Welcome to Breaking Down Ali’s Systems mini-series with Ali Garced.
In this mini-series Ali will be explaining how she built her systems both for buyers and for sellers. This is the first part of the Seller Checklist series covering the whole process from the beginning, even before you meet your client, to the follow-up after the end of the transaction.
Please follow Ali on Instagram here.
If you’d prefer to watch this interview, click here to view on YouTube!
Ali Garced can be reached at ali@garcedrealty.com and (914) 318-4918.
This episode is brought to you by Real Geeks.
Transcript
D.J. Paris 0:00
Today ally Garside is going to share with you her seller checklist. Trust me. This is awesome. Stay tuned. This episode of Keeping it real is brought to you by real geeks. How many homes are you going to sell this year? Do you have the right tools? Is your website turning soft leads and interested buyers? Are you spending money on leads that aren’t converting? Well real geeks is your solution. Find out why agents across the country choose real geeks as their technology partner. Real geeks was created by an agent for agents. They pride themselves on delivering a sales and marketing solution so that you can easily generate more business. Their agent websites are fast and built for lead conversion with a smooth search experience for your visitors. Real geeks also includes an easy to use agent CRM. So once a lead signs up on your website, you can track their interest and have great follow up conversations. Real geeks is loaded with a ton of marketing tools to nurture your leads and increase brand awareness visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod and find out why Realtors come to real geeks to generate more business again, visit real geeks.com forward slash keeping it real pod. And now on to our show.
Ali Garced 1:30
What is up my beautiful friends beautiful agents I am here. This is Aligarh said ally the agents on all social media spelled al I am back with another series of the seller checklist this time. So we’re going to go over from the very, very start before you even meet with a seller all the way to the very, very end past the transaction what you do in the follow up. So we’re probably not going to get to every single portion during this one series. So this is going to be maybe either part one of two or part one of three in the seller series for checklists. So thank you, DJ, if you have been enjoying these checklists, please give keeping it real a five star review on whichever platform you listen to it. I believe Apple is the best way to give the review. But however you listen to it, I highly suggest you watch these series again on YouTube. Because I’m sharing my screen, I’m going to be vocalizing as much as I can, but I can’t get to everything. Plus, to be able to maximize this experience. Fellow real estate agents hop on YouTube and watch this in person you can that way. That way you can follow along and start creating your own checklist. I’m showing you everything I not like holding anything of these checklists. To me, I am very much in the opposite mindset of that I like to share, which a lot of people don’t have doing unless they have been featured on this podcast because this podcast is all about sharing. So again, please give DJ five star review. I would super appreciate that. If you’d like to give me a follow and connect with me talk with me. We can become referral partners, whatever you want to do. My name is Ali, the agent on all social media that is spelled a li that’s how I spell Ali Ali, the agent or if you want a copy of these checklists, text the word checklist as one word one word checklist. Otherwise, it doesn’t the auto response doesn’t work. So one word checklists to the phone number 520-341-2552. And again, I’ll give you the buyer checklist which I already covered the seller checklist which I’m starting today and the referral checklists. I mean I also have onboarding checklists for teams and crew. These checklists are what helped my crew. The agents on my on my crew earn six figures in eight months. Some of these agents are earning three times the amount that they were earning at previous brokerages before coming over to us before coming over to our crew. So if it’s helping them you know, it hopefully will help you and I’m glad to share these with you from the bottom of my heart. I’m literally just trying to help so yes, let’s get started right. Alright, guys, we let’s get started. Here we go. Okay, I use Trello. Again, you don’t have to use Trello So in previous in previous episodes already, I’ve laid out how I organize my Trello board. So in here again following on follow along on YouTube, I have already opened up my seller checklists my seller template. So at the top here you’ll see that I name it seller name that I have the name the address the Coming Soon date if we decide to do that I’m actually not the biggest fan and then the go live date and the expected Close of Escrow or Coe. as I go along, some things are going to be just Arizona specific. So keep in mind, Always talk to your broker because you have any questions always talk to your TC two for a quality check. Talk to whoever else you might need to to see hey, is this How do we do this in our state or start implementing it, because there’s something that I there’s some things that I implement from other states, for example, I implement the non refundable, earnest money that North Carolina does into Arizona, which Arizona does not do that, which is crazy, Arizona is very buyer, it’s very safe for a buyer to back out and get all their money back, they can really, really hurt a seller if they wanted to. But um, here we go. Okay. So in the description here, again, you don’t have to use Trello. But it is it is free, I have a bunch of questions where I will, I will get to it in the method that they that they asked me. So sometimes a seller or a potential seller will call me because they saw me on Google, and I don’t pay for Google ads, guys, I just have my Google business page. So if you do not have your Google business page, you are missing out on the number one website in the world, which is free, it is free to have a Google business page. You know what here, let me show you mine. So in that way, business.google.com is how you’re going to start your business, your Google business page, you do have to be verified in order to in order to like make into any sort of rankings. And to be verified, you have to gate post postcard in the mail. So if you have a formal address, like a work address, perfect, if not, you’re going to have to use your personal address. So if you don’t mind sharing it excellent. If not, use your work address or you know, figure it out on some other way. But Google reviews are so so powerful. I have been in the business for two and a half years. And I have been ranked number one on Google when you search like military real estate agent in Tucson or some sort of specific word, someone told me that I that I rank for number one I’m on, you know, the one of the first real estate agents in Tucson, and I’ve been doing this for two and a half years, I only have 77, zero Google reviews, you don’t have to have hundreds or more in order to start getting phone calls from sellers. So I will say that, for Google business. This is a whole, you know, Bs in and of itself. But always try to be adding photos, I’m pretty sure you could also add videos too. So definitely do that. But as long as you’re tweaking it somehow, once a week, add one photo on there of a listing that you have, or or maybe even someone else’s listing, of course with that listing agents permission, always always gonna have it in writing and saving in your folder. But if you get a review, then go ahead and respond to it. And yeah, and also some people will think that negative reviews will hurt you. It is all about how you respond to those negative reviews because that is what people want to know how you respond to negativity. Because I’m sure it’s human nature. Like whenever you go to a Yelp for a restaurant and or like a moving company, I just recently did that you see like the negative reviews? How does that company publicly treat that person? You know? Anyway, I’m going on a rant here, but Google Business Review. So get that started there Google business page, and keep that up to date. So
