Here is snippet from a real estate forum:

“I must say Borino you made a tight webpage. In my neck of the woods taking listings isn’t converting much to sales.

In a regular market I could see the numbers working like your excel video. I can see in my mls (area) however everything that is selling is REO or an agent trying to work a short sale in pre-foreclosure.It’s not about if the sellers want to sell they just can’t sell at a price to attract a buyer to compete with REO’s.”

—————————————————-

Yes, true. In many areas this is a challenging market, no question. It takes a lot of effort to sell a house, especially with all the short sales and REOs. I know - Southern California has had its share of them.

BUT - it can still be done. There are folks out there today - right now who have to sell - expired listings or just regular sellers: job transfers, divorces, unemployment, you name it…

So how can you pull it off without losing your mind (and money) in the process? And without sacrificing all that’s left from the seller’s equity?

Here are some tips that helped me sell and close 8 out of 10 listings - even in a crappy market:

1. Market. I had to know my market inside out. What is selling: what area, what type of property, what price range. I would preview and study it every day. Here is the rule: I only list property I KNOW I can sell.

Are you in a market where nothing is selling? Why stick around - CHANGE your market.

2. Price. Price it RIGHT right from the get go. No “testing” nonsense. No “our house is better“. I would do my clients a HUGE disservice by overpricing their home.

3. Reductions. I review feedback and showings quickly. I wouldn’t wait a month to reduce the price. If there is no action in 7-10 days, it’s time to review the CMA and reduce the price. I know, it takes balls to go back to the seller after only a few days on the market. But what’s the alternative?

4. Commission. This is my biggest secret. Most REOs and short-sales offer 5%. Some retail listings offer standard 6%. I offer 7%, 4% to the selling agent. No strings attached. No “full price” silly conditions. Great way to get tons of showings (and offers).

5. Terms. What is the worst part of dealing with REOs and short sales? Terms. Long waiting time. Long approvals. Tons of paperwork. Lots of hassle. No inspections. No guarantees. No repairs. Pain in the ass. I make sure I highlight all the positives of my listings: short escrow, full disclosures, instant response, flexible seller, etc.

Yes, many REOs and short sales are priced low, but keep in mind it’s not ALWAYS just the price.

6. Condition. Many competing foreclosures are in bad shape and need work (or they do a quick-slap carpet/paint job). My listings need to show great. Clean, spiffy, and sharp. They must stand out.

There is more (and I’ll share it with you when Presentation Plus comes out in July). But for now just focus on the 6 points above and you’ll do fine.

Bryan asks:

Hi Borino,

I purchased your Expired Listings system awhile back and I have a  question for you.  What do you think if using window envelopes?  I have a great mail merge program and it would be WAY easier for me to send the letters in this form.  Have you ever tried it?

Good question, Bryan. Yes, window envelope makes sense. Lot easier to produce, cheaper, and faster. I tried it. But there is one problem…

Your open rate will go down. See, the moment an expired listing receives a window envelope, what is the first thing they will think?

“Either a bill or a junk mail“, right? Your aunt Edna never uses window envelopes. So the wall goes up: “Somebody is trying to sell me something. There is probably not good news inside.“  Not a good mind set.

You want your mail to be from a neighbor. A counselor. A friend ready to help, not from a salesman. That’s why the tone of each letter is conversational and informal. And the call to action is soft and subtle.

So here are a 8 steps to make your mail to expired listings opened, read, and - most importantly - acted on:

1. Simple plain white envelope
2. Hand-written address
3. No logos on the envelope
4. No company letter head
5. No photos, slogans, or logos on the paper
6. Hand signed
7. Simple return address (name, street address, city, zip)
8. First class stamp

Yes, it can be a little time consuming, I know. If you get too busy, hire someone to help out.  Before I had a full-time assistant, I had to get creative…

here were times in my office when phones wouldn’t ring and the place was pretty quiet. So instead of playing solitaire, I had our receptionist help out with my mail. She made a little extra cash, she wasn’t just idly sitting there bored -  and my mail was more effective. Win-win

Now go out there and get some expireds!

Kathleen wrote to me: “Need your help. It’s hard for me to call expireds because i don’t have the confidence.”

I also got this one from Maricela: “Do you think that expired listings are good to do right now?”

The DNC Registry, no phone number, “why didn’t you show my house when it was listed?”…. and many more.

