The 4 Disciplines of a Seller-Based Business

Do you know how often homeowners move in their community?

According to the National Association of REALTORS, U.S. homeowners become sellers and move once about every 8 years. And a whopping 71 percent of all U.S. sellers remain in the same state in which they purchase their next home.

Early in your real estate career, you may have found that buyers buy more often than sellers sell. But there’s a fundamental difference between finding buyers and finding sellers.

Buyers come to you when you do things to put yourself in their path – most often at open houses, when they visit your Website to look at homes, because they visit your listings, or even because they called when you were handling floor calls at your office.

Sellers, on the hand, tend to be more elusive. You must proactively work to find them. It takes focus, market knowledge, script practice and proactive communication campaigns.

But it’s all worth it! Well-priced listings are a magnet for buyers, buyer agents, and potential sellers in the neighborhood as well. Here are the 4 disciplines of  seller-based business:

PREPARE FOR SELLERS

Choose your area of real estate specialization. It might be a geographic area (part of town or certain subdivisions), a property type or a demographic group.

Do your market research. How much inventory is there, and is it rising or falling; how much is selling and how quickly; how are homes getting sold (price reductions, staging, investors, cash buyers.)

Talk like a seller-focused professional. Know your basic market data which might include the number of listings on the market (inventory) and average market time (days on market) that sellers are interested in knowing and practice your scripts for purposeful delivery when you’re in the moment.

Know where to find sellers. As you review MLS data, pay attention to segments of the market where the most sales are happening. Is it in a certain geographic area(s) or perhaps you look within a certain price range.

LEAD GENERATE FOR SELLERS

Accepting the proven premise that seller listings generate your biggest, most-leveraged business opportunity – the question is how best to find them. Focus on these four major sources:

1. Your database, especially your Mets.
2. Business-to-business leads
3. Open Houses
4. Farming
5. For Sale by Owners
6. Expired Listings

COMMUNICATE SYSTEMATICALLY

Essential to high-quality professional service is systematic communication. Here are some ways to make that happen with sellers from any group:

Use a Lead Sheet

A lead sheet is a very valuable simple tool. Make it a practice to have one and use it whenever you are having detailed conversation with a prospective seller – it’ll not only help you with you interviewing skills but it’s a HUGE time-saver.

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