At no time in our history have sellers been more afraid to list their homes than they have been over the last six months. This is something that has been getting worse over the last few years, particularly when the COVID-19 pandemic hit a year ago. The pandemic created a new set of fears—a new barrier for sellers to list their homes.
Both buyers and REALTORS® are equally frustrated. Some REALTORS® are giving up and calling it quits due to the challenges. So, what do we do to solve this? We need all real estate professionals to be preaching the same consistent message to sellers and letting REALTORS® do what they do best: work together.
We all know that sellers are great at saying they will not move until they find the home they want. When they do find that home, they want to sell immediately. If all REALTORS® work together, communicate with one another properly without getting angry and make their client’s intentions clear, we will be able to pull through this together. But if sellers feel that they are on an island of their own, they will continue to hold back when it comes to listing their homes. REALTORS® need to encourage sellers to list their homes and work with buyers to accommodate each other’s needs.
We need to get sellers to understand that they can in fact list their homes and explain that contracts can have clauses that protect them, such as “sale is subject to seller finding suitable housing.” Buyers and buyer’s agents must understand that they need to be flexible with sellers to help make the sale happen. Sellers are legitimately worried, and buyers need to understand this and recognize their needs and concerns. Buyers who are also sellers are usually good about this because they see it from both sides.
So again, how do we communicate this message across the board and become a unified front?
It all starts with communication to clients. We built a series of videos to address seller needs head-on. We call it the “Want to Be Sellers” page on our site: (www.WantToBeSellers.com).
Here, sellers can pick what it is they are concerned about and watch videos that explain in detail how we can get them through that fear and get them to their goal. We drive people to this page from both Facebook and TV ads that we play in our local market.
So, get on camera, make a series just like this that can be posted on your social media channels and sent via postcard to your leads and sphere. Market this information as you would any other program so that sellers understand that you are here to help get them where they want to be. Together, we can move them in that direction and hopefully kickstart the market in a positive direction.
Anthony Lamacchia is CEO of Lamacchia Companies and broker/owner of Lamacchia Realty. For more information, please visit www.lamacchiarealty.com.
