128: Lead Gen Series Part 4: FSBOs – The Opportunity Most Agents Ignore

Part 4 of our lead gen series is all about a lead source that makes a lot of agents uncomfortable… FSBOs.

For Sale By Owners are some of the most motivated sellers out there. They’ve already raised their hand and said, “Hey, I want to sell my house.” The only question is whether they’re going to do it alone or eventually realize they need a professional in their corner.

In this episode, we’re breaking down how to approach FSBOs without being pushy, awkward, or salesy. From that first conversation to the follow-up that most agents never do, we’re talking about how consistency, curiosity, and real value can turn these conversations into listings.

Because here’s the truth: most agents call once, hear “no,” and disappear.

The agents who stay helpful, stay consistent, and stay in touch are the ones who eventually get the call when that seller is ready for help.

Like what you heard? Make sure to follow and review the podcast, and shoot us a message with your thoughts at 

contractsandchaos@gmail.com

@YourHomeGirl_CLT 

@Real.Life.Brenna

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Stop talking because we do this every time. And then we're like, wait, what did we say 20 minutes ago when we were just gossiping?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Right. Well, I mean, because what you just said is is a is a good one-liner that I think you should throw in here. Okay, so we are on the final week of our Lead Gen series, and we are talking FISBOs. If you don't know what FISBO is, if F S B O, for Sale by Owner. And if you don't know what that is, I I don't know how to help you, I think.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I mean, if you're a baby agent, maybe you don't know the acronyms. Or I know mom's listening and she knows just from like talking to me that FISBO is short for for sale by owner, but I don't know if the general public would know. Like obviously they've seen signs, but the signs don't say FISBO.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Right. They say for sale by owner.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yeah, but if you've been in this industry more than like two months, it's definitely right. You've definitely heard the term. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

It is one of those things that I think is like real coming back more. There was a hot second there that there wasn't a lot of for sale by owners on the market because people, I don't know. It's it's one of those things. But that being said, for sale by owner is how I built my business. I came to North Carolina. Everybody, I think we've shared our stories several times. And um, I was a transplant here, right? So no sphere of influence to really work, if that makes sense. So I was like, Where, where do I find business? You you don't just like call people and ask if they need to buy a house. But what I did was I wound up on Zillow and Facebook Marketplace for the people who had raised their hand and said, I'm selling a house, right? And I'm trying to do it all by myself. And that's where I was like, hey, I can help you, right? And God love me. I'd never sold a house before a day in my life. I was in this. You know what? Neither did I nor I did it.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

And now you've sold over a hundred.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

So yes, it's so funny because thinking back, so my my very first, my very first listing, right? Because I had that one-off buyer that was like an internet lead. I think I've shared this story. They let we had one showing, they bought it in cash, like for half the list price for this little trailer because the seller was there in his underwear and he was like, I would take this, but the agent told me to list for this. So, anyways, that was my first sale. But after that, it was just listings, just listings because of for sale by owner. So it's funny because thinking back, I was in the same boat that they were, right? Like, I'm talking about like, well, have you ever sold a home for sale by owner? Have you done this before? Right. And they're like, well, no. And in my head, I should have been like, well, gee, neither, neither have I, but I do have a license number, so that has to, that has to mean something, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Right. I at least know which documents you're gonna need. You have no idea.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Oh my god. So I think the the biggest thing with for sale by owners, and this is what we were just talking about, because Alyssa's like, nah, like I think for sale by owners, and I'm like, I would much rather call a for sale by owner than talk to an expired. And Alyssa is exactly the opposite, right? And it's so funny because I was just saying the process I feel like is very similar, but the messaging is different. But the process, and here's where, here's where I differ from a lot of agents, right? Because I started in KW, right? And I loved their training. They did a lot of, they still do a lot of like the hardcore basics, right? The door knock, they do, the cold calling, the the repet, like that kind of thing. But the scripting that I was coached with was like, if you don't get the appointment on that call, you I don't want to say failed the call, but you did, you lost, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Mission aborted, like and walk away, go move to the next one.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

And I think that that's where a lot of people miss. Um, because here's the thing: people list their house for sale by owner, and what happens? If they're on Zillow and they've posted their phone number, if they're on Facebook Marketplace and they've listed their phone number, or even if they haven't, their messages are exploding, their phones exploding, anything. So the moment you say, Hey, Mr. Seller, my name's Brennan. I work with Keller Williams, right? Because that's who I was with at the time. And everybody knows that Keller Williams is a real estate agent firm. How many times did I get hung up on? I got hung up on a lot. So what you can't see, guys. Is when I just I just asked that question, how many times do you think I got hung up on? And what did Alyssa do? I hung up on she left the chat.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

I don't know what happened. All of a sudden it was like boom, and I went, oh I was like, I don't, I didn't touch anything.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

And there's no one at like there's no furnace on the keyboard. I don't know what happened. So that that is that is what happened. Yeah, a lot of people just didn't even didn't even say hello, you know. But here's the thing. So my approach to real estate is very different than a lot of agents in that time. I feel like a lot of people have changed their messaging, which I think is a good thing because we've gone from this. Well, I say, I say we, there's still a lot of people that do the cold call. But the problem is, is the people that call and never call back are the ones that don't of that they don't get that listing, right? So um my my timeline, like, and this was my mind you this is back in 2019, the beginning of 2020, when I'm first starting this, right? Like I tracked this. I had to talk to that seller between seven and nine times before I got an appointment. Not before I listed the house. Well, isn't that before I got an appointment?

