Stats to blow your clients away and win more listings
If you want to seal the deal in your next listing presentation, walk in there armed with stats that no other salesperson will bother to find.
From the moment you walk in the door of a listing presentation, you are trying to instil confidence in the owners that you are the right salesperson to sell their home.
One of the fastest ways to inspire confidence is to demonstrate proficiency (a high degree of skill / expertise).
Now this doesn't mean you should talk their ears off. You don't want to bore owners with a lecture on how good you are at selling houses. Instead, ask open questions and focus on understanding what your clients are trying to achieve. Then, provide tips and advice specific to their situation.
During those conversations, you'll have the opportunity to discuss the current market. Before you go to the appointment, consider investing a little time to gain a deeper understanding of the demand for that type of property, so you can inject a few key stats throughout your listing conversation that truly add value to your client's process.
Not only will this extra info help your owners make educated decisions, it'll further cement your position as the local real estate expert and help you stand out from your competition.
Must read!
I understand that most real estate salespeople don't love diving into spreadsheets and 'crunching the numbers'. We are in this job because we like people, not computer screens. If you do fit that mold, please don't discount the rest of this post. Some of this info is easy to access while other stats will take a bit of sourcing. Use what you can straight away, and for anything that looks complicated, lobby your manager to have your office procure these stats each month and share them with the team.
How to know the market better than anyone else
If you want to seal the deal in your next listing presentation, walk in there armed with stats that no other salesperson will bother to find.
1. Current market supply.
Imagine you are selling a 3 bedroom home in the suburb of Johnsonville, and there are 24 of those already on the market. Meanwhile, looking at the last 3 months of sales you discover that, on average, only 6 are selling each month in that suburb.
How many months worth of stock is there already on the market? (4)
Here's a script to use:
"Mr & Mrs Seller, right now there are 24 x 3 bedroom houses on the market in your suburb, and on average, 6 x 3 bedroom houses sell each month. What that means is that there are 4 months worth of sales already on the market, and that's not including anything new that comes on in the future. Buyers have a lot of choice right now, so we really need to make your home stand out from the crowd, and leave no stone unturned to ensure you get a timely sale at the best possible price..."
This stat sets the stage nicely for a discussion around pricing and vendor marketing investment and any unique tools you use to make your listings stand out in the current market. Eg. virtual tours, floor plans, database previews.
2. Median % over/under Rateable Value (or CV), for the last 30 sales in their suburb
Bonus points if you can drill down to find the median % over RV for the last 30 sales similar to theirs (ie. 3 bedroom homes in Johnsonville).
Now we all now that rateable values (sometimes called CV's) don't mean much. They are not an accurate barometer of value. But they are important to your client, who doesn't have too much else to go on. So it's worth understanding how these figures statistically relate to market value.
As you review this info with your client, draw their attention to the variance between individual sales and educate them as to why rateable values don't hold a lot of weight.
For extra bonus points, take a few recent case studies with you showing times when you were able to far exceed these averages using your preferred sale process.
Owners are hanging out for hyper-local real estate sales information which they can't find anywhere else. You will win all sorts of points if you can make it easy for them to find it.
3. Homes.co.nz assessment accuracy rate in your area
Did you know that in a quiet corner of the homes.co.nz website you can see the accuracy of their value estimates for each region of NZ:
For those of you outside NZ, there may be similar info available on zillow.com (US), or realestate.com.au (AUS) or in your local market.
You can use this information to educate your owners that homes.co.nz estimates (like CV's and RV's) are useful, but should be taken with a grain of salt.
I guarantee your competitors won't have bothered to look this stuff up.
4. All sales in their street (or within 500m) in the last 3-5 years.
Many salespeople get caught focussing on comparable sales in the last 6-12 months, which is understandable since those sales will have a far greater bearing on the current market value of the home you are appraising. But often, owners want to know about a sale that happened right next door 2 years ago, or the one down the street 18 months ago.
While these sales might be out of date from a CMA point of view, you'll win credibility by knowing these numbers, further demonstrating your impecable knowledge of the local market.
5. Case studies for 3 recent sales by your office of similar properties.
If you don't have sales of your own that you can use as case studies, then print a flyer for a property your office sold and talk about that. Stories are critical to demonstrate social proof, put customers at ease, and to show that you have a process that can get the job done.
What to include in your case study:
- Days on market
- Number of website hits / email enquiries
- Buyer pack downloads
- Number of visits / open homes
- Number of offers
- Vendor marketing investment
- % over / under RV (if better than average)
- Owner testimonial
Here is a script to use with your case studies:
"Mr and Mrs Seller, 6 weeks ago we sold a home very similar to yours in Smith St. We had 32 groups through in 17 days, and managed to secure 7 offers. It sold $80k above asking price in the mid $900's. While I can't guarantee exactly the same outcome for your home, what I can guarantee is that we can follow exactly the same process which led to that result. We can put all the same ingredients in place, to maximise your chances of securing a premium result..."
It's not luck. It's your proven selling process that helps your owners achieve above-average results.
If you can't find all of this info, that's ok. Collate what you can and get into the habit of knowing where to find it. You can also add this kind of research to your monthly checklist so it's ready to go when an appraisal lead comes in. Don't leave it till the last minute!
Got a question on this topic? Send it through and I'll do my best to help.
Guides mentioned in this post
Andrew Duncan
Andrew Duncan
Andrew Duncan
Andrew Duncan
