Today I’d like to share my How-To Guide for Realtors looking to get their name spread like wild-fire in their local community. If you follow this Step-By-Step Guide, I can almost assure you that the entire community will be talking about you with zest and vigor.
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Step 1: Show up late for your appointments. But be sure to be really late, not just 5 minutes late. Heck, here in Scottsdale people might think it odd if you weren’t “fasionably” late. To make a strong impression you need to be a good 30 minutes late. Really keep your clients guessing about whether you are going to show up at all. When you do arrive, be sure to have an excellent excuse for being late as well. My favorite is to blame it on the line at Starbucks. Everyone knows how backed up they get some mornings. |
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Step 2: Make promises you cannot possibly keep. The best of these would be to promise to sell a client’s home at an above market price in less than 30 days. For the entire month, your clients will be telling the neighbors what a super agent you must be to make such a bold promise. But the kicker will be at the end of the month, when it doesn’t sell. Not only will the street that your listing was on now be ablaze with the news, every home owner within a half mile radius will suddenly know your name. |
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Step 3: Reward your buddies. Before the home is listed, you’ll undoubtedly identify a fewdefects that need to be addressed to get the home ready for sale. Things like touching up the paint, cleaning the carpets, tidying the landscape, etc. Even if the home appears to be in model home condition, there’s bound to be something that needs to be fixed.This is where you get your “team” involved and ensure that all of your buddies get “hooked up”. Don’t worry about the quality of the job they do. Your referal will mean everything to them, and they’ll start referring you as well. |
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Step 4: Negotiate for Success. If your listing does, for some unexplained reason, get an offer, you will need to demonstrate your superior negotiating skills. Even if you don’t have superior negotiating skills, there’s an easy way to make a big impact at this point in the process: Advise your clients, no matter what the offer, to counter-back for more money. My simple rule of thumb is to just add 5% to the offer. But no matter what, yourcounter offer needs to be morethan the current asking price. You can’t bend on this. Full price isn’t enough.You want your clients running down the street screaming their heads off at how good an agent you are, and nothing can do that better than getting more than the asking price. |
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Step 5: Ask for testimonials from past clients. Even if your client fires you before the listing expires, be sure to follow up and ask for a testimonial to use in your listing presentation and/or your website. You need to be able to demonstrate to future clients that you’ve worked with “difficult” people in the past.Don’t forget to use the testimonial in a blog post, with a catchy headline like, “I can’t believe they fired me!”or “Beware: Unreasonable Home Owners in Your Town, USA!” |
And there you have it. My quick and easy guide to rapidly expanding your sphere of influence.
Also, I’d like to thank the GnomeyNute over at BlueJar.com for suggesting a How-To Guide.
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Thanks for participating in my group writing project! Goodluck!
I especially liked the first tip. Fun read all the way. Mistitled, though. Your first line really tells what it’s about - getting people to talk about you
Jacob
Yeah, it’s a nice read. Nice to find a estate agent with a sense of humor.
Looks like your business is in safe hands
I loved the way you presented the post. You just gave me a bunch of ideas to post about.
You have made my list at the BlueJar Writing Contest and I’ll be putting up a blog post about it soon.
Jacob and MDB, thanks a bunch for the feedback.
And Jonathan, “WOW!” A vote for #1 is far more than I ever expected.
I agree with the previous commenters, this was a fun read. At the same time, isn’t it funny how a person could become almost more well known by behaving poorly, than the person who did show up on time, only made promises they could keep, etc.?! Just a thought I had while reading.