Expired Listings, Real Estate Marketing Tools

Finally the materials are done! According to the UPS tracking, they should be delivered on Friday, April 25. Stay tuned for details.

I have started “The Secret” Experiment. Try it: Watch this beautifully done visualization from The Secret every morning for the next twenty-one days and see what happens.

The good news, friends, is it’s coming soon. All letters are done, and so is the X-tracker projection and tracking. Right now I’m converting all the marketing materials (resume, postcards, and market updates) into Microsoft Publisher so it will be easy to customize and edit them. Both manuals are done, I received the final revision from the editor and it will be ready for print next week.

I found a good printer and I’m hoping for quick turnaround (10 to 14 days). I will be doing a final re-write of the Quick Guide. Then it all should be ready for shipping by the end of March. We’ll see. I will not release it until it’s complete, and perfect. Not a day sooner.

SlowLeadership.com posted a great list of nine rules on how to bring fun back into your work. I could not say it better myself

1. Stop hiding who you really are.
2. Start being intensely selfish.
3. Stop following the rules.
4. Start scaring yourself.
5. Stop taking it all so damn seriously.
6. Start getting rid of the crap.
7. Stop being busy.
8. Start something.
9. Don’t worry what others will think about you.

SlowLeadership.com

Ten Reasons to List With Me!
Today I received a great letter from a very ambitious, hard working agent. Nice headline, well-thought out points why this particular agent is a head of the completion. It’s a very good letter. Strong impressive selling points, and all the facts that are important. There is, however, one fundamental problem with it. It’s not a good first contact letter. 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. I don’t care about Joe. I care about a car. Do they have what I want? Is it a good choice? Is it priced well? Can I test drive it? How much can I 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.

“Every day is a new series of adventures;
around the next corner may lie the event that will change a whole career.”
– Bruce Barton

Start this week with an expectation of something great. Something cool that is about to happen to you. Carry around that positive vibe of waiting for things to go well. And watch what happens.

The trouble with most letters (and not just to expireds) is they sound too stuffy, too professional, too much like a loud and cheap radio commercial. You may be better off writing it yourself rather than recycling what has been said and trashed thousands of times. But it’s not an easy task to come up with a fresh letter that would get seller’s attention and persuade them to call you.

Here is a method that has helped me come up with some good marketing writing. I use a small Sony digital recorder, but a mike and a computer would do just fine. First I come up with a list of seller’s questions. Here is an example:

I think about the questions a bit, maybe jot down an idea or two on how to answer them. Then I turn on the recorder and simply answer the questions as if I had a pleasant conversation with a nice home owner on the porch of the house.

Next, I listen to the recording and write down ideas and thoughts that stand out; first in just a skeleton outline, then in a letter form. Then I take a break, get a cup of tea, and let it go for a while.

As they say - There is no great writing, only great rewriting. I go over the first draft, rework it, polish some ideas, discard others, change and edit the piece. It helps me to read it out loud, or have somebody else read it back to me (my wife Monique helps me with each marketing piece I create, bless her patient soul). Does the letter flow? Does it make sense? Is it interesting? Is it compelling?

Many times I end up with material for more than one letter. Try this method and you’ll discover that your expired letter is better than 99% of the recycled “professional” sales letters out there, that expireds get all the time and trash right after “Dear Homeowner, I know why your home hasn’t sold”.

One final tip: I spell check, grammar-check, and proof read it several times. Even the best writing will get crushed by typos.

Seal, sign, send off… done.

Do you have a writing tip that has worked for you? Share your ideas.

Ten things you can do in ten minutes to have a fantastic flowing day:

Dream
Play a short movie in your mind of your greatest dream or desire

Breath
Close your eyes and take five blissfully slow deep breaths

Smile
Think of something, or someone that makes you smile right now

Gratitude
What are the five things you are most grateful for?

Music
Listen to your favorite song and sign along (yes, out loud ;-))

Picture
Look at your favorite picture as if you haven’t seen it for years. Remember…?

Balance
Close your eyes and whisper to yourself five times “All is well”

Health
Stretch your arms, reach up, waaayyyy up, and feel life flowing through you

Knowledge
Open a dictionary at random and learn a new word

Kindness
Before the day ends, say Thank You to three people