How Our Listing Packet Does the Heavy Lifting

What do you send to seller prospects before the listing presentation? My team puts together an educational listing packet to set us apart from the competition. I’ll go over everything that’s in it today.

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Recently, Ellen from Florida sent me a question: “Willie, what do you send to seller prospects before the listing presentation?”

We send out a listing packet because we believe that the more educated a seller is about what we do and who we are, the more compelled they will be to do business with us. The listing packet does a lot of heavy lifting before the appointment. As I’ve said in the past, people do business with those that they know, like, and trust, and this is a great way for us to demonstrate that to them.

What does our listing packet include?

We send a cover letter that outlines what makes us different from our competitors. The letter also gives them information about selling tips, marketing, and more. We even have a chart that takes them through the entire listing process so that they know what to expect when they put their home on the market.

We also send them a testimonial letter. This letter includes pictures and great testimonials from past clients. Some of these people were FSBO, some were expired, and others were referred to my team. All of them enjoyed the experience they had working with us.

A neighborhood letter is also included. This letter includes a testimonial from the client’s neighbor about how we did a great job selling their home.

The listing packet includes an RPR, a realty property resource, which gives them a mini property report and an idea of what’s going on in the local marketplace. The RPR gives them a ballpark figure of what their home is worth. This is just a price range based on the information we have procured from them as well as what’s happening in their neighborhood market.

The listing packet comes with a brochure and my business card, as well as a few other items. I include a CD called “5 Top Strategies to Sell Your Capital District Fast and for Top Dollar with the Least Amount of Hassle.” Someone sat down and interviewed me about these five strategies, so it was very easy to put together, and the CD provides great information to our clients.

There is also a 30-minute infomercial that we run every day; a DVD of that infomercial goes into the listing packet.

Finally, I give clients a book called Answers from Experts on Selling a Home with a Willie Miranda bookmark. This book gives them tips on what they need to do to sell for top dollar and how to prepare their home for sale.

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Our listing packet is carefully crafted to educate the seller and help us stand out.

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Ultimately, it’s all about branding yourself, marketing yourself, and keeping yourself in front of your prospects. I mail out this entire packet in a priority package for about $6.95 a couple weeks ahead of the appointment. If I don’t have time to mail it, a courier can run it to their house and leave it in front of their front door. My team just sends a text to let the client know that the listing packet has arrived.

Why do we go through all of this trouble? When it comes to hiring an agent, 71% of sellers only interview one agent and 20% interview two agents, so I want to really make sure that my team stands out from the competition.

Thank you for your question, Ellen. If any of you have any other questions, just give me a call or send me an email at wmiranda@mrgteam.com. You can also submit a question on our blog and maybe we’ll answer with a video.

So please, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I would be happy to help you!

How Can You Avoid Missing Out on Leads?

How can you answer every phone call from every prospective client? More importantly, how can you do that without sacrificing your work-life balance? I will tell you how today.

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Today I want to talk about a great marketing tool that we started using a couple of years ago. 

It all started when a friend of mine sent me a text to let me know that his sister was going to call me about listing her home. I said, “Alright, have her give me a call and I would be happy to help her.” That was on a Wednesday or Thursday night. 

He wound up giving her my office phone number, so his sister called us on Friday night. She tried calling back on Saturday and Sunday, but since our office was not open on the weekends and she called after hours on Friday, she was not able to reach me. 

That Monday, I went through my call log and reached out to my friend. I said, “Hey, your sister never called me.” He said, “She’s going a different direction. She reached out a few times and wasn’t able to get ahold of you.” I got her number from him right then and there and followed up with her. 

Naturally, she was a little upset because no one had picked up when she called. She said, “What if a buyer called you about my house and there was no on there to answer them?” That was a real wake-up call for me. 

I was able to see her that evening and wound up getting the listing, which turned into a $10,000 commission. Here’s the thing: I almost lost that sale. That experience made me think about all of the different leads I had missed out on over the years by not being able to answer my office phone. 

It is incredibly important to get back to your leads right away. I often talk about time management because while it’s important to be available to your clients, you still want to maintain a work-life balance. How can you be constantly available to your clients and still spend time with your family and friends? 

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You need to get back to your leads right away!

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I use a company called Answer Connect for listing appointments. Our phones are answered 24/7, which definitely sets us apart from the competition. 