SPEAKER_02 6:48

Isn't the average like eight, let's say like 18. It can take 18 touches or something like that if you're doing between calling and like mailers and stuff. I feel like I've heard that.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Yeah, and it's gone up so much. It was like you had to be in front of somebody like seven to ten times, right? But because of social media, because everybody's seeing repetitive the same thing, those retargeting ads, they're seeing it, they're seeing it, they're seeing it, and their brain's like, oh my god, all right, like we just keep scrolling, right? Now it is, it's like 20 something times before somebody like recognizes you, recognizes your brand, recognizes what you're saying to them, right? Because we are in an over-stimulated environment all of the time. It's not back in the 1970s where you get one postcard mailer from somebody asking to sell your house, and you're like, wow, look at this marketing rock star, right? They sent me a postcard. It is a lot more, it's a lot more work now. So I I sounded very different than the agents on the phone, and I had a different accent, right? A lot of a lot of the times I had to slow myself down because I talk a lot faster than that is a huge one.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

Slow down people in the South.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

But the biggest thing was is if, and I didn't hide that I was an agent, right? I would just start differently. Hey, I was calling about 123 Main Street. Do you have a minute for a couple of questions? Right. When they said yes, I would say, Great. I'm with, I'm Bernice Stebbins with, and I'm with real broker, right? And I was looking at your listing and ask a question. That was my biggest thing, right? Because otherwise, you lose them, you lose them right off the bat. It's okay. I have, I told you, listen, I have Alyssa asked me to do this, and I'm like, oh my God, do I have a process? Right. Like, I I don't really have a process for this.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

I have you do, but I feel like it's all in your brain. Oh, for sure. Because it's like you know what you do, but like documenting that and trying to speak to it to other people is not always the easiest.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

The biggest thing is you want to be a resource, not a salesman, right? And that sounds so backwards because you're literally trying to sell yourself and your services to these people, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:18

I had that conversation with an agent yesterday, though. They're newer to the business and they're in referral status right now because they're working a full-time job. And they just kept posting like, um, people from the northeast moving here, call me, like things like that. And I was like, stop doing like it's not that a stop, but don't, it shouldn't be every day. It should be the only thing you're doing. Like, you need to create or you have to show that you know what's going on here. So he's trying to attract, he's from New York City. I said, go to Freedom Park in Charlotte, walk around, film some b-roll, put some text over the screen that says, you know, when I miss Central Park in New York, I come to Freedom Park. And that will, and or like, hey, when I really want an egg and cheese or sauce or bacon egg and cheese, this is where the best one is. Like you have to show that you know what's going on, that you're relatable, but not come off as, hey, want to buy, wanna move and buy or buy house care. Like it's the same thing with your FISBOs. You have to show that you're knowledgeable, maybe not about Central Park or like what relates, but same idea. You have to show that you're knowledgeable about what they've been trying to do and how you can help them do it.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

No, exactly. It's it's helpful. You need to be consistent, be normal, right? Like, you don't need to sound like a stiff cardboard box. Like nobody wants to, especially if you call and you get like a mom that sounds like she's trying to get six kids out the door right now. Like, maybe now is not the time to ask for an appointment at one o'clock, right? Like that's that's the biggest thing. And it's a long game. Again, there are agents that run a wonderful business by nailing the appointment on the first call, right? I have there have been like three appointments that I've ever had that they're like, yeah, you can come over today. You want to come over today and look, right? And I've only gotten two of those listings. Most of the time, it has been a follow-up. And that's why most agents don't blank for sale by owner. They are harder. And this is what Alyssa said when we were chatting off-screen is that expireds have already raised their hand and asked for help, right? Like they've already listed, and for sale by owners are like, Yeah, I'm gonna sell my house and I'm gonna do it all by myself. I don't need you, right? And we look at those two things very differently because I look at expireds, I'm like, they already had a crappy transaction. They're already upset about whatever happened. Like, I don't wanna, I don't wanna handle that. Forsale by owners are just cocky.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Maybe that's one that's one I think, and I think that's or stubborn, like, and maybe that's why I'm avoidant to them because I'm kind of the same way about certain things. I'm like, I don't need you to do this for me. I can do it now. Can I do it as well as a professional? No, but I just feel like there's already that attitude barrier that I'm like, I don't want to deal with your bullshit today. I'm sorry. Like, I have enough other stressors, I don't need to deal with you being a dick.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

