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Home sellers have found themselves in quite the conundrum over the past two years as they weigh the benefits of record home price appreciation against the risks of sub-3 percent mortgages in exchange for higher interest rates. While easing mortgage rates have eased some of those concerns, as evidenced by an increase in new listings this summer, home sellers remain hesitant.
So, what’s a listing agent to do?
Keller Williams leaders Gary Keller, Jason Abrams and Jay Papasan tried to answer that question during Wednesday morning’s SuperAgent Bootcamp session, where four leading brokerage owners mastered MOFIR, or Quotation Immediate Response, This is a key lead generation tactic at Keller’s transfer Book.
“It’s possible to generate leads through long-term nurturing. Absolutely,” Keller said. “But at the end of the day, making a request and responding immediately is how your brain should be wired, right? Not making an offer with the expectation of one day responding. Why would you? Right? Just make an offer.
Tim Heyl, founder of Tim Heyl Group and Homeward, said the foundation of MOFIR’s success is a streamlined business focus and value proposition. Generalists have a hard time creating MOFIRs because they try to be all things to all people, rather than mastering a small set of skills that would make them invaluable to a specific group of consumers, he said.
“If you can make your brand solve a very specific problem, you will own the market,” he said. “In the real estate industry, it’s very tempting to be the jack-of-all-trades. Think about it: buyers and sellers have different styles, and we want to say, ‘Well, I can be a jack-of-all-trades for all of you,’ but then we Just become part of the noise of the other 20,000 agents in the market saying: the same thing.
“If you can be the guy who does ‘that thing,’ you’ll own that market; you’ll get incredible referrals. People will talk about you; people will click your button [and] People will come to your channel,” he added. “But you have to be willing to lose something else so you can win.”
For Heyl, Jose Medina, owner of Jose Medina and Associates, and Ryan Young, owner of The Young Team, lead generation strategies focus on cash offers and buy-before-sell programs for home sellers. They say the two programs address two major concerns for sellers — getting the most value from their home and getting a fast, seamless closing process so they don’t miss out on their next home.
Young, who is also CEO and co-founder of Fello, a leading platform for sellers, said his team started by offering free home estimates to home sellers. Valuations have lower intent; however, they help build a strong seller profile and can be used to inspire high-intent offers – cash offers.
“We offer upfront cash offers, we offer back-up cash offers, and we offer worry-free listings,” he said. “The reason we like standby cash offers is that if you choose not to accept an upfront cash offer, we have the advantage of listing your home traditionally, but with the protection or safety net of a standby cash offer.”
“We found that we had great success leveraging the cash offer information in front of all these homeowners in our database,” he added of Fello and Homeward’s new partnership. “We actually showcase what Homeward is willing to offer with Fello on every consumer dashboard. You’ll get an email from Fello that says, “Check your home value,” right below the email , there is an actual preliminary quote number from Homeward which is very compelling information.
Medina said that in addition to cash offers and buy-before-sell programs, his MOFIR also includes the Homeowner Enhanced Loan Program (HELP), which enables home sellers to obtain small personal loans to make necessary repairs before listing.
“We go into a house and we notice they need new carpet, they need new countertops,” he said. “We’ll give them a personal loan to get that house up to par. [where] This will bring them more money. It differentiates us from other real estate agents and puts us in the driver’s seat of listings.
Stacy Esser, owner of Stacy Esser Group, said she took a different approach to MOFIR, based on 17 years of experience as a fashion and marketing expert. Esser said her focus is to shift home sellers’ attention from “How much can my house sell for?” to “How can you help me raise more money for my house?” The second, she said. Questions provide listing agents with the perfect opportunity to showcase their strategic skills.
“We’re going to take an approach called a value-added approach. Now I’m going to tell you my strategy,” she said. “You’re not salesmen. You’re strategists. You’re going in and giving them a strategy on how to help them raise more money for their home, and you can leverage your database early on to start this valuable opportunity.
“When we go in, we do a room-by-room assessment. We identify their target buyers, and then we educate,” she added. “You all have to get educated. We are professionals in this market. You just tell them something and maybe they will listen to you. Maybe not. But [we] You have to think like today’s buyer and win like a seller because today’s buyer is not the same person you used to be.
Email Marianne McPherson
