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Walter Sanford is an international speaker and author of 15 books for top-producing real estate salespeople. You can reach
him at waltersanford.com or at Sanford Systems & Strategies, 800/792-5837.
Want selling and marketing advice? Send your questions for Walter Sanford to salesclinic@realtors.org
Previously by Walter Sanford:
Getting a Home Sold | | A model time-blocking exercise
A Week in a Top Prospector's Life
Use this model schedule help you manage your time in favor of dollar-producing activities.
BY WALTER SANFORD
With constant calls from prospects, requests for updates from clients, last-minute documents required for closing, and a hundred other tasks, it’s a rare week that goes as planned for the real estate practitioner. But even if you don’t always stick to it, having a model schedule" /> can provide a sense of purpose and help you to manage your time. Better time management is always one of the most requested “helping hands” I’ve been able to offer during my years of coaching, mentoring, and conducting seminars.
For years my “perfect week” organizer was a great source of curiosity to both local competition and top real estate salespeople across North America. I always took great joy in the fact that my week was planned out. I was never so arrogant to assume that I could control this business we call real estate. However, what this schedule did was give me an immediate sense of urgency and motivate me to move on to the next step once my present task was finished. It also showed me which areas I was delinquent in. That helps me to prioritize if I have to give up a scheduled task for a more dollar-productive activity, such as making a listing presentation--I know what areas it is crucial I spend time on.
This schedule" /> represents a perfect week. Over the year, even though it changes to increase efficiency or reflect changes in the market, it is always heavy on lead generation and light on non-dollar producing activities. I rotate between calling several different categories of prospects, including FSBOs, non-owner occupieds, and past clients. If you’re going to be successful in this business, you must always keep the pipeline filled with qualified leads. After all, 70 percent to 80 percent of potential clients never end up in a sale situations, so you have to talk to a lot of prospects before you close a deal.
Also notice that schedule maintains several constants. For instance, you’ll notice that I block off the 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. hours every day to either write offers for myself and my buyer clients or to prepare listing presentations. Similarly, I try to reserve between 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. each day showings and listing presentations. I finish out my day by making a “to do” list so that I can hit the ground running the next morning when I get to the office.
This repetition imposed a forced discipline that can help you manage your time. If necessary, you have the option of moving an activity to another time slot, but by entering the same set of activities in the same blocks of time every week, you prompt yourself to set aside time for your most important tasks.
A final thing to notice in my “perfect” week is the time I’ve set aside for personal activities. Many coaches and mentors will tell you to fill your day exclusively with dollar-producing activities, but very few have actually lived such lives. My schedule includes time for calling your spouse to say, “I love you” or planning a date night. Furthermore, you will see that I scheduled time off during my perfect week. I found this a necessity because of my demanding pace of work during "on time." I have always believed you should work at work and play at play and not mix the two.
I'm glad that you could follow along with me during my busy week. We all have limited time to generate leads and make money in this business. Once you begin the time-blocking process outlined in this schedule, you’ll quickly see how to make better choices that will let you spend your time as effective as possible.
Sanford is an international speaker and author of 15 books for top-producing real estate salespeople. You can reach him at www.waltersanford.com, or at Sanford Systems and Strategies, 815/929-9258.
Q. I sell real estate in the Vail-Beaver Creek ski resorts in Colorado, where home prices are extremely high. The entire decade of the ‘90s was very good to our area and last year was the best ever.
But right now, I constantly encounter buyers who think that our market should be very soft and are reluctant to buy. Everyone says because the stock market has dropped so drastically in the past months that our prices should plummet, and owners and sellers should be financially hemorrhaging.
To date, not many sellers seem to be feeling pressure to sell, however. There is a great deal of "mature money" in the Valley. Many of these sellers have bought up through out the years, and many aren't leveraged. I just lost two deals with buyers scared of the stock market and prices here. How can I combat the buyers’ concerns?
Amy Dorsey
Slifer Smith & Frampton Real Estate, LLC.
Beaver Creek, Colo.
A. Hello Amy! Great question. You're correct; mature money is not as subject to market fluctuations and is less affected by interest rates.
Your biggest challenge is to get your sellers to price their properties realistically. They aren't sellers until they price to sell. Then you'll have motivated buyers.
There are several things that you can do to convince sellers to set a reasonable price. First, you need to help sellers identify which factors are important in setting a price. Over the years, sellers often form a strong attachment to a house. They can tell you all the wonderful things about the house, but they need to understand that square footage, emotional appeal, and comparable sales market realities are the important elements in setting the price, not their fond memories. Also, you need to understand sellers’ motivation for selling the property and use that to keep the sale on track; 90 percent of real estate salespeople don’t make the effort to learn why their customers are selling.
For example, if a seller wants to move closer to her daughter in Wyoming, stress that while she can really wait as long as she wants before making the move, she is missing those precious moments with her family the longer she keeps the house on the market at an unrealistic price.
It’s also a good idea to get the sellers’ commitment up front that they will reduce the price if a property doesn’t sell in a certain timeframe. An overpriced listing that doesn’t sell in six months could cost you about $1,000 in time and business. Stop making it so easy for the second salesperson who comes in on an expired and convinces a seller to lower their price--do it right the first time.
On the other side of the equation, you can help encourage buyers to close by getting giant deposits, going for short closings, and only working with motivated sellers who are willing to negotiate.
Also consider what other segments you could handle while your preferred segment is weak. Buyers’ motivations are high when they believe in the investment. In your area, at this time, they simply do not. So change gears and either move vertically or horizontally--syndicate, sell timeshares, sell farther out of the village, sell income properties—there are so many options. Having this flow of business will also put you in a better position to say “no” to the bad business of sellers with unrealistic expectations.
Want selling and marketing advice? Send your questions for Walter Sanford to salesclinic@realtors.org | |
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