where am I so depending on how the seller comes to you, whether it’s a phone call, or an email, or a group chat, because you’ve trained your your besties your friends to say, hey, whenever you know of a potential seller, please have that group chat sort of group chat with me, don’t just give them my phone number. I’ll never hear from them that way, please sort of group chat. It’s a warm handoff, and it creates more stickiness. So however, however way you typically have that first conversation, which might be various different ways, depending on how long I feel, but those sellers want to stay on the phone, I will stay as long as they want. Sometimes they just want to touch base and say, Hey, we’re interviewing around, and I want to give you the opportunity. No, we want to interview you. So great. Go ahead and establish a little bit of rapport. Do not keep them on the phone too long. But make sure that before you get off the phone, you have that appointment scheduled, some sellers are ready to chat, they are ready to go. So if you have time, if you answer the phone, then at that point, do it you know, stay on the phone and go through these questions until you start getting a sense that they are you know wanting to get off the phone that they have other things to do so but the point of the foot the first phone call or the first text message, you know, the point of that initial contact is to get the listing appointment, get your foot in the door, so that you might be asking all these questions you might be asking three questions. It really really depends. So that’s like the funnel Right? Like they might come from here from there from wherever you that at that point, you want to start putting them in your funnel the way that you do things, which is the same every single time. So what I do and what you guys are more than happy to. I’m more than happy to share these exact questions with you. If I go on Calendly I love Calendly you guys are free to copy and paste these questions calendly.com. So let’s see a l e n d fly. I don’t know why I’m like trying to memorize it, I can literally just read this slash gar said Realty cars. That is my last name, G AR CE de Realty slash seller. If you go in that, you’re going to see exactly what I’m showing you here. So this is the information that I want, before we book the formal or more formal, either phone call or a zoom call, I always prefer zoom. So here we go. I asked for their name, their email, their phone number, of course, the address of the property they’re selling. And I asked them, if they would like a connection to a great real estate agent in the city that they’re moving to or agents, a couple of agents, of course, that’s going to help with the referral. Right? Oh, and I blocked this off for about 45 minutes just in case. I also ask them have Have you ever had to file an insurance claim on the property you’re selling? At least in Arizona, it takes quite a bit in order to get those insurance claims. And of course, state by state check with your broker, in case you aren’t sure. But whenever there is, we have to do a clean report, right? We have to find out the comprehensive loss underwriting, you know, whatever report has the property ever had to file a claim because the buyers need to know about that. So if that’s if they do if they ever have had to file an insurance claim, that takes a very long time. So you want to get that process started ie immediately, then the next question is, in a perfect world, when would you want to sell your house by that gives you have the opportunity to or the insight to know okay, I need to meet these with these sellers like tomorrow, or oh, they’re not looking to sell for another eight months? Great. They’re just doing research. Keep them on your follow up. And I’ll get into exactly what the follow up is like in my checklists. But it just gives you an idea of how fast you’re looking at. The next question I asked, What will a buyer a buyer be nitpicky about during their inspections, or the walkthrough of your property? This? And by the way, I have all of these questions with asterisks. So they have to put something in of course, they could put, they could get by with just putting like a spacebar or like a period and not answering it. But I’m going to ask it again, in the Zoom call. So what this question does here is have them start thinking, putting there was a phrase, let’s just start thinking like a buyer, you know, like star taking a little bit of emotional attachment away from the home that they love so much. And start thinking about what is the buyer going to be complaining about? Oh, yeah, we’ve had that like sink that’s always leaking? They’re probably going to be complaining about that. Or, Oh, we do have a you know, whatever it is. And then the next question, what is most important to you in a real estate agent? What specifically are you expecting of us? I use the word us because I again, we’re in case you don’t know this, I was interviewed on a couple of episodes ago, if you search ally on keeping it real, where a DJ interview just me and my business not not not the checklist stuff, I actually run an an out bound referral only business. Now, I had so many leads my first year in the business, that I couldn’t keep up with it. So I had to form a crew, a team, I use a team loosely because we don’t have any team splits at all. So that’s why I say us, because I fell in love with prospecting, I fell in love with finding clients. And that’s all we want to do. So when I start saying us, because it’s not going to be just me working on selling your home, it’s going to be me and a trusted agent, someone on my crew who I refer to refer to my crew members. So to the client, it is we are both helping them out. It’s two agents for the price of one. But on the back end, it’s really just a referral. So we work hand in hand. Of course, I’m here for anything. But that’s why I started saying us just in case you’re wondering about that. And the next question, will all parties be on the title? Sorry, will all parties on the title be on the call that you booked on this Calendly? If they say no, do not go on the call, say Okay, Let’s reschedule. And let’s make sure that all parties are there. So you want to make sure if you use Calendly you know that as soon as somebody books, if you have the settings up, you’ll get an email and you’ll get a text message saying Aligarh said a potential seller booked a call with you November 14 at 5pm. Excellent. You can then log into Calendly or look at your calendar on I use Google Calendar and see the questions that they answered. If this question is checked, no. Then And I’m not going to have the appointment. I want all the all the parties that need to be there on the call otherwise, every time you flex on your rules, you know what happens? Guys? I don’t even need to explain that to you. Okay, what else? And then the last question, what else should we know before we meet? Again, that’s a catch all pretty similar to my buyer side where, where if you wanted to take a look at my buyer checklist, again, it’s the same thing. It’s calendly.com/gorsedd Realty slash buyer.
