Where are most of the qualified buyers today?

No, they are not hiding in their closets, clutching their pocketbooks and bank books afraid of the Mortgage Monster and his hideous companion Insidious Interest Rate.

They are actively working with agents. Somewhere, somehow, and at some stage. (The rest of them? Well... they are hiding in their closets, clutching...)

Which agents? - the best marketing agents and top producers in your area.

These agents are your friends. Yes, they are.

Why? The reason is obvious: Producers sell homes and you have homes to sell. How about "recruiting" the top producers to your team?

Call up every broker in your area and ask, "Who are the top three or four selling agents in your office?" Believe me, the broker will be thrilled to provide you with their names.

Write the names down along with their contact numbers. Your goal is to create a data-base of power sellers here.

Once your list is constructed, compose a brief, to-the-point letter of in troduction to each of these mega-agents. Tell them your story, your desire to work with the best and only the best in order to minimize the hassle and maximize potential.

Include a flyer of your most recent listing or perhaps an itemized list of all of your listings. Let them know you will consistently keep them abreast of your listings and why they should pay attention to them.

Creating leverage

What we’re talking about doing here is creating leverage, major leverage.

You can only be in one place at one time. But let’s say you have 14 listings in your inventory. 14 homes out of a total 1362 on the market in your area. You can effectively work with one buyer at a time. Yet, if there are 100 TOP PRODUCERS in your network who have come to respect your listings... you have very effectively reproduced your selling efforts 100 times over.

If you create the right listing reputation, you will have a very, very powerful engine driving the sale of your homes.

In fact, I won’t hesitate to tell you that this network of mega-agents you put together will be the key to your success once you’ve mastered the art of getting your inventory built up.

Half the pie is better than none of the pie. And half a pie times 100 agents or more is a lot of pie.

Keep in mind, however, these top producing agents don’t like to waste time. So don’t be guilty of taking up a lot of their time for non essentials.

Keep them abreast of your inventory. I recommend immediately sending them a flyer or an e-mail update on each new listing. Additionally, you want to send them a biweekly or monthly listing of your current inventory. Make this short and sweet - a one or two-line listing of each property:

189,950 - Evergreen - 111 Park St.
3/2, 2-story McKean. Nice landscape. Fireplace.
182,000 - Alameda - 222 Victoria Dr. 3/2, Ranch. Formal dining. View of park.

Once you have worked with these agents for a while, your monthly update will serve only as a reminder. They will have already previewed the home on their own as soon as you announced the listing with your flyer because they have come to realize your inventory sells.

If the top is where you aspire to be... then conspire with those sitting on the branches already. It will pay big dividends - guaranteed!

Published: February 25, 1999

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