Question: What do I say when the seller wants me to CUT my Commission?

Answer: I’d recommend that instead of becoming defensive and telling them how much you DESERVE what you charge, understand that homeowners care more about their finances than yours. The only reason they’d ever ask you to CUT your commission is because the BELIEVE by doing so they’ll come out better off financially. However, if they found out that paying LESS would actually COST them MORE they’d probably beg you to raise your fees, right? All you have to do is PROVE that CHARGING LESS to sell their home will COST MORE and CHARGING MORE will COST LESS. (I hope you’re not confused yet…)

The real secret to educating sellers on how it COSTS MORE to CHARGE LESS takes nothing more than a little research and a teeny bit of math. Do this; spend a few minutes searching your MLS for homes that sold by brokers that typically charge less than you do. Then calculate their average MARKDOWN PERCENTAGE (list price less sold price as a percentage) and add that number to the fee you believe they charge. Compare those numbers to yours and you’ll soon learn that CHARGING LESS to sell a home actually COSTS your sellers MORE. Now you just need to assemble the information in an easy-to-explain format and let your sellers know why they should PAY YOU MORE. I hope that helps…

Question: How would you recommend we get around the “Do-Not-Call” regulation?

 

Answer: While it may be a common misconception within the real estate industry that the DNC Registry ‘Prohibits‘ calling FSBOs the truth is it doesn’t — at least that’s the interpretation handed down from the NAR legal department. What the DNC regulation does prohibit is “initiating a call to a FSBO in an attempt to obtain a listing”. In other words it says that it’s perfectly OK to call a FSBO that’s on the DNC Registry but only so long as you don’t ask for the listing. If you’d like to read for yourself just follow this link: NAR Legal Opinion about the Do Not Call Regulation.

Question: The FSBOs I talk with seem happy to let me come over and see their house but don’t necessarily want to list with me, what am I doing wrong?

Answer: The problem isn’t that they WON’T list with you once you get over there, the problem is the pretense under which you originally set up the appointment. Were you totally honest on the phone with them? What was your stated purpose in going over there in the first place? Was it to get a listing? Is that what you told them or did you make the mistake of telling them some other story to HIDE the fact that you were trying to GET a listing?

If you’re saying one thing on the phone to merely get them to LET you come over yet the real purpose behind your visit is to somehow get them to LIST with you, there’s a good chance they weren’t on the same page as you were. In the future you might change your reason for going over to visit them. Instead of going over to GET the listing, why not go over and educate them on something they didn’t even know that they didn’t know? How about educating them on how it actually Costs Less to Hire a Pro than to Sell on Your Own? Remember this; Educated People Make Educated Decisions — and if the decisions they’re making aren’t going the way you feel they should perhaps you need to get better at educating them…. Give it a try next time.

Question: What do I say to a FSBO on the phone when they tell me that they’re NOT INTERESTED in working with an AGENT?

Answer: Of course they don’t want to WORK with an agent — that’s why they put the For Sale by Owner sign in the yard to begin with silly!! The next time someone tells you they’re not working with agents just tell them that’s not the reason you were calling, but thanks anyway. Naturally it helps if you really weren’t calling to try to get them to list with you. Don’t forget that the DNC regulation prohibits soliciting for business from anyone on the list and besides that, it just makes you sound desperate and needy when all you do is ask for listings. Save yourself a lot of grief and STOP calling FSBOs only to get business. You’ll find that you’ll get a lot further by focusing on building rapport first. Give it a try.

Question: How do I respond when a FSBO tells me that they’re willing to pay a commission if I have a buyer?

Answer: Thank them for the offer and let them know in NO uncertain terms that that’s NOT the reason you were calling. And don’t even think of teasing them with the idea that you MIGHT have somebody interested in their house; that’s an all too common gesture used by other, less confident agents. The biggest challenge in accepting a FSBO’s offer to pay you a commission ‘If You Have a Buyer’ isn’t that you may or may not actually have a buyer for their home, it’s that you’ll be grouped in with all the OTHER agents that have given in to the same ploy. Even worse, since you’ll essentially be saying the same thing most of the other agents that have called that FSBO have said, you’ll be treated the same way as all the other agents — and that’s not good. The next time a FSBO tenders an offer like that to you just stop for a moment, take a deep breath and then ask the FSBO whether or not they’ve had OTHER agents offer to bring buyers over. After the FSBO acknowledges that they have in deed had other agents offer go ahead and ask how it turned out for them. You’ll probably find that those particular agents never actually brought over a buyer and if they did bring someone they — for some reason — didn’t end up buying. Remember; if you do what the other agents do and sound the way the other agents sound you’ll be treated like the other agents — not well. Give it a try…

Question: What’s the best way to get a FSBOs attention? I’m not really good at using the phone and would like an easier way to contact them.

Answer: The best way to GET a FSBO’s attention is to OFFER a SOLUTION to a PROBLEM they didn’t know they have! Now this may sound a bit convoluted at first but most agents are trying so hard to merely get HIRED by the For Sale by Owner that they forgot about some of the basic human instinctive behaviors — folks with PROBLEMS seek out SOLUTIONS — folks that don’t HAVE a PROBLEM aren’t looking for a SOLUTION.

PLEASE NOTE: Read this next sentence out loud three times before it will truly make sense to you.

If a For Sale by Owner knew that they could Hire a Professional to sell their home for them and it wouldn’t COST THEM A PENNY do you think they’d still want to be a For Sale by Owner?

I’ll bet your first reaction to that question wasn’t YES or NO — but instead it was “How could that be?” Am I right? Well imagine the reaction you’d get from a FSBO if in fact you had them on the phone and asked them the same question. With experience you’d discover the same thing my workshop students learn and that is that a FSBO would NOT want to do it on their own if the KNEW they could HIRE a PRO to do all the work for them and it wouldn’t cost a penny. Of course you’d have to be able to educate them on how this could be but once you get good at it you’ll laugh as you think back to a time when you didn’t know what you didn’t know. Now you know!! Give it a try…

Question: What areas does the Landvoice FSBO lead service currently cover?

Answer: Landvoice covers most states in the United States and most provinces in Canada. You can browse our areas using the map on the home page. If you can’t find the area you are looking for, please contact the sales team at 888.678.0905 for more information.

Question: Do I have to sign a long term contract with the Landvoice Service?

Answer: Landvoice offers monthly, quarterly, and annual service packages and no contract is required to subscribe.

Question: Can I import this data into my contact management software?

Answer: Yes! We can send the daily leads to you in a comma delimited format, which you can then import directly into almost any software you use.

Question: Where does Landvoice find their listings?

Answer: Landvoice has data compilers in each area who search newspapers, FSBO websites, FSBO magazines, and any public source that is available to find FSBO leads.