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It's
Time to Become Excellent at Renewing
Your Listings Most
areas of the country are experiencing a
transition in their real estate markets
these days. Gone are the days of
multiple offers bidding-up prices above
and beyond their original listed prices,
except under very rare circumstances
now. For
agents who have gotten into the
commercial brokerage business within the
last 7-10 years or so, the concept of
having to renew one's listings with
owners may be quite foreign. After all,
during what was the hottest real estate
market that most if not all of us have
ever experienced, even the listings that
were originally overpriced often
ended-up selling at or close to their
original asking price. And some of these
overpriced listings ended-up selling for
more than the original listing price
with all the continuing appreciation in
value that happened during the listing
period. But there just aren't very many
parts of the country where this is still
happening right now. This
is why learning how to effectively
position yourself to renew your listings
with owners will be an extremely import
skill to learn. We're entering into a
period right now where many listings may
not move until sometime after their
initial listing period. And if you don't
learn how to renew your listings
effectively, the listing agent who
replaces you on a property may be the
one who eventually ends up making the
deal. This
transition time we've experienced from a
very hot market to a cooler one is often
the toughest time for brokers to deal
with. Property owners oftentimes still
want the price their property would have
commanded months ago when the market was
much hotter, and some of these owners
still think they should get a price for
their property that's above and beyond
even what it was worth when the market
peaked. When
owners have gotten used to phenomenal
annual appreciation in their property
values for years at a time, they can
sometimes get stubborn and act as if the
appreciation is still going on---even
when it isn't. And it's this
stubbornness on the part of owners who
demand unreasonable prices in times like
these that can really test brokers'
nerves. Now
when you combine this with buyers who
are demanding prices that are lower than
before, you have a classic real estate
marketplace buyer and seller standoff.
And the longer this standoff lasts, the
tougher it is for the brokers operating
in that market to close transactions.
It's when sellers finally become
realistic and more motivated to sell at
what today's market values are, that
things begin to really open up once
again. So the quicker this transition
occurs in any marketplace, the better it
is for the brokers operating in that
marketplace. Because brokers make more
money when there are more transactions
closing in any given market, regardless
of what's happening with the value of
the real estate. And
in a cooling off period, listings will
oftentimes not move as fast as they once
did, and oftentimes this means they
won't be moving during the original
listing period. And if you're a broker
who's never been in a market where you
needed to renew a number of your
listings, or it's been a long time since
you've experienced having to renew your
listings, you could easily get caught
like a deer in the headlights if you
don't watch out. Before,
when most markets were hotter, there was
no need for an ongoing communication
plan with your property owners. The only
communication you needed was presenting
the offers as they came in and
negotiating on these offers with the
owners. But now when you have listings
that sit for long periods of time with
no offers on them, following that same
strategy will have you drop out most all
communication with your owners, which
spells out the kiss of death when it
comes to having them want to renew their
listings with you. But
oftentimes the problem here is that you
as the agent don't want to communicate
with the owner when you have no new
offers or new activity on their
property. You cringe at the thought of
having to talk with the owner and
telling them you've got nothing new to
report to them. And it's this desire to
run and hide that can easily have your
owner thinking you're doing nothing to
market their property, and that what
they really need to do is replace you
and list with a new broker. But
it really doesn't have to be like this.
If you contact your owners regularly and
tell them what you're doing to market
their properties, even when you don't
have offers for them, they'll appreciate
this much more. And when you can tell
them clearly and concisely why their
properties aren't moving, you stand a
much better chance of having them reduce
their prices or do whatever else is
necessary to move the properties. So you
need to be willing to do the opposite of
what you may normally feel like doing in
these situations...You need to maintain
great ongoing communication with your
owners instead of disappearing from
their lives and hoping you never hear
from them until you have a new offer to
present to them. Put
yourself in their shoes. If you were an
owner trying to sell or lease a
property, and you had received no offers
on the property in the most recent weeks
and months, and no communication from
your listing broker during that time,
wouldn't it be reasonable to conclude
that your broker had forgotten all about
both you and your property, and that
they really weren't doing anything at
all to market your property? Well this
is how your owners will think of you,
too, when you treat them this way. So
stay in constant communication with your
owners. Tell them what's going on in the
market and why you think their property
isn't moving. Show them ongoing comps of
what other properties have moved for,
and what the asking prices are for other
comparable properties that are still on
the market. Tell them what you've been
doing to market their properties and
what you plan on doing over the next few
weeks to market their properties, too.
And if you can, tell them the names of
people or companies who have toured
their properties and why they weren't
interested in them. Getting some real
feedback from prospects can oftentimes
help you to get a price reduction in
your listing price. And in addition,
send your owners a written report on the
status of their property and what you're
doing to market it every 1-2 weeks. This
may sound like a lot of work if you
haven't been sending out any written
reports up until now, but if you work on
streamlining and automating the process
it will become much easier for you than
you think it will be. So
moving forward and staying in
communication with your owners is very
important during these transitioning
times. Transactions on many properties
will be made after the initial listing
period is over nowadays, and the last
thing you want to do is set the stage
for a competitor to swoop in, replace
you as the listing agent, and make a
deal while bumping you out of the
picture. Staying
in communication with your owners when
you have no activity at all to report to
them may not always be what you feel
like doing, but it's what will maximize
both your income and your ability to
renew the greatest number of listings
whenever it's time for you to do so.
Click
here for downloadable E-books and live audio interviews with
top-producing commercial real estate agents. These interviews
are with industry experts
who show you exactly what they do to
continually make $500,000.00 to more
than a million of dollars a year.
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