Today’s topic addresses the need to understand how many Short Sale listing appointments you need in order to reach your financial goals.
Every listing is looked at as insurance for your future.
What you need to understand about your own business is how many listings you need to keep the income flowing freely at all times, not in “spurts.”
SECRET: According to NAR, for every one closing, you must have five listings. Ask yourself, “What number of listing appointments is key to reaching your financial goals and making more money?”
So, let’s understand the “game” of Short Sale listing appointments.
To understand how many listings you need, you must determine how much income you require to meet your “fixed” expenses and how much income you need to take vacations, pay cash for cars and homes and reach your financial goals.
For purpose of example, let’s say you need $150,000 per year to achieve your business goals. So, ask your self this: How many listing appointments do I need in order to reach the $150,000 per year?
Now ask yourself, what is my average commission? For example purposes, let’s say $5,000 commission per Short Sale closing.
Let’s address your Short Sale Closing percentage, it’s 100% because you are an HREU member that has reviewed all of your class notes and listened to previous recordings of the classes while driving in your car to your listing appointments… Right?
This means that:
- You need $150,000
- $5,000 commission per Short Sale
- Your Short Sale closing ratio is 100%.
Awesome. Let’s determine how many Short Sale listing appointments you need. Another formula:
- You need to make $150,000 per year
- Divide that by $5,000 average commission and you get 30 closings.
So you’ve now determined that you need 30 Short Sale closings per year to make $150,000 in commission per year.
Don’t be intimidated by these numbers. In this example, that’s only 2.5 closings per month. If you’re average closing commission is less then set goals that are reachable: $75,000 or $90,000. Rule #1 in goal setting, make your goals reachable!
Wait a minute – you’re not closing 100% of your listings – there really are only three reasons why you’re not closing 100%:
- You’re not answering all of the homeowner’s questions.
- You’re simply not closing or asking for the listing.
- You’re not talking to someone who is serious about listing.
#1 You’re not answering the homeowner’s questions.
While you’re meeting with homeowners, be prepared to answer their questions. Sometimes, even the best HREU Agents get stumped. But don’t focus on that as a hurdle, go around it by saying, “That’s a good question, I’m writing it down and I will get you an answer. Now what’s your next question?” It’s just that simple. You haven’t overcome the objection head on, but you made it a “non-issue” by telling them you will get them the answer later.
#2 You’re not asking for the listing.
So often, agents are so good and giving of their time – that’s not you. You must remind yourself of your Treasure Map goals and be clear about what you’re going after – a new Short Sale listing.
The assumptive close always works; you will prepare the homeowner over the phone. A script to remember:
“Mr. Homeowner, I’ve emailed you the Short Sale Checklist, you will need to gather all the items on the Checklist before we sit down. Our appointment is confirmed and I will bring the documents to list your home. Do you have any more questions before we meet?”
By using this “assumptive” close, you have eliminated any questions. The homeowner knows that when you meet with them, they are listing their home with you!
Use the assumptive close on every call and you will increase your closing ratio to 100%, guaranteed.
#3. You’re meeting with someone who is not serious about listing his or her home.
This objection is easy to overcome. How can it be so easy? By implementing the assumptive close as seen above, you will weed them out. What do we mean by this? Homeowners that are “on the fence” will fall either on your side and list their home or they will fall on the other side and not list. It is that simple. When presented with the facts of listing, indecisive homeowners will retreat.
These tools are meant to keep the cash flowing into your business.
Secret: In the HREU ASD Course Website (your Short Sale Library), there is a wonderful PowerPoint Short Sale presentation available for you to download. We have covered this topic in detail in previous classes and you can download the mp3 class notes and listen in your car.
By having a presentation like this one, you will overcome most objections by homeowners that are ready to list. Practice the presentation at least ten times the day before your presentation. By practicing, you’ll find that it becomes easier and easier to overcome homeowners’ objections.
What did we learn today?
- You learned that by knowing your financial goals, you could pattern yourself for success.
- You now understand how many listings you need in order to meet your financial goals.
- You learned what roadblocks or objections homeowners have and how you can get around them or just say, “next homeowner please.”
- You know the questions to ask yourself if you didn’t get the listing and how to overcome this missed opportunity.
- You learned how to rid yourself of the homeowner that is indecisive.
- You learned a lot today, but most of all, you learned how to reach your financial goals by breaking down it down to the attainable. You need 30 Short Sale closings per year or only 2.5 sales per month. That is attainable, as we learned in our last class, with only ten to twelve active listings at all times. Why? Remember that on average, for each closing per month you must have five active listings. You’ll need ten to twelve active listings at all times to meet these goals.
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