Successful approach to convert FSBO

Plan to take a patient approach toward FSBOs. Keep in mind that there is nothing you can do or say, other than offer to give your services away, that will hasten homeowners’ decision to abandon the idea of ​​selling their own home. You’re basically playing a waiting game that you can’t win quickly, but you can lose, quickly, if you’re aggressive or pushy.

Agents who are hyperbole about themselves and their service, or who try to tell owners that FSBOs don’t sell themselves, are taking the wrong turn. Owners don’t want someone to make them feel like an idiot for trying to sell on their own, even if they might be!

The best approach is to re-brand your sales pitch and improve your emphasis on service. Focus on helping the owners in their endeavor, always encouraging them and wishing them success.

Organizing your plan of attack

If you work in a large geographic area, expect to find many FSBOs. The easiest way to organize opportunities is to track each home by the owners phone number. Owners will change their listings and sales prices, but rarely change their phone numbers, so by registering each home with your phone number, you’ll eliminate the risk of duplication.

I kept a lead sheet for each FSBO prospect to which I attached clippings of all the ads the owner had posted. Whenever possible, I called the sellers and talked to them about their ads, suggesting how they could improve effectiveness. Then I would look at the reviews. When they implemented the changes I suggested, the update indicated that they had built a level of trust with the prospect and the likelihood of an interview was beginning to skyrocket.

Target your prospects

When targeting the conversion to FSBO, use the following selection criteria:

o Clear motivation to sell

o A short sale time frame

o A specific place they must be by a certain date

o The ability to sell at fair market value with a commission

o A high-demand home in a high-demand neighborhood

o Homeowners who do not have a best friend or relative who is a real estate agent

The best approach is to create a top 10, top 20, or even top 30 list. If you try to work much beyond 30 FSBO, the service becomes a very difficult proposition. If you search for the top 30 FSBOS, knowing that 80%, or 24 of the 30, are likely to show up in the next 60 days, then you have a solid 24 leads, or about 12 per month.

If you provide solid advice, advice, service and care, you can get half of that 12 to interview with you. Depending on your interview skill, you can turn anywhere from two to five into listings each month. Think about it: A business source that generates five listings a month is a great solid source of business. And even if you deliver just two a month, you generate 24 listings a year. Nothing bad!

Defining your territory

Limit your efforts to a concise geographic area that allows you to go through the FSBOs and see the owners as often as once every two weeks, if applicable. When the time comes for them to become a listing agent, they will have a harder time turning you down or choosing not to interview you if they have met you personally.

Remember, all you are trying to do is get a commitment that if the owners decide to turn the job of selling their home over to an agent, they will interview you for the job. That’s all!

making contact

Making initial contact with FSBO homeowners is the most difficult step for most agents, so I recommend making calls as soon as you see a FSBO coming on the market. I’ve had coaching clients who would buy the Sunday paper on Saturday afternoon just to get the FSBO classifieds so they could call new listing owners for a professional conversation before the deluge of calls from other agents started pouring in.

By being the first to make a call on the weekend, before other agents made their calls the next business day, my clients found homeowners more open to dialogue. They also found it easier to distinguish themselves when they were the first to call, rather than after 50 other officers had made calls.

Another benefit of calling FSBO owners early on Saturday or Sunday is that it leaves their afternoons free to visit some FSBO open houses. Meeting owners face-to-face in their own homes presents an effective way to establish contact. The homeowners will surely be home, expecting visitors, and ready to get in touch and discuss the sale of their home.

put the postman to work

Due to the four to five week sales cycle involved in converting a FSBO to a listing, you can advertise more effectively with FSBOS than when dealing with expired listings. By mailing helpful articles once or twice a week, you give yourself a reason to make regular follow-up phone calls.

Then, after each face-to-face or phone contact, follow up with a handwritten thank-you note. Remember, homeowners receive mail from many other real estate agents. One way to avoid the round file is to personalize your notes with handwritten outside addresses.

Also, use your banner ads to send out useful information that sellers may need. Too often, agents act as adversaries of FSBO sellers. Take a different and better approach by helping them. Most have no idea what they really need to do to complete the sale. If they receive helpful advice from you every five days, for example when it’s time to sign your house over to a real estate agent, they are more likely to think favorably of your interview invitation.

For example:

1. Send homeowners a property disclosure form and information about disclosure laws, including how the law affects the value and sale of their home. Buyers can back out even at the last minute if they don’t handle this detail correctly.

2. Submit a sample purchase and sale contract and perhaps a counter offer form, along with the explanation that nothing is ever agreed upon in the first contract.

3. Send owners of older homes a lead-based paint disclosure form to give to the buyer if the home is suitable.

4. Have your lender prepare a financing sheet for the homeowners to give to the buyer.

5. Submit many other items to service FSBO vendors and build a connection, including:

o Sample net income sheet

o Sample tour form

o Updated market analysis of comparable properties

o Sample brochure or photos of the home from the owners

o Guest register to use at exhibitions

o Lead Tracking Form to record information about callers about the house

o A list of homes that meet the needs of homeowners if they are looking to buy a new home in the area.

o Free report on the sale of your home.

The free reports are an effective device because they allow owners to educate themselves and increase their likelihood of success while positioning you as an expert. By submitting these reports, you establish yourself as a strong resource who is there to help them succeed. Then when they don’t, you’ll be there to pick up the pieces and list and sell your home.

As you prepare to submit free reports, consider titles like: “Selling Your Home Yourself For The Highest Price Possible” or “The Seven Mistakes Most For Sale By Owners Make That Cost Them Thousands In Their Price”. sale”.

marking for dollars

As you work with your high-priority FSBO homeowners, reach out by phone or in person at least twice a week. Use these communications to see how the sales activity has been, if there is a weekend open house scheduled, if they received your latest mailing, and if the house has been sold.

A word of caution: Some FSBOs sell themselves, but there’s a big difference between selling a home and closing on it. The fact that the owners have achieved a sale does not mean that they will receive their money. The quality of buyers buying FSBOs is lower than that of those buying homes listed on the MLS. For this reason, when FSBO sellers report that they have sold your home, keep following up. A large number of these sales fall apart before closing. When that happens, sellers who thought they were downhill wave a white flag and call a real estate agent. Make sure you stay in touch when that frustrating moment hits.