All the biggest problems, obstacles and challenges we face when working expireds.  So I put together a teleconference  and went over tips, tools and solutions.  Don’t worry if you missed it. The entire seminar was recorded. We talked about expireds and how to turn them into listings. BTW, this is THE PRIME time to go after them.

Private Teleseminar

Prime Season for Expireds

(and how to get a bunch of them)

Check it out here.

Gwen sent this email:

“Borino, I posed the question about expireds at an office meeting… Other agents told me that going after expireds would quickly get me hated in this local RE community! This response has made me hesitant!

MY QUESTION:  How does your program address this issue?  I have closed one sale with a first time home buyer. I don’t want to average 1 sale every 4 months! HELP!”
Gwen

Interesting question…. will other agents hate you for going after expireds?

Yes, there were some agents in my town who didn’t like me. Some didn’t care. And some admired my system and the results. Some even tried to copy it (which is a form of flattery, don’t you think?

It comes down to business. Why do I do what I do?

1. I want to help sellers who were stuck with a wrong agent.

2. I want to help buyers find a nice home.

3. I want to get paid well for my service.

That’s it. I don’t really care if I’m liked (or popular). This is BUSINESS. This is how I put food on my table. This is how I pay my bills. And this is what I enjoy doing.

Here is the thing. Agents who do well always have somebody who doesn’t like them. Simple as that.

Whether they do expireds, FSBOs, sphere of influence, advertising… There will be other agents out there criticizing, pointing fingers, and complaining.

Believe me, I had my share of critics and complainers. But none, NOT ONE of them had more listings and closed more sales then me. It was the same crowd reading the morning paper, worrying about the economy, and complaining about the market without actually doing anything.

You notice busy, productive agents don’t waste time and effort on stuff that doesn’t produce business? Go figure.

Here is how I address it in the Expired Plus:

• Be honest.
• Be ethical.
• Be truthful.

But also be aggressive and focused. Because at the end, you run your own business. You are the CEO and Sales Manager. You and only YOU are responsible for your income, your success and your life.

Wanna do more than one sale every four months? I’ll show you exactly how. Step by step. It’s actually pretty easy. Using the X-Tracker we analyze where you are. Then we set up a plan how to list 1, 2, 3 or even more homes every month.

Then you just work the system every day. Research expireds. Contact them. Start mailing them. Go visit them in person. Takes about an hour. Five days a week. 2-3 expireds every day and you’re on the roll. These could be new or old expireds (sometimes old ones are even better).

That’s all there is to it. You know the best answer for those negative complainers?

Massive success! Once you drive a nice car, live in a beautiful home, have plenty of money in the bank, then you can just laugh at them. And maybe you’ll even inspire one or two.

How about you? Do other agents dislike you when you go after expireds? And if so, what do you do?

Borino

“Direct Mail Is Dead” read a headline on a busy real estate forum recently. Maybe you’ve seen it. What followed was a frustrated post from an agent complaining about not getting any returns on his Just Sold post card campaign.

Nice design, heavy gloss paper, nice photo of the property. This poor guy mailed hundreds and hundreds of those expensive things to a neighborhood…

And yet not a single good lead, let alone a listing. Is direct mail really dead? No, of course not. The missing (and critical) part of the puzzle was, obviously, THE CUSTOMER. Let me explain…

We all get bunch of direct mail every day. Why is it that sometimes it flops, but other times works like magnet? Here is what goes on…

Normally I trash new car promotions as soon as I get them (unless there is a good idea that can be used in real estate). But recently, I was on the market for a new car. For several weeks I paid more attention to mail about cars and car buying - even junk mail. And several good postcards did get my attention, especially those promoting SUVs.

What changed? I became a potential customer.

• My car-buying radar was on
• I responded to interesting cards with SUVs promotions or pictures
• I particularly remembered dealers that sent more than one piece
• I responded to specific messages focused on ME - THE SUV CAR BUYER

So how does all that apply to a real estate mail campaign? It’s OK to mail to a geographic farm, a list of FSBOs, or expired listings. But NOT ALL the SAME card or a letter. So here is my secret formula for killer direct mail campaign:

Targeted List + Specific Need + Relevant Message x Repetition = $$$

Makes sense, right? Now go out there and get some expired listings!

