Several years ago I was at a pretty exclusive real estate conference for large brokerages held in Denver. As part of the conference a representative from a major online lender presented an “emotional model” of what an online buyer’s experience was like. It was a roller coaster ranging from the “high” of deciding to look for a house and starting the search, to the “low” of applying for the mortgage. I thought at the time that since many folks tend to avoid pain MUCH more readily than move toward pleasure, if we simply offer a buying experience with LESS negatives, we would gain more sales.
That has proven to be true. We continue to look for ways to do this in our operation. As we find them, we implement them. It has paid off in spades.
Then a thought struck me this past weekend. I am SURE that it is not new. It was the culmination of many posts read here and elsewhere. It was / is a principle that is at once amazingly simple and yet difficult to execute with precision.
CREATE THE SAME PAIN FREE PROCESS FOR SELLERS.
It is to accomplish EVERYTHING that needs to be done to MARKET and SELL a home, with as little pain (or even ANTICIPATION of discomfort) as possible. And, of course, then the process needs to be turned into a system and scripted. In short, a seller / REALTOR relationship should not feel like this:
When you saw the image above, you felt the discomfort that the neuroassociations of the image immediately brought to mind. The seller feels these same things. Let’s take a trip into things THEY find discomfort with.
1. How much they owe on the home.
Many of our agents prefer now to look up what is owed on the property ONLINE since we have access to courthouse records and all liens without leaving the comfort of our computer screens. This allows the REALTOR to reacts with sensitivity where needed and to (as importantly) make good marketing decisions with honest information. We can then use statements like “I understand that you feel pinched right now…let’s Read more
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