And then the last section is where they can send text messages to so that way they receive the link to the Zoom call. So after that, after that is, you know, they fill out the information, they book a call, and all the parties are going to be there and they’ve answered all the questions. Then at that point, let’s Let’s book a zoom call, or I will call them because sometimes at that point, it’s just go ahead and start the start. Have that be the listing appointment. Again, this part is still a little bit flexible. Sometimes they just want to do zoom, which is fine. I will I will go at your pace. Because the last thing I would want to do is force my foot in the door when they didn’t want me there. Like and force the listing. That is just a recipe for disaster. We’re starting off on the wrong foot, I’m probably not going to get a five star review. No. So if they wanted me to resume first before in person, perfect, let’s do that. If they so I’ll send them a text after that say, Hey, Ali, I’m so I’m so excited to to get you scheduled a call, would you like this call to be over zoom? Or would you like it to be in person at your house, boom. So either way, zoom or at their house, then let’s go to the Trello checklist. So of course when we go to the we’re jumping a little bit forward here, but when we go into the the listing appointment, the rest of these questions in this Trello are going to be answered. So it’s going to be you know, the typical questions How much do you own the property again, shoot me a message text the word checklist to phone number 520-341-2552 to get a copy of these questions. You know, Hoa any litigations, any additional liens? What should I know that we haven’t discussed yet. Age of the, you know, roof H HVAC, water heater, etc, everything. But here we go. Let’s start starting with bullet point number one, under the very first section of the seller checklist pre meet, what are you doing before you even meet with them. One, of course, add the client or clients all the parties involved to your calendar for either daily, weekly, monthly follow up, depending on how far out they plan on selling. And so I of course add them to my CRM as well, which is right here, a couple of bullet points down, add them to my Cavey core. But I also add them to my calendar because I do not want this to get lost you because I’m sure you know it, it sometimes can be hard to catch up on everybody that you need to talk to on your Cavey core or on your CRM, right like there’s sometimes like 40 people to reach out to a day, that’s a lot, especially if they all decide to respond that day. So you’re having all these conversations. So therefore, as a as a safety measure, I also put them on my calendar in the color red, red means appointments to me on my google google calendar, so I will never skip out on that. Then next, get their full names filled out. Because of course, sometimes people go by nicknames or people go by their middle names, but that’s not what the tail record, say, etc. Get their email, get their phone number and immediately ask again, in case you haven’t already, or in case they haven’t answered, hey, what’s important to you in the agent that you’re choosing to represent you to sell your home? And then take notes and make sure that you are listening. The next question or the next item on the checklist is ask the sellers two questions before they’re going under contract with them. So and same thing with the buyer side too. How often do you expect to hear from me or us? And when you reach out to me how quickly do you do expect the response back? Because if they’re if this is a perfect time for client expectations, same thing with the buyers, were sometimes we sleep. I don’t think clients always know that. But sometimes real estate agents do sleep and we kind of have to remind them of that, hey, I actually turn off you know, my my business hours after six o’clock I’m actually just spending with family. But if there’s anything else that you need for me, you will be the first thing that I get to the morning the next day. So what if they seem to be maybe I don’t want to say the word reasonable but if they’re like hey, you know if you’ve take if you take a couple of hours, four hours to get back to me totally fine, perfect. Whatever your business I’m not saying there’s any right or wrong. I’m saying whatever. works for you. Perfect, if not have that conversation with them. Because if there’s if they’re expecting X and they’re not budging, and you’ve tried to establish those expectations and it’s still not going to work, then it might be a red flag to continue. Remember, it’s not always the best to take on every single listing, you’re not going to get along with every single client. Sometimes you can save so much time and even better, so much energy and peace of mind by not taking some clients on. Never forget that. Oh, man. Okay. Ask me how I know. Okay, so then next, ask them what the best method of communication is for them. What I do, whenever I send a referral out is I’m on the text, thread, especially for all iPhones. Even better, if not, I’m actually leaning toward WhatsApp, especially since I have a lot of military clients and they’re coming from all sorts of the world, you know, Germany, Japan, Korea, so WhatsApp is super important to us. So all the parties are going to be on WhatsApp, that’s gonna be me, the actual listing agent, all all of the bar, the seller parties, maybe even you know, title or on the buyer side lender, and then stick to that if they prefer texts, or if they prefer phone call, or if they prefer email, just make sure I actually add that to the very, very top of this Trello checklist I never forget, I just put in all capital letters, text or email. But if it is email, I usually text them to saying hey, I just sent you an email because I don’t know if that’s what I would want for me. So okay, going on. I add them to my Cavey core, I add them as you know, either a prospect or an active lead or an actual client. And then I set up market alerts on Cavey core there’s probably same thing if you’re using command if you’re Keller Williams or you know anything like that Lyon desk, then I go to my county assessor website of course, this is only going to be for Tucson here but go in your county assessor website or ask title and look up who else purchased the home who else is a legal owner of the property is an LLC, is it multiple sellers, one time I was selling a property that was owned by five different sellers. Luckily, four of them were in we’re still in the city. But the other one was, I think in like across the country, it was very, very difficult. But hey, at least was my third transaction. I love that I had these difficult transactions in it like early on. So that way you know everybody that you