Read the blog below:
Anthony Lamacchia – September 28th, 2018
Hey everybody. Would you like to make sure you sell all of your listings this year? That’s what I want to talk about in this video. We’re going to get into getting price adjustments, taking action, what actions to take, and make sure that you sell your listings this year.
The market just went through a slowdown and went through a little phase probably about four or five weeks across the country where there wasn’t as much buyer activity, buyers aren’t moving at the pace that they once were. Now in the last five to seven days it’s picked back up again and it’s great to see.
I pretty much figured we would see another burst before the end of the year and I’m glad it’s here. If your listings aren’t priced right, if your sellers aren’t realistic, then you need to get on it. You need to take action and you can’t be shy about that.
Remember as a realtor, it’s not all about kissing ass and being the seller’s friend, and the buyer’s friend, and oh my God helping you achieve home ownership and this and that. Guys you are an adviser. You need to hit it head on. You need to talk to yourself, you need to have conversations and make sure that their house is at a price that it will sell. If you know it’s not, it’s your responsibility to get on the horn with them.
Some tips in advance, because you don’t want to just call your seller and say, “Hey, you need a price adjustment.” You don’t want to do that. When a home is listed within the first week or two, make sure you have a couple conversations with them about the progress. Make sure you email them reports and let them know what’s going on, let them know how many views the property is getting on Zillow, on realtor.com, on Trulia, places like that. Make sure you let them know what the feedback is. Make sure you let them know what the overall vibe is, is it active, how it compares to the others.
Then probably around 15 or 17 depending on where you’re at, if you realize, you know what? This isn’t selling at this price, you need to take the bull by the horns and have a conversation with them, call them up and say something like, “Hey, let’s go over what I had sent to you. Do you have any questions on that? Do you have any concerns?” Let them talk it out and then ask them, “Have you considered a price adjustment?”
Anthony Lamacchia, 10, 12 years go back when I was selling I stopped selling about eight years ago, but I always teach our agents how to do this. One of the things that I tell them is I say, guys, the Anthony Lamacchia that was 23, 27, 28 years old years back would just say, “Hi, you need to drop your price,” because I’m pretty good with scripts and I was on top of things I still managed to get some adjustments. I’ll tell you, it would have been a lot easier and a lot less combative had I done it the correct way from the beginning.
You need to talk to them. You need to discuss things. Discuss the process. If they start treating you like you’re not on their side, say to them, “Hey look, Mr. Seller, I’m on your side here. I want this property to sell for as much as possible. When I first met you, my goal was to sell your property for as much as possible and that goal has not changed.” Man, I’m just getting tired. Explain that to them.
Also tell them, “Hey, when I woke up this morning, Mr. Seller, I didn’t say I can’t wait to call a couple sellers and tell them their home isn’t worth what they thought it was or what I thought it was, but that’s where we’re at Mr. Seller.” Just discuss it with them, talk to them about how much of an adjustment is necessary. If there’s lots of showing on the home but it’s not selling, probably only needs like a 5% adjustment. If there’s barely any showings and now that the market’s picked back up, barely any showings then it might need 8% or a 10% adjustment and discuss that with them.
On Lamacchiarealty.com, we have a blog on there. If you go to the website and you go to the search button and search feature on the top right corner and type in price adjustment or the art of a price adjustment, we all have all kinds of data and all kinds of charts and graphs and things that you can look at and you could use with your sellers even if you’re not a part of Lamacchia . There’s no reason that you can’t, the same principles apply nationally. We teach this stuff nationally.
I wanted to have a conversation with you guys about that because I was talking to some of our agents, some of our best agents in our company, before I came out here to a beautiful Las Vegas. I’m in Henderson right now at our conference, at a mastermind. I was back at the strip this morning but came here for the event. I was talking to some of our best agents this weekend, even some of the best ones admitted, “Yes, little gut check with the market here,” and some of the new agents are like, “Oh no why isn’t my listing selling in a week? What’s going on? It’s been two years of everything selling in a week and me being a hero.”
Well, guys you have to hit it head on. You have to have the conversations, you are the adviser, you were hired for a reason. Don’t be shy. Get after it, do it, and tackle it head on. That’s about it for as far as tips go. If you’re a little nervous or giddy about it, don’t be. That’s okay. Don’t get down about it, but certainly, don’t not do it. The biggest message I want to give in this is basically to take action.
That’s all folks. I hope that helps you. We’ll have more discussion about this in the weeks to come. I know we put our price adjustments scripts weeks back and over 150 of you asked for the price adjustments scripts, but I today just wanted to have a conversation with you about the feelings, the emotions, and the anxiety around tackling this. I hope that helped you guys. I really hope that helped a lot.
Hopefully, we can all have a strong month or two here before we get into the holidays. I think we will. I think the markets turn back on. If your listing isn’t priced right, it’s not going to happen. Best of luck to all of you. If you have questions or comments or thoughts, post them below. I can reply to some of them, I’d be happy to. Thanks guys.