Want to Know What Someone Means? Ask!
April 30, 2008 | 11 Comments
You may remember when I introduced the concept of the Listing Conversation, as opposed to the traditional Listing Presentation. I hope that you have been conscientious about trying to engage your potential clients more, and not just talking at them.
You may be wondering, “Well, I want to have more conversation with my clients, but they just won’t talk to me. They won’t tell me what they really mean. If I could only get them to tell me what they really mean, then both our lives would be much better. How do I get them to tell me what they really mean?
I’m glad you asked. . .
Referees are Trained to Be Brief and Meaningful
As a basketball referee, interactions with coaches are entirely unavoidable. I know that, at some point during a game, I am going to have at least one interaction with each coach. Sometimes, these interactions are emotional (go figure).
When it comes to interaction with coaches, referees are trained to always keep two things in mind– Don’t initiate an exchange, and be brief when you do have to have one. As a basketball referee, the LAST thing I want to do is get into some sort of protracted conversation with a coach. The reasons for this are many, but most of them have to do with my own self-preservation. 
I can almost hear you thinking, “So if referees are trained not to have conversations, how are you supposed to help me have more conversations with my clients?”
Glad you asked. While, on the one hand, referees are trained to be brief, they are also trained to be very meaningful. When you are forced to be brief, you don’t have time to waste trying to figure things out. You need to know what the coach means so that you can properly address it.
The Question is the Best Weapon in a Conversation
One the most valuable lessons I have ever learned in officiating is to use the question to my advantage. Here’s a very common example that has saved my butt on more than one occasion:
COACH: C’mon ref, the foul count is 6-1 against us. What’s going on?
(This is a very common exchange between referees and coaches. Coaches always notice the foul count when it is not in their favor, especially when the spread is 3 or more fouls. NO ANSWER IN THE WORLD is going to satisfy the coach. In fact, the coach usually doesn’t want a response to this question, he is really just trying to vent frustration. Here is where the question is powerful. . .)
REF: What do you mean, coach?
(The response to THIS question determines how I would handle the situation. Without the answer to this question, I have no idea what the coach is after, so I have no idea how to appropriately respond. The coach might say this:)
COACH: They are killing us on that end, and we aren’t getting any calls.
(Such a response is common, and it is merely a show of frustration at a perceived lack of officiating consistency. No problem, I can just say. . .)
REF: I hear you coach, we’ll make sure we watch that action.
(Short, sweet, and everyone goes on their merry way. He has vented, and I have acknowledged it. End of story. A different answer from the coach would require a different response on my behalf. . .)
COACH: You guys have been missing calls all night! You’re terrible!
(The response to this one is easy. . .)
REF: TWEEEEET! Technical foul.
Without asking the coach for that initial explanation, there is no way to know what his true motives are, so you run the risk of acting inappropriately to the situation. Acting inappropriately can cause a lot of problems that are completely unavoidable. Had I reacted with an immediate technical foul, the coach would have every right to be upset, and so would my supervisor.
The simple act of asking another question can make a world of difference.
Applying the Lessons from Roundball to Real Estate
So now you know how referees use one simple question to get meaning out of their interactions with coaches. Obviously, this same technique can be applied to your interactions with potential clients, buyers or sellers.
I’m going to share with you how I think this technique can be used in another post on Friday. I would like to be able to use your input and suggestions in that post; it would be more beneficial if we could all learn from the experiences of each other.
So let’s all help each other out. Leave a comment on this post on how you might use a question to find out how to better meet the needs of your potential clients. Better yet, if you have a story you can share as to how you have approached these situations, let us know! If you don’t want to leave a comment, you can even email your suggestions or stories to me at Daniel [at] StrongTeamRealtors.com. I would love to be able to share YOUR input and insight.
So. . .what would YOU do? What questions would YOU ask, and WHY?
More Conversation, Less Presentation
April 1, 2008 | 3 Comments
In my last episode of Real Estate in Black and White, I introduced the idea of the “listing conversation.” This would be different from what every real estate professional currently knows as the “listing presentation.”
