Depending on what brokerage you join, you might just get a book and a phone and get told to “go call expired and FSBOs”. Shoot, when you’re new, you may not even have a clue what FSBO even means.
In most workplaces for Agents, there are few people willing to tell you how they do it, because you’re technically competition. Plus, most Agents in the office are busy and worried about paying their bills, not training the new guy/gal. Im going to teach you how to find and close your first listing appointment.
Whether you know what to do with it once you get it or not, you’re going to need to find the first person who wants you to list their home. The good news is that some Agents who’ve been doing this for decades still don’t have a clue, so even a rookie like you will fit right in,
Matter of fact, due to a large majority of Agents being clueless, the general public mostly assumes any idiot can list and sell a house. Sadly that’s what most of the public has experienced.
Again, this works to your advantage because your rookie mistakes won’t be much different than the ones some vets make. But before we can even get into any of that, you’ve got to find the first person who’ll let you list their home.
Some of us get lucky and our first deal comes from someone we know, someone close to us. My first deal came from one of my close friend’s parents.
Some of us don’t have a vast network of homeowners we know, that we can prospect to. That leaves most agents going out and doing dangerous stuff like door knocking. Or even more dangerous – cold calling.
Sure, you can cold call expireds and FSBOS and that’s good practice in front of people who have no clue who you are and don’t care. Actually, FSBOs and expireds are bitter towards agents in most cases. Calling them will teach you every objection you will ever hear.
That’s counterproductive though when you need a deal and money asap.
These days, you don’t have to go door knocking. You can simply send private messages to your friends on Facebook. If you run out of friends you can always post and comment on posts in Facebook Groups.
Groups for garage sales, relocations and community networking are gold mines for anyone with a personality, who can type the right words to demonstrate that personality.
Simply posting on your personal Facebook wall can give you opportunities to go on listing appointments too.
Here’s a trick I teach new Agents when they come to me. Go on Craigslist under people seeking housing and find someone looking for a certain home criteria.
For example you may see an ad that says “Single dude looking for 2 bedroom or more home with own personal bathroom. Needs to be close to downtown. Must be dog friendly…”
You can then go on Facebook and post “As you may already know, I’ve obtained my real estate license lately. I’ve got my first buyer who’s looking for a 2-3 bedroom near downtown that’s a great place to have a dog. If you own a home near downtown and are thinking about selling, get in touch with me. I may have a buyer for you.”
You’d be surprised how many times I’ve told an Agent to post something similar to this, which has led to a listing AND closing. Your main job as an Agent is to let everyone know you’re an Agent. Without being an obnoxious douche about it.
You can only knock so many doors in a few hours, especially in the Texas heat. 86% of ALL phone calls go unanswered so cold calling can be a huge waste of time. Meanwhile Facebook Groups and posts can reach 100s of people in just minutes. And it doesn’t cost a dime.
Once you get someone willing to let you come over and put a listing presentation on for them, that’s when you use the rookie angle to your advantage. After you’ve gone through all of your presentation you end with this.
“I’d like to thank you in advance for letting me represent you in the sale of your biggest asset. Much like you, I don’t have a lot of experience in doing this. I can however, tell you that you are my only client right now so that means I can dedicate 100% of my time to selling your home. Trust me, this is a commission only job, I want the money as bad as you want to sell your home. You’ve got nothing to lose, sign here.”
There’s only one step left, after you make that promise to them and they sign the listing agreement, you make 100% damn sure that you deliver exactly what you promised. That’s not only how you get business, that’s how you stay in business.