need to be talking to. So everything that I haven’t bold in these checklists, I have a virtual assistant do you can do the same thing. So pretty similar to like my buyer checklist as well. So then I have a virtual assistant. The next step here is to send the pre list email. So I also have them send the 47 ways to make your home sell faster. That’s a document that I will be giving you as part of this checklist after we meet the ultimate seller checklists and the what we do for you attachment. I create a timeline for the sellers to get ready for the listing appointment. I make the listing appointment this is very easy with exp if you’re with exp you just hop on Cavey core and like in a matter of maybe three clicks you have the listing presentation, of course then you have to personalize it or customize it for that address for the radius for Nina just getting the comps but it’s a great listing presentation and they actually just increased their they now they don’t have like the listing boxes or whatever I actually personally haven’t used that yet they just rolled it out. Then of course the make the listing appointment you should have already done that. Then the next step is again in bolt. So this is something that your that your virtual assistant can do or it can be automated with using Zapier or Zapier or however we pronounce it. So choosing the title company that you typically work with, send them a text and then a call, whatever your method of communication is typically with them and say hey, what’s up Gina? I have another listing can we do an early bird escrow? And would you mind assisting me again with those snacks and the branded water bottles? With both of our branding This is the address this is these are the open house dates that we’re thinking of. I’ll let you know in case they change. Y’all are the best I’ll be so much XL XL. Yeah. Then you want to make sure that after the title company again, this might be different depending on your state but after the title company looks up that property you want to make sure there aren’t any liens that you weren’t aware of. And that way you can have done your research before you even meet with them. So the rug can be pulled out from under you. I assume that these phrases I should probably just make up my own at these. This boy okay. You want to call the HOA if the HOA applies. You want to make sure see if there are any liens on the property. This Bibi in the boat one time Oh We went on the market. And the seller told me this is my I think my my second listing ever came from my very, very first round of posting fliers up or doing mailers.
And which was like one of the very, very few times that I’ve actually, anyway, it doesn’t matter. I am not really the biggest fan of mailers. But it’s because I have been consistent with them enough. So I sent out one one round of mailers, and I get a listing. I’m like, Oh, my gosh, this is amazing. Why doesn’t everybody do this? Right? So I’m getting with the seller, and the seller never told me that. Or rather, the seller told me that the HOA gave gave him a pass because he was elderly, because he’s a vet that he didn’t have to. But he didn’t have to mow his lawn. Well not mow the lawn, but like take care of the weeds because we don’t have grass here in Arizona, that the HOA, like dude was doing it out of the kindness of their heart. And I believe that this now that I’m saying this out loud, I’m like, how could I even believed it the way that he said it was very convincing, guys. Okay. So it wasn’t until we went on, we went live on the market. When what hope I forget how exactly I found out I think maybe it was title at that point, because I did title after instead of opening up earlybird escrow, which I will always open up early bird escrow. This is a reason why to do it. They said yeah, you cannot sell the property unless the seller pays off the debt that’s already in collections. That was from the HOA, because the HOA said, No. Why would we ever just allow somebody to have weeds? Why would we be doing this work for free? We did not have that, you know, that agreement set with him. And he paid he waited so long to pay off his bill that we now send it to collections. And of course, once it’s in collections, I can barely do any talking because it’s through the attorneys. And it only had to be him he didn’t want to. And he pretty much said oh yeah, I thought you wouldn’t notice I’m like, okay, cool. On taking, I’m naughty, I’m deleting you from my KB core. I’m not even gonna ever do a follow up with you. But a lesson learned, please do not make my mistake. Open up the earlybird escrow? Yeah. And then of course, after this, we’re going to be getting into a lot of the questions that you want to make sure that you have prepared for the listing appointment. Why are you moving? Are you aware of any of what homes in your neighborhood are going to be selling are typically selling for already? How much do you owe on the property? Does it have solar? How much is left in the solar? Is it a lease? Is it alone? What will happen if if you don’t sell what are your plans, then if they say they don’t really care, then that means they’re not really motivated. And at any point, they can just say, You know what? Cancel this listing, I just want to rent it out. Instead. I’ve had that happen to me, too. And off, does that hurt? So before I even get any further, I do want to give you this lesson learned as well. I now have a $3,000 cancellation fee. Do you know how much I’m sure you do. You spend a lot of money up front working with sellers, you do not spend upfront money working with buyers. For this reason, I actually lean toward working with buyers. There’s no there’s gas, that’s all I pay for gas and my time. It’s not the $1,000 for photos and staging and videography. And for the drones. And for the aerial photos. It’s not you know, the staging, just in and of itself, there is so and all the marketing that comes to it is a lot of upfront. Time, money, effort, blood, sweat, and tears. So for that reason, I always have no matter who it is no matter what, I have a $3,000 cancellation fee. That’s a catch all. So that will pay for the photos, the staging, if we do that, the marketing efforts that we took, and the rest is to pay for our time. Because we are professionals. There is no reason that you know, attorneys should be you know, even I can go on a rant I already am going on a rant about this, huh? So attorneys have the what is it called? The Why am I blanking? Man, what is that word? I’ll get to it. But if attorneys can be paid like beforehand before they even do the work, so can we and our contract even says So again, this is Arizona. Our contract is different from every other states. But our contract allows us to work on what’s the word, please