Working with Buyers and Sellers in Today’s Market

RISMEDIA, June 2008-As the pendulum swings in real estate, today’s market requires a more dedicated approach with buyers and a more realistic discussion with sellers, says Dean Selvey of The Condos Pros team in Phoenix. “The days of dumping a buyer because you are impatient with them are gone,” he says, and, “…reducing the price immediately” with sellers, are the two important themes today. To learn how these concepts are working for him, read on for Selvey’s top three success strategies in today’s market.

Dean Selvey
The Condo Pros
RE/MAX Excalibur Real Estate
Years in real estate: 30
Years as an agent team: 15
Number of team members: 22 now, but we have had as many as 50
Region served: Greater Metro Phoenix, Arizona.
I formed an agent team because… I wanted to do a lot more business and there are only so many hours in the day.

What are you doing differently this year than last with your buyers?
We have three agents on our team who work with buyers. This year, they are working their buyers a lot harder, hanging with them an extra day or two because it’s such a buyers market. The days of dumping a buyer because you are impatient with them are gone. The majority of our business is not resale. We mostly do on-site sales for our condo communities built by developers. Two years ago, our closing ratio was just slightly over one visit and now it’s three visits. Buyers have more choices; they know it and they want to know they are getting a good deal or the best deal possible, whereas two years ago all they wanted was a fair deal.

What are you doing differently this year than last with your sellers?
This year, it’s all about price. We are working price reductions hot and heavy and we are reframing sellers’ expectations when it comes to price reductions. If it doesn’t sell today, we tell our sellers, “Let’s think about reducing the price immediately.” If it didn’t sell two years ago, we were casual. Now we are relentless in our requests for price reductions. Now, we say to reduce the price every 10 days to two weeks until it sells. Another distinct difference is that two or three years ago, we could tell a seller what a house would sell for and be about 99% correct. Today, we just don’t know. We look at comps and the only thing that comps tell us is what it won’t sell for.

What are the three most important things your team does for sellers in today’s market?
1. Set their expectations clearly from the start.
2. Tell them they have to be patient. In the Phoenix Metro market, the average number of days on the market is about 130. Three years ago, it was about 130 minutes-and you would have multiple offers.
3. The best thing we can do for a seller is to tell them the truth-nobody is going to get what they want for it.

We show up and tell the truth about the market. That’s all we can do.

Success Strategies

Type of advertising that works best for you: Print advertising still works best for us. Obviously we do a lot of Internet marketing. We tell our sellers we are taking a three pronged approach: Print to reach the market at large. Then we have broker directed marketing which means using flyers and direct mail. And the third is Web-based marketing.

Are you spending more or less on advertising and marketing than last year?
We are spending less; however, it’s a direct reflection of the overall market. Where three years ago, we were selling 1,500 to 2,000 units a year, this year we are only going to sell about 600 units. So our spending is proportional. We have had to scale down everything. We tell everyone to forget about waiting for the market to turn. The best thing we can do is to learn to sell in this market and that means keeping our bottom line in tact.

How is the team structured?
We have four layers. I own and run the team. I am the rainmaker. Then we have one group that is administrative and another that does all of our marketing. Everybody else is either a site-based or resale agent.

One thing your team can’t live without: Marketing. We think marketing is so important that a couple of years ago we went out and bought an advertising company.

Philosophy for a successful life in real estate: We have a motto: Show up, tell the truth and don’t be attached to the results.

-Lesley Geary

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