The listing presentation is part of the core competency of every REALTOR. Well, I guess that’s not completely true, there are those who work exclusively for buyers. If you are one of those people, then just insert the word, “buyer” for the words “listing,” and “seller.” The same concepts still apply.
What We Know About Listing Presentations, and Why It’s a Problem
Very early on in our real estate careers, we are either taught explicitly, or we learn through example, to “get the listing.” Typically, this means that a potential seller contacts us about listing the home. We go over to the person’s home, CMA (or BPO or whatever you want to call it) in hand, and we “present” to the seller the reasons why they should list the home with us. There are a million variations to this dog and pony show, but all of them have as their focus the same end game– getting the listing.
The problem with that is that it ignores the fundamental reason why the seller called us in the first place– the seller wants our help.
Huh? What? I thought that the seller wanted to sell the house. True– sort of.
The seller might want to sell the house, the seller might just want you to come in and offer your price opinion so that they can go and list with their friend or sell it as a FSBO. Heck, there are dozens of reasons why the seller might have called you, but they all boil done to one simple thing– the seller wants our help.
We Can Help Ourselves by Helping Our Clients
I hear REALTORS complain (I’ve done it myself), about being duped by a potential seller who, after a listing presentation and a hollow promise, went out and listed the home with a friend or relative, or did a FSBO. The reality is that we blame the seller because it is easier than putting the blame where it squarely belongs– on ourselves.
The reason why we are so easily fooled, and the reason that sellers know we can be easily fooled, is that the people know that REALTORS have a tendency to be quite self-absorbed. That comes as a byproduct of a life and work-style in which we are Kings and Queens of our own castles. How often have you been told– “You are your brand. You are selling yourself.” We tend to focus on ourselves A LOT.
That’s okay, sometimes. There are times, however, when our attention should be turned outward. Interaction with clients is one of those times, and interaction with potential clients is most certainly one of those times.
How to Solve the Listing Presentation Problem
The problem with the listing presentation, is that it is all about the agent, not about the seller. The whole idea of a presentation is that it is one person telling another person information. There is little or no dialogue, there isn’t even any thought given to dialogue. We get so wrapped up in presentation and “getting the listing” that we forget that the seller invited us. The seller asked us to be there. Don’t we owe it to ourselves, and especially to the seller, to find out why? How are we ever going to achieve anyone’s goals, or meet anyone’s needs, without knowing what they are?
In order to determine what the seller’s objective is, we need to engage in a meaningful conversation, not just our standard presentation. Ask questions, don’t just spew answers. Above all– listen.
There are a few strategies and techniques you can implement to move from the listing presentation to the listing conversation. I’ll share these in another post. For now, I want you to consider the change in philosophy that is require to make it possible. That philosophy comes down to three easy to remember points.
1) I’m not here to “get” a listing. I am here to help.
2) Listen and ask. Don’t just tell.
3) More conversation, less presentation.
Remember those 3 things, and you will be well on your way to having more meaningful interactions with your clients and customers.
How To Sell Your Home in Black and White
December 20, 2007 | 34 Comments
I am pleased to present the first episode of “Real Estate in Black & White.”
Episode #1– How to Sell Your Home
I hope you like it. If you do, I encourage you to share it with everyone you know.
Public Relations is Important for Sellers and Buyers of Real Estate
December 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Facebook was once the belle of the Silicon Valley ball. Now, not so much.
Much of the recent drop in the favorable popularity of the social networking giant can be traced to the controversy surrounding the release of their advertising platform, Beacon. You don’t need to understand all the details of the Beacon release, but understanding the poor handling of the public relations situation it created could be helpful to you in your real estate transactions.
Beacon was released to much fanfare, but upon further examination very serious concerns were raised about the privacy of Facebook users. Much ado was made about this concern from very prominent people in the Internet industry. At first, Facebook did nothing. It then tried to change the way the program functioned. This didn’t assuage the onslaught of negative press. After many openly questioned why Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was being silent on the whole issue, the negative press had reached its peak.
Yesterday, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the whole mess. Better late than never, I guess.