comment below the word if you’re watching this on YouTube, or if you’re even, you know, listening to this on Apple comment the word below I know you’re thinking of it, and I can’t think of it. But you know what I’m talking about. So, no matter what, I have a $3,000 cancellation fee. Only one time ever have I ever had that been? Have you ever even had an objection to that? And I explained to them, Hey, we’re spending a lot of money upfront the photos alone cost nearly $1,000 and I’ve been hurt before in the past where I spent, you know, $3,000. And then the seller decided to take it off the market. And then not only did I lose $3,000, but I also lost the opportunity cost in order to help out other clients. They honestly, I was just so honest with them, and they’re like, You know what, I get it. So the cancellation that I have is in the additional comments of my contract my TC knows that I do that every single time that everyone in our crew, like in my ESPN downline, they do that. So that way they don’t get burned. Because I got burned once and girl, do you know that I followed up? I followed up until I got that listing again, like, Hey, how’s the rental going? Hey, have you gotten any tenants in there yet? Hey, like, luckily, the property management companies in Tucson are not that good. So that helped me I got the listing back, we sold it. But after that, that was a lesson learned that I will not be working for free again. So please don’t do you know, you also should not be working for free. Okay. So the next question, if you were a buyer looking to purchase your house today, what would you pay for it? And of course, this is going to elicit some emotional reaction, but also could tell you that the sellers are pretty much on core on on par for what the house is what the house is worth. Then, on a scale of one to 10 with 10, being your home is perfect. How would you rate it? That’s question number one. The follow up question to that is what would make it the 10? That question that part of the question is the most important of those two, because it gets them thinking, oh, what what could I do? What would the buyer be wanting to do in order to make this the perfect property? So and then, of course, is that a price range that you feel comfortable with? How soon would you like to be settled into your new home? How much longer do you plan to stay in your current home? Who do you think would be the next person on your street to move get those referrals have listings, listings generate more listings, just like buyer buyers can generate listings, especially if your buyer knows what specific area that when I moved to but they have no homes there on the market that are available? Boom, that’s money. So door knocking? Alright. How much do you think your home is worth? And how did you get that number? And what if any objections Do you think the buyers are gonna have about your home? The other one is, will you be living here while it’s in the market? Or will you have moved out by then? Or do you plan on staying at say, like an Airbnb or staying with a friend in order to make sure that your house that you know, if buyers come outside see the see the for sale sign outside, they can just hop right in without having to coordinate their listing agent, or their buyer’s agent calling me then calling you taking you out of work saying hey, can you leave Davis Monthan Air Force Base and come open your house, they’re already outside. So you know, don’t rush too much don’t get a don’t get a speeding ticket, but they’re outside and don’t you want your house to sell, it can be a lot it’s very, very, it can be very frustrating. So it might be worth taking a week or two. And making sure that you don’t have the dogs in the house and it’s clean one time and that way. It’s just show ready for the next two weeks. The next question, what are the best selling points of your home? What questions do you have about the listing process? And then you want to mail them, depending on the timeline, right? Say they want to meet tomorrow, I’m not going to be mailing them. I’m just going to bring them my five star reviews, my home selling guide why to work with me, essentially, why you want to fall in love with me to be able to fall in love with me because you want me to sell your home. When I come over on Friday, say Are you prepared to live with me at that time? This is a question that I never really felt too comfortable with. But now I realize I need to ask it. And I’ve been asking it the last couple of times. And it is it. I don’t know why I was scared of that question. I thought it was too strong, but it’s direct. So you need to ask them when I come over on, you know, Thursday that we just decided next week? Are you going to be able to list with me at that time? Guess at that point, you’ll be able to see their actual reaction? If they’re serious about listing? Or if they’re not, will all the decision makers be present. And that’s when you look at the title and say, Hey, will you and your brother and your sister and your aunt and everyone else is on that owns this property? Will everyone be at the appointment because everyone needs to sign? And then the day of the day that you meet them before meeting them, create a video outside of their home and say, Hey, this is hey, it’s Emily Garson, what’s up guys. This is one of my clients that are that are potentially bringing their home to the market soon. If you’re looking to live in this community of bear Canyon hills in Tucson, Arizona, send me a message because this home isn’t for sale yet. And then save it. And during your listing presentation, which I’ll show you later. says show it to them say this is something that I recorded and with your permission, I would like to send this to my database. I’ve already started working for you. And it’s like Whoa, no other listening agent that came to my house already did that. And this agent isn’t shy to get on camera. She’s gonna do whatever it takes to sell my house. So, then the day that we meet, take a photo of the property
