COMMUNICATE CONSISTENTLY

The average days on market has moved from a low of only 7 days in June to ending December at just shy of 30 days. With a longer time on the market, sellers will need more nurturing and you need a better strategy.  

If you set excellent expectations from the very beginning of the relationship, this is an easy conversation with your clients.  

Below is a communication plan with your clients that works. It requires commitment, AND it ensures partnership with your client, which an evolving market requires.  

CALL/TEXT EVERYDAY

Call or text and check in on your seller every day. The seller is constantly thinking about the sale of their home and they want to know that you are as well.  Set the expectation that you will reach out every day and check in. There may be nothing you have to report. But that’s okay, both you and they will sleep better! 

What to say when setting expectations:

“I will call, text or email you every single day. You can ignore my phone call, you don’t have to respond to my email. But I will check in every single day during the week and we will definitely talk on Fridays. Much of the process of selling a home is managing the emotion of the sellers. That can only be done with consistency and commitment. You seem like a pretty logical guy, so as long as we have good communication, managing your emotions probably isn’t that big of a concern. However, I follow my process. I will let you know if I really need something from you by texting you, or emailing you with a red exclamation point!“

WEEKLY LISTING REPORT/MONDAY METRICS

Every Monday, send your seller a report on the previous week’s activity that contains the below.  When you send this report, you are giving your client data that allows them to understand the market objectively. You are arming them with insight that you cannot communicate without sharing this information.   

  1. Showing Report – # of showings, # of agents spoken to, # of interested buyers
  2. Feedback Received – All unfiltered feedback
  3. Showing Stats for Competition – comparing their home to the immediate market
  4. Market Analysis- status and updates for comparable homes in their area include the average
  5. Quick Notes and Observations – your thoughts on the general market, their home compared to the other homes available and summary of conversations you’ve had with other agents  

What to say when setting expectations:

“Every Monday afternoon, I will send you a report. That report will consist of the following: 

  • Market Analysis – Summary of new properties that have hit the market in the last week, properties that were previously active and are now under contract, properties that were previously under contract and are now sold, and I will include the sold price. This is every seven days reading the market. 
  • Showing report – I will provide a summary of all of the showings from the previous seven days, including the feedback. 
  • Showing comparison – I will run a report with the showing service we use, and potentially a couple other resources, to assess the quantity of showings we are receiving relative to similar properties in your geography. This will simply help us understand if we are attracting people to your home as much as or more than other properties. 
  • My summary of conversations – I will call all listing agents who have said their buyers have expressed any interest at all.”

TUESDAY SELLER CALL

This is a detailed conversation between you and your client reviewing the previous week and planning for the coming week.  It is you checking in on them and seeing how they are doing and reviewing the conditions of the market to see if any adjustments to marketing, to the home or to the price need to be made based on the report you sent Monday afternoon.  

What to say when setting expectations:

“Between 9 am and noon on Tuesday mornings, you and I will review this weekly report. If you have questions, we can go deeper. If the information is super straightforward, ignore my call and we can catch up the next day.

It is important we review this information as market shifts can happen rapidly and we want to make sure we are responding as needed.”

MONTHLY REVIEW AND ASSESSMENT

Your client wants to know you are in this for the long haul.  If you can demonstrate your game plan for serving this person well, over time, they will know they have made a good decision to hire you. 

You are creating accountability for your performance by communicating your commitment to this plan.  And you communicate professionalism by sharing with your seller what you will be reviewing every 30 days.  You are also unconsciously setting the expectation that likely, their home will take longer than 30 days to sell.  

What to say when setting expectations:

“In preparing for the idea that it will take some time to market and sell your home. Typical timeframe in this market is a little over 30 days, on average. The higher the price point, the longer the timeframe, depending on the hyper-local conditions around the home. 

Here’s what we are going to do every 30 days:

  • Complete review of all marketing launched and engagement that can be measured resulting from that marketing. 
  • As a result of the marketing assessment, we will determine what was most effective and design a follow-up 30-day marketing plan. Some of this follow-up plan may be just staying the course, because it is doing exactly what we expected it to do. 
  • New market analysis. We start from scratch and reassess the value of your home and all market conditions to ensure we are positioned properly. 
  • We reassess your objectives. Condition, price and time are the three factors that impact the sale of your home once we go on the market. We reassess your relationship with  these; maximizing equity and speed not only once a week, but ensure we do a reset for the next 30 days. 
  • We review all feedback, all showings and all showing reports to identify the common denominators that will help us make the best strategic decisions.

Think of this as a complete reset every 30 days.  I’ll do all the analysis and share all the reporting.  We need at least 30 minutes to review it all.  But we should plan on 1-2 hours in case we need to talk about goals we previously established that may have changed.”

GET IN TOUCH WITH US

If you love our content and are a full time real estate professional who is dedicated to incredible experiences for your client, we’d love to chat.