Hello Mr. Distressed, My name is Greg Staker and I am with Watson Realty Corp. I will assume that you are busy so I will be brief.

I am calling homeowners in our area to talk about the benefits of short selling their home.

Are you familiar with how a short sale works? I have found that many people are not aware of this option when they find themselves upside down on their mortgage. Simply put, a short sale is the process where the owner can sell their home for less than what is owed to their lender.

Is this something you would be interested in learning more about?

Keeping it short and to the point on the telephone reduces the stress the home owner might experience talking to a complete stranger about their personal financial situation. Getting to the point and offering to explain a potential option for them, should result in more face to face meetings with distressed homeowners in your area.

The National Association has produced this video that helps explains some of the key elements of the HAFA program that is designed to speed up the short sale process.

Inviting the right people

In many cases if the agent markets the open house in the traditional ways they could be leaving it to chance that a qualified buyer will follow the directional signs to the home, or might have seen the open house posting in the local newspaper or on the company website.

My suggestion to anyone interested in having an open house that might result in the home selling is to invite the right people. Who are these right people? The right people to attend your open house would be the area real estate professionals. These are the men and women who are in contact with the majority of homebuyers in a market area. These are the people who will remember the home and in the days or weeks to follow will be able to mentally match up the home to one of their buyers.

So how do you get these professionals to your open house? Well first it is about the timing. If you do not have success with getting agents to attend your open house on the weekend, try holding the open house during the week. Try Tuesdays immediately after sales meetings or during lunch. Tuesdays are traditionally when a majority of agents are in the office conducting business.

In order to get them to visit it might take more than just sending over an invitation via a fax to everyone in the office. If you really want to increase your chances of agents coming, personally invite them with a phone call a day or two in advance. If there are hundreds of agents in your market area, center your invites to those agents who have sold property in the area of your open house.

You can take this a step further and also personally invite lenders in your area, local title insurance companies, home inspectors in your area and other affiliates involved in your day-to-day business.

By getting the right people to your open house you will increase the likelihood of successfully selling the home as a result of your efforts.

For example it would be useful for the seller to know what the home builders in the area are offering as incentives. Showing your seller the builder’s emails and flyers that you are receiving promoting huge incentives to both potential buyers and real estate agents who bring the builder a buyer will show the seller what they are up against.

Additionally you should provide MLS information to the seller that shows when or if they have “lost a buyer” during the course of their listing. Take a look at the seller’s neighborhood or market area to see if any home in that area has went under contract since you took their listing. This information will be critical to you and your seller. If buyers are buying in that area, what are they buying? How much? How long was the house on the market? If no sales have taken place, then even if the seller’s home is the lowest priced in the neighborhood that low may not be low enough.

Making sure your seller knows what you know will result in a healthy listing inventory and an increase in sales.

If you have been in the business for any length of time and have sold several of your listings, then writing down your market plan will be easy, you will simply write down what has worked.  If you are new to the business you may want to speak with your Broker or one or two of the top producing agents in your office in order to get some ideas on what you should put in your marketing plan. 

I would suggest your marketing plan include:

• Internet marketing.  How will you promote the seller’s house across the web?  Will you use social media marketing or blogging to advertise the home, or promote the home on your personal website? Does your Company have a visible website that generates buyer leads?  Do you list your property on the online version of your local paper?
• Direct agent contact.  Your marketing plan should include promoting the owner’s house to other real estate agents.  Does your office caravan new listings?  Will you be holding Broker opens? Will the top agents in your market place receive a virtual tour of the house?  A flyer?  Will you personally call those agents in your area who have had success selling homes similar in price, size and location of your home.

These are two elements that might make up your marketing plan.  It is up to you to decide what works best in your market and then make sure you incorporate those into your plan.  Having a well thought out written marketing plan will separate you from your competition.

The market is competitive right now and your seller is relying on you to provide them with information they need to make informed decisions that will lead to a sale.

• Hard to show.  Does the listing require an appointment?  Are there unreasonable limitations to showing times?  Do you have to be there for every showing?  Does the seller have to be there?
• Smoke em if you got em.  Does the listing smell like an ashtray?  Have the sellers smoked inside the home for some time, discoloring the curtains, walls, etc?
• Unable to move.  Has all the extra square feet in the home been filled to capacity leaving no room to move?  Are bedrooms, closets, the garage crammed filled with boxes and other valuables the seller just cannot seem to get rid of?
• You just have to hold the handle down is all.  Look around, how many minor to major repairs need to be made in the home?  Are cracks, chips, breaks, leaks or missing parts keeping the listing from showing at its very best?

As the professional real estate agent it is your job to talk straight with the seller on enhancements that will help them receive a fair offer.  Taking the initiative early on will increase the number of your listings that are selling.

How can an agent increase their inventory of saleable listings today?  The same way it has always been accomplished.  Open houses, center of influences, farming, working your COI, calling expired and FSBO are listing activities that work if you work them! 

Start today by setting a monthly goal for the number of new listings you will wish to take.  Refocus your business plan to include daily activities that will help you reach your goal.  With first time home buyers eager to take advantage of the soon to be gone tax credit, a smart agent will want to have a number of saleable listings available for them to view.

We should continually update our sellers to the changes and conditions that impact the selling of their home. A listing agents job duty include consistently providing sound advice to the home owner based on current local real estate trends that will help the seller decide on adjusting to a more realistic price. These ongoing enhancements and reductions coupled with professional marketing should result in more sales!

Keeping a line of communication open between you and the seller is a much wiser course than the do nothing approach that results in an expired listing and an unhappy, frustrated seller.