Over the past 12 months I’ve been to more than 270 open homes.
I put in three contracts to buy a property but missed out, before I finally sold my home and bought a new one.
As a high-performance coach in the real estate industry, it was an eye-opening experience to be on the other side of the fence as I navigated my way through the transactions as a buyer and seller.
With my consumer experience still fresh in mind, I want to share with you the three key characteristics I experienced that made agents more memorable and, therefore, more likely to be called to do a listing presentation and sell the property.
Perhaps even more importantly, I’ll reveal how agents could forever become the trusted advisor for all my real estate needs.
All buyers become sellers, so it’s important that the selling and buying experience is something that sets you apart and makes you memorable.
As motivational speaker Eric Thomas said, “Be phenomenal or be forgotten”.
Be engaging
It’s not what a person says that you remember; it’s how they made you feel.
This is the most important and memorable behaviour of all.
I must have met or seen more than 60 agents during my 12-month real estate journey, but I remember less than 1 per cent of them.
The small amount I do remember is because they were engaging.
They were very welcoming, smiling, friendly, happy and funny.
There was no pretence, self-importance, us versus them mentality or inflated ego.
These agents had a positive energy about them and wanted to engage and serve the client’s needs.
They understood buyers become sellers, and sellers become buyers and treated them with equal amounts of respect.
The agents that stood out understood long-term success was about building long-term relationships.
The word engaging itself means charming and attractive. Does this describe you as an agent?
Be inquiring
If you want to build strong relationships you need to get to know someone and show an interest in people.
Have an inquiring mind. Lean in towards people.
Very few agents asked any questions at the open or on open follow-up calls. Very few agents did open follow-up calls.
Only a handful of agents stayed in contact outside of the standard listing emails.
Inquiry is a beautiful art that allows humans to build trust and understanding.
Trust is the currency agents need to build lasting relationships in their area for sustainable careers.
If someone trusts you, they will believe you, listen to you and potentially follow your advice.
Ask questions and aim to learn as much as possible about who you are dealing with.
An inquiring mind is a curious mind. How curious are you about your clients?
Be entwined
Entwined means to wind or twist together – interweave.
Very few agents stayed in contact or showed any interest in any long-term communication or connection apart from the obligatory email push.
Therefore, they were forgotten easily.
If they had entwined themselves through consistent touchpoints and genuine follow-up, they would remain top of mind and build trust and control.
The other thing is, I didn’t sell with anyone I met over the year.
I had to choose from RateMyAgent suggestions in my area and then go through the process of deciding who I thought was the best one.
Agents need to stay in touch, call people, reach out and stay top of mind.
As someone who works in the industry with agents, I was a little disappointed in some agents’ ability to build relationships that would lead to long-term business connections and transactions.
This fundamental skill is what makes agents memorable.
The upside for agents from this exercise is that in the sea of sameness, it’s not that hard to stand out and be memorable, so if you lift your game and stand out just a little bit, you will be recognised.
If you stand out a lot, you will certainly dominate market share.
At the end of the day, people buy people. It’s that simple.
An agent could be just starting in real estate and have few skills but still gain the listing if you connect with them, trust them and believe in doing business with them.
So, ask yourself how you can be more engaging, inquiring and entwined in your market.
