the first home you sold

[twinmma]

Originally Posted by shellytc

I sat an open house for an agent when I was only 2 weeks in the business. Not one person showed up, except the new owner of the home. Thats right, a guy showed up with a camera and come to find out, he had ratafied a contract the day before. Oh well.. at 4pm I was closing up when a neighbor dropped by and said she wasn't interested in the house (duh!!!) but... she was moving and needed someone to list her house, would I talk to her? Yep. and got the listing!! and sold it within one month, on New Years Eve. Had 2 offers on the house and it went very well.

Been going gang busters ever since : )


Shelly

Wow-did she ask how long you were in the business? WHat did you tell her? My husband tells me not many people will ask that question (he was in sales for many years, financial) but I would think it is a good question to ask. Trying to come up with my answer...

[twinmma]

Originally Posted by Brandon Hoffman

Skills you need to work on:

FSBO and Expired scripts
Prospecting with your SoI
Objection handling

If you do those 3 things well you'll never be hurting for business. In fact, your biggest challenge will be finding time to manage your business. Very few agents ever master those 3 things and they are the core of RE business.

thanks a lot. That is one reason I am asking...trying to come up with the objections before I even start, lol!
I keep trying to rep you but have to spread some around. (I have been spreading like crazy and still can't...how many times does it take?!)

[jdhall1]

I got my first listing about 2 months after I got my license. It was an expired listing which the owner just happened to work for one of my friend's dad. She didn't ask about exprience, because I 'shared' the listing with an exprienced person in my office. I had an accepted offer within 2 weeks and closed 4 weeks later. Yet, now, when I go out to meet new clients, some think that I'm their assistant because of my young age.

[TampaKaren]

My first closing was a buyer's agent after six weeks of broker in-house training (This is key IMO). There were 2 houses, 2 double wides, and 5 single wides on 3 parcels totalling 5 1/2 acres. It was a doozy!

My first listing took 60 days to close. The buyer had VA financing and the seller had not maintained the house. The inspector required multiple repairs and then they had to re-inspect. Finally, the house and financing were ready and we had a hurricane causing another delay.

The above brings to mind the pre- and post- licensing courses. The instructor kept saying we would do "such and such" in a standard transaction. I don't think I've seen one yet.

[shellytc]

Originally Posted by twinmma

Wow-did she ask how long you were in the business? WHat did you tell her? My husband tells me not many people will ask that question (he was in sales for many years, financial) but I would think it is a good question to ask. Trying to come up with my answer...

Nope, she didn't ask, and I didn't volunteer. However TwinMa, my mother has been in the business over 25 years and I had "grown up" in the biz, so I knew a little more than the average newbie. And I had done commercial leasing and construction in my previous career.

Shelly

[twinmma]

Originally Posted by shellytc

Nope, she didn't ask, and I didn't volunteer. However TwinMa, my mother has been in the business over 25 years and I had "grown up" in the biz, so I knew a little more than the average newbie. And I had done commercial leasing and construction in my previous career.

Shelly

I guess that is key-not telling if they don't ask, lol! I did work for a real estate company doing the advertising and marketing for 6 offices, so I am trying to work that into my pitch...

[shellytc]

Don't ask, Don't Tell worked for the Military, LOL!!

I also had worked for a very large, national advertising agency for many years (I was the op's manager doing the commercial leasing, etc), and my husband is a brand manager, so I had a marketing plan in place when I went to talk to her. Marketing is important, so you have that as your stron point. Start now putting together your plan, and your presentation so you are ready when you get that chance.
shelly

[cynmkolohe]

Originally Posted by twinmma

I guess that is key-not telling if they don't ask, lol! I did work for a real estate company doing the advertising and marketing for 6 offices, so I am trying to work that into my pitch...

That was always part of mine early on...I had been an admin for a broker and had been through searches/purchases and remodels as a "civilian"...

When someone asked "how long"...my answer was usually something like "Well, I started in the business a while back as a personal assistant to a broker-in-charge of a large company and eventually got licensed and became an active agent after mastering the administrative side of the business..." (Not so formal, of course, and there were lots of fun details to add for color--like the maternity leave I covered and the long-running joke that if I sat in a certain chair at the admin desk, my chances of being the next mom in the office increased substantially....depended who I was talking to....)

[Brytanica1]

The 2nd highest selling agent in net sales at our brokerage is only 26. He started there when he was 23.

I started when I was 29 and our team has the highest net sales, I'm now 34. Since I never worked solo, I am extremely lucky that I was able to hop right in and immediately get sales.

And yes, when you are young it can often be a huge barrier. It never bothered me from prospects or clients, but I would get positively livid when the agents I had to deal with across the table would give me that smarmy patronizing attitude.

I had a listing agent I was dealing with who got me so riled up once with his condescension that I actually had a copy of the previous quarters sales report in my bag (what one of my partners refers to as my man purse) that I whipped out the report and asked him if he wanted to compare numbers.

He looked at it, his eyes bugged out and I heard nary a peep out of him after that.