By Craig Proctor
RISMEDIA, March 5, 2008-It’s no secret that most agents are able to e-mail buyers daily updates of homes that match their criteria. This is easily done on most MLS systems across the country, so it’s not the technology that makes this service unique. What is unique, however, is all in the way you offer it.
Making the most of this existing technology is an easy, but important service. By offering to send your buyers daily updates of all homes that match their home-buying criteria, you provide them with a number of valuable benefits:
• Your buyers have the ability to beat other buyers to hot new listings
• Because they’re there first before most other buyers, you can help negotiate the lowest possible price for them
• You won’t waste the buyer’s time showing them homes that don’t interest them
Buyers love this system because it puts them in control of the process. Each day, they get their buyer profile with pictures and complete descriptions of homes that are highly likely to interest them. With this information, they are able to pick the homes that are of most interest, and drive by them to see if they are interested in taking the next step of actually viewing them inside.
While many agents use this system to service existing buyers, you can also use the system to compel buyers to meet with you.
This gives you a very important point of difference. I recommend creating what I call a “Buyer Profile Service,” which you can use to compel buyers (who may previously have been indifferent to you), to meet with you because they perceive you have something they want that they are unable to get from another agent (remember, I said “perceive.”)
If this MLS search software is available in your marketplace, you may be wondering how you can use it to differentiate yourself from your competitors, but remember, just because your competitors have access to the same data and capabilities that you do doesn’t mean they’re using it effectively. Chances are high that they are simply using it to service their existing clients and not to compel new buyer prospects to meet with them.
Here is a role-play example of how you can use this technology to differentiate yourself from your competition:
From time to time when I speak with a buyer and offer to e-mail them daily updates of homes that match their criteria, some will say to me: “Oh, I’m already getting listings e-mailed to me by another agent.”
The first question I ask them at this point is whether they have signed a buyer agency agreement with this agent. If they say no, I go on to say: “Well Mr. Smith, I’m not sure what the other agent is e-mailing you, but our list includes bank foreclosures, company-owned properties and other distress sales. Would that interest you?”
This creates enough doubt in the buyer’s mind (since they don’t know whether the other agent’s list includes these distress sales) that they want what I’m offering them, and it gives me the opportunity to say the following in order to get them into my office for a face-to-face meeting:
“When can we get together for about 20 minutes so I can take down exactly what you’re looking for?”
If prospect says, “I can tell you over the phone what I’m looking for,” say the following:
“Well, rather than e-mailing you hundreds of homes which may or may not match your criteria, or risk missing out on the perfect home, if we can get together for about 20 minutes, I have a form I fill out and I can take down exactly what you’re looking for.”
The important part for you to understand is that by positioning your use of a Buyer Profile Service in this way, you are able to get prospective buyers to come to your office to meet with you. Once there, you will show them all the other things you will do for them in order to compel them to sign a buyer contract with you, thus blocking out your competitors.
To learn more about this Buyer Profile Service, click here.
Craig Proctor has been in the top 10 for RE/MAX Worldwide for 15 years. He is a real estate trainer who practices what he teaches. Proctor consistently sells over 500 homes annually to earn almost $4 million in commission. Over 25,000 agents nationwide use Proctor’s system.
For more information, visit: http://www.hypertracker.com/go/cp/a02b080305/.