They don't know what they don't know. And I've sent Alyssa screenshots, and you probably remember the specific one where I asked a question, right? Because there are times that I call for sale by owners, and there's ones like on Facebook Marketplace when there is no phone number and I'll I'll message them, right? And I asked a question and he said, read the ad. And I said, I did. It doesn't answer that question in the ad. And all of a sudden, because in Facebook, whenever it changes the description or they add photos, like you get a notification if you've reached out on that listing. So all of a sudden I get like three little ding ding ding, like and it was his name wasn't Jason, but Jason changed the description. Jason added photos, Jason, and I'm like, oh, I see that now. Thank you for adding that information into your list. Oh my god, hilarious. But follow-up is the biggest, the biggest thing. Every touch, you need to bring something useful. You need to be a resource, you need to remind them why you are the professional, right? Just calling week after week after week, asking to see the house, asking to make an appointment, saying that maybe you have a buyer. I hate that. I hate that. I might have a buyer that's interested in your property. Do you or don't you? Right? I feel like that's misleading.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

And don't lie about it if you don't.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

If you do, great. Don't lie about it. I have sold for sale by owner houses to my buyer clients for sure. But don't make it up because then immediately they don't trust you, right? If you go in, you're like, oh yeah, no, I love your house. Actually, I my clients aren't gonna like this. But if you're interested in listening, I would love to help you. They immediately smell fish, right? That's fishy. Fishy, fishy, fishy. Um, and I have a I have a list of things like my process of like what I try to touch base with that I'll get into in too many in a minute. But basically, it's, and we've talked about this before, don't reach out and be like, hey, just checking in. How's how's the listing going? Right? Come with some value, something like that. Uh something that for sale by owners don't realize that they need most of the time is disclosures, right? Disclosures in North Carolina are required, whether you sell for sale by owner or not, and they have no idea. You're like, oh, do you have the property disclosures available? My what? Right? I listed on Zillow that you know we upgraded the kitchen back in 2003, because that's what they think is is important. And it and it's not also pricing, right? We're like, oh, a great question to ask it for sale by owner is how do you mind if I ask how you got to the list price, right? Not I looked at the Zillow as nine times out of ten, it is a zestim, right? That oh, that's the zestime. We listed it at this estimate, and as a real estate agent, you know that that could be why that could be right or it could be wildly wrong one way or the other. Um, talk about showing feedback. Ask how their showings have gone, ask what they're hearing from those people coming through their house, right? Does it smell like dog? Does it need updating? Um, is it too dark? Does it need more natural light? Like those kinds of things. Ask about their pictures, right? That's one of the first things I'm like, wow, like if I if it was my listing, I would remove the picture of your son's bedroom that looks like you have a 23-year-old still living there with the bag of Doritos on his nightstand and three pairs of dirty socks, right? Like, I would take that out of your listing.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Or I would like I think my other tip would be like, here's a really great real estate photographer.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Because that's a resource, right? Like, hey, I saw your pictures. I'm assuming you took them yourself, right? And while that may work for some, it people are so used to seeing HB HGTV quality and Pinterest quality.

SPEAKER_02 16:13

Yes, buyers, yeah, buyers want the HGTV.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

Again, we live in a world where you can scroll on Instagram, and whether or not the screen behind that that um influencer is a disaster, all you see is the curated, beautiful, homey white living room with soft candles flickering, and that's that's what you envision. Like that's what you want because that's what you see.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Right. Or like I always equate it when I'm talking to people about stuff like this, and not necessarily FSBOs because I don't pursue them, but like sellers in general. When I I love picking out restaurants, right? Like my family knows that when we're traveling, have a even if Alyssa's not with us, have her look up where we're gonna eat this week. Um, but it's because I look, my mom looks at the menu, and then we get there and I'm like, no offense, mom, but I'm like, okay. I look at the pictures. People look at pictures, they were visually stimulated. They want to see the prettiness, they want to see, is your marinara chunky? Does it like what are you doing with it? You know, like if I see an Alfredo that's just plain white and there's no peppers or herbs, I'm questioning it. So, like, it's the same thing with house photos. Like, you've got to showcase it well because people are very visually stimulated. And you get one shot. Yes, you get one shot because if you change photos, like once it goes in MLS, if we if we get the listing, it doesn't trigger because you put new photos in. So you get one shot, and people will look at those and go, no, and then they'll remember the address when it comes back up and go, I didn't like Yeah, but what was it that we didn't like about that? So yeah, I agree. You have to get the at a minimum, get the 23-year-old's Doritos out of there.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

And if you're a real estate agent still using like terrible like iPhone 2 photographs, please, please call me. Please call me. I'll I'll help out set you up with somebody.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

At a minimum, go buy like a cheap DSLR at Best Buy. If you really, or if you're in an area where there really aren't photographers, okay, I get it. Like maybe rural somewhere, or you're just starting and you don't have the money, then call your friend who does family photos and beg for a favor because they at least have a better camera.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

