Make your competition your ally
Online Real Estate Training: Make your competition your ally – Podcast #48
Hey all you 4X’er out there. Thanks for tuning in once again to 4X formula Radio. This is where we talk about all things real estate related. Anything to do with the Real Estate life. Insights to help you on your journey. Things that I have learned over my 22 year span in real estate. Today we are going to talk about making your competitors your ally. This was suggested by my wife Nicole actually. I thought to myself, “what a great idea!”. This is actually incredibly important. Let’s cue the intro and then get to it.
How do you create allys out of your competition? What a crazy question huh? When you think about it, how many industries out there will think of it as an advantage to align with their competition to increase their business effectiveness? Interesting isn’t it. This is a great topic to tackle today because its an edge. A competitive edge. A nose, if you will. What do I mean by that? Well in the 4X Formula Real Estate Course I talk about this.
Have you ever watched a horse race? This is not something that I do. But I ran across something one day and it made me pay attention for some reason. I learned what the “horses” earn when they win a race. How the money is distributed. It was shocking and alarming to me at first and then it started to make sense. I then googled images of “horse race finishes” and there are so many images of 3 or 4 horses coming across the finish line seemingly at the same time. The technology today can slow the video down and they can discern a first place winner, and a second place winner and so on.
It is astonishing to me. Because in real time, you would have absolutely no idea. Imagine being in that crowd and watching it on a screen or something and you bet a lot of money on a particular horse that is in that pack of winners! That would be nerve racking! Think about it. These horses were all winners. They were all good enough and fast enough to win. They were all well trained. Their jockeys did their best job and were well trained, and suited to the horse, to be in that pack of horses, that all seemingly crossed the finish line at the same time. But there has to be a winner doesn’t there. There has to be a winner. So they look at the footage and make a decision.
So this is what I mean by a nose. Just a slight lifting of the head at the exact moment. Being the fastest isn’t really part of the scenario. They were all fast enough but which horse had a body part crossing the finish line, just before the others, and then which one is in second place and so on. A lot of times, it simply comes down to the nose. I looked at the money earnings from the last Kentucky Derby. The First place horse won just under $2Million dollars… and the second place horse won $600,000! Imagine being that second place horse by less than an nose. Imagine that! Oh my goodness that would be a tough car ride home. The 3rd place horse won $300K and the 4th $150K. In some cases the 3rd and 4th place horses were within a head or shoulder of the winners. That is what I mean.
SO I look for things that will give me that edge. That nose, that makes the difference. Most of the things that are taught in the 4X Formula Real Estate Training mastery course are all about creating that for you. IT is meant to give you that extra edge. That mindset principal. That tactic. That idea. That strategy. That tool. That intention. That new habit…that will give you that nose. It’s the little things that add up to big things. Would you agree with that? I hope so. You are here listening right now. Well in the horse world it is worth a lot isn’t it?
Ok so what do I mean by creating ally’s out of your competitors. Well, as you know, in the real estate business, our whole system is based on cooperation. We have an inventory of business at our disposal. Yes, we list homes and that is our own inventory, but really it is added to the overall inventory of product to be purchased out there. We know this. I know this isn’t really breaking news. But I would like to challenge you with this question.
Do you make it easy to Buy? How well do you cooperate? DO you make the process easy in every way? Are other agents excited to work with you on a transaction? We know that Buyer’s are utilizing many different mediums of information to make decisions now? We don’t withhold anymore. That is the old way. Many of you don’t remember “the book”. We held the book. We weren’t allowed to give out the book. Now the book is out there and on the internet. Our role has transformed. In my opinion, for the better. For sure. Our client relationship is totally different now and it is for the better for the people that we serve. I truly believe that.
Some of you listening to this do not have to adapt to this way of thinking at all which is good. You are ahead of a lot of people that have been in the business in the late nineties or earlier but you will have things to adapt to as well. We haven’t arrived. Things are actually changing and morphing at a faster pace than ever and that is not going to slow down. One of those things is how we treat our competitors out there. It is not an “us against them” scenario. We are not against them. We are all actually on the same team. All of those other agents out there are on our team. They provide inventory for us to sell our Buyer clients and they can provide Buyers to buy our product that we market. Working together in harmony to ensure that our clients are served well should be top of mind for every real estate professional.
So what are some ways that we can do that effectively?
Let’s talk about Listing a property. I have noticed that some agents do the absolute minimum when they list properties. These people are listers. Their goal was to “list” the property. But then their job is over. This is actually, the very thing, that, a lot of the general public thinks about us and it is a tragedy when some people live up to that standard. IT is not helpful for our industry. Don’t be that person. Do you best for your client but to make the job easier for the other agents looking to bring buyers to you.
DATA ENTRY: Most Real Estate boards or associations have a system of data entry. I want to encourage you to take the time and enter all of the data that is applicable. Not just the minimum tick boxes. One example is Property measurements of the land dimensions. I see people put the square footage or square meters but no frontage or depth measurements. Get the house measurements right. Measure the homes properly. Get your office trainer to show you how to measure the home.