In fact, we just had a lead come in the other night. It was after hours and Answer Connect did a warm transfer so that I could book the listing appointment right away. That will lead to a $13,000 commission. Answer Connect really gives our clients the communication they need without requiring me to be tied to my phone. 

If you are interested in working with Answer Connect, call Karen Booze at 888-822-2034 or call her on her cell phone at 503-680-1626. She would be happy to answer any questions you may have. In the meantime, if you have any questions about your real estate career, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

How My Client Closed Plan Helps Get You Referrals

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I want to share with you a great plan I use with all my clients after the transaction has been completed. I call it the “Client Closed Plan.” It’s very easy to do, but also very easy not to do. What do I mean by that?

In my book How To Not Get Your Ass Kicked In The Real Estate Business, I talk about the difference between career agents - the ones that engender client loyalty and achieve repeat and referral business - and transactional agents - the ones that just go from one deal to the next. Last week I had an experience with the latter type of agent who lost out on a lead because he had no systematic communication with his database. My Client Closed Plan is designed to rectify this by implementing a schedule to follow up with the people who make up your COI after the transaction.

After a client and I have concluded a transaction, I maintain a specific timeline of communication with that client that involves either calling them or sending them a personal note. After the first day of the transaction, for instance, I both call and send a personal note. After a week, I call again just to check in. After 30 days, I make the same check-in call and send another personal note. At the one-year anniversary of the transaction, I call and send a personal note with a small gift or a gift certificate, and then set up the anniversary check-in call for the following year.

It’s easy to make a simple phone call, but also easy to forget to make that call. Think about how often people get monthly or quarterly statements from their retirement accounts or mutual funds, but never any annual information about their property. For your clients, that’s probably their next biggest asset. I can’t tell you how many referrals I’ve gotten over the years just by implementing this plan. It doesn’t cost you anything, and people appreciate it.

If there is anything else I can help you with in your business, please call me or send me an email and I’d be more than happy to help.

5 Reasons New Real Estate Agents Fail

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Recently, I read in a survey that 77% of respondents said that new agents fail for five main reasons: they are not prepared for the realities of working as an independent contractor, they have unrealistic job expectations, insufficient broker training, insufficient broker supervision, and low barrier entries.

At the Miranda Group, we feel we’ve done a very good job recruiting people into our organizations. We have more than 80 agents working for us now, but over the years we have had some growing pains and agents have cited one of these five reasons for leaving in their exit interviews.

However, there are a few things that we do so that agents have the training and support they need to combat those five reasons for failure:

1. Monday Mastermind Calls: Every Monday morning at 8:30, we have a mastermind call to discuss successes and challenges. Each agent has the opportunity to come on and it’s a great way to get their week going.
2. Tuesday Training: We have a sales playbook and, each week, we pick different topics to go over. We organize 15 weeks of classes to help agents with referral based marketing and more.
3. Wednesday New Agent Training: From contract writing to how to use the MLS, we cover different things that new agents need help with.
4. Quarterly Mastermind Events: Each quarter, we get together offsite to talk about what’s working and what’s not working for our agents. We share each other’s best ideas as well as their challenges.
5. Monthly Full Agency Meetings: At these meetings, we hand out recognition, go over birthdays, and share key sale strategies. These strategies are different things that are being done around the country. We also bring in guest speakers to talk about the industry.
6. Mentoring Program: If a new agent needs a bit more help, we match them up with a senior agent and go through a checklist on what they need to accomplish.
7. Personal Attention: I meet with my agents one-on-one to answer any questions they have.
8. General Manager Insight: Brian Miranda works very closely with our agents and provides insight from both a technical and sales perspective.
9. Support Staff: We have a great support staff that typically works from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. These are great people who will go the extra mile and work overtime and on weekends to make sure our agents have everything they need.

These are just a few things we do to offset those five reasons new agents fail. If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

Time Management Tips

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We’re all in the middle of a very busy real estate market and you might be feeling a little overwhelmed. Use these 10 tips to adjust your productivity and get back into the swing of things.

1. Use the 3 Ds: Whenever I have a large pile of work, I either do it, delegate it, or dump it. Whenever you can delegate work, you should. Decluttering your desk and your workload can be incredibly helpful. One good tool for this is a word processing software called Evernote. 

2. Time block: Every Sunday night, I sit down and schedule my next week. Sometimes, I will go two weeks out. This makes your life seem less hectic and more organized, no matter how busy you are. I put my family priorities first and then important business activities for which I get paid on, such as listing appointments, prospecting, negotiating contracts, etc.