the questions that I need for the listing agreement, what uh, of course, this agreement is going to be slightly different depending on your on where you are, but what appliances are going to are you going to be bringing with you what will be staying make sure you you don’t want to be you don’t want to have to end up paying for a fridge. Luckily, I’ve never had to do that. But uh, hey, I’m gonna say Never Never. So all right, it’s not doesn’t paper. You want to make sure the list price that you give them the comps. And the commission. Of course, now commission is so you know what’s going on with commission. So make sure that you are providing enough value to where they are comfortable with that. And of course, if they’re dual agency, you’re gonna need to have them sign that I do end up reducing my commission if if we do dual agency. And of course, we have questions on our on our listing agreement that says do you consent to signs? Do you consent to marketing? We’ve never had anybody say no. Do you authorize that we use a keysafe that will allow me to open up the lockbox, etc. Just follow follow, I won’t go too much into detail with that specifically, but just pretty much ask them go through the listing agreement with them. That’s pretty much what that bullet is. Email the sellers, about the pre appraisal. So these are the steps to take before and during the appraisal appointment. So you can maximize your home’s value, therefore increasing the likelihood that the transaction is going to go smoothly. And an appraiser is just an opinion. But they’re going to be doing some extensive research on the comps and the condition of your property. So I always tell my sellers to stay if they’re able to be at the house with the appraiser. Perfect do it. Because there but also give them give the appraisal give her her space. But you’re going to hand them the piece of paper of all the updates that you’ve done what you love about the property. And that way, if the appraiser has any questions Who better to answer that then though, then the sellers themselves, I have found that to be really, really good. It’s worked out it’s worked out really well. And then of course, just very simple exterior, you want to start keeping in mind that you need to mow your lawn, you need to pull your weeds and not say that the HOA is doing it for you for free. You need to put away any toys or you know tools like a trip the appraiser, I’m kind of getting like a little ahead of myself here, but the interior, the access, the comfort, these are just things that I already want them to start thinking about, hey, I haven’t even had the listing yet, but I’m already giving you homework, I’m thinking ahead, that’s what I’m showing them. So keep your children and your pets out of the appraisers way. And of course give them the list of upgrades that you’ve done. Anything you know can be Hey, I painted this at you know, anything that has shown that the sellers care about the property. Then, like I mentioned before, get the listing presentation that’s just on this website KV core, or wherever you get your listing presentation, it’s just called when the listing and then create for seller, and then you input the address and you click enter. That’s it, it’s as easy as that with with exp. I’ve never done anything else, it’s worked for me and it works great. So then you want to bring the following printed documents with you. This is where it depends on how you want to do it. And also depends on who your audience is. You might not want to go fully digital. If you’re selling 55 Plus home or you know homes in a 55 plus community, you might want to go digital if you’re selling you know and millennials home or you might just want to get the wet ink signature for the listing agreement and then do the rest later. However you want to do it that I will leave completely up to you. Because I have found that I brought every form in the beginning every form on paper because I just wanted to make sure that we could just take a photo easily scan it send it to my TC start getting ready. But signing all of the all the paperwork in person t know how tired the seller is, you might not realize how tired they are because you’re pumped. Your adrenaline is going you’re like oh we just got this listing and the sellers like oh my god, there’s another forum. Why did I choose even sell my house? You know, like, no get get in, get out. And believe them wanting more. So then tell the seller to call their insurance company and get a clue report. You want to start that immediately. Again, I’m not sure if this is just for Arizona or for all 50 states. But make sure you get that insurance list with the last five years or as long as as as long as they have owned the property because they’re going to provide that to the buyer within five days of being under contract. Ask the seller if that if they have any prepaid HOA and asked if they can get it back. Sometimes people will prepay the HOA they forget that they sell the property they lose, you know, they lose the property to sell the property and they’re like, oh my gosh, wait, I spent I just like lost $500 on prepaid HOA. So see if they can get it back. Or if they can’t get it back then at least incorporate it to the negotiations. Maybe get another extra $500 or the equivalent amount in you know, less closing costs or higher purchase price, whatever you want to do. Pre qual the sellers, ask them, why are there selling? Ask them? What’s their plan B, this is again, this is in case you maybe didn’t ask them beforehand what was on the checklist? I hope you’re still staying with me if you’re if you’re liking this, please give this video a like if you’re watching this on YouTube, if you want these checklists, text me 914-318-4918 I’m Ally, the agents on all social media. And let’s continue on. Oh, or text the word checklist 25203412552. So when you’re looking at the title commitment, look at who’s the seller is that? Is it the same as who we thought it was? There was a lot of fraud going on. There was a lot of fraud, so you don’t want to waste your time on a fake seller. And then Zillow, this is so so important, because this is going to help you leverage that one listing for more listings later on. So take a screenshot of the Zestimate. Yes, I’m saying Zestimate. And no, I’m not saying that that’s accurate. But take a Zestimate screenshot of that the house that you’re about to list, because you want to save that for your records for later. Because in case you didn’t know already, if you take a screenshot of it, your as soon as you list the property, the Zestimate is going to change. So you want to keep that typically lower amount as proof. And then after fast forward to after you sell. You want to take another screenshot of the Zestimate then after he sold the house as far as what the house is worth according to Zillow, and that is bragging rights all day every day you to to do it a step above, you want to do the same thing for all 100 neighbors of that. Have that listing 100 200 300 Have your VA do this take a screenshot of the Zestimate of all of the neighborhood neighbors in the area before you go live. With that listing. Say you know the house is 480,000. And then after you sell it’s now 492 boom that is perfect, perfect mailing stuff to mail or door knock or just talk about say, Hey, I sold the house on 123 Main Street, your you being here at 124 Main Street, just by me selling Bob’s house next door, your property increase $12,000. Like that is a great foot in the door in order to get the listing.