PR Matters to Sellers
Everyone knows that PR is important to multi-million (or in Facebook’s case, Billion) dollar corporations. There are many jobs and tons of money at stake. PR can be just as important to you if you are buying or selling your home. While you may not have billions of dollars at stake, the reward or loss is significant, nonetheless.
When you are selling your home, you can think of the transaction as one gigantic PR campaign. You want to put the best possible face on your home at all times. This means that you want to convey quality, benefit and value not only through the marketing of the home, but also through the physical appearance of the home. It is ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL that the message conveyed through the marketing of the home is consistent with the physical appearance of the home.
One of the issues central to the Facebook debacle was that the perception of trust and caring that Facebook had spent years building was undone in an instant by one ill-conceived advertising platform. In short, users had come to expect one thing, but were delivered something entirely different. YOU DO NOT WANT PROSPECTIVE BUYERS TO FEEL THIS WAY.
Do whatever you can to put the most positive face on your home at all times. Don’t lie. Present an accurate picture, but make sure that the picture is ultimately consistent with what the prospective buyers are going to find when they view the home in person. Nothing is more frustrating to buyers than arriving at a home to find out that it was not what they were lead to believe it was.
PR Matters to Buyers, Too
PR is important for buyers, as well. This is especially true when it comes time to make an offer. A real estate transaction may be a major financial transaction, but when it comes to someones’ personal home, there is a lot of emotion involved as well. As much as sellers want to make the most possible money on the sale of their home, they also want to feel that their home is being sold to good people who will care for the home in the same way that they did. Buyers should do their best to meet both of these needs.
On the financial side, buyers must show that they are able to buy the home. Having loan pre-approval prior to writing a contract can go a long way to keep sellers fears at bay. Every seller has a little fear that the buyer will not be able to afford the house or get loan approval. Pre-approval can help calm this fear.
During the course of the negotiation, it is good to keep in mind that their will be some give and take. No one wants to sell a home to people who just take, take, take. You are going to have to give a little. You want to be firm, but you want to be as friendly as possible at the same time. It won’t always work, and it won’t guarantee that the seller will be agreeable, but it is much better than the alternative.
Mistakes are OK
Everyone is going to make a PR mistake at one point or another. I think Facebook proved that. Mistakes are OK, as long as you work quickly to correct them and work even harder to learn from your mistake and prevent a similar thing from happening in the future. We can’t be perfect all of the time. We can, however, be vigilant in preventing the same mistake from occurring over and over again.
One way of doing this is listening to people and their feedback. As a seller, you will probably get feedback on your home. You don’t have to follow all of it, but you should listen to all of it. Take it all in, and evaluate whether or not their is something you could be doing better.
As a buyer, you should be listening to the needs of the seller. Try to find out as much as you can about the seller and what they want. Your agent will most certainly be doing this through the seller’s agent. Try to meet the seller’s needs wherever it will benefit you to do so. Remember– you want to make the seller want to sell the home to you. Offering them help when you can is one way to create this feeling.
Remember to Keep PR on Your Mind
No one is exempt from the power of good (or bad) PR. The damage done to Facebook by their recent mishandling of their PR won’t be known for a while. Don’t make a similar mistake. When you are preparing to buy or sell a home, remember the power of PR. Keep it in mind at all times. Doing so will give you the best possible chance to achieve your real estate goals.
A Quick Tip for Selling Your Home in the Winter
December 3, 2007 | 1 Comment
Winter is fast approaching here in Virginia. Today, it was not only cold, but raining. When I arrived at one of our new construction homes for an open house, I was reminded of a tip that will help you sell your home in during the winter if it happens to be vacant– turn on the heat.
This sounds like a trivial thing, but it really isn’t. Many owners forget about this during the winter, especially if the home is vacant. It is important to keep the heat on for at least two reasons:
1) You don’t want people to think that your HVAC is broken. Sometimes, people will enter a vacant home without any heat and assume that the heat must be broken. You certainly don’t want people to walk away with that mistaken impression.
2) You want people to be comfortable in your home. In order for people to have a favorable impression of your home, it is imperative that they actually spend time in your home. If it is cold inside the house, the only thing on their mind is going to be getting back in the car to warm up. When it is too cold inside the house, prospective buyers will tend to rush through the showing, or not even bother to view the house at all. That would most certainly not be good.