Ten Reasons to List With Me

Today I received a expired listings sample letter from a very ambitious, hard working agent. He wanted my opinion…

Nice headline, well-thought out points explaining why this particular agent is a head of the completion. Strong impressive selling points, and all the facts that are important. There is, however, one fundamental problem with it. It’s not a good letter for expired listings. At least, not at the beginning. Here is why…

When a listing expires, sellers are bombarded by agents with letters and calls. And the message is always (or most of the time) the same:
1. “I know why your house didn’t sell. You had the wrong agent and wrong price.”
2. “List with me, I’m different/better/expert/specialist/top producer, etc.”
3. “I sold many homes”

Now, those are all relevant messages, but why don’t they work on the first approach? I’ll give you an example…

Let’s say you want to buy a car. You walk into a dealership, look around, and a salesman approaches you: “Hello, my name is Joe Carguy, I’ve been in business ten years and I’m the top producer of this dealership, I won three awards this year, and I sell to 93% of all customers that walk in.”

What’s wrong with the picture? The first contact is all about Joe. You don’t care about Joe. You care about a car. Do they have what you want? Is it a good choice? Is it priced well? Can you test drive it? How much can you get for my trade in?

So back to expireds… The first contact (actually several early contacts) need to be all about THEM. On the phone, in letters, postcards, in any contact.

Make it about the seller, because that’s what they care about, and that’s all they want to hear. The rest is simply an advertising noise that ends up in the trash.

It’s that old saying slightly modified: Show us how much you care first, then we’ll care who you are and what you can do for us.

“Thomas Edison failed 1,000 times before he invented the light bulb.”
“Colonel Sanders offered his recipe to 1,000 restaurants before one finally took it.”
WOW. Perseverance, you think? Bull. That’s what I think.

God, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that “inspirational” perseverance nonsense from all the ra-ra trainers, motivational snake oil salesmen, and pump-up coaches…. I’m just sick and tired of this sh… stuff.

So what does that mean, exactly? That you have to stubbornly keep doing something and fail miserably 1,000 times before you finally reach success? NONSENSE! If something doesn’t work, then STOP for crying out loud. Give it a fair - FAIR - shot, yes, but no sense in killing yourself thinking, or worse, hoping things will magically change if you just keep going.

I mean, think about… If you contact 100 expireds and not get one listing out of it, then there is a good chance SOMETHING’S WRONG, bubba.

If you go on 10 listing appointments and walk away with zero listings, then it’s time to pause and see what’s up.Don’t just stubbornly keep mailing, calling, showing, prospecting, presenting, wasting time, and wasting money… If the results are not what you want them to be, you are off course. Common sense, right? You’d think…

And yet look around you: same old boring marketing, bad postcards, dull ads, wrong approach, ineffective presentations, overpriced listings… It’s the Sanders/Edison approach of “just keep going and hope hope hope”. No wonder so many agents quit every day.

The way I see it, Edison was one smart guy, no question, he just sucked at time management. And he had all the time in the world! No urgency. Honestly, if he took this long today at GE he’d be fired by now, light bulb be damned. And Colonel Sanders might have been a decent chicken cook but boy was he horrible at sales and presentations! Can you afford to be like them? Keep trying and failing for years? I didn’t think so…

I think you’re smarter than that.So don’t make the same mistake. Go for it with gusto, give it your best shot, take time to get things going, that’s all good. BUT see where your shots are landing, and ADJUST. Evaluate. Learn. IMPROVE. THEN repeat.

Don’t believe for a second that success takes a long time. Or thousand failures. It’s all within your reach. You just need to know what works, and what doesn’t. Do it the smart way.

Now go out there and Get some Expireds!

“It’s just too hard”

That’s what the email said:
- “It’s just too hard, Borino. I’m leaving the business. Your emails are great. My motivation is not.”

I know. We are in a crazy market. Tumbling economy. Hard times.
Selling real estate for living? Right now? Crazy. I know.
But still… It got me thinking.

Imagine just for a second…

You were born with only TWO fingers on each hand. Imagine your legs had to be amputated and you could
only walk on your KNEES.

Imagine all your daily challenges. What would your life be like. How would you feel? What would you do? What would you do for living?

How about…

a concert pianist?

Here is an article from my old mentor and coach Art Scott. Art was an expert on expired listings.

