Steve: Hello, this is Steve Sprickholm, president of KVMU Full Throttle Coaching, and I am here with a great national coach, Frank Obringer. And we are on the subject for this week's Coffee with a Coach of Working Expired Listings. So first session today with Frank is why all realtors should make working expired listings part of their business plan.
So lead us into the Frank, why should realtors work with expired listings? Well for one thing, every single day properties are expiring on the market. It is an opportunity for a seasoned agent or a brand new agent to pick up the phone and create that immediate opportunity. These folks are sitting there with a sign in their front yard in many instances, or the sign just came down because it expired, but it's pretty easy to find them.
Frank: All of the MLSs notify that the property has expired and the agents have the property address, they have the owner's name, pretty easy to reach out and create that immediate opportunity. Right, so you're saying that it's actually because it's kind of preset as the property has already been on the market, there's already a lot of work that's been done, so as an agent you can come in there and you can pick up on that and move forward and that gives you a quicker start to getting that property sold than like your fresh property that had to get all that pre-work done for it. Is that right? Yes, sir.
Steve: So how about like, it seems to me another great thing about it that you've talked about is that you know something about the fact that the agents want to work with the buyer and the commission. Tell us about that and why that's already been put into the hopper.
Frank: Well, the expired list seller has worked with an agent, signed an agreement for a period of time to market their property, they have agreed to a commission that they're going to pay, so all of those factors are really great for any agent that is working the expires.
In my career, I always specialized on working expires. I'd actually tell them, I specialize in selling properties that other people failed to sell. I had a whole script for it and it's so awesome because like I said, you know the sellers have agreed to pay you a commission to sell the property.
You know, how cool is that for a brand new person, you know, getting into the business. Right, so you're saying that there are certain numbers of rejections that you're not going to have to answer and deal with, right? Sure. So how about... The commission was already advertised.
Steve: That's right. So I think there's also an advantage there in having had the price out there in the market and how does that also help you give you an advantage as well?
Frank: Steve, in my years, I've seen it happen so many times. I was the beneficiary of it.
You know, that seller is frustrated. They went through a season, sometimes as far as six months, of the marketing of their home, the rejection that they felt, and you know, it ultimately fails to sell. That's how you end up with the expired listing and the agent comes in, the new agent, and he presents the CMA and if he's knowledgeable and confident in what they're saying, often that seller will make an adjustment in price.
And so I have these expired listings that I listed on a regular basis that were out there for six months, never sold. I come in, put the new price on it, the right price, and it sells the first week on the market. I'm the hero and I get the big payday.
Steve: And I would think it's not just price too, but it's also looking at what other conditions may have been set by the seller that you could change to make the property even more attractive. I truly believe the second time around, the sellers are definitely more willing to listen to their agent or to the new agent in regards to getting the job done. Wow, so there's really a lot of opportunity out there, a lot of reason not to shy away from expires, like it's a dirty shoe, it's never going to fit, nothing's going to happen, to going in and really working that opportunity that other people are not going after.
Frank: Those are great ideas. Yeah, I believe agents should work expires every day and I will often get agents who say, yeah, I work expires, they called it one expired a year ago and it didn't work out for them. This is something they should do every single day.
Steve: And the fact that so many agents shy away and don't work with expires gives you even more of an opportunity because you're going to have less competition than maybe on new listings. So great, great feedback, Frank. Our session two coming up here with Frank is going to be understanding the mindset of the expired sellers.