Five Tips to Win a Real Estate Bidding War!

Here’s a great article from RealTrends this week:

Low inventory and high demand drive up prices and put buyers at a disadvantage in many markets, especially real estate. Real estate professionals need to know how to help homebuyers navigate a multiple offer situation, or they run the risk of losing out on the best properties. Great sales associates know you can win a bidding war by using a few smart strategies.

Here are 5 tips to help any real estate professional in this scenario:

Manage Client Expectations

Since you know your local market, you will know when a property is likely to attract multiple offers. Start the process with your customers by informing them of the possibility of a bidding war. Set expectations early by explaining what happens when multiple offers are made on a home. Help them understand that the seller may take time to review their offer and come back with something else.

Be sure your homebuyers have a threshold price in mind before bidding starts so that you can reference their “best-and-final” offer when emotions get high. Buying a home is always an emotional rollercoaster and even more so when in a multiple offer situation. As the professional, it is important that you keep your cool and provide a steady hand.

Know Reputable Lenders

Make sure your homebuyers are pre-approved and not just pre-qualified. This step lets the seller know that the buyers are truly serious contenders. Great sales associates will know where to direct their customers for pre-approval. Keep in mind that any businesses you recommend will reflect on you, so align yourself with a reputable lender.

Start With A Strong Offer

Naturally, all homebuyers want to get the best deal possible on a home. However, if you think multiple offers will be made, this is not the time to lowball. In fact, if your buyers are serious about the home, it may be time to offer more than the asking price. Increasing the earnest money offer at this time also shows how committed the buyers are to this deal.

Help Your Clients Stand Out

Offering more than the asking price is one way to stand out. Another way is to have your clients write a letter to the seller about why they feel like the house is the one. Buying and selling a home is an emotional process for both parties and sellers often prefer homebuyers who feel a personal connection to the home. A third approach is to drop additional contingencies in the offer. Commonly waived contingencies are the home appraisal and home inspection. Dropping the home inspection is a big step and should not be done lightly. We recommend a home inspection on all properties, but this tactic is used in highly competitive markets.

Coach Your Clients On Flexibility

With a seller’s market, it’s not unusual for homes to sell so quickly that the home seller hasn’t even found a new home yet. If the homebuyers are willing to work with the seller on closing and move out dates, it could sweeten the deal.

In any multiple offer situation, there will only by one winner and multiple losers. However, with these tips a real estate professional can work on their customers’ behalf to stand out and win the deal. Some of the happiest customers are those who won a multiple offer deal, because they know they could not have done it without you.

Great advice! Good luck out there!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

The Peak Producer "Rhythm of the Referral System"

Our Peak Producers training focuses on the key difference in truly Working By Referral versus the old “word of mouth” approach most of us fall into. The problem with the latter approach is that we’re still waiting for the phone to ring! When we work proactively t0 generate referrals, the goal is to develop a steady stream of business. To do that, we want to get into an ongoing flow, or rhythm, of a systematic approach. Here’s how:

1.    Add people to your database! Those weekly contacts with our client care database are the basic ingredient in the recipe for consistent business and growth. One hour of this kind of sales and marketing activity—the CEO or Rainmaker hat—is worth five hours of excellent client service—the COO or dealmaker hat—to building a consistent business.

2.     Build relationships! Through our consistent contact and care for your relationships so they come to trust and value us professionally.

3.    Provide excellent service! The basis of trust and value is our excellent service and commitment to our clients’ goals starting during a transaction—the COO hat—but also beyond as we serve them as their long term real estate adviser and show them how much we appreciate our relationship even when there isn’t a commission check at stake.

4.    Ask for referrals! Here’s where most of us stop, either because it feels a tad uncomfortable or because our COO hat gets so heavy we can’t lift our focus from the whirlwind of transactions. But that’s like putting all your hard earned dollars under the mattress instead of investing them and letting them work for you! Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get!

5.    Receive referrals! Yes, be open to referrals! So often, we get into a service mentality and don’t want to seem like we ever need anything from our clients. Remember, anyone giving us a referral really likes us to begin with and they want to see us succeed.

6.    Acknowledge and appreciate the referrer! Don’t wait to see if we get an actual client and make it to the closing table! That’s rewarding the results—and can be several months after someone gives us the referral. Instead, reward the behavior—their thinking of us and giving us the referral—and do it immediately so the referrer sees how much we appreciate their behavior.

7.    Turn that new lead (referral) into an advocate! Now that we’ve shown our client what excellent service really is, don’t treat the closing as a funeral! Remind them we love to help folks like them and how referrals allow us to focus on always providing the best service. Add them to your ongoing client appreciation program and keep in touch! (And yes, ask for referrals!)

Just keep this ongoing rhythm going with these seven easy steps to success in your career and a great life!

The Seven Step Blueprint for Getting a Home Sold--and for Winning the Listing!

This week in a coaching session I was chatting with a newer agent who was excited about some upcoming opportunities to list homes in great areas. He said the folks had asked about his marketing plan so he wanted to focus on that.

I suggested that he implement some strategies from our Buffini Peak Producers training that address not only a solid marketing plan for the house, but also touch on some issues that 99% of Realtors probably would never think of mentioning! Buffini, in his training session on “Working with Sellers,” recommends establishing our professionalism by sharing with the seller our “Blueprint for Getting a Home Sold.” This seven-step process will immediately differentiate us from the competition! Here’s the Blueprint:

1.     In-depth MARKET ANALYSIS. Okay, nothing too surprising there. So, be sure you know the neighborhood inside and out! BUT, be sure to do this LAST! We all know that 100% of sellers, no matter what they say, have an idea of what they think their house should be worth and it’s usually based on something far removed from fact. So if we cover the pricing discussion first, chances are they will be disappointed in what the market will tell us the price should be and of course they won’t hear another word we say after that! (I recommend telling them up front you’ll cover this last since it is so important and you want to set the context for that discussion.)

