March is Marketing and Branding Month here at Inman. As we enter spring selling season, let’s explore which tried-and-true tactics and cutting-edge innovations are getting deals done in today’s market. We’ll also recognize the industry’s marketing and branding leaders with Inman’s Marketing All-Star Awards.
The days of winging a listing presentation are over. The current market environment and the expectation homeowners have for listing agents demands a professional presentation of the process for marketing a home. The following is the presentation Andrew Undem, managing partner and team leader of Sure Group with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homesale Realty serving the Baltimore Metro area, utilizes to close over 90 percent of the listing appointments he goes on.
“Words matter, so let’s start with the terminology that has been used for far too long, listing presentations. This terminology originated almost a hundred years ago because when you wanted to sell your home, you would go to the general store in the community and pin the details of your home on a bulletin board, essentially adding it to the list of homes for sale.
We still call it listing a home, and it has no representational value to the homeowner. Of course we will still use the accepted language, but in my mind, and in the mind of the homeowner, I want to present a customized marketing proposal. That is the language I use because that is what it is, and it is more in line with what the seller wants,” Undem shared.
The 4 P’s of the customized marketing proposal
Slightly different from the 4 P’s of marketing, the four P’s of the customized marketing proposal include preparation, presentation, pricing and post-appointment activities. We began with Undem sharing his process of preparing for the appointment.
“The preparation for the appointment is the process of researching and knowing everything possible about the home and the community it is in prior to the first meeting. Facts like when they bought, what their purchase price was, and if they were provided any closing cost assistance are readily available. Details like the square footage of the home along with the year the home was built are known as quantitative preparation,” Undem shared.
He said he doesn’t always bring a formal presentation book but instead keeps things simple. “I always bring a copy of the tax record so I can flip it over and draw out the process I will use to help them maximize their equity. Then I show them how we will tie everything down to key dates because people want to know what is going to happen before it happens.
I don’t bring a fancy listing book, even though we have them. People are not buying your company or your fancy brochure; they are buying you and your process,” Undem said. He then added that he not only preps quantitatively but also qualitatively.
This is the process of telling himself on the way to the appointment that he is going to love the homeowner and their home. “People like people who like them and their property. Genuinely caring about the homeowner and having a process that will help them sell their property is going to be reciprocated in them liking you,” Undem said.
The process of building rapport
Undem stated the listing presentation starts as soon as you pull up to the home. He suggests not walking straight up to the door but pausing to look at the exterior of the home and making a few notes before approaching the door. He said this step shows professionalism and care, which leads to trust.
“Once they open the front door, say, ‘Thanks for allowing me to come over tonight.’ This shows a humbleness and comfort level you have with yourself. If you’re not comfortable with yourself and your process on these appointments, no one will ever be comfortable with you.
“The next thing to say is, ‘Would you guys mind giving me a brief tour to determine which amenities give us the most distinct marketing advantages to help drive your value up?’ This begins the bond and rapport stage. Once they point out a feature they updated or enhanced, ask them this question: ‘Whose idea was that?’
“Since there are often a husband and wife, one person will say that was her or his idea. Stop and look at the spouse of the person who had the idea and say, ‘[their name], [spouse’s name] made a brilliant decision on this,’” Undem said. When you affirm someone to their spouse, you are affirming both of them, and that expedites the rapport process.
The presentation
Undem then shared his presentation process: “There are 4 Cs in this presentation process. You have to be confident, collaborative, consultative and in control. The process of drawing this out on the back of the tax record is me showing them my three key skill sets, which are marketing in the year we live in, being a very skilled negotiator and being a problem solver who can effectively manage an entire real estate ecosystem.
“I’m going to show this to them on paper, with key dates and processes. This then flows right into the compensation discussion and pricing strategy that leads to the high closing rate I have.”
Creating compelling content
He begins the presentation by telling the seller the one date they completely control is the date when they can have their home ready for photos and video. He tells them they don’t need to pick that date now, but once they have that date, his team will develop compelling content that he calls the lifestyle story of their home. He tells them he will need their help with pointing out the best amenities and attributes of the home since no one knows the home better than them.
He then says, “We will then produce these video content pieces because nothing tells the story or sells a home like video. The photos never tell the complete story, and we want to make sure we control the marketing narrative for your home and make it stand out from any other homes for sale.” This leads him into his timeline that he draws on the back of the tax sheet he brought.
Buyer profile demographic targeting
“Within five days of doing these videos, my team and I will begin doing what I call buyer profile demographic targeting. I already know the buyer of this home is most likely between the ages of 28 and 46 years old, currently lives within a fifteen-mile radius of the home, and that they make over $150,000 a year,” Undem said. He added that this will blow their mind and that you probably already have an idea who the buyer will be, and by sharing that information, their trust in you and your process will grow.
The next step is that he lets the homeowner know that he and his team are going to make sure every prospective buyer meeting this criteria is going to see the compelling content his team creates on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube, while also targeting the major employers in the area. He makes sure they understand all of this is happening well before the home goes on the open market.