Okay, then you want to email your buyer database with a subject line. I’m about to go meet a potential seller I got this from Tom Ferry, and their conferences and in the body of that email to your to your buyers. You want to say I can’t share too much yet, but I’m about to meet up with a potential seller who’s thinking about listing their home. What I can tell you is that homes like this usually or typically sell for above ask in just a few weeks. Of course we used to say days but now it’s no longer days at least here in Arizona, it’s not. If you already know that you want the details reply with V IP, boom, what are you going to do once you send that email once whoever responds or you can also post it on social media, whoever responds, put them in your Cavey core, put them in your CRM with a specific hashtag or tag, I would do VIP or I would do VIP palisade or VIP you know street name, and then remain in strong contact with them because that is a buyer so and if you don’t work buyers, then refer it out. Okay, then the day of the listing presentation, what you want to bring with you calendar, like a printed out calendar, or at least like it again, depends on who your audience is, maybe if they are more digital than just your computer, it’s fine to show them the calendar. Because you want to reverse engineer when you want to be listing. You want to print out your Zillow reviews, your Google reviews your your business card. If you do business cards, I don’t do business cards, the CMA, the MLS input sheet, again might be different your area and the folder for them to keep it if it’s branded even better, and the copies of the signed contracts. Along with the seller net sheet, I leave a couple of different seller net sheets. So one is if I leave three. So one is kind of where I’m what I’m thinking that the house is going to be at depending on what they’ve already told me over the phone. Or if I if I’ve already seen it via FaceTime or zoom, and then the second one is going to be a little bit lower. And then the third one is gonna be a little bit higher. They don’t want to make it too high. It’s I don’t want to get their hopes up. And I will never want to be the agent that says oh, I can sell your property for more than the other listing at that than the other agents so that they could because I don’t ever want to set anybody up for dinner. appointment I will I’m a straight shooter. Hey, if I don’t think it’s gonna go that high, I’m never gonna lie to anybody. But okay, next, have the sellers fill it out completely Of course. Then you want to go on ESP Marketing Center and create the digital media post it’s um it’s free on easy marketing center I’m sure your brokerage probably as the same thing to just go there, create some digital posts or maybe hire a virtual assistant to do it. And then you want to add the YouTube video link to the link tree if you have a link tree saying hey, new, you know, you just want to start promoting it digitally. Already with like the the listing presentation, follow your MLS rules. Of course, if you have any questions, ask your broker, send the clue or the insurance to the TC and add that to the MLS. Because it’s even better if you know add everything to the MLS. And then remember that you’re going to be their agent for free until they tell me that they want to list with me. So I’m providing value value value, I’m saying hey, this is what you get when you list with me. And it’s okay at that point, if they say you know what, we will be live with another agent, because I know that I that we probably weren’t going to be a good fit, there was something in there. And I always ask, you know, always ask, Hey, you know, is there something that I could have done? Is there something that we didn’t cover that I should have covered more, I’m looking just to just to improve. And sometimes they’ll tell you sometimes they’re they’re too shy, and that’s okay, you know, it’s fine, you can’t win them all, there’s so much more business to go around than to dwell on one listing, although it hurts, you know, like, I will not discount the fact that it hurts, especially maybe if you really thought that you were going to get it. But just take that effort and double down with this checklist. This checklist will show you how to double down and get even more listings out of it. So again, the more you have in the pipeline, the less emotion you’re going to have, if you end up losing a listing, so keep your pipeline Hi, baby. Alright, then the last portion of this side of the segment is schedule a day with the sellers. So when you the videographer can create some videos. So if you have a local videographer, perfect if not, if you have a spouse, perfect, that works too, it doesn’t need to be professional. In fact, the more professional looking it is, the more polished it is, the less real it is, the less people can can actually relate to it. So and I also I do videos of me, it’s not just the property, but I have my face on there, again, my branding, and you can put it on YouTube, you can throw YouTube ads behind it, you can do a Facebook ad behind it, you can use that, throw it into a QR code, send it to the flyers, send it as flyers, to the neighbors and get more listings that way. Then the day that was the presentation, I’m gonna do this listing presentation. Well, I’m not going to do the listing presentation, I’m going to tell you what is on my checklist. And then I think maybe that’s where I’m going to end it. Maybe we’ll see we’ll see also, for the future, if you’d like me to just do one street shots or like all throughout the entire checklist, let me know I’m here for it. I would love to hear your feedback, put it in the Apple podcast review or Spotify review, for keeping it real. We want to hear from you. I do want to thank you for all the positive reviews that you’ve left so far. I really appreciate that. So yeah, five star review, please do it for DJ. Alright, the listing presentation, our crew within exp has access to something called the locker room nation. So we all have our logins and this has like hundreds and hundreds of videos. Ask your broker in case you don’t already have one, but I’m sure you have you have access to some sort of Google Drive or something like this, where you have access to watch actual listing presentations, buyer presentations, you know, anything, etc. So that way you can just get in the mind in the mind flow. That’s not the word in the mindset. That’s the word of the listing presentation. So review it, maybe hop on some podcasts, listen to other episodes of this podcast, have maybe like a potential listing agreement or listing presentation of what it’s like, hype yourself up, do a couple of push ups, you know, get the blood flowing because you want to show up with energy. And maybe I said that because I would I’m more attracted. I think people are more attracted to people with energy. But not everyone is I am not everyone’s cup of tea and I get that you know, if I were to show up with listening as a listing agent to get a potential listing with a seller that was not me you know, that was very easy or or very like, you know, we wouldn’t get along. And again, that’s okay. There’s an agent for every one So be yourself. This is me so this was this was a wham Okay. Review the listing presentation from the real estate Bible. This is this is the real estate Bible is a Google Doc that I have for my ESP downline. It’s like To now close, like 200 pages. Okay, so skip that. Ask for referrals. Of course, hey, do you know if anyone else is looking to this looking to sell on the street? Especially they’ve been there for a long time. They know the neighbors. I feel like now in this day and age, a lot of people don’t know the neighbors, which is crazy. But But yeah, it’s not just other sellers in that area is Do you know of anyone moving to any state? Do you know of anyone that you know, needs to upgrade their house? Or downgrade their house? Or Did anyone get a job transfer and they need to relocate than anyone else in the military that, you know, that’s PCs saying this this season? And then typically be like, Oh, no, I don’t at that point, you make it one step further to try to connect make that connection in their mind that does anyone you know, that’s recently had a promotion, or they plan on starting a family. So they want a bigger house now, job relocation, make specific, specific examples. So that way, they’re like, oh, my gosh, yeah, I forgot that hairy digits get promoted. Or maybe Harry did just lose his job. And he’s looking to downgrade his house. And you can help. Okay, next, go over the open house schedule. Not all sellers want open houses, some sellers want to open house every other day. So ask them what you know, this is depending on if you like to do open houses, if you want to do open houses, if you plan on having someone else do open houses, then perfect. But so this is whatever you want to do. And go start those dates, because you want to have those dates immediately. You want to start mailing the neighborhood, for the neighborhood only open house and you want to start mailing you know, advertising the actual open house, because the faster you can have those open houses put on online on the MLS, the more people you’ll get through. Then, of course, the clue report, again, at the end of the listing presentation, ask them, Is there anything that you have heard that we’re out of sync on? Or is there anything that you’re confused about? Is there anything you’re worried about? You want to make sure that anything that’s on their mind that they get off their chest? Because they’re gonna have questions, and you will probably have to ask this question at least twice. They might not feel comfortable. If you’re a stranger, they might not feel comfortable asking you, oh, man, well, we met with, we met with this other agent, this other agent brought us cookies. And they said that they would sell you know, they promised us X but they don’t want to tell you that because they’re just waiting for you to say that. So ask them, hey, is there anything that maybe another agent said that you would like to go over? Because there might be some that we didn’t even cover and I love to show you what we do.