Last year Nicole and I found errors in listings that greatly impacted the listings… fortunately, most of the time, those errors actually worked to the benefit of our clients, but to be honest, I know it worked to the detriment of their clients. That’s not cool. The square footage of the home on all levels, and an accurate measurement of the unfinished square footage is really important. The roof material, and services and items that the seller will include are all important to the Buyer. If there are any outbuildings or workshops and there is no place in the data entry, put those measurements in the comments so that the people can learn about the things that are important to them. If there are great views…specify what those views are and maybe include a picture.
PICTURES: Do the pictures show the true nature of the home. People are really “doctoring up” photos now, and in my opinion, its too much. Make it look nice. The lighting should be correct. The angles should show as much of a room as possible for sure….but some people play with the editing of photos to the point of making the home look fake. This creates a little dream home visual in the Buyers mind that the home will not be able to live up to. When the Buyer gets excited about the home and then walks through the door with this fabricated expectation and sees it for real now, there will be a disappointment that will actually enter into their mind. Now you have caused the Buyer to go backwards emotionally.
This is dangerous because people get a little ticked off, if they feel that they have been misled. They were fooled by the photos. This is not good. Good photography is really important but make sure it is a true representation of the product that you are selling.
DOCUMENTS: Documents that can be helpful for the other agents to give to their buyers is a great way to make the buying process easy. When we do a Matterport tour of a listing, we can order up a floorplan as well. People love the floorplan. IT really helps them visualize how they will live in the space. Survey documents that you can get ordered for the property showing the lot dimensions and house dimensions. The Title Search or Title Abstract, and any disclosure statements.
If you are selling a property in a HOA or Strata have the rules and bylaws and other documents such as meeting minutes available for Buyers and Buyers Agents. If you have an income property listed for sale. Then what do you think would be important to the Buyer? The income? Maybe? The expenses? They want to know what the net income is to calculate the cap rate? Financing is now predicated on cap rates now with a lot of lending institutions. What repairs and maintenance has been performed over the years…Get that together in a nice package to email when you receive inquiries. Speed is important. From the moment someone inquires to making a decision, speed is important. IF you take too long to get the information to the other party then they may lose interest.
Reduce Friction in the Buying process. That’s how homes purchases happen now. It’s a process. Make it easy for them to buy. Make it easy for the Buyer to make a decision to buy your listing. The flip side of that is, make it easy for the Buyer to eliminate it as an option as well. Saving a lot of time and aggravation for all parties. Clear the path. Allow them to get the answers they need and keep it positive. Make it a positive experience. That buyer may be so impressed, that they may choose to call you, when it is time to sell. This has happened. When you do good business, then good business will come to you from places that you never imagined.
One last thought on this. Now think of it from the other side now. How do you feel about dealing with another agent that has it all together? How do you feel when the other agent actually makes you look good? If your client wants information and you can get it easily from the other agent saving you time and, sometimes, money, is that a good thing? Believe it or not, getting information when it is requested quickly instills confidence. It truly instills intrinsic value. And with that, psychologically, it actually will instill value in the home. “It must be worth it, if the Agent went to all this trouble”….Do you know what I mean?
IF you have a listing that is competing with another home, and the Buyers are trying to make a decision, and you deliver a full package and answer all of their questions making it easier for that other agent, do you think that gives you an edge? A nose up? Do you think that there is a better chance of that Buyer choosing your listing? Especially if the other agent likes working with you….or even better….prefers dealing with you. The more agents that are in your business area that feel good about working with you, the better success you will have.
Have you ever thought about it that way? Make you competition your ally. I find negotiations go way better when the two parties are not caught up in their own egos. I find that if we minimize the “battle mentality”, then we have an opportunity to create “win-win” results for both of our clients. Does that make sense? We are not opposing forces. We are actually meant to be working together. The only time that there should be a “win-lose” is when you are competing for the same listing. You want to win and you hope they will lose. Make sense?
That’s ok. The rules of the game are clear. You will win some and you will lose some. Hopefully with the right training you will win more often and increase your conversion rations but that is the only time. You want to be known as the Agent that everyone loves dealing with. You want to be known as the capable agent who deals with all the details and does a great job. Respect within your Industry is important. Respect with your peers is very important. Building a good reputation as someone who is friendly, capable, professional, and easy to work with, will make your life as a real estate agent much more enjoyable.
Another little thing that we do, after a transaction closes and everyone is paid, we send a nice little card with a $10 starbucks card in it to the other agent to re-enforce the experience as a little extra..thank you. I find that this goes a long way in creating good relations in our area.
Just something that we do. I hope that you found some value today in this podcast and I hope it causes you to think a little differently about your competition. For the sake of your clients. Right? Its an all around better way to do business. It’s the way of the 4X Agent for sure.
Thank you for our time together today. I am thankful for you. I wish you all the best in your real estate businesses. I want to quickly let you know that we are getting close to launching. We are running a test group through some bonus material to make sure that the back end works like I want it to, and then we will be releasing a 1 hour free training session and launching the 4X Formula Real Estate Mastery course. I estimate that there will be over 20 hours of content and binder of tools to implement into your businesses. There has never been anything like this and I am so excited to deliver this to you….very soon!
Take care and Make a great day!