2.     Property ENHANCEMENT checklist. I love the way we can use words and their connotations and that word, enhancement, covers issues we often discuss but rarely position so positively! This list will of course include many basics like cleanups and fix-ups, maybe some additions or repainting, and, depending on the price point, bringing in a professional stager at our own cost! I like to say these things enhance the value!

3.     Comprehensive PROMOTION and MARKETING plan. Most sellers tend to fixate on this aspect so we need to have a great plan and do a good job of positioning its strength. But frankly most agents stop here, thus opening the door for us to show our real value with the next items.

4.     CRYSTAL clear COMMUNICATION. Wow, we all know that our business overall suffers from a poor reputation in this area, and maybe your potential new client has experienced it in past transactions. I encourage setting expectations and letting the seller know your plan for proactive updates—and of course finding out how they prefer we communicate with them.

5.     NEGOTIATING and STRUCTURING the sale. Wow, how many sellers ever consider this as one the professional services we provide? And very few agents ever think to address it in their presentation either. So, here’s a huge opportunity to differentiate ourselves by addressing this and our experience and expertise in handling this often tricking element of our services. By the way, we’ll cover The Seven Styles of Negotiator in a future Playbook so you can even mention a couple of those in your presentation.

6.     COMPREHENSIVE Transaction MANAGEMENT. I love this one as we all know that even though we may have an accepted contract, there are many potholes and hurdles between that and the closing table. Again, most sellers have little knowledge about these pitfalls, so by simply mentioning them and our expertise as part of our services, we immediately differentiate ourselves from 99% of the competition!

7.     Client APPRECIATION Program. Yes, we’ll be available to assist the seller with any ongoing real estate or property needs—like recommending a painter or plumber—even if they move out of town or state—or country! Remember, we all know the best way to grow our business is by referrals from clients, so why wouldn’t we stay in touch and offer appreciation to the sellers? Even if they move to Topeka or Tuscany, they probably still have friends or family in our market, or maybe they still work for the same firm they were with here . . . and maybe one day they might be transferred back! Bottom line, in our long term, relationship approach to our business, doing the right thing will help our business grow steadily!

Okay, the market is starting to heat up and there is still a shortage of listings so the competition will be fierce. Don’t forget to roll up your blueprint and take it with you for your next listing presentation to improve your winning percentage!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development

Huey Lewis and the Big D!

For those of you who weren’t able make the trip to Dallas for the BHHS Convention this week, the trip was both exhilarating and exhausting! Well, at my age, anyway!

We got to see Gino Blefari’s excitement as he talked about 2016 being one of those “Tipping Points” where a company—in this case, OUR company—really finds its stride and explodes to new levels of success. The BHHS network expanded in 2015 from 32,000 agents to 42,000 agents and the company will be opening its first global franchise later this year with a search capability for homes in the US translated into many foreign languages so don’t delete that client who moves to Germany or to India!

And speaking of success, our very own BHHS Indiana jumped from the 29th position in GCI in the BHHS network all the way up to 22nd! Congrats and thanks to all!

We got to see Billy Beane, of Moneyball fame, tell the story of how his baseball team, the Oakland A’s, found a way to make the most of each player’s individual and unique strengths to produce a winning team.

We got to see and meet both Tom Ferry and Dermot Buffini—Brian’s brother—and to hear them present on “How to 10x Your Business” and “The 7 Steps to Success.” One of the best stories was Tom Ferry’s intro of a team from Long Beach, California, who had listed and sold—and just closed a day before-- a home owned by the parents of the owner/founder of Zillow! Not only did they sell it and have BOTH sides, the home sold for something like $8.5 million while the Zillow estimate was something like $6 million! Booyah! Both Tom and Dermot had some great ideas and we’ll share them in future Playbook posts.

We got to become “fascinated” with a presentation by Sally Hogshead about a great new personality profile assessment similar to those that many of us have done before. Sally’s, though, is unique in that it focuses on “Your Fascination Advantages,” those elements in all of us that, at our best, attract folks to want to work with us and be around us. Her point is that we should, first of all, be aware of those strengths we have, and then to be more of them! The best part is that she has offered free profiles for BHHS agents so all you need to do is go to:

Howtofasinateyou.com/You and enter the code BHHS16.

It takes less than five minutes and is very clever—and fun—in its results as you’re shown your two “Fascination Advantages”—mine are Innovation and Power, which combine to make me “The Maverick Leader”—“pioneering, irreverent, and entrepreneurial.” The cool thing is that ALL of the archetypes have very spiffy positive connotations we can use in bolstering our strengths and enhancing our relationships!

We got to then finish up our time in the Big D with a celebration of a dozen young cancer survivors supported by The Sunshine Kids foundation and we were all touched by these youngsters’ courage and fortitude—and then we got to meet all of them. Each of them was escorted by a TV personality, mostly from the current show Major Crimes, so that was also a kick!

We then got to finish out the night dancing and singing in the mosh pit along with Huey Lewis and the News—and hey, he’s almost as old as I am!!

And next year . . . Phoenix Arizona right in the middle of the Cubs’ spring training in Mesa!

Don’t miss it!

David M. Hassler

VP, Professional Development