I'm not pitching this, okay, but I use this sometimes. Snap, snap, snap. Have you heard of it? No, I thought you were gonna say Snapchat, and I was like, no, Alyssa's like, we are not putting bunny faces on our listing photos. I mean Snap Snap Snap is an app through Box Brownie. Box Brownie does like uh digital renderings, they'll put, they'll stage like digitally stage and things like that. The app has you take photos through the app, it does the long exposure, it does the dark all the way up to the really, really bright exposure. You have to have a tripod or have very, very, very steady hands, or the picture will be blurry, right? Because it is a long exposure. And then they take all eight of those frames and compress it into that high-quality digital image. Um, I'll do this, like if I and I haven't had a coming soon listing in a while because we've just been going active. But if I had a coming soon listing um and my photographer wasn't able to do, like if they were still prepping on the inside, I would do exterior with that app because then it comes back edited, it looks great, right? And I think the I think per photo, it's like three bucks per photo.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Oh, that's bad. Yeah, especially for like a coming soon to at least get some like outdoor kitchen and the cool bathroom teaser. But be careful, some states are not allowing overly edited or virtually altered.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Well, honestly, they should make that across the board because I showed a house this past week that I like the the house looked great online. I was like, it's you know, a smaller house, an older house, but like it looked, it looked good. You know what I mean? Like, and we got there and I was like, oh my god, is that a hole in the drywall? Right? Like they they genuinely filled like a uh elbow-sized hole in the I pulled the listing back up and I'm like, see, that's to me that's misleading, you know what I mean? Because these buyers are like, oh yeah, this is gonna be great. And we walk in and I'm like, oh god.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Yep. No, California. So my dad is studying real estate photography for various reasons. And yes, photography is his hobby anyway, so he's pivoting. Um, but so he's paying attention to all the things now. And California, supposedly, according to him, just passed a law. You cannot alter them like in, I don't think you can alter at all. Um, I'd have to look into it, but yeah, some states are cracking, and I agree because, like you said, holes in the I showed a house the other day. Now, I also I had this conversation with an agent yesterday. You and I can typically look at listing photos as long as they haven't been heavily altered and say, ooh, that's gonna be lipstick on a pig, or even though it looks pretty, I know it's gonna smell bad. Like we've done this long enough. But our clients can't, and that's where I'm I'm I'm okay with that because yeah, like save my clients the time of getting out there because we did it this week, like it looked great, and I was looking at it going, I don't this is gonna go either way. I'm not sure. Sure enough, it was lipstick. I mean, it was awful, awful. But anyway, yes, like back to the fish process. Sorry guys. We got on a tangent.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

It's okay. And say sometimes Spizbos will use their old listing photos. Like from it'll say like MLS 2003 on it. Like, I know your house looks different than that.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

I saw one of those a couple weeks ago. Yeah. And then when I called her for my clients, she said, Oh, I'm working with an agent.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Sounds like she wasn't. She had one in mind who she had told if like we're gonna put this up as a FSBO, but if anyone calls, I'm gonna have them call you.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

And I was just like, and it was, it was the old listing photos from 10 years ago. And I was just like, so we have no idea what this house actually looks like.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Interesting. Um, so basically, my my framework is literally listen, right? First, like ask a question, listen. Because once you get them talking, most of the time they just continue talking, talking, right? And that's the greatest thing. Offer one helpful thing, repeat, repeat weekly. If unless they are like, they seem like they are just like ready to rock and roll, then twice weekly. Oh, my phone wasn't silent after all. Um, basically, along with just like our talk about social media and anything like that, consistency beats intensity every single time, in my opinion, right? So here's what I have a six-week like touch point that I use, right? If by six weeks I'm not getting like any kind of I don't want to say reaction, but like if I'm not like pretty much got a foot in the door and gonna go see this house in six weeks, I'll take a break from it for a second, right? Because again, it's it's time, it's effort, and sometimes people just don't churn. They they don't, and that's the biggest thing. You could be following up with let's say 10 FISBOs, right? You might only get one of those listings. So just beware with that. Okay, first week is uh I have it listed, it says initial connection on here. Whether this is a phone call or a message on Facebook, is basically saying, Hey, hi, how are you? On Facebook, I ask if um they're open to working with a real estate agent, if it's very obvious that they're not listed. You know what I mean? If I'm not sure if it's like uh a homeowner that has a listing with somebody and has just posted it on Facebook Marketplace because they feel like their agent isn't doing enough, I'll ask for the MLS number. Right? Because when they're like, what's an MLS number, right? You know immediately that that is that is a for sale by owner. Phone calls are I honestly I don't do a lot of phone calls recently. Like I I don't have the time because phone calls, uh cold calling takes a lot longer, right? You're dialing, yes, you have to take notes, you have to make sure that you have the right um like phone number. So if they call back, you know what house they're talking about, right? So it's a longer process than Facebook Marketplace. So if they respond to your message, you obviously know which house you were looking at, you know? Um, before I call or before I message, because I'll message that generic message, but I'll have a question ready. So you go through their photos, you go through their listing information and find one thing that isn't in there, right? A lot of times it's square footage, a lot of times it's a lot size, something that is important for a buyer to know that would be important, right? You could have a beautiful three-bedroom, two-bath with a bonus room, and it still only be 1,600 square feet, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:04

