Generating Listings: Ninja Style

Right now, the real estate market is hot and real estate agents are finding it hard to generate listings. This year is completely unprecedented and you may feel that you need a few tips to generate more listings for your business.

We recently had Larry Kendall, author of Ninja Selling, join us for our Secrets of Top Selling Agents webinar, where he shared 10 tips to generate more listings the Ninja way.

1. Know Your Warm List

Kendall began by sharing tips on knowing your warm list. Your warm list will include people who want to sell, are unsure if they want to sell, and may want to sell within the next year.

When reaching out to those on your warm list, pay attention to those who have major changes in their lives that may require them to sell their current home and move into a new home. This is a quick way to generate an additional listing and get your clients a home that will help them with the change in their life.

2. Make Client Service Calls

For Kendall, client service calls are one of the best ways to generate listings. Set a time each day to reach out to your current clients and potential buyers and sellers to see if they are ready to list their homes. During these calls, you want to be the person who shares an update on their home and the local market with your clients.

You have an opportunity to not only generate new listings, but to also grab a few referrals. As you work with your clients and build relationships with them, Kendall suggests making earning referrals from your clients part of your mission as a real estate agent.

3. Real Estate Reviews

Real estate reviews with your clients are a way to reach out to them to not only see if they are interested in listing their home, but also a time to build up the relationship.

During these reviews, make sure to set out at least three benefits of listing the home after you have checked in with them. These reviews should be done face-to-face (or virtually face-to-face), by phone, or by sending them an actual letter in the mail that they could send back to you. Kendall suggests not sending these reviews via email as they may not respond or see your message.

4. 50 Live Interviews

Conducting 50 live interviews may sound like a lot, but Kendall says you are probably already doing this by reaching out to your clients each week. Continue to reach out to your clients but add a new method to your interviews, the F.O.R.D. method. This involves asking questions about the following:

• Family and Friends. Take the time to ask about their family and friends.
• Occupation. See if your clients have taken on a new job or if they are retiring soon.
• Recreation. Investigate what your clients are up to during their free time and see if their current home lives up to what they need for their recreational needs.
• Dream. Everyone has a dream; see if your clients are pursuing theirs and if their home is a part of that dream.

During these interviews, you are taking time to not only build up a relationship with your clients, but you are also taking the time to listen to see if there are any changes that may be an opportunity for you to gain a listing.

5. The Ripple Effect

If you have gained listings through a previous or referral listing, you have experienced the ripple effect. When you are trying to gain listings, Kendall suggests fostering a mindset that "Your next listing is embedded in this listing." By keeping that mindset, you are prepared to leverage any and every opportunity to gain an additional listing.

6. Use Open Houses to Your Advantage

Open houses certainly look different than they looked earlier this year. However, Kendall suggests continuing to use open houses to your advantage. One thing Kendall says that you can do is a Curious Neighbor invitation.

In most neighborhoods, there are neighbors who are most likely interested in looking at the home that they have lived next to for some time. Use this opportunity to invite the neighbors to the open houses as long as open houses are permissible in your area and with the owner of the home. You may be able to generate referrals through this opportunity by speaking with members of the community where the home is listed.

7. Meet with Out-of-Town Owners

If you notice that there is a home that needs some work or may just need to be unloaded by the owner, take a chance to reach out to the owner of the home.

Kendall suggested offering to send a picture of the home to the owner after speaking to them over the phone so they can see the current state of their home. Take this opportunity to potentially gain a new listing for someone who no longer lives in the area and wants to sell.

8. Understand Guaranteed Move and iBuyers

As a real estate agent, the last thing you want to do is steer your clients in the wrong direction when it comes to selling their home. There are opportunities for your clients to sell their home using an iBuyer. Take the time to understand and learn about the iBuyer process so that you can correctly educate your clients should they need to make a quick sale and move.

9. Maintain Relationships with Builders

Builders in your area are your friends. Keep an eye on new developments or homes that may be built in your area. Take the chance to get to know the builders who are working on them. Chances are if there is a new home that is being built, it needs to be sold. Kendall suggests that this can sometimes be a quick way to generate listings. And those who are interested in buying a home most likely have a home to sell.

10. Know Investors

Finally, Kendall suggests getting to know investors coming into your area. Investors are those who will buy a home, fix it up, and sell the home for a profit. Kendall suggests maintaining positive relationships with investors so that you can always be the agent that the investor will call when it is time to sell the home.

Hopefully these tips will help you generate listings during a hot market to keep your real estate business strong. Generating listings can be incredibly challenging during a hot market. To learn more about Kendall's 10 tips, you can watch the recording of the webinar here or you can join the Secrets of Top Selling Agents Facebook Group to join in on the conversation.

To view the original article, visit the Homes.com blog.