars a year, a million dollars a year. And you know who those people are? Those are the people that are persistent. They persist and they persist. When everybody else has fallen off, given up, they drive themselves and they persist and they prevail. This is one of the few industries. You can take eight years of med school, you’re not going to make a million a year. This is an industry and I have a lot of friends that make a million dollars a year and you can too. And maybe you don’t want a million, maybe you want 400,000. Now we’re really talking. We can get you there pretty fast. I want you to take a look at all this material and we’ll see you next week. Don’t forget delicious Greaters mint chocolate chip right here on the mug Greaters. See you then.