I’m not saying that you have to keep your heat on 72 degrees the whole time, but putting on at least 55 degrees should make it at least comfortable enough for people not to spend the entire time shivering and searching for the nearest heat source. Besides, having the heat on is just a good preventative measure to keep your plumbing from freezing up and costing you thousands of dollars in repair.
So remember, if you are going to be selling your house in the winter, and it is going to be vacant, take the time to turn up the heat.
[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, virginia, selling, home maintenance, winterization [/tags]
Success Depends on Concentration
November 29, 2007 | 1 Comment
A Serendipitous Convergence of Genius
November 28, 2007 | 2 Comments
Greg wrote yesterday about people who seem to oscillate at the same frequency. My wife and I fall firmly into that category (you know, people who can finish each other’s sentences and all). It is an interesting idea, and who knows, maybe there really is no such thing as coincidence.
If that is true, then it might help explain this:
Yesterday, I wrote one post all day. It was very brief, and that was the point. It needs no further explanation. If, as a home seller, you have trouble grasping this point, or are wrestling with it at all, don’t ask me to list your home.
Funny thing is, I opened my RSS reader this morning to find a post from Barbara Corcoran entitled, “Sell Your House in 30 Days.” She lists 10 things you can do to sell your home faster. I ask you to take note of tip #1:
1. Price it right. A wrong price on the right house equals no sale.
Look familiar?
You may have thought I was being facetious with my post, but I was being deadly serious. I’m just a lowly REALTOR who writes on a blog, so you don’t have to believe me. Barbara, on the other hand, is a regular real estate contributor for the Today Show (among many other professional achievements). Hey, if it’s on TV, then it must be true.
Besides, the Zebra is in her blog roll, so you know has good taste!
[tags] real estate, realtor, barbara corcoran, selling, today show [tags]
The #1 Way to NOT Sell Your Home
November 27, 2007 | 10 Comments
1) Over-price it.
(and yes, it really is that simple)
[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, virginia [/tags]
Good Calls, Bad Calls, Chicago, Selling Your Home, and Why Context Matters to All of It
November 10, 2007 | 1 Comment
Earlier this morning, I had to drive into Charlottesville to drop off my High School basketball rules test to my supervisor. During my drive, I was listening to one of the latest editions to my music library– The Very Best of Chicago 40th Anniversary Collection. With Chicago in my ears, and officiating and real estate on my mind, I got to thinking about how all of these things are linked by one simple concept– context.
We all know about context. We hear all the time from celebrities or public figures who are reported to have said something, only to come out later and say that they were misunderstood, that everything was taken “out of context.” There is no doubt that context is important. Nothing in life occurs in a vacuum. The context in which an event occurs has a great deal to do with how we interpret that event.
I want to share with you three examples of context, and the tremendous difference it can make. The first is from officiating, the second from the world of entertainment. I want to finish with an example of how important context can be to real estate, especially if you are selling your home.
Good call or bad? Depends. . . Context is absolutely CRITICAL to officiating, especially in basketball. Most fans who watch games just assume that a referee sees plays and makes a call whenever there is an infraction. That simply isn’t so. By rule, any contact between players in a basketball game COULD be a foul. It COULD be. That doesn’t mean that it is. So how does an official decide what to call and what not to call? Simple– context.
A good official watches a play through development, action, and finish. After doing all of that, then a proper call can be made. Sometimes contact that looks as if it is severe enough to cause a disadvantage has no effect at all, and is ignored. The official also has to take into account previous calls in the game. If a certain play has been called one way at the beginning of a game, it should be called that way at the end of the game. That being said, there are times when a call that might have been a great call in the first minute of the game, might not be such a good call in the last minute of a game. Understanding context is critical to officiating a basketball game well.