3. Develop checklists for everything that you do: I find checklists incredibly helpful, and I use them for everything. I write checklists the night before work, so they’re in my subconscious and I know I need to do them.

4. Systems are important too: Systems are an absolute must for your growing business. When I go on a listing appointment, everything is laid out for me and I know exactly what I need to do. I don’t waste any time - I just follow the system.

5. Voice record tasks: If I’m driving down the street and come up with a good idea or something that I need to do, I record myself and either forward that to someone or use it for later. 

6. Wake up earlier: I’ve noticed that I never have enough time to accomplish everything in a day, so I simply started waking up earlier. Just an hour earlier can make a huge difference. Over the course of a year, that’s an extra nine weeks worth of time.

7. Measure everything: You need to find out how much your time is actually worth. When you can place a number value on it, you can then realize which spots you're wasting time in. I had to cut out the long lunches and meetings that didn’t help my business bring in money.

8. Eat that Frog: This is the title of a book by Brian Tracy, but what it means is to do your most unpleasant tasks first thing in the morning. Don’t put off things that you don’t want to do. It will drain your mind and your energy throughout the day.

9. Learn to say NO: Warren Buffet says this, and it’s important to know when to tell someone ‘no’. Sometimes we don’t have the time or the resources to say ‘yes’ to everyone.

10. Reflect: At a certain point, you have to reflect and think about if your time is being better spent making money or spending time with your family. What’s the real profit or benefit of your activities? Are they worth it in your personal life as well?

Lastly, I recommend limiting your time spent social networking. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are all great, but only up to a certain point. You don’t want to live inside of these networks. They can become a massive distraction. You’ll be surprised at how much more time you have in your day.

If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Are You Running Open Houses Correctly?

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I recently got a question from an agent who has been attracting buyers to open houses, but they weren’t getting accurate contact information from the people coming through. How do you get people to leave their real contact information at open houses? 

Obviously, the primary objective of the open house is to sell the home. However, you’ll get a lot of people coming through who decide the home isn’t right for them. You might even get a few people who are thinking of selling their own homes, but want to check out the competition. Those are great opportunities for you to get their information.

You want to create the best bait that you can. Don’t throw a hook in the water and expect a lot of fish. Have a buyer book and a seller book that you can hand out at open houses. Only bring one copy for buyers and one copy for sellers. The buyer book has tips for them to find the perfect home at a great price. The seller book has tips for netting the most money on your home sale. 

If they’re interested, ask them to write down their name, address, and phone number, and you’ll send them the book. Now you have great information and after you send them the book, you can follow up, convert them, and get more business. 

It’s much better to offer something of value than to have people fill out a survey they don’t want to deal with. Those surveys get you fake email addresses and scribbled phone numbers. If you offer something of value, you will always get the correct contact information. 

If you don’t have a book, you can always use a free report with tips to sell your home for top dollar or tips on finding the right home. Then they will be happy to give you their contact information

If you have any questions, give me a call or send me an email. I would be happy to help you!

I didn't know what to say when the seller asked me what commission I charged?

 

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The Most Effective Lead Follow-Up Strategies

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I recently got a question from a client. He says that he's getting a lot of leads off the internet and he wants to know the best way to follow up on them, and how many times to call the prospect before giving up on them.

I've always heard that 80% of sales are made on the 5th-12th contact, and I share this fact on page 27 of my book. Almost 48% of salespeople never even call a prospect back, which is crazy! Why even gather leads if you're not following up on them? Only 10% of salespeople make more than three contacts. Some of these statistics are pretty mind-blowing.

This has lead us to the creation of the 3-4-12 system. We try to call the lead three times within the first 72 hours (preferably within 5 minutes). If that doesn't work, you want to call four times within the next four weeks. Try calling them on Wednesdays and Thursdays, because studies have shown that this is the best time to call. You can send texts and leave voicemails or emails as well. Now, the 12 in this equation is the nurture campaign where you contact them once per month for 12 months.

Online leads tend to be people who have just started the process, so you'll only convert about 15% of them. The other 80% tend to be nurture leads for later on. It's important not to forget to contact these leads in the following months because otherwise you're just losing leads.

When calling prospects, shoot to contact them in between 8-9 a.m. and 4-6 p.m. It's important to call your leads as soon as you get them, because the longer you wait, the less likely you are to call the lead back.


Don't give up on leads too early because you paid good money for them. If you have any more questions on the most effective lead conversion strategies, please don't hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you!