Let’s face it. In real estate, whoever gets the most listings wins. This fact was driven home in the latest installment in RISMedia’s popular monthly Agent Webinar Series, where two top-producing real estate pros—Wayne Turner of Turner Real Estate Group in Mandeville, La., and Mike Parker of The Mike Parker Team/HUFF Realty in Florence, Ky.—stunned attendees by baring all when it comes to the secrets of their listing success.
During the “Listing Mastery” webinar on Feb. 18, sponsored by Open Home Pro™ —creators of a very cool tablet app that manages open house traffic and automates reporting to sellers and potential buyers – Turner and Parker not only went page by page through the how and why of their actual listing presentations, they also made them available for download to all attendees.
When moderator Verl Workman—founder and CEO of Workman Success Systems—says, “Strap in for a serious ride with mega-listing agents,” Turner and Parker, he wasn’t exaggerating. The duo took us on a fast-paced, jam-packed tour of just how they manage to secure literally hundreds of listings each year.
Neither Turner nor Parker minced words—an approach they stick to with their clients as well.
“When a homeowner asks, ‘What is your commission?’ it is imperative that you be honest and tell them,” says Turner. “Stick to your guns. If you believe in yourself and your service, it makes it easy to charge the fee that you charge.”
Parker stressed the necessity to cut to the chase with prospective sellers, explaining that there are basically three things they want to know: What is my home worth? How long will it take to sell it? and What will you do to sell it quickly for the highest, possible price?
To truly lock in the listing and maximize the home sale, Parker stressed that it’s critical to understand the seller’s reasons for moving vs. their motivation. “The reason they’re moving could be that they’re relocating to Dallas,” he explained. “But what is the true motivation? If it’s, ‘my wife’s family is in Dallas and we want to be closer to them,’ then the reason is love; if they’re moving to Dallas because they took a better job, then the reason is greed. You need to know the true motivation because at some point, you’ll need to remind the seller why they’re moving.”
With too many great strategies given to possibly process in one sitting, I’ve highlighted some of my favorite tips from Turner and Parker here (see them all in the complete webinar):
Wayne Turner’s Listing Lore:
- Flaunt your Mission Statement. Turner’s is: ‘Our mission is to have a profound impact on the quality of people’s business and personal lives through World-Class Real Estate Service.’
- Provide detailed market reports. Turner uses RealMarketReports.com, which boils data down for 180 days by county, city, subdivision, etc. “People don’t want a bunch of fluff and duff. They just want you to give them the facts.”
- Try BoomTown. Turner reports closing 55-65 houses a year on average through this program. On listing presentations, Turner opens BoomTown to show sellers the back-end and the thousands of people who are currently receiving alerts on his listings.
- Think like an appraiser. Turner includes a slide that shows sellers down to the exact percentage the factors that will subtract from the home’s value and add to its days on market, such as a pool or pet odor.
- Prove SEO. Turner has all his websites optimized so he can show the seller how their home will always come up on top in searches.
Mike Parker’s Quick Picks
- Download the NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers to better understand what matters to your clients and use verbiage in your listing presentation that resonates with them.
- Create a pre-listing package. Email or Fed Ex listing presentations to homeowners ahead of time. “I want them to have that before I walk in,” says Parker.
- Know who you’re dealing with. Parker uses the DISC personality test to better understand sellers. “Some agents will have two different types of presentations depending on the personality type.”
- Highlight your team. Solo agent? You still have a team. Think, of all those you work with in different departments and highlight what they do.
- Provide a full market activity report. Highlight all the data on the listing, including Casper showings (those who view the listing online), comparable listings, closings, days on market, showings over the last 60 days, etc.
- Use a listing appointment questionnaire. Ask questions like, “Are you being transferred?” and “Is your basement finished?” before the listing appointment. “I tell people, give me 5-7 minutes of answering these questions and it will save you 30 minutes of the actual presentation.”
To see this dynamic webinar in full, view the below video.