Chicago’s greatest hits or greatest flops? Depends. . . I confess that Chicago is one of my favorite bands of all time. So what if much of their music was made before I was born. I still love it. The funny thing is, when I was listening to the “Very Best Of” album that I just bought, I was hearing the songs in a totally different context. If you take each of the songs on its own, they are all incredible. The problem is that when you listen to the whole album, the contemporary songs sound very different compared to the more classic songs.
The early hits like, “Saturday In the Park,” “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is,” and “25 or 6 to 4,” are juxtaposed against their later hits, “You’re the Inspiration,” “Hard to Say I’m Sorry,” and “If You Leave Me Now.” While the latter are each good songs in their own right, their over-produced and highly-synthesized sound comes across as ridiculous, almost embarrassing, when heard after the richness and complexity produced by the horns and instrumentation of the former. I still like all of them, but the context of the songs helps me appreciate some of them more than others.
Competitive listing or not? Depends. . . In the real estate market, context matters just as much as it does to officiating and music. When you decide to sell your home, there are going to be other homes on the market competing with your home for attention and contract. These other homes provide the context in which potential buyers will see your home. They will compare it to the other homes on the market. Sometimes this can be good, other times, not so good. It all depends.
Because real estate inventories are not static in any given market, the context of your home changes constantly. Let’s say that your home is priced perfectly in line with recent comparable sales and current comparable listings. What happens if, over the course of a few weeks, all the competing listings reduce their prices by 10%? Buyers will now see your house in a completely different context than they did before. Pricing is probably the most important context to buyers, but not always. Location can be just as important. I often work with buyers who say, “I just wish I could take this house and put it over in that neighborhood.” These buyers are expressing a dislike for the context of a home, not for the home itself.
If you want to give your house the best possible chance of selling for the price that you want in the time frame you want, it is important to understand the effect that context can have on your sale.
Remember– nothing happens in a vacuum. If you have any hope of understanding one event, you will need to understand the context in which it occurs. Context isn’t just for public figures or people giving interviews. Context matters to all of us. It matters to basketball referees, it matters to musicians, and it should matter to you if you want to sell your home.
Charlottesville Real Estate September Sales Statistics
October 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
August was rough, and September wasn’t any better for the Charlottesville real estate market. Below are the charts for the sales in the Charlottesville area in September, and for the entire year-to-date. As always the sales data is compiled from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS MLS.
Let’s take a look:
For the month of September, the Charlottesville area saw a 33% drop in sales compared to September of 2006. Ouch. That is after the 30% year-over-year drop in August. The only area that actually saw an increase in sales was the City of Charlottesville, which had 4 more sales.
Now let’s see how the September numbers affected the year-to-date statistics for the Charlottesville area:
The sales deficit for the year is holding steady at 22% less sales in 2007 compared to 2006. That makes three consecutive months where the deficit has remained 22% (almost four– in June, the deficit was 23%). If there is some good news here, I guess that is it. If this holding trend continues, it may signal that we are in the bottom of the current dip. Right now, it is too early to be able to tell.
Albemarle is still the only area that has seen a drop in the median sale price at -2%. For the entire Charlottesville area, the median has risen 4.5% so far this year. While that number isn’t exactly spectacular, it is healthy and sustainable, which is a very good thing.
I was hoping that would able to post some Days on Market stats, as the rules have changed around here, but that will have to wait at least another month as the MLS sorts things out.
As we move into the final quarter of the year, the stats are bound to get more and more intriguing as we begin to get a complete picture of the 2007 Year in Real Estate. Stay tuned for more stats.
If you are reading this and have questions about the stats in specific neighborhoods or other areas not covered here, just let me know, I am happy to provide what I can.
[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, albemarle, fluvanna, greene, nelson, market statistics, housing statistics, median home price, home sales statistics [/tags]
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Disclaimer
My name is Daniel Rothamel. I am a licensed real estate agent in the Commonwealth of Virginia and a member of the National Association of REALTORS. As such, I adhere to a strict code of ethics and all laws with regard to equal housing, which is reflected in the content of this blog. My broker is Strong Team REALTORS, 86 Joshua Lane, Palmyra, VA 22963; (434) 589-5800. My VA Real Estate License number is 0225 077325. All of the opinions in this blog are mine, unless otherwise noted.
