Everyone is ready when they find the right home

Anthony Lamacchia: How many clients do you have? How many prospects do you have that last year at this time told you they’d be selling this year and they never did. Last year they told you they’d be trading in their home for a new home and they never did. Got to love on the landscape, but start trimming bushes. I turn my video on. Seriously, think about that. How many buyers and sellers told you a year ago that they would be making the move this year and it’s just never happened? Folks, there’s millions of those across the country. There’s millions upon millions of people that wanted to buy this year.

Here’s the landscaper right here. Hey, can’t knock landscapers. You guys know I was one. How many people said they would be buying this year? They would be selling and buying in particular the sell buys,and then it just didn’t occur. Why didn’t it? Because folks they keep going online, not seeing where they would move to and then sitting on their hands and or telling you the realtor that they’re just not ready yet. They’re not ready. You the realtor are believing that folks everyone’s ready when they find the right home. Everyone’s ready when they find where they would want to live.

They say they’re not ready, as a means to push you away, as a means to keep you at bay, because whether we like it or not, here’s the fact. Buyers and sellers look at us as salespeople. What do they do? Keep us at arm’s length. Keep us at bay. It’s up to you to break down those barriers, to educate them. Well, when you educate them you will get them to break down the barriers and to make moves. See this is a systemic problem, a macro-level problem across the country, and part of it us realtors are to blame because we are not educating people enough. We’re not getting our buyers to understand that they can find a home.

They can find the home they would want to live in. They can sell their existing home and get into a new one. Why don’t they think they can, because around online. Got to love when you sneeze in the middle of the video and when the video gets interrupted and we realtors, we’re not doing that. Give a job, educating them. We can do better. One of the points I made last week the training that I did down in Westport, Massachusetts, is I said you got a buyer who is looking for a property and they’re not finding it and they’re telling you, “Oh, I’m not ready. I’ll just wait. I’m not seeing anything that I’d want to move into.”

Of course, they’re not, because properties are coming on and off the market in the ads that for the last six months in the particular area that that buyer’s looking. Send those to the buyer or show those to the buyer preferably and say, “Hey.” Check out the sharks. Do you see these sharks? They just go after whatever they have to eat. They don’t make excuses. Show them the sold stats and say, “I’m curious, would you want one of these properties? Would one of these properties fit the bill?” When they say, “Actually that one would and that one would, geez that one too.”

That’s when you point out to them, “Well, you didn’t find out about these properties. These properties did come on the market and they did sell and someone scooped them up, but it wasn’t you. The reason it wasn’t you is you are looking for properties in the same manner that everyone else is. You’re going online, you’re seeing something you like. You’re clicking contact agent. Your information’s going out to three or four realtors, they’re all calling you and you’re not making a move on the property fast enough. Buying and selling a home at the same time requires a plan. When you say you’re not ready, you are right.

You are not ready. You’re going to continue to not be ready if you don’t go. If you don’t make a change to the way you’re looking for a home, these properties right here sold right under your nose and you didn’t even know until right home when I showed you the statistics. There’s four properties here that you’ve pointed out that you’d be interested in. Well, if there’s four properties you’d be interested in that are sold, don’t you want to find out about those? One’s like those the next time they come on?”

One would assume the answer to that question is yes. You’ve Got to break down those barriers of these sell-by clients and get them to understand, isn’t the Atlantis beautiful? Look at this beautiful place. You have to work to get them to understand that they are going to tell you they’re not ready. Consumers as a whole love to tell people they are not ready. That is their way of keeping you away. When you hear that from a buyer think outside the box. Think about how you’re going to educate them, show them information and data to get them to understand that sales are down, but not down totally. It’s not like there’s no sales. Sales are down about 40% in the last 24 months. It’s like a sale. My wife says, “Well, it was 40% off.” I say, “Well, it was.”

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