By Jackie Leavenworth
When I was first starting out in the real estate business, I was going gangbusters with buyers.
My broker at the time told me, “I have never had anybody sell real estate and do so well with buyers. But let me share a great story with you. Compare this to a shoe store. If I had a shoe store instead of a real estate business, you’d be the best shoe fitter in town. Word of mouth is great, your customers will say, ‘Jackie is the best shoe fitter in town.’ So, when other buyers come to you, you will have to say, ‘Great—I can find the best fit for you, but I don’t have any shoes here. I have to take you to someone else’s store.’ So, Jackie,” my mentor continued, “until you have your own inventory, you are not in control of your time or your financial destiny.”
Obviously, those words have stuck with me. From my experience after 35 years in real estate, I try to impress the same thing on others: If you don’t have a listing inventory, you don’t really have a solid business plan.
There are really only three sources of quick inventory: FSBOs, expired listings and open house visitors. If we allow the opportunities to find us, we have even greater success.
- FSBO listings
To capture the FSBO market, I can go onto FSBO.com or Zillow, for example, and create a profile to make myself a prospect in the system. I can pick the market area and price range of homes I’d like to sell and tell the system to send me an alert when a new one comes on. This way, when I open my email in the morning, those listings are finding me instead of me having to go find them.
- Expired listings
I can do the same thing in the MLS to search for expired listings. We usually do this for buyers, but I can do the same for myself as a REALTOR®, and have the system tell me when a home goes on expired status. I can get that “ping” at midnight and it’s right there, on a silver platter.
When I am teaching my listing course, I put it this way: If an agent doesn’t want to go after that opportunity, I ask them to repeat after me: “Wow, that’s a great opportunity. That home should sell for $____, and my income on that would be $____ (fill in the blanks).” And if you choose not to pursue that opportunity, say to yourself, “I sure am glad I don’t need that money; I’ll leave that for another agent.”
- Open house visitors
Another ripe source is open house visitors. Probably 75% of them have a home to sell before they can buy. So, along with the FSBOs and expired listings, we know—even before we talk to them—that they have the desire to buy or sell.
We would like to rely on our sphere of influence for all of our business, but when we contact them, we don’t know if they have an immediate need or desire to buy or sell. Obviously, we should still touch base with them, but the three sources I’ve discussed are the quickest way to build your inventory. That way, you don’t have to take your clients to someone else’s shoe store.
For more tips on effective and efficient systems for listing and pricing properties, check out “Creating Listing Abundance” on CRS.com/catalogsearch.