So make sure that you’re talking like honestly, to them about that. If they are working with another agent, or if they’re interviewing other agents, what has the other agent done that I haven’t already gone over? Not if they’re working with other agent that was a poor word to say poor wording to say that I do not I’m not in the business of stealing plus, again, only sets you up for failure. But I definitely been that person where there’s different theories of when to go into listing appointment, if the seller is going to be interviewing agents, some people want to go first, they want to get the foot in the door. That’s it, I will, you know, smash it. And they’re there, I’m going to leave with listing appointments. So that way, no one else, anyone else after me isn’t even going to have a shot. Some people want to be the last one. So they’re like, Hey, let’s go over all of you know, all of whatever, maybe they didn’t say that didn’t make you feel comfortable. I’ll show you how I can make you feel comfortable. And this is what I do in order to list your home. So different opinions on that. I don’t I’m not really persuaded either, you know, one way or the other. There are pros and cons to both. Because if you do bank on being the last one, and that first agent gets it, then you snooze, you lose, you know, but if you are the last one, and they still they are still thinking of that first one where it was like, Oh my God, that first one was so good. There’s almost like so what’s the opposite of like the recency bias, where they’re like, oh, they they’re glorifying that first one, even though it could have been the same as the last one. And it may psychology in there. You choose which one you want to you want to do. But you just want to make sure that you cover everything that maybe other agents have covered. So yeah, and use the pricing structure if you do not have a tiered package for sellers create one now. I have one for my exp downline and everyone uses it. That’s how we get 8% listings. So again, it’s think about what like, think about this, if you were a seller, what would blow you away? What would you pay extra for in order for people to market your property and then see what’s realistic, see what you what you can do and create three different tiers or maybe two different years or four. But at least that way, psychologically, when you go to a listing appointment. Instead of them thinking should I choose ally, or should I choose Mark instead of that If you’re thinking, Oh, should I choose Ali’s bronze package, Silver package, or gold package? You know, it’s a different way of thinking in the BiggerPockets world or like investing world, instead of saying, Hey, this is my this was my offer, take it or leave it and stand you say, Hey, this is my cash offer. And and this is my financed offer. Which one would you like? So that way they’re like, oh, it’s instead of yes or no, it’s do I choose a? Or do I choose B, I love the tiered structure, again, this, I’m only giving that out to those that join my crew. They have it and it’s working well, for them, they’re getting 8% listings. But it’s not hard, you know, like, just think about what, what extra things you can do, add it to your middle package, and then add even more to your to your 8% package. But you have to bring in the value, you know, anyway, so if you ever want some more trainings on that, I do that all the time. When you get the listing, you know, when you get the listing, if you get the listing, when you get the listing, tell your virtual assistant and this is where I say take have your virtual assistant or you I guess but hire someone else out, get your kids do it. Get your kid to get the list or title company to get the list of all 100 or 200 homes nearby. Before you go live right. Take the screenshot of the Zillow Zestimate take all the Zestimate values, save them in a folder. You’re going to need this later on. And when you walk the property Oh yeah, well, we’ll leave it here right after this walk in the properties. This is a checklist that I created because I always forgot to check the year of the H vac every single time every time I leave the house but I don’t I forgot the year of the H back in the year the water heater. So now that’s part of the checklist. Check the vents ask them if they’re gonna get new vents installed or filters. That’s an easy fix right like vents can look so ugly and it can change it can change the the look and feel of a property. But just popping up a new vent and just changing the filter can make a world of a difference. Especially if it goes from yellow to white. And then of course the number of bedrooms. If the owner changed it, make sure that you are not advertising a property that’s that was say a five bedroom as a five bedroom if they changed one of those bedrooms into a den say they turned you know a closet or they got rid of a door or anything like that. Just make sure that you are aware that sellers might be able to might be changing some stuff around a five bedroom when they purchased it might not be a five bedroom when you’re selling it. So I think this is where I’m going to leave it off. If you have been enjoying this. Thank you so much. i Please please please give DJ keeping it real podcast a five star review, letting them know how these checklists have been helping you again, I’m sure I’m sharing everything that I have with you. So if you want a copy of these checklists, text, the word checklist to 520-341-2552. My name is Ali, the agent on all social media that is a Li and that’s it. I’ll see you on the next one. And until then, stay safe.
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