1) Red Carpet Treatment – Meet the new home buyer at their new home and greet them with keys and champagne. Take video as they take possession and send it to them for posting on their social media. Make sure it’s branded with agent info.  

2) Neighbors Know Best Campaign – Go door to door inviting them to your open house and asking for their good reviews on what they love about living in the neighborhood.  Present it as a chance to help their neighbor sell for more and raise their own home value by doing so.  

3) If you have multiple listings in a small market, host a twilight treasure hunt with food and prizes; market to agents or database prospects.  

4) On properties with high association fees offer to prepay the fees for one year for the buyer.  

5) Offer a bonus to the selling agent if they bring a buyer within a (defined) short period of time.  

6) On properties with major repair issues that might be lower priced and will attract massive bids, upload disclosures to MLS to weed out those less serious buyers and prepare the serious ones for what will be discovered on a home inspection.  

7) Have a detailed pre-launch campaign to drive massive traffic to the first open house.  No pre-open house access, the goal is to create a frenzy of offers.  

8) Post relevant articles about the local real estate market on Facebook and encourage comments and interaction.  

9) Set a weekly call with your lender to discuss new and unique loan programs, tips and strategies to give you great things to talk about with buyers, sellers and prospects, and topics to use on social media.  

10) Do a full listing presentation for every seller, even if you feel it’s a for sure listing. This will help you list it at a higher commission and a more realistic price.  

11) Always ask for the sellers’ input to create the marketing brochure, “Share with me everything that you have loved about this home and neighborhood.”  

12) Emphasize proactive marketing activities such as door-knocking, calling, and open house strategies to differentiate yourself and to reduce out of pocket spending on expensive marketing. 

13) When it comes to luxury listings and sellers want very expensive marketing that is above the budget you have designated for the property, ask them to front some of the cost and that you will repay them when and if the property sells.  

14) Once the listing is signed, allow an additional 20 minutes at the table to have a setting the expectation conversation with your sellers to prepare them for the market shift and set a seller communication plan. Strategize and agree to the first price reduction at this time if you can.  

15) Create standards for when you will take an overpriced listing and stick with them! Seller motivation ⋅ Condition and location ⋅ Put a cap on how much above the valued price will you go – 5%? 10%? Tell them the truth. Make sure they are not too demanding to put up with. 

16) It is important in today’s market to have the property in its best condition. Be careful though how you discuss this with the seller, to avoid offending or overwhelming. Ask first, “Mr. Seller, do you prefer to sell the property as-is or are you open to doing some staging or repairs if you knew it could net you a higher price and quicker sale?”  

17) Use a net sheet with a low, middle, and higher price depending on the work they are willing to do to prepare the home.  

18) Emphasize how critical it is to give easy access for showing, encourage a lockbox!  

19) With each new listing you take, contact the top 5 agents with a pre-market heads up and contact 5 potential prospects from your database.  

20) Encourage sellers to come into the office for an offer review. This gives you a home-court advantage, gets them away from the emotion of their home, and gives you a 40% edge to persuade them.  

21) Ask sellers, “What is the bottom price you would take if you could sell the home today and close quickly?” 

22) Your listing descriptions must be awesome, hire someone talented to write them for you if you need. Avoid typical descriptions and work top-down, best features first. 

23)  High-quality professional photos are a must and you must supervise the photographer.  

24) Always check all major real estate portals before you go on your listing appointment to see what the sellers are seeing. 

25) If you have a stale listing, try value range pricing or a one day sale to stimulate offers. Low offers at least start the negotiations.  

26)  Redbirdsocial.com makes it easy to share property websites on Facebook.  

27) Underneath all property photos, be sure to add a caption describing that room, etc.  

28)  Always use online ads, neighborhood invites, e-blasts to your database, anything you can do to drive maximum traffic to the open house.  

29) Consider a sneak preview for neighbors only 2 hours before the public open house, for example, “muffins and mimosas.”  

30) For a property that needs remodeling and sellers are not willing to do so, have a contractor come over to give estimates and even potentially prepare a display board to give buyers an idea of cost and a vision for potential.  

31) To increase referrals and meet new seller prospects, host a housewarming party for new buyers.

32) Be a master at the statistics. Sellers will believe you more if you can prove it!  

33) Call your sellers every week to keep strong communication. If communication breaks down they will not cooperate with you, so be proactive with solutions and suggestions.    

34) Understanding the prospect’s personality style, generation, and culture can help you communicate and persuade them more easily. Mirror, match, and adapt!  

35)  Update and upgrade your listing presentation to showcase exposure, experience, expertise, and results!  

36)  Always take the listing contract with you and ask them to sign it! To transition to the close say, “By when would you like your home sold to the right buyer?”

If you want more guidance on how to grow your luxury real estate practice, you can learn more about the Institute’s training options here.