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

If you don't tell me how big it is, maybe it won't work for my client. So something very simple, very, very easy, not hard for them to like think about. I'm not asking if they were, you know, what their interest rate is or if they know what their payoff amount is or anything like that. It's just a very easy generic question to start the conversation. Um, after that, I usually week one is usually when I start talking about disclosures, right? Because that gives me an in a couple of weeks later asking them if they want like a copy, if they want to see what a disclosure looks like, that kind of thing. Um, and basically I'm just like, hey, so see you're selling your home for sale by owner. Um, how are showings going for you? That kind of thing. Asking how they're handling showings, because sometimes, again, say this varies so much depending on what the house looks like, right? If it's obviously lived in, are you offering showings before or after work? That kind of thing. Is it vacant? Do you have a lockbox on the property if I was able to go preview it? Because I will preview a vacant for sale by owner for sure, because then I can give real-time feedback. You know what I mean? Um, the next week, I'll follow up and ask a more data-driven question. So, what I like to do is reach out on a Monday or a Tuesday. Mondays usually people don't respond. A lot of stuff is happening on a Monday. So Tuesday is actually my better day to reach out to people. Tuesday through Thursday is when you'll get the most response from people. Mondays are busy, Fridays, people aren't thinking about selling their house, right? So Tuesday, I'll be like, hey, how is your weekend with showings? And then this is where you pull showing time in because I can I can search Hickory, for example, right? Hickory properties, 300 to 350. There were 23 showings this past weekend for properties in that in that range that were listed on the MLS. How were your show? How was your showing activity? Right? And they go, what? I didn't have any showings. No one came. No one came. Oh wow. Okay. Well, this property is two miles from you. It was listed for it's been on the market for 23 days. We don't not many of them are on the market for five days anymore and under contract. There are a couple, but this one's been on the market for 26 days. It went under contract this weekend. It looks like they, and I'll just have a conversation. Like, I'm like, oh wow, look at how cool this is. And like, I can send you this report if you'd like. And a lot of them do want to see it because they think I'm making it up.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

That's why I like showing time because I can let you just like download to PDF and you can text it, you can anything, because a lot of people for me will say, Yeah, I'd like to see that. Because I genuinely do think that they think that I'm just blowing smoke.

unknown 28:51

Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Well, and I think if you can, if they are truly level-headed sellers, if you can provide the data and they are willing to listen to it, that's gonna like that shows not only what that you know what's going on, but that you are a trusted resource, that you have information they don't have in order to sell their house.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

Well, and that's that's the biggest thing is again just building that relationship out and making it seem like a friend reaching out that they can talk to, right? And that way I'm like, hey, this information, like however you need to use this to help your listing. So say that they're listed at you know 356, right? These showings are happening at 350. I can show you this, right? The ones that are listed at 350 have 60 more showings than the ones on either side of it. That's the sweet spot right now. That's where our buyers are pre-approved, or that's where our buyers are looking. So use that information how you will, right? And uh if you need anything, give me a call. I'll talk to you next week, kind of situation. And then uh the next one is the and this is where I'll bring in the photographer. This is where I'll offer um a connection for a pre-listing inspection, right? Because I'll kind of circle back to the disclosures and ask if they've had a if they had a home inspection done when they purchased the property, right? And I'll ask this regardless of if they bought the house two years ago or 200 years ago, right? When's the last time you had a home inspection done? Do you know what the underside of your house looks like? Right. Because that is a great conversation to have with people as far as like due diligence is the hardest part of the listing process, right? Because for a lot of sellers, they have no idea. I would say a good 85% of sellers have no idea what's gonna show up on a home inspection report. Wouldn't you agree?

SPEAKER_02 30:50

Like, oh yeah. I mean, even in brand new construction, I've had shit pop up. For sure. And like, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

For sure. Absolutely that maintain and take care of their home, but they still don't realize that there is a slow drip under the kitchen faucet into the crawl space that's causing moisture along the girder, right? How many people spend that much time in their crawl space? Not me. Or their attic, or they just or they just don't pay attention or they don't take care of things. And then there's you know, light bulbs that are missing, and it could be a fixture, and it could just be that you need a new light bulb.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

And you know how I feel about light bulbs, but it's uh it's one of those things I should have put light bulbs in that bag. You really I should have put light bulbs in that bag.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Here's when you're when you're feeling gloomy, here's here's the light bulb for you.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

But it feels like all the lights are brought out, Gilbert.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

You can you can pick a make it easy on yourself. Try to have a go-to conversation about a lender or a vendor, right? So for me, it's it's a pre-listing home inspection because I feel like that helps me as a listing agent. It helps them as a seller, it helps the buyer, like it just speeds the process up. And it's a good conversation to have because again, then you're like, they're like, oh, well, no, we actually just had the HVAC service this spring, like and continue taking notes. The biggest thing that you can mess up on is if you call and like basically ask the same question twice, right? Like if they already answered you about something and you ask again, they're just like it's like you know, repetitive.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

It's like going on a second date and they don't remember what you talked about the first time, or even a first. I remember going on a first date a couple years ago, and he's like, Oh, I booked a French restaurant, I know you like French food. And I was like, I don't like French food. I mean, I I do, but we've never discussed that, so I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

I don't know which date you're talking about, but it certainly wasn't me.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

