Aggressive Pricing to Move Short Sales

I talked to a colleague who relies on the RedX Real Estate Lead System the other day and he told me that in general he expects, and gets an offer within 30 days of listing a short sale. In fact he is so confident in those results that he makes it part of his listing presentation. So after hearing that statement, I had to learn more.

Here is how he does it…

First and foremost he explains that because the owner is taking a bath on the property and that the bank will do their due diligence when an offer is received, it is best practice to price the property at and just below market comps.

After getting the owners agreement, he goes about listing the property on numerous online sites. He posts the property on Zillow, Trulia and even lists issues a dedicated URL through Listing Producer. The benefit of the dedicated URL is that he minimizes the nosy neighbors who generally can just go online to snoop. Here is an example of one of his recent listings: http://www.1059greenway.com/

Next he schedules an open house, always a great way to farm an area and expand your listing base. I think he has added six listings in that neighborhood in the past month.

Finally, as part of his approach, if after the first three weeks there has been no activity, he convinces the homeowner to reduce the listing price by $10,000. This is done every two to three weeks until a magic price and buyer is found.

Obviously with a short sale getting the offer is just the beginning of the process. However you can’t argue with getting an offer that may be accepted by the banks within 30 days of every short sale listing.

Mobile Optimize For More and Better Leads

I was working with a colleague the other day and he showed me one of his new flyers. What was weird was that he had a two dimensional bar code printed next to his name. Being the technophile that I am, I grabbed my Iphone and scanned the code. Where I ended up was a great video of him introducing his services, the benefits that he offers and an exclusive invitation to join in one of his weekly conference calls. The video was an apple compatible .mov file so it was compatible with my phone.

Well, I have to tell you that I was blown away. What a great way to instantly create a personal relationship with prospective customers. Not only that, but by inviting them to call into an exclusive weekly event, prospects get engaged without feeling pressured to list or sell.

Apparently I was not the only one that was impressed. My colleague mentioned that his listings have doubled since he started putting this bar code on his cards and flyers.

This approach leverages new and novel technology to get prospective customers engaged with a REALTOR’s personal brand. Although the technology is relatively new, it is becoming more and more widely used which means more and more customers are turning to use it.

It will likely never replace real time listing lead services such as the RedX FSBO and Expired service, but it may be a great marketing tool to increase your reach and grow your number of active listings.

Back Online and Expired Listing Leads

I received a call today from the expired lead listing company that I have been working with for some time. They offered me a great promotion to share with all of the readers of this blog; a complete waiver of the $150 startup fee for anybody that signs up through this link: http://www.theredx.com/signup/4mysales.html Not a bad offer considering that the only way to survive right now as a Realtor is to attract as many listings as possible.

I’ll talk about viral marketing at a later date. I gave a seminar this evening and used the YouTube video entitled “Cool Wedding Dance” that is making the rounds on the mainstream media (Today Show, daily news, CN?N, etc.) Either way, there is a big world of marketing out there to explore…..

Expired listing leads and FSBO

As you may be aware, I have been working with the REDX and their expired listing lead service for some years. Originally we included their service offering in our 4MySales REALTOR marketing service, but logistically, it was better to keep the two services separate. As a result, we have been working separate from them for some time.

Recently, they approached us with a great offer to share with 4MySales members and readers of this blog. They have rolled out a new for sale by owner lead service and are including it with their current expired listing service. In order to get people started with the service, they are offering to waive the startup costs for readers of this blog and members of 4MySales. As a REALTOR, this should save you about $150 and give you access to a multitude of expired and fsbo leads. Also, I have heard a lot of good things about this new FSBO service, and it should prove to be better than the service that we currently include in 4MySales.

With that in mind, check out their service, and let me know your thoughts. Also, if you need help crafting introduction letters to expired listings, let me know.

TAGS: expired listings, fsbo, for sale by owner real estate, FSBO leads, real estate lead letters, REDX, THEREDX, 4MySales.com,