SELLING: Sales Shorts

Heaven Help Them

Real estate sales in Okaloosa County, Fla., were down more than 40 percent this spring from the prior spring. While many real estate professionals in slowing markets have been soul-searching for innovative ways to boost business, those in this northwest Florida region have taken their spiritual quest for market improvement to a whole new level: They instituted a real estate prayer luncheon at a local church. More than 300 people with a vested interest in the local economy turned out to read scripture, offer testimonials, and pray with the common purpose of “changing the climate” for property sales, explain the organizers. Wanda Duke, ABR®, co-owner of Crye-Leike Coastal Realty, offered encouragement to the assembled crowd: “We need to think positively and get everyone on the same page.”

Two-Step Listings

Soon after Lisa Silva, GRI, a sales associate with Dan Schwartz Realty Inc. in Phoenix, got into the business two years ago, she realized that her preliminary meetings with first-time home sellers weren’t going well. “A lot of the basics went right over their heads — from fees and fiduciary responsibilities to how to decide on a list price. They couldn’t absorb it all,” she says. So she implemented another approach: Silva now schedules two upfront meetings with each potential new client. The first one is essentially a primer on the homeselling process. At the second meeting, she focuses on her specific contributions and what makes her different from other practitioners. “That’s when we talk about pricing the house right, how to present it, and how I can make life easy for the buyer,” she says.

Silva says nearly all sellers, even experienced ones, welcome the two-step approach once she explains it. The tactic has also become an important part of her weeding-out process. “If our personalities don’t click, then I wouldn’t want to work with this client anyway,” she says.

A Dog’s Life

Brian Linscott, ABR®, has long started his day with a two-mile run with his yellow Labrador retriever, Max, by his side. Those early-morning jogs often serve a business purpose too. For the past nine years, Linscott, who owns Linscott Real Estate, has been delivering monthly real estate news and other local tidbits to his neighbors’ doorsteps. His route covers nearly 2,000 homes. The publication, Your Neighborhood, includes property ads, recent home sales, market updates, and information about community activities such as minor league baseball games and charitable events.

In 2006, he says he closed 25 transactions directly attributable to the newsletter. “If you put the time in, you’ll get a great response,” says Linscott. And if you’re lucky, your neighbors will think of you as fondly as they do your canine companion.

Do you have an innovative, business-boosting selling or marketing tip that you’d like to share? Please e-mail us at greatideas@realtors.org.