I mean, and it's cool that you're going with other dates, but like maybe keep us straight.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Like at least take, at least take notes. You know what I mean? And this is better for you too, because then if they mention, if you're like, hey, um, if you ask about a preview or coming to the house, and you're like, actually, uh, you know, we have a soccer game Thursday, that's not gonna work, like, check in with us next week. Next week, guess what? I'm asking about that soccer game. Because they appreciate that, because it's personal, because it's not me just trying to get into their house to sell their house. It's me being a human, and that's that's what they like. When you start acting like a robot, I feel like you lose people every time. But you could use any vendor you want to, a handyman, right? Like you see in your pictures that it looks like they need a painter or offer um a cleaning service connection. Maybe don't do that. I don't know about a cleaning service connection. That might hurt feelings. I've never done that. I have a wonderful cleaning service that I that I offer for my listings, but maybe don't. Hey, do you need a cleaner?

SPEAKER_02 33:52

Especially if you haven't seen it.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Or but yeah, I mean, painters, handyman, like if there's especially like if it's like, oh, we've got some feedback, or the inspection said like the the porch railings loose or we need a couple boards replaced, but they're not able to do that. Send them your handyman and be like, here's his infection.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Well, and that's good. So week two, when I'm asking about how their showings go, right? If they had showings and like, oh, well, they just felt like you know the price was too high. A lot of times, like recently, when I've been reaching out to for sale by owners, they have people come out and look at this house, and then they're like, they're trying to see if they can get financed, right? Oh, so you just wasted four hours of your Saturday showing this property to buyers that don't qualify to buy your home. They have no idea if they can buy your home. That sucks, right? But also, if they were like, um, they didn't like the back porch is falling apart, right? Then that leads you into that vendor connection.

SPEAKER_02 34:52

These this can all be very per basis, like as needed, depending on we've been told there's too much stuff in the house, but like we're not ready to um like we don't. I don't know, like do you have an auctioneer or here's storage, or you know, can I drop off some boxes or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Like I love that. Oh my god, I do that. So BizBox. Are you muted?

SPEAKER_00 35:21

No, I shouldn't be. Can you hear me? Technical difficulties.

SPEAKER_02 35:31

There you go. It switched to my computer for some reason. I didn't touch anything.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Um, I use BizBox. I use them for my listings and for my buyers. I order them. But sometimes if um one of the conversations that we have is they're just trying to clean out and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. I will I will I have their address. I have their like the listing address, right? I'll send them one of those packages. It cost me 50 bucks. But guess what? When they get a box, whether or not they use me or not, those are my boxes with my logo and my information drifting out into the world, you know. We love that.

SPEAKER_02 36:04

I even I had a seller who like we canceled a listing once and I had given her a box. She's like, Here, take these back. I said, No, it's okay, keep them. And then I mean she listed with another agent on the road, but I was like, people are gonna see these, and you know, you know, it it's not free marketing, but it's marketing you're not having to think about later because someone's gonna be like, Where'd you get that box? Or who was that? Even if they don't they'll be like, Oh, you know, we were successful selling at FISBO because someone called the next day with an offer, but this agent was the agent we were gonna list with if this hadn't worked out for us.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Yep, yep. Um, the next thing is so I also I have a for sale by owner guide. I got it from Con Coffee and Contracts. They have a for sale by owner guide. So I just edited that and I used that. It has some very basic information, right? Like very well, I think it's basic, but maybe to a for sale by owner who has genuinely no idea how this how the process works, that it is it is helpful, right? There's helpful information in there. Um, but also this this between the week before, so week three, week four, depending on how the first conversation goes, I am like, I would love to run a home equity report on this property, right? Sometimes I say this on week one. Again, this depends on how the first phone call goes. The first phone call, if they're like super talkative and they're like very receptive to what I have to say, I will offer a home equity report then. And what I do is I use Hi Note. We've talked about Hi Note before. Um, everything I have a template basically in there that has why work with me? It has all this information in there. And Hi Note is an analytics platform, right? So if I send them a link, um, I'll ask them for their email to send it. If they don't want to give me their email, I can just send the link and then ask their password, like set the password as their email, right? Require their email to view is all is all I do there. And then I tell them that they're due to the nature of the information, that their password is their email address, right? Super easy. So when they go in there and if they're looking at why work with me, my reviews, that kind of thing, because I get notifications on what they're looking at, I'm like, oh, okay, they're interested, right? They're interested in what I have to say. I use an um RPR, quick CMA, right? I'm not, I haven't seen the property, so I'm not giving them prices. I black all of that out. But here are the comps that I'm seeing around you. So they they can look at that as well. So again, depending on where the conversations go, that can happen anywhere from the first interaction to right around here, that third or four fourth time that I'm having a conversation with them. Um, and that kind of leads into week five. Again, this is when you've reached, well, it's been like 30 more days. Have you had any more interest on the property? Have you considered dropping the price? Like, I'd love to come take a look at it. And then, like that, that last one is like really trying to nail the appointment, right? Like, let me come see your house. And when I go see their house, I have my her box. They have all the information that has been in that high note from whenever I sent it. But now I'm coming with a tangible box that has the same stuff. Why work with me, my my reviews in there, my seller, my seller guide, all of all of those things in this box. And um, I try the first time, if I'm in their house, to not be there more than 20 minutes. Right. I'm not one to go with paperwork and be like, are you ready to make the decision right now?

