Bill, an agent in Virginia, wanted to supercharge his marketing to attract a buyer for his listing that was on the market entirely too long during the pandemic. Bill was frustrated. Even more critical, the sellers were losing patience with Bill. They couldn’t sell their home. They couldn’t move to Florida to be closer to their kids and grandkids. They started finding fault with nearly everything Bill did.
One day, Bill was on a webinar where one of the panelists shared that his team had been holding virtual open houses and was having great success. They attracted hundreds of people to their live Facebook videos, showings increased, and it gave their sellers confidence. In one specific example, even though they didn’t have an offer after two weeks, the seller was willing to adjust the price…and the house went into pending 10 days later. Bill was determined to duplicate this.
He advertised an open house on Facebook and arrived early to put the home in perfect showing condition. Precisely at 1 p.m., he went live. He did his best to conduct a thorough showing of the home, highlighting the critical features. Unfortunately, during the live broadcast, Bill never had more than three people watching. Bill felt defeated.
Because Bill was determined to be successful, he turned his attention toward what to do for his next attempt. He decided that he needed to do something at the video’s opening to entice people to stop scrolling and join.
He started his next virtual open house with a shot of the gorgeous fireplace in the great room framed by fabulous windows. At precisely 1 p.m. on the day of the open house, Bill went live. He held his smartphone perfectly still and couldn’t believe his eyes. Within 20 seconds, 40 people were watching live!
He moved from room to room, personally narrating the tour. His audience remained in the 40 – 50 range throughout. He held his breath after hitting the upload button, as he desperately wanted hundreds of views in the next 24 hours in order to impress the sellers—and he was blown away when the video received 447 views. He could barely contain his emotion as he dialed the seller’s number. They were thrilled about his extra effort and were impressed with the live open house, which they had been watching.
As a result of his extra effort, Bill was able to get the seller to make a couple of changes to the home. In addition to two bedrooms being repainted, new photos were taken and updated in the MLS. This garnered 18 new showings, which produced a fantastic offer…and they closed 24 days later.
Cleve Gaddis is a master coach, speaker and trainer with Workman Success Systems. He works with some of America’s most profitable teams and specializes in helping family-owned brokerages and teams navigate their unique challenges. Gaddis hosts the Your Move Atlanta weekly radio show on 640 AM, a Fox News station on iHeartRadio. To have Gaddis speak live to your company, team or group, email Cleve@WorkmanSuccessSystems.com.
