Let’s pretend it’s a strange market, a moving target that defies analysis or predictability. Sellers want the price they could have gotten a year and a half ago. It’s hard to convince a homeowner with a 3% mortgage to sell and buy at 6%! Everybody’s feeling like they missed the boat. How do you get listings in a climate like this?

The short answer is to stop trying. Stop trying to schedule listing appointments. Stop trying to persuade sellers to sell first and buy second. 

Not what you expected? Me, either. I wrote it and I can’t believe the thought fell out of my head. But there it was, so there must be some timely message I’m trying to communicate. Let’s examine these thoughts one at a time.

Stop trying. Well, that one’s easy. Yoda said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” There is a Grand Canyon size gap between thinking, “I’m trying to get listings,” and “I’m building my listing inventory.” You may have heard that there’s nothing special about special people, it’s what they do that makes them special.

Stop trying to schedule listing appointments. We track listing appointments scheduled every week in our coaching program. It is a valuable number to know relative to appointments attended and listings obtained. But we don’t teach our students to “schedule appointments” in The Program. We teach them to propose a get-together. Again, a Grand Canyon-sized difference between the two. Dentists schedule appointments. Master salespeople get together with clients and prospects and have a conversation. Sellers are won over at the kitchen table in conversation. “Let’s get together and talk about your plans and hopes and wishes and expectations and fears and concerns and goals,” and when you show people that you care about what matters to them, that’s how you get people to trust you.

Stop trying to persuade homeowners to sell first and buy second. There’s an old saying, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” Applies just as much today as ever.  No amount of math, no matter how true or how logical, can change emotion, and people are AFRAID of not being able to find a home if they sell theirs first. Why? Because we in the real estate industry have been telling them that there is a severe shortage of homes for sale. What’s the solution? Find an off-market property. (The homes haven’t disappeared, just the listings.) Arrange bridge financing. Consider a short-term rental. Buy contingent. Buy something without a contingency and create a really motivated seller. There are alternatives that work better than using logic to overcome emotion.

This is not the year to be inflexible. This is the year to make the commitment to really listen to what our clients and prospects want, and then find ways to show them how to get what they want. One size doesn’t fit all, and having only one way to serve our clients will leave you scratching your head at the end of the year, wondering why all those predictions of 2023 being a tough year came true.

The Floyd Wickman Team Blog by Mike Pallin