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Right. Or if I have paperwork with me, it's because I bring it for them to review. Hey, here's a copy so that if you decide to do this, you can see what we're going to walk through. And maybe it, so if they're like, Yeah, we are like they surprised me and like, yeah, we're ready to sign. I can be like, okay, let's I have a copy for me as well. We can walk through it so I can put notes, but then I'm sending this to you digitally, like so it's nice and clean and crisp. But I don't, I would never force, even with expireds or even traditional like listing clients. Like, I'm not here's a copy for you for so you can see what you're gonna be dealing with at some point. And if we need to, I have a copy for my notes. Also, because like I like having a written-out notes copy. So if anyone says that's not what we discussed, I can go, here's the notes from our meeting. This, I mean, because that's what with the crazy Bible lady, that's what happened. And I was just like, right here is what we discussed, and I took notes on. Yeah. Um, because but I won't, like you said, it's not, I'm not bringing it to be like, okay, you're ready to sign, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

No, that's I mean, I have a copy of full buyer agency and full seller agency in my car, in my car kit, right? I haven't used a paper copy and I can't even tell you how long.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

You probably need to update them because forms have changed.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Well, so no, because I do, it's part of my beginning of the year. So I they're they're fresh forms, but I haven't used it.

SPEAKER_02 41:24

Because South Carolina's forms change today. Oh, what happened to July? I noticed that real broker And I just bought socks for like the first time in 10 years, literally.

SPEAKER_01 41:34

So Real Broker updated their uh like affiliated business disclosure. Like I have to look at that.

SPEAKER_02 41:42

Emily put it in my, she's like, it's in your zip form. So I was like, cool, thank you. But we also don't have to use the Reels compensation disclosure anymore either, because our state forms cover that. I was duplicating it and Michelle's like, you don't need to do that, just put in not applicable listing agreement, lays this out. And I was like, oh, awesome, cool.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Excellent, excellent. Um, but yeah, that's that's basically it. So a few other things, and again, I tried to create a process for you guys because my process is very it I tailor it so much depending on the person that I'm talking to, if that makes sense, right? So a couple of other things that I offer or work into the conversation different places is a um stalker alert. Don't laugh. Wait, stop. Don't laugh.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

Okay, so I'm not laughing. I'm just more like, what are you doing? Calling the FBI?

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Like, okay, so when I'm talking about like how did you get to your pricing, right? It's either A, the zest name it, B, my neighbor across the street sold for$325, and I have a way better kitchen, so I'm listed at 400. Right?

SPEAKER_02 42:51

But your neighbor had 500 more square feet.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

So right, right, right. But this is where I'm like, oh great, I love that you're paying attention to what's happening locally. And this is hard. If it's not in a neighborhood, it's a little bit harder. But I'll be like, how about I send you a neighborhood stalker report? It'll come, I can set it to come every month or every week, right? And you'll be able to see your immediate competition for houses like yours. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Right. And you can see the photos and the square footage and all of the things that make it different.

SPEAKER_01 43:24

And then it's an MLS search. It's an MLS search. I set it within like, depending again, if it's more rural, it's two miles. If not, it's one mile, right? Like what's happening immediately in their area? And set it up by bedrooms, by square footage, like that kind of thing. Here's what your competition looks like. And you can, it's an MLS search. So you can set it to send them an email immediately when something hits the market and you just ask them, how would you, how would you like to receive this information? Do you want just kind of like a monthly overview of what's going on? Do you want, as soon as a new house that might affect your home sale comes on the market, do you want a notification? Set it up. Set it up. And you'd be surprised how many sellers open those emails because they're nosy. They're nosy. That's a great one. And then um I put them on my email list. If I get their email address, I put them on my email list.

SPEAKER_02 44:18

I'm gonna need you to to uh teach me how to do the stock report because I think that's applicable to expired too. Like, hey, why don't we stay in touch? And here's let me show you what's happening. Like, I would love to see how you build that something. Oh, that's uh it's probably just a standard report in MLS, but yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 44:33

It's exact it's just like setting up a a search for my buyers, right? But when you put in in our system, kind of the subject subject line, I just put super stalker and their home address, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Love it. And that's a great way to reframe the tools that we have.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

And it I have it set so it CC's me. So then I can see too. So then that's again more talking points. Did you see that your the house around the corner went under contract last week after being on the market for three weeks, right? And they see it and they're seeing me because when that email shows up, it's got my face, it's got my information, it's got it's just another repetition for them. And um, I've had I've had sellers that did end up selling on their own and that they still open the emails. Like I haven't turned them off.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