If you want to practice amateur psychiatry, start chasing expired listings. In 1987, my first year in the business, I attended a training seminar featuring real estate speaker and trainer Walter Sanford. I was blown away by how he worked expired listings. If you want to follow this system, get ready for emotional ups and downs and some embarrassment. But take heart. Expireds can be the most lucrative niche in real estate.

Call Early and Often
Arrive at your office at 6:30 a.m. and pull the expireds off the MLS. Our computer searches for the expired listings automatically and prints out a list that’s waiting for us in the morning. Call those sellers Monday through Friday beginning at 7 a.m. before they leave for work—until you make contact with them. You’re thinking, “Yikes!” right? Well, after eight years of using the system, my team grosses $250,000 in closed commissions every year because of calls we make before 8 a.m. That’s 30 percent of our total business.

After the morning calls, whether you make contact or not, send the sellers an information package—a big envelope stuffed with marketing materials on why they should list with you. Have the package—stamped Special Delivery, Personal and Confidential—couriered by your assistant. The assistant should have the seller sign for the package. If no one answers the door, the deliverer can leave it in an obvious spot. In either case, the courier should jot down exactly what kind of contact was made. That way, during follow-up calls you can say, “We know you received our package. Have you had a chance to read it over?”

Follow up about the package every day for the next seven days. And check the MLS to make sure the prospects haven’t relisted. If they haven’t and if you haven’t connected with them yet, mail another letter to follow up on the first package.

Then call the prospects again every day for the next week. If you haven’t made contact with them by the end of the week, send a final letter indicating that if their interest in selling has waned, they should file the brochure about your services, which you’ve enclosed, for future reference. By the way, if people tell you that you’re pestering them, you can say, “It would seem that you’d be looking for someone aggressive to sell your house, since your property has been on the market for a long time.”

That final letter brings us two or three additional listings a month from expired prospects who put the brochure aside months or years ago. Some of those sellers have said to me, “We called you because other salespeople tried to list us only three or four times and then we didn’t hear from them again.”

When You Get a Nibble
When you land that listing appointment or you get prospects on the phone, become a psychiatrist: Ask questions, but let them talk, too. The complaint I hear most often from expired listings is that other salespeople didn’t provide them enough feedback and communication.

So commit to the sellers by promising to phone them every Monday morning to update them; then do it. Show them how you’ll use technology, target marketing, and area demographics to sell their home and improve on what previous salespeople did. Give sellers the right to fire you anytime, for any reason, at no cost, with 10 days’ notice. Sellers want an employer-employee relationship with you, which keeps them comfortable and you on your toes.

Remember, we’re public servants. Don’t focus on profits; focus on finding clients and customers and improving your service. If you’re service oriented, the profits will come. Sanford told the people who attended his seminar, “Only one in 100 of you will do this.” I think the odds are probably one in a thousand.

Art Scott was a salesperson with RE/MAX Group South Bay, 19200 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 210, Cupertino, Calif. 95014; 800/735-7653.

My grandfather’s favorite saying was: “De gustibus non est disputandum.” Grandpa was a smart man. Ambitious, personable and honest. You’d like him. He would make a good real estate agent.

Would he be good with expireds? Or would he consider going after expired listings too tacky? As with most things in real estate (and in life), the answer is - It depends.

Here is the thing…

On one hand, I am an independent contractor. It’s up to me to put the food on the table. Other realtors don’t pay my mortgage or my car payment. I and only I am in charge of my own business. I am the CEO, the Customer Service and the Sales Manager. I have to hassle to get paid, no doubt about it.

And expired listings can be just the ticket. Fast track to motivated leads, hot listings, and most importantly, closings and commissions. No wonder so many agents go after them. All fine and good.

So…

The real question is not YES or NO on expireds, but HOW. It is the way to go about it that makes all the difference.

Here is my take…

If what I do is ethical (and not just from legal point of view), but from a human - dare I say moral stand point, I have nothing to worry about. After all, my attidude with expired listings has always been “I’m here to help“.

Couple of tips that served me well:

• Don’t cross the line (at least not too far)
• Don’t step on anybody’s toes (at least not too hard)
• Don’t say things about others you don’t really know (at least nothing bad)
• If it feels wrong, it probably is (being just nervous doesn’t count)

I think grandpa would approve. And remind me that “Do not argue about one’s taste“.