He then tells the owner, “This is a system designed for one thing and one thing only. It is designed to maximize your equity. You know what, I don’t gamble with my clients’ equity. That’s why I didn’t bring comparable sale details tonight. Pricing a property is a strategic exercise, which we’re going to get to. But who would know what your house was worth before even seeing it?”
Coming soon marketing
He then says they will next be taking advantage of coming soon marketing opportunities. Although these vary across the country, Undem utilizes coming soon marketing that is available in his market area. He draws this out on his timeline, stating the coming soon marketing will last ten days once the compelling content is created.
He then explains it to the homeowner, “Coming soon is a category in MLS that most agents don’t use. It gives you the ability to put your home in the MLS so that it populates all the third-party sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin, etc. All of the public will see it, and all the agents will see it as well, but the beauty of coming soon is that you aren’t racking up days on market. And there is a direct correlation between days on market and list-to-sales price.
“Most agents want to rush to get it in the MLS, put a sign in the yard, and hope it sells. You could do that, but I wouldn’t recommend it. We do the coming soon campaign for ten days. Now we are not only aggressively targeting our buyer profile demographic, but we’re also targeting agents that are likely working with buyers that will be interested in your home. We’re generating interest because my job and my team’s job is to get as many people as possible excited about your home, and we’re really good at it.”
Going active on MLS
This leads to going active in the MLS. He tells the seller that by this time they should have interest and people waiting to get in to see the home. He offers to do an open house the first weekend but makes it optional for the homeowner. He then calls his shot to the seller with something like: typically in this market, in this zip code, in this price point, we will get this home under contract within thirty days. Which he draws out on the timeline.
Negotiation
He then shifts the discussion to the negotiation by saying, “There’s a lot that goes into the contract and I’m going to shield you from all of it. We want the price to be high and on our terms. In the contract, we are negotiating five things. These include sales price, we don’t want to pay closing costs, we want contingencies low, a large deposit, and the closing date to be on the date you desire.”
After he tells them the average closing time is between 30 and 45 days, he draws that on his timeline as well.
Highlighting the 3 key skillsets he brings
He then circles back to the three key skillsets he mentioned earlier. He starts this process by sharing, “All the stuff I mentioned we do before your home goes active in the MLS is not what most agents do. It’s called marketing in the year we live in. This does the heavy lifting up front to generate demand before we rack up days on market. This diffuses any buyer’s ammunition or desire to devalue our asking price. This is marketing, and I have a whole team that helps me with this.”
The second area he discusses on his timeline is the active listing to under contract timeframe. “This is the time when you need a skilled negotiator. I know how to do this because I do it every single day. What a great listing agent does is not only create demand, but he also coaches the buyer’s agent on why the buyer should offer a high price and the terms we want,” Undem said.
This leads to the third skill set. “Once we’re under contract, my job shifts to being a problem solver who can effectively manage the entire real estate ecosystem. At this point, there are a lot of stockholders in the transaction that need to be managed. There is a buyer, a buyer’s agent, a buyer’s lender, an appraiser, a home inspector, and a title agent, just to name a few. My job is to make sure we win, or at least don’t lose, on all these fronts and that we see the contract through to closing,” Undem added.
Compensation
Once he’s shown the value he brings, this leads to him saying, “All of this is included in our fee. We charge 6 percent. Our part is 3.5 percent, and we recommend you offer 2.5 percent proactively to the buyer’s agent. Now you don’t have to do this. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to do any of this, and you can always sell it yourself.
“All I ask is that if you decide not to offer buyer’s agent compensation, you tell me how you would like for me to answer the question about whether we are offering buyer agent compensation. If we decide to go that route, my suggestion would be to tell them to include it in their offer, and we can negotiate to our desired bottom line,” Undem shared.
The strategic exercise of pricing
This flows right into his discussion on pricing. “Pricing your home is a strategic exercise. Now that I have seen your home, I am going to go look at all the market dynamics and look at the relationship between active, pending, and sold homes. I’m going to send you via email a statistical analysis of all of them, and I’m going to give you three pricing strategies.
“We can do the perceived market value pricing, which is based on what the other homes sold for and what an appraiser might say it is worth. We can go aspirational, which is a little higher, and some people like this because it gives them room to negotiate. Or we can go a little bit below perceived value, where it is almost an event pricing, desiring to generate multiple offers while showcasing compelling value,” Undem said.
Undem shared throughout the interview that his process has been influenced by lessons he’s learned from industry icons like Sharran Srivatsaa, Allan Dalton and Mark Starke. He is constantly refining this process, and his hope throughout the interview is that you can pull lessons from his process that help you close more listings.
Andrew Undem can be found on Instagram.
Jimmy Burgess is a real estate agent and national team builder with Real Brokerage in northwest Florida, servicing the 30A, Destin, and Panama City Beach markets. Connect with him on Instagram and LinkedIn.
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