It's crazy. Or like I have, I think that another thing that's possible is they may, like I said earlier, they may sell on their own, but they see how great you are. So that when their friends are like, Yeah, we really need to sell the house, they say, You've got to call her. I had that happen this week. Um, when all the shit was going down last year, these clients sold and bought with another agent. But you know who they called to give a referral to yesterday? Not that other agent. They called me because I was like, I'm not giving up. Like we were, like, we were friends kind of like acquaintances in car clubs. So they still got a Christmas card. They still get like I know not that I'm I mean, I guess I'm slightly stalking, but I know their new address. So I was like, I'm not giving up. Like, you know, if they call me and say, hey, no, or if they did another deal without me, all right, message received. But they called me. So yeah, if you keep things like that going or you do a great job at this, it may build business in a way you didn't expect.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

Yep. And have the hard conversations while before you get the listing, right? Like, talk about how the days on market are up, talk about how buyers are really, really, really choosy right now and taking their time and making smart decisions for them, right? They're paying for this investment, like they're not just picking up anything off the streets now. So if you lead with the hard conversations and they're like, well, this agent said that they'll list it for$25,000 more. Okay, great. Like, this is why I wouldn't, but you know, right.

SPEAKER_02 46:57

And if they do, then call them in six months when it's expired. Well, and that's and say, Hey, I want to try again.

SPEAKER_01 47:03

That's the thing. It's it's one of those situations that you're just trying to, for me, build the relationship. And after that, again, even if I don't get the listing, if it's a for sale by owner on Facebook marketplace, I'll friend request them, right? Then they're just gonna still see my stuff. And right. Yeah, I mean, there's no see the secret sauce is doing it. That's that's that's it. Um, because you might do it wildly different. I know people that prospect for sale by owners, and like when I say prospect, like they get a list of phone numbers every morning that they sit down and dial, you know, because that's that's what they do. And they have a script. Okay, well, why can't I see you at three o'clock? Three o'clock doesn't work. How about tomorrow at nine? You know, all of and they go ready to take that listing. But that's just that's not me. So that's not how I don't like to be bullied. I don't like to be pushed.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

No, and I feel like that might work in certain markets. Like I feel like in a bigger city where yes, people are like, go, go, go, go, go, things have to be done, or you have people more likely to relocate. Sure, that might be, yeah, we're on a time crunch and we need an aggressive car salesman approach. I'm not gonna say it doesn't work late at all. But I think in in your market, people would be like, Who the hell does this girl think she is? Like, that is not how we roll out.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

Correct, correct. So late 2020 through, I mean, oh my god, 22 probably. For selling owners were hard because they didn't need an agent.

SPEAKER_02 48:40

No, they could literally stick a sign in the yard and it was gone two days ago.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

I was one of those.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

But that's the same in in for regular listings now, too. How many have we seen where the agent actually have to call a lady back today? The agent stuck a sign in the yard, did two open houses, and can't get the house sold. So they called me. Hey, where we're terminating. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 48:59

I've had let me call you after I've had five listings in the last year that were from previous agents. Five. That I mean, that's a that's a lot, you know. The system is changing, the work is changing, the process is changing. So if you don't change with it, that's that's what happens. But I mean, I was one of those agents back in 2020 and 2022 that I sold for sale by owner listings, right? Like it was harder because those people had no idea what they were doing, and I had to do the work for essentially both sides, right? But I I sold those listings. It didn't matter if it was on the MLS or not. But now, like I said, buyers are being more choosy. It is a little bit harder to move a property. And these crappy cell phone pictures on a on a Facebook marketplace listing, especially when it says one, two, three, four, five, six as the price, call me for information. They're just not, they're not sitting. So those conversations are starting to be more fruitful, I guess. Because I think people are starting to see, okay, all right, they're not coming to me anymore.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

So no, well, and they're I think with all of the stuff in the news, as much as you see like the critics in the comments, like the trolls, I do think, and I mean we'd have to check stats, but I feel people are trusting of us more because they're like, we've heard all these headlines and we don't know what's actually going on. And so they're like, Yep, you know what, we've tried this, let's let's hire someone because obviously we don't know what we're doing, or we don't know enough to be fruitful in this expedition.

SPEAKER_01 50:37

Absolutely. But I think that wraps up our four-week.

SPEAKER_02 50:43

I do too. And I think like looking back at what you've discussed and taught us, because I'm gonna say I learned a lot today too. I have two takeaways. Okay, great. One, I think if you don't like the expired process I described, you can use this. Just it's you're hitting a similar potential client. You just need to alter it for an expired versus a FISBO. But this is a great outline. It's a great six-week, here you go. Um, and my other big takeaway, and I think this is like our closer, is if you treat FSBOs like people instead of prospecting numbers, your pipeline will build itself.

SPEAKER_00 51:24

Yep. Yep. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 51:26

And I think that's I think that's applicable to um people in general and prospecting in general. Stop looking at them as numbers and transactions, treat them like people, and your pipeline will build. Even if it's not, again, even if it's not them, they might refer you someone else. Or word of mouth was, you know, she was great when she called. And she, you know, treat people like people, not numbers.

SPEAKER_01 51:52

And that's the goal, right? That's the goal is for people to to share you in rooms that you're not a part of because that's how your business grows. So by guys.