Taking on Expireds? It Pays to Be Prepared

Expireds have long had a relatively rotten reputation. Dubbed ‘difficult’, ‘tough nuts’, or ‘stubborn’ by many agents — but for others — they are considered great ‘low hanging fruit’ and for expired aficionados — they are the #1 source for increased productivity, respectable listing inventory and even long-term referral clients. In fact, as many agents will tell you — directly after the holiday season will be the BEST time to swoop in and dominate the expireds in your market.

Here’s what you need to know first:

I believe most experts (and expired specialists) would tell you that success lies in three things: ATTITUDE, APPROACH and SALESMANSHIP.

ATTITUDE first, because often expireds are a little discouraged, beat up and even a little put off because they’ve been disappointed in the past. But a strong agent with a great disposition and a handle on how to get the job done can almost always turn that around.

APPROACH without being pushy, overbearing or blameful. We’ve always found direct response postcards a great way to capture the attention of a prospect by using questions and statements that are ALREADY in the mind of your target consumer and that lead them to look to YOU for the solutions. And it’s an APPROACH that has worked tremendously for thousands of agents because it 1) warms the call, 2) presents you as the expired specialist and 3) offers an item of value that is intriguing and helpful to your potential customer. (Now there’s a win-win-win!)

SALESMANSHIP is often a combo platter of things-right? It includes the right attitude and approach of course, but also combines savvy dialogue skills, the ability to empathize with your customers and steer them in the right direction. I’ve always found that it is also the ability to use VISUALS to help tie down your points, make your message crystal clear and lend authority to what you’re saying. And when you are dealing with more than one seller – more often than not, one is a VISUAL person and one is more focused on the words and the details — so if you have BOTH going for you, you stand a better chance of closing for the signature!

A success strategy that many agents are using today is fairly simple and extremely effective:

1. Every morning (or at least once a week) pull the list of expireds from your MLS. Put these names, addresses and contact information into your prospect database. (HINT: Pay special attention to the first week of the new year — that’s a goldmine of expireds, so don’t wait to be prepared!)
2. Set up a series of 3, 6 or 9 direct response offer postcards to go out to those expireds over the course of the next two weeks. (Sending the postcards 2-3 days apart.)
3. Follow up with a phone call, introduce yourself as an expert in expired listings and offer an item of value in return for a chance to come out and see the property and make some recommendations for getting the job done. (If at first you don’t succeed — keep trying!) Close for the appointment.
4. Bring their collateral pieces with them to the listing appointment, and begin to build that relationship with them with the right ATTITUDE, APPROACH and SALESMANSHIP.

Sometimes (all right — a LOT of the times) pricing is a factor for expireds- so be sure you have some great objection handlers in your arsenal to ensure that you are pricing that listing RIGHT so you can help your clients reach a better conclusion than their LAST listing experience.

As soon as a property comes up on the MLS expired list, you should contact them by telephone and attempt to use the Merchandising Review as a reason for them to set an appointment to talk with you. Here’s the dialogue we suggest for a phone call:

Hello, Mr./Mrs./Ms/Miss ____________, my name is _______, and I’m with ______. The reason I’m calling is to see whether or not you still want to sell your home. Do you?

O.K., well, I know you must be disappointed that it didn’t sell the first time, and I think I have something that will ensure that situation won’t ever happen to you again. It’s called aMerchandising Review form…have you heard of it before?

Basically this is a special tool I use to make a comprehensive analysis of why your home didn’t sell, and what needs to be done differently to guarantee that it will sell if you do decide to put it back on the market.

What I’d like to do is set a time when we could sit down together and go over the Merchandising Review. It takes about 20-25 minutes, and there’s absolutely no cost for this service.

Would Wednesday at 6:15 be good, or Thursday around 8:30 be better for you?

Now walk them through each item and negotiate the issues that were keeping the property from selling. Correct these issues, and